# Competition Related Articles

HTX News Center provides the latest articles and in-depth analysis on "Competition", covering market trends, project updates, tech developments, and regulatory policies in the crypto industry.

Trump’s Emergency Energy Strategy Signals a Turning Point for Bitcoin Miners

Former President Trump's proposed emergency energy strategy aims to address rising U.S. electricity prices by having large companies, particularly AI data centers, fund new power plants through 15-year contracts. This could unlock $15 billion in new power generation, increasing supply and stabilizing costs. For Bitcoin miners, who rely on cheap electricity, this offers potential relief from current pressures where high energy prices and competition from AI firms are forcing many to transition to AI-related work. If implemented, the plan may slow this shift by making mining more economically viable again, though benefits would take years to materialize. The proposal ultimately shifts power expansion costs to tech giants, potentially helping miners remain competitive in the long term.

TheNewsCrypto01/16 11:48

Trump’s Emergency Energy Strategy Signals a Turning Point for Bitcoin Miners

TheNewsCrypto01/16 11:48

Just Spent 250 Million to Buy Companies, Then Laid Off 30%: Polygon Is Changing Its Way of Survival

Polygon, a major blockchain scaling solution, has laid off approximately 30% of its workforce while simultaneously spending $250 million to acquire two companies: Coinme, a licensed crypto-fiat exchange with an extensive US ATM network, and Sequence, a wallet infrastructure and cross-chain routing provider. This strategic pivot signals a shift away from its core Layer-2 (L2) business, where it faces intense competition from dominant players like Base, and toward building a comprehensive stablecoin payment infrastructure called the "Open Money Stack." The acquisitions provide critical pieces for this new direction: Coinme offers regulatory licenses and on-ramps/off-ramps, while Sequence provides the technical backend for seamless cross-chain transactions. The goal is to target B2B clients like banks and payment providers. This move is seen as a necessary "blood change." Polygon's previous strategy, focused on enterprise adoption and NFTs, yielded limited long-term results. In the crowded L2 space, it struggled against competitors with superior user distribution, such as Base, which is integrated with Coinbase's massive user base. The new focus on stablecoin payments is a promising but highly competitive market, with giants like Stripe, PayPal also making significant investments. While Polygon CEO claims this puts them in competition with Stripe, the company is betting on an open infrastructure model versus Stripe's more closed ecosystem. The strategy carries risks. Coinme has faced regulatory penalties in the past, and Polygon is entering a field with well-established traditional finance players. However, success could transform Polygon from a protocol reliant on tokenomics into a profitable company with real revenue streams, a rarity in crypto. The core challenge is that the window for crypto-native companies to capture this market is narrowing as traditional finance accelerates its adoption of blockchain technology.

marsbit01/16 04:54

Just Spent 250 Million to Buy Companies, Then Laid Off 30%: Polygon Is Changing Its Way of Survival

marsbit01/16 04:54

Aster “Human vs AI” Live Trading Competition Season 1 Concludes

Aster's inaugural "Human vs AI" Live Trading Competition concluded with human trader ProMint claiming the top individual ranking. However, the collective performance of human traders resulted in a -32.22% ROI, with 43% of participants being liquidated. In contrast, all 30 AI agents completed the competition without a single liquidation, achieving a 100% survival rate and a significantly more stable aggregate ROI of -4.48%. The event highlighted AI's superior risk control and stability in volatile markets, while also demonstrating that skilled human traders can capture asymmetric opportunities through judgment and narrative awareness. Aster emphasized that the future lies in human-AI collaboration, not replacement. The next competition is set to begin on January 22nd on the Aster Chain Testnet.

TheNewsCrypto01/14 17:19

Aster “Human vs AI” Live Trading Competition Season 1 Concludes

TheNewsCrypto01/14 17:19

Starknet TVL reclaims $300m for first time since 2024 as on-chain activity recovers

Starknet's total value locked (TVL) has rebounded to over $300 million for the first time since early 2024, signaling a recovery in on-chain activity and capital deployment after a prolonged decline. The TVL reached $302.12 million, nearing its all-time high of $307 million. This resurgence is supported by a record stablecoin market cap of approximately $248 million and an average of 65,000 daily active users, ranking Starknet fifth among Layer-2 networks. Despite trailing behind competitors like Base and Arbitrum, the network shows signs of stabilization and renewed user confidence, moving past outdated narratives and into a phase of measurable recovery.

ambcrypto01/14 16:23

Starknet TVL reclaims $300m for first time since 2024 as on-chain activity recovers

ambcrypto01/14 16:23

Clash Over Stablecoin Legislation: Big Banks Vs. The Crypto Industry

The Senate Banking Committee's updated crypto market structure bill (CLARITY Act) has sparked a new battle over the GENIUS Act, which focuses on stablecoin regulation. Blockchain Association CEO Summer Mersinger claims the "Big Bank lobby" is pressuring Congress to revisit settled stablecoin reward legislation to suppress competition, not due to emerging risks. She argues that big banks, controlling assets equivalent to 60% of US GDP, offer low savings yields (0.39%) compared to the Federal Funds rate (3.50%-3.75%), and lobby against technologies providing better consumer returns by invoking "systemic risk" claims. Expert Omid Malekan criticized the notion that stablecoin holders shouldn't earn yields, advocating that interest from Treasury bills should benefit average Americans rather than bank executives. He cited JPMorgan's $25 billion net interest income as evidence of banks profiting from low saver returns, dismissing concerns that interest-paying stablecoins would harm lending. Both advocate for policies prioritizing consumer choice and fair returns.

bitcoinist01/14 11:01

Clash Over Stablecoin Legislation: Big Banks Vs. The Crypto Industry

bitcoinist01/14 11:01

2025 Epic Showdown: Has DEX Finally Overtaken CEX?

In 2025, decentralized exchanges (DEXs) experienced unprecedented growth, with trading volume nearly quadrupling compared to previous years. This surge was particularly driven by the rise of perpetual decentralized exchanges (Perp DEXs), which saw a 176% increase in annual trading volume—exceeding the cumulative total of the previous four years. Key players like Hyperliquid, Lighter, and Aster led this expansion, while established platforms like dYdX and GMX saw slower growth. The year began with Solana-based DEXs outperforming Ethereum in Q4 2024, fueled by meme coin and AI-related trading. However, Ethereum regained momentum in Q1 2025 following its Pectra upgrade and renewed investor confidence. Binance’s collaboration with PancakeSwap in Q2 significantly boosted BSC-based DEX volume, while Q3 saw intensified competition among Perp DEXs and the successful launch of Jupiter Lend, which attracted over $1 billion in deposits within days. Despite a market shake-up in Q4 due to the "10·11" liquidation event, Perp DEXs demonstrated resilience, with Aster and Lighter recovering faster than Hyperliquid. In spot trading, Uniswap maintained dominance in TVL, while Solana-based DEXs collectively reached trading volumes comparable to Uniswap. The article concludes that DEXs are not outright replacing centralized exchanges (CEXs) but are evolving alongside them. Both are integrating each other’s strengths—DEXs improving in efficiency and user experience, and CEXs adopting self-custody and on-chain transparency—suggesting a future of coexistence rather than displacement.

marsbit01/14 10:14

2025 Epic Showdown: Has DEX Finally Overtaken CEX?

marsbit01/14 10:14

Polygon's $250 Million Acquisition Signals Shift in L2 Competition

Polygon Labs has announced the acquisition of cryptocurrency payment infrastructure provider Coinme and blockchain development platform Sequence for a total exceeding $250 million. The strategic move aims to bolster Polygon's stablecoin strategy and its vision for an "Open Money Stack." Coinme, a long-standing compliant crypto business in the U.S., operates a vast network of over 50,000 retail locations and holds a series of money transmitter licenses. This acquisition provides Polygon with critical off-ramp and on-ramp capabilities, enabling seamless conversion between cash, fiat, and on-chain assets like stablecoins. Sequence contributes its modular technology stack, including a smart wallet with account abstraction and a cross-chain orchestration engine called Trails. This simplifies the user experience by allowing seamless interactions across multiple chains without users needing to manage gas fees or underlying complexities. Together, these acquisitions form the foundation of Polygon's Open Money Stack, which integrates layers for fiat ramps, wallet infrastructure, cross-chain interoperability, and blockchain settlement. This reflects a broader shift in the Layer 2 competitive landscape, where success is increasingly determined by full-stack integration—combining compliant entry points with seamless user experiences—rather than just technical performance.

marsbit01/14 05:05

Polygon's $250 Million Acquisition Signals Shift in L2 Competition

marsbit01/14 05:05

Who Moved the Bank's Cheese? Debunking the Five Myths of Stablecoins 'Sucking Blood' from the Banking Industry

Stablecoins do not harm the banking system; instead, they may increase U.S. bank deposits by boosting global dollar demand, as most demand comes from overseas. They also promote competition, which could pressure bank profits but not necessarily reduce credit availability. Banks, currently highly profitable, can compete by offering higher deposit rates or using excess reserves. Moreover, banks provide only about 20% of U.S. credit, with non-bank lenders likely benefiting from stablecoin-driven efficiency and lower government borrowing costs. Concerns about community banks are misplaced, as large global banks are more exposed to payment competition. Finally, allowing stablecoin yield sharing benefits savers, and restricting it unfairly subsidizes borrowers at the expense of ordinary Americans. The claims against stablecoins are largely unsubstantiated, and the industry needs clear regulation to advance.

marsbit01/14 02:43

Who Moved the Bank's Cheese? Debunking the Five Myths of Stablecoins 'Sucking Blood' from the Banking Industry

marsbit01/14 02:43

Just 6 Days After Launching ChatGPT Health, OpenAI Is Surpassed on Its Own Medical Benchmark

In a significant development in the AI healthcare sector, Baichuan Intelligence has surpassed OpenAI's GPT-5.2 High on the HealthBench benchmark—a medical evaluation dataset created by OpenAI with input from 260+ doctors across 60 countries—just six days after OpenAI launched ChatGPT Health. Baichuan's new model, Baichuan-M3, achieved a top score of 65.1 and also led in the more challenging HealthBench Hard subset, while demonstrating the lowest hallucination rate (3.5%) without relying on external tools. Key to M3’s performance is its Fact Aware RL technique, which improves diagnostic accuracy by balancing factual precision with proactive questioning. The model avoids both over-confident errors and overly vague responses. Additionally, Baichuan introduced SCAN-bench, a new evaluation framework designed to simulate real doctor-patient interactions. In tests, M3 outperformed human specialists in areas like safety stratification, clarity, and diagnostic questioning, partly due to its ability to integrate knowledge across medical disciplines. Baichuan is now rolling out the model via its consumer product Baixiaoying (百小应), offering tailored interfaces for both doctors and patients. The company emphasizes a focus on "serious medicine," prioritizing complex areas like oncology over general wellness, aiming to augment—not just assist—medical professionals. According to CEO Wang Xiaochuan, enhancing AI’s capability in high-stakes medical scenarios is crucial for building user trust and advancing toward AGI through deeper biological understanding.

marsbit01/14 02:31

Just 6 Days After Launching ChatGPT Health, OpenAI Is Surpassed on Its Own Medical Benchmark

marsbit01/14 02:31

Competitors Narrow the Gap from Binance. Who Leads Among Cryptocurrency Exchanges

Competitors are closing the gap with Binance, which remains the dominant leader among cryptocurrency exchanges in 2025, according to data from WuBlockchain. While Binance continues to lead in both spot and derivatives trading volume, smaller platforms are demonstrating more significant growth. In spot trading, the total volume on major exchanges grew 8.8% to $19.1 trillion. Binance, Bybit, and Gate were the top three, with Binance's volume nearly five times that of the second-place exchange. BitMart, KuCoin, and Bitget saw the largest growth in spot volume, while Upbit and Bybit saw declines. The derivatives market grew more substantially, rising 27.8% to $62.4 trillion. Binance, OKX, and Bybit led this segment. HTX and KuCoin recorded the highest growth rates here. Despite the increase in trading activity, overall website traffic to major exchanges fell by 6.9%. HTX, KuCoin, and Crypto.com were the only platforms to see significant traffic growth. The report notes that data from CoinGecko and Similarweb may be influenced by factors like wash trading and bot activity. Notably, Russian users accounted for a significant portion of traffic, representing 31% of all visits to Bybit.

RBK-crypto01/13 13:21

Competitors Narrow the Gap from Binance. Who Leads Among Cryptocurrency Exchanges