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  • Crypto Markets Brace for $11B Options Expiry

    Crypto Markets Brace for $11B Options Expiry

    Massive $11 Billion End-of-Quarter Options Expiry Could Rattle Crypto Markets

    Approximately 153,500 Bitcoin options contracts, with a notional value of around $9.3 billion, are set to expire on Friday, June 26. This expiration is significantly larger than usual, coinciding with the end of the month and quarter, and could inject further volatility into already struggling spot markets.

    This week has seen cryptocurrency markets plunge to nearly two-year lows, with the total market capitalization shedding over $180 billion since Monday as the bear market intensifies.

    The current batch of Bitcoin options contracts exhibits a put/call ratio of 0.73, indicating a slight dominance of sellers of long (call) contracts over sellers of short (put) contracts. The “max pain” level, a theoretical price at which most options would expire worthless, is estimated at $72,000. This is approximately $13,000 above current spot prices, suggesting that the majority of these contracts are likely to expire out-of-the-money.

    Open interest (OI), representing the total value or number of outstanding Bitcoin options contracts, remains highest at the $80,000 strike price on Deribit, totaling $1.4 billion. However, short sellers still hold $1 billion in OI at the $60,000 strike price. According to Coinglass, total BTC options OI across all exchanges has been on an upward trend over the past week, reaching $34 billion.

    Deribit observed that Bitcoin is heading into this expiration well below its $72,000 max pain level. The exchange also noted that while max pain is a closely watched metric, recent quarterly expirations have shown limited evidence of a consistent “pinning” effect on prices leading up to settlement.

    Derivatives provider Greeks Live reported this week that puts continue to command a significant premium over calls across all major tenors. This suggests persistent demand for near-term downside protection, while pricing for longer-dated options remains relatively stable.

    Q2 Options Expiry Alert

    At 08:00 UTC on Friday, approximately $10.8 billion in Bitcoin and Ethereum options are scheduled to expire on Deribit. This marks the largest expiry event on Deribit so far in 2026.

    In addition to the substantial Bitcoin options expiry, roughly 1 million Ethereum contracts are also set to expire, with a notional value of $1.6 billion. For Ethereum, the max pain level is $2,000, and the put/call ratio stands at 0.54. Total ETH options OI across all exchanges is currently low, at around $5.7 billion.

    Cumulatively, the total notional value of crypto options expiring this week reaches approximately $11 billion, positioning it as one of the largest expiry events of the year.

    Spot markets have experienced a further 3% decline today, reaching their lowest levels since September 2024. Bitcoin lost 4% during the Friday morning Asian session, dropping to just over $58,000. It saw a slight rebound towards $60,000 as of press time, following this fresh low for the current market cycle. Analysts had warned this week of an imminent significant sell-off in this price zone.

    Ethereum briefly lost its market capitalization rank to Tether, falling more than 5% to $1,522 on Friday morning. This marks its lowest point since a dip in April 2025 and returns it to levels seen during the 2023 bear market. Meanwhile, altcoins are broadly in the red, continuing a significant downturn.

  • DATA Foundation Tackles AI Training Data Bottleneck

    DATA Foundation Tackles AI Training Data Bottleneck

    Story Rebrands as The DATA Foundation, Launches DATA Network with Flagship Kled AI Integration

    Palo Alto, United States – June 25th, 2026 – Story has announced a significant strategic pivot, rebranding as The DATA Foundation (“DATA”) and launching the DATA Network, a new infrastructure layer for AI training data. The initiative includes a flagship integration with Kled, a prominent opt-in human data marketplace, which has already registered 1.5 billion user-contributed records on the network.

    The DATA Foundation is also introducing Trace, its inaugural public audit layer designed for consent, licensing, and data provenance at scale. Andrea Muttoni has been appointed CEO of The DATA Foundation, while Kled’s founder, Avi Patel, will serve as Chief Data Officer in an advisory capacity.

    AI’s Training Data Faces a Critical Bottleneck

    The transition to The DATA Foundation reflects a pronounced shift in market demand, with AI training data emerging as a highly valuable yet largely unresolved intellectual property challenge. Leading AI laboratories are encountering a multi-billion-dollar data bottleneck, as the readily available data on the internet has been largely exhausted through scraping. The remaining data sources are either prohibitively expensive and custom-made, or lack proper documentation and legal standing, leaving AI labs struggling to source data at scale, verify its origin, or ensure its quality.

    The legal ramifications are escalating, as frontier AI labs are developing market-defining products based on data acquired through opaque channels, often without clear consent or jurisdictional clarity. The era of scraping and using undocumented data is rapidly concluding for enterprise-grade AI development.

    “The primary challenge in AI has moved from computational power and architecture to data sourcing and provenance,” stated Andrea Muttoni, CEO of The DATA Foundation. “As the easily scrapable web fragments, the critical question for AI labs is who is meticulously documenting their data sources. With Kled, we are uniting complete data transparency and auditability with the world’s most extensive repository of AI training data.”

    Building the Infrastructure for Trusted AI Data

    DATA builds upon its original mission to establish a data and intellectual property (IP) layer for the internet, recognizing that AI training data is the most crucial form of data and IP in the current technological landscape. The DATA Network provides essential infrastructure for AI training, anchored by its integration with Kled. Effective immediately, Kled’s licensing protocols and contributor records will operate on the DATA Network, with enhanced support for stablecoin payouts. This integration encompasses the registration of an impressive 1.5 billion user-contributed records, fortified with programmatic legal safeguards.

    “Frontier AI labs have depleted the supply of high-quality, human-generated public text available on the open web,” said Avi Patel, CEO and founder of Kled and part-time advisory CDO of The DATA Foundation. “Suppliers who can demonstrate data sourcing provenance will dominate the deals of the next decade, and that is our strategic focus. Instead of sourcing data blindly, Kled’s data marketplace and DATA’s auditable chain of custody converge to provide labs with exactly what they need to license data confidently and transparently.”

    Trace Launches as the Public Audit Layer for AI Training Data

    Trace, The DATA Foundation’s public audit and search platform, also debuts today, coinciding with the Kled integration. Trace generates immutable, confidential receipts for every data contribution, enabling AI labs to verify the legitimacy of datasets within seconds. For each record uploaded by users globally, a receipt will be generated on DATA, facilitating upstream compensation for contributors’ data and intellectual property. This addresses a pressing need for a verifiable and compliant market for AI training data, which has become a complex legal and operational minefield.

    A Wider Contributor Network

    DATA’s foundational principles have been validated by Poseidon, an AI data processing project incubated by Story. Poseidon cleans, normalizes, and scores raw human data for authenticity and quality, ensuring that every record delivered to buyers is ready for AI model training. Poseidon’s early success with frontier labs underscored the significant opportunity in the AI training data sector. Now operating entirely on DATA and backed by a16z, its contributor application, Numo, is live, onboarding thousands of contributors into the AI economy in exchange for real-time payouts.

    “We founded Story with the vision of building an IP layer for the internet, and the most vital IP of this era is the data that cannot be scraped – the nuances of a surgeon’s movements, the way a robot grips an object, or how people speak, drive, and work in real-world scenarios,” commented SY Lee, CEO of PIP Labs and strategic advisor to The DATA Foundation. “DATA represents the evolution of that conviction: an end-to-end network that proves the origin of real-world data, licenses it, and compensates the individuals who create it.”

    Token Migration and Ecosystem Continuity

    The $IP token will be migrated to the $DATA token on a one-to-one basis, with no action required from existing holders. Guidance on the migration process, exchange timing, and a comprehensive FAQ are available.

    About The DATA Foundation
    Data represents the most significant bottleneck in frontier AI development. The data models that AI requires are often siloed within individuals and companies, or do not yet exist and will not be created without aligned incentives. The DATA Network serves as the world’s AI audit rails, designed to answer the three fundamental questions every AI lab faces: can data be sourced at scale, can its origin be proven, and can its quality be guaranteed? Contributor applications, including Numo and Kled, provide opt-in human data; Trace offers a public, tamper-proof receipt for every data record; and Poseidon transforms this data into model-ready datasets, enabling frontier AI to advance on a foundation of trust. The $IP token is now $DATA. Further information can be found at datafdn.org.

  • DEXE Surges Amidst Record Whale Activity and User Boom

    DEXE Surges Amidst Record Whale Activity and User Boom

    DeXe (DEXE) has seen a significant surge in on-chain activity, solidifying its position as one of the top-performing large-cap cryptocurrency assets in recent months.

    On-Chain Activity Reaches All-Time Highs

    Data from Santiment reveals that DEXE recorded 18 whale transactions exceeding $100,000 and 298 active addresses, both marking all-time highs for the protocol. Furthermore, the network welcomed 86 new wallets, representing its most robust wallet growth in seven months.

    Market Performance and Driving Factors

    This surge in activity coincides with a strong market performance for DEXE, which has experienced a market capitalization increase of over 600% in the past four months. Santiment attributes this growth to heightened interest in DeXe’s DAO governance infrastructure, increasing speculation regarding broader protocol adoption, and a rise in spot accumulation as more tokens have reportedly moved off exchanges.

    The analytics firm suggests that the latest on-chain data is actively supporting the price rally rather than merely reacting to it. New wallets are joining the network at their fastest pace in months, while both active participation and whale transactions have reached record levels.

    Santiment further noted that this combination of increased user activity, network expansion, and substantial transactions could indicate genuine engagement within the ecosystem, moving beyond purely speculative trading. Investors are closely watching to see if DeXe’s expanding governance ecosystem can sustain its current momentum.

    Exchange Support and Market Context

    At the time of writing, DEXE was trading near $23.5, marking a nearly 36% increase for the month. A contributing factor to this rally may be the support from MEXC, a cryptocurrency exchange that recently integrated the token into its futures market, offering traders leverage of up to 50x. In the preceding 24 hours alone, DEXE saw a 4% rise.

    These gains occurred despite a broader market downturn. Bitcoin briefly dipped to $59,000, its lowest point since early June, before recovering to approximately $61,700 by Thursday morning.

    Technical Outlook and Future Potential

    Meanwhile, pseudonymous CryptoQuant analyst CW indicated that DEXE is currently testing its “final major sell wall.” A breakthrough above this resistance zone could potentially lead DEXE to set a new all-time high. CW added that once this final barrier is cleared, overhead resistance would be minimal, potentially allowing the rally to continue without significant selling pressure.

  • Grok AI’s Grim Bitcoin Forecast for Next 30 Days

    Grok AI’s Grim Bitcoin Forecast for Next 30 Days

    Grok AI has issued a short-term Bitcoin price forecast, eschewing the typical year-end horizon for a much more immediate outlook. The model predicts a surge to between $68,000 and $72,000 within the next 30 days, a significant leap from its current trading level.

    The bullish scenario hinges on a confluence of familiar factors. Bitcoin is currently trading around $61,200, with sustained institutional demand via spot ETFs remaining a cornerstone of this optimistic view.

    An increase in corporate and sovereign adoption is expected to provide another layer of consistent buying pressure, independent of retail investor sentiment. The post-halving supply shock also continues to be a relevant factor, as a reduced influx of new coins into the market can amplify any surge in demand. On a technical level, the model identifies oversold conditions and strong support at the 200-week moving average, a level that has historically signaled major turning points in previous market cycles.

    Any positive macroeconomic shifts, such as a weaker dollar or a change in interest rate sentiment, could act as a catalyst, triggering short-covering and a renewed wave of FOMO (fear of missing out) buying.

    Considering these elements, the model suggests that current price levels represent an opportune moment for accumulation, with a base case target of $65,000 to $70,000 over the next month, even factoring in typical volatility of 10% to 15%.

    The Bearish Outlook

    The bearish case remains anchored by the same risks that have pressured Bitcoin’s price for months. Persistent outflows from ETFs could continue to dampen demand. Macroeconomic uncertainty poses a wildcard that could quickly erode risk appetite. The risk of deleveraging also persists if market positioning becomes excessively one-sided. In such a scenario, the model anticipates Bitcoin testing the $55,000 to $58,000 range before any substantial reversal takes hold.

    Despite acknowledging this downside potential, the model still views the broader path of least resistance as upward.

    Technical Analysis and Chart Patterns

    On the weekly chart, Bitcoin is trading at $61,182 following a sharp pullback from a recent peak near $82,000 in May. This downward movement has been steady, breaking through several minor support levels en route to current prices.

    When viewed in a broader context, this pullback appears to be a retest of the overall uptrend established from the 2023 lows, rather than a complete trend reversal at this juncture. The chart displays a clear pattern of higher highs and higher lows extending back over two years, even with the recent dip impacting this structure. Immediate resistance is observed around $70,000, a level that capped multiple rallies earlier this year, with a more significant ceiling near $82,000, where the most recent bounce faltered.

    Pinpointing exact support levels without indicator data is challenging, but the $59,000 area and the broader zone between $55,000 and $58,000 align with prior consolidation ranges from earlier in the cycle, directly supporting the bearish scenario.

    Recent price action over the past few weeks has shown consistent red candles with limited buying response, suggesting that sellers currently hold the short-term advantage. Overall momentum on this chart appears weak and is still seeking a floor, rather than confirming any reversal. If Bitcoin can maintain levels above $59,000 and reclaim $70,000 in the coming weeks, the kind of short-covering rally Grok predicts becomes more plausible on the chart.

    Beyond Large Caps: The Case for Infrastructure Plays

    The largest cryptocurrencies are not in distress, but rather have temporarily paused their ascent. Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP have been testing the same resistance levels for weeks without a decisive breakout.

    Macroeconomic catalysts and institutional adoption timelines are frequently subject to change. Holding assets whose next move is entirely dependent on external decisions can feel like waiting in a holding pattern rather than actively trading.

    The capital that truly drives market cycles often moves discreetly, relocating before its destination becomes widely known. Smaller market capitalization infrastructure projects operate on different dynamics than their larger counterparts. A rotation that would be negligible for Bitcoin could significantly reprice an undiscovered project.

    The opportunity lies in the discrepancy between an asset’s intrinsic value and its current market valuation. This gap closes upon discovery, and prior to that moment, it is fully capturable.

    LiquidChain: Addressing Interoperability Challenges

    Multi-chain fragmentation remains a persistent and costly issue in decentralized finance (DeFi), one that has yet to be effectively solved. Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana exist as isolated ecosystems with no shared architecture or native interoperability. Each time value is transferred between them, the disconnection incurs costs through fees, slippage, and failed transactions.

    LiquidChain aims to eliminate these crossing costs, as predicted by Copilot AI. It proposes integrating these three networks within a single execution environment, enabling single deployments and complete ecosystem access without transaction taxes.

    The project’s presale is currently priced at $0.01454, with over $860,000 raised, indicating an early and undiscovered stage.

    While the execution and adoption of LiquidChain remain unproven, established assets offer predictability within a market that already recognizes their ceiling. LiquidChain, conversely, represents an entry point that ceases to exist once it gains market recognition.

  • Zuckerberg’s Meta AI Forecasts Major XRP Surge by 2026

    Zuckerberg’s Meta AI Forecasts Major XRP Surge by 2026

    Meta AI Offers Multifaceted XRP Price Outlook for 2026

    Meta AI has presented a 2026 price prediction for XRP that diverges from a single figure, instead outlining a scenario with multiple potential outcomes. The model suggests a base price range of $2.50 to $5.00, with a bullish case that could see XRP reach $5.70 or even $8.00 under optimal conditions.

    Bullish Catalysts Converge for XRP

    The optimistic outlook hinges on the convergence of three key catalysts, rather than a singular event. XRP is currently trading around $1.06. The prediction begins with the impact of Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) inflows. In their inaugural month, U.S. spot XRP ETFs attracted $1.3 billion in assets under management, supported by an unprecedented 55-day inflow streak.

    This inflow carries greater significance for XRP than it did for Bitcoin, given XRP’s market capitalization is approximately one-eighth the size of Bitcoin’s at the time of its ETF launch. Consequently, the same dollar inflow has a more pronounced relative effect on XRP.

    Furthermore, exchange reserves are at seven-year lows, standing near 1.7 billion XRP. This suggests that institutional ETF buying is encountering limited retail supply, a dynamic that typically amplifies price movements. On the institutional payment front, Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin has experienced a remarkable 1800% surge, reaching a $1.38 billion market cap in less than a year. Concurrently, RippleNet continues its expansion into remittance corridors across Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, processing billions of dollars annually.

    The addition of regulatory clarity further bolsters the positive outlook. With the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dropping its appeal against Ripple and the Trump administration maintaining a pro-cryptocurrency stance, the legal uncertainties that have long shadowed XRP have largely dissipated.

    Wall Street Echoes Optimism

    Wall Street analysts also reflect this optimism. Standard Chartered has projected XRP to reach $8 by December 2026, while 21Shares forecasts a bullish case of $2.69. Bitwise, meanwhile, anticipates a price range of $4.94 to $6.53 if the XRP Ledger (XRPL) can capture just 1% to 2% of the $10.9 trillion tokenization market.

    Bearish Scenario Presents Significant Downside

    Conversely, the bearish scenario is notably stark. Near-term technical indicators are currently weak, with XRP trading below its 200-day moving average of $1.53 and facing significant resistance between $1.11 and $1.12. Should ETF inflows falter, macroeconomic conditions tighten, or XRPL lose ground to competitors like Solana or Canton in the real-world asset tokenization space, 21Shares projects a bear case of $1.60. Bitwise, however, flags a more severe outcome of $0.13 if adoption fails to materialize.

    A breakdown in momentum and a failure to hold the $1.06 support level could pave the way for such a decline.

    Technical Analysis Highlights Downtrend

    The weekly chart illustrates XRP at approximately $1.07009, following a prolonged and steady decline from highs exceeding $3.65 reached in mid-2025. This downtrend has been one of the most persistent in the current market cycle, with minimal significant bounces interrupting the downward trajectory.

    The 200-day moving average, cited in the prediction at $1.53, remains substantially above the current price, underscoring the extent of XRP’s deviation from its longer-term trend. Immediate resistance is observed between $1.11 and $1.12, the zone currently capping price action. A more substantial barrier is located near $1.60, where historical price action has encountered multiple rejections.

    Support levels are less clearly defined by price structure alone. However, the current $1.06 level aligns with the support threshold identified as critical for the bearish scenario. The chart exhibits a consistent pattern of lower highs and lower lows for nearly a year, indicative of a textbook downtrend.

    Momentum indicators on the weekly candles appear weak, with a predominance of red weeks and limited follow-through buying on occasional green candles. Overall, the chart suggests an asset still in search of a bottom rather than poised for a breakout. A sustained recovery above the $1.11 to $1.12 resistance zone and a subsequent push above the 200-day moving average would provide a technical foundation for the catalyst-driven price movements envisioned by Meta AI.

  • Polymarket Refunds Users After Multi-Million Dollar Exploit

    Polymarket Refunds Users After Multi-Million Dollar Exploit

    Third-Party Vendor Hack Leads to Millions in Losses for Polymarket Users

    A hack targeting one of Polymarket’s third-party vendors on Thursday has left the prediction market platform vulnerable, resulting in millions of dollars in losses for its users, the company announced.

    Polymarket declined to comment when reached by Decrypt and has not publicly identified the compromised vendor. However, the company stated in an X post that the attack allowed hackers to inject malicious code into the prediction market’s front-end. Ultimately, the hackers made off with approximately $3 million in customer funds.

    On-chain investigators at Bubblemaps concluded that the potential damage from the hack was largely contained, affecting fewer than 15 user accounts. The blockchain investigation firm did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment.

    Polymarket has stated that it is in the process of fully refunding all impacted customers and that the front-end issue has been resolved and removed.

    It remains unclear what measures the prediction market platform can implement to prevent similar exploits in the future, given its reliance on external, third-party businesses that are apparently integral to the site’s operations.

    The attackers appear to have drained funds from Polymarket customer wallets holding pUSD, a Polymarket-specific dollar-pegged stablecoin backed by USDC, which is used for all trading on the platform. The stolen funds were then converted into ETH and consolidated into an Ethereum wallet, where they remain as of this report.

    This incident follows another hack last month, which targeted a wallet used by Polymarket employees for topping up and distributing user rewards. That exploit resulted in approximately $700,000 in losses for the company and was likely caused by a private key compromise. At the time, experts indicated that it did not appear to affect the company’s core infrastructure or pose broader risks.

    Both this recent exploit and the one in May highlight the capacity of hackers to infiltrate major companies through peripheral vulnerabilities, even when their core protocols remain secure.

  • Cardano Buy Signal Appears, But Analysts Warn of Caveats

    Cardano Buy Signal Appears, But Analysts Warn of Caveats

    Cardano’s ADA Plunges Below Key Threshold, Analysts Divided on Recovery Prospects

    Cardano’s native token, ADA, has experienced a significant downturn amid the prolonged cryptocurrency bear market, falling below $0.14 for the first time since late 2020. The token is currently trading around $0.147, with its market capitalization shrinking to approximately $5.5 billion, pushing it out of the top 20 largest cryptocurrencies.

    While some technical indicators suggest a potential rebound, prominent analysts remain cautious about ADA’s immediate future. The community has also been grappling with a major exploit within the Cardano ecosystem, where the project SecondFi lost over $20 million to attackers.

    Mixed Signals on the Horizon

    Despite the recent setbacks, renowned analyst Ali Martinez noted that the TD Sequential indicator has issued a buy signal for ADA. Martinez suggested this could trigger a short-term relief rally, potentially reaching $0.176. However, he cautioned that this upward movement might be temporary, possibly serving as a “trap” to lure buyers before another correction.

    “While this indicator signals a near-term bounce, the broader market structure suggests caution,” Martinez warned. “This localized push may act as a trap to lure in buyers before hitting immediate resistance and continuing lower.”

    Earlier this month, Martinez had expressed concerns about ADA forming a bearish flag pattern since early June, indicating a potential slump towards $0.13.

    Another analyst, BillifyX, pointed out that ADA has lost its critical support zone between $0.148 and $0.15. They stated that if bulls fail to reclaim this area, the token could continue its downward trend. Conversely, BillifyX suggested that a failure to hold this support could also be a “trap” for bears.

    Even typically bullish X user Sssebi speculated that ADA’s cycle bottom might be around $0.12.

    Technical Indicators Hint at Oversold Conditions

    Despite ADA’s poor performance and the broader market’s volatility, some technical indicators, such as the Relative Strength Index (RSI), are signaling potential recovery. ADA’s RSI has fallen below 30, indicating that the token is in oversold territory and could be due for a rebound. The RSI ranges from 0 to 100, with values above 70 typically signaling an overbought condition and potential price decline.

    Furthermore, ADA’s exchange netflow data suggests a shift in investor behavior. In recent weeks, there has been a trend of investors moving their holdings from centralized exchanges to self-custody wallets, which could reduce immediate selling pressure on the token.

  • Anthropic Warns Congress on Chinese AI Data Mining

    Anthropic Warns Congress on Chinese AI Data Mining

    Anthropic is urging Congress to bolster protections against AI model distillation, citing what it describes as the largest known effort to extract capabilities from its Claude chatbot, allegedly carried out by operators affiliated with Alibaba.

    In a letter dated June 10 to Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Tim Scott and Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren, Anthropic detailed allegations that Alibaba and its Qwen AI lab-linked operators engaged in over 28.8 million interactions with Claude between April 22 and June 5. These exchanges reportedly involved nearly 25,000 “fraudulent accounts,” meaning they did not represent genuine, organic users.

    Anthropic characterized this activity as a “distillation attack,” stating that the operations specifically targeted Claude’s abilities in agentic reasoning, software engineering, and long-horizon planning. Such attacks, the company explained, allow competitors to replicate advanced model behaviors without incurring the substantial costs associated with training a frontier AI system from scratch.

    “Beyond its scale, this campaign was striking for its brazen nature,” Anthropic wrote in the letter. “Alibaba is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, maintains business operations in the United States, and is accountable to U.S. investors and regulators.”

    The AI firm asserted that the campaign extended beyond intellectual property concerns, framing large-scale model distillation as a national security issue. Anthropic warned that such practices could accelerate China’s military and cyber AI capabilities, thereby diminishing the United States’ technological advantage.

    This appeal comes as Washington intensifies its focus on safeguarding U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at expanding AI-powered cybersecurity initiatives, a measure he had previously delayed amid concerns it could compromise America’s competitive standing against China.

    “When PRC labs distill these capabilities from U.S. models, they capture the returns on American investments without bearing the costs or risks associated with training frontier AI models,” Anthropic stated. “This inverts the economic logic that underwrites American AI leadership, turning billions of dollars’ worth of research and development, compute, and other U.S. investments into a subsidy for our competitors.”

    Anthropic proposed several actions for lawmakers, including expanding intelligence sharing between frontier AI developers and the U.S. government, clarifying antitrust regulations to permit AI companies to share information about distillation attacks, strengthening export controls on advanced AI chips and computing power, closing loopholes that enable Chinese firms to access overseas data centers, and implementing penalties for companies involved in large-scale model extraction.

    A spokesperson for Anthropic declined to comment on the specifics of the letter but told Decrypt, “We believe combating the threat of illicit distillation requires coordinated action between government and industry, and we will continue working with Congress and the administration to maintain American AI leadership.”

    The letter builds upon previous claims made by Anthropic in February, where it alleged that Chinese AI developers DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, and MiniMax had generated over 16 million Claude exchanges using approximately 24,000 fraudulent accounts.

    Those earlier allegations drew criticism from some observers who pointed out that AI companies themselves employ similar techniques during the training of their own systems. Anthropic has maintained that conventional distillation is a legitimate method for creating smaller, more cost-effective models. However, it argues that the unauthorized extraction of frontier model capabilities through fraudulent access constitutes a violation of its terms of service.

    The broader discourse surrounding AI model distillation has grown increasingly complex in recent months. In April, Elon Musk testified in federal court that his company xAI had “partly” utilized OpenAI models in the training of its Grok chatbot. This testimony underscored that distillation is an established industry practice, even as companies continue to debate the boundaries between legitimate model training and unauthorized model extraction.

  • Story Protocol Becomes Data Network Amid AI Training Shift

    Story Protocol Becomes Data Network Amid AI Training Shift

    Story Protocol Rebrands to Data Network, Pivots Focus to AI Training Data

    Story Protocol, the decentralized network initially conceived to transform the intellectual property sector, has undergone a significant rebranding to Data Network, signaling a strategic shift towards artificial intelligence.

    The transition is marked by the introduction of Trace, an on-chain registry specifically designed for AI training data, and an integration with Kled, a marketplace for opt-in human data. Despite its previous endeavors in the IP space, the company’s leadership asserts that this work was not in vain.

    “2025 wasn’t wasted,” stated Andrea Muttoni, CEO of the Data Foundation, in a post on X. “It provided us with numerous signals and valuable learnings.”

    Muttoni elaborated that the most compelling signal emerged from Poseidon, an AI data processing project the company was involved with, which subsequently secured $15 million in funding from a16z.

    “The answer became unambiguous: the form of IP proving most in demand was AI training data,” Muttoni explained. “Laboratories have effectively exhausted the readily available internet for scraping. What remains is either prohibitively expensive and custom-made, or legally precarious and undocumented.”

    Data Network aims to address this challenge by consolidating data processing, sourcing, and verification into a single platform.

    “No single company can currently address all three of these critical aspects,” Muttoni noted. “This is the gap we have been strategically positioned to fill since our inception, and it is the problem we are now dedicating ourselves to solving.”

    As part of this strategic pivot, the company’s original Story Protocol token, known as IP, has been converted to the Data Network token, or DATA. The token migration will occur on a 1:1 basis, requiring no action from existing IP token holders.

    The DATA token, which previously traded as IP and reached a high of $14.78, was recently trading around $0.349, representing an approximate 14% increase over the past 24 hours. However, at this valuation, it remains nearly 98% below its all-time high recorded last September. This figure follows a 25% rebound from an all-time low of $0.275 earlier this month.

    “We have made our commitment, and we are fortunate to have exceptional launch partners who are validating our product-market fit and shaping our product’s direction,” Muttoni commented. “Our focus now is entirely on scaling and execution.”

  • CoinEx Denies Aiding Iran’s Sanctioned Crypto Market

    CoinEx Denies Aiding Iran’s Sanctioned Crypto Market

    CoinEx Denies Role in Laundering Sanctioned Iranian Funds

    Hong Kong – Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx on Thursday vehemently denied allegations that it knowingly facilitated the movement of billions of dollars in sanctioned Iranian funds. The exchange pushed back against a report from The Wall Street Journal, which heavily relied on analysis from blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs.

    TRM Labs Links CoinEx to Iranian Platforms

    TRM Labs published a blog post detailing connections between CoinEx and over 60 Iranian platforms. Among these was Nobitex, an exchange recently sanctioned by the U.S. for allegedly supporting terrorist financing, sanctions evasion, and ransomware payments. TRM Labs stated that CoinEx has maintained a close relationship with Nobitex, described as Iran’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, and has had on-chain exposure to Iranian military entities. The firm further asserted that CoinEx was Nobitex’s “single largest external counterparty.”

    Exchange Cites Neutrality in Defense

    CoinEx defended its operations by emphasizing its role as a global exchange serving ordinary users worldwide, asserting it has no official ties to Iranian authorities or sanctioned entities. “We firmly reject any narrative that conflates ordinary user activity with state-level sanctions evasion, and any inference that equates on-chain fund flows with platform knowledge of, support for, or participation in illicit activity,” CoinEx stated in a post on X.

    Billions in Transactions Highlighted

    According to TRM Labs’ data, over $3.84 billion has flowed between CoinEx and a mining pool owned by the exchange’s parent company, ViaBTC, over the past seven years. TRM Labs characterized CoinEx as “the single biggest lifeline for Iran’s cryptocurrency ecosystem.” The analytics firm argued that CoinEx’s transaction exposure to more than 60 entities operating in Iran suggests this connectivity is “unlikely to be independent market behavior.”

    Allegations of Money Laundering Scheme

    TRM Labs also alleged that CoinEx’s platform was involved in a year-long money laundering scheme that concluded this month. During this period, the exchange reportedly received $67 million originating from Iran’s central bank through a complex series of transfers across multiple blockchains.

    CoinEx Responds to Sanctions

    In response to the sanctions against Nobitex, CoinEx stated on X that it had taken swift action. These measures included strengthening the identification of Iranian users, implementing comprehensive geo-fencing, detecting suspicious transactions, and increasing efforts to take action against accounts engaged in illicit activity on the platform.

    U.S. Intensifies Crypto Sanctions

    Recent reports indicate that the Iranian government has begun accepting Bitcoin for payments related to transit through the Strait of Hormuz. However, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has highlighted the U.S. government’s proactive stance on cryptocurrency sanctions. Days before Nobitex and three other exchanges were sanctioned, Bessent announced that the U.S. had seized $1 billion worth of cryptocurrency from entities linked to Iran, suggesting that some individuals may not have been aware their digital assets had been targeted.