AI trading, stablecoin nationalisation and life after ‘Black Saturday’: the best long reads of 2025
Best 2025 long reads: AI trading, stablecoins under siege, and life after ‘Black Saturday’
The most attentive ForkLog readers may have noticed that in 2025 our long-reads desk more often ventured into topics seemingly unrelated to cryptocurrencies and adjacent industries. “Seemingly” deserves quotation marks: the market is rapidly growing more complex and ever more dependent on the “external”.
To paint a sharper picture of digital assets, we drew on the experience of the Kingdom of Bhutan and Mexican cartels, revisited leading economic theories beyond the Austrian School, and spoke with crypto entrepreneurs and cypherpunks. Now is a good moment to look back and reread the most compelling pieces we published along the way.
By tradition, this round-up comes in two parts. The first gathers the year’s most-read long reads; the second collects those especially dear to the ForkLog editors for various reasons.
Readers’ picks
Cold wallets: splitting access below zero
Everyone thinks they can tell cold from hot and hardware wallets. Yet Web3 researcher Vladimir Menaskop found even specialist outlets still muddle the terms. He put together an ultimate overview of all wallet types with safety tips—useful not only for beginners but also for advanced users.
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Who is behind BestChange?
The first interview with Denis Malkov, founder of the BestChange crypto exchange aggregator. We learned why he avoided publicity for years, how the platform’s internal politics work, about the regulator Roskomnadzor’s heightened interest, contacts with law enforcement, user-data privacy and much more.
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What is game theory and how is it used in crypto?
The most popular piece this year in our Kryptorium section. We explain, as simply as possible, Nash and Bayesian equilibria, trace the development of game theory, highlight key papers and experiments, and show how applied maths can describe today’s crypto market and the interactions of its participants.
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AI trading: step-by-step guides, bot settings, pros and cons
AI bots were among the biggest trends carried over from 2024. Some recoil at autonomous agents; others insist they are the future and stage crypto-trading tournaments for leading models. Either way, we tested whether today’s AI can, if not replace a trader, at least be a useful assistant.
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A year after bitcoin’s halving: why is this time different?
Year-end is a good time to revisit big features with expert forecasts. In early May, when this article was prepared, bitcoin traded around $95,000 and, contrary to expectations, was in no rush to set a new all-time high. Only in October did we see $126,272, followed by a correction to current levels. At least one interviewee came close to a bull’s-eye. But, as so often, “almost” outweighed the rest—and he was still wrong.
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The decay of Russia’s P2P
Not so much an article as a cri de coeur from news editor Vasily Smirnov. What is happening to P2P in Russia? Why does fraud in the segment grow in step with prohibitions? Where can an honest user flee from the hordes of “black triangle” artists and other scammers—and who can guarantee they won’t give chase? More questions than answers.
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“Cryptography remains the weapon of the weak against the strong”
In recent years, cypherpunk ideas and tools have spread far beyond a subculture. They are everyday necessities for millions who simply want to watch YouTube, while scammers’ abuse of vast troves of personal data has dispelled the myth of crypto-anarchists as red-eyed paranoiacs. We asked one of them what cypherpunks are living and breathing now.
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Nationalising USDT and USDC
Speaking of paranoiacs. “When the US Treasury seizes Ethereum, it will take control not only of staking providers but also bring stablecoin issuers to their knees. They will force USDC, USDT, PAX USD, BUSD and everyone else to allow redemptions only on ‘Treasury Ethereum’,” the blogger The Unhedged Capitalist wrote back in 2022. By 2025, his apocalyptic prophecy no longer looks quite so mad.
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The vanished “cryptoqueen”
An instructive, astonishing, sometimes funny and in parts rather sad story of Ruja Ignatova. The OneCoin creator, who graced the cover of Forbes Bulgaria, promised her brainchild would make bitcoin obsolete. For better or worse, the project proved an ordinary pyramid scheme—and Ignatova’s biography, cover and all, a grand scam worthy, if not of Jordan Belfort, then at least of Sergei Mavrodi.
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Life after Bybit
On 21 February, the Bybit crypto exchange lost about $1.5bn after its cold Ethereum wallet was hacked. Markets took it in their stride, but the attack exposed myriad questions about fund safety and the rising activity of hacking groups, including state-linked actors. We put them to crypto-security implementation expert Irakli Dizenko. The interview became the most-read of the year.
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Editors’ picks
Digital slavery in Myanmar
Torn by civil war, Myanmar has long been a hub for organised crime of all kinds, including human trafficking. Even against that backdrop, sprawling compounds dedicated to industrial-scale transnational fraud have caused alarm in recent years. We explain how these scam centres emerged, who runs them, and how much damage they do—including to crypto holders.
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Crypto Bhutan
While many states oscillate between regulating crypto and needing to develop the asset class, a small Himalayan kingdom resolved the dilemma with Buddhist calm. We tell the story of Bhutan’s positive experience balancing innovation, a traditional social order and environmental stewardship.
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The science of manipulation
One entry from our series on alternative economic theories. How scholars across disciplines challenged the Adam Smith-era axiom of the rational economic agent—and learned to manage consumers effectively. We explain behavioural economics and how it works in practice.
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How real is a new Bitcoin hard fork?
The bitcoin developer community split in April, a rift that deepened in autumn after Bitcoin Core v30 raised the OP_RETURN data limit from 80 to 100,000 bytes. Critics say this will “junk up” the network with spam and create serious legal risks. We unpack the dispute and what it could mean for bitcoin’s future.
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A new world consensus
As the familiar world frays before our eyes and international relations run hot, the thought arises: switch planets—or hide somewhere on this one? The dream of a personal, however tiny, state has long animated utopians. New technologies bring it closer. We imagine how to build such a polity in post-capitalism.
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Whale collusion, ADL, “the end of the bull run”—what really happened on “Black Saturday”?
A detailed analysis of the big crash on the night of 10–11 October, which wiped out upbeat forecasts based on historical patterns. We reconstructed the timeline, probed likely causes of “Black Saturday”, gathered expert views and sketched how the crypto market might change.
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Nancy Fraser: a feminist view of digital capitalism
This year we launched the “Silicon Tanks” series, revisiting, in our view, the most interesting thinkers who either shaped the internet or subjected it to critique. In our piece on philosopher Nancy Fraser, we set out her case against the alliance between new big tech and old capital that cements the most banal forms of exploitation.
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Killer decentralisation
Mexican cartels are synonymous with brutal atrocities in areas where police and the army avoid entering. They also built parallel economies in which cryptocurrencies play a notable role. Sergey Golubenko shows how decentralisation principles ease life not only for honest citizens but also for the most violent criminals.
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A left turn
Municipal elections rarely attract global attention. Yet charismatic Democrat Zohran Mamdani made the world watch the New York mayoral race. His polling roiled Wall Street, and President Donald Trump vowed to cut federal subsidies to America’s largest city if the “crazy communist” won. We assessed how a Mamdani victory could affect the bitcoin market.
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BTCFi: stalled evolution or temporary setback?
DeFi on bitcoin made a splash early in the year but appears to have fallen short of expectations. Does this niche have a future? What stopped it becoming a new driver of bitcoin—and which risks still deter investors? Alex Kondratyuk sums up BTCFi’s progress so far.
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