Many hail ZachXBT as a hero, while others claim he’s living long enough to become a villain. Let’s uncover the truth behind the controversy.

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On November 9th, according to data from the Federal Reserve's official website, as of November 5th, the size of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet fell below $7 trillion, now reported at $6.994 trillion. The balance sheet has shrunk by approximately $1.505 trillion since the beginning of this year.
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Vinay Gupta, a technical expert who helped coordinate the release of Ethereum, is seeking to promote sensible cryptocurrency policies to President-elect Donald Trump's transition team. In addition, inspired by Trump's overwhelming victory on election day, Gupta is considering relocating himself and his team at the UK blockchain company Mattereum to the United States. He added, "We plan to quickly move personnel (including myself) to Washington, DC to help with the transformation of cryptocurrency in the United States." Gupta said that part of his plan includes replicating some policies he helped develop in the UK, including a recent parliamentary bill that attempts to formally define cryptocurrency assets as property, and successfully pushing the country to recognize smart contracts as "actual contracts."
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On December 6th, according to CryptoSlate, a recent report from Keyrock emphasized that 90% of token unlocks would have a negative impact on prices, although this impact often takes up to 30 days to fully manifest. Approximately $600 million in previously locked tokens will be periodically circulated. According to the scheduled timetable, these unlocked tokens will flow to the team, investors, and ecosystem funds. The report states that it is crucial for traders who aim to effectively capture market opportunities to track these schedules. Even before the token release, the pre-sale and hedging strategies adopted by investors who have not received sufficient returns have already put downward pressure on prices, and prices usually tend to stabilize within two weeks after the unlocking event.
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After Baby Doge Coin was listed on Binance, its value increased significantly, reaching a new high, attracting more attention, and analysts predict further growth in the future. #zachxbt

Crypto-AI startups are having their moment. This year, some of the largest fundraises in the crypto space have been driven by ventures with a strong AI connection. Such startups are raking in mega rounds, with some even achieving billion-dollar valuations, all while still in their early stages.
Take PIP Labs, for example. They're the minds behind Story Protocol, a Layer 1 blockchain designed to tokenize intellectual property, ensuring original creators are rewarded in the AI era. Their recent $80 million Series B round, led by a16z crypto, reportedly rocketed their valuation to an impressive $2.25 billion. Then there's Sahara Labs, a crypto-AI startup developing the decentralized platform Sahara AI, which pulled in $37 million in a strategic round co-led by Pantera Capital and Polychain Capital with a promise to fairly compensate AI contributors. And let's not forget Sentient, co-founded by Polygon's Sandeep Nailwal, which grabbed headlines last month with an $85 million mega seed round. Clearly, VCs are placing big bets on the future of crypto-AI.
But what's fueling this surge in interest? To get a clearer picture, I reached out to VCs who have invested in several crypto-AI startups.
"AI is a once-in-a-generation, zero-to-one innovation, especially with the advent of large language models (LLMs)," Jed Breed, founder and general partner of Breed VC, told me. He sees the current excitement around crypto-AI startups as part of a "standard hype cycle," where early enthusiasm and capital flow quickly, even if the actual innovations are still on the horizon.
Rajiv Patel-O'Connor, principal at Framework Ventures, said both AI and crypto are "really big stories" and that combining these two "very optimistic narratives" is driving much of the excitement.
People are waking up to some of the downsides of relying on centralized, closed-source companies to provide AI models, and there's a belief that these downsides could be remedied by decentralized tools, according to Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly Capital. "We think there's an opportunity for decentralized compute networks to ensure permissionless, ungated access to these models, much in the same way that Bitcoin created the first permissionless, ungated currency," Schmidt told me.
AI isn't just a passing trend; its long-term value is undeniable, according to Erick Zhang, managing partner at Nomad Capital and former Binance executive. As AI and crypto rapidly evolve, their convergence could unlock possibilities once thought unimaginable, drawing even more interest from investors, Zhang told me.
In all, the fusion of AI's transformative potential with crypto's decentralized ethos is seen as a potent mix by investors. But they also voice some concerns.
'Most of these startups will fail'
Dozens of crypto-AI projects have raised funds this year and will continue to raise, but "most of these startups will fail," Zhang told me. He points out that many projects are riding the AI hype without the expertise or a clear value proposition to back it up, chasing trends without a solid plan and "sounding more like sci-fi than reality." This often leads to what he calls "ghost chains and ecosystems," where ambitious promises are left unfulfilled, and resources are quickly depleted. Zhang stresses that while there's a significant amount of capital waiting to be deployed in the crypto-AI space, there's a shortage of legitimate AI-native founders, driving up valuations for early-stage projects.
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Schmidt echoes Zhang's concerns but from a different angle. He worries that many crypto-AI projects lean too heavily on decentralization without delivering tangible benefits. "We've seen many times that this is not a recipe for success," Schmidt warns. He believes the real opportunity lies in using crypto to enhance the user experience in ways that centralized AI platforms can't.
Adding to the chorus of caution is Jack Platts, founder of Hypersphere Ventures, who is wary of certain AI applications that may not be relevant to crypto. For instance, he questions whether reinforcement learning and distributed compute for inference really belong in the web3 space. He also notes that AI is currently taking more mindshare and capital from crypto, describing it as the latest "roaring 20s bubble."
Patel-O'Connor of Framework Ventures said achieving product-market fit and building something with real demand that can scale are some of the biggest challenges for crypto-AI startups. Despite these hurdles, he notes that there's a rare influx of talent into the crypto space, particularly in crypto-AI, which he sees as a positive sign for future developments.
Matt Stephenson, research partner at Pantera Capital, underscores the importance of "first principles thinking" in the crypto-AI vertical. He's cautious about what he calls "old wine in new bottles" approaches, where startups repurpose existing ideas without genuine innovation. While experimentation is essential, Stephenson stresses the need for a strong, intuitive sense that a project will work before diving in.
In the end, the crypto-AI landscape is as exciting as it is uncertain. Investors are drawn to the promise of groundbreaking innovations, but they're also keenly aware of the risks. Whether these crypto-AI startups can deliver on their ambitious promises remains to be seen, but for now, they're certainly capturing the attention — and the wallets — of the venture capital world.
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Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.
© 2024 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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According to The Data Nerd, 8 hours ago, a new whale withdrew 242.21 BTC (approximately $13.65 million) from Binance. Within 4 days, they withdrew a total of 1,145 BTC (approximately $65.07 million) with an average entry fee of $BTC #zachxbt

Ethereum transaction fees (7-day moving average) have soared over the past three weeks. Data shows that on September 21, its fees were $3.52, more than three times the $0.85 on September 1.
The recovery in transaction fees also increased Ethereum’s destruction rate, with destruction increasing from 80.27 ETH on September 1 to 1,360 ETH on September 21, a 1,600% increase in three weeks.
Despite the surge in transaction fees and burns, Ethereum network active accounts (7-day moving average) have fallen sharply to their lowest value so far this year, down 11% from the beginning of the month. The network currently has about 385,000 active accounts, the lowest since December 1, 2023. (The Block) #zachxbt

Mask Network announced the acquisition of Nametag, a decentralized identity and gaming extension. This strategic acquisition strengthens Mask’s growing ecosystem.
“Integrating Nametag into the Mask ecosystem marks an important milestone in our journey to provide a comprehensive decentralized identity solution,” said Suji Yan, Founder of Mask Network. “Nametag’s cutting-edge technology in the DID space and its vibrant user base will enable us to advance Web3 identity management and create a seamless experience for our users as we migrate our products to Layer 2.”

The universal proof generation layer developer Fermah raised $5.2 million in seed funding.
The a16z Crypto Startup Accelerator (CSX) fund and venture capital firm Lemniscap co-led the round, which saw additional support from Bankless Ventures, Longhash Ventures, P-OPS team, Public Works, ZK Validator, Lambda Class, Daedalus, Zero DAO, Velocity Capital, Daemon Ventures and angel investors including Balaji Srinivasan, Sandeep Nailwal and others.
Fermah aims to tackle issues related to zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs by acting as a marketplace for ZK proof generation, creating proofs for ZK rollups, ZK bridges and other use cases using affordable and reliable infrastructure, according to a release shared with The Block. Fermah will use the funds to bolster its team across marketing, engineering and other departments, as well as build out its product offering.
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"After over 15 years of building ZKPs, I can clearly see that we are approaching an inflection point: the infrastructure is finally in place, and we’re on the precipice of a boom in innovative ZK applications. Fermah will play an integral role in this boom," said Fermah CEO Vanishree Rao in a statement.
Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.
© 2024 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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Fitch Ratings said that one way to try to understand the volatility of US employment is to add the strike impact estimated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (44,000 people) to the employment growth data in October, and then take the three-month moving average. The resulting data is 119,000, which is slower than the average of 207,000 per month in the first half of this year, but far from a sharp decline. Given that there is more widespread evidence that consumer strength continues, the Fed is unlikely to attach great importance to the overall figure of 12,000 people.
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Aleo, a programmable privacy network, stated in a recent post that some community members have received an email promoting a "token distribution round". The Aleo Foundation is not currently conducting any token distribution plans, incentive plans, or any form of financial incentives.Please remain vigilant and ensure that the email is from the official aleo.org domain, and cross-check through another official channel. If users receive any misleading information, please contact the Aleo Foundation team through official channels.
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According to official news, Polyhedra Network announced its cooperation with EigenLayer to build a safe and efficient cross-chain protocol from Ethereum to Bitcoin network. While utilizing zero-knowledge proof technology, this protocol introduces a double pledge mechanism and ensures network security through a clever penalty mechanism, thus bridging the Ethereum and Bitcoin networks.
zkBridge leverages EigenLayer’s decentralization and economic trust on Ethereum to bring secure and efficient interoperability to Bitcoin. This move not only brings new avenues of income for Bitcoin holders, but also injects vitality into the entire Bitcoin ecosystem.