Hey all, Liam here.

Two digital assets emerged as the winners after an especially gloomy report about the future of artificial intelligence this week. 

That report painted a scenario in which AI becomes so advanced that it wipes out large swathes of white-collar jobs and crushes consumer spending, after which entire economies are brought to their knees. 

To stem the bleeding, the Federal Reserve in the US will inevitably step in by cutting interest rates or increasing the money supply — much like it did during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

“When the economy is in the gutter, the Fed often ramps up money printing,” Laurens Fraussen, research analyst at Kaiko, told DL News on Tuesday. 

“Bitcoin goes up in response to the increased money supply and concerns about currency debasement,” he said.

The second digital asset that the Citrini report directly points out is stablecoins. 

"That’s because so-called agents, or autonomous computer programmes that can perform tasks at users' behest, will eventually need a convenient method of payment."

“Agents went looking for faster and cheaper options than cards,” the Citrini analysts wrote on Sunday. “Most settled on using stablecoins via Solana or Ethereum layer 2s, where settlement was near-instant, and the transaction cost was measured in fractions of a penny.”

At least a few investors took that last prediction to heart. 

Stocks for Mastercard and Visa plummeted roughly 5% at market open on Monday. 

Meanwhile, Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter and CEO of payments firm Block, announced on Thursday that his firm is slashing its headcount by 40%. 

He cited AI advancements as the reason for the layoffs. 

Double down on stablecoins

Stablecoins, or cryptocurrencies that track the price of fiat currencies like the dollar or the pound sterling, have garnered enormous attention in 2025. 

For many, the Citrini report presented even more reason to double down. 

“There will be a huge amount of agentic commerce,” John Collison, a co-founder of Stripe, said on TBPN on Tuesday. “That is what unites stablecoins and AI. You’re going to need blockchains, and better blockchains, honestly.”

To be sure, Stripe is all in on stablecoins. 

In 2025, the company acquired Bridge for a record $1 billion. The fintech also incubated Tempo, an upcoming blockchain optimised for stablecoin activity.  

But stablecoins have hit a roadblock in 2026. Last year, they added a whopping $103 billion to their supply, bringing the total to $300 billion in October. 

Since then, however, investor appetite has dwindled. 

Meanwhile, Bitcoin continues to be rocked by geopolitical chaos and tariff-related turmoil in the US. The $1.3 trillion digital asset is trading at just over $66,000 on Friday after dipping as low as $62,900 on Tuesday. 

Bitcoin is about to register its worst losing streak in more than seven years.

So, while Wall Street continues to reel over hotly contested reports about the implications of artificial intelligence, the theses that buttress the rise of cryptocurrencies have yet to manifest. 

In the meantime, real usage should emerge, say analysts.

“This type of correction can be constructive for the underlying ecosystem,” Franklin Templeton’s Tony Pecore told DL News on Wednesday.

“Speculative activity declines, and attention shifts toward fundamentals: real usage, infrastructure, and sustainable economics.”

Why transaction volume on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network is surging

The Lightning Network has been promoted by Bitcoin maxis like Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who last year integrated the layer 2 into his payments platform, Cash App, reports Matthew Di Salvo.

Ethereum ‘backbone’ of stablecoins despite price, MrBeast CEO says amid new crypto venture

“We’re big fans of Ethereum,” Jeff Housenbold, Beast Industries president and CEO, said on Thursday. Lance Datskolou reports.

Tokenised gold outshines crypto prices amidst political chaos

Gold’s remarkable performance in 2026 has fuelled the rapid rise of tokenised gold protocols, which have been the top performers since the start of the year, reports Aleks Gilbert.

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