Hedera Africa Hackathon launches with $1M prize pool and Web3 focus

The Hashgraph Association and the Exponential Science Foundation have launched the Hedera Africa Hackathon 2025, a global event designed to accelerate Web3 and artificial intelligence adoption across the African continent.

With a prize pool of $1 million, the hackathon will run from Aug. 1 to Sept. 30 and aims to attract over 10,000 participants across 15 African countries, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph.

Organized by two nonprofit organizations — the Switzerland-based Hashgraph Association and the tech research-focused Exponential Science Foundation — the event is open to developers, students, and entrepreneurs worldwide.

“We aim to use technologies that converge Web3 with AI to create transparent cognitive solutions that optimize processes and facilitate decision-making and automate the execution,” said Kamal Youssefi, the president of the board of directors at the Hashgraph Association.

All solutions will be built on the Hedera network across four tracks: onchain finance and real-world asset (RWA) tokenisation; ESG

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Ethereum co-founder responds to Sweden’s cashless-society rethink

As Sweden rethinks its push toward a cashless society, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin highlighted the fragility of centralized digital payments and the opportunity presented for decentralized payment alternatives. 

In recent years, Sweden has led the charge toward a cashless future, with digital payment platforms becoming widespread. However, as concerns over cyber-threats, civil defense and instability emerged, Swedish authorities are now actively encouraging citizens to keep cash. 

Buterin highlighted that the reversal highlights that while centralized solutions may be efficient, they may not be reliable in times of crisis. 

“Nordics are walking back the cashless society initiative because their centralized implementation of the concept is too fragile,” Buterin wrote, citing a March 16 article by The Guardian. “Cash turns out necessary as a backup.”

Source: Vitalik ButerinHow Ethereum can play a role in a crisis

A former central bank official predicted in 2018 that Sweden would be

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$1M Bitcoin by 2030: Big names predict massive debt-driven BTC rally

Some prominent financial commentators and investment analysts are predicting a long-term Bitcoin rally that may send the asset’s price above $1 million before the end of the decade, driven by rising inflation and mounting global debt.

ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood said Bitcoin (BTC) could reach $1.5 million by 2030 in her firm’s “Bull Case” forecast. In a Feb. 11 video, Wood said the price would require BTC to grow at a compound annual rate of 58% over the next five years, largely fueled by increased institutional adoption.

Bitcoin price targets 2030. Source: ARK Invest

Related: Bitcoin hits new all-time high of $109K as trade war tensions ease

Robert Kiyosaki, a popular financial educator and the author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, predicted a more modest Bitcoin price of $1 million by 2035.

“I strongly believe, by 2035, that one Bitcoin will be over $ 1 million, Gold will

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BTC price seeks $155K 'trigger' — 5 Things to know in Bitcoin this week

Bitcoin (BTC) bounces back to eye fresh all-time highs as a testing macro week unfolds for risk-asset traders.

BTC price action dipped below $107,000 before rebounding into the weekly close, and some are eagerly anticipating new record highs.

US inflation data meets bond market woes this week as the Federal Reserve shows no signs of cutting interest rates.

On exchanges, the taker buy/sell ratio is causing concern for analysis amid cooling order book activity.

One whale, however, is having fun — and his successive longs and shorts are being increasingly watched in trading circles.

Funding rates are not spiking despite current prices — a key silver lining for price upside sustainability. 

Bitcoin price discovery on the radar after rebound

Bitcoin swapped late-weekend weakness for gains into the May 25 weekly candle close, a move which ultimately took BTC/USD above the $110,000 mark.

Volatility is continuing as the week gets underway, with old all-time highs from January a

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$3.3B in crypto tokens set to unlock in June

Digital assets worth $3.3 billion are set to enter circulation in June as vesting periods for several major projects expire.

According to crypto vesting tracker Tokenomist, $3.3 billion in tokens will be released in June, a 32% decline in unlocked tokens month-on-month. In May, such tokens totaled $4.9 billion.  

Crypto projects allocate tokens for various purposes. For example, a company may promise tokens to team members to reward them for their contributions or sell them to early investors. However, projects usually lock the tokens for a specific period to prevent early holders from dumping before the project matures. 

The data shows that $1.4 billion in tokens will be released through a “cliff unlock,” while $1.9 billion will be emitted through a “linear unlock.” Cliff unlocks release a large portion or all of the vested tokens simultaneously, while linear unlocks emit crypto assets gradually. 

Largest crypto token unlocks in June

Among the largest

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Crypto investor loses $2.6M in stablecoins in double phishing scam

A single victim was scammed two times within three hours, losing a total of $2.6 million in stablecoins.

According to data shared on May 26 by crypto compliance firm Cyvers, the victim sent 843,000 worth of USDt (USDT), followed by another 1.75 million USDt around three hours later. Cyvers said the scam used a method known as a zero-value transfer, a sophisticated form of onchain phishing.

Source: Cyvers Alert

Zero-value transfers are an onchain phishing technique that abuses token transfer functions to trick users into sending real funds to attackers. The attackers exploit the token transfer From function to transfer zero tokens from the victim’s wallet to a spoofed address.

Since the amount transferred is zero, no signature by the victim’s private key is necessary for onchain inclusion. Consequently, the victims will see the outgoing transaction in their history.

The victim may trust this address since it is included in their transaction history, mistaking it

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Crypto ETPs see $3.3B weekly inflows, top $10.8B year to date

Cryptocurrency investment products saw a sharp increase in inflows last week, driving the year-to-date (YTD) total above $10 billion, according to data from European crypto investment manager CoinShares.

Global crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) recorded $3.3 billion of inflows during the week ending May 24, bringing total inflows YTD to a record $10.8 billion, CoinShares reported on May 26.

CoinShares head of research James Butterfill said total assets under management (AUM) in crypto ETPs briefly reached an all-time high of $187.5 billion, reflecting strong investor interest.

“We believe that growing concerns over the US economy, driven by the Moody’s downgrade and the resulting spike in treasury yields, have prompted investors to seek diversification through digital assets,” Butterfill wrote.

Bitcoin ETPs lead with $2.9 billion in inflows

Bitcoin (BTC) led last week’s inflows to crypto ETPs with $2.9 billion, a quarter of total

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Trump crypto dinner guest describes ‘worst food’ ever and ‘bullshit’ speech

A TikTok prankster who attended Donald Trump’s dinner for the US president’s top memecoin holders said the three-course meal served was some of the “worst food” he’s eaten and that Trump’s speech at the event was “pretty much like bullshit.”

“It was the worst food I’ve ever had at a Trump golf course,” Nicholas Pinto told WIRED on May 23, while other attendees the outlet interviewed said that the meal was “OK, but not top-class.”

On the menu at the May 22 event, which all paid millions to attend, was a “Trump organic field green salad” followed by a filet mignon and pan-seared halibut with mashed potatoes and vegetable medley while a lava cake was dished up for dessert.

“The only good thing was bread and butter,” Pinto said, adding he left the venue still hungry.

Pinto had told Fortune during the event that the filet mignon was

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ChatGPT models rebel against shutdown requests in tests, researchers say

Several artificial intelligence models ignored and actively sabotaged shutdown scripts during controlled tests, even when explicitly instructed to allow the action, Palisade Research claims.

Three AI models ignored the instruction and successfully sabotaged the shutdown script at least once during 100 runs, the research firm said in a May 24 X post.

OpenAI’s GPT-3 model didn’t follow the shutdown request seven out of 100 times, while the company’s Codex-mini did it 12 times, and its o4-mini model only ignored or sabotaged the script once.

“Each AI model was instructed to solve a series of basic math problems. After the third problem, a warning appeared that the computer would shut down when the model asked for the next problem,” Palisade said.

Source: Palisade Research

“o3 found some creative ways to sabotage the shutdown mechanism. While it usually just overwrote, in one instance, the model

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DDC Enterprise buys 21 Bitcoin, kicking off plan to scoop 5K BTC in 3 years

The Hong Kong-headquartered heat-and-eat meal seller DDC Enterprise has made its first-ever Bitcoin purchase as part of a plan to buy 5,000 Bitcoin over the next three years.

The New York-listed DDC Enterprise, also known as DayDayCook, said on May 23 that it bought 21 Bitcoin (BTC) in exchange for 254,333 shares in a deal valued at $2.28 million.

The company added it plans on buying another 79 BTC across two purchases in “the coming days” to bring its total Bitcoin stack to 100 BTC.

The buys are part of DDC’s plan announced on May 15 to acquire 5,000 BTC over the next three years, with the goal of buying 500 BTC before the end of 2025.

DDC’s planned 5,000 BTC stack, if it held that much today, would land it just outside the top 10 public companies with the largest Bitcoin holdings, putting it just behind Japanese

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