Cryptopolitan

The Vice President of Privacy, Safety, and Security Engineering at Google, Royal Hansen, released a statement addressing several lawmakers who are requesting to ease the process of AI in the United States.

According to him, it is essential to encourage the responsible development and use of this technology, rather than allowing the country to fall behind other nations in the adoption of AI.

During “The Sunday Briefing,” Hansen pointed out that it is best if they are encouraged to make significant investments and develop AI responsibly, as this technology offers numerous benefits when used effectively, such as in energy production, healthcare, and scientific research.

Hansen describes AI as a game-changer 

Hansen’s strong support for AI technology prompted reporters to request an interview. In the interview, they asked him to comment on cybersecurity. Respondingly, the Google executive acknowledged that it is essential for them to exercise caution and consider people’s safety while effectively teaching them how to utilize this technology properly. 

Afterwards, Hansen hinted at energy as a major sector for AI advancement. He also discussed the “Genesis Mission,” an ongoing collaboration among tech firms, the Department of Energy, and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). 

It is worth noting that this initiative is part of a recent executive order signed by US President Donald Trump. It aims to accelerate the adoption of AI, particularly in scientific research. Regarding this executive order, Hansen commented that such a move is a perfect example of how energy and AI can work effectively together.

Regarding scientific research, he noted that federal agencies employ some of the most skilled scientists globally in their national laboratories. In the meantime, reports from reliable sources reveal that energy issues have been a major problem in the tech ecosystem. Hansen decided to weigh in on the matter. 

He declared that the most suitable way to tackle this issue is by integrating AI and emerging technologies such as quantum computing. Based on his argument, this move could establish a positive cycle where the tech industry can improve science, enhance energy solutions, and showcase American innovation. 

Another key problem in the tech industry, according to an analysis by Hansen, is cybercrime. The Google executive mentioned that tech companies have developed an effective method to utilize AI for defense against such attacks. 

To illustrate this point, he noted that while criminals are increasingly utilizing this technology to conduct their illicit activities, tech firms are purposefully establishing AI-driven tools to protect their systems on a large scale.

Sundar Pichai warns of the presence of irrationality in the recent AI boom 

Last month, Sundar Pichai, the chief executive officer of Alphabet Inc., the multinational conglomerate that owns Google, told reporters that if the AI bubble were to burst, almost every business would experience the consequences. Following this argument, Pichai noted that while the recent AI investments have significantly increased, the current AI hype demonstrates the presence of some “irrationality.”

He made this statement as there are increased concerns in Silicon Valley and other areas regarding a potential bubble. This ongoing trend stems from the escalating value of AI tech firms and the increased spending by businesses seeking to expand in this field.

Reports asked the CEO whether Google would be safe from the impact of an AI bubble pop. Responding to this question, Pichai still gave a warning, even though he asserted that the tech giant can handle such a situation. “I believe no company will be immune, including us,” he said. 

Meanwhile, sources highlighted that Pichai also addressed issues related to energy requirements, the delay in achieving climate goals, investments in the UK, the accuracy of his AI models, and the potential impact of the AI revolution on jobs during a broad, exclusive interview at Google’s headquarters in California.

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Price hardly drives development in DeFi. It usually follows it. The long-lasting projects are willing to build silently as well as sort out difficult issues initially and acquire fame subsequently. This phase is missed by a lot of investors since it is not a glamorous one on the surface. But here is where the best moves are usually made. A single emerging DeFi crypto seems to have broken through that invisible barrier of infrastructure being complete and focus beginning to catch up.

Mutuum Finance (MUTM)

Mutuum Finance (MUTM) is a project developing a decentralized ethereum-based lending and borrowing system. Its design is based on two lending paths which deal with various users.

On the one hand, the users have an opportunity to provide assets to pooled markets and obtain mtTokens. These are their deposits and earned yield in the form of these mtTokens. Borrowers on the other hand have access to liquidity as they vary depending on market conditions (Rule of Collateral).

The protocol is constructed based on dynamic interest rates, collateral thresholds, and liquidation systems. These are not outward aspects. They are the fundamental engine that enable a lending platform to perform at scale in a safe manner. This infrastructure is being ready before the V1 release on the Sepolia testnet scheduled to happen in Q4 2025.

Infrastructure Progress

In the case of real infrastructure, participation begins to increase preceding headlines. This can normally be traced in the consistent increase instead of sudden peaks.

Mutuum Finance has accumulated $19.4M already and has more than 18,600 holders. Over 820M tokens were already sold. These figures did not happen just like that. These constructions were constructed gradually, which is a more usual indication of health.

The early investor feeling is that it is not a short term frenzy and hence the constant growth rate. These trends are normally observed to emerge before the attention of the wider market can be collected.

Token Growth and Presale

When a protocol is ready, then token structure comes into play. The total supply of the Mutuum Finance is 4B MUTM. 45% or approximately 1.82B of this amount are issued to the presale.

Phase 6 is currently at the advanced stage at over 99% allocation with the token at the value of $0.035. MUTM has already increased 250% since it started its presale in early 2025 since the price of Phase 1 was $0.01.

Supplies do not increase before infrastructure is created but after it. Price pressure tends to increase as the availability is reduced and the usage expectations are high. Other analysts are of the view that after V1 is launched, MUTM may rise above $0.06, indicating that early investors would be at a good position.

Security as Last Infrastructure Layer

The final box that serious users wait to be checked before is security. Mutuum Finance was also CertiK audited with their 90 out of 100 token scan score. Besides this, Halborn security is going through the lending and borrowing contracts of the protocol.

The code is completed, and is being analysed formally. It also has a $50k bug bounty that will motivate responsible disclosure of code vulnerabilities. Such measures are important since most investors will only invest funds when they see and believe in security structures.

There are a number of indicators that visibility begins to increase. The next step of the protocol is the upcoming V1 testnet launch, which approaches the actual use of the protocol. The 24-hour leaderboard will give the highest daily contributor a reward of 500 in MUTM making him/her participate over and over again. There are equal card payments which make new users have less friction.

Focus is likely to follow preparation rather than pledges. Mutuum Finance seems to be passing through the stage of infrastructure becoming visible. MUTM is getting harder to disregard by those following the potential best crypto to buy stories in Q4 2025.

For more information about Mutuum Finance (MUTM) visit the links below:

Website: https://www.mutuum.com

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mutuumfinance

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has issued a clear warning to the broader blockchain industry about rushing into post-quantum cryptography upgrades, arguing that premature implementation could degrade network performance and create unintended costs for users and validators.

“Post-quantum crypto oftentimes is about 10 times slower, 10 times larger proof sizes, and 10 times more inefficient,” Hoskinson said, noting that adding such systems without adequate hardware support could dramatically reduce throughput.

Future quantum attacks pose a significant challenge to the current blockchain system. This has prompted blockchain developers to engage in discussions on how to tackle this issue. Some of these discussions included considering some updates to protocols.

However, Hoskinson advised developers that the biggest challenge is timing; hence, they needed to focus on this aspect instead of certain amendments required. He further warned that acting rashly could result in high costs for blockchain networks. According to him, the cryptographic tools essential to protect blockchain technology from future quantum attacks are already accessible.

Hoskinson guides blockchain developers in preparation for future quantum attacks

Hoskinson pointed out that the US National Institute of Standards and Technology made post-quantum standards public in  2024. Following this release, the Cardano founder highlighted that the key issue is based on the costs associated with executing new protocols before validators and miners are ready.

Meanwhile, it is worth noting that while several researchers believe that cutting-edge quantum computers could ultimately break current cryptography, reports from sources reveal that there is still less consensus on when this threat might materialize.

However, based on the recently announced predictions, practical quantum computing could occur anytime from a few years to more than ten years from now.

Still, Hoskinson advised blockchain developers to focus on concrete developments rather than hype and corporate timelines when evaluating how soon this danger might materialize.

One of the suitable ways the Cardano founder suggested was for them to shift their focus to DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative. According to his argument, this program conducts tests on several quantum computing methods to determine whether they can produce useful outcomes. 

“It’s the best independent and objective standard we can use to see if quantum computers will be real, when they will arrive, and who will build them,” Hoskinson said.

Notably, DARPA has decided that 2033 will be the year in which it will determine if large-scale quantum computing is feasible.

Hoskinson reveals a suitable solution for a major emerging problem in the crypto industry 

Similar to other leading networks, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, reports from reliable sources have highlighted that Cardano utilizes elliptic-curve cryptography. It is worth noting that such a method is at great risk because of Shor’s algorithm, that is, in the event of the development of very powerful quantum computers.

This news raised tension in the crypto ecosystem as developers ignited heated debates. To address this controversy, Hoskinson noted that the industry knows suitable ways to curb this problem. Nonetheless, he mentioned that this approach is centered on deciding between two different cryptographic methods. 

To further elaborate on this point, he stated that the two options to choose from include Hashes, which is utilized by Ethereum, and lattices, which is actually their preferred choice. 

Concerning Hoskinson’s statement, analysts weighed in on the matter. They highlighted that Hash-based cryptography relies on cryptographic hash functions to produce digital signatures effectively, which are widely recognized as the most secure approach against future quantum threats.

The analysts also pointed out that these systems are straightforward, thoroughly researched, and established to be cautious. However, they are mainly used for signing data and are not preferable for general encryption purposes. 

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Ethereum mainnet now processes between $90 billion and $100 billion in stablecoin transfers daily, according to Leon Waidmann, head of research at Onchain Foundation.

This comes as Solana’s on-chain SOL-USD volumes have grown to the point of being comparable to and even surpassing major centralized exchanges, like Binance and Bybit, highlighting its growing importance for real-time trading and liquidity recycling.

Where is crypto liquidity parked?

Questions about Ethereum’s dominance of the stablecoin volume and activity sector vanished when it posted a historic month in October 2025, processing approximately $2.82 trillion in stablecoin transfers, the highest monthly volume ever recorded.

In November, its stablecoin transaction volume reached $1.94 trillion, and so far in December, it has done $1.61 trillion, according to data from The Block. The major stablecoin is USDT, which dominates by over 52%.

“Ethereum is not just another smart contract platform. It has become the settlement layer for global dollar liquidity,” Waidmann wrote on X. “When serious money moves, it still settles on Ethereum mainnet. Not because it is the fastest. Because it is the most trusted.”

By sheer scale, Ethereum has a stranglehold on being the primary settlement layer for institutional dollar flows, but Solana has made its case to a growing audience too. The network’s on-chain SOL-USD volume has exceeded the combined spot trading volume on Binance and Bybit for three consecutive months, according to Kaviish Sethi, who works in data and research at Artemis.

Source: Kaviish Sethi on X

Solana’s appeal lies in its high throughput and low transaction costs, which make it well-suited for frequent trading, payments, and smaller-value transfers.

Solana or Ethereum?

While Ethereum dominates in settlement and high-value flows, Solana is establishing itself as a venue where liquidity is actively used, recycled, and traded, reinforcing its role as a market-facing layer of the ecosystem. The stablecoin dominating the Solana markets is Circle’s USDC, which leads by over 68%.

The stablecoin supply on Solana has risen to record levels, sitting at over $15 billion in market capitalization, having hit over $16 billion a few months ago, although this pales in comparison to Ethereum’s total stablecoin market cap of over $167 billion.

“Solana isn’t just a memecoin chain. It’s becoming the liquidity layer of crypto,” Sethi stated. “This is what real adoption looks like.”

The growth of both ecosystems shows that the crypto industry is growing beyond single-chain maximalism, because there’s also Tron, which is known to be one of the leading platforms for stablecoin, mostly USDT transactions.

Stablecoin adoption has also increased globally as more jurisdictions, like the United States, have put out laws that regulate its issuance, among other guidelines.

“Stablecoins made blockchains useful,” Waidmann concluded. “Ethereum made stablecoins reliable,” though Solana’s trajectory of innovative performance shows that reliability now comes in multiple forms, with both blockchains positioning themselves to capture the distinct segments of on-chain dollar liquidity.

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Galaxy Digital’s crypto market predictions for 2026 include Bitcoin hitting $250,000 in the not-so-distant future despite the cryptocurrency losing about 30.2% of its value from its ATH of $126,080 in 2025. 

2026 has been declared “too chaotic to predict” by Galaxy Digital Research, but that has not stopped the Mie Novogratz-led company from predicting that Bitcoin will hit $250,000 by the end of 2027.

Bitcoin predictions for 2026

Galaxy Digital Research has released its annual crypto market predictions for 2026, predicting that Bitcoin will reach $250,000 by the end of 2027, although they acknowledge that 2026 remains too unpredictable to call it with confidence.

Alex Thorn, head of firmwide research at Galaxy Digital, explained that options markets currently price equal odds of Bitcoin hitting either $70,000 or $130,000 by June 2026, and equal odds of $50,000 or $250,000 by year-end 2026.

Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $126,080 on October 6, 2025, driven by regulatory reforms and ETF inflows during the first ten months of the year.

However, the market experienced a sharp reversal and witnessed leverage liquidations, whale distribution, and shifting investment narratives. By December, Bitcoin had fallen back to the low $90,000 range and currently trades around $88,000.

The report identifies several factors responsible for the potential uncertainty for 2026, including the rate of AI capital expenditure deployment, monetary policy conditions, and the U.S. midterm elections in November.

Thorn emphasized that until Bitcoin firmly re-establishes itself above the $100,000 to $105,000 level, downside risk remains in the near term.

Galaxy released 26 predictions covering various aspects of the crypto ecosystem, including expectations that more than 50 spot altcoin ETFs will launch in the United States, U.S. spot crypto ETF net inflows will exceed $50 billion, and at least 15 crypto companies will IPO or uplist in the U.S. during 2026.

How accurate were Galaxy’s 2025 predictions?

Galaxy Digital predicted at the beginning of the year that Bitcoin would cross $150,000 in the first half and possibly reach $185,000 in the fourth quarter. By November, Thorn had lowered the year-end target to $125,000, and even that revised forecast appears unlikely to be met due to the significantly lower Bitcoin trades in December.

A major leverage unwinding event on October 10, 2025, caused significant market disruption, erasing approximately $78 billion in open interest across crypto futures.

More than 470,000 Bitcoins held for over five years, worth approximately $50 billion, changed hands during 2025. Galaxy facilitated one of the year’s largest single transfers, involving $9 billion worth of assets from a legacy whale.

Throughout 2025, institutional investment was more toward artificial intelligence infrastructure, data centers, nuclear energy, quantum technology, and gold.

Galaxy predicted that at least one major wealth management platform would announce a 2% or higher recommended Bitcoin allocation. It hit on that one as Morgan Stanley published a report announcing up to 4% allocation. They also accurately forecast that more than half of the top 20 publicly traded Bitcoin miners would become or partner with AI and high-performance computing firms.

However, Bitcoin did not cross $150,000 as Galaxy initially predicted, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs did not collectively reach $250 billion in assets under management, and Bitcoin did not finish among the top performers on a risk-adjusted basis among global assets.

Galaxy Digital sees big 2026 for stablecoins

Galaxy Digital predicts that stablecoins will overtake the U.S. Automated Clearing House system in transaction volume due to current data showing stablecoin transactions already exceeding major credit card networks like Visa and processing roughly half the volume of the ACH system.

Thad Pinakiewicz, vice president of research at Galaxy, said that stablecoin supply has been growing at a 30% to 40% compound annual growth rate along with transaction volumes. According to data from DefiLlama, the stablecoin market cap currently stands at approximately $309 billion, with Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC continuing to dominate the market.

Galaxy expects the passage and implementation of the GENIUS Act in early 2026 to accelerate stablecoin adoption. The act was signed into law by President Trump in July 2025 and provides regulatory clarity for stablecoins. It is expected to enable both incumbent tokens to grow and new entrants to compete for market share.

Jianing Wu, a research associate at Galaxy, explained that consumers and merchants are unlikely to juggle multiple digital dollars and will instead gravitate toward one or two options with the broadest acceptance.

Nine major banks, including Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Bank of America, and Citigroup, are already exploring plans to launch stablecoins based on G7 currencies.

In October, Western Union revealed plans for its U.S. Dollar Payment Token on the Solana blockchain. Sony Bank is developing a stablecoin for integration across its U.S. ecosystem, including PlayStation and subscription services, with a planned 2026 launch. Cryptopolitan reported earlier this month that SoFi Technologies has introduced SoFiUSD, a fully reserved dollar stablecoin issued by SoFi Bank on Ethereum.

Galaxy’s expectations include that at least one of the top three global card networks will conduct more than 10% of its cross-border settlement volume through public-chain stablecoins, though most end users will never see a crypto interface.

Galaxy predicts that decentralized exchanges will capture more than 25% of combined spot trading volume by the end of 2026, up from roughly 15-17% currently. The firm also expects total crypto-backed loans outstanding to exceed $90 billion and predicts that more than $500 million worth of DAO treasury assets will be governed exclusively by futarchy decision-making systems.

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Prices of the cryptocurrencies do not fluctuate actively due to announcements only. They shift with a change of behavior. First, users watch. Then they participate. Finally, they hold. Price is a natural successor when this shift occurs on scale. New DeFi crypto seems to be reaching that phase. Mutuum Finance (MUTM) is subject to increased allocation restraint; the token priced at $0.035 is experiencing the change in behavioral patterns.

Early Signals of Behaviour at Mutuum Finance (MUTM)

Mutuum Finance (MUTM) is a protocol which is being developed that is a decentralized lending and borrowing protocol based on Ethereum. The project is very practical in its momentum as opposed to being focused on hype. Users supply assets. Borrowers access liquidity. Participation can be rewarded by the protocol mechanics of the system.

There are a number of initial behavioral cues forming. One is holding behavior. With the approach of Phase 6 allocation, the number of tokens left is decreasing. This could promote long holding as compared to short term flipping.

Another indicator is the usage of mtToken. Users receive the assets deposited on Mutuum Finance in the form of mtTokens. Such tokens make users remain on the platform as opposed to leaving within a short time.

Behavior change is also manifested in terms of Leaderboard activity. The 24-hour leaderboard will give the best daily winner $500 of MUTM. This makes participating recurrent, not a single participation. Such trends tend to be better than the announcements.

Participation and Habit Formation

The process of lending and borrowing is more likely to accustom more people than most other crypto products. Users reposition, trade collateral or yield management. Every interaction strengthens interaction.

The price increase due to short term bursts of attention is prone to decline since habits of protocols are more resilient to the recession induced post-event changes. Selling pressure may decline with time when users use the platform to stay active.

Mutuum Finance is a product that revolves around this loop. Lending creates deposits. Borrowing creates demand. Both parties communicate with each other several times. This may eventually transform the token into a utility connected holding.

V1 being the Behavioral Trigger Point

The V1 launch that is coming is significant since it transforms the behavior of users. Up to V1, the participation is largely preparative. Following V1, the actions become operative.

Due to the official updates, Mutuum Finance is set to launch its V1 on the Sepolia testnet in the Q4 of 2025. Its main characteristics are liquidity pools, mt Tokens, debt tokens and a liquidator bot. The assets initially launched will be ETH and USDT.

Behavior will in many cases accelerate when platforms are changed between setup and usage. There are analysts who feel that this step can initiate the initial significant repricing. In a bullish case, it is projected that after the launch, MUTM could climb higher than $0.06 as more people join.

Second Price Scenario

Other than participation, long term behavior is determined by incentives. Mutuum Finance has a buy and distribute mechanism. Some of the protocol revenue is used to purchase MUTM in the market and redistribute to interested mtToken stakers.

This creates a feedback loop. The more it is used, the more it gives revenue. Increased revenue causes increased purchasing pressure. This model is in contrast to the demand which is supported by attention; this model associates price support with activity.

Yield rewards are also incentives to hold. Selling is less appealing when the users make money by participating in it. According to some commentators of the market, a long term demand of a sustained revenue would justify a higher price bracket in the long term, possibly between $0.10 and $0.15 should consistent progress be found in the usage.

Scaling Behavior with Stablecoin and Layer-2 plans

Mutuum Finance (MUTM) will serve stablecoins and consider integration with layer-2 according to the official roadmap. The assets such as Stables minimise the volatility to daily users. There are the layer-2 networks which minimize fees and enhance speed.

Daily use is easy because of lower cost and stabilizing value assets. This increases the number of people who can use it other than sophisticated traders. Liquidity increases with the magnitude of behavior, and, as price movements tend to become organized.

Mutuum Finance is still in development with MUTM priced at $0.035, and with V1, its beta features will become available. Nonetheless, on reaching an allocation of near 100% and a shift of user behavior toward being habitual, MUTM seems poised to potentially experience another 300% token appreciation.

For more information about Mutuum Finance (MUTM) visit the links below:

Website: https://www.mutuum.com

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mutuumfinance

The Bank of Korea (BoK) is reportedly preparing to launch the second phase of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot, with a key emphasis on testing the distribution of government subsidies through digital currency. 

The CBDC project ultimately aims to enhance fiscal efficiency by curbing misuse and slashing administrative costs. 

However, the broader pushback against the CBDC from citizens remains, with many of them seemingly believing that it is a tool for government surveillance. 

Is South Korea’s CDBC ready? 

According to reports, the Bank of Korea (BOK) is accelerating the resumption of the CBDC experiment amid delays in discussions on the Korean won stablecoin bill. 

According to sources cited in local reports on December 21, the BOK already sent out an official document to major banks regarding the second round of CBDC testing. A BOK official stated, “Details, including the specific method and schedule, are currently under discussion.”

Under the second phase of testing, the BoK is allegedly considering distributing a portion of government subsidies in the form of digital currency. They hope the CBDC can help limit its use and reduce the management and administrative costs linked with subsidy execution.

The first phase of the CBDC experiment was conducted with seven banks and lasted three months before it was suspended. At the time, the experiment received backlash for its limited practical utility and the financial burden it placed on the participating banks, which amounted to billions of won.

Revival of the testing phase was floated in late August of this year during a meeting between BoK Governor Rhee Chang-yong and Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol, in which they discussed using CBDC for subsidy payouts as a way to address the problems. 

The banking industry is adamant that a second round of testing is required for the time being. One banking industry official said, “With the official document, we have no choice but to restart preparations.”

At the same time, it has become clear that South Korea may be looking to pursue both the stablecoin and CBDC avenues, rather than sticking with one. 

A BOK official stated, “Stablecoins and CBDCs have different roles and purposes, so they can coexist. We are proceeding with previously scheduled procedures and are not directly related to the delay in discussions on the won-denominated stablecoin bill.”

Despite such statements pushing the efficiency narrative, the pushback from South Korean citizens against broader CBDC adoption has been massive, with online petitions making concerning claims like how it could facilitate excessive government surveillance and control over personal finances, gaining traction.

South Korean agencies debate stablecoin oversight 

The launch of the second phase of CBDC testing is being debated as the institutionalization of the Korean won-denominated stablecoin continues to be delayed due to the inability of the Financial Services Commission and the Bank of Korea to see eye to eye over the matter of issuer and regulatory framework.

The Democratic Party of Korea’s Digital Asset Task Force (TF) initially requested that the Financial Services Commission submit a government proposal by December 11, but the Financial Services Commission reportedly submitted only a rough outline of the draft bill. 

The draft, “Key Contents of the Framework Act on Digital Assets,” claims the Financial Services Commission (FSC) proposed a plan to designate important stablecoins based on the number of stablecoin users and issuance volume. This designation should have been made in consultation with the Bank of Korea (BOK). 

As such, it is interpreted as only partially reflecting the BOK’s concerns about the issuance of won-denominated stablecoins. The final draft is expected but has been delayed due to the failure to coordinate opinions on key issues, such as the requirements for issuing by bank-centered consortiums and the unanimous agreement of the policy consensus body. 

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A major blackout has slammed San Francisco and left Alphabet’s Waymo robotaxis stuck on streets across the city, forcing Alphabet to pause its driverless ride-hail program in the Bay Area.

Pacific Gas and Electric said the blackout started Saturday afternoon and peaked two hours later, hitting about 130,000 customers.

As of press time, reportedly 21,000 homes and businesses still had no electricity, mostly in the Presidio, the Richmond District, Golden Gate Park, and parts of downtown.

Pacific Gas and Electric said the cause was a fire at a substation that caused “significant and extensive” damage, and it could not give a timeline for full repairs.

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said in a 9 p.m. update on X that police, fire crews, parking control officers, and city ambassadors were sent into affected neighborhoods as transit slowly came back.“Waymo has also paused service,” he said.

Elon Musk says Tesla is unaffected by the blackout

Meanwhile, Elon Musk said via a post on X that:- “Tesla Robotaxis were unaffected by the SF power outage.”

Though, it did not take long for people to point out that Tesla does not run a driverless program in the city at all, with his comment section littered with angry users.

Tesla’s local service uses “FSD (Supervised),” which is a driver-assist system that needs a human behind the wheel at all times. Regulators at the California DMV and the California Public Utilities Commission confirmed that Tesla has no permits to run driverless cars in the state without human safety workers ready to brake or steer.

Tesla is trying to become a big player in robotaxis, but its rides today still rely on human supervisors, even in states where the company holds permits for driverless programs. Tesla’s Robotaxi app lets people request a car, but every trip has a human on board. Waymo, on the other hand, leads the market in the West and competes with companies like Baidu-owned Apollo Go.

The outage hit as robotaxi programs become more common in other major U.S. cities. Waymo is one of the few companies offering full driverless rides to the public, even though surveys show people remain uneasy. The American Automobile Association said earlier this year that two-thirds of U.S. drivers reported fear of autonomous cars.

Bryan Reimer, a research scientist at MIT and co-author of “How to Make AI Useful,” said the pause in San Francisco showed the limits of these vehicles. He said something was missed in the design or development of the systems, and he argued that power failures are expected events. “Not for eternity, but in the foreseeable future, we will need to mix human and machine intelligence, and have human backup systems in place around highly automated systems, including robotaxis,” he said.

Reimer also said regulators must decide how many highly automated cars should be allowed on streets and should hold AV companies responsible for any “chaos gridlock” the cars cause during major outages. Waymo did not say when service will return or whether any collisions happened during the blackout.

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Art galleries and insurers are dealing with a flood of forged documents built with AI, a trend now changing how people file claims, seek valuations, and defend ownership records, according to the Financial Times.

One fine art loss adjuster allegedly said they received dozens of valuation certificates for decorative paintings submitted in one claim. Each sheet looked correct at first, but the descriptions for different pieces were identical.

That single detail pushed the adjuster to suspect the entire batch came from an automated system. That check opened the door to wider concerns about how often forged files are slipping into the process without anyone noticing.

Exposing how fraudsters build convincing paperwork

Olivia Eccleston, a fine art insurance broker at Marsh, said chatbots and large language models are now helping fraudsters forge sales invoices, valuations, provenance documents, and certificates of authenticity.

Olivia said this adds a new layer to an old fraud problem in the art market. Some attempts are deliberate. Others start when someone asks an AI model to search historic databases, and it produces results that never existed. Those errors then show up in paperwork that gets sent to insurers as if it were fact.

The chain of ownership, known as provenance, is central in the art world. When people corrupt that chain with invented details, the artwork’s value collapses.

Angelina Giovani, co-founder of provenance research group Flynn & Giovani, said AI makes this easy because “it’s quite conniving… it has to come up with an answer, so if you give it enough information, it will guess something.” Angelina said she saw a case where an AI system appeared to create a signature on a painting to strengthen its story.

Experts note that none of this is new in principle. People once copied letterheads from respected institutions or designed fake stamps.

Now they lean on AI to generate the same paperwork with smoother language and fewer obvious errors. Filippo Guerrini-Maraldi, head of fine art at insurer Howden, said he has seen many forged documents over his career and that automated systems now make them look more realistic.

Angelina said she has seen fake ledger numbers and forged Nazi-era stamps on provenance files. She also pointed to the case of Wolfgang Beltracchi, who created hundreds of paintings and used staged photographs to build fake ownership histories behind them. These tactics show how far people go to support artwork that cannot stand on its own.

Tracking digital clues as fraud becomes harder to see

Harry Smith, executive chair of art valuers Gurr Johns, said AI now makes fraud quicker because people no longer need to invent a fake expert to back their claim. The tool produces whatever support text they want.

Grace Best-Devereux, a fine art loss adjuster at Sedgwick, said she checks metadata in digital documents to spot signs of AI interference. Grace said adjusters also use their own systems to decide whether a provenance document is real.

But she warned that the job is getting harder because new tools are making forged text look normal. Grace said, “We’re at this precipice where it might not be possible for me to look at it and say, ‘the text looks wrong, and I need to investigate this further.’”

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When dealing with early markets in crypto, risk tends to be descending ahead of price. Development improves. Audits begin. Users arrive. However in this transition the tokens tend to remain under-estimated. Where this risk-slow price response gap lies, asymmetric setups are created. A single DeFi crypto seems to be moving to that space. Mutuum Finance (MUTM) has already jumped 250 percent but various underlying risks have been narrowing down as the allocation becomes tighter.

How Risk Curve Compression would Appear in DeFi

Put simply, risk curve compression occurs when the level of uncertainty reduces at a rate higher than the valuation increases. At the beginning of the projects, there is a lot of risk because of code missing, poor security, or undefined roadmap. When those gaps become smaller, there is a reduction in downside risk.

This is typically provided in three places in DeFi crypto. Development goes to completion stages. Auditing of security commences or ends. The engagement of the user increases in a quantifiable manner. None of these can be sure successes but a combination minimizes the unknowns.

On compression of risk, price does not necessarily respond immediately. New information is not always readily taken in by the markets. It is in this delay that most of the early repricing stages start.

Compressing The Risk Curve At Mutuum Finance

Mutuum Finance (MUTM) is a decentralized lending and borrowing protocol that is being developed on Ethereum. The platform does not deal with experimental features but practical lending markets. The users provide the assets to receive yield. A borrower tends to obtain liquidity through the posting of collaterals.

The project is no longer in idea. Basic protocol characteristics are stipulated. Smart contracts are achieved. Based on recent announcements, V1 should see a Sepolia testnet launch within the last quarter of 2025. This is important since deadlines minimize doubts.

Another factor is roadmap clarity. It is an indication of what will come and when to investors. Such visibility reduces the risk of downside before the protocol is operational. In DeFi crypto, timeliness is frequently a significant concern and a crucial product.

Fundraising and MUTM Distribution

MUTM is steadily selling at $0.035 and it is in Phase 6 of its token new issue. This stage has now been allocated by more than 99%. The token has also increased by 250% since the initial presale in early 2025 as the price proves to be better than it used to be at the start of that year, which is at $0.01.

Already sold in the presale are more than 820M tokens. Volatility risk tends to reduce as supply becomes tight. The number of available tokens will be less, which will reduce the pressure to sudden selling by new competitors.

Tremendous distribution coupled with diminishing supply can rationalize the price conduct. Such a balance is commonly regarded as healthier as compared to sharp moves that are impelled by thin participation.

Security Stack 

Downside protection accounts for a large portion of security of DeFi crypto. Mutuum Finance has a number of layers. MUTM token has a rating of 90/100 in certiK token scan. This is an indication of automated contract and token checks.

Also, Halbon security is undertaking an independent audit of the lending and borrowing contracts of Mutuum. The code is complete and under a formal review. Another protection level is provided by a 50k bug bounty on code vulnerabilities.

These aspects do not eliminate the risk but minimize the probability of critical failures. A lot of investors will not even take part till the security frameworks can be seen. This usually creates another step in compressing risks.

Looking Ahead of Q1 2026

There is usually an increase in participation as the risk decreases. Mutuum Finance gives indications of this change. The allocation of whales has been reported within late stages. To keep the engagement high, there is a 24-hour leaderboard where the best daily contributor will win $500 in MUTM.

Mutuum Finance is still in development, and at the time of writing, beta is going to be opened with the next Sepolia V1 testnet. Nonetheless, as the allocation is almost done, security checks are occurring, and roadmap developments are on the verge of completion, MUTM seems to be risking its profile at a pace that price has not kept up. This arrangement in the past tends to come before the valuation round as opposed to after it.

For more information about Mutuum Finance (MUTM) visit the links below:

Website: https://www.mutuum.com

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mutuumfinance

A fight over Trump’s tariffs is turning into a headache over money flow, and Kevin Hassett is the one spelling out how messy it could get.

He warned that a Supreme Court ruling that kills the tariffs and forces refunds would cause what he called an “administrative problem,” since the government would need to return fees collected on imports.

He said the White House believes the court will side with the administration, but even if it does not, he said it is “pretty unlikely” the justices will demand full refunds because of the difficulty of getting that cash back to the right people.

The case focuses on tariffs Donald Trump put on dozens of countries under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Officials already drafted plans to bring the tariffs back if the administration loses in court. They still say a loss is not expected, but they want options ready.

Tariff reversal forces new political and economic questions

Kevin, who is also a leading contender to take Jerome Powell’s job at the Federal Reserve, said the work needed to return tariff money would weigh heavily on the court.

Kevin said importers would get the refunds first and then would need to pass that money to customers who bought the goods.

Kevin said this extra step makes the entire idea tough to carry out because every importer would face long and detailed work to track who gets what.

He also said the stronger economy has improved the odds of a plan that would send one-time $2,000 rebate checks to many Americans. Trump has talked about these checks often, saying the money would come from tariff revenue to ease cost-of-living pressure.

Republicans in Congress have not backed the idea, but Kevin said he now sees more room for it. He said that “in the summer, I wasn’t so sure that there was space for a check like that, but now I’m pretty sure that there is,” pointing to more growth and a smaller federal deficit. He said he expects Trump to send a plan to Congress early in the new year.

The administration is also working on new steps to make homes easier to buy. The goal is to release the full plan at the start of next year.

Mortgage rates have fallen, with the 30-year fixed rate for the week ending Dec. 18 down to 6.21%, near a low for 2025, but still higher than the roughly 3% rates Americans saw a few years ago. Kevin said the team has a list of housing actions ready for Trump.

He said on Fox News Sunday that “we’ve got a list of things that we’re going to present to the president.”

Kevin added that he and other officials expect to stay at Mar-a-Lago for much of the week after Christmas to sort out the full slate of ideas for 2025. He said the housing plans have already been checked by several cabinet members and will reach Trump “in a week or two.”

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Cryptocurrency markets do not always hold until the product becomes accessible. The movement of prices often starts sooner, when the anticipations towards subsequent utility initiate. This is more so to the lending sites where the value is pegged to the future cash flow and not current hype. One of the DeFi cryptos seems to be in that anticipation stage at the moment. Mutuum Finance (MUTM) is experiencing amplified demand because the next development milestone approaches sooner than the users will do so even before users start communicating with the protocol.

Mutuum Finance (MUTM)

Mutuum Finance (MUTM) is a project of Ethereum decentralized lending and borrowing. The system will allow individuals to provide assets and obtain yield, whereas a borrower can obtain liquidity with collateral without having to sell his or her holdings.

The users will have a tendency to borrow because they view exposure without leaving the positions. In cases of improved markets and capital seeking to generate yield, lending demand can increase quite frequently. The two sides communicate with each other through the protocol making them continually used and not one time.

The design is concerned with practical lending markets as opposed to complicated features. Assets are provided by the users into pools. Those pools are borrowed by the borrowers. There is a flow of interest between the two sides as per the real demand.

Since official updates, Mutuum Finance is planning to launch V1 protocol in a Sepolia testnet in Q4 2025. This timing matters. When projects are in their final stages of coming to a live environment, there is usually a change of expectation between ideas and execution. It is only that change that can affect the way a new crypto is valued.

Why Hype is Less Important than Timing

Most projects are good to attract early attention, but they fail. Some won’t raise a commotion and accumulate some interest only to see a difference later. Mutuum Finance is next to a second group.

The protocol is in its development phase, though its roadmap is still operational. Core features are defined. Security inspections are being made. An operative testnet window is assured. This mix minimizes the uncertainty and it becomes more focused on what the platform can produce when it is active.

It is typically at this point that there is an indication of pricing behavior in the market that starts to shift not after launch, but prior to launch.

Alignment of Supply with Timing of Utility

MUTM is currently selling at a value of $0.035 and it is also in the sixth phase of its presale token distribution. It is this stage that is currently allocated at 99%. The token has increased 250% since it moved out of its record of $0.01 in the early part of 2025.

Over 820M tokens have already been sold through a fixed presale. The amount of supply at this price is very small as Phase 6 comes to an end. This is important where there is an increase in utility expectations.

Price is more inclined to respond when the demand is high and the supply is low. Such a mismatch of plummeting supply with rising demand is an ordinary arrangement in the initial DeFi crypto cycles.

Buy Logic and Revenue Flow

Mutuum Finance presents the use of mtTokens to the owners of assets. These tokens are an element of the provided liquidity and increase in value with the interest being collected. This makes rewards to the user directly related to the protocol activity.

There is also a revenue recycling model that is incorporated in the protocol. MUTM is bought in the open market and redistributed to users who put mtTokens in the safety module. This develops usage-related demand and not attention-based demand.

The demand of revenue-based is of a different nature than short-term interest. With an increase in lending, there may be an increase in buying even without new entrants. Other observers think that this provides more level price action over time as the demand is driven not just by sentiment.

Pre-Utility Window

There are a number of indications that Mutuum Finance is in the developing utility stage. MUTM token possesses a score of 90/100 in CertiK token scan. Halborn security is doing an independent audit of the concluded lending and borrowing contracts. There is also a $50k bug bounty program on code vulnerabilities.

The community involvement also persists. A leaderboard every 24 hours rewards the best contributor per day with $500 in MUTM. Participation is increased with the card payment access, particularly when allocation becomes stricter.

These aspects are frequently manifested prior to greater usage. The security frameworks are made apparent. Access improves. Participation widens. Utility is yet to be launched but anticipations are building up.

Mutuum Finance is still in its developmental stages, and V1 Sepolia testnet will have beta features. However, MUTM seems to be in its last pre utility window as Phase 6 is now more than 99% covered and its utility milestones close. Traditionally, this is the time that prices start to represent the future and not the present.

For more information about Mutuum Finance (MUTM) visit the links below:

Website: https://www.mutuum.com

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mutuumfinance

Wang Chun, a co-founder of the major Bitcoin mining pool F2Pool, recently shared a personal anecdote from last year while sharing his opinion on a separate phishing incident that cost another person 50 million USDT. 

Unlike Wang Chun, the victim is working with law enforcement to find the hacker, but has also given the person a way out for both of them.

Wang Chun loses Bitcoin to ‘generous’ hacker 

According to Wang Chun’s post, the incident he described in his post went down sometime last year, and it differs from regular scams in that the F2Pool cofounder already suspected something was off with that wallet. 

In his post, he recalled being suspicious that one of his wallet’s private keys had been compromised. To determine if the wallet was being actively monitored by the hacker, Wang Chun claims he deliberately sent in 500 BTC. 

Why he sent such a large amount is beyond anybody, but it could be that he needed a big enough bait to elicit a response from the hacker monitoring the wallet. Well, he got what he was looking for because immediately the funds hit the wallet, the hacker got busy. 

However, according to Wang Chun, this hacker was not completely greedy and only drained 490 Bitcoins, leaving 10 behind, which caused Wang to sarcastically tag the attacker “generous.” He joked that they could have drained the entire account but chose to leave enough for his “bread and butter.”

Wang’s post makes it clear that this was not a traditional exploit or accidental loss; it was him intentionally probing to eliminate doubt. And he was right. Although it cost him 490 Bitcoins. 

Wang shared the hacker’s address, “14H12PpQNzrS1y1ipjF4mPuVgQEpgfGA79,” for reference, but did not say anything about tracking the hacker down or attempting to recover the stolen funds. 

In the comment section, users commented with confusion and skepticism. They wanted to know why he had to test his suspicion with such a large amount. Some even implied he was just trying to play it cool and that he actually sent in the BTC without knowing the wallet was compromised. 

Others poked fun at him for claiming he needed 10 BTC for “bread and butter.” 

Did someone lose $50 million to phishing?

Wang Chun shared the story of his ordeal last year in response to posts about a phishing incident that occurred on December 20, where Cryptopolitan reported that the victim lost up to 50 million USDT. 

The F2Pool co-founder called the event regrettable, as he hoped the user would get his funds back. The funds were lost after the affected user mistakenly sent nearly $50 million in USDT to a scam address in what has been tagged a classic address poisoning attack.

According to on-chain investigator Web3 Antivirus, the victim lost 49,999,950 USDT after copying a malicious wallet address from their transaction history. The user was actually cautious, according to on-chain data, as they initially sent a small test transaction of $50 to the correct address. 

However, the scammer immediately spoofed a wallet with the same first and last four characters, then carried out an address poisoning attack. This worked because many wallets hide the middle part of the address with “…” to make the UI look better.

Most of CT is used to this, and many users will often copy the address from transaction histories, usually only checking the starting and ending letters. The victim was no different. 

When transferring the remaining 49,999,950 $USDT, the victim copied the fake address from his transaction history, checked the start and ending letters, and minutes later sent the full $50 million transfer to the poisoned address. 

Security researcher Cos, founder of SlowMist, has confirmed there was indeed a similarity between the addresses, and even though it was subtle, it was enough to deceive even experienced users. “You can see the first 3 characters and last 4 characters are the same,” he wrote.

The attacker has since swapped the stolen USDT for Ether, splitting it into multiple wallets, and partially moved it into Tornado Cash. However, the affected user, unlike Wang Chun, is not letting the funds go and has worked with law enforcement to trace the hacker. 

The user has sent an on-chain message to the hacker, revealing they have filed a criminal case and, with help from law enforcement and other agencies, gathered information on the hacker’s activities. 

According to the message, the hacker has a final chance to walk away from this incident without legal consequences. The hacker is required to send 98% of the stolen funds back within 48 hours and has been advised to keep $1,000,000 for identifying the vulnerability. The offer is dependent on their immediate cooperation. 

Failure to comply, the user promises to escalate investigations and unveil the identity of the hacker while pursuing civil and criminal action until justice has been fully served. 

The ETH Community Foundation weighs in

It is not the first time such an address poisoning scam has happened, but according to the Ethereum Community Foundation, it needs to be the last time. To that end, the ECF has called for an “end to the practice of truncating addresses with dots.”

According to the foundation, all screens can now display full addresses, so hiding the middle characters only serves to create avoidable risk. 

“Wallets and block explorers continue to ship UI choices that actively undermine user safety,” the foundation wrote on X. “This is solvable.”

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SOL, the native token of the Solana network, faces a series of challenges, as institutional sellers are carefully liquidating their SOL portfolios in light of declining network utilization and widening disparities in relative market performance against the overall altcoin market. By November, SOL fell 32%, while the overall altcoin market decline was 21%.

Solana Faces Structural Problems Despite Institutional Support

Solana continues to see institutional investment, with US-based SOL ETFs gathering $636 million in assets since July, and various publicly traded companies adding over 20 million SOL to their balance sheets. About 68% of circulating supply remains staked, yielding over 6%. Yet, price signals a different message, as SOL moves towards $120 with deteriorating fundamentals.

There has been a steady drop in on-chain activities since August, with weekly transaction fees down to $4.5 million from $7 million, and decreases in the revenue of decentralized applications by 30%, down to $26 million per week. This contrasts with huge increases seen in Ethereum-layer 2 scaling solutions like Base and Arbitrum. 

As the level of competition grows, the SOL whale distribution pattern indicates rising doubts about the ability to regain dominance. Investors seeking to identify the best crypto to buy today to benefit from their investments are turning to this new token.

Mutuum Finance Poises Itself to Offer an Attractive DeFi Alternative

As capital looks for the next big opportunity in crypto, Mutuum Finance is making waves as a DeFi crypto with promising prospects for meeting the demand for sustainable yields and cryptocurrency loans. The presale has already seen a total of $19,500,000 raised, and there are a total of 18,550 Total MUTM Holders since the presale started. The current phase, which is phase 6, is already filled to a tune of 99%, with a current price per unit at $0.035, which has appreciated by 250% from $0.01 at phase one.

Phase 6 is already selling out quickly, and this means that the chances of investing at this price are limited. When Phase 7 begins, prices will be increasing by 20% to $0.04, compared to the Fixed MUTM launch price, which is set at $0.06. Given this pace, it can be realized that initial investors look forward to seeing a 420% growth rate after it is launched. Moving past the pricing dynamics, the factors that attract everyone to Mutuum Finance are based on several prime selling points.

First, the lending and borrowing system on the Mutuum protocol is undergoing an audit, and Halborn Security is reviewing the finalized smart contracts. Second, the Mutuum team recently launched a live dashboard with a top 50 holders leaderboard and a 24-hour leaderboard, which resets every day at 00:00 UTC. With the new system, the best-performing individual each day receives a $500 MUTM reward for at least one transaction. 

The Narrow Window for Early Action 

Given that whales on Solana have been decreasing their holding and that on-chain activity is supporting other blockchains instead, Mutuum Finance is rising as the best crypto to buy today presently for those looking for asymmetric potential. Phase 6 is largely sold out and is the last chance for investment at $0.035 before prices rise. With increasing momentum in the presale stage, this may well be the last opportunity for investment in a cryptocurrency that is rising as the new narrative for 2025.

For more information about Mutuum Finance (MUTM) visit the links below:

Website: https://mutuum.com/ 

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mutuumfinance

A data center outside Osaka now runs thousands of Nvidia’s newest chips for Tencent, giving the company a path around Washington’s hardware limits while keeping everything within legal bounds.

The GPUs sit inside a site owned by Datasection, a Japanese group that once sold marketing solutions but flipped into AI infrastructure last year.

That pivot pulled in more than $1.2 billion in contracts tied to Tencent through a third-party partner, according to people who know the deal.

These contracts cover a big slice of Datasection’s first batch of 15,000 Blackwell processors, all parked in Japan at a moment when China cannot import the same chips.

Datasection’s move placed it among Asia’s rising neocloud players, a group that includes CoreWeave in the U.S. and Nebius in Europe. These operators rent out Nvidia hardware at a huge scale and serve global tech firms hungry for compute.

Norihiko Ishihara, Datasection’s chief executive, said the demand shift has been wild. He said “less than half a year ago…5,000 B200 chips were sufficient to support AI models,” but that the floor has doubled and “10,000 should be the minimum requirement.”

His comment sums up the pace of this market and the reason companies like Tencent are moving fast to secure GPU capacity offshore.

Expanding offshore GPU access and building long-term contracts

China’s largest platforms have been forced into overseas workarounds after U.S. export rules blocked Nvidia’s best chips from entering the country. Datasection grew as this pressure intensified, with Trump canceling a Biden-era plan to close the loophole in May.

The Osaka project was finalized soon after. Earlier this month, the White House approved a lower-tier Nvidia chip for China, which could help Tencent start building its own domestic sites again.

But analysts say the offshore approach may stay popular. Lin Qingyuan at Bernstein Research said renting compute abroad may be “the more attractive choice for Chinese tech groups.”

Tencent, Alibaba, and ByteDance are all training models outside China and selling the output, said people familiar with these operations.

Datasection expects to run more than 100,000 Nvidia processors across future facilities. Its first 15,000 chips are mostly locked into Tencent contracts for three years, with options to extend. Ishihara would not confirm Tencent by name, calling it only a “major customer,” citing confidentiality.

Datasection’s stock price is up nearly 185% this year, though it has fallen from a summer high above ¥4,000 because traders fear over-investment and react to a short seller’s attack on the business.

Building Sydney’s hyperscale B300 cluster and facing scrutiny

In July, Datasection agreed to buy 5,000 B200 chips for $272 million for the Osaka site, supported by a $406 million three-year contract with one of the world’s largest cloud firms. Server crates filled with new GPUs arrived in August.

Soon after, Datasection and its partner signed another three-year, $800 million agreement to build a second AI data center in Sydney. This new cluster will use tens of thousands of B300 chips, which outperform the versions Nvidia is allowed to sell into China.

Datasection said the first 10,000 B300s will cost $521 million. Ishihara said the site will be “the world’s first hyperscale AI cluster by using B300 chips.” People with knowledge of the project said Tencent is expected to be the main user.

Tencent said it follows all laws and that its use of “cloud computing services is both transparent and legal.”

Ishihara said GPU purchases are his biggest expense. He spreads that cost over five years, while customer deals usually run three years with a two-year extension option.

Contracts run through a partner to protect client data; for Tencent, that partner is Tokyo-based NowNaw. Datasection can cancel agreements if U.S.–China rules tighten again.

The company has also come under attack. A short seller questioned links to Tencent and to First Plus Financial Holdings, a Singapore-based investor.

Datasection said its projects are “in full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.” Ishihara later said U.S. Commerce Department and Nvidia approvals were obtained for GPU use.

Datasection is raising ¥50 billion through warrants issued to First Plus, which could dilute shareholders by up to 200%. The investor, owned by a Chinese national, wants to keep its stake below one-third.

Ishihara said First Plus does not want to consolidate Datasection into its accounts and surrendered voting rights to avoid Japan’s foreign exchange control scrutiny. First Plus did not comment.

The company is now pushing into cloud services and targeting Europe. It hired Spanish politician Pablo Casado Blanco as chair and added John Ellis Bush Jr to its board.

Ishihara said high demand for GPU power makes it easy to replace customers if export rules change again. In a worst-case scenario, he said “we may have to stop the operation for, let’s say, one week,” calling the asset “very sexy.”

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Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder, revealed through a series of posts on Farcaster that he believes prediction markets are the antidote to crazy opinions. 

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin debated about the ethics of prediction markets, arguing they are an important counterbalance to misinformation on social media platforms. 

Can betting on Polymarket become a moral problem?

In a series of posts on Farcaster, Buterin responded to critics who questioned whether betting on tragic events like wars and deaths represents a moral failing of the cryptocurrency industry.

The discussion began when a user named Cassie criticized the practice of “gambling on whether a bunch of people are going to die,” calling it one of the reasons the crypto industry faces widespread hatred. 

Buterin countered by explaining that small-scale prediction markets focused on large events don’t create dangerous incentives for individuals to cause harm. He also pointed out that traditional stock markets carry similar risks. 

Unlike other social media platforms where sensational claims generate engagement without accountability, Buterin says prediction markets are truth-seeking environments. 

“Prediction markets as an antidote for crazy opinions on emotionally charged topics,” he wrote. 

Buterin’s point, in summary, is that, on social media, users can make dramatic predictions about wars or disasters without facing consequences if they turn out to be wrong. Mainstream media use sensational headlines that distort public perception of actual risks.

Buterin shared personal examples of checking Polymarket prices after reading alarming news headlines, only to discover that experienced participants still place the probability of that outcome at just 4%. 

He argued that prediction markets experience less manipulation from reflexivity effects, “greater fool theory” dynamics, and pump-and-dump schemes that plague cryptocurrency and stock trading because their prices are bounded between zero and one, representing 0% to 100% probability. 

Can betting on prediction markets cross a line?

Cassie questioned whether markets predicting someone’s death might actually influence outcomes rather than simply following information, asking directly if Buterin was “okay with that.”

“Yeah, that’s an assassination market. I oppose those.” Buterin responded.

He went on to list several measures that prevent such markets from functioning effectively, including supporting “social norms that weaken oracles to make such markets break more.” 

As examples, he referenced Augur’s historical “vote unethical” design feature, which allowed participants to invalidate markets deemed inappropriate.

Buterin suggested that journalistic standards play a role by avoiding publishing details of death that make such markets easy to resolve. He proposed that if assassination markets became a bigger problem, making it simple for people to fake their deaths temporarily and claim rewards themselves could help break the incentive structure.

This is not the first time Buterin has defended the right to wager on events via prediction markets like Polymarket. Last year, as reported by Cryptopolitan, he shared similar thoughts about the moral and ethical questions surrounding certain markets, referencing the Israel-Hezbollah war at the time.

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A lot of investors fail to notice great crypto projects because of the same reason. They either come too early, when the ideas are still being formulated or too late when growth is already being discounted. The strongest phase usually is not at the ends. This is the late discovery window where an actual progress is being made but the focus is lagging. One of the Ethereum based DeFi crypto seems to be touching that small space.

Why Sometimes Late Stage Discovery Works 

The late stage discovery is easy to comprehend. It can be defined as the types of projects that have already demonstrated funds, usability and process of development, but are not much known. The risk is reduced compared to the concept stage, but price is not adapted to maturity.

There is a lot of uncertainty in early entry. The late entry is associated with a low upside. Discovery at the stages may be found at the middle stage. It is here that work groups are in operation and value begins to develop ahead of the crowd.

Traditionally, numerous popular DeFi protocols have had their most significant price performances at this stage of time not on the launch date and not several years later.

Placing Mutuum Finance (MUTM) on That Curve

Mutuum Finance (MUTM) is not an idea any longer. Simultaneously it is not entirely alive. This puts it at the late discovery. The protocol is developing a lend and borrow infrastructure that is decentralized on Ethereum. It provides liquidity pooling, collateralized borrowing and mtTokens, as indexes of supplied assets and yield earned.

Development no longer pastes thinking. The core contracts are signed, and a roadmap that now has a target of V1 deployment in the Sepolia testnet in Q4, 2025 is finalized. This phase usually signifies the departure of theory and execution.

There are some signs that MUTM is not being discovered pre-maturely. Mutuum Finance has collected up to $19.4M. It has increased the number of holders to above 18,600. Over 820M units are already being sold.

These figures did not shoot immediately. They built over time. This trend is usually characterized by cautious confidence and not hype-led inflows. Investor early moods show that interest is on the increase due to the infrastructure coming to the fore. It is characteristic of the late discovery, where people join in after improvement, rather than the reverse of this.

Token Structure 

The significant role of token structure commences when the discovery begins. MUTM is currently priced at $0.035. The presale began in early 2025 at the price of $0.01, implying that the token has already increased by 250% in terms of staged pricing.

Phase 6 is now over 99% allocated. With the tightening in supply, there is a tendency to shift the price behavior. When new demand moves in, the late discovery will be accompanied by a decrease in availability and rapider repricing.

The 500% MUTM appreciation in the price of the token in phase 1 is placed at the actual launch cost of $0.06. The  next phase subsequent step is set to increase the token price by almost 20%, which further lowers entry points.

Security usually becomes the time when mass audiences begin to pay attention. Mutuum Finance has passed through a CertiK audit with a 90 point token scan rating. Simultaneously, Halborn Security is examining the American commitments of lending and borrowing.

The codebase is complete, and it is under analysis. The bug bounty program is also in place with a reward of $50k on the finding of possible code vulnerabilities. This is an important step that is awaited by many investors. Security frameworks decrease uncertainty as well as transform perception from experimental to structured.

Why This Window Is Narrow

Discovery too late does not last long. Almost all of phase 6 allocation has been made. The active contributor is also rewarded with a 24 hours leaderboard that grants a contributor with MUTM worth $500 daily to enhance their participation. The payments can be made via cards, and barriers to access are reduced.

With increasing exposure V1 and as MUTM gets closer, we can expect it to shift to wider visibility as opposed to late discovery. To individuals searching for the potential best crypto to purchase in 2026, phase 6 can not remain open long enough.

For more information about Mutuum Finance (MUTM) visit the links below:

Website: https://www.mutuum.com

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mutuumfinance

Security-oriented researchers and companies have warned about a popular, open-source Polymarket copy trading bot hosted on GitHub. 

The bot was created by a developer under the handle “Trust412,” and reportedly contains hidden malicious code across multiple commits and dependencies. 

Source: @hunterweb303 via X/Twitter

SlowMist sounds Polymarket trading bot warning 

Earlier today, December 21, 23pds, SlowMist’s Chief Information Security Officer, retweeted a warning from a community user about a malicious code in a Polymarket copy-trading bot on GitHub, posing security risks. 

The incident has reminded many that the crypto bot market still has many vulnerabilities, which is why scrutinizing GitHub repositories for hidden threats is now non-negotiable. 

According to the post 23pds interacted with, this code was deliberately put there, but its malicious nature was disguised while the author revised it repeatedly to ensure that it evaded detection. 

This occurred across multiple submissions in the “polymarket-copy-trading-bot” repository, potentially exposing users to fund theft.

The hidden code in the bot’s program made it scan and read configuration files automatically, extract private keys, and transfer them to a remote server controlled by the hackers.  

Users are urged to be cautious with any unaudited code repositories. In 23pds’s post, he alleged this is not the first time the method is being used to target GitHub and its users and that it will not be the last of such incidents. 

How to avoid the private key exploits 

The most crucial thing about this form of exploit is that it depends on the individual to kick-start the process, which means extra caution would do a lot to prevent repeated cases. 

The exploit is a classic supply-chain attack on open-source tools. It requires users to first install the bot, which many do in an effort to copy successful traders on Polymarket. These users input their private keys for signing trades, thereby unknowingly exposing them.

Anyone who finds themselves in such a predicament is advised to immediately delete the repository if it has been downloaded, assume any wallet linked to it has been compromised, and move all funds to a new one as quickly as it can be done. 

It also does not help matters that similar issues have come up in other Polymarket bot repos. So it has become crucial to scrutinize third-party trading scripts to be on the safe side. 

It should be noted that the Polymarket platform has not been hacked; the bots that have been wreaking this havoc are unofficial ones, which pose high risks since they require direct access to users’ private keys.

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The cryptocurrency market is again going through a phase where the results of initial placement are going to have a significant effect on overall outcomes, as traders who had benefited from the initial gains in the Shiba Inu market have stated. Owing to a transition away from overvalued large cap coins, SHIB traders are now focusing on the potential for presale projects.

There are new projects, including Mutuum Finance (MUTM), which is a cryptocurrency under the decentralized finance space, selling during Presale Phase 6 at $0.035. The presale phase is already at over 99% capacity, with a total of $19,500,000 raised since the presale kicked off. The total Mutuum Finance (MUTM) holders since presale commencement are at 18,550. Mutuum Finance is set to be the answer to the crypto to buy question in 2026. 

Mutuum Finance (MUTM) Presale Momentum Signals A Narrow Entry Window

As of the time of this publication, Mutuum Finance is at Presale Phase 6, with demand going through the roof owing to the aggressive burning of allocations. At the current presale in phase 6, the price per token is at $0.035, which translates to an increase of 250% against the phase 1 price of $0.01.

However, Mutuum Finance (MUTM) phase 6 will soon be over, meaning phase 7 kicks in, implying a rise in price of almost 20% against the current value of $0.04. The presale will end soon, and phase 7 will start, with a price of MUTM would be $0.06, implying a potential increase of almost 430%. 

Dual Lending Architecture Focuses On Sustainable Demand

Apart from the cost, the major advantage of Mutuum Finance is in its lending system that caters not only to variable interest rates but also fixed rates. This way, the providers of liquidity get an opportunity to earn rewards, and at the same time, the borrowers get an opportunity to obtain funds at clear terms, overcoming the shortcomings that existed in the past. SHIB veterans say Mutuum Finance (MUTM) is different because it’s usage-driven.

Mutuum Finance (MUTM) Security And Transparency As Institutional Signals

Security has emerged as a major defining criterion, as capital has been increasingly selective. Security is a major criterion, with Mutuum Finance auditing the final lending and borrowing smart contract. It is a major move towards following institutional standards, even at this stage.

The group has also initiated a leaderboard with the top 50 holders. The 24-Hour Leaderboard provides incentives in terms of engagement on a daily basis, where the first rank holder gains a $500 Mutuum Finance (MUTM) reward after completing an initial transaction within the given time frame of 24 hours. This leaderboard resets at 00:00 UTC.

MUTM’s trend of stablecoin-funded loans helps to reduce the problem of volatility, which is one of the factors that can act as a hindrance to the adoption of defi cryptos. This makes Mutuum Finance (MUTM) potential to be the best crypto to buy now more favorable for investors.

As Phase 6 is all but sold out, purchasing at $0.035 is running out quickly. As discussion continues to revolve around best crypto to buy now leading up to 2026, Mutuum Finance is quickly becoming a top choice for those looking to get in before widespread awareness.

For more information about Mutuum Finance (MUTM) visit the links below:

Website: https://mutuum.com/ 

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mutuumfinance