Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has introduced “info finance,” a new concept aimed at transforming how information is captured, validated and shared across multiple sectors.

In his recent blog post, “From Prediction Markets to Info Finance,” Buterin explores how blockchain technology could help aggregate, organize and distribute insights more effectively.

According to Buterin, “Info finance is a discipline where you (i) start from a fact that you want to know, and then (ii) deliberately design a market to optimally elicit that information from market participants.”

Prediction markets as a data source

Buterin advocates for prediction markets as a way to collect insights about future events. He highlights platforms like Polymarket, where users bet on outcomes to generate data-driven insights.

“Predicting the election is just the first app,” he explained, emphasizing the extent to which prediction markets can provide the public with valuable insight into public expectation without media influence or sensationalism. 

Buterin summarized info finance as a three-sided market:

“[…] bettors make predictions, readers read predictions. The market outputs predictions about the future as a public good (because that’s what it was designed to do).”

Prediction market fundamentals in effect. Source: Vitalik Buterin

Trustless through blockchain and AI

Buterin’s concept of info finance centers around using blockchain and artificial intelligence to foster transparent information-sharing and reward participants for accurate predictions. He believes blockchain scalability and low transaction fees could make info finance tools widely accessible.

The Ethereum co-founder sees this approach as the answer to solving the trust issues in the industry.

With the integration of AI, Buterin suggested that “even if subsidies are required, the size of the subsidy per question becomes extremely affordable. “AI changes that equation completely, and means that we could potentially get reasonably high-quality info elicited even on markets with $10 of volume,” he said.

ETH breaks $3,000

Buterin’s vision for “info finance” and prediction markets arrives in tandem with the Ether (ETH) price surging above $3,000 over the last seven days after Donald Trump won the United States presidential election.

Graph showing the increasing price of ETH over seven days. Source: CoinMarketCap

The ETH price has increased by 21.67%, breaking the overhead resistance faced of $2,800 and exceeding the $3,000 price level for the first time since March.

Venture capitalist Henrique Centieiro stated on Nov. 8 that the supply crunch and rising demand for ETH could trigger a rally for the asset as it enters “scarcity mode.” 

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Near Protocol has unveiled a new crosschain AI agent in alpha that can launch memecoins in seconds and search the web to buy products for fiat.

Additional functionality coming soon is expected to enable users to book flights or order takeaway food on Web2 sites.

The NEAR.AI Assistant was launched by co-founder Illia Polusukhin at the Redacted conference in Bangkok on Oct. 10 local time, where the protocol has also announced an ambitious plan to build the world’s largest open-source AI model. 

Polusukhin demonstrated the capabilities of the AI Assistant by using it to spin up a backstory, website and logo for a new Frog memecoin and then instantly launched it on Near’s version of Pump.fun.

Near co-founder Illia Polusukhin speaking at Redacted in Bangkok. Source: Cointelegraph

The assistant was also able to search the web for a custom T-shirt printer and create a mock website interface on the fly to make the process of selecting and buying Near merchandise T-shirts via a third party easier.

Polusukhin, who was one of the authors of the groundbreaking Transformer research that led to ChatGPT, told Cointelegraph that while using the assistant to book flights was not available in the alpha, “we have a prototype of that, but it’s not live yet.”

“But this is an open platform. Anybody can go right now and add more agents, for example, booking flights, and it will effectively start working in everybody’s assistant,” he said.

“So part of our launch is to showcase what’s possible, and then let people go build lots of different integrations.”

Near Intents

What makes Near’s AI Assistant unique among current AI agents is chain abstraction technology that enables users to swap any asset to any other simply by signing a transaction.

Called Near Intents and available in beta with trading limits, it currently enables native asset swaps between Bitcoin, Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base and Near Protocol (NEAR).

But it has the potential to connect any chain using any wallet, and it can provide swaps to fiat via a market maker, which opens up Web2 shopping for the agent.

Alex Shevchenko, the founder of Aurora Labs, told Cointelegraph that Solana and Telegram Open Network would be added before the end of the year, followed by Dogecoin (DOGE), BNB (BNB), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), XRP (XRP) and Tron (TRON). Intents bring blockchains without smart contracts into the world of DeFi.

Alex Shevchenko, Founder, Aurora Labs speaking at Redacted in Bangkok. Source: Cointelegraph

Unlike other crosschain protocols, Intents does not use atomic swaps or an intermediary asset such as THORChain (RUNE) on THORChain, Instead, smart contracts on Near communicate via chain signatures.

Shevchenko demonstrated the technology on stage by plugging in a MetaMask wallet, swapping between Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC), before then swapping again into Bitcoin. The transaction settled on Near but was able to be instantly withdrawn to a Bitcoin wallet. 

AI agents talking to AI agents

While the immediate use case is swapping native tokens, Shevchenko the Intents protocol had been designed to enable AI agents to communicate and coordinate to share tasks.

“An AI agent can understand that: ‘OK I don’t know how to open for you a Revolut account, but maybe there is an agent who is able to do this?’ So then they need to figure out how to create an Intent. So one AI agent is saying [to another AI agent], ‘OK, I would like you, for this price, to open up a bank account for my user.’”

Presentation slide showing a planned roadmap for Near Intents. Source: Cointelegraph

The AI agents would make an agreement, including dispute resolution, and then pay in the required currency. 

On the back end, market makers ensure the trades go through. This enables them to tap into the liquidity on centralized platforms such as Binance. Current market makers include Peanut Trade, with G20 coming on board soon. 

However, the technology is open source and available to be built upon, incorporated into any wallet, and allows the use of any market maker.

“This is a reference implementation of the interface. All of the builders who are building their own interfaces can take it and include it,” he said. 

Later at Redacted, Kendall Cole from Proximity Labs said chain abstraction enabled new use cases for Bitcoin in DeFi. He connected a Bitcoin wallet to a fork of the Burrow lending platform and was able to borrow against the Bitcoin collateral. Eventually, he said that users would be able to borrow against their entire portfolio of assets. 

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Near Protocol has unveiled an ambitious plan to build the world’s largest open-source artificial intelligence model on the opening day of its Redacted conference in Bangkok, Thailand. The 1.4 trillion parameter model would be 3.5 times bigger than Meta’s current open-source Llama model.

It will be created through competitive crowdsourced research and development from thousands of contributors on the new Near AI Research hub, with participants able to join the training of a small 500 million parameter model from today, Nov. 10.

Near Protocol’s ambitious AI model

The project will grow in size and sophistication across seven models, with only the best contributors making the leap to working on progressively more complex and larger models. The models will be monetized and privacy will be preserved via the use of encrypted Trusted Execution Environments to reward contributors and encourage constant updating as the technology progresses.

The expensive training and compute will be funded with token sales, Near Protocol co-founder Illia Polosukhin told Cointelegraph at the Redacted conference in Bangkok.

Near co-founder Illia Polosukhin. Source: Cointelegraph

“It costs about $160 million, so it’s a lot, obviously, but actually, in crypto, it is raiseable money,” he said. Polosukhin added:

“Then the tokenholders get repaid from all the inferences that happen when this model is used. So we have a business model, we have a way to monetize it, we have a way to raise money, and we have a way to put this in a loop. And so people can actually reinvest back into the next model as well.”

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Near is one of the few crypto projects with the ability to realize such an ambitious undertaking: Polosukhin was one of the authors of the groundbreaking transformer research paper that led to ChatGPT, and co-founder Alex Skidanov worked at OpenAI in the lead-up to the era-defining model’s release in late 2022.

Skidanov, who now heads up Near AI, conceded that it’s a massive undertaking with a big hurdle to overcome. 

Decentralized AI tackles privacy issues

To train such a large model, the project would need “tens of thousands of GPUs in one place,” which wouldn’t be ideal. But to use a decentralized network of compute “you’d need a new technology that doesn’t exist today because all the distributed training techniques we have require very fast interconnect.” However, he added that emerging research from Deep Mind suggests it is possible.

Near co-founder Alex Skidanov. Source: Cointelegraph

Polosukhin said he hasn’t spoken with existing projects like the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance but would be happy to see if there are synergies. Whatever happens, he said decentralized AI technology must win for all our sake. Conference guest speaker Edward Snowden rammed home the point by painting a scary portrait of centralized AI turning the world into a giant surveillance state.

“This is probably the most important technology right now and probably in the future. And the reality is, if AI is controlled by one company, we effectively are going to do whatever that company says,” he explained. Snowden added:

“If all AI and effectively, all of the economy is being done by one company, there’s no decentralization at that point. So it is effectively like the only way that Web3 is still relevant, philosophically, if we have AI that also follows the same principles.”

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The non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea will be upgraded with a new and improved platform in December amid a prolonged NFT market doldrum. 

“To really innovate, sometimes you have to take a step back and reimagine everything. So we built a new OpenSea from the ground up,” said OpenSea co-founder and CEO Devin Finzer in a Nov. 4 X post.

He added that the claimed new and improved platform will be launched in December without providing further details. A link shared by OpenSea on X redirected to a waiting list page with a prompt to connect a crypto wallet.

DappRadar communications manager and head of content ‘nederob’ said on X there was “some serious hype” about the new platform since users may be expecting an airdrop. 

However, considering the platform is based in the United States, he added that a token airdrop was “unlikely but not unthinkable.” 

He speculated that new features could include account abstraction or “smart accounts.” NFT shared ownership, memecoin trading and minting, more chain integration, and SocialFi. 

Meanwhile, trading volume on OpenSea has surged almost 60% over the week, topping $50 million as NFT sales jumped, according to DappRadar. Volumes hit $15 million on Nov. 2 but have remained relatively flat since early 2022. 

OpenSea was launched in 2017 but did not gain widespread popularity until the NFT boom in 2021. The platform saw peak trading volume hit $5 billion in January 2022, but since then, the NFT bubble has burst, sending volumes and revenue plummeting.

OpenSea monthly volume. Source: Dune

Monthly volume was just $46 million in October, down 99% from its all-time high, according to Dune Analytics.  

The announcement comes after the US Securities and Exchange Commission hit the NFT marketplace with a Wells notice, a warning it could launch an enforcement action, which accused it of trading unregistered securities. 

OpenSea’s Finzer said at the time that “by targeting NFTs, the SEC would stifle innovation on an even broader scale,” impacting hundreds of thousands of digital artists and creators.

The firm has had a tumultuous couple of years, laying off staff in November 2023 when Finzer announced that it was re-orienting the team around “OpenSea 2.0.”

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A swathe of traditional finance and crypto companies, including Robinhood, Galaxy Digital, Kraken, and Paxos, have formed a consortium supporting the latest stablecoin pegged to the United States dollar. 

In a Nov. 5 statement, blockchain infrastructure firm Paxos shared that the new “open network” was designed to accelerate the adoption and use of stablecoins worldwide. 

Source: Paxos

“The lack of competition in the regulated stablecoin market has prevented the industry from reaching its full potential. USDG upends this dynamic with a more equitable model that will bring mainstream participants into the ecosystem and accelerate new stablecoin use cases,” said Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi in a statement. 

The network is designed to support the global adoption of Paxos’ USDG stablecoin, launched by the firm on Nov. 1. 

USDG is currently only available on the Ethereum blockchain, but Paxos said the stablecoin will be made available on other chains as regulations evolve.

Paxos will issue the USDG stablecoin out of Singapore, which the firm says is “substantively compliant” with the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s upcoming stablecoin framework, established in August 2023. 

Qualified entities, including custodians, exchanges, and fintech firms will be able to join the Global Dollar Network by way of invitation.

The firm noted that the stablecoin’s US dollar backings will be reserved and managed by Singapore’s largest banking institution, DBS Bank. USDG is backed 1:1 with the US dollar in dollar deposits, short-duration US government securities, and other cash equivalents, ensuring users can redeem their tokens for fiat.

Speaking about the launch of USDG, Paxos’ head of product Ronak Daya said the DBS partnership will enable enterprise-level stablecoin adoption.

Other digital asset offerings by Paxos include PayPal USD (PYUSD), Pax Dollar (USDP), and Pax Gold (PAXG).

The USDG stablecoin and its Global Dollar Network will launch in a market dominated largely by two major stablecoin issuers, Tether (USDT) and Circle’s USD Coin (USDC), which command respective dominance of 56% and 27% of the stablecoin supply on Ethereum, according to DefiLlama data.

USDT accounts for 69.53% of the total $84 billion supply of stablecoins on Ethereum. Source: DefiLlama

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According to CryptoSlate, the SEC has issued a Wells notice to blockchain gaming platform Immutable, marking another instance of the regulator's enforcement actions against crypto companies ahead of the US election. Immutable revealed in an October 31 blog post that the SEC's move is part of its “regulation-by-enforcement” strategy targeting the crypto industry. The company noted that the notice was issued without prior discussions with the SEC.Immutable stated that the SEC's allegations, though vague, seem to focus on the 2021 listing and private sales of its native token IMX. The company contends that the IMX token does not meet the criteria of a security and criticized the SEC for bypassing meaningful dialogue. Immutable expressed frustration over the lack of detail in the Wells notice, which contained fewer than 20 words of substantive explanation and lacked a clear basis for the investigation.Additionally, Immutable suggested that the SEC's allegations implied inaccurate claims of “fraudulent misrepresentations” related to a 2021 blog post about the IMX token’s pre-launch investment pricing. The company argued that the regulator mischaracterized this information, stating that there was “real consideration” involved in the investment, which could have been clarified through constructive dialogue with the SEC.Immutable emphasized its readiness to defend the rights of builders, creators, and gamers, leveraging its considerable resources. The company reiterated its commitment to the industry and its intention to continue building despite regulatory challenges.

Bitcoin’s foundational document, the white paper written by its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, has turned 16.

On Oct. 31, 2008, Nakamoto shared the “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” white paper with a cryptography mailing list, proposing a decentralized, peer-to-peer network capable of preventing double-spending through proof-of-work consensus.

Bitcoin white paper. Source: Bitcoin.org

Just three months later, Nakamoto mined Bitcoin’s first block, known as the genesis block, rewarding 50 Bitcoin (BTC), and launched what is now the world’s largest cryptocurrency network.

Sixteen years later, Bitcoin has reached a market value of over $1.42 trillion, making it the 10th largest asset globally, according to CompaniesMarketCap.

World’s largest assets. Source: CompaniesMarketCap 

Days ahead of the white paper anniversary, Bitcoin’s price climbed to a seven-month high above $73,600, coming within $200 of a new all-time high, which some analysts expect to occur after the US presidential election.

Bitcoin: becoming a new “digital gold” for institutions in just 16 years

Bitcoin’s growth has been boosted by investor confidence and institutional adoption for its role as a store of value, according to Mithil Thakore, co-founder and CEO of Velar. 

Velar told Cointelegraph:

“Bitcoin has evolved from a niche digital experiment to a global asset class that rivals traditional stores of value like gold. But unlike gold, which has taken thousands of years to establish itself, Bitcoin managed to capture institutional attention, spark regulatory debates, and drive a global decentralized finance movement — all in just 16 years.”

Bitcoin’s maturity, according to Thakore, is evident through rising long-term holdings by institutions, deeper integration with traditional financial markets and growing adoption as an inflation hedge.

Top Bitcoin holders in the world. Source: Eric Balchunas

Highlighting institutional interest, the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, surpassed $30 billion in Bitcoin holdings through its spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) on Oct. 30.

Bitcoin ETFs have increasingly attracted attention, underscoring Bitcoin’s transformation from a niche digital currency to a major financial asset.

Bitcoin is the best currency for “financial freedom,” says Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino

Bitcoin has grown to become the world’s best currency, according to Paolo Ardoino, the CEO of Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin issuer.

Speaking exclusively to Cointelegraph at Plan B Lugano in Switzerland, Ardoino said:

“I’m a Bitcoiner. I believe that Bitcoin is the best currency in the world, but not everyone is ready yet. People have bigger struggles in their lives and at this moment, they don’t have the time to invest to understand Bitcoin yet. But, I believe that the role of USDt is also reducing the barrier of entry for these people into Bitcoin.”

Bitcoin, Ardoino added, offers unique value as an alternative to traditional fiat currencies facing inflation pressures, calling it the “ultimate option for financial freedom” in a volatile economic landscape.

Tether’s Paolo Ardoino, interview with Cointelegraph’s Zoltan Vardai, clip. Source: YouTube

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Asia has overtaken North America as the leader in cryptocurrency and blockchain development talent, a recent report showed.

Asia’s share of cryptocurrency developers grew to 32% in 2024, up from just 13% in 2015, making it the top region for developer talent in the field.

Over the same period, North America’s share of developers was effectively cut in half, dropping to 24% from 44% in 2015, according to Electric Capital general partner Maria Shen, who wrote in an Oct. 30 X post:

“Asia is now #1 for crypto devs. The US is losing market share. Crypto impacts every state in the US – crypto should be non-partisan.”

Crypto developers share by continent. Source: Maria Shen

The geographic distribution of crypto developers often signals the regions poised to drive future blockchain innovation. A growing developer base in any region is a positive indicator of mass adoption of blockchain technology, as it suggests an increase in blockchain-based consumer applications.

The US still leads in total crypto developers

Despite 81% of all blockchain developers now residing outside the United States, it still holds the highest number of developers globally.

Approximately 18.8% of all crypto developers are based in the US, followed by India at 11.8%, with the United Kingdom taking the third spot at 4.2%.

Crypto developers share by country. Source: Maria Shen

However, the US saw an over 51% drop in developer share since 2015 despite the industry’s continued growth.

Within the US, 22.3% of developers live in California, while 13.7% reside in New York. The lion’s share, or 64% of US developers, live outside of these two states.

Crypto developer share by top five countries. Source: Maria Shen

The researchers analyzed over 200 million crypto-related GitHub commits across 350,000 repositories. Geographical data was sourced from over 110,000 developer wallets with self-reported locations.

Institutional interest in cryptocurrencies has been on the rise in Asia. Over in South Korea, the number of crypto investors rose over 21% by the second half of 2024, pushing the cumulative operation profits of the top 21 local centralized exchanges (CEXs) to above $4.2 billion, marking a year-on-year increase of 106%.

What Are the Best Countries for Crypto Investors? Source: YouTube

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Visa users with eligible debit cards will soon be able to instantly deposit and withdraw funds from their accounts with the crypto exchange Coinbase after the two firms announced a partnership.

“Coinbase already has millions of users with a debit card connected to their account,” Visa said in an Oct. 29 statement. It added United States and European Union customers will get “real-time delivery of account funds for those using an eligible Visa debit card.”

Coinbase customers will also be able to purchase crypto on the platform with an eligible Visa debit card and cash out funds from the exchange to a bank account in real time — depending on the bank and region.

Yanilsa Gonzalez Ore — the head of Visa Direct in North America — said the partnership means “those Coinbase users with an eligible Visa debit card know that they can take advantage of trading opportunities day and night.”

Source: Cuy Sheffield

The offering comes in a lull period for crypto offerings from traditional finance firms after FTX’s massive 2022 blow-up quashed confidence in the sector, tanked crypto markets, and led to a banking crisis in early 2023.

However, the EU’s crypto regulatory framework, the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), came into effect earlier this year and gave legal clarity for so-called crypto asset service providers like Coinbase on how they’re to operate locally.

In the US, several major crypto players — including Coinbase — have spent millions influencing the presidential and Congressional elections, with many industry pundits now predicting the next administration or Congress will pass pro-crypto regulations, regardless of which candidate clinches victory on Nov. 5.

Visa has long dealt with Coinbase by powering its crypto debit cards, which gives users an outlet to spend their crypto through its network of vendors. 

The payments and card giant inked a similar deal with FV Bank on Oct. 28, backing the fintech firm’s debit cards, which can be funded with crypto and cash.

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According to Odaily, recent data from the Indonesian Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (Bappebti) reveals that over 60% of cryptocurrency investors in Indonesia are aged between 18 and 30. Specifically, 26.9% of Indonesian cryptocurrency investors fall within the 18-24 age range, while 35.1% are between 25 and 30 years old. This trend highlights the growing popularity of cryptocurrencies as an investment among young Indonesians, who show a higher interest in digital assets.