Ether’s Price Vs. Fundamentals Gap May Signal a 2026 Opportunity
Ethereum’s price lagged behind its underlying fundamentals, prompting concerns about relevance but also highlighting a potential mispricing. Vivek Raman, CEO of Etherealize, points to a widening sentiment‑fundamentals gap that could create a sizable upside by 2026. He notes Ethereum’s dominance in stablecoin activity—over $300 billion—and its control of more than 90% of on‑chain tokenized assets. Institutional players like JPMorgan and Fidelity are now deploying tokenized products on Ethereum, buoyed by clearer U.S. regulations.
FTX Estate Sets Next Creditor Payout Date as Genesis Digital Assets Fights $1 Billion Clawback Suit
The FTX bankruptcy estate announced its next creditor distribution will occur on March 31, 2026, using records as of February 14. The estate also filed an amendment to reduce its disputed‑claims reserve, potentially freeing more cash for near‑term payouts. Concurrently,...
Figure Technology Unveils Blockchain Platform for Direct Stock Lending: Report
Figure Technology Solutions launched the On‑Chain Public Equity Network (OPEN), enabling companies to issue real equity directly on its Provenance blockchain. Unlike synthetic tokenized stocks, OPEN shares represent actual ownership and can be lent or pledged on‑chain, removing custodians, exchanges...
The Protocol: Vitalik Buterin Flags Stablecoin Design Flaws
Ethereum co‑founder Vitalik Buterin warned that decentralized stablecoins still suffer from fundamental design flaws. He highlighted three persistent challenges: reliance on a single‑currency reference point, oracle manipulation risk, and weak governance and incentive structures. Buterin’s critique does not endorse any specific...
Bybit Pay Links with Digital Wallets Yape, Plin to Offer Crypto Payments in Peru
Bybit Pay has partnered with Peru’s leading digital wallets Yape and Plin, enabling users to pay with stablecoins and major cryptocurrencies that are instantly converted to Peruvian soles at checkout. The two wallets together serve roughly 28 million users and handle...
Blockchain-Based Lender Figure Named 2026 'Top Pick' By Wall Street Analyst
Wall Street broker Bernstein has named blockchain lender Figure Technology its top investment idea for 2026, citing accelerating regulatory momentum and a volatile banking environment that boost demand for its blockchain‑based credit platform. The firm upgraded Figure’s revenue outlook to...
Bitnomial Opens First US-Regulated Futures Market for Aptos
Chicago‑based Bitnomial has launched the first U.S.‑regulated futures contracts tied to Aptos’ native token APT. The monthly contracts settle in either U.S. dollars or APT and are initially available to institutional clients through Bitnomial’s clearing members, with retail access expected...
Mantra Restructures After OM Token Collapse and Tough Year
Mantra, a blockchain focused on real‑world assets, announced a restructuring after a tumultuous year highlighted by a sharp OM token collapse and strained exchange relations. The token fell from an $8.99 peak in February 2025 to roughly $0.59 by mid‑April,...
Algorand Foundation Returns to U.S. Amid Friendlier Crypto Regulation Under Trump
The Algorand Foundation announced it will relocate its headquarters from Singapore back to Delaware, re‑establishing a U.S. base. The move coincides with a new board of directors featuring former policymakers, fintech executives, and blockchain experts. Under the Trump administration’s friendlier...
Crossmint Gets MiCA Nod to Provide Stablecoin Infrastructure Across EU
Crossmint obtained MiCA authorization from Spain's CNMV, allowing it to operate as a regulated stable‑coin infrastructure provider across the EU. The licence covers fiat‑to‑crypto exchange, custody, and cross‑chain wallet transfers, subject to bank‑style AML and CFT standards. With the EU...
Bitcoin ETFs on Rollercoaster as Traditional Funds Pull in $46B in 2026
Bitcoin ETFs have had a volatile start to 2026, posting only $660 million in net inflows year‑to‑date and a brief $753 million two‑day surge after a four‑day losing streak. In stark contrast, traditional equity ETFs attracted $46 billion in the first six days...
Germany’s Second-Largest Lender DZ Bank Secures Retail Crypto Trading MiCA License
Germany’s second‑largest lender DZ Bank has secured a BaFin‑approved MiCA licence, allowing it to launch the retail crypto‑trading platform meinKrypto. The service will be embedded in the VR Banking app and offered through the cooperative network of Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken....
Perp DEXs Will ‘Eat’ Expensive TradFi in 2026: Delphi Digital
Perpetual decentralized exchanges (DEXs) saw their trading volume triple to $12.09 trillion in 2025, pushing market share from 2.1 % to 11.7 % of futures activity. Delphi Digital predicts that by 2026 perp DEXs will further erode traditional finance by offering integrated brokerage,...
MetaPlanet Just 5% Away From Restarting Share Sales for Bitcoin Buying
MetaPlanet, Japan’s largest corporate bitcoin holder, is within 5% of the 637‑yen price level that would reactivate its moving‑strike warrant program, allowing new share issuance to fund further BTC purchases. The stock jumped 15% to 605 yen, pushing the enterprise‑value‑to‑bitcoin‑holdings multiple...
Backpack Exchange Launches Beta Testing of Prediction Market Platform
Backpack, the crypto exchange founded by former Alameda and FTX staff, has begun private beta testing of its Unified Prediction Portfolio, a native prediction‑market platform. The system tokenizes positions and integrates risk profiling, allowing traders to place bets and hedge...
Animoca Buys Somo as NFT Market Rebounds Early in 2026
Animoca Brands announced the acquisition of Somo, a developer of playable and tradable digital collectibles, to broaden its blockchain gaming portfolio. The company plans to weave Somo’s assets into its existing ecosystem using shared infrastructure and partner networks, though financial...
North American Hours Become the Strongest Window for Bitcoin Returns, Reversing Late 2025 Trend
Bitcoin’s performance has shifted dramatically, with North American trading hours now delivering roughly an 8 % cumulative return in 2026, up from a 20 % decline in late‑2025. European sessions add modest gains, while Asian hours continue to weigh on the price....
Binance Wallet Unlocks In-App Leveraged Crypto Futures Trading with Aster Team-Up
Binance Wallet announced a partnership with decentralized perpetuals platform Aster, enabling users to trade leveraged crypto futures directly from the wallet while keeping full custody of their assets. The feature, currently available on the BNB Smart Chain web interface, supports...
Efforts to Bulletproof Ethereum Are Paying Off in User Metrics
Ethereum’s active address count rose to over 791,000, overtaking its leading L2 competitors such as Base, Arbitrum and Optimism. Daily transaction fees hit a historic low of $0.15, a dramatic drop from $11 a year earlier, while daily transactions topped...
Spanish Bank Bankinter Joins BBVA and Tether with Stake in Crypto Exchange Bit2Me
Spanish bank Bankinter has taken a minority stake in crypto exchange Bit2Me, joining a €30 million funding round that also includes Tether and BBVA. The investment bolsters Bit2Me’s capital structure and supports its ambition to comply with the EU’s MiCA regulation...
Pakistan Taps Trump-Linked Crypto Company for Stablecoin Payments Deal: Report
Pakistan has signed an agreement with SC Financial Technologies, a firm linked to Trump‑associated World Liberty Financial, to test the integration of its USD1 stablecoin into the country’s regulated payment system. The deal, expected to be announced during World Liberty...
Crypto Market Structure Rulemaking Could Take Years: Paradigm Exec
Paradigm’s regulatory affairs vice president Justin Slaughter warned that the U.S. crypto market structure bill could take years to become operational due to an extensive rulemaking process. The legislation has cleared the Senate committee stage and faces a markup in...
Bitcoin Prices Hit Two-Month High, but U.S. Demand Lags
Bitcoin surged past $95,000 on Tuesday, marking a two‑month high, but the Coinbase premium index turned negative, indicating U.S. prices are lower than offshore benchmarks like Binance. The gap suggests U.S. investors are selling or holding back while global demand...
Rattled Retail Retreats to Bitcoin, Ether After October Crash
Retail traders, who had been favoring altcoins since 2022, abruptly rotated back into Bitcoin and Ether following the October 10, 2025 liquidation shock. Wintermute’s 2025 OTC market report shows the crash acted as a clear inflection point, aligning retail positioning with...
Senators Pitch More than 75 Amendments for Crypto Bill, Including on Yield, DeFi Sections
U.S. senators have filed more than 130 amendments ahead of the Senate Banking Committee’s markup of the crypto market‑structure bill. The proposals span from banning stablecoin yields and restricting public officials from profiting on crypto to tightening definitions of mixers...
Perfect Storm of Activity Sees Record Surge in New Ethereum Wallets
Ethereum wallet creation hit an all‑time high, averaging 327,000 new wallets per day over the past week and peaking at over 393,000 on Sunday. The surge follows the December Fusaka upgrade, which reduced transaction fees and streamlined data flow between...
Paxos’ Asset Base Grew 450% in 2025
Paxos reported a 450% surge in its total asset market cap during 2025, climbing from $1.2 billion in January to $6.8 billion by year‑end. The expansion was powered primarily by its PayPal‑backed stablecoin PYUSD, which jumped from $500 million to $3.6 billion, accounting for...
Crypto-Friendly Old Glory Bank Plans Nasdaq Listing Through SPAC
Old Glory Bank, a digital‑first lender founded in 2022, announced a merger with the SPAC Digital Asset Acquisition Corporation to list on Nasdaq under the ticker OGB. The combined entity, OGB Financial Company, is slated to close the transaction by...
Strive Shares Fall 12% After Semler Deal to Expand Bitcoin Treasury
Strive Asset Management announced an all‑stock acquisition of Semler Scientific, adding 5,048.1 BTC to its treasury. The deal would lift Strive’s total Bitcoin holdings to roughly 12,797.9 BTC, making it the 11th largest publicly traded Bitcoin holder. Shares fell about...
Senate's Warren: WLFI-Tied Bank Application Should Be Halted Until Trump Divests
Senator Elizabeth Warren urged the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to pause World Liberty Trust Co.'s application for a federal trust charter, which would enable the issuance of a USD‑1 stablecoin, until former President Donald Trump divests his...
Yield Suffers $3.7M Loss Due to ‘Unintended’ Stablecoin Swap
Yield Protocol (YO) incurred a $3.73 million loss on Jan 13 when a vault swap unintentionally converted roughly $3.84 million worth of stkGHO into just $122 000 USDC. The trade suffered extreme slippage, likely routed through a Uniswap v4 pool with complex hooks, but security...
‘Inflation Is Aging’: Bryan Johnson’s War Against Systemic Decay
Bryan Johnson, the Braintree founder who sold to PayPal for $800 million, is now championing Project Blueprint, a data‑driven longevity protocol he frames as a fight against systemic decay. He equates inflation’s erosion of purchasing power with biological aging, arguing both...
SOL Chart Shows ‘Masterpiece’ Setup to $190 After Key Trend Turns Bullish
Solana (SOL) has formed a high‑time‑frame cup‑and‑handle pattern that points to a breakout target of $180‑$190, a roughly 25% upside from current levels. The cryptocurrency reclaimed its 50‑day moving average, staying above it for the first time since September 2025,...
Stablecoins Vs. Bitcoin Salaries: Why Regulation Pushes One Ahead of the Other
Crypto payroll lets employers pay wages in digital assets, but payroll’s heavy regulation demands clear rules. Recent U.S. legislation like the GENIUS and CLARITY Acts, along with Europe’s MiCA framework, provide specific guidance for stablecoins, reducing legal uncertainty. Stablecoins’ fiat...
Bitcoin-Gold Correlation Signals at Least 50% BTC Price Gains by March
Bitcoin’s 52‑week correlation with gold fell to zero, the first such occurrence since mid‑2022, and analysts expect it could turn negative by January’s end. Historical data shows a negative BTC‑gold correlation typically precedes a 56% Bitcoin rally within two months....
CZ’s YZi Labs Invests in Trading Terminal as DeFi Execution Takes Priority
YZi Labs, the family office of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, has made an eight‑figure investment in on‑chain trading terminal Genius Trading and appointed Zhao as an advisor. The move underscores a growing focus on cross‑chain execution infrastructure rather than just...
Bitcoin Options Open Interest Extends Dominance over Futures, Damping BTC Volatility
Bitcoin options open interest has risen to $65 billion, overtaking futures at $60 billion for the first time since July 2025, signaling a shift toward volatility‑management strategies. Institutional players, led by BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), now control roughly $33 billion—about 52% of the...
Crypto Data Platform CoinGecko Weighs Sale for Around $500 Million, Sources Say
Crypto data platform CoinGecko is weighing a sale valued around $500 million, hiring Moelis as advisor. The process, which began late last year, comes as crypto‑sector M&A surged to $8.6 billion in 2025 across 133 deals. Recent high‑profile purchases, such as...
Euler’s Founding CEO Steps Down as Protocol Refocuses on Institutions
Euler Labs co‑founder Michael Bentley announced he will step down as CEO after nearly six years, shifting to an advisory and product‑focused role. Jonathan Han, formerly of The Tie, will assume the CEO position and steer the protocol toward institutional...
Bitcoin Spikes to $92,500 as U.S. December Consumer Prices Rise 0.3%
The U.S. Consumer Price Index for December rose 2.7% year‑over‑year, exactly matching expectations, while core CPI increased 2.6% YoY. The data kept the market’s focus on the Federal Reserve, with a 95% probability that rates will stay unchanged at the...
Franklin Templeton Adapts Money Market Funds for US Stablecoin Rules
Franklin Templeton has amended two Western Asset institutional money‑market funds, LUIXX and DIGXX, to operate within the emerging U.S. stablecoin framework established by the GENIUS Act. The changes keep the funds under SEC‑registered 2a‑7 status while adding a blockchain‑enabled digital...
Ingenico Taps WalletConnect to Support Stablecoin Payments at Checkout
Ingenico has teamed with WalletConnect Pay to embed stablecoin checkout functionality into its point‑of‑sale terminals, allowing shoppers to pay with USDC, EURC or USDT from wallets such as MetaMask and Trust Wallet. The integration works on Ingenico’s existing network of roughly 40 million...
ZKsync Sets 2026 Roadmap Focused on Privacy and Institutional Adoption
ZKsync unveiled its 2026 roadmap, centering on privacy‑first execution, deterministic control, and native cross‑chain interoperability to attract institutional digital‑asset users. The plan builds on 2025 releases such as Atlas, Prividium, and Airbender, which aim to meet banks’ confidentiality and performance...
Bitcoin Rose Above $92,000 as BlackRock ETF Moved $300 Million to Coinbase Prime
Bitcoin surged past $92,000 in early New York trading after BlackRock’s spot crypto ETFs transferred roughly $300 million of Bitcoin and Ether to Coinbase Prime. The on‑chain movement involved 3,290 BTC and 5,692 ETH, reflecting routine creation‑redemption activity rather than outright selling. The price...
ClearBank Taps Crypto Custody Firm Taurus to Power Stablecoin Services
ClearBank has partnered with crypto‑custody provider Taurus to launch stablecoin services using Taurus‑PROTECT’s wallet infrastructure. The collaboration enables the UK clearing bank to offer secure, scalable, and compliant digital‑asset solutions, starting with stablecoins like USDC and EURC. Integration includes connectivity...
BNB Chain Targets ‘Around One Second’ Finality with Fermi Hard Fork
BNB Chain’s Fermi hard fork, activating Wednesday, slashes block intervals from 0.75 seconds to 0.45 seconds and targets transaction finality of roughly one second. The upgrade refines consensus rules, tightening propagation and voting parameters to keep validators synchronized under the...
Ukraine Blocks Polymarket in Wider Online Gambling Crackdown
Ukraine’s telecom regulator ordered internet service providers to block prediction‑market platform Polymarket alongside nearly 200 online gambling sites, citing a December 10 resolution that enforces licensing requirements. The move follows a recommendation from the State Agency PlayCity, which found Polymarket...
Nigeria Ties Crypto Oversight to Tax IDs Under Sweeping Reform
Nigeria has enacted a sweeping tax reform that makes cryptocurrency activity visible by linking every transaction to Tax Identification Numbers and, where applicable, National Identification Numbers. Effective Jan. 1 under the Nigeria Tax Administration Act 2025, virtual asset service providers must...
Italy’s CONSOB Puts ‘Finfluencers’ on Notice Amid ESMA’s Crypto Risk Warnings
Italy’s securities regulator CONSOB has amplified ESMA’s new fin‑influencer factsheet, warning that EU investment‑promotion rules fully apply to crypto and “get rich quick” content. The regulator stresses that influencers remain legally liable for unlicensed advice, must clearly label paid partnerships,...
Kraken-Linked SPAC Files for $250M IPO Targeting Crypto Infrastructure
Kraken, together with venture firm Tribe Capital and investment platform Natural Capital, has filed a SEC registration for a new special purpose acquisition company, KrakAcquisition, to raise up to $250 million. The SPAC will issue 25 million units at $10 each and...