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TechCrunch’s Equity crew is bringing 2025 to a close and getting ahead on the year to come with our annual predictions episode! Hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Rebecca Bellan were joined by Build Mode host Isabelle Johannessen to dissect the year’s biggest tech developments, from mega AI funding rounds that defied expectations to the rise of “physical AI,” and make their calls for 2026.  The group tackled everything from why AI agents didn’t live up to the hype in 2025 (but probably will in 2026), to how Hollywood will push back against AI-generated content, to why VCs are facing a serious liquidity crisis.   Listen to the full episode to hear: …

“Big Brother” contestant Mickey Lee died on Christmas Day following a “series of cardiac arrests.” She was 35. The event curator’s family announced her death on Friday morning, just days after a GoFundMe was established to help offset expenses amid Lee’s “sudden health crisis.” “With profound sadness, the family of Mickey Lee announces her transition on Christmas in the early evening,” read her family’s statement, signed by “family and friends of Mickey C Lee.” “Mickey captured the hearts of audiences nationwide through her appearance on ‘Big Brother,’ where her authenticity, strength and spirit left a lasting impression on fans and…

Check out the companies making the biggest moves midday: Freeport-McMoRan — The miner rose 3.1% as gold and other metals scaled to record levels. Target — The retailer rose more than 1% after the Financial Times reported, citing sources, that hedge fund Toms Capital Investment Management made a big investment in Target. Pressure from the activist investor comes as Target is down more than 27% for the year. Coupang — The Korean e-commerce company rallied 8% after the company said the perpetrator of a cybersecurity incident had been identified. The company added that leaked data pertained to only 3,000 accounts…

Christmas festivities were winding down on Friday as New Yorkers were gearing up for a major snow storm. The fast-moving storm is poised to bring snow and ice to huge swaths of the Northeast this weekend, with more than 23 million people under winter storm warnings, including New York City, which could see up to 11 inches of snow — the most significant total in nearly four years. And it’s set to make post-holiday travel this weekend tricky for most. As of Friday evening, more than 1,600 flights had been canceled across the United States. New York City’s three airports…

Key points:Bitcoin attempted to rise above $90,000, but sustained recovery may require institutional demand to pick up.While most major altcoins are struggling near their recent lows, Bitcoin Cash looks strong on the charts.Bitcoin (BTC) rose above $89,500, but the bulls could not sustain the higher levels. A sustainable recovery would require institutional demand to pick up. Since Dec. 15, BTC exchange-traded funds have recorded outflows of more than $1 billion, per Farside Investors data.Despite BTC’s weak performance toward the end of the year, Strategy CEO Phong Le said in a recent podcast that BTC’s fundamentals “couldn’t be better.” For the…

How often have you come across an image online and wondered, “Real or AI”? Have you ever felt trapped in a reality where AI-created and human-made content blur together? Do we still need to distinguish between them?Artificial intelligence has unlocked a world of creative possibilities, but it has also brought new challenges, reshaping how we perceive content online. From AI-generated images, music and videos flooding social media to deepfakes and bots scamming users, AI now touches a vast part of the internet.According to a study by Graphite, the amount of AI-made content surpassed human-created content in late 2024, primarily due…

This article contains brief spoilers for Season 3 of Jujutsu Kaisen. There are very few modern anime franchises that have caused as much of a splash in the industry as Jujutsu Kaisen. From the very first episode, fans have been enthralled by this unique series due to its incredible characters, unique power system, and engaging world, all of which come together to form a beloved franchise that has easily cemented its place as a modern classic. As such, both its anime and manga adaptations have received equal praise. With season 3 of the anime set to adapt the beloved Culling…

Blockchain-based tokenized commodities are nearing the $4 billion milestone, following new all-time highs reached by the world’s leading precious metals.Gold, silver and platinum hit record highs on Friday, with spot gold rising as high as $4,530 per ounce, TradingView data shows. Silver, currently not a major contributor to the tokenized commodities market, briefly touched an all-time high of $74.56 per ounce. Tokenized commodities rose 11% in the month leading to Friday, reaching $3.93 billion, according to data aggregator RWA.xyz. Tether Gold (XAUt) was listed as the largest tokenized commodity, worth $1.74 billion, followed by Paxos Gold (PAXG) at $1.61 billion.Tokenized…

2026 is a pivotal year for Ethereum. The first Ethereum validators will process tiny zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs instead of reexecuting transactions. This unlocks immediate scaling benefits for the layer 1 and sets it on the path toward 10,000 transactions per second (TPS).Researcher Justin Drake demonstrated that validating proofs on an old laptop is already possible at EthProofs Day at Devconnect in November. One in 10 validators are expected to make the switch to ZK before the end of the year.It’s a complete overhaul of the fundamental way the blockchain works: comparable in scale to the Merge in 2022, when Ethereum…

2026 is a pivotal year for Ethereum. The first Ethereum validators will process tiny zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs instead of reexecuting transactions. This unlocks immediate scaling benefits for the layer 1 and sets it on the path toward 10,000 transactions per second (TPS).Researcher Justin Drake demonstrated that validating proofs on an old laptop is already possible at EthProofs Day at Devconnect in November. One in 10 validators are expected to make the switch to ZK before the end of the year.It’s a complete overhaul of the fundamental way the blockchain works: comparable in scale to the Merge in 2022, when Ethereum…