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Crypto Trends

Adam Back Warns Against Rise of ‘JPEG Spam’

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Adam Back, an early Bitcoin developer and the co-founder and CEO of Blockstream, has weighed in on the debate about what he calls “JPEG spam” on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Back argues that it undermines the cryptocurrency’s core purpose as money in a thread on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday.

Bitcoin should be considered “owned by humanity” with developers acting as “stewards” who require user consensus to change the network materially, Back said. That principle, he added, was reinforced during the block-size wars of 2015–2017, when user-led economic pressure stopped miners from pushing through protocol changes.

Back took aim at the surge of JPEG inscriptions—images stored directly on Bitcoin through the Taproot upgrade and the Ordinals protocol that it helped spawn.

The number of JPEGs embedded in Bitcoin’s ledger has risen from 88 million in May to 105 million in September, a 20% increase. Fees tied to these inscriptions total roughly 7,000 BTC ($777 million).

Bitcoin’s core mission

The proponents of developments enabled by the Taproot upgrade, such as Ordinals, meanwhile, argue that as long as users are willing to pay for block space, they are a valid use of the network.

Being a permissionless system, there should be no dictating of what Bitcoin can and cannot be used for, as this goes against the ethos of decentralization upon which it was built.

Furthermore, the “JPEG spam” also strengthens the economic incentive for miners to maintain the Bitcoin network, which could become increasingly vital as the block rewards they receive are cut by 50% every four years.

While miners benefit from higher fees, Back argues the effect is minimal once the hashrate has increased and costs are factored in. He estimated that JPEG inscriptions may contribute just 0.1% to mining profits, far outweighed by potential reputational harm, higher transaction costs for ordinary users, and reduced accessibility to Bitcoin’s core function as a peer-to-peer money system.

Divided community

The issue is therefore a divisive one in the Bitcoin community.

Supporters view inscriptions as legitimate economic activity and the use of the blockchain. Critics, including Back, say they waste block space and displace activity that strengthens Bitcoin’s value proposition.

Back floated possible remedies, including outreach to miners and pools to discourage processing such transactions, and wallet-level changes that could steer fees toward those rejecting them. While warning of centralization risks, he suggested even small economic nudges could make mining JPEG inscriptions unprofitable.

Read more: Bitcoin Debate on Looser Data Limits Brings to Mind the Divisive Ordinals Controversy



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Crypto Trends

Billionaire Ray Dalio Links Bitcoin’s Rise to ‘Debt-Fueled Heart Attack’ in U.S.

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In brief

  • Ray Dalio said the U.S. is risking a “debt-fueled heart attack”
  • The value of money would be negatively affected if the Federal Reserve is eventually forced to intervene in the bond market.
  • He compared digital assets to hard currencies.

The U.S. economy is staring down a debt-fueled heart attack within the next few years, but that will likely buoy cryptocurrency prices, according to veteran asset manager Ray Dalio.

In an interview with the Financial Times, the Bridgewater Associates founder linked a rise in the price of digital assets and gold to America’s overwhelming debt burden, which isn’t improving, according to a transcript of the conversation that he posted to X on Wednesday.

The U.S. government is spending more money than it’s taking in, while servicing enormous amounts of debt. And as the government borrows more to cover budget shortfalls, while managing its existing burden, creditors could eventually cause trouble, Dalio said.



Creditors will sell U.S. debt as they grow worried about its ability to function as a store of value, he said. That will likely put the Federal Reserve in a tough position, Dalio added, where it has to decide between rising interest rates and a debt default crisis or printing money to buy debt and “try to hold real interest rates down, which will lower the value of money.”

The billionaire, who foresaw the 2008 financial meltdown, described it as the “traumatic last phase” of a “big debt cycle,” where over the course of history, excessive debt has culminated in an economic contraction and systematic crisis.

To that point, Dalio said that deregulation isn’t a threat to governments’ use of fiat currencies in stabilizing economies or facilitating international trade. It is rather unhealthy debt levels, he said, that are eroding the status of currencies like the greenback across several sovereigns.

“I do see the dollar and the other reserve currency governments’ bad debt situations as threatening to their appeals as reserve currencies and storeholds of wealth, which is what has been contributing to the rises in gold and cryptocurrency prices,” he said.

Bitcoin and gold have surged this year. The precious metal’s price has increased 38% year-to-date, hitting an all-time high of $3,530 per ounce Wednesday, according to Trading Economics. Bitcoin’s price has increased 20% to $112,000 over the same period, according to crypto data provider CoinGecko.

Dalio’s latest assessment of the U.S. economy follows the passage of the GENIUS Act, a federal framework for stablecoins. Dalio said that a decline in the purchasing power of U.S. Treasuries “shouldn’t produce any systematic risk” for them, if they are well regulated.

Dalio said cryptocurrencies resemble hard currencies, partly due to their so-called tokenomics. Bitcoin’s total supply, for example, is capped at 21 million, while the government can theoretically print an unlimited amount of money.

“Crypto is now an alternative currency that has its supply limited, so, all things being equal, if the supply of dollar money rises and/or the demand for it falls, that would likely make crypto an attractive alternative currency,” he said.

In late July, Dalio urged investors to allocate 15% of their portfolios to Bitcoin and gold. It’s a macroeconomic hedge amid increasing risks in bond and equity markets, he said.

Dalio expressed a preference for gold, arguing that a central bank is unlikely to adopt the leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization as a reserve currency. Still, the outlook for some fiat currencies is bleak, he said in the interview with the Financial Times.

“I think that most fiat currencies, especially those with large debts, will have problems being effective storeholds of wealth and will go down in value relative to hard currencies,” he said, pointing to parallels between the coming years and two periods in the 20th century.

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PENGU price drops 35% but September rebound hopes rise
Crypto Trends

PENGU price drops 35% but September rebound hopes rise

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PENGU price has fallen sharply from its late-July peak, yet analysts suggest the decline could set the stage for a stronger rebound in September.

Summary

  • PENGU trades at $0.027, down 35% from July’s local high.
  • NFT market slump and ETH pullback drove selling pressure.
  • Analysts see September catalysts as setup for a rebound.

The Pudgy Penguins (PENGU) token is trading at $0.027 as of press time, down roughly 35% from its July 28 local high of $0.043. After declining 13% over the past week and 20% over the past 30 days, the token is nearly 60% below its peak of $0.068 set in December 2024. 

Despite the price decline, trading activity is still strong. PENGU recorded $214.8 million in spot volume over the past 24 hours, up 15% from the day before. Derivatives data from Coinglass show futures turnover rising 24% to $586 million, while open interest dropped 5.3% to $275 million.

During a pullback, rising volume combined with declining open interest often shows that traders are closing positions rather than building new leverage, indicating cautious sentiment.

PENGU price market drivers and sentiment shift

PENGU’s drop is a reflection of the overall cooling of the NFT market, whose monthly volume dropped from a peak of $8.2 billion on Aug. 14 to $6 billion as of press time. Ethereum’s (ETH) price retreat also weighed on valuations despite positive ecosystem developments.

The transition of PENGU from an NFT-linked token to a utility-driven brand has been taking place. The launch of Pudgy Party, a Web3 mobile game on Aug. 29 that quickly surpassed 50,000 downloads and ranked in the top 10 of the App Store, introduced direct utility for the token through in-game purchases and staking rewards.

Short-term on-chain demand, including activity tied to Pudgy Penguins’ mobile game downloads, has not offset profit-taking and portfolio rebalancing by holders.

Still, analyst Ali Martinez suggested in a Sept. 1 post on X that the correction looks like a healthy pause before the next leg higher, pointing to September as a potential turning point for momentum.

PENGU price technical analysis

Chart indicators point to consolidation at current levels. The relative strength index, which is presently trading at about 41, a neutral zone just above oversold territory, suggests that there may be room for growth if buyers step in. The Williams %R has already entered deep oversold conditions, historically a reversal zone for PENGU.

PENGU daily chart. Credit: crypto.news

Momentum and MACD levels remain negative, and most short- and mid-term moving averages are skewed downward, suggesting short-term bearish pressure. However, the 100-day and 200-day averages continue to be supportive and could sustain the longer-term trend.

If $0.027 continues to be a support base, the next upward target is near $0.032, which is consistent with the 20-day moving average. If current levels are not defended, there may be a retest of the $0.025 region.

Given that Q4 usually signifies periods of peak momentum and September is believed to be a historically active month for cryptocurrency markets, the token’s position around significant support levels may determine its next move.



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IREN Post First Full-Year Profit, Shares Rise
Crypto Trends

IREN Post First Full-Year Profit, Shares Rise

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Bitcoin BTC$109,698.58 miner IREN (IREN) posted its first full-year profit as the company founded in 2018 expanded into AI cloud computing and ramped up production capacity with more efficient rigs. The stock climbed in pre-market trading.

Net income in the year ended June 30 rose to $86.9 million from a loss of $28.9 million the year before, IREN said on its website on Thursday. Revenue more than doubled to a record $501 million as the Sydney-based company increased production capacity to 50 exahashes per second (EH/s). Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) surged to $269.7 million, nearly five times last year’s level,

With nearly 3 gigawatts of contracted power and expansion in both bitcoin mining and AI infrastructure, IREN has positioned itself as one of the sector’s fastest-growing participants. Market cap, currently $5.3 million, is on the verge of overtaking its largest rival, MARA Holdings (MARA), which is valued at under $6 billion, Farside Investors data shows.

The Nasdaq-traded stock rose 13% before the market opening, adding to the year’s existing gain of more than 120%.

Mining operations generated more than $1 billion in annualized revenue, while the AI cloud unit is on track for as much as $250 million in annualized revenue by December, the company said. It has 10,900 NVIDIA GPUs already deployed and capacity for more than 60,000 GPUs across existing sites.



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NFT Gaming

Bitcoin, Solana Rise as Investors Weigh Nvidia Earnings, Strong GDP Data

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In brief

  • Nvidia disclosed $46 billion in second-quarter profit.
  • The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 3.3% in Q2.
  • Solana was up 2.3%, as one analyst pointed to interest from treasury firms.

The price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies rose on Thursday as investors mulled the strength of Nvidia’s earnings and signs of a stronger-than-expected U.S. economy.

Bitcoin changed hands around $113,000, a 0.9% increase over the past day, according to crypto data provider CoinGecko. Solana meanwhile rose 2.3% to $212. SOL was up nearly 5% at one point before retreating. 

Ethereum and XRP dropped dropped 2.7% and 0.8%, respectively. ETH was trading near $4,500, well off its all-time high set over the weekend.

Nvidia disclosed record profits on Wednesday alongside its ninth straight quarter of year-over-year revenue growth of over 50%. The company took in $46 billion during the second quarter, despite not selling any of its advanced AI chips to China over the period.

The chipmaker’s shares fell 1.3% on Thursday to $179, according to Yahoo Finance. They are still up 2.6% on the week and 34% year-to-date, signaling that conviction in artificial intelligence is continuing to drive sky-high valuations on Wall Street.

For Bitcoin, Nvidia’s fortunes are relevant. The chipmaker has an 8.8% weighting in the S&P 500, so any swing in the $4.4 trillion company’s stock price could affect the market’s top cryptocurrency by market value, given the correlation between crypto and equities.

The U.S. Commerce Department said on Thursday that gross domestic product rose at an annualized rate of 3.3% in the second quarter. Economists initially expected the U.S. economy would grow at a 3.0% annualized rate, suggesting that the U.S. economy performed better under the president’s trade zig zags on tariffs and other trade policies.

Solana’s performance was notable on Thursday, considering that the latest rally in crypto prices has been marked by Ethereum’s strength and climb to a new all-time high.

Since Aug. 10, however, Solana has shown “relative strength” against Bitcoin and Ethereum, with price ratios recovering from recent lows, according to Jake Ostrovskis, an OTC transfer at the crypto market maker Wintermute.



The cryptocurrency has returned to focus amid “growing interest in treasuries targeting the asset,” Ostrovskis said. Earlier this week, The Information reported that venture capital firm Pantera Capital is seeking to raise $1.25 billion for a Nasdaq-listed vehicle that would hold Solana.

Solana treasury firms have the potential to absorb defunct crypto exchange FTX’s vesting supply of tokens, which equates to around 609,000 SOL each month. The bankrupt exchange started making repayments to customers in February.

“By converting this ‘overhang’ into staked, treasury-held assets, effective circulating supply shrinks, countering downward pressure and setting the stage for sustained upside,” Ostrovskis said.

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Gaming Gear

AI's rise to the C-suite: how algorithms earned a seat at the table

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Artificial intelligence has become a back-office powerhouse and essential resource for sifting through data, optimizing processes, and automating the repetitive. But as AI tools become more accessible, they are no longer just crunching numbers behind the scenes. Executives are increasingly turning to these platforms as a trusted advisor for providing strategic insight and informing business decisions.

Our recent survey found that nearly three-quarters (74%) of executives trust AI’s input over that of friends or colleagues. Even more striking, 44% said they would allow generative AI to override a decision they had already planned to make. These findings mark a profound shift in how leadership decisions are made.

Traditionally, executives have relied on a blend of data, gut instinct, and conversations with trusted advisors. Now, AI is earning a spot in the inner circle, signaling a fundamental redefinition of how leaders pair human insight with machine intelligence to drive better outcomes.

AI as Strategic Co-Pilot

As companies prepare for an AI-focused future, business operations are being rewritten. Companies in every industry are looking for ways to incorporate AI that can help them build even the smallest competitive advantage. As a result, AI is taking on a new role as the C-suite’s strategic copilot, handling tasks like data analysis and recommendations (52%), uncovering hidden risks (48%) and presenting alternate strategic paths (47%).

AI is helping leaders go deeper—to challenge assumptions, test new scenarios, and make more informed decisions about how their business operates. But even in everyday life, AI is finding valuable and exciting uses, with some guardrails.

I’ve used it to help plan family vacations and generate personalized bedtime stories for my children. While it struggles to manage complex scheduling (and the nuances of how I manage my calendar), AI has transformed how I approach and solve many problems, offering a helpful sounding board for tasks in both my personal and professional life.

SAP CEO Christian Klein recently shared that he uses generative AI to preview quarterly earnings results and better understand company performance.

AI’s influence extends to other roles in the C-suite as well, from automated anomaly detection in financial transactions for CFOs, to streamlining contract reviews and generation of new contracts for CPOs, to COOs needing to evaluate capacity planning and manage variability in market demand.

And, of course, there is always the most common use case of all – summarizing complex documents and topics, and generating subsequent action items.

We’re far from alone. More leaders are beginning to incorporate AI into the highest levels of planning and forecasting.

Critical Thinking and the Human Touch

As AI’s influence in the boardroom grows, so does the trust leaders place in it. Part of this stems from AI’s growing ability to analyze massive volumes of data and provide contextually rich insights. In some situations, AI is usurping the guidance of near and dear advisors as previously mentioned. A trusted colleague might offer valuable perspective, but they haven’t parsed two billion data points before weighing in.

Still, there are limits. While executives should continue to use AI to help with business matters, there’s a risk that critical thinking will be lost rather than enhanced as a result. True strategic decision-making will always require a human touch—which AI can’t replicate.

Going forward, executives must strike a careful balance, keeping people involved to help make complicated and high-value strategic decisions, while using AI to enhance their thinking, not replace it.

Building a Foundation for Strategic AI Use

Such heightened reliance on AI will also force organizations to grapple with foundational challenges. The reality is that many companies still lack the reliable data infrastructure needed to support high-trust AI use. Lack of alignment between IT and business teams, patchy system integration and concerns about data quality all threaten to undermine the effectiveness of AI as a strategic advisor.

Companies must establish clear guardrails, like those below, to ensure these tools are used reliably and responsibly, balancing speed and scale with transparency and human input.

  • Develop AI literacy across leadership through dedicated training and upskilling programs.
  • Prioritize transparency by using platforms that can explain their reasoning in clear, understandable terms.
  • Define boundaries for where and how AI should influence decision-making, particularly in ethically sensitive or high-risk areas.

Co-Creation: The Future of Leadership

As AI becomes a true collaborator in the boardroom, the goal isn’t to hand over control. It’s to elevate leadership. In this new era, great leaders won’t always have the right answer, but they will know when and how to ask the right questions—and where to turn for the best insights.

Going forward, we see leadership evolving from command-and-control to co-creation. Those who thrive will be the ones who understand how to blend human experience, emotional intelligence, and machine-derived insight into a cohesive and future-first strategy.

With AI as a loyal advisor, the possibilities for transformative leadership are just beginning.

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This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro’s Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro



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