Sony Bank, the online lending subsidiary of Sony Financial Group, is reportedly preparing to launch a stablecoin that will enable payments across the Sony ecosystem in the US.
Sony is planning to issue a US dollar-pegged stablecoin in 2026 and expects it to be used for purchases of PlayStation games, subscriptions and anime content, Nikkei reported on Monday.
Targeting US customers — who make up roughly 30% of Sony Group’s external sales — the stablecoin is expected to sit alongside existing payment options such as credit cards, helping reduce fees paid to card networks, the report said.
Sony Bank applied in October for a banking license in the US to establish a stablecoin-focused subsidiary and has partnered with the US stablecoin issuer Bastion. Sony’s venture arm also joined Bastion’s $14.6 million raise, led by Coinbase Ventures.
Sony Bank has been actively venturing into Web3
Sony Bank’s stablecoin push in the US comes amid the company’s active venture into Web3, with the bank establishing a dedicated Web3 subsidiary in June.
“Digital assets utilizing blockchain technology are incorporated into a diverse range of services and business models,” Sony Bank said in a statement in May.
“Financial services, such as wallets, which store NFT [non-fungible tokens] and cryptocurrency assets, and crypto exchange providers are becoming increasingly important,” it added.
Sony Bank established a Web3 subsidiary with an initial capital of 300 million yen ($1.9 million) in June 2025. Source: Sony Bank
The Web3 unit, later named BlockBloom, aims to build an ecosystem that blends fans, artists, NFTs, digital and physical experiences, and both fiat and digital currencies.
Sony Bank’s stablecoin initiative follows the recent spin-off of its parent, Sony Financial Group, which was separated from Sony Group and listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in September.
The move was intended to decouple the financial arm’s balance sheet and operations from the broader Sony conglomerate, allowing each to sharpen its strategic focus.
Cointelegraph reached out to Sony Bank for comment regarding its potential US stablecoin launch, but had not received a response by the time of publication.
The new legislation builds on the Digital Asset Basic Act by adding detailed rules for stablecoin oversight.
The framework outlines how global stablecoins like USDT and USDC will be treated in Korea.
Officials warn delays could leave Korea behind other regions that tightened rules in 2025.
South Korea is taking a major step toward formalising how won-based stablecoins will be issued and supervised, after lawmakers settled a long-running dispute over who should control the process.
A closed-door meeting brought clarity to the core question of authority, with policymakers agreeing that banks should lead the effort while still allowing tech firms to participate.
The move comes at a time when crypto adoption is rising among people aged 20 to 50, and when global players continue to dominate stablecoin markets.
With a December deadline approaching, officials want to finalise a structure that supports innovation but keeps monetary stability at the centre of regulation.
Consortium model defines the role of banks and tech firms
A Dec. 1 report by Maeli Business Newspaper said lawmakers agreed on a consortium model where banks maintain majority control of stablecoin-issuing entities.
Tech companies will still be able to participate, but financial institutions will take the lead to reduce systemic risks.
The goal is to create a Korean-style stablecoin framework that mirrors the safeguards of traditional finance, with clear rules governing reserves, issuance, and supervision.
The model was designed to align with the Bank of Korea’s concerns about protecting the money supply.
It also provides a common structure for private companies, reducing the risk of fragmented products entering the market without consistent stability mechanisms.
By setting shared standards early, policymakers hope to shape a domestic stablecoin ecosystem that can support innovation without compromising financial security.
Government faces Dec. 10 deadline for its proposal
Senior Democratic Party lawmaker Kang Joon-hyun said the government must submit its proposal by Dec. 10. If it misses the deadline, lawmakers will move ahead with their own version of the bill.
The aim is to pass the legislation during the National Assembly’s January extraordinary session, after consultation with the ruling People Power Party and the president’s office.
This new act expands on the Digital Asset Basic Act passed earlier this year.
That earlier law established licensing rules for issuers, requirements for reserve protection, and compliance obligations for virtual asset service providers.
The upcoming bill fills in the remaining regulatory gaps by specifying how stablecoins should be managed when they operate like traditional financial instruments.
It also provides clearer guidance for US-based stablecoins such as USDT and USDC, which have become increasingly influential in Korea’s growing digital asset market.
Push to match progress in global markets
Officials warn that delays could leave Korean companies trailing behind their global competitors.
The US, EU, and Japan strengthened their stablecoin rules in 2025, creating a more defined landscape for exchanges and financial institutions.
Korean regulators want to avoid losing momentum, especially as domestic interest in crypto continues to rise.
The updated framework aims to reduce uncertainty for developers, financial firms, and exchanges.
By bringing digital assets closer to mainstream financial oversight, authorities hope to support responsible growth and give consumers access to well-regulated products.
The focus is on keeping the domestic market aligned with international standards while maintaining space for private-sector innovation.
Lawmakers discuss wider reforms on security and markets
The meeting also covered planned updates to financial security and capital-market rules.
After recent hacking incidents at major financial companies, officials intend to revise the Electronic Financial Transactions Act.
Proposed changes include tougher penalties and stronger enforcement following cyber breaches.
Lawmakers are also working with opposition parties on a set of capital-market reforms.
These include rules that would require mandatory tender offers in certain corporate situations.
They also plan to update share-allocation standards so that everyday investors have fairer access to offerings.
The goal is to improve transparency and strengthen market integrity as Korea reshapes its financial regulatory environment.
Japanese government bond yields have jumped to their highest level in decades, prompting some analysts to speculate that it could be behind the recent crypto market sell-off on Sunday.
Japan’s 10-year government bond yield hit 1.86% on Monday, its highest level since April 2008, according to MarketWatch.
Yields in the 10-year bonds have almost doubled in Japan over the past 12 months. Japan’s two-year bond yields also hit 1% for the first time since 2008.
While 1.86% is not a substantial yield from government bonds, it is significant because it marks a shift, as Japan has had a very low interest rate environment for decades, with negative or close to zero rates prevailing for the most part, and a very stable bond market.
This has encouraged institutional investors around the world to borrow low-interest Japanese yen to buy higher-yielding, riskier assets, in a strategy known as the “Yen Carry Trade.”
“Trillions borrowed in yen, deployed into US Treasurys, European bonds, emerging market debt, risk assets everywhere,” explained economics author Shanaka Anslem Perera, who said, “That anchor is now breaking.”
Japan’s 10-year bond prices hit their highest level since 2008. Source: MarketWatch
Japan’s bond yield hike is bad timing for US
Japanese institutions hold approximately $1.1 trillion in US Treasury securities, and is the largest foreign position, explained Perera.
“When domestic yields rise from nothing to nearly 2%, the math changes. Capital that flowed outward for decades faces pressure to repatriate.”
The timing couldn’t be worse for the United States, as it comes when the Federal Reserve terminates quantitative tightening, and when the US Treasury requires record issuance to finance $1.8 trillion deficits, he stated.
“When the world’s creditor nations stop funding the world’s debtor nations at artificially suppressed rates, the entire post-2008 financial architecture must reprice.”
Analysts warn of possible flight to safety ahead
This could impact the cryptocurrency market in several ways. Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies typically thrive in an era of ultra-loose monetary policy and low interest rates globally.
When Japan provided an abundance of cheap money through the carry trade, some of that capital flowed into riskier assets, such as crypto and US tech stocks.
If that liquidity reverses and flows back to Japan, there will be less speculative capital available for crypto markets.
“Crypto is usually the first place where all of this shows up. It sits at the highest end of the risk spectrum, so even small shifts in liquidity lead to sharp moves,” said DeFi market analyst “Wukong.”
If global bond markets reprice violently, investors typically flee to safety first, resulting in a sell-off of all risk assets as people scramble for cash and liquidity.
China’s central bank has flagged stablecoins as a risk and has promised to refresh its crackdown on crypto trading, which it has banned since 2021.
The People’s Bank of China said on Saturday, after a meeting with 12 other agencies, that “virtual currency speculation has resurfaced” due to various factors, posing new challenges for risk control.
“Virtual currencies do not have the same legal status as fiat currencies, lack legal tender status, and should not and cannot be used as currency in the market,” the bank said, according to a translation of its statement.
“Virtual currency-related business activities constitute illegal financial activities.”
China’s central bank banned crypto trading and mining in 2021, citing a need to curb crime and claiming that crypto posed a risk to the financial system.
Bank says stablecoins of concern
China’s central bank highlighted stablecoins as a particular concern, stating that the tokens weren’t meeting legal requirements and were being used in criminal activities.
“Stablecoins are a form of virtual currency, and currently cannot effectively meet requirements for customer identification and Anti-Money Laundering, posing a risk of being used for illegal activities such as money laundering, fundraising fraud, and illegal cross-border fund transfers,” the bank said.
The People’s Bank of China, headquartered in Beijing (pictured), noted stablecoins as a concern at an inter-agency meeting on Saturday. Source: Wikimedia
The bank said it would “persistently crack down on illegal financial activities” related to crypto to “maintain the stability of the economic and financial order.”
The 13 agencies that attended the meeting stated that they would “deepen coordination and cooperation” in tracking down crypto users by strengthening information sharing and enhancing monitoring capabilities.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that China had the third-highest share of Bitcoin (BTC) mining, with its market share reaching 14% by the end of October.
In August, China’s financial regulators reportedly instructed brokers to cancel seminars and stop promoting research on stablecoins over concerns that it could be exploited as a tool for fraudulent activities.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong opened the doors to licensing stablecoin issuers in July, but some tech companies suspended plans to launch stablecoins in the region after Chinese regulators reportedly intervened to pause the offerings.
White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks has fired back at The New York Times over a report detailing how his government advisory role could benefit his investments and his close associates.
Sacks said in a post to X that despite having “debunked in detail” the Times’ reporting over the past five months, the outlet continued to publish the article on Sunday about his supposed conflicts of interest.
“Today they evidently just threw up their hands and published this nothing burger,” Sacks wrote. “Anyone who reads the story carefully can see that they strung together a bunch of anecdotes that don’t support the headline.”
Sacks is a co-founder and partner at the venture firm Craft Ventures, and his special government employee role at the White House has drawn scrutiny in the past, with Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren saying in May that he is “financially invested in the crypto industry, positioning him to potentially profit from the crypto policy changes he makes at the White House.”
Before he became crypto czar, Sacks and Craft divested over $200 million in crypto and crypto-tied stocks, at least $85 million of which Sacks owned, but Sacks retained an interest in several illiquid investments of “private equity of digital asset-related companies.”
Sacks retains 20 crypto investments, The Times reports
The Times reported that its analysis of Sacks’ financial disclosure found he has retained 708 tech investments, 449 of which are AI-related and 20 are tied to crypto, all of which could benefit from the policies Sacks supports.
In one example of a perceived conflict in Sacks’ role, the outlet stated that Craft Ventures is invested in the crypto infrastructure company BitGo, which offers a stablecoin-as-a-service.
BitGo filed to go public in September, with regulatory filings showing Craft owned 7.8% of the company.
The Times noted that Sacks was a major backer of the stablecoin-regulating GENIUS Act, which was signed into law earlier this year. Many crypto commentators said this would boost the use and uptake of the tokens by institutions.
Other examples noted by the Times involved Sacks’ and Craft’s ties to companies involved with AI, which have skyrocketed in value as the White House and Wall Street bet on the technology’s potential.
The Times noted that Sacks’ ethics waivers, shared in March, stated he would sell his interests in AI and crypto; however, they don’t disclose when he sold the assets and do not detail the value of his remaining investments.
NYT created “bogus narrative,” says Sacks
In his X post, Sacks shared a letter to the Times sent by his lawyers at Clare Locke accusing the outlet of setting out “to write a hit piece” and giving their reporters “clear marching orders” to find conflicts of interest.
Sacks added it was “very clear how NYT willfully mischaracterized or ignored the facts to support their bogus narrative.”
Sacks’ spokesperson Jessica Hoffman told the Times that he has complied with rules for special government employees, and the Office of Government Ethics said that Sacks should sell his investments in certain types of companies but not others.
Sacks’ role as a special government employee is limited to 130 days, and in September, Democratic lawmakers questioned whether he had exceeded the number of days allowed with his appointment.
However, Sacks reportedly carefully manages the days he spends as a special government employee to ensure that he stays under the limit.
North Korean state-backed hackers, the Lazarus Group, primarily employed spear phishing attacks to steal funds over the last year, with the group receiving the most mentions in post-hack analyses over the last 12 months, according to South Korean cybersecurity company AhnLab.
Spear phishing is one of the most popular methods of attack by bad actors like Lazarus, using fake emails, “disguised as lecture invitations or interview requests,” AhnLab analysts said in the Nov. 26, 2025, Cyber Threat Trends & 2026 Security Outlook report.
Spear phishing attacks are a more sophisticated version of phishing that typically requires research and planning from the attacker. Source: Kaspersky
Spear phishing attacks are a targeted form of phishing where hackers research their intended target to gather information and masquerade as a trusted sender, thereby stealing a victim’s credentials, installing malware, or gaining access to sensitive systems.
Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky recommends the following methods to protect against spear phishing: using a VPN to encrypt all online activity, avoiding the sharing of excessive personal details online, verifying the source of an email or communication through an alternative channel, and, where possible, enabling multifactor or biometric authentication.
‘Multi-layered defense’ needed to combat bad actors
The Lazarus Group has targeted the crypto space, finance, IT and defense, according to AhnLab, and was also the most frequently mentioned group in after-hack analysis between October 2024 and September 2025 this year, with 31 disclosures.
Fellow North Korean-linked hacker outfit Kimsuky was next with 27 disclosures, followed by TA-RedAnt with 17.
AhnLab said a “multi-layered defense system is essential” for companies hoping to curb attacks, such as regular security audits, keeping software up to date with the latest patches and education for staff members on various attack vectors.
Meanwhile, the cybersecurity company recommends individuals adopt multifactor authentication, keep all security software up to date, avoid running unverified URLs and attachments, and only download content from verified official channels.
AI will make bad actors more effective
Going into 2026, AhnLab warned that new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, will only make bad actors more efficient and their attacks more sophisticated.
Attackers are already capable of using AI to create phishing websites and emails that are difficult to distinguish with the naked eye, AhnLab said, but AI can “produce various modified codes to evade detection,” and make spear phishing more efficient through deepfakes.
“With the recent increase in the use of AI models, deepfake attacks, such as those that steal prompt data, are expected to evolve to a level that makes it difficult for victims to identify them. Particular attention will be required to prevent leaks and to secure data to prevent them.”
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the world’s largest financial derivatives exchange, halted trading for about 10 hours from Thursday into Friday, causing an outcry from traders before service was restored.
Trading halted due to a “cooling issue” at the CyrusOne data center in Illinois, a US state, according to an announcement from the CME. Trading was fully restored, and trading for all markets resumed at 1:30 pm UTC on Friday, the CME said in an update.
Meanwhile, traders voiced their discontent with the critical failure, which locked some users in their positions, prevented others from placing new trades, and halted price discovery.
Stock trader Timothy Bozman accused the CME of market manipulation and asked how “a simple issue could take down CME’s entire futures platform?”
“Very convenient that this happens in Asia on Thanksgiving Day, when there’s already low volume. Sounds like you’re trying to manipulate the markets quickly in a certain direction,” another X user said.
The backlash from traders continued even after the issue was fixed, with many saying that trading halted minutes before silver futures contracts hit an all-time high of $54, further fueling speculations.
Bitcoin futures contracts continue to climb after market halt
The CME does not publish regular trading data for Thanksgiving Day, which occurred on Thursday this year. However, Bitcoin futures contracts closed on Wednesday at $90,355 and opened at $90,940 on Friday, according to data from TradingView.
Bitcoin futures prices continued to climb on Friday, rising to over $93,000 at the time of this writing, as BTC rebounds from the local bottom of $80,522.
Bitcoin futures rebound from the recent low. Source: TradingView
Analysts say BTC faces resistance at $95,000, but if the cryptocurrency can reclaim $95,000 as support, it could bounce back into the $100,000 territory.
The recent dip to just over $80,000 marked the market’s lowest point, according to investor and analyst Arthur Hayes, who said that easing liquidity conditions will take BTC to higher levels in 2026, warning that another short-term drop might also occur in the meantime.
This week, cryptocurrency markets staged a long-awaited recovery, following four consecutive weeks of downside momentum.
Bitcoin’s (BTC) price reclaimed the $90,000 psychological mark on Wednesday, bringing some much-needed relief for Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) holders, who were once again back in profit as BTC traded above the key $89,600 flow-weighted cost basis of ETF buyers.
Bolstering investor sentiment, Cathie Wood, the CEO and chief investment officer of ARK Invest, said the company’s $1.5 million Bitcoin bull market price prediction remained unchanged, pointing to billions in returning liquidity following the end of the US government shutdown.
The crypto market recovery followed a sharp increase in expectations of interest rate cuts in the US, with odds rising by 46% in a week. Markets are pricing in an 85% chance of a 25 basis point interest rate cut at the US Federal Reserve’s Dec. 10 meeting, up from 39% a week before, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
However, Bitcoin is still facing the worst November in seven years, as the world’s first cryptocurrency is down about 17% on the monthly chart, despite the month averaging 41% historic Bitcoin returns, according to blockchain data provider CoinGlass.
Cathie Wood says ARK’s $1.5 million Bitcoin bull price hasn’t changed as markets eye rally
Equities and cryptocurrency markets may be setting up for a year-end reversal as liquidity improves and US monetary policy turns more supportive following the end of the record government shutdown.
Improving market conditions will be driven by the increasing liquidity, which has already returned $70 billion into markets since the end of the US government shutdown, with another $300 billion expected to return over the next five to six weeks as the Treasury General Account normalizes, according to investment management company ARK Invest.
Another potential catalyst will arrive on Dec. 1, when the US Federal Reserve is scheduled to end its quantitative tightening program and pivot toward quantitative easing, a shift that involves bond-buying to lower borrowing costs and stimulate economic activity.
“With liquidity returning, quantitative tightening (QT) ending December 1st, and monetary policy turning supportive, we believe conditions are building for markets to potentially reverse recent drawdowns,” wrote Ark in a Wednesday X post.
The current “liquidity squeeze” limiting the upside of the cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence markets is set to “reverse in the next few weeks,” wrote Cathie Wood, the CEO and chief investment officer of ARK Invest, in a Thursday X post.
Earlier in April, ARK Invest predicted a 2030 Bitcoin (BTC) price target of $1.5 million in the company’s “bull case,” and a $300,000 price target in the “bear case.”
Bitcoin price target for 2030. Source: Ark-invest.com
Despite the recent crypto market correction and stablecoins subtracting from Bitcoin’s role as a safe-haven asset, the bullish price target remains unchanged.
“The stablecoins have accelerated, taking some of the role away from Bitcoin that we expected,” but the “gold price appreciation has been far greater than we expected,” explained Wood during a webinar on Monday, adding:
“So net, our bull price, which most people focus on, really hasn’t changed.”
Webinar by Cathie Wood, the CEO and chief investment officer of ARK Invest. Source: Ark-funds.com
UK takes “meaningful step forward” with proposed DeFi tax overhaul
The UK has floated a new tax framework that eases the burden on decentralized finance (DeFi) users, with deferred capital gains taxes on crypto lending and liquidity pool users until the underlying token is sold, which the local industry has welcomed.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) proposed on Wednesday a “no gain, no loss” approach to DeFi that would cover lending out a token and receiving the same type back, borrowing arrangements and moving tokens into a liquidity pool.
Taxable gains or losses would be calculated when liquidity tokens are redeemed, based on the number of tokens a user receives back compared to the number they originally contributed, according to the proposal.
Currently, when a user deposits funds into a protocol, regardless of the reason, the move may be subject to capital gains tax. In the UK, capital gains tax rates can vary from 18% and 32%, depending on the action.
Tax framework a “positive signal” for UK crypto regulation
Sian Morton, marketing lead at the crosschain payments system Relay protocol, said HMRC’s no gain, no loss approach is a “meaningful step forward for UK DeFi users who borrow stablecoins against their crypto collateral, and moves tax treatment closer to the actual economic reality of these interactions.”
“A positive signal for the UK’s evolving stance on crypto regulation,” she added.
Maria Riivari, a lawyer at the DeFi platform Aave, said the change “would bring clarity that DeFi transactions do not trigger tax until you truly sell your tokens.”
“Other countries facing similar questions may want to take note of HMRC’s approach and the depth of research and consideration behind it,” she added.
DWF Labs launches $75 million fund for “institutional phase” of DeFi
Crypto market maker and Web3 investment firm DWF Labs says it is investing up to $75 million in decentralized finance projects that could support institutional adoption.
The company shared its announcement via X on Wednesday, saying the fund will support projects with “innovative value” propositions that can scale to support large-scale adoption.
“The initiative will target blockchain projects building dark-pool perpetual DEXs, decentralized money markets, and fixed-income or yield-bearing asset products, […] areas the firm believes are poised for major growth as crypto liquidity continues its structural migration onchain,” DWF Labs said.
“DeFi is entering its institutional phase,” he said, adding: “We’re seeing real demand for infrastructure that can handle size, protect order flow, and generate sustainable yield.”
The fund will focus on projects built across Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain and Solana, as well as Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 Base.
Alongside capital injections, DWF Labs will also offer support in ways such as “TVL and crypto liquidity provisioning, hands-on go-to-market strategy and execution support,” access to partnered exchanges, market makers, infrastructure providers and institutions in crypto.
Balancer community proposes plan to distribute funds recovered from hack
Two members of the Balancer protocol community submitted a proposal on Thursday outlining a distribution plan for a portion of the funds recovered from the protocol’s $116 million November exploit.
About $28 million from the $116 million heist was recovered by white hat hackers, internal rescuers and StakeWise — an Ether (ETH) liquid staking platform.
However, the proposal covers only the $8 million recovered by white hat hackers and internal rescue teams, while the nearly $20 million retrieved by StakeWise will be distributed separately to its users.
Balancer community proposal to distribute recovered funds. Source: Balancer
The authors proposed that all reimbursements should be non-socialized, meaning that funds would be distributed only to the specific liquidity pools that lost the funds and paid out on a pro-rata basis according to each holder’s share in the liquidity pool, represented by Balancer Pool Tokens (BPT).
Reimbursements should also be paid in-kind, with victims of the hack receiving payment denominated in the tokens they lost to avoid price mismatches between different digital assets, according to the authors.
The Balancer hack was one of the “most sophisticated” attacks in 2025, according to Deddy Lavid, the CEO of blockchain cybersecurity company Cyvers, highlighting the need for crypto user safety as security threats continue to evolve.
Nasdaq-listed Enlivex plans $212 million RAIN token play with ex-Italian PM onboard
A Nasdaq-listed biotech firm is raising $212 million in a late-cycle pivot into crypto, planning to buy the token of a decentralized prediction market even as other digital-asset treasuries (DATs) struggle to stay afloat.
Enlivex Therapeutics (ENLV), a clinical-stage macrophage reprogramming immunotherapy company, said on Monday it plans to raise $212 million through private investment in public equity, selling 212 million shares at $1 each. The price represents an 11.5% discount to Friday’s close, according to the company’s filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company plans to invest the majority of the $212 million in Rain (RAIN), the utility token behind the Rain decentralized prediction market on the Arbitrum network, marking the first corporate strategy centered on a prediction market token, according to a Monday announcement shared with Cointelegraph.
“We see prediction markets as one of the most exciting emerging sectors in the blockchain space,” with “exceptional” long-term growth potential, Shai Novik, executive chairman at Enlivex Therapeutics, told Cointelegraph.
“By entering now, we benefit from a first-mover advantage in a fundamentally strong category.”
When asked about the reason for choosing the Rain protocol, Novik said that its “decentralized” architecture stood out, as it serves as a “scalable model which supports global access and growth.”
Enlivex expects to complete its Rain purchases within 30 days of the offering’s close.
According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, most of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization ended the week in the green.
The SPX6900 (SPX) memecoin rose over 43% as the week’s biggest winner, followed by the Layer-1 blockchain Kaspa’s (KAS) token, up 39% during the past week.
Total value locked in DeFi. Source: DefiLlama
Thanks for reading our summary of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education regarding this dynamically advancing space.
The Cocoon decentralized AI network, a privacy-preserving distributed computing platform built on The Open Network (TON) — an independent layer-1 blockchain associated with the Telegram messaging application — went live on Sunday.
Cocoon allows owners of graphics processing units (GPUs) to rent their computing power to the network, processing user queries and requests in return for Toncoin (TON), the native token of the TON blockchain.
The decentralized AI network has processed its first requests from users, and GPU owners are already profiting from renting out their hardware, according to Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov. He said:
“Centralized compute providers such as Amazon and Microsoft act as expensive intermediaries that drive up prices and reduce privacy. Cocoon solves both the economic and confidentiality issues associated with legacy AI compute providers.”
Durov announced the release of Cocoon at the Blockchain Life 2025 conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), in October, as an answer to user demand for an AI platform that would protect privacy and data from large, centralized AI service providers.
The blockchain community, privacy advocates, and cypherpunks have long warned against the negative social effects of centralized AI, advocating for decentralized AI networks as a public good.
Durov announces Cocoon at the Blockchain Life 2025 conference in Dubai. Source: Blockchain Life 2025
Decentralized AI and self-sovereignty: an antidote to a centralized dystopia
Centralized AI systems give governments and corporations enormous leverage over individuals that can compromise user privacy, threaten traditional cybersecurity safeguards, and lead to social conditioning by organized actors, David Holtzman, chief strategy officer of the Naoris decentralized security protocol, told Cointelegraph.
These threats can be mitigated by applying blockchain technology to AI to verify sources of information, ensure tamper-proof records, and allow nodes on distributed computing networks to communicate in a trustless way, he added.
In 2024, AI researchers from the Dfinity Foundation, the non-profit organization that steers development of the Internet Computer Protocol (ICP), and executives from decentralized AI developer Onicai outlined seven rules to ensure ethical AI.
These included running AI through permissionless blockchain networks to ensure transparency and data integrity.
A poll conducted by the Digital Currency Group (DCG) in May showed that 77% of the 2,036 respondents surveyed said that decentralized AI would benefit society more than centralized systems.
Greenidge Generation Holdings, a Bitcoin (BTC) mining company, disclosed that a fire broke out at its mining facility in Dresden, New York, where it co-hosts operations with mining company NYDIG.
The fire broke out on Sunday due to an “electrical switchgear failure,” forcing the company to de-energize the entire facility, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.
The fire did not damage the mining rigs, and the company said it would resume normal operations within a “few weeks,” without providing specific dates.
Greenidge disclosed the fire at the Dresden, New York, facility in a recent SEC filing. Source: Greenidge
Greenidge’s Dresden site generates 106 megawatts of natural gas energy to power its mining operations and machines co-hosted with NYDIG, according to TheMinerMag.
The downtime caused by the fire showcased the challenges of commercial mining operations, which operate on thin margins and must weather supply chain issues, high energy costs, equipment failures, dwindling block rewards, and regulatory hurdles to remain profitable.
The latest headwinds to hit the mining industry are straining miners even more
Hashprice, a critical metric for miner profitability that measures expected profits per unit of computing power, dropped to about $35 petahashes per second (PH/s) in November as BTC plunged to lows of about $80,000.
For context, mining operations typically become unprofitable around the $40 PH/s level. The hash price is back to about $39 PH/s at the time of this writing, according to Hashrate Index.
Bitcoin mining hash price August-November 2025. Source: Hashrate Index
Stablecoin issuer Tether confirmed it shut down its mining operations in Uruguay on Tuesday, citing surging energy costs as the main reason for the exit.
The company was also in a dispute with a local state-owned energy provider over $4.8 million in unpaid energy bills and fees.
The officials are probing whether Bitmain’s application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), the hardware used to mine proof-of-work (PoW) cryptocurrencies, could be remotely accessed and used for espionage.
Bitmain is a Chinese company that has about an 80% market share of mining hardware, and any potential ban could make things even more challenging for the mining industry.
