ME Token Slumps After Magic Eden Announces Buybacks, Staking Rewards
Magic Eden announced it will allocate 15% of its platform revenue to the ME token ecosystem, dividing the funds equally between token buybacks and monthly USDC payouts to stakers. The marketplace reported $24 million revenue in 2025, meaning roughly $3.6 million could flow into the ecosystem annually, with about $1.8 million earmarked for rewards. Despite the plan, the ME token fell about 6.5% in the past 24 hours and remains over 95% below its launch price. The move is part of Magic Eden’s broader shift from pure NFT trading toward a combined entertainment and finance model.
Tom Lee's Bitmine Immersion Wins Investor Backing to Expand Share Limit
Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) secured 81% shareholder approval to raise its authorized share count, giving the firm greater leeway to issue equity in the future. The company now controls 4.203 million ETH—about 3.5% of the cryptocurrency’s circulating supply—alongside 193 BTC, a $22 million...
TenX Adds Tezos to Its Crypto Treasury, Targets Staking Revenue After Buying 5.5M XTZ
TenX Protocols announced the purchase of roughly 5.5 million Tezos (XTZ) tokens at an average price of $0.5868, funded by cash from its August 2025 financing round. The tokens will be staked through TenX‑operated validators, targeting an 8‑10% annual yield before costs....
How Crypto Criminals Stole $700 Million From People – Often Using Age-Old Tricks
Crypto criminals are increasingly buying stolen consumer databases to pinpoint high‑net‑worth individuals and siphon cryptocurrency. A breach at luxury conglomerate Kering exposed millions of shopper records, which a hacker purchased for $300,000 and cross‑referenced with other leaks. Using the combined...
From Consumers to Owners: What the Best Crypto Token of 2026 Looks Like
Healthy Cola’s $HEALTH token launched on LBank and Raydium, jumping 220% from its $0.15 listing price. The Solana‑based utility token is anchored to a real‑world beverage business that generated roughly $8 million in 2025 across 16 countries. Tokenomics feature a fixed...
CoinDesk 20 Performance Update: Internet Computer Drops 8.3% as All Assets Decline
The CoinDesk 20 index slipped 3.5% to 2,785.62 on Thursday, marking a broad‑based decline across its constituents. Internet Computer (ICP) led the losses, tumbling 8.3%, while Solana (SOL) added to the downside with a 4.5% drop. No asset in the index...
RedStone Acquires Security Token Market (STM.co) and TokenizeThis Conference
RedStone announced the acquisition of Security Token Market (STM.co) and its flagship TokenizeThis conference, aiming to accelerate growth in the United States. STM.co operates a data, media, and research platform focused on tokenized real‑world assets, complementing RedStone’s enterprise‑grade oracle and...
Most Crypto Holders Want to Pay with Bitcoin but Rarely Do, Survey Show
A GoMining survey of 5,700 crypto holders reveals that over half rarely spend Bitcoin, despite 80% supporting broader adoption. Limited merchant acceptance (49.6%) and high transaction fees (44.7%) are the top barriers, followed closely by price volatility. Users who do...
Japan Bond Market Panic Spills Into Crypto; 'Yields Will Keep Rising Until Something Breaks'
Japan’s 30‑year government bond yield surged 31 basis points to 3.91%, the highest in 27 years, ending a decades‑long era of falling yields. The spike triggered a broad risk‑off, pulling the Nikkei down 2.5%, US equity futures lower, and Bitcoin...
Coinbase Says Capital Access Beats Income in Wealth Creation
Coinbase Institute’s new report reframes wealth creation as a divide between the "brokered"—those with direct capital‑market access—and the "unbrokered," an estimated four billion people worldwide. Over the past four decades U.S. capital income surged 136 % while labor income rose only 57 %,...
MSX Announced as Platinum Sponsor for Hong Kong Web3 Festival 2026
MSX has been named a Platinum Sponsor for the Hong Kong Web3 Festival 2026, scheduled for 20‑23 April at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The four‑day event, now in its third year, draws over 100,000 visitors, 350 exhibitors...
As Investors Look Beyond Established Cryptos, VALYGO ($VYO) Is Emerging as One to Watch
Investors are turning attention to emerging crypto platforms as large‑cap assets like XRP and Dogecoin show slower growth. VALYGO ($VYO) positions itself as a real‑world financial ecosystem, offering crypto‑fiat integration, card payments, and cross‑border transfers. Currently in early‑access, the project...
Former FTX EU Trading Specialists Unveil Perpetuals.com, an AI-Powered Derivatives Platform
Former FTX EU co‑founders Patrick Gruhn and Robin Matzke have launched Perpetuals.com, an AI‑powered derivatives exchange that will begin trading on Nasdaq this week. The platform leverages a proprietary AI model trained on more than 10 million retail cryptocurrency trading histories...
Why Digital Asset Treasuries that only Hodl May Fall Short
Mike Maloney argues that digital asset treasuries (DATs) that merely hold Bitcoin—now exceeding $80 billion in market value—are exposing companies to market volatility and regulatory risk. He proposes a DAT 2.0 model that actively invests in Bitcoin‑related infrastructure such as mining, custody,...
WLFI Faces Backlash After ‘Team Wallets’ Push Through USD1 Growth Proposal
World Liberty Financial (WLFI) approved a USD 1 growth proposal despite community objections over voting access for locked token holders. On‑chain data shows nine top wallets, many linked to the team, controlled roughly 59% of voting power, with the largest single...
South Korea Weighs Ending One Bank Rule for Crypto Exchanges: Report
South Korean regulators are re‑examining the long‑standing “one exchange‑one bank” rule that forces cryptocurrency platforms to partner exclusively with a single domestic bank. A joint study by the Financial Services Commission and the Fair Trade Commission suggests the model fuels...
Bitcoin Is at Risk of Slide to $58,000 as 'Restrictive' Fed Policy and Trade Tensions Weigh on Crypto
Veteran futures trader Peter Brandt predicts Bitcoin could fall to $58,000‑$62,000 within two weeks, citing a bearish downtrend. Analysts Jason Fernandes and Mati Greenspan agree that macro‑economic pressures—particularly restrictive Federal Reserve policy and escalating U.S.–EU tariff disputes—are more decisive than...
Makina Loses $4.1 Million in Exploit Tied to Price-Feed Manipulation
Makina, a DeFi execution platform, suffered a $4.13 million exploit after an attacker used a flash loan to manipulate the price‑feed of its DUSD/USDC Curve pool. By inflating the MachineShareOracle’s reported prices, the hacker swapped roughly 110 million USDC against a pool holding...
BlackRock’s PFF ETF Has $380 Million Worth of Exposure to MSTR's Preferred Equities
BlackRock’s iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF (PFF) now holds roughly $380 million of MicroStrategy’s (MSTR) preferred equity products, making the crypto‑linked securities a material portion of the fund. The largest of these holdings is Stretch (STRC) with a $210 million allocation,...
Klarna’s Stablecoin Bet: The First Real Test of Crypto-as-Infrastructure
Klarna announced the launch of its own stablecoin, KlaraUSD, on the Tempo blockchain, a payment‑focused network backed by Stripe and Paradigm. The initiative targets internal treasury and cross‑border settlements, aiming to cut transaction times from days to seconds and reduce...
Portugal Joins Growing List of Countries Cracking Down on Polymarket
Portugal’s gambling regulator ordered blockchain prediction market Polymarket to cease operations within 48 hours after the platform recorded over €103 million in bets on the Jan 18 presidential election. The country’s 2015 online gambling law bans political betting, allowing only sports, casino...
Hong Kong Group Warns Crypto Licensing Rollout Risks Forced Shutdowns
The Hong Kong Securities & Futures Professionals Association warned that the city’s upcoming crypto licensing regime could force compliant managers to shut down operations if regulators launch without a transition period. The proposed "hard start" would require firms to be...
Trouble Mounts for Bitcoin and Stocks as Global Benchmark for Borrowing Costs Surges
The U.S. 10‑year Treasury yield rose to 4.27%, its highest level since early September, pushing borrowing costs higher worldwide. As the benchmark for risk‑free rates, the spike raises the floor for corporate loans, mortgages and other credit products, tightening financial...
'White Whale' Memecoin Slides 60% After Top Holder Dumps $1.3 Million
White Whale, a Solana‑based memecoin, plunged up to 60% on Monday after its largest private holder dumped roughly $1.3 million worth of tokens. The sell‑off thinned liquidity to just above $900,000 and briefly erased a large portion of the token’s market...
Crypto.com, EmCoin Partner to Enhance Digital Assets Trading Capabilities for UAE Clients
Crypto.com has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with EmCoin, a UAE‑licensed digital‑asset platform, to give EmCoin’s clients access to Crypto.com’s global liquidity and infrastructure. The partnership promises tighter spreads, broader cryptocurrency offerings, and the potential to tokenize real‑world assets on...
Discord Exploited to Spread Clipboard Hijacker Stealing Cryptocurrency Funds
Security firm CloudSEK’s STRIKE team uncovered a new cryptocurrency‑theft campaign that leverages Discord communities to distribute a clipboard‑hijacking trojan dubbed Pro.exe. The malware, attributed to the RedLineCyber group, monitors Windows clipboard for wallet addresses and silently replaces them with attacker‑controlled...
DeFi Protocol Pendle Revamps Governance Token, Citing Low Adoption
Pendle is swapping its locked‑vote escrow token vePENDLE for a new liquid staking token called sPENDLE. The change aims to remove the long lock‑up periods and non‑transferability that hampered user participation. sPENDLE will feature a 14‑day unwind window, optional instant...
Things Worth Reading: 20th January 2026
Chris Skinner’s daily roundup spotlights a wave of fintech and crypto headlines, from a $713 million crypto theft to AI‑driven stocks eclipsing digital currencies. It flags quantum‑computing anxieties that led a global investment firm to drop Bitcoin from its coverage, while...
MPE 2026 – Europe’s Home for Merchant Payments
MPE 2026 is set to be Europe’s premier merchant payments conference, drawing more than 1,600 attendees, including 500 global merchants, 170 speakers and over 90 sponsors. The agenda spans AI‑driven payment solutions, fraud mitigation, stablecoins, account‑to‑account transfers and the upcoming...
Bitcoin Whale Wakes up After 12 Years to Move $84 Million Fortune
A Bitcoin wallet that has been idle since 2013 transferred 909 BTC—now worth over $84 million—to a new address, marking a 13,000 % unrealized gain. The move, tracked by Whale Alert and Lookonchain, follows a wave of dormant‑address activity after Bitcoin breached $100,000...
UK’s FCA Aims to Support Integration of Stablecoins Into Payments Landscape
The UK Financial Conduct Authority is launching a two‑day "Stablecoin Sprint" on March 4‑5, 2026 in London, inviting fintechs, banks, issuers and regulators to shape stablecoin payment standards. The event targets retail, remittance and B2B use cases, aiming to create faster, cheaper...
Magic Eden Co-Founder Sees ‘Speculation Supercycle’ Ahead
Magic Eden co‑founder Jack Lu announced that the firm is gearing up for a "speculation supercycle" where finance merges with entertainment. Prediction‑market trading volumes hit a record $814.2 million, underscoring mainstream interest in betting and forecasting. The company will launch its...
Memecoin Trading Spikes Briefly as Traders Cash in, Say Analysts
Memecoin trading volume surged to $5.62 billion on Monday, a 106% jump from the previous day, before retreating to $3.6 billion later in the session. At the same time, the sector’s market capitalization slipped 6%, indicating that the volume spike reflected profit‑taking...
Ethereum L2 MegaETH Peaks at 47K TPS Ahead of ‘Global Stress Test’
Ethereum layer‑2 MegaETH demonstrated a peak of 47,000 transactions per second in recent testing, positioning it among the fastest EVM chains. The project announced a global stress test slated for Jan 22, targeting sustained 15‑35k TPS and a total of 11 billion...
Ethereum Posts Record Onchain Activity as Research Points to Possible Spam-Driven Growth: Asia Morning Briefing
Ethereum recorded an all‑time high of nearly 2.9 million daily transactions, yet Ether’s price stayed flat around $3,180, suggesting the activity may not stem from genuine user demand. On‑chain researcher Andrey Sergeenkov attributes the surge to a large‑scale address‑poisoning campaign that...
UNI Stalls Near $5.43 as Traders Wait, Tron Holds While ZKP Crypto’s Viral Presale Auction Attract Millions
Uniswap (UNI) is trading near $5.43, stuck in a narrow range after failing to break the $5.60 resistance, indicating market hesitation. Tron (TRX) is holding above its recent breakout level, turning former resistance into support and suggesting a strengthening price...
Injective Community Passes Governance Vote to Slash INJ Token Supply
Injective’s community approved the Supply Squeeze proposal (IIP‑617) with 99.89% support, overhauling tokenomics to cut INJ issuance. The change aligns reduced issuance with the existing buy‑back‑and‑burn program, which has already removed about 6.85 million INJ from circulation. Despite an 80% price...
One Year After Gary Gensler’s Exit, SEC’s Crypto Playbook Looks Very Different
One year after Gary Gensler left the SEC, the agency’s crypto stance has flipped under Trump‑appointed leadership. Acting chair Mark Uyeda and later Paul Atkins dismissed high‑profile enforcement actions against Coinbase, Robinhood, Uniswap and Ripple. The SEC has shifted to...
GAS Tanks 90% After AI Dev ‘Steps Back’
The Gas Town (GAS) token crashed from a $60 million valuation to roughly $1.1 million within four days after its creator, Steve Yegge, publicly stepped back from the project. Yegge’s reversal, following a viral endorsement, sparked a rapid sell‑off that erased 98%...
NFTs Are Not Dead: Wealthy Crypto Collectors Are Still Driving the Market, Says Animoca Brands' Yat Siu
Animoca Brands co‑founder Yat Siu says NFTs are far from dead, noting that a niche of wealthy collectors now sustains the market. Monthly NFT sales have contracted from over $1 billion at the 2021‑22 peak to roughly $300 million, driven by high‑net‑worth...
Price Predictions 1/19: SPX, DXY, BTC, ETH, XRP, BNB, SOL, DOGE, ADA, BCH
Analysts warn that a looming US‑EU trade dispute is fostering a short‑term risk‑off mood, pressuring Bitcoin and most altcoins toward key support zones. The S&P 500 hovers around the 7,000 mark, with the 20‑day EMA at 6,909 acting as a potential...
A Crypto Trader Turned $285 Into $627,000 in One Day, but some Say the Game Was Rigged
A trader bought $285 of the memecoin ZREAL and sold enough to net $627,000 in a single day, according to blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain. The platform traced the activity to a single wallet that acquired 66.3 million ZREAL tokens, sold roughly...
What BTQ’s Bitcoin Quantum Testnet Reveals About “Old BTC” Risk
BTQ Technologies launched a Bitcoin‑Quantum testnet on Jan. 12, 2026, swapping Bitcoin’s ECDSA signatures for the post‑quantum ML‑DSA scheme. The experiment shows that ML‑DSA signatures are 38–72 times larger, prompting a block‑size increase to 64 MiB. By reproducing Bitcoin‑like transaction flow, the testnet...
Bitcoin Price Consolidation Nears 60-Day Window That's Historically Triggered Rallies
Bitcoin has traded between roughly $80,000 and $98,000 for 59 days, edging toward the 60‑day consolidation window that has historically preceded strong rallies. Past cycles—April 2025, Dec 2023‑Feb 2024, Aug‑Oct 2023, and the post‑FTX bottom—each resolved after about two months with price breakouts. Digital...
How Bitcoin Mining Heat Is Being Tested to Warm Canadian Greenhouses
A pilot in Manitoba is pairing liquid‑cooled Bitcoin mining rigs with greenhouse agriculture to capture and reuse the substantial heat generated by mining operations. The 3 MW proof‑of‑concept uses a closed‑loop water system to preheat greenhouse water, reducing reliance on conventional...
OpenLedger Partners With Theoriq to Bring Verifiable AI Agents Into Live DeFi Markets
OpenLedger and Theoriq announced a partnership that embeds Theoriq’s autonomous AI agents into OpenLedger’s DeFi infrastructure, delivering on‑chain, cryptographically verifiable execution of AI‑driven trades. The integration records every reasoning step, decision, and transaction on the blockchain, providing a permanent audit...
NYSE Develops 24/7 Blockchain Trading Platform for Tokenized Stocks, ETFs
The New York Stock Exchange, backed by its parent ICE, is building a 24/7 platform to trade tokenized stocks and ETFs, combining its Pillar matching engine with multi‑chain blockchain settlement. The system would enable real‑time settlement using stablecoins, replacing the...
Bitcoin, Ether, Solana and XRP Extend ETF Inflow Streak Before Reversal
Digital asset ETFs recorded $2.17 billion in net inflows last week, the strongest flow since October 2025. Bitcoin led with $1.55 billion, followed by Ether’s $496 million and Solana’s $45.5 million, while XRP added $69.5 million. The United States accounted for $2.05 billion of these inflows, but...
US Bitcoin Traders Flip Bearish: Is BTC Price at Risk of Losing $90K?
Bitcoin’s Coinbase Premium Gap plunged to a one‑year low of –63.85, indicating heightened US‑based selling pressure. The negative gap emerged during a U.S. market holiday, showing that large US whales were offloading Bitcoin outside of spot ETFs. Simultaneously, Bitcoin’s daily...
Bitcoin Hashrate Drops 15% From October High as Miner Capitulation Drags Into Almost 60 Days
Bitcoin’s network hashrate has slipped about 15% since its October peak, falling from roughly 1.1 ZH/s to 977 EH/s as miners shut down equipment amid shrinking profits. The upcoming difficulty adjustment on Jan 22 will cut mining difficulty by 4%, marking the seventh...