Crypto

XRP negative funding rates persist, raising chance of repeat of 2025 126 percent surge pattern

An unusual pattern is emerging in XRP, with prices rising while bearish bets remain dominant in derivatives markets for an extended period. Funding rates have stayed negative since February 2026, signalling a heavier short bias even as XRP rebounds about 27 percent from an early-February low. CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost said the divergence matters and could foreshadow a bullish reversal. Market watchers also cite similarities to 2025, when XRP later surged about 126 percent to a record $3.6.

AI & Enterprise

DeepSeek-R1 hallucination rate quadruples versus V3 after stronger reasoning

China AI startup DeepSeek\'s latest reasoning model, DeepSeek-R1, recorded a much higher hallucination rate than its previous model, according to an evaluation by Vectara using the HHEM 2.1 benchmark. DeepSeek-R1 logged a 14.3 percent hallucination rate, about four times DeepSeek-V3\'s 3.9 percent. Vectara said cross-checks using Google\'s FACTS methodology showed a stronger tendency to add unsupported information, a concern as AI agent tokens automate crypto analysis and trading.