We are thrilled to announce the addition of Peking University (also known as Beijing University), ranked Top 10 in the world in computer science alongside MIT and Stanford, as an EdgeCloud AI customer. Theta has achieved significant momentum in both US and Korean academia, with institutions like the University of Oregon, Korea University, Seoul Women’s University (SWU), KAIST, Hankuk University, and Yonsei University utilizing its hybrid cloud GPU infrastructure to advance AI research. EdgeCloud also recently added key corporate customers including Liner, a global leader in generative AI-powered search solutions and Jamcoding, a prominent e-learning coding platform.

This marks an important milestone in Theta’s mission to support advanced AI and blockchain research through hybrid cloud GPU infrastructure. Founded in 1898, Peking University is one of China’s oldest and most prestigious research institutions, renowned for its top-tier programs in science, technology, and innovation and consistently ranked among the world’s leading universities. Known for its pioneering work in AI, distributed computing, and big data research, Peking University will leverage Theta’s high-performance EdgeCloud platform to accelerate innovation across these fields.

About Professor Zhen Xiao and His Research

Professor Zhen Xiao, a renowned researcher in distributed systems and AI, is a tenured professor at the School of Computer Science at Peking University. With a Ph.D. from Cornell University, Professor Xiao leads a lab that has published over 100 high-impact papers featured at leading conferences and journals such as USENIX ATC, SOCC, and IEEE TPDS, accumulating close to 8000 citations — a testament to his influence in research fields including distributed systems, deep learning, blockchain, and cloud computing.

The collaboration between Theta Labs and Professor Xiao started in 2022 when he joined the Theta Advisory Board and was instrumental in the early development of the EdgeCloud platform. The collaboration has also resulted in several joint research papers published in top AI and distributed systems conferences, including:

• CVPR (Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition): A prestigious forum for computer vision, focusing on AI-driven image and video analysis (paper summary).
• KDD (Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining): The premier event for data mining and machine learning research (paper summary).
• WWW (Web Conference): An influential conference on the future directions of the World Wide Web, including foundational technologies like AI and blockchain (paper summary).
• MM (ACM Multimedia): A key conference for multimedia computing, addressing AI applications across video, image, and audio data (paper summary).
• SRDS (International Symposium on Reliable Distributed Systems): A well-regarded event for research on distributed systems with an emphasis on reliability and security (paper summary).

Through these publications, Prof Xiao’s team together with Theta Labs have contributed significantly to advancements in the cross-section of AI and blockchain, specifically in adaptive defense mechanisms for AI models, distributed AI workload scheduling and placement, scalable blockchain frameworks, and cross-shard transaction optimization.

Enhancing AI Research with Theta EdgeCloud

With the support of EdgeCloud’s hybrid cloud GPU infrastructure, Peking University researchers will be able to scale their AI and distributed computing projects to new heights. EdgeCloud will enable Professor Xiao’s team to carry out state-of-the-art research initiatives in distributed machine learning, blockchain state placement, and neural network optimization.

“I’ve been working with Jieyi and the Theta engineering team for more than two years, and saw the incredible innovation and development that led to the launch of EdgeCloud. It is one of the most complex hybrid GPU infrastructure systems I’ve seen in my career,” ~ said Professor Zhen Xiao. 

 

“Now, I’m thrilled that my AI lab at Peking University and dozens of my researchers and staff members can benefit from using EdgeCloud to drive large-scale distributed AI research. We’re looking forward to replacing all of our existing lab and cloud based GPU resources with EdgeCloud’s hybrid cloud edge infrastructure.”

Professor Xiao and his entire team at Peking University have been instrumental in the development of the EdgeCloud platform and providing us invaluable AI insights in the last three years. Theta now has the most-adopted decentralized GPU platform for academia in Asia, and is quickly expanding to North America and the rest of the world. We believe the next major disruption in AI will come from infrastructure companies that harness distributed GPU and computation at scale, with minimal overhead costs and leverages excess resources and capacity. Theta’s edge network and the EdgeCloud platform is ideally positioned to lead this trend.

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Today stablecoin issuer Paxos said it acquired Finnish e-money institution Membrane Finance, the issuer of EURe. The deal gives Paxos a licensed e-money institution (EMI) enabling access to all EU states, subject to regulatory approval.

Paxos and its affiliates are already regulated in New York, Abu Dhabi and Singapore. Under Europe’s MiCA regulations crypto legislation, registration in one state is passported to all other member states.

Paxos is the issuer of the PayPal stablecoin (PYUSD) and its own Paxos dollar (USDP). Its UAE affiliate has issued a yield bearing stablecoin. And in Singapore it recently launched the Global Dollar Network, which will share interest revenues on the USDG stablecoin with distribution partners.

“Stablecoins offer a global solution to challenges that countless people and companies feel when it comes to money movement and payments. Stablecoins are becoming increasingly more prevalent throughout the market as more use cases emerge for everyday users, “ said Walter Hessert, Head of Strategy at Paxos.

 

“With Membrane, we expect to extend our reach to EU customers looking to benefit from stablecoins.”

Stablecoins in the EU

In terms of other stablecoin players, Circle historically had a strong presence in Europe (Ireland). It chose France as its base for MiCAR, directly registering as an EMI.

MiCA regulations require a high proportion of reserves to be held at banks – 30% for smaller stablecoins and 60% for significant ones. Tether claims this is the reason it has not registered in the EU. However, so far it has chosen to remain offshore, avoiding jurisdictions that require it to be regulated. A large part of Tether’s stablecoin balance is on TRON, a blockchain that’s popular in Africa.

Meanwhile, MiCAR also has some quite complicated rules limiting the scale of foreign currency stablecoins in the EU. However, this is widely misunderstood, so we previously provided a deep dive on the topic.

Bank issued stablecoins are also explored as part of our Research report on tokenized deposits and DLT payments.

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Dinarian Note: Let me make one thing clear upfront: this is not financial advice, nor am I suggesting anyone invest in Bitcoin. My point here is purely observational, based on historical patterns in the cryptocurrency market.

 

If history is any guide, Bitcoin often experiences a euphoric blow-off top at the end of its market cycle—a dramatic surge in price before a sharp decline. This event typically marks the beginning of altseason, a period where alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) experience significant growth and attract substantial market attention.

 

To be transparent, I do not own Bitcoin and have no plans to ever own it. My focus and interest lie in the broader blockchain ecosystem and altcoins that present unique utility, innovation, or potential. For me, Bitcoin is just one piece of the puzzle in a much larger, more diverse crypto landscape where INSANE profits await!

 

As always, tread carefully and make informed decisions when navigating this volatile yet exciting space. Namasté 🙏 The Dinarian 

Bitcoin (BTC) is on a bull market after breaking out of its all-time high of $73,800, fuelling market euphoria. Historically, this “euphoric phase” will last for a few months before making a new top and reversing back down.

Ki Young Ju, founder and CEO of CryptoQuant, greeted Bitcoin’s euphoria and warned investors about the “euphoric phase” roadmap. In particular, the crypto executive and analyst highlighted that “euphoria” usually lasts three to 12 months, except for 2021’s cycle.

According to him, euphoria started two weeks ago, and 99.3% of all BTC addresses are in profit right now.

Should traders short BTC at “Bitcoin euphoria”?

Interestingly, however, Bitcoin already experienced euphoria during March’s breakout, with the three-to-twelve-month range potentially counting from there, similar to what happened in 2013-2014.

“Shorting [BTC] now,” Ki Young Ju said, “could be either catching the top—or shorting at the bottom of a parabolic bull run.”

Usually, shorting BTC during the start of “Euphoria” has proven to be a bad decision. Yet, March’s activity and the following consolidation phase make it uncertain whether we are starting or ending Bitcoin’s euphoric phase.

Most analysts seem to agree that now is not a good time to short Bitcoin, foreseeing more upside potential. As Finbold reported, an analyst believes we are starting “the biggest crypto bull run ever.” 

In the meantime, other reports forecast Bitcoin to reach $138,000 just before a major correction takes place. Notably, this is a similar target of a previously covered exit strategy from a prominent trading expert.

Bitcoin (BTC) price analysis

As of this writing, Bitcoin is trading slightly below the $92,000 mark, up nearly 118% year-to-date. BTC started 2024 at $42,210, making an impressive run up to $73,800 in March, breaking out of 2021’s all-time high of $69,000.

After this euphoric phase, with over 99% addresses in profit, Bitcoin entered a seven-month downtrend that ended in early November. As things developed, Donald Trump’s victory ignited the current euphoria, breaking out of the downtrend and setting the path forward.

                              Bitcoin (BTC) year-to-date price analysis. Source: Finbold

Now, traders and investors bet on whether Bitcoin will continue its rally, consolidate for a while, or reverse entirely. Given the cryptocurrency market’s inherent volatility and unpredictability, speculators must understand and manage the risks accordingly, moving with caution.

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