Following the United States' capture of Nicolás Maduro over the weekend, a report came out claiming that Venezuela had $60 billion stored in Bitcoin—leading to speculation that the U.S. could lay claim to cryptocurrency as well as oil. Despite numerous reports of the huge Venezuelan Bitcoin stash, however, a crypto forensic firm is skeptical of the claims. The news of Venezuela's Bitcoin holding began to bubble up last Saturday, the same day that Maduro was ousted. “The article does not mention any addresses as a starting point, making it difficult to verify any of these speculated claims,” said Aurelie Barthere, principal research analyst at Nansen, about Project Brazen's report. Bitcointreasuries.net estimates that the country has $22 million worth of Bitcoin. While the exact size of Venezuela's Bitcoin wealth is unclear, the country has long been a player in crypto. Maduro introduced a token called the Petro in 2018, which was shuttered six years later. Trump has said that he will “run” Venezuela, and some have speculated that includes seizing the country's Bitcoin holdings. Andrew Fierman, head of national security intelligence at Chainalysis, said he could not speak to the likelihood of such a seizure. He did, however, explain what gaining control of assets might look like. A freezing of assets could occur through centralized services, he says. The U.S. could get control of wallets, devices, and keys through compelled cooperation. For now, there is unlikely to be a full and accurate account of Venezuela's Bitcoin holdings until the political situation in the country becomes more stable. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.

Crypto VC Giant Andreessen Horowitz Raises $15 Billion to Help America 'Win' Tech Race Leading American venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz—a major crypto industry investor that also goes by a16z—announced Friday that it has raised over $15 billion across five separate venture funds to propel American technology. Our mission is ensuring that America wins the next 100 years of technology,” Horowitz wrote in a post about the raise. With these new funds including American Dynamism ($1.176B), Apps ($1.7B), Bio + Health ($700M), Infrastructure ($1.7B), Growth ($6.75B), and other venture strategies ($3B), we raised over 18% of all venture capital dollars… pic.twitter.com/KbtYvaH6Ed It continues with applying those technologies to the key areas that generate human flourishing: biology, health, defense, public safety, education, and entertainment,” he continued. It maintains investments in a long list of noteworthy projects and brands in the space, including Coinbase, Solana, Uniswap, OpenSea, Phantom, among others. The firm's investment in the crypto space dates back to at least 2018, when it built its first crypto fund with $350 million for investment into industry companies and protocols. In the years since then, the VC giant has raised at least three specific crypto funds, gathering more than $7 billion in total. If America fails to win technologically, it will lose economically, militarily, geopolitically, and culturally. And the entire world will lose, as well,” Horowitz wrote. The latest news, articles, and resources, sent to your inbox weekly.

Andreessen Horowitz officially hit the mega capital milestone with billions to fund its next wave of innovation. The recent effort of the firm to raise money highlights a changing venture environment in which artificial intelligence and blockchain infrastructure are becoming more and more inseparable. The company has invested 6.75 billion in its Growth fund and has invested more in its Infrastructure and Apps funds with a total of 1.75 billion. The other tranches are of its strategy, American Dynamism amounting to one point two billion and Bio + Health at 700 million dollars. The firm is establishing itself as a major architect of the next internet by acquiring this amount of dry powder. All funds are headed by professionals who can offer extensive technical and regulatory assistance to startups in their areas of specialization. Read More: a16z Makes Bold Asia Push: Opens Seoul Office as It Targets the World's No.2 Crypto Market The company has just published a teaser and internal news about the fact that AI and crypto are not silos anymore. They are instead becoming dependent on each other. Blockchains must be transparent and verified to make AI work safely whereas crypto must use AI to enhance user experience and automatically carry out onchain tasks. This vision is already being manifested through investments. Recently, the company made a $15 million token acquisition to collaborate with the Babylon protocol to convert Bitcoin into trustless collateral. This makes the financial system more efficient, since the loan servicing acts are reduced and is more accessible worldwide. This is partly the reason why they have made privacy-preserving technology one of their 2026 pillars. They think that in the absence of strong privacy, global finance cannot entirely switch to open blockchains. They are convinced that transparent regulations will enable network tokens to make full economic circles. Such maturation is necessary to get the industry out of its adolescence phase and into a wider adoption phase. a16z is positioning itself to be at the forefront by having billions of new money to attract this mainstream era. They have a clear direction of movement: to support the most daring founders that are creating the infrastructure of a decentralized, AI-based future. Read More: Trump Pledges to Sign CLARITY Act, Fast-Tracking U.S. Crypto Rules as China Accelerates Isabella specializes in tracking how blockchain technology is transforming industries worldwide. Her pieces explore the real-world applications of blockchain, from supply chain to healthcare. Isabella is passionate about highlighting underrepresented use cases in the crypto space. The latest news, articles, and resources, sent to your inbox weekly. CryptoNinjas is a global news and research portal that supplies market and industry information on the cryptocurrency space, bitcoin, blockchains. The latest news, articles, and resources, sent to your inbox weekly.

Andreessen Horowitz (A16z), the Silicon Valley, CA-based venture capital firm, on Friday said it raised $15 billion in its latest funding secured across five funds. According to a blog post published by Ben Horowitz on the A16z website, about $6.75 billion will go towards scaling startups, $1.7 billion has been allocated to infrastructure, $1.7 billion for various apps, $1.176 billion for American Dynamism (investing in national interests like defense, housing, and supply chain), and another $700 million for biotech and healthcare. “Our mission is ensuring that America wins the next 100 years of technology. The country will then continue applying those technologies to the key areas that generate human flourishing, including biology, health, defense, public safety, education, and entertainment. “We have already seen the beginnings of this in both AI and crypto.” Subscribe to our newsletter using this link – we won't spam! A16z Raises $15B Across Five Funds Including AI and Crypto to Help America Win Next 100 Years of Tech Stablecoin Firm Rain Secures $250M Series C at $1.95 Billion Valuation NYSE-Listed Sequans Secures $384M Debt and Equity Placement to Buy Bitcoin Metaverse Social App Soul Targets Public Listing in Hong Kong

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has thrown his public support behind Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm—who was convicted last August of a money transmitting charge—arguing that privacy-preserving software is a fundamental human right, and that Storm's work should not be criminalized simply because it can be misused. “I have supported Roman Storm's work from the beginning both as a strong believer in the importance of privacy, and as an active user of privacy tools, including those developed by Roman,” Buterin wrote on X on Friday, sharing a letter of support he had written for Storm. If someone has information about you, they have the [ability to] exploit you—socially, commercially, or even physically,” Buterin continued. Tornado Cash, a crypto mixer that helps obscure the path of transactions, was placed on the U.S. Treasury's sanctions list in 2022 after officials said it had been used by North Korea's Lazarus Group and other criminals to launder billions of dollars in stolen digital assets. Tornado Cash was used to wash proceeds from major hacks, including the $622 million Ronin Bridge exploit and a $100 million theft from Harmony Bridge, with blockchain analytics firm Elliptic estimating that more than $1.5 billion in illicit crypto flowed through the mixer before it was sanctioned. Several weeks later, Matthew Galeotti, head of the DOJ's criminal division, said software developers would no longer be convicted under the charge for which Storm had been convicted. Another Tornado Cash developer, Alexey Pertsev, also faced criminal proceedings. Pertsev has since been released to house arrest while he appeals. In Storm's case, Buterin added that privacy is necessary for many parts of our society—including culture and politics—to function without devolving into social games or outright coercion. “Many have the implicit viewpoint that privacy from the public is fine, but surely governments and police and intelligence agencies should be able to see everyone's information to ensure safety,” he said. Buterin said he strongly disagreed with this approach, as government databases can be hacked and information lands in the hands of foreign adversarial actors. “Agencies routinely outsource their work to private corporations, who sell the data behind everyone's back. Cell phone companies, who have everyone's location data, often casually sell it to anyone who asks, which often leads it to end up in the hands of hostile foreign governments,” he explained. “Roman, and I, want to see a world where basic protections of our rights, that were an unquestioned default in the previous millennium, stay with us in the next,” he added.

South Korea is moving to approve spot bitcoin ETFs this year as part of a broader crypto policy shift that pairs regulated market access with stricter stablecoin rules and expanded use of blockchain in public finance. If approved, spot bitcoin ETFs would become available to domestic investors for the first time, placing South Korea alongside markets such as the United States and Hong Kong, where similar products have already attracted billions of dollars in inflows. Until now, Korea's capital markets rules have not recognized cryptocurrencies like bitcoin or bitcoin ETFs as eligible underlying assets for ETFs, effectively blocking their launch. That stance is now changing as policymakers look to bring more crypto activity into regulated channels and reduce the flow of capital to offshore platforms. The bitcoin ETF push is moving in parallel with a broader overhaul of digital asset regulation. The FSC is fast-tracking what it calls “Phase Two” digital asset legislation, a bill expected to focus heavily on stablecoins. According to government plans, the law will introduce a licensing system for stablecoin issuers, minimum capital requirements, and strict reserve rules requiring at least 100% backing of issued tokens. Regulators say the framework is designed to prevent failures like the 2022 Terra-Luna collapse, which wiped out roughly $40 billion and had deep ties to South Korea. Korea's Financial Intelligence Unit estimates that more than 10 million people are eligible to trade digital assets domestically, underscoring the scale of potential demand. Beyond private markets, blockchain is also moving into public finance. The government plans to digitize parts of the national treasury using so-called “deposit tokens,” a form of government-linked digital currency distinct from stablecoins, according to reports. By 2030, up to 25% of treasury operations could be conducted via blockchain-based payments. Pilot programs are already underway, and lawmakers are reviewing amendments to the Bank of Korea Act and the National Treasury Act to establish a legal foundation for these systems. Officials say the goal is faster settlement, lower administrative costs, and improved transparency.

Investors are piling into Polygon's POL token amid excitement surrounding a planned tech upgrade to the $1.5 billion blockchain. It aims to let users instantly and reliably move money anywhere across the $162 billion DeFi ecosystem, providing an alternative to restrictive and often costly financial intermediaries like banks. “Open and interoperable money ensures that it is usable everywhere, by everyone, on their own terms,” Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, and Sandeep Nailwal, CEO of the Polygon Foundation, said in a joint post announcing the new technology. “People don't need to understand settlement mechanics or lose sleep because they are worried about when money will arrive.” Fintech giant Stripe is developing its own blockchain-based payments platform called Tempo, planned to launch later this year, which buy-now-pay-later firm Klarna will use to launch its own stablecoin. Tempo has lured several well-respected crypto researchers, executives, and software engineers, including former Ethereum Foundation researcher Dankrad Feist, former Optimism Labs CEO Liam Horne, and Rice University Professor Mallesh Pai. A perennial problem in the crypto industry is that blockchains have had a hard time replicating the same functionality that traditional financial rails provide. Users eventually need to take their money offchain and rely on traditional financial infrastructure. Polygon Labs' intent is to create a system where users can do everything while keeping their money in crypto. The Open Money Stack is designed to work across different blockchains and allows financial institutions and fintech firms to integrate it into their own products. Individual components include blockchain rails, wallet infrastructure, fiat on-ramps and off-ramps, stablecoin interoperability, compliance, and onchain identity verification, among other things.

Portugal's development bank Banco Português de Fomento (BPF) has signed an international financing contract with the Spain's Institute of Official Credit (ICO) for a line of financing with an initial injection of up to €50 million. BPF has made “its first international financing agreement with the Official Credit Institute (ICO), the Development Bank of Spain, marking a relevant institutional milestone in BPF's internationalisation strategy and in strengthening financial cooperation between the two countries,” it said in a statement. This agreement provides for “the provision of a financing line with an initial allocation of up to €50 million, on an ‘on-lending' basis” which aims to “directly finance Portuguese companies and projects in Portugal with an economic connection to Spain” and which will promote “investment initiatives with a cross-border impact”. With this line, BPF believes that it will “expand its capacity to support the economy, ensuring favourable conditions for financing companies and business investment projects with an international dimension”, ensuring “high added value for the competitiveness” of the country. The BFP has a goal to finance 20,000 companies overall with €8Bn in 2026. The development's bank CEO, Gonçalo Regalado said “2026 brings a number of relevant challenges but with countless opportunities for companies and the Portuguese economy. Portugal is in a situation of economic and social stability, balanced public accounts and guarantees of a favorable investment environment”, said the CEO laying out the bank's goals for 2026. He said that Portugal had a good foreign direct investment pipeline for industry and technology, artificial intelligence, software, tourism, in services, energy and infrastructure. Companies, he added, relied on the development bank to be a driver of the economy, an accelerator for growth and a multiplier using financial instruments to support investment. In 2025, BPF injected €6.5Bn into the economy, representing 2.2% of GDP, supporting more than €16,000 companies with more than 18,000 investment financing operations.

Samson Mow, a vocal Bitcoin proponent and the JAN3 CEO, has taken to his account on the X social media platform to once again point out a key advantage of Bitcoin over altcoins to the global crypto community. Mow emphasized that unlike with altcoins, whose developers can give up working on them and quit “all at once” all of a sudden, Bitcoin has 100% protection from that. Its initial developer, the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, voluntarily disappeared in December 2010. Bitcoin is now believed to be completely decentralized, unlike altcoins, such as Ethereum, XRP, etc. Mow, along with other Bitcoin maxis, often slams these large-cap altcoins, calling them scams. Bitcoin is insurance against shitcoin dev teams quitting all at once. Aside from complete decentralization, Bitcoin maxis often name absolute scarcity — with 21 million being the finite supply of coins of BTC — from which more than 19 million have been mined already. As reported by U.Today earlier, this week, the development team of Zcash's Electric Coin Company announced it was quitting after they massively clashed regarding governance issues with its nonprofit board, Bootstrap, over distractions from its mission of focusing on privacy. This highlighted vulnerabilities in the governance of this decentralized project and boosted investor interest in the early privacy coin Monero (whose initial developer is no longer on the project either, like Satoshi). CUSIP Database provided by FactSet Research Systems Inc. All rights reserved. SEC fillings and other documents provided by Quartr.© 2026 TradingView, Inc.

In the past, both have minted their fair share of millionaires. So which one is more likely to be a millionaire maker? A good starting point is historical performance. While past returns are no guarantee of future performance, they can help to provide a quick snapshot look at how a cryptocurrency does over time. Is the cryptocurrency a one-hit wonder, or is it capable of replicating its performance over an extended period of time? From 2017 through 2025, XRP grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 94%. Since its launch back in 2012, XRP is up an impressive 40,000%. Based on those numbers alone, you might conclude that a single XRP token is trading for hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. XRP still trades for a price of about $2. There's a good reason for this low price. XRP's performance has been extremely uneven over the years. In fact, the standard deviation of XRP's returns from January 2017 to November 2025 is a head-spinning 334%. By way of comparison, the standard deviation of an S&P 500 stock is typically about 15%, while the standard deviation of a fast-growth tech stock is typically anywhere from 20% to 30%. It's the type of cryptocurrency that's either soaring or collapsing in value. It, too, is prone to intense periods of boom and bust. But Ethereum has been much better at bouncing back from adversity and rewarding longtime investors. Since its launch back in 2015, Ethereum is up an incredible 115,000%. XRP and Ethereum are both vying to become important pieces of the modern global financial system. From stablecoins to real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, both XRP and Ethereum are at the forefront of exciting changes taking place on Wall Street. But Ethereum has a more diversified blockchain ecosystem than XRP, and that makes it more capable of growing at a smooth, steady rate. While Ethereum is a behemoth when it comes to decentralized finance (DeFi), it is also a market leader when it comes to other applications of blockchain technology as well. This includes everything from non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to blockchain gaming. After all, the XRP token is primarily just a bridge currency used to swap between different currencies. As such, it is a useful way to transfer value across borders. Once you get beyond cross-border payments, though, the number of use cases for XRP is relatively small. I'm attaching a much higher growth multiple to Ethereum. It's simply capable of growing faster than XRP. And due to the diversification of its blockchain ecosystem, it's much more insulated from market peaks and valleys. If you're trying to build a million-dollar crypto portfolio, this is where I'd start. It has a nearly unparalleled historical track record. Just keep in mind, though, that the future price trajectory of Ethereum is unlikely to be straight up. Dominic Basulto has positions in Ethereum and XRP. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. *Average returns of all recommendations since inception. Cost basis and return based on previous market day close. Get stock recommendations, portfolio guidance, and more from The Motley Fool's premium services. Making the world smarter, happier, and richer.

Coinbase has updated its official asset listing roadmap to include four digital assets that the exchange has decided may be listed in the future. According to an update on its blog, the assets newly added to the Coinbase roadmap include the Solana network Raydium (RAY) and Energy Dollar (ENERGY). Two additional assets from the Base network are also featured on the roadmap: Elsa (ELSA) and Sport.fun (FUN). Coinbase says asset transfers and trading for the listed assets are not supported until an official trading announcement is made. The exchange also warns that depositing these assets into a Coinbase account before support is live may result in permanent loss of funds. The company's roadmap update is part of its effort to increase transparency by publicly communicating when it has made a decision to list an asset. Coinbase says that listing assets on the roadmap does not immediately enable trading; live support requires fulfillment of additional conditions, including sufficient technical infrastructure. Generated Image: Midjourney Covering the future of finance, including macro, bitcoin, ethereum, crypto, and web 3. Categories Bitcoin • Ethereum • Trading • Altcoins • Futuremash • Financeflux • Blockchain • Regulators • Scams • HodlX • Press Releases ABOUT US | EDITORIAL POLICY | PRIVACY POLICY TERMS AND CONDITIONS | CONTACT | ADVERTISE JOIN US ON TELEGRAM JOIN US ON X JOIN US ON FACEBOOK COPYRIGHT © 2017-2025 THE DAILY HODL © 2025 The Daily Hodl

Regulator to launch consultation on draft guidance for automated decision-making in 2026 In its latest Tech Futures report, the ICO described how agentic AI could bring both innovation and risk. The regulator warned that poorly designed systems could lead to unnecessary processing of personal data, unclear accountability, and heightened cybersecurity threats. The UK Government is exploring the use of agentic AI for public services, with plans to automate administrative tasks such as updating addresses, electoral registration, or signing up for a new GP. In social services, agents could help users complete administrative tasks, freeing up professionals for more face-to-face interaction. While in healthcare, the sector could see teams of specialised AI agents supporting diagnosis, treatment planning, and care tasks. The report is positive about these developments, but warns that they must be professionally developed. “Agentic AI will have the capacity to make decisions and take actions independently,” said William Malcolm, executive director of regulatory risk and innovation at the ICO. “These systems can handle vast amounts of personal information, so both developers and adopting organisations must ensure transparency, security, and compliance is built in from the start. “While the potential benefits could be transformational, the public needs assurance that their personal information is secure and well managed before placing their trust in agentic systems. The ICO plans to monitor advancements in agentic AI throughout 2026 and will launch a consultation on draft guidance for automated decision-making later this year.

Will crypto assets defend their key short-term support levels? The cryptocurrency market has shed $120 billion this week after January's recovery curve stalled. According to SoSo Value's data, U.S Spot ETFs saw $729 million in total outflows on Tuesday and Wednesday. However, the current rate pause outlook at 3.50%-3.75% further dragged crypto lower. However, it must be noted that although BTC fell by 5%, major altcoins dumped even harder during the mid-week retreat. XRP, for example, depreciated by 14% from $2.4 to $2, reversing nearly half of its significant January gains. Near-term bulls could track the $2-support zone as a possible reversal point. However, a break below it could send XRP's price to the recent lows near $1.80. Here, it's worth pointing out that the altcoin also saw massive whale interest during the early 2026 recovery – A trend that could trigger a swift reversal if market sentiment improves. Like BTC, Ethereum's [ETH] price also dropped by about 6% from $3,300 to $3,000. December's price action chalked a symmetric triangle pattern that could go either way. On the contrary, a dip below $2.9k would indicate a bearish breakout and likely lead to further price compression. Even so, the altcoin season index reading jumped from 25 to a neutral reading of 57 at press time – A sign that alluded to a considerable rebound for the sector in January, despite the recent cool-off. Trading, buying or selling cryptocurrencies should be considered a high-risk investment and every reader is advised to do their own research before making any decisions.