Trading with AI, nationalization of stablecoins, and life after "Black Saturday". The best longreads of 2025 - ForkLog: cryptocurrencies, AI, singularity, future

# Trading with AI, nationalization of stablecoins, and life after “Black Saturday”. The best longreads of 2025

The most attentive ForkLog readers may have noticed that in 2025 our longread section has decided to focus more often on topics seemingly not directly related to cryptocurrencies and adjacent industries. “Seemingly” should be taken in quotes here, as the market itself is rapidly becoming more complex and increasingly dependent on the “external.”

To provide a more accurate picture of what is happening with digital assets, we looked into the experience of the Kingdom of Bhutan and Mexican cartels, studied major economic theories beyond the Austrian School, talked with crypto entrepreneurs and cypherpunks. Now we can briefly look back and re-read the most interesting articles published during this time.

In keeping with tradition, we divided this material into two parts. The first includes the most popular longreads of the year, and the second — those that, for various reasons, are especially dear to the ForkLog editorial team.

Reader’s Choice

Cold wallets: sharing access below zero

It seems everyone has long learned to distinguish cold, hot, and hardware wallets. However, Web3 researcher Vladimir Menaskop discovered that even specialized publications still confuse the terms. Therefore, he compiled an ultimate overview of all wallet types with tips for their secure use, which will be useful not only for beginners but also for advanced users.

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Who is behind BestChange?

The first interview with Denis Malkov — founder of the cryptocurrency exchange monitoring service BestChange. Find out why he has tried to avoid publicity all these years, how the aggregator’s internal policies are structured, about increased interest from Roskomnadzor, contacts with law enforcement, user data privacy, and much more.

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What is game theory and how is it used in cryptocurrencies?

The most popular material from this year’s “Cryptoorium” section. We explain as simply as possible what Nash and Bayes equilibria are, discuss the main stages of the development of game theory, key scientific works, and the most interesting experiments in this field, as well as how to describe the current state of the crypto market and its participants through applied mathematics.

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AI trading: step-by-step instructions, bot settings, advantages, and disadvantages

One of the main trends carried over from 2024 into the past year has been AI bots. Some people strongly oppose autonomous agents, while others insist they are the future and organize crypto trading tournaments among leading models. Regardless, we tested whether artificial intelligence in its current state can at least replace a trader or become their assistant.

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A year after Bitcoin halving: why is it different this time?

At the end of the year, it’s instructive to revisit major forecasts by experts. In early May, when this article was being prepared, Bitcoin traded around $95 000 and, contrary to expectations, was not rushing to set a new all-time high. Only in October did we see the figure $126 272, followed by a correction to current levels. At least one of the article’s protagonists made an almost accurate prediction. But, as usual, “almost” outweighed everything else, and he was still wrong.

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The decay of Russian P2P

Not even an article, but a real cry from the heart of our news department editor Vasily Smirnov. What is happening with P2P in Russia? Why are the scale of frauds in the segment growing proportionally to restrictive measures? Where can an honest user run from hordes of “black triangle” masters and other scammers? Who guarantees they won’t run after him? More questions than answers.

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“Cryptography remains a weapon of the weak against the strong”

In recent years, ideas and developments of cypherpunks have gone far beyond subculture. Now they are part of everyday life for millions of people who just want to watch YouTube, and the use of huge amounts of personal data by scammers has completely dispelled the myth of crypto-anarchists as paranoids with red eyes. We learned what cypherpunks are currently living and breathing from one of them.

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Nationalization of USDT and USDC

Speaking of paranoids. “When the US Treasury takes over Ethereum, it will control not only staking providers but also kneel the issuers of stablecoins. They will force USDC, USDT, PAX USD, BUSD, and all others to provide redemption only on the ‘treasury Ethereum’,” wrote blogger The Unhedged Capitalist back in 2022. It turned out that in 2025, his apocalyptic prophecy no longer seems so crazy.

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The vanished “Crypto Queen”

An instructive, surprising, funny, and somewhat sad story of Rujji Ignatova. Creator of OneCoin, who appeared on the cover of the Bulgarian version of Forbes, promised that her project would make people forget about Bitcoin. Unfortunately or fortunately, the project turned out to be the most banal pyramid scheme, and Ignatova’s entire biography, including the infamous cover, was a grand scam, worthy if not of Jordan Belfort, then at least of Sergey Mavrodi.

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Life after Bybit

On February 21, the cryptocurrency exchange Bybit lost about $1.5 billion due to a hack of its cold Ethereum wallet. The market responded to the attack relatively calmly, but it raised many questions about the safety of funds and increased activity of hacker groups, including those linked to states. We asked their expert on crypto security tools, Irakli Dizenko. The resulting interview became the most read of the past year.

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Editorial Picks

Digital slavery in Myanmar

Riven by civil war, Myanmar has long become a hub for organized crime of all kinds, including human trafficking. Even against this background, entire complexes equipped for large-scale international fraud have raised serious concerns in recent years. We found out how these scam centers emerged, who is behind them, and what damage they cause, including to cryptocurrency holders.

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Crypto Bhutan

While many countries are torn between wanting to regulate cryptocurrencies and the need to explore and develop this asset class, the small Himalayan kingdom has decided the issue with Buddhist serenity. We share Bhutan’s positive experience, which managed to find a balance between innovation, traditional social order, and environmental care.

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The science of manipulation

Only one article from the series on alternative economic theories. How scientists from various disciplines questioned the long-standing thesis since Adam Smith that humans are rational market participants, and how they learned to effectively manage consumers? We explain in this article about behavioral economics and its practical application in the real world.

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How realistic is the new Bitcoin hard fork

A split occurred in the Bitcoin developer community as early as April, worsened in the fall after the release of Bitcoin Core v30, which increased the data transfer limit in OP_RETURN outputs from 80 to 100,000 bytes. Opponents of this decision believe it will lead to network clutter with spam and create serious legal issues. We examined the essence of the dispute and how it might affect Bitcoin’s future.

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The new global consensus

When the familiar world is falling apart before our eyes and international relations are at a boiling point, one can’t help but wonder: should we change the planet or at least hide somewhere on it? Having a small, even tiny, country — a long-standing dream of utopians of the broadest range — is now more feasible thanks to new technologies. We fantasize about how to build such a state in a post-capitalist world.

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The whale conspiracy, ADL, “end of the bull” — what happened on the market during “Black Saturday”?

A detailed analysis of the powerful crash that occurred on the night of October 10-11, wiping out all positive forecasts based on historical patterns. We reconstructed the timeline of events leading to the local crisis, analyzed possible causes of “Black Saturday,” gathered expert opinions, and suggested how the situation on the crypto market might change.

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Nancy Fraser: a woman’s perspective on digital capitalism

This year, we launched a large cycle “Silicon Tanks,” where we recall the most interesting intellectuals, either influential in shaping the internet or criticizing it. For example, the article about philosopher Nancy Fraser details her criticisms of the alliance between big tech and old capital, which underpins the most banal forms of exploitation.

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Killer decentralization

Mexican cartels are primarily associated with the most brutal atrocities committed by their fighters in controlled territories, where police and military try not to enter. But they have also managed to create full-fledged parallel economies, in which cryptocurrencies play a significant role. Learn how decentralization principles make life easier not only for honest citizens but also for the most ruthless criminals in Sergey Golubenko’s article.

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The left path

Municipal elections rarely attract the attention of those not directly affected. However, charismatic Democrat Zokhran Mamdani made the whole world watch who would become the mayor of New York. His ratings caused a stir on Wall Street, and President Donald Trump promised to cancel federal subsidies to the largest US city if the “crazy communist” wins. We tried to find out how Mamdani’s election would affect the Bitcoin market.

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BTCFi: stalled evolution or temporary difficulties?

The decentralized finance segment on Bitcoin caused a lot of noise earlier this year but seems to have fallen short of expectations. Are there prospects for this sector, what prevented it from becoming a new driver of Bitcoin growth, and what risks currently scare investors away? Alex Kondratyuk summarized the intermediate results of BTCFi development.

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