Bitcoin vs Gold: Performance, Supply and Portfolio Strategy
SEO description: Gold is near record highs while bitcoin lags on a YTD basis—but BTC keeps setting new highs relative to M2 money supply each cycle. See the latest data, drivers, ETF flows, and how to position your portfolio.
The big picture
A timely analysis from CoinDesk argues that looking at performance relative to broad money supply (M2) changes how we judge hedges. Despite gold’s stellar 2025 rally, the metal hasn’t made a new high vs. M2 since 2011; bitcoin, by contrast, has set fresh highs vs. M2 each cycle, including in August–September 2025 when BTC also notched an absolute all-time high. The takeaway: both assets hedge different risks, but BTC has outpaced monetary expansion more consistently over its shorter life.
Crypto Scams & Hacks 101: Everything You Need to Know
Headlines love the drama—“another hack,” “another rug pull.” But the full story is more nuanced: blockchains can be secure, while the people and platforms around them are often the weak link. This 101 guide pulls together credible data, the most common attack patterns, and a practical defense stack you can implement today—no PhD required. For context, Cointelegraph recently spotlighted the gap between perception and reality and why better security literacy is the real adoption driver.
The numbers: how big is the problem?
Scams are still huge. Chainalysis estimates that known crypto scams received at least $9.9B on-chain in 2024, with “pig-butchering” romance/investment fraud rising ~40% year over year. That figure will likely grow as new illicit wallets are identified.
An L1 coin is the native asset of a base blockchain that finalizes transactions and anchors security (e.g., BTC for Bitcoin, ETH for Ethereum). L1 networks provide the canonical ledger and consensus (e.g., proof-of-work or proof-of-stake). L2 systems batch or offload work, but ultimately rely on the L1 for settlement and data availability (e.g., Ethereum with rollups; Bitcoin with Lightning).
Why L1 vs. L2 matters
- Security & finality live at L1.
- Scale & lower fees often come from L2s that post proofs/data back to the L1.
- The split lets L1s remain conservative and secure while L2s iterate quickly.
Ethereum’s growth spurt created a classic trade-off: demand exploded but the base layer (L1) got crowded. Enter Layer 2 — scaling layers that sit on top of Ethereum (and other blockchains) to make transactions faster and far cheaper while inheriting L1 security. Layer 2 coins (L2 tokens) are the native or governance tokens powering these networks: they fund development, secure the stack, and often give holders governance rights or fee discounts. This guide explains the tech, highlights the major L2 coins you should know, and gives practical advice for using and assessing L2 tokens.
What Layer 2 means
A Layer 2 is any protocol that processes transactions off the main chain and posts compressed results back to it. Two families dominate today:
Finding an early crypto gem feels a bit like panning for gold — the spots are crowded, the dust is thick, and most nuggets you pick up will turn out to be pyrite. Still, a few repeatable checks separate careless speculation from disciplined discovery. Cointelegraph’s recent primer lays out five core checks — builders, usage, liquidity, token design and security — and that checklist is a great starting point.
1) Builders: people ship things — check who and how
Look past flashy marketing to the team’s track record. Are the core contributors public, do they have prior projects, and are they actively coding? GitHub (or the project’s repo) shows commits, PRs and real deliverables — not just whitepaper prose. Also check for core contributors’ reputations on X (Twitter), LinkedIn and developer forums.
BNB Chain Memecoin Boom: How Traders Made Millions
If you’ve felt like the memecoin spotlight left Solana and swung toward BNB Chain, you’re not imagining it. Over the past week, a burst of tiny BNB-native tokens minted a fresh crop of crypto millionaires and pulled tens of thousands of new wallets into the frenzy. Cointelegraph tallied 100,000+ on-chain traders aping into new launches, with roughly 70% in profit at one point—an unusually high hit rate for a market famous for whipsaws. Even more eye-popping: one address cleared over $10 million, 40 others topped $1 million, and ~900 wallets realized $100,000+ in gains.
A separate Cointelegraph item captured the mood with a single example: a trader turned $3,000 into nearly $2 million by jumping on a BNB memecoin moments after a social post from Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao went viral—an anecdote that mirrors this week’s winners.
Crypto Safety 2025: 7 Proven Habits to Avoid Hacks, Drainers, and Scams
If you only read the headlines, it’s easy to think crypto security is a lost cause. It isn’t—but the stakes are higher. Independent researchers estimate more than $2.17 billion in crypto was stolen in just the first half of 2025, driven by a handful of massive incidents and a steady drumbeat of wallet-drainer scams. The year’s largest heist alone (the Bybit breach) accounts for roughly $1.5 billion, and analysts warn stolen funds from services could surpass $4 billion by year-end if trends persist.
Meanwhile, classic investment scams are still roaring. The FBI’s latest Internet Crime Report shows crypto investment fraud as the costliest category of online crime in 2024—over $6.5 billion in losses—while the U.S. Federal Trade Commission tallied $12.5 billion in overall fraud losses last year across all categories.
Exchange XRP to USDT: Your Complete Guide on Coinxes
Looking to move from Ripple (XRP) into Tether (USDT) without the hassle of opening a trading account or navigating order books? This step-by-step guide shows you exactly how to convert xrp to usdt on Coinxes.io, a simple, non-custodial swap service. Along the way, we’ll cover the safety checks most people skip—like picking the correct USDT network and using the XRP Destination Tag when required—so your exchange xrp to usdt goes through smoothly the first time.
Why Choose Coinxes.io?
Coinxes is designed for fast, wallet-to-wallet swaps. You choose the pair, paste your receiving address, send the input coin, and receive the output directly—no account balance or order book needed.
Centralized Exchanges (CEX) 101: Everything You Need to Know
Centralized exchanges (CEX) are where most people take their first steps into crypto. They feel familiar—email + password, a balance screen, a big “Buy” button—and they plug into fiat banking so you can deposit and withdraw easily. But behind that friendly interface is a powerful trading stack, strict compliance rules, and real risks to understand. This guide lays out how CEXs work, why they matter, and how to use them wisely.
What is a centralized crypto exchange?
A centralized exchange is a crypto marketplace run by a company that intermediates between buyers and sellers and often custodies customer assets.
Peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto exchanges let two people trade directly with each other—usually one pays with a local method (bank transfer, cash deposit, instant wallet), and the other releases crypto held in escrow. No order book, no market maker—just a marketplace that matches buyers and sellers and adds guardrails like reputation scores, chat, and dispute resolution. That’s the big idea.
Unlike decentralized exchanges (DEXs), where you swap on-chain token-for-token, P2P platforms specialize in fiat crypto off-chain payments. They shine when you need a specific local payment method or want to negotiate price and limits directly with a counterparty. Coinbase’s learning hub frames the broader context: crypto enables peer-to-peer value transfer; P2P marketplaces simply package that capability with listings and basic protections.
Stay Connected:
crypto off-chain payments. They shine when you need a specific local payment method or want to negotiate price and limits directly with a counterparty. Coinbase’s learning hub frames the broader context: crypto enables peer-to-peer value transfer; P2P marketplaces simply package that capability with listings and basic protections.
