Tech Crunch™

Discipline is easier when the “why” is bigger than the urge. Find a mission that outshines dopamine. When purpose leads, distractions get smaller. 👍 @TechCrunchTg

🚀🚘🔶️ Polygon DevRel Bruno Skvorc also got banned from WLFI – his tokens won’t be unlocked. He called it “one of the biggest scams in history,” comparing WLFI to a “new-age mafia”: they stole my money, and there’s no one to complain to, no one to sue, nothing to do. The project continues to face harsh criticism as more victims step forward. 👍 @TechCrunchTg

🟦 Starknet rolls out BTC staking with $100M fund Starknet has launched Bitcoin staking and a $100M incentive program in STRK tokens to accelerate the BTCFi ecosystem. ➡️ BTC holders can now earn yield while keeping custody of their assets ➡️ Tokenized BTC versions supported: WBTC, tBTC, Liquid Bitcoin and others ➡️ zk-STARK cryptography secures the staking mechanism ➡️ Incentives aimed at growing adoption and liquidity across BTCFi on Starknet This move positions Starknet as a bridge between Bitcoin capital and Ethereum-style DeFi - giving BTC a new role beyond “digital gold.” 👍 @TechCrunchTg

JUST IN: 🇺🇸 $1.65 trillion wiped out from US stock market today. 👍 @TechCrunchTg

😐 Four years ago, this NFT was worth 496.69 ETH. Today, it is worth 0.08 ETH. @TechCrunchTg

🏝 Isla Mujeres in the Caribbean Sea is increasingly resembling a real Bitcoin island. There are already about 30 locations that accept BTC payments (hotels, restaurants, shops, rentals, and more). The island, with a population of 13,000, is known for its beaches, underwater museum, and turtle farm @TechCrunchTg

JUST IN : 🚨🚨💰 An unknown whale dumped 31,005 $ETH($92.19M) 6 hours ago, taking a $18.8M loss in just 2 weeks. This whale had been buying the dip from Nov 3 to Nov 10, buying 30,838 $ETH($110.43M) at an average price of $3,581. 👍 @TechCrunchTg

🚨 BREAKING: 🇺🇸 PayPal expands stablecoin access to 68 more countries. 👍 @TechCrunchTg

🚨Iran attack has damaged 17% of Qatar’s LNG capacity for 3-5 years. Qatar produces approximately 20% of the global LNG supply. Major Asian countries like China and India are heavily dependent on Qatar’s LNG. China remains Qatar’s top single importer, further highlighting the significance of this disruption. 👍 @TechCrunchTg

📹 AI actors and neural network scripts won't get an Oscar According to the new rules of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, only roles "performed by people with their consent" can participate in the acting nominations. In the script categories, the rule is even stricter: the script must be written by a human. 👨 That is, even theoretically, an AI actress, Tilly Norwood, cannot receive a statuette, despite the fact that the creators promote her as a potentially full-fledged participant in the industry, capable of attracting studios' interest. This also prevents the possibility of a "posthumous award" — even if an actor gave consent to the use of his image during his lifetime, but was unable to play the role himself. In recent days, the example of Val Kilmer: his family defended the use of his AI return in the independent film "Deep as a Grave", insisting that the technology was used with the permission of the heirs and within the rules of the Screen Actors Guild. ❓ At the same time, the Academy does not ban AI in cinema altogether. The rules state that the use of AI and other digital tools "does not help or harm" a film's chances of being nominated. The main thing is that a human remains at the center of creative authorship. If the Academy has questions, it will be able to request additional data on how exactly AI was used and who was the author of the result. Can an AI actor be given an Oscar? 🔥 — yes, AI can be better than a human 😱 — no, it's just "special effects" @TechCrunchTg 🌐

✈️ Basketball Helped Students Understand Fractions Researchers in Denmark came up with a way to make math more engaging for students: teaching fractions and percentages on the basketball court. 309 students ages 11–13 were split into three groups. One group had a weekly "basketball math" lesson that combined sports practice with calculations. For example, students would shoot baskets, calculate their shooting percentage, write it as a fraction, and compare their results with classmates. A second group had regular PE classes, while a third played regular basketball. After two months, students in the experimental program performed 15% better on fraction problems and 5.4% better on other math tasks. The control groups showed no significant improvement. The researchers believe that the mix of movement and competition made the lessons more engaging. ❗️ There may be a simpler explanation, though: the students in the experimental group simply got more practice with fractions. Still, the researchers suggest making one in every five math lessons more active. "I am convinced that sport and physical activity can open up mathematics for pupils who are not otherwise engaged by the subject," says study co-author Jacob Wienecke. What do you think about "sports math"? ❤️ — Great idea, kids need more movement at school! 🤔 — I'd rather keep math and sports separate... @TechCrunchTg 🌐

👍 Ideogram Is Now Open Source The developers have released the weights for the new Ideogram 4, and it is currently the best open-weight image generator available. The model delivers quality on par with Nano Banana, while maintaining Ideogram's signature focus on design and typography. The model has only 9.3 billion parameters, making it compatible with consumer-grade graphics cards. ✅You can try it for free on the website. ➡️ Instructions for local deployment are available on GitHub. @TechCrunchTg 🌐

😦 AI Remakes Are Already Here An AI-generated remake of The Office just dropped, and it looks disturbingly real. Someone posted on X a fully AI-generated scene from the show, complete with mockumentary-style camerawork, spot-on lip-sync, and uncanny recreations of the characters' looks and voices. Replies (as always) are split: some are calling it slop and "the least funniest intro in the entire series," while others are hailing it as an absolute banger and begging for more. How do you feel about AI remakes of classic series? ❤️ — Fine, as long as the quality is there 🔥 — Absolutely not, please no! @TechCrunchTg 🌐

JUST IN: Google $GOOGL added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, replacing Verizon $VZ. @TechCrunchTg 🌐

✈️ Durov Faces Life in Prison in Russia Russia's FSB has charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with aiding terrorist activity. The charge carries a sentence of eight years to life. The accusation is that Telegram doesn't delete the chats, channels, and bots used to coordinate terrorist attacks. The FSB says it will place Durov on an international wanted list. @TechCrunchTg 🌐

🐳 DeepSeek Updates V4 Flash Compared with the Preview, the release version has improved significantly in agentic tasks and coding. According to benchmarks, it now outperforms GLM-5.2 and even the flagship DeepSeek V4 Pro, while retaining the same architecture and parameter count. The API has also been fully adapted for use with the Codex agent. In the Artificial Analysis ranking, it is now just one point behind GLM-5.2 and GPT-5.6 Luna, and on par with Gemini 3.6 Flash.