Jed McCaleb, the founder of Ripple and Stellar (XLM), has announced plans to redirect a whopping $1 billion from his XRP fortune into a new investment outside the cryptocurrency space. The crypto founder and Silicon Valley billionaire is now turning his focus toward Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), aiming to build an AI system based on the human brain. Ripple Founder To Invest $1 Billion Into AI Research In an interview with Forbes, McCaleb disclosed plans to allocate approximately $1 billion from his estimated $3.9 billion in XRP holdings to fund efforts focused on AGI. The move comes after he previously dropped $1 billion to build a private space station in 2025. Related Reading: XRP Expert Says The Moment Has Finally Come, Here’s What He Means The new investment is expected to come through the Astera Institute, a non-profit research organization based in California that McCaleb founded. Recently, the institute has increased its focus on neuroscience-inspired approaches to AI development. As a result, in addition to the $1 billion allocation for the core AGI project, McCaleb stated that he will pledge another $600 million specifically toward neuroscience research. The Ripple founder shared his ambitious goal of studying the human brain as a model for building more capable, potentially safer artificial intelligence systems. He noted that researchers at the Astera Institute intend to use brain-computer interfaces to record neural activity patterns in mice as they perform everyday tasks, such as navigating mazes. They would then record and use these biological data and insights to design completely new AI systems that go beyond today’s popular transformer models. In the interview, McCaleb expressed skepticism about current mainstream AI methods. He pointed out that while transformers, a type of AI model, are good at making predictions, they struggle with long-term planning, decision-making, and self-driven goals. He believes using a brain-inspired framework could create an AI system that is easier for humans to understand and control. Interestingly, McCaleb described his time in cryptocurrency as “a big detour” from his deeper interest in AI. He explained that he had always wanted to work in artificial intelligence but only found the opportunity after stepping back from the cryptocurrency industry. He expressed strong belief in his ambitions, declaring that “AI is going to be the most transformative thing that humans ever create.” Although he remains a pivotal figure in Ripple’s history, McCaleb left the company and sold all his XRP by 2022. A Quick Dive Into McCaleb’s Role In Ripple and XRP McCaleb initially entered the crypto industry as a programmer with previous experience running the now-defunct Mt. Gox, one of the earliest major Bitcoin exchanges. In 2011, he began developing the Ripple protocol and later recruited key figures like former Ripple CTO David Schwartz. Related Reading: XRP Global Distribution Shows The Major Holders And What It’s Being Used For In 2022, McCaleb co-founded OpenCoin, which later became Ripple Labs, now Ripple. He founded the company alongside Chris Larsen and served as CTO while contributing to the development of the XRP Ledger (XRPL). Following XRPL’s launch, McCaleb and other early co-founders each received personal stakes worth approximately 9 billion XRP, around 9% of the total supply. This allocation contributed significantly to his personal wealth today. Featured image from Freepik, chart from Tradingview.com
Michael Barr called for for regulatory and technological measures that ensure stablecoins will not be used for illicit activities.
Bitget Wallet adds XRP Ledger integration, enabling XRP transfers, RLUSD transactions, and cross-chain swaps for 90M users.
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P2P.me was established to push boundaries, but the startup admitted that wagering on itself via Polymarket may have been a bridge too far.
The Midnight Foundation declared its network live on Mar. 29, with the genesis block dated Mar. 17. That launch gives Cardano's community its first production test of Charles Hoskinson's argument that public blockchains cannot reach regulated finance, identity, and business use unless the infrastructure itself embeds privacy and compliance from the start. Cardano enters that […]
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Tech mogul Elon Musk is convinced that quantum computers could enable the recovery of lost crypto wallet passwords – a plus side of the computing technology amid all the recent buzz of the great risks it poses to blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Blockchain analytics estimates that at least 3-4 million Bitcoin (BTC), or 15%-20% of the …
Governor Gavin Newsom orders stronger safeguards for AI companies seeking California contracts, escalating tensions with the Trump administration over national AI regulation.
With a few hours to go, bitcoin has tumbled 22% in the first quarter, following a 25% drop in the last quarter of 2025.
The analytics platform said it would begin rolling out the agents over the summer for use in investigations and compliance.
Latin America's e-commerce giant Mercado Libre quietly killed its Mercado Coin loyalty token—pivoting to its own stablecoin.
A critical vulnerability in Zcash node software could have allowed attackers to drain millions of dollars of ZEC from a deprecated shielded pool.
Bitcoin may no longer be moving in lockstep with the S&P 500 over a short time frame, but that does not mean it has escaped the broader risk-off regime. In Axel Adler Jr.’s latest morning brief, the more important signal is not the breakdown in short-term correlation, but Bitcoin’s continued relative weakness against US equities. Bitcoin Weakens Against The S&P 500 Adler’s argument rests on two charts that, taken together, push back on the increasingly familiar claim that a lower BTC-equity correlation automatically points to decoupling. The first is the 13-week BTC-S&P correlation, which has recently turned negative and stayed below zero. On the surface, that could look constructive for Bitcoin. But Adler argues that the reading is easy to misinterpret. “The 13-week correlation measures how closely the weekly returns of BTC and the S&P 500 have moved together over a short window,” he wrote. “Over recent weeks, the short-term correlation has turned negative and has been holding below zero. At first glance this might look like a loosening of the link between BTC and equities – but in practice it more likely reflects the choppy nature of recent weeks, where isolated Bitcoin bounces have alternated with continued weakness in the index.” Related Reading: OG Bitcoin On-Chain Models Could Hint At $46,000-$54,000 Floor: Analyst That distinction is central to the note. A falling or negative correlation only says that the two assets are no longer moving neatly together over that window. It does not say Bitcoin is strong. It does not say capital is treating BTC as a defensive asset. And it does not confirm that the market has begun to price Bitcoin independently of the same macro pressures hitting equities. For that, Adler points to the second chart: the BTC/S&P price ratio. This is where the case for decoupling breaks down. The ratio, which tracks Bitcoin’s performance relative to the S&P 500, has declined since the start of the year and remains under pressure. In practical terms, that means Bitcoin has been underperforming stocks even during periods when the short-term correlation has weakened. “What matters to the market here is not the fact of negative correlation per se, but whether it is accompanied by sustained BTC outperformance over the S&P,” Adler wrote. “That confirmation is not there yet, so it is too early to talk about Bitcoin achieving genuine independence from the risk-off regime.” Related Reading: JPMorgan Says Bitcoin Is Beating Gold And Silver During The Iran War That framing matters because it shifts the focus away from a single statistical measure and back toward market behavior. If Bitcoin were truly decoupling, the relative-strength picture would likely be improving. Instead, Adler argues, the market is still assigning Bitcoin the role of a higher-beta risk asset, one with “higher risk and a larger drawdown amplitude” than the index. He makes the point even more explicitly in the note’s conclusion. “The market is currently sending an uncomfortable but fairly honest signal,” Adler wrote. “The S&P 500 continues to decline, and BTC is not merely staying vulnerable to external risk-off pressure – it continues to underperform the index in relative terms. The prevailing regime remains risk-off.” In that framework, the more useful trigger to watch is not whether correlation stays negative for another week, but whether the BTC/S&P ratio can reverse and hold higher. Adler says only “a new stable regime” of relative outperformance would support a real decoupling thesis. Until then, the market message remains straightforward: the relationship between Bitcoin and equities may have become less linear, but not less risk-sensitive. At press time, BTC traded at $66,652. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
Bitcoin rallied to $68,000 as markets responded positively to the prospect of the US and Israel-Iran war ending, but data shows futures traders are not convinced.
Securitize’s business model ties revenue to tokenized asset growth and activity across issuance, trading and servicing.
Brokerage clients in the European Economic Area can now trade 11 cryptocurrencies alongside traditional assets within a single account.
America holds roughly 38% of global Bitcoin mining capacity, and the specialized hardware powering that position comes overwhelmingly from Chinese manufacturers. Senators Bill Cassidy and Cynthia Lummis introduced the Mined in America Act on Mar. 30 to address that gap, proposing certification, domestic manufacturing support, and the codification of President Donald Trump's Strategic Bitcoin Reserve […]
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The asset manager says innovation can proceed under current SEC rules as the Clarity Act faces debate in Congress.
There are now over 47 million cryptocurrencies in existence. That number alone may explain a lot of what is happening to prices of altcoins right now. Related Reading: Bitcoin ETFs Pull In $56B As CEO Pitches Crypto Over Gold Altcoins: A Market Spread Too Thin Blockchain networks have become token factories. Solana hosts more than 22 million tokens. Base accounts for over 18 million more. BNB Smart Chain adds another 4 million on top of that. With that much supply chasing a limited pool of investor money, most of these assets simply cannot attract enough buyers to hold their value. Analysts call it liquidity dilution — capital spread too thin to support the crowd. That structural problem is now showing up in the numbers in a dramatic way. Data from CryptoQuant shows that over 40% of all altcoins are currently trading at or near their all-time lows. More than 40% of Altcoins near All-Time Lows “This is even higher than during the previous bear market, which peaked at ~38%… However, when such extreme underperformance appears, it can also create very attractive opportunities.” – By @Darkfost_Coc pic.twitter.com/XvAmKiKyyQ — CryptoQuant.com (@cryptoquant_com) March 30, 2026 That figure surpasses the previous bear market peak of around 38%, making this cycle the worst on record for altcoin performance. CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost put it bluntly. Altcoins, he said, have never faced this kind of pressure in the current cycle. Staggering Losses The losses across individual coins are staggering. Bitcoin has fallen roughly 45% from its all-time high — painful, but modest compared to what has happened further down the market cap rankings. XRP has shed 60% from its peak. Solana sits 70% below its high. Cardano has collapsed 90% from where it once traded. Some smaller assets are in even worse shape. VeChain is down approximately 98% from its record price and is hovering just above an all-time low. Ethena hit a new all-time low recently, last trading around $0.09. Arbitrum and SUI are both sitting at levels where a further drop would push them into all-time low territory. Macroeconomic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions have added weight to an already fragile market. Risk assets across the board have taken hits, and crypto — altcoins above all — has absorbed some of the heaviest blows. Related Reading: 8.25M XRP Exit Long-Term Holders As Whales Buy $1.20–$3 Bitcoin Holds Up. Most Altcoins Don’t. Bitcoin’s relative steadiness compared to the rest of the market has drawn attention. While it is not immune to the selling pressure, its decline has been far less severe than what altcoins have experienced. That gap between Bitcoin and the broader crypto market is a defining feature of this particular downturn. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
Futures market activity continues to drive Bitcoin price, while insufficient buy-side spot demand shortens the length of bullish breakouts and pins BTC in a $10,000 range.
USA expansion to Celo signifies the first move beyond Ethereum, leveraging regulated digital dollars on a high-volume network.
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Bitcoin rose back above $68,000 on March 31 after markets began to bet on a resolution to the Iran-US-Israel War and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran was prepared to end the war under certain conditions. Data from CryptoSlate showed the broader crypto market added about $40 billion in value after the remarks. Bitcoin climbed […]
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Algorand price has gained fresh momentum, rising over 10% in the past 24 hours and drawing attention from traders watching for a potential trend reversal. The altcoin, which has been stuck in a prolonged downtrend, is now testing a critical resistance zone near $0.09. This move comes as broader market sentiment stabilizes, raising the key …
Google’s new research potentially puts the entire bitcoin supply – and the very foundation of digital trust – at risk, explains Pruden.
Google researchers recently warned that quantum computing may break bitcoin earlier than originally thought.
Claude Code exposed: Anthropic is scrambling to contain the leak, but the AI coding agent is spreading far and wide and being picked apart.
Base outlines its 2026 roadmap focused on global markets, stablecoins, and builders as it expands its onchain economy strategy.
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Macro investor Jordi Visser is arguing that Bitcoin’s original purpose is coming back into focus as the Federal Reserve faces a new macro trap shaped by debt, oil, slowing growth and weakening employment. In a note published March 30 under the banner “D.O.G.E. 2.0,” Visser says that mix could leave policymakers unable to impose the kind of economic pain a traditional inflation fight would require. His framework repurposes the acronym into four pressures: debt as the structural constraint, oil as the inflation shock, growth as the casualty of tighter conditions, and employment as the side of the Fed’s mandate that may soon take precedence. The broader claim is not simply that inflation could return, but that it could return in a form monetary policy cannot easily fix. Why Bitcoin Could Be The Big Winner Visser’s argument starts with supply-side stress. He points to oil prices rising after the war with Iran disrupted flows through the Strait of Hormuz, while import-price pressures and higher memory-chip costs linked to AI demand were already feeding through global supply chains. “That is what makes this moment dangerous,” he writes. “The inflation problem may be returning, but it is returning for reasons the Fed cannot easily solve, all while affordability remains a major political issue. Rate hikes do not reopen Hormuz. They do not create more DRAM.” Related Reading: OG Bitcoin On-Chain Models Could Hint At $46,000-$54,000 Floor: Analyst From there, he shifts to what he sees as the crucial difference between today and the 1970s. Back then, Visser notes, federal debt stood near 35.5% of GDP in 1970 and around 31.6% by 1979. Today, he says, the comparable figure is about 122.5%. That changes the amount of pain the system can absorb. In his telling, the United States is confronting the possibility of a second inflation wave with a debt burden roughly four times heavier than at the end of the last major oil-driven inflation era. He makes the same point through asset valuations. The stock-market-capitalization-to-GDP ratio, he argues, is now above 200%, versus roughly 42% in 1975 and 38% in 1979. In practical terms, that means a determined inflation fight would not only hit a more indebted fiscal structure and a more fragile Treasury market, but also a far more financialized economy. “This is not just a replay of the 1970s,” Visser writes. “It is the 1970s problem inside a far more levered system.” The labor side of the equation is equally important in his thesis. Visser points to a February 2026 employment report showing nonfarm payrolls down 92,000, unemployment at 4.4%, and payroll employment having changed little on net in 2025. Wage growth, he says, has also eased materially from its 2023 peak. That backdrop matters because it makes a renewed inflation offensive harder to justify politically and economically than it was during the post-COVID tightening cycle. Related Reading: JPMorgan Says Bitcoin Is Beating Gold And Silver During The Iran War Visser argues the Fed has already begun preparing markets for that distinction. He cites Chair Jerome Powell’s March 18 press conference, where Powell acknowledged higher energy prices could lift inflation in the near term while reiterating that central banks often try to “look through” energy shocks if inflation expectations remain anchored. Visser also notes Vice Chair Philip Jefferson’s warning that persistently higher energy prices could weigh on both inflation and spending, intensifying the Fed’s dual-mandate dilemma. That is where Bitcoin enters the story. Visser ties the current setup back to Bitcoin’s creation during the 2008-09 financial crisis, arguing that Satoshi Nakamoto’s design was a direct response to a monetary system dependent on bailouts, intervention and expanding guarantees when stress becomes intolerable. “Bitcoin was born as a response to a system in which governments and central banks could always create more money, extend more guarantees, and socialize more losses when the structure became too fragile to endure discipline,” he writes. “Whether you view that as protest, timestamp, or both, the message was unmistakable.” His conclusion is that Bitcoin does not require hyperinflation to validate that thesis. It only requires markets to believe that each inflation fight will be shorter, each easing cycle will arrive sooner, and each downturn in a debt-heavy system will push policymakers back toward accommodation. At press time, Bitcoin traded at $66,466. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
Analysts expect Bitcoin’s price consolidation to tilt toward $60,000, but technical charts favor a liquidation rally toward $82,000.
Looking to streamline collateral management, the platform has enabled borrowing and lending against liquid, staked and locked assets within a single custody account.
World launches MiniKit 2.0 with faster transactions, gas sponsorship, and stablecoin support to streamline app development on World Chain.
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