Author: Kryptonews

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei returned to China last month after a decade-long exile in Europe. The three-week trip to Beijing marked his first visit since authorities returned his confiscated passport in 2015, ending years of travel restrictions tied to his political dissent.  Ai is internationally famous for his criticism of authoritarianism and its cultural consequences—censorship, police brutality, extrajudicial incarceration—making him a longtime target of the Chinese government. The artist has lived in Germany, the UK, and Portugal after leaving China in 2015. He told CNN that his reentry to China included a brief airport interrogation, signaling a possible shift in…

Cryptocurrency exchange OKX is rolling out a payment card in Europe, allowing users to spend stablecoins at merchants accepting Mastercard.The OKX Card is issued through the company’s Electronic Money Institution (EMI) partner, Monavate, OKX said Wednesday in an announcement shared with Cointelegraph.At launch, the card supports spending in stablecoins including Circle’s USDC (USDC) and the Paxos-issued Global Dollar (USDG).The move comes as crypto companies seek to expand the use of stablecoins for everyday payments under Europe’s evolving crypto regulatory framework.“With OKX Card, we’re making it simple for anyone in Europe to use crypto for real-world purchases,” OKX Europe CEO Erald…

Ethereum developers are preparing to roll out ERC-8004, a new standard designed to help software agents find each other, prove who they are, and decide who to trust when they operate across different systems.The proposal introduces a simple idea. If AI agents are going to transact, coordinate and execute tasks autonomously, they need persistent identities and a shared way to build credibility — much like users, wallets or smart contracts do today.It comes as large companies race to deploy AI agents internally, most systems still rely on closed identity lists, API keys or bilateral trust agreements. That works inside a…

The UK’s advertising watchdog has reportedly banned a series of Coinbase advertisements claiming they presented the crypto exchange as a solution to cost-of-living concerns while making light of the risks of investing in crypto.The UK Advertising Standards Authority said the ads — which included a satirical musical-style video and three posters — were “irresponsible” and “trivialized the risks of cryptocurrency,” The Guardian reported on Wednesday.“We considered that using humour to reference serious financial concerns, alongside a cue to ‘change,’ risked presenting complex, high-risk financial products as an easy or obvious response to those concerns,” the ASA said.Coinbase released the video…

Key takeaways:Ethereum reached 16.4 million weekly transactions, proving fees can stay below $0.20 during high demand.Decentralized exchange volume across the Ethereum ecosystem hit $26.8 billion, signaling a return of investor interest.Ether (ETH) experienced a 15.9% price correction during the seven days ending Sunday. This volatility triggered $910 million in liquidations for bullish leveraged ETH positions, fueling fears that the $2,800 support level that had held firm for two months might finally break. Despite this dip in trader confidence, several onchain and derivatives metrics suggest a potential short-term rally back to $3,300.Base layer fees are critical for determining demand for a…

A new Ethereum standard expected to reach mainnet this week could reshape how autonomous AI agents identify each other and work together without relying on centralized platforms. Summary ERC-8004 introduces a shared framework for AI agents to verify identity and reputation on Ethereum The standard is designed to support trust between autonomous systems operating across different platforms Community signals suggest the launch could happen as early as Jan. 29 on Ethereum mainnet A post shared by Ethereum on X on Jan. 27 teased the imminent launch of the new standard, dubbed ERC-8004. Community discussions suggest the rollout could happen as…

The use of centralized crypto exchanges for laundering illicit funds is on the decline, with Chinese-language money laundering networks now being used more than ever, according to Chainalysis.Chainalysis said in a report on Tuesday that informal service-based networks offered through Chinese-speaking channels have a wide variety of laundering-as-a-service businesses that use money mules, informal over-the-counter trade desks, and gambling platforms to mix and swap crypto.The networks emerged during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, and now “dominate known crypto money laundering activity.”Centralized crypto exchanges have made strides to beef up customer checks and security in the last…

Bitcoin could break out of its “sideways funk” if the United States central bank attempts to support a failing Japanese bond market by printing money, according to BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes.Hayes proposed a theory on Wednesday about how the Federal Reserve “could be printing money to manipulate the yen and JGB [Japanese government bond] markets.”Japan faces a dual crisis: the yen is weakening while Japanese government bond yields are rising simultaneously, signaling a potential loss of market confidence. This also impacts the US because Japanese investors might sell US treasuries to buy higher-yielding JGBs instead.“Will a meltdown of the yen…

The Studio Museum in Harlem will remain closed through February 7 to work on repairs related to a “sprinkler emergency” that forced visitors to evacuate on Friday. As first reported by Hyperallergic, visitors were instructed to leave after water began pouring from a ceiling near the gift shop.  “We saw a large pool of water on the floor near the entrance, and saw the water flowing down in the store,” a witness told the publication. The museum initially announced a weekend-long closure; however, the sprinkler situation evidently required more extensive maintenance. Related Articles A spokesperson for the Studio Museum said…

Tensions around market manipulation, meme tokens, and perceived favoritism have resurfaced on Coinbase-backed Layer 2 network Base, prompting its creator, Jesse Pollak, to publicly reject calls for the team to intervene in token prices. In a post on X, Pollak said the Base core team would not “support the chart behind the scenes,” directly addressing community members who have urged the network to use internal capital to push specific tokens higher. just to say it out loud: the @base core team will not "support the chart behind the scenes" — if what you mean is privately / behind the scenes…