Bitcoin Miners Continue to Face Dwindling Profits Despite Lower Competition, JPMorgan Says
JPMorgan reports that Bitcoin’s network hashrate fell a second month in December, dropping 3% to 1,045 EH/s, indicating reduced mining competition. Despite this, miner profitability continued to erode, with daily block‑reward revenue per exahash falling 7% month‑over‑month and 32% year‑over‑year, while gross profit per EH/s slipped 9%. The decline comes amid lower Bitcoin prices, the recent halving, and higher energy costs. Nonetheless, the market capitalisation of the 14 U.S.–listed miners and data‑center operators rose 73% in 2025, showing resilience in equity valuations.
Bitmine Immersion Adds 33,000 ETH, Bringing Total Crypto and Cash Holdings Above $14 Billion
Bitmine Immersion Technologies announced it added 33,000 ether, bringing its total holdings to over 4.14 million ETH—about 3.4% of the global supply. The combined crypto and cash portfolio now exceeds $14.2 billion, including $915 million in cash, 192 BTC and a $25 million stake in...
Goldman Sachs Upgrades Coinbase to Buy, Cuts eToro to Neutral
Goldman Sachs upgraded Coinbase to a buy rating, lifting its price target to $303 and implying more than 30% upside, while the stock rose 4.3% in early trading. The bank downgraded eToro to neutral, cutting its target to $39 as...
Starknet Mainnet Hit by Fresh Downtime as Team Probes Cause
Starknet, Ethereum's ZK‑rollup layer‑2, experienced a fresh mainnet outage lasting just over two hours on Jan. 5, 2026. The team posted on X that engineers are actively investigating the issue, though no root cause has been disclosed yet. This disruption follows...
Crypto Wallet Firm Ledger Faces Customer Data Breach Through Payment Processor Global-E
Ledger, a leading hardware wallet provider, disclosed a data exposure incident tied to its third‑party payment processor Global‑e. Unauthorized actors accessed personal details such as names and contact information from Global‑e’s cloud system, though payment card data and private keys...
U.S. Jobs Report, Ethereum Upgrade: Crypto Week Ahead
The Crypto Week Ahead preview highlights Ethereum’s second Blob Parameter Only (BPO‑2) hard fork on Jan 7, expanding blob capacity to 21 per block as part of the Fusaka scaling roadmap. BNB Chain is holding a governance vote to tweak system parameters...
Japan’s Finance Minister Backs Exchanges as Gateway for Digital Assets
Japan’s finance minister Satsuki Katayama announced that traditional securities exchanges will serve as the primary gateway for crypto assets, signalling a shift from the Payment Services Act to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act. The new framework treats digital tokens...
Fake MetaMask 2FA Security Checks Lure Users Into Sharing Recovery Phrases
Crypto investors are being targeted by a new phishing campaign that impersonates MetaMask’s two‑factor authentication flow, directing users to fake domains that request their 12‑word seed phrases. Once the recovery phrase is submitted, attackers gain full control of the wallet...
Bank of America Will Allow Wealth Advisers to Recommend Bitcoin From Monday
Bank of America will allow its wealth advisers to recommend spot Bitcoin exchange‑traded funds starting Monday. The bank’s chief investment office has approved four U.S.-listed Bitcoin ETFs – Bitwise, Fidelity Wise Origin, Grayscale Mini Trust, and BlackRock’s iShares – for...
Bitcoin Traders Kick Off 2026 with Bets on Price Rally Above $100,000
Bitcoin traders opened 2026 by aggressively buying $100,000‑strike call options on Deribit, pushing open interest up by 420 BTC and adding $38.8 million in notional value. The $100k call now holds $1.45 billion total open interest, with $828 million tied to the January...
TRUMP, ONDO, BGB, HYPE Lead $5.5B in Token Unlocks in January
Tokenomist reports over $5.5 billion in cryptocurrency token unlocks slated for January. Approximately $2.5 billion will be released via cliff unlocks and $3 billion through linear schedules. The four biggest releases—Ondo (ONDO), Bitget Token (BGB), Hyperliquid (HYPE) and the Trump memecoin (TRUMP)—account for...
9 Myths About Bitcoin Energy Use Challenged by Data, ESG Expert Says
ESG researcher Daniel Batten used X to debunk nine common myths about Bitcoin’s energy consumption, citing four peer‑reviewed studies and grid‑level data. He argues that Bitcoin’s electricity use is largely independent of transaction volume and that mining can actually stabilize...
Visa Crypto Card Spending Soars 525% in 2025
Visa‑issued crypto cards surged in 2025, posting a 525% increase in net spend from $14.6 million in January to $91.3 million by year‑end. Six cards from projects such as GnosisPay, Cypher, EtherFi, Avici Money, Exa App and Moonwell drove the growth, with...
PwC Deepens Crypto Push as U.S. Rules Shift and Stablecoins Go Mainstream: Report
PricewaterhouseCoopers is intensifying its crypto practice as U.S. regulators clarify stable‑coin rules. The firm cites the passage of the GENIUS Act as a catalyst to "lean in" on audit and consulting work for digital‑asset clients. PwC plans to promote stablecoins...
Bitcoin Devs Flocked Back to Work Amid a Big Year for Crypto
Bitcoin Core development surged in 2025, with 135 contributors—up from just over 100 in 2024—and 285,000 lines of code modified, a 3% increase. Code commits rose 1% to 2,541, while email traffic on the Bitcoin‑dev mailing list jumped 60% year‑over‑year....
Altcoins Hold 'Crucial' Support, Set for 'Big Leg' Up, Says Analyst
Altcoins, valued at about $879 billion, are holding critical support near $784 billion on the Total3 index, aligning with the 365‑day moving average. Analyst Michaël van de Poppe sees the index edging toward its prior $1.2 trillion peak, indicating a potential major upward leg....
Metaplanet Has Key Advantage over US-Based Bitcoin Treasuries: Analyst
Metaplanet has become the fourth‑largest Bitcoin treasury firm, holding about 35,102 BTC. Analyst Adam Livingston argues the company enjoys a financing edge because Japan’s yen is rapidly losing value against both the dollar and Bitcoin. The weaker yen reduces the...
Washington’s New Crypto Bill Would Strip States of Power – Legally Bans Oversight that Catches Front-End Manipulation
Washington’s Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY Act) moves toward a federal uniform rulebook for crypto by carving out core DeFi infrastructure from intermediary regulation and preempting state securities rules for “digital commodities.” The House has cleared the bill, and...
Neobanks Will Fuel Ethereum's 2026 Growth, Says ether.fi CEO
Ether.fi CEO Mike Silagadze predicts Ethereum’s 2026 growth will be powered by crypto‑native neobanks offering familiar financial products. He notes that 2025 saw institutional digital‑asset treasuries (DATs) deploy into ether.fi, lifting ETH from a low of $1,472 to $4,832. Silagadze...
European Crypto Trading Volume Is Soaring, but a Hidden “Venue Gap” Is Silently Killing Your Execution Price
MiCA’s stablecoin rules transformed euro‑pegged tokens, pushing market cap to $500 million and boosting monthly transaction volume ten‑fold. Compliance‑driven reshuffling lifted euro‑stablecoin market share to 91% by late 2024, even though overall trading volume stayed modest. BTC‑EUR and ETH‑EUR liquidity improved,...
Coinbase Pauses Local Fiat Rails in Argentina Less than a Year After Its Arrival
Coinbase announced a temporary pause on its Argentine peso fiat rails, ending USDC‑ARS purchases, sales, and bank withdrawals effective Jan. 31 2026. The exchange will still support crypto‑to‑crypto transactions, keeping its core trading platform operational. The pause is described as a deliberate...
Rep. Torres to Target Insider Trading on Prediction Markets After Bet on Maduro
U.S. Representative Ritchie Torres is set to introduce the Public Integrity in Financial Prediction Markets Act of 2026, aiming to bar elected officials, political appointees, and executive‑branch employees from trading prediction‑market contracts based on non‑public government information. The move follows...
Bitcoin Tops $91,000 with Ether, Dogecoin Higher Amid U.S. Action on Venezuela
Bitcoin surged past $91,000 on Sunday, gaining about 1.4% intraday and over 4% in a week, while ether rose to roughly $3,150 and other altcoins posted double‑digit weekly gains. The rally followed a $180 million futures liquidation wave, primarily wiping out...
Bitcoin's Price Remains Resilient Amid the US Attack on Venezuela
Bitcoin hovered around $90,000 on Saturday, briefly dipping below the mark before rebounding. The price remained above its 21‑day moving average, a technical signal that many analysts interpret as bullish for January. Despite a high‑profile U.S. airstrike on Venezuela and...
Hut 8 Finishes 2025 Strong Despite Difficult Year for Bitcoin Miners
Hut 8 expanded its credit facility with Coinbase to $200 million, reinforcing liquidity after a stellar 2025 performance. The company also sealed a $7 billion agreement with AI‑cloud provider Fluidstack to deliver 245 MW of power for a 15‑year AI data‑center contract. Its stock...
Bitcoin Price Back at $90K: Is the Bear Market Behind Us?
Bitcoin surged past the $90,000 mark, marking its highest level since mid‑December, but the rally is tempered by cautious market behavior. Options data reveal a neutral put‑call skew, indicating traders still demand premium protection against downside risk. Meanwhile, U.S. spot...
XRP’s $1 Billion ETF Record Is Misleading, and One Hidden Flow Metric Explains Why Price Remains Stagnant
XRP spot ETFs have surpassed $1 billion in assets under management, but the token’s price has remained flat around $1.88. The article explains that AUM is a snapshot, while net creation flows—actual purchases of underlying XRP—drive price pressure. With roughly 600 million...
Coinbase Exec Defends CLARITY Act Delay: 'I Completely Understand'
Coinbase Institutional head John D’Agostino told CNBC he understands the delay of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, calling it a foundational bill for crypto’s growth. He contrasted its complexity with the simpler Genius Act and highlighted global regulatory momentum,...
After Bitter Vote, Aave Founder Pitches a Bigger Future for DeFi Lending Giant
Aave founder Stani Kulechov responded to a contentious governance vote that rejected transferring the protocol’s brand and IP to the DAO, outlining a broader vision that goes beyond core DeFi lending. He highlighted opportunities in real‑world assets, institutional lending, and...
Crypto Markets Move Higher After Holidays, Memecoins Outperform
Crypto markets rallied on Jan. 2 as risk appetite returned after two flat holiday weeks. Bitcoin rose about 2.2% to roughly $89,900, while Ethereum jumped 4.4% to $3,120. Memecoins led the gains, with PEPE up 30% and DOGE up 11%, pushing...
'Hundreds' Of EVM Wallets Drained in Mysterious Attack: ZachXBT
An on‑chain investigator reports that hundreds of Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) wallets across multiple networks have been drained, with each victim losing less than $2,000. The likely entry point was a spoofed MetaMask email that delivered a phishing payload, according...
Bitfinex Hacker Ilya Lichtenstein Credits Trump’s First Step Act for Early Prison Release
Ilya Lichtenstein, the mastermind behind the 2016 Bitfinex hack that stole roughly 120,000 bitcoin, was released from a five‑year sentence after serving just 14 months. He credited President Donald Trump’s First Step Act for the early release and reiterated his...
BitVentures Makes First Crypto Mining Move Weeks After Nasdaq Rebrand
BitVentures Limited, formerly Santech Holdings, rebranded on Dec. 24 and within two weeks entered cryptocurrency mining by acquiring Bitmain Antminer hardware. The company secured 0.5 MW of power capacity across U.S. data centers to mine Bitcoin, Litecoin and Dogecoin, with deployment slated...
Bitcoin Pushes Above $90,000 as Traders Eye Change in Pattern
Bitcoin surged past the $90,000 mark, climbing about 2.5% in the last 24 hours and breaking the defensive trend that dominated late‑2025. Ether, Solana and XRP each posted gains near 4%, while crypto‑related equities such as Coinbase, Hut 8 and Galaxy...
Changing Regulations: What Users Should Know Before Buying Crypto in 2026
In 2026, crypto regulation tightens across major markets as the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation proposes a framework for banks to issue dollar‑pegged stablecoins, while the Federal Reserve lifts its ban on bank‑provided crypto services. Congress is set to pass...
Bitcoin ETFs Failed a Critical Holiday Stress Test as $1.29 Billion Vanished Through “Tactical” Positioning
U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a net outflow of roughly $1.29 billion over the twelve‑day holiday window from Dec. 15 to Dec. 31. The outflows were uneven, with about $812 million flowing in on two days while the remaining days saw $2.10 billion exit, and...
$110 Billion in Crypto Left South Korea in 2025 Owing to Strict Trading Rules
South Korean investors moved over 160 trillion won ($110 billion) from domestic crypto exchanges to offshore platforms in 2025, driven by restrictive regulations. The Digital Asset Basic Act was delayed due to stablecoin disputes, leaving a gap in rules for derivatives and...
Cash-Like Privacy Is Among Digital Euro’s 'Hardest Political Tradeoffs'
The EU Council has endorsed the European Central Bank’s design for a digital euro that combines online and offline functionality. A key political hurdle is balancing cash‑like privacy with anti‑money‑laundering requirements, prompting lawmakers to seek a compromise. Holding‑limit rules remain...
What Crypto Exchanges Are Watching in 2026, According to OKX’s Rafique
Crypto exchanges are pivoting from speculative growth to regulated, sustainable offerings in 2026. OKX, now licensed in the EU, US, Singapore, Dubai and several Latin American markets, aims to leverage its on‑shore footprint for compliant derivatives and tighter fiat on‑ramps....
The 5 Busiest Blockchains of 2025 and What Powered Their Growth
Onchain analytics firm Nansen identified Solana, BNB Chain, Base, Tron and NEAR Protocol as the five busiest blockchains in 2025, with Solana topping the list at 23.01 billion transactions. Retail‑focused activities, especially low‑fee DEX trading and memecoin hype, accounted for the...
Bitcoin Miner Bitfarms Exiting Latin America with $30M Sale of Paraguay Site
Bitfarms announced the sale of its Paso Pe, Paraguay bitcoin‑mining site to the Sympatheia Power Fund for up to $30 million, with $9 million paid upfront and the remainder tied to milestones. The deal finalizes Bitfarms' exit from Latin America, following a previous...
PEPE, BONK Post Double-Digit Gains: Are Memecoins Back?
Memecoins surged on Friday, pushing the sector’s market cap 8% higher to $39.45 billion, a two‑week peak. PEPE led the rally with a 23.6% gain, while BONK and DOGE rose 10% and 8% respectively. Open interest and derivative trading volume spiked...
Will DeFi Adoption Officially End in 2026?
The EU’s MiCA framework will be fully enforceable by July 2026, obligating crypto exchanges, custodians, stable‑coin issuers and portfolio managers to obtain formal authorisation. All 27 member states except Poland have adopted the rule, with Poland’s president vetoing the bill over...
Coinbase Bets on Stablecoins, Base and 'Everything Exchange' For 2026
Coinbase’s 2026 roadmap centers on stablecoins, its Ethereum layer‑2 Base, and an "everything exchange" that bundles crypto, stocks, prediction markets and perpetual futures. The company rebranded its wallet as an "everything app" and launched stock trading and on‑chain prediction markets...
Internet Computer Climbs Back to $3 as Short-Term Momentum Improves
Internet Computer (ICP) surged about 3% in the past 24 hours, pushing the token above the $3 psychological level and briefly reaching $3.03. The price rally follows a short‑term recovery that began in the upper $2.80s, with higher lows and...
Bitcoin ETF Momentum Builds in South Korea as Regulation Lags Behind
Korea Exchange (KRX) announced it is operationally prepared to list crypto exchange‑traded funds and derivatives, signaling a push to modernise South Korea’s capital markets. The exchange’s readiness comes even as regulators have not yet classified digital assets as eligible securities,...
BONK Jumps More than 10% in 24 Hours as Momentum Pushes Price Higher
BONK, the Solana‑based meme token, surged roughly 10.6% in the past 24 hours, climbing to about $0.00000833. The rally broke a critical resistance at $0.00000820, a level that had previously capped gains, and pushed the price near $0.00000844. Elevated trading...
DeFi Pioneer Coughs up $50K After Making a Pretty Bad Bet on Ether
Crypto executive Kain Warwick wagered that Ether would reach $25,000 by the end of 2025, a bet he lost, obliging him to pay $50,000 to Multicoin partner Kyle Samani. Ether finished the year around $2,980, 13.7% lower than its January...
Bitcoin's Squeeze Sets Stage for Major Price Swing
Bitcoin has entered a classic Bollinger Band squeeze as its price has hovered between $85,000 and $90,000 for two weeks, narrowing the volatility bands to under $3,500—the tightest since July. Such squeezes historically precede large price swings, with past examples...
Crypto Sentiment Shifts Off Extreme Fear, but ‘Mixed Emotions’ Persist
The Crypto Fear & Greed Index rose to 29 on Friday, exiting the "extreme fear" zone and reaching its highest level in 21 days, the first such move since Dec. 12. Bitcoin was priced at $88,995, still under the $90,000 threshold....