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- Vitalik Calls for a Slower, Safer Path for AI
Vitalik Calls for a Slower, Safer Path for AI
Plus: 🤝 Jump Trading deepens its bet on prediction markets, 💸 Farcaster founders pivot to stablecoin payments.
Juan Aranovich
February 10, 2026
Hi! In today’s edition:
🧠 Vitalik Buterin argues against the race to AGI and lays out Ethereum’s role in safer AI
🎯 Jump Trading takes stakes in Polymarket and Kalshi to support prediction market liquidity
💸 Farcaster’s founders leave crypto social media to build stablecoin payment rails
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Vitalik Buterin Pushes Back on the ‘Race to AGI,’ Outlines Ethereum-Led AI Path
Vitalik Buterin is urging the tech world to rethink how artificial intelligence is built — and why. In a Monday post, the Ethereum co-founder argued that framing AI progress as a sprint toward artificial general intelligence misses the point and encourages reckless speed over thoughtful design.
Instead of chasing ever-larger models, Vitalik called for AI systems built around privacy, transparency, and human control. He outlined a practical roadmap where Ethereum helps provide the “rails” for safer AI use.
That includes tools that let people run AI locally on their own devices, ways to pay for AI services without handing over personal data, and systems that let users verify what an AI is actually doing rather than blindly trusting it.
Vitalik also sees a role for Ethereum as a neutral coordination layer, where AI programs can pay each other, post deposits, or resolve disputes without relying on a single company. The goal, he wrote, is not faster AI at any cost, but technology that strengthens human agency, and avoids building systems we can’t control later.
Jump Trading Moves Into Prediction Markets With Stakes in Polymarket and Kalshi
Trading firm Jump Trading is set to take ownership stakes in Polymarket and Kalshi, according to Bloomberg, in a deal that ties investment to day-to-day market operations.
Under the arrangement, Jump will help keep trading on both platforms running smoothly by regularly buying and selling contracts so users can enter and exit positions without sharp price swings. In return, Jump will receive equity in each company. Bloomberg reports that the Kalshi stake is fixed, while Jump’s ownership in Polymarket can grow as it commits more trading capacity over time.
Prediction markets allow people to trade contracts based on real-world outcomes, such as elections or economic data. Their popularity has surged recently as U.S. regulators have taken a more open stance toward these products.
For Jump, the move marks a deeper push into event-based markets after scaling back crypto exposure following the Terra collapse. For Polymarket and Kalshi, partnering with a large trading firm could make prices more reliable and trading easier for everyday users.
Farcaster Founders Shift Focus From Social Media to Stablecoin Payments
The founders of Farcaster, Dan Romero and Varun Srinivasan, are moving on from crypto social media to focus on global payments. Both have joined Tempo, a young company building a payments network powered by stablecoins.
The shift comes after Neynar acquired Farcaster last month. As part of that transition, Romero, Srinivasan, and much of the original team stepped away from day-to-day work on the social protocol they launched in 2020. Farcaster aimed to give users more control over their online identities, but adoption remained limited.
Tempo is tackling a different problem: moving money across borders. Traditional international payments can be slow, expensive, and hard to track. Tempo plans to use stablecoins to make those transfers faster and cheaper. The company was incubated by Stripe and Paradigm, and is preparing for a broader launch later this year.
For Romero and Srinivasan, the move signals a belief that payments, not social media, may be where crypto has its biggest near-term impact.
“Stablecoins are a generational opportunity,” Romero said on X.
Today at 3 pm ET on Unchained on Air
Today’s livestream is designed to be watched in one sitting. Crypto policy, enforcement, and protocol strategy collide across three consecutive shows.
DEX in the City opens with Peter Van Valkenburgh on legislation and DOJ actions, Unchained follows with MegaETH’s mainnet launch decision, and the day ends with exclusive LayerZero news. If you want the full picture without switching streams, tune in live and stay through the close.
⚡ MegaETH launched its “real-time” mainnet with over 50 live apps, promoting a new in-memory architecture designed to dramatically cut blockchain delays and support up to 50,000 transactions per second after raising massive investor interest through an oversubscribed token sale.
⛏️ Bitcoin miner Cango sold about $305 million worth of its bitcoin holdings to pay down debt and fund a pivot into supplying computing power for artificial intelligence, while still continuing smaller-scale mining despite its sharply falling stock price.
🏦 U.S. fintech trade groups are pushing the Federal Reserve to let non-bank payment companies access core Fed payment systems through a limited account, arguing it would boost competition and innovation, while banks warn it could increase financial risk and indirectly open the door for crypto-linked models.
🪙 Strategy bought another 1,142 bitcoin for about $90 million using stock sales, increasing its holdings to roughly 3.4% of all bitcoin in existence even as a sharp market downturn left its nearly $50 billion stash sitting at billions in unrealized losses.
🔷 BitMine added more ethereum to its balance sheet despite holding billions in paper losses, doubling down on its bet that ETH’s long-term utility will outweigh recent price declines that have pushed the asset far below its prior highs.
