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The core developers behind privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash have left the Electric Coin Company and are forming a new company. The move follows a public dispute over governance and control within organizations tied to the Zcash ecosystem.
The announcement was shared in a statement from the Zcash creators and later echoed by Electric Coin Company CEO Josh Swihart. He said the decision came after deep disagreements with members of the Bootstrap board, a nonprofit set up to support Zcash.
Zcash Governance Dispute Triggers Team Exit
According to Swihart, several Bootstrap board members moved out of alignment with Zcash’s original mission. He named Zaki Manian, Christina Garman, Alan Fairless, and Michelle Lai as central to the dispute.
He explained that recent changes to employment terms made it impossible for the team to do their work properly or with integrity. As a result, the entire Electric Coin Company team left at the same time.
The developers described the situation as a constructive discharge. In simple terms, they felt pushed out by governance actions they viewed as harmful to their mission.
Despite the split, the team stressed that their goal has not changed. They said they are building a new company, but remain focused on the same vision: creating unstoppable private money.
Zcash Protocol Unaffected, Network Continues
Both Swihart and other Zcash figures emphasized that the Zcash protocol itself is not affected. The network will continue to run as normal.
Former Electric Coin Company CEO Zooko Wilcox defended the Bootstrap board in a separate post. He said he believes the board members involved are people of high integrity. He also reassured users that nothing in the dispute changes how Zcash works.
For now, developers say more details about the new company will be shared soon. Their message to users is clear: Zcash keeps running, and privacy remains the priority.$ZEC
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Like meme coins, the AI crypto narrative was again the second most popular in 2025, enjoying a combined 22.39% share of interest across the main AI crypto category and 10 other AI-related crypto narratives. In other words, there was a 6.72 percentage point increase compared to the 15.67% total share that the AI crypto narrative captured last year. 
This was despite the main AI crypto category seeing its share of interest shrink from 12.58% last year, to 9.76% this year. Nevertheless, the main AI crypto narrative still secured the second highest popularity ranking.
Meanwhile, the overall higher interest in AI crypto can be attributed to increased attention toward AI agents, as well as the emergence of the DeFAI narrative. Among the top 20 most popular narratives, AI agents recorded the largest market share improvement from 1.17% to 5.03%, or a 3.86 percentage point increase which raised its ranking by 14 places year-on-year (YoY). 
Notable Changes in Narrative Popularity
In contrast, real world assets (RWA) experienced the largest YoY decrease in share of narrative interest from 8.64% to 4.98%. The 3.66 percentage point drop caused the RWA narrative to lose its 3rd place ranking and come in at 4th place instead. In other words, RWAs saw an even smaller share of narrative interest than the 6.48% it held in 2023, pointing to the increasingly tough competition for mindshare in the crypto market as more narratives emerge. 
Aside from the unchanged rankings for the top two most popular crypto narratives, there were eight narratives that saw an improvement in rankings and seven ranking decreases, as well as three new narratives that were added this year.
The Virtuals Protocol ecosystem recorded the biggest ranking increase by 39 positions, after coming in 56th from being created towards the end of last year. The Virtuals Protocol narrative has since become the 17th most popular this year, with its share of narrative interest rising from 0.17% to 1.68% YoY as a key player in the AI agents space.
Stablecoins experienced the second largest ranking improvement from 31st last year to 16th this year, as its share of narrative interest rose from 0.48% to 1.69%. The increased popularity comes as competition in the stablecoins space heats up, with more protocols and chains seeking to launch their own stablecoins.
On the other hand, Base meme coins had the biggest ranking drop from 11th to 19th, after its share of narrative interest shrank from 2.13% to 1.40% YoY.
Meanwhile over this same period, six narratives entirely dropped out of the top 20 most popular rankings in 2025. In particular, gaming or GameFi saw its share of narrative interest fall from 3.72% to 1.30% YoY, DePIN went from 3.38% to 0.93%, and layer 2s from 2.25% to 0.94%. The remaining narratives around BRC-20, cat meme coins and the TON ecosystem did not even rank among the top 40. 
These were replaced by new narratives, namely Made in USA, DeFAI and World Liberty Financial portfolio, as well as the existing narratives of stablecoins, Virtuals Protocol ecosystem and BSC ecosystem which received more attention this year.
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Meme coins have once again emerged as the most popular crypto narrative in 2025, capturing a combined 25.02% of global investor interest across the main meme coin category and 35 meme coin trends. This is down from the 30.67% market share that the meme coin narrative held last year, which suggests that the mania for purely speculative crypto may be subsiding. However, it remains to be seen if crypto investors’ focus will finally shift toward narratives with strong fundamentals.
The main meme coin narrative led with a 12.48% share of crypto investor interest, which represents a slight decline from the 14.36% share recorded last year. Despite that, the main meme coin narrative remains ranked 1st for the second consecutive year, after holding the 3rd place in 2023.
Similarly, three other meme coin trends managed to continue ranking among the top 20 crypto narrative, following their 2024 popularity: Solana meme coins which came in 6th with a 4.57% share of interest, AI meme coins in 18th position with a 1.51% share, and Base meme coins right behind in 19th with 1.40% of interest. 
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Bitcoin briefly topped $92,000 on interest-rate uncertainty, while privacy coins hit fresh highs and memecoin activity lifted select altcoins.
Bitcoin rose more than 2.3% overnight, peaking at around $92,400 before giving back those gains during the European session.
The rally was sparked by the threat of criminal charges against Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, which caused gold and silver to rise by 2% and 5.6%, respectively.
Nasdaq 100 futures fell by around 1% while the dollar index (DXY) weakened following the news, suggesting uncertainty among traders regarding interest rates in the future.

Despite bitcoin now trading back at the weekend level of $90,700, several altcoins managed to hold onto their gains. Privacy coins monero
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$576.45
and zcash
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$403.28
led the wider rally.

Monero advanced to a record and currently trades at $576 having risen by more than 12% since 21:00 UTC on Sunday, while zcash added 3.8%.

The outperformance of a few altcoins is reflected in CoinMarketCap's "altcoin season" indicator, which is now printing 30/100 to lift itself out of "bitcoin season" and into a neutral zone for the first time since Nov. 18.

Derivatives positioning
Over $200 million in leveraged futures bets have been liquidated in 24 hours, with bullish bets accounting for 50% of the tally. The action indicates that the market pullback from the Asian session caught a lot of leveraged bets off guard.
Volmex's implied volatility indexes for BTC and ETH remain under pressure, pointing to expectations for reduced price turbulence and uncertainty in the short-term.
Open interest (OI) in futures tied to monero has increased to 369,000 XMR, the most since February last year. This increase alongside a price rise points to influx of new capital in the market and validates the uptrend.
The bullish positioning, however, is beginning to look overheated with annualized funding rates approaching 80%. That's the cost of holding bullish exposure.
OI in BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL, DOGE and other majors declined 1%-4% over 24 hours, indicating growing risk aversion.
Funding rates for most major tokens remain moderately positive, indicating a bullish bias.
On Deribit, BTC and ETH puts continued to trade at a premium to calls across all time frames, indicating a bias for downside protection.
Block flows show preference for an "iron condor" strategy in BTC, which is used when an asset is expected to stay within a stable, narrow price range with low volatility. In ETH's case, calendar spreads dominated flows.
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Disagreements over stablecoin rewards have frayed bipartisan support for the bill, with traders estimating a 68-70% chance of passage this year.
Coinbase is pressuring lawmakers to preserve its ability to pay users rewards for holding stablecoins, as Congress prepares to move forward on a sweeping crypto bill.
The Senate is set to mark up the U.S. crypto market-structure bill this week, but language targeting yield-bearing stablecoin accounts has emerged as a sticking point.
If the bill goes beyond disclosure requirements and restricts non-bank firms like the Nasdaq-listed crypto exchange Coinbase from offering rewards, the company may pull its support, Bloomberg reports, citing a person familiar with the matter.
At the center of the fight is Coinbase’s yield program for users who hold USDC, a dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Circle, on its platform. The exchange shares the interest generated from USDC reserves with users, and offers 3.5% rewards through its Coinbase One subscription.

That revenue, which stood at $355 million in the third quarter of the year, helps the company during market drawdowns where trading volume wanes.

A proposal backed by some banks would limit stablecoin yield programs to regulated financial institutions. Banks argue these rewards pull deposits away from the traditional financial system and could harm the “small business, farmers, students and home buyers” by displacing funds from community bank lending.

Crypto companies, including Coinbase, counter that such rules would stifle competition and undercut a model that’s already regulated under the July-passed GENIUS Act.

Coinbase’s chief policy officer, Faryar Shirzad, said on social media that banks have earned around $360 billion a year from parking around $3 trillion at the Federal Reserve and from card swipe fees. These earnings, he said, are threatened by stablecoin rewards as they “introduce real competition in payments.”

“Independent research from Cornell confirms it: stablecoin adoption does not reduce bank lending,” Shirzad said, citing a study on stablecoins and banking from Cornell University. “In fact, rewards would need to approach 6% to meaningfully affect deposits. No one is offering anything close to that.”
While the bill enjoys backing from the Trump administration, disagreements over stablecoin rewards have started to fray bipartisan support. On Polymarket, traders are weighing a 68% chance the bill is passed into law this year, while on Kalshi, those odds are at 70%.

Some lawmakers are weighing a compromise: allow only firms with banking licenses to offer rewards. Five crypto firms, including Circle, Ripple, and BitGo, have in December last year received conditional approvals to become federally chartered trust banks. But even that may not settle the issue, as companies would likely find alternative ways to reward users for holding funds with them.
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The stablecoin issuer’s previously undisclosed investment valued the lender at about $500 million, according to a person familiar with the transaction.

When stablecoin issuer Tether announced a "strategic investment" in Ledn, a lender of stablecoins and fiat against bitcoin
BTC
$90,939.57
collateral, in November, it chose to withhold details of the investment.

In fact, it paid between $40 million and $50 million at a valuation of $500 million, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

Neither Ledn nor Tether responded to requests for comment by publication time.

Tether, whose USDT is the No. 1 dollar-pegged token by market capitalization, has become increasingly acquisitive under CEO Paolo Ardoino, who took over in 2023. The company earns returns on the U.S. Treasuries it holds to back the stablecoin, and in October reported a nine-month profit of $10 billion.
The Ledn investment gives it a stake in a crypto financial services company focused on letting individuals and institutions earn yield on, borrow against, and manage digital assets. Last May, the company, registered in the Cayman Islands, said it was shifting to a bitcoin
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$90,954.84
-only model to simplify its offering and sharpen its focus.

Tether's acquisitive streak, however, extends beyond the crypto industry.

Last year, it acquired control of Adecoagro, an operator of sugar mills, rice farms, dairy businesses and renewable energy assets across Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. It also bought a 10% stake in Italian football club Juventus, though its offer for majority shareholder Exor's 65.4% stake was rejected.

The company kicked off 2026 by adding 8,888.88 BTC to its treasury as part of its fourth-quarter profit allocation. The purchase, worth about $780 million at current prices, underscores a strategy that has quietly turned the world’s largest stablecoin issuer into one of bitcoin’s biggest corporate holders.

It reflects a policy introduced in 2023 under which Tether allocates up to 15% of its realized quarterly operating profits to bitcoin, making it a systematic accumulator rather than an opportunistic buyer.

FT Partners served as financial adviser to Ledn on the strategic investment from Tether.
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The asset manager’s base case assumes bitcoin gains traction as a settlement tool and reserve asset over the next 25 years.
VanEck has outlined a long-term framework that values bitcoin at roughly $2.9 million by 2050, according to a research blog post published by the asset manager on Thursday.

The analysis, titled “Bitcoin Long-Term Capital Market Assumptions,” was authored by Matthew Sigel, the firm’s head of digital assets research, and Patrick Bush, a senior investment analyst for digital assets. In the post, Sigel presents what VanEck describes as a base-case valuation model for bitcoin extending through 2050, estimating an annualized return of about 15% over the period.

Rather than framing the estimate as a price target, the blog post characterizes it as a valuation exercise centered on how bitcoin could be utilized if adoption expands significantly beyond its current role as a trading asset. VanEck’s framework does not rely on traditional equity valuation metrics, but instead models bitcoin’s value through adoption scenarios.

Settlement layer and reserve asset
One key assumption in the base case is bitcoin’s use as a settlement asset in global trade. VanEck’s model assumes bitcoin could eventually handle between 5% and 10% of international trade settlement volume. Another assumption is that central banks gradually allocate a small portion of their reserves to bitcoin, reflecting diversification away from sovereign currencies over long time horizons.

Those assumptions represent a sharp departure from current conditions. As VanEck notes in the post, bitcoin today plays a negligible role in trade settlement and is not held as a reserve asset by major central banks. The firm acknowledges that its base case depends on regulatory clarity, operational infrastructure and political acceptance that have yet to materialize.

The authors also emphasize the volatility that would likely accompany such adoption. VanEck models long-term annualized volatility between roughly 40% and 70%, a range it compares to frontier markets rather than traditional financial assets. Even in its bear-case scenario, however, the firm still assumes positive long-term returns, reflecting what it describes as bitcoin’s growing structural relevance.

VanEck’s framework places particular emphasis on macroeconomic factors. According to the post, bitcoin’s historical price behavior has shown closer alignment with global liquidity trends than with equities or commodities. The firm argues that correlations with broad money supply growth, along with a weakening relationship with the U.S. dollar, suggest bitcoin’s drivers may be becoming more global over time.

From a portfolio perspective, the analysis suggests that relatively small allocations — typically ranging from 1% to 3% — have historically improved risk-adjusted returns in diversified portfolios. The firm stresses that this does not imply bitcoin is low-risk, but rather that its volatility has not translated proportionally into portfolio-level risk when position sizes are constrained.
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