Aurelia Butler

At 07:30 ET (12:30 GMT), Bitcoin fell 1.2% to $93,775.0, having fallen as low as $92,540.0 earlier in the session.The world’s largest cryptocurrency largely wiped out a new year rebound this week, tracking broader declines in risk-driven assets as traders braced for a slower pace of rate cuts in 2025. Broader crypto prices also retreated, although losses on Thursday were more biased towards Bitcoin after reports said the Department of Justice had received court approval to sell coins confiscated from the Silk Road marketplace.Media reports said that the DOJ had received court approval to sell roughly 69,370 Bitcoin seized from a crackdown on online black market Silk Road in 2014.The total value of the tokens amounts to about $6.5 billion, and represents a heavy dose of selling pressure on the world’s biggest cryptocurrency.The DOJ has sold off its confiscated crypto holdings in the past, and was recently seen mobilizing its Bitcoin hoard for a potential sale. Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) has a contract with the DOJ to handle the government’s crypto sales.The Bitcoin sale also quashed some hopes that the DOJ would convert its Bitcoin holdings into a strategic reserve under incoming President Donald Trump.Trump has vowed to create a national Bitcoin reserve, although it remains unclear how he will achieve this. Broader crypto prices fell in tandem with Bitcoin, as risk appetite was eroded by hawkish signals from the Fed.The minutes of the central bank’s December meeting reiterated the Fed’s plan to cut interest rates at a slower pace in 2025, amid resilience in the U.S. economy and concerns over sticky inflation.Policymakers were also seen expressing some concerns over inflation remaining underpinned by expansionary and protectionist policies under Trump, which could keep rates higher for longer.Higher rates bode poorly for speculative assets such as crypto, given that they weigh on investor appetite for risk-driven assets.Among altcoins, Ether fell 1.1% to $3,305.80 after clocking steep losses earlier in the week. XRP fell 0.8% to $2.3069, Solana, Cardano, and Polygon fell dropped during the session.(Peter Nurse contributed to his article.) More

Story harnesses Stability AI open models to connect creators and developers, pushing open-source AI innovationStory, the world’s intellectual property blockchain has announced its use of Stability AI’s cutting-edge models to usher in a new era of open-source AI development, that allows contributors – creators, developers, artists – to capture the value they create by contributing to the AI ecosystem. With the use of Stability AI’s technology, Story aims to address the critical challenge of properly attributing, tracking, and monetizing creative work generated via AI.Story is focused on addressing the lack of a clear path for creators to monetize their derivative works in the open-source ecosystem. Despite the incredible progress in AI, proper attribution and monetization for creators’ IP has not kept up with the rate of innovation.Story and its ecosystem applications will use Stability AI’s leading foundational image models to build AI applications that embed tracking of contributions across the AI development life cycle to enable fair compensation to all creators involved with a monetized output. Mahojin and ABLO are two AI applications building on Story that leverage Stability AI’s foundation models and Story’s blockchain technology. Mahojin, a search-to-generate AI remixing platform and ABLO, a collaborative AI platform that allows creators to design physical goods with leading brand IPs use Stability AI’s models to allow users to easily bring their creative vision to life and Story’s technology to enable better provenance and attribution across the AI stack. These two projects showcase real-world use cases and illustrate how to unlock new ways for creators to safeguard their IP and earn from their contributions in a dynamic, shared creative economy.By leveraging Stability AI’s cutting-edge models, Story is taking a key step toward creating a sustainable and fair internet in the age of AI.About Story​Story is the world’s IP blockchain, transforming IPs into networks that transcend mediums and platforms, unleashing global creativity and liquidity. Visit Story’s website to learn more.About PIP (Programmable IP) Labs:PIP Labs, an initial core contributor to the Story Network, is backed by investors, including a16z crypto, Endeavor, and Polychain. PIP Labs was co-founded by a serial entrepreneur with a $440M exit and Deepmind’s youngest PM with the veteran founding executive team with a diverse background in consumer tech, generative AI, and Web3 infrastructure. ContactHead of CommunicationsHVPIP [email protected] article was originally published on Chainwire More

The upward trendline that was established during its late 2024 rally has clearly broken out on the chart. Buyers appear to be losing steam, which indicates a loss of momentum. As overly leveraged positions are unwound, a noticeable increase in selling pressure has also resulted in significant liquidations in the futures market. Since the market is currently fragile, these liquidations have probably accelerated the decline.Many analysts view this dip as a healthy correction, and Bitcoin is still in a long-term bullish structure despite the retracement. The levels of $92,500 and $87,500 are important support levels to keep an eye on because they might serve as reentry points for buyers. On the other hand, resistance at $100,000 will probably be a major obstacle that will need to be overcome by strong market sentiment.There are challenges facing the larger cryptocurrency market as well, and macroeconomic uncertainty is one of them. But given Bitcoin’s solid foundation — which includes growing institutional interest and adoption — if the market as a whole stabilizes in the upcoming months, the $100,000 mark might be tested again.The main concern for the time being will be whether Bitcoin can hold onto its present support levels and steer clear of more significant corrections. Because of the continued liquidations and increased volatility, traders should exercise caution. When navigating such market conditions, patience and careful risk management are crucial, as always.After that, $0.00001750 becomes the next important support area. If neither level is maintained, SHIB may enter previously unheard-of bearish territory and lose most of its recent gains. The level of $0.00002350 is still the first resistance level that SHIB must overcome in order to have any chance of recovering.A break above this would target $0.00002500, a crucial level for reversing the market’s trend toward bullishness. Larger holders’ profit-taking and a more general market correction appear to be the main causes of the recent sell-off. Despite its downturn, SHIB’s speculative appeal and community-driven nature may pique buyers’ interest again if they see the decline as a chance.The ability of SHIB to hold the 200 EMA is critical going forward. A short-term recovery toward $0.00002350 could be triggered by a bounce from this level. However, if this support is not maintained, a longer downtrend is probably in store, with $0.00001750 serving as the next safety net. Traders should keep a close eye on the next sessions because the token’s next course will probably be determined by how it moves around these crucial levels. Because of the ongoing market volatility, it is advisable to proceed with caution.Over the past week, Bitcoin has lost 5.4% of its value, falling below the crucial $100,000 mark. Ethereum, which is currently trading at $3,365, is also experiencing a weekly decline of 8.42%. Solana has also been severely impacted, losing 8.92% during that same period. In light of this, XRP’s relative strength is highlighted by its capacity to hold and even climb.With resistance at $2.50 and strong support at $2.10, XRP is consolidating within a triangle pattern on the technical side. A break above $2.50 might push XRP closer to $3.00, a crucial technical and psychological level. If the $2.10 support is lost, there may be a retracement to $1.90, where the 100 EMA offers more support.Large volumes of liquidations have made the overall market’s weakness worse, but XRP seems to have fared better than most during this upheaval. Its recent performance points to rising investor confidence, which may be driven by its distinct market dynamics and hope for its usefulness.In the future, XRP’s capacity to maintain its momentum will rely on its ability to overcome the $2.50 resistance while monitoring market developments. In a market that is generally bearish, its current strength sets it apart and suggests that if general conditions improve, there may be more upside ahead.This article was originally published on U.Today More