Tether, the leading stablecoin provider, has joined forces with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to tackle rising cybercrime in Africa’s fast-growing crypto market. With scams and fraud increasing, Interpol recently uncovered $260 million in illicit crypto and fiat. The initiative focuses on strengthening digital asset security and educating the public. By combining …
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority will open a crypto licensing gateway in September 2026, giving firms time to prepare for a new regulatory regime launching on 25 October 2027. All crypto businesses will need fresh FCA approval under the Financial Services and Markets Act, as existing AML or payments registrations will not carry over. Companies …
Grayscale Investments has filed for new trusts in Delaware to pave the way for BNB and HYPE exchange-traded funds, registering entities 10465871 and 10465863 with CSC Delaware Trust Company. This move follows the massive inflows seen in spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs. BNB supports Binance’s ecosystem, while HYPE powers Hyperliquid’s high-speed futures trading, which captured …
President Donald Trump told The New York Times he will not pardon jailed FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who is serving a 25-year sentence for fraud and conspiracy, and is appealing his conviction. SBF had once donated millions to political campaigns, including $5.2 million to the Biden campaign, but Trump made clear a pardon isn’t coming. …
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin says Ethereum draws inspiration from both BitTorrent and Linux to define its future. Like BitTorrent, it proves decentralized systems can scale globally without central control. Like Linux, it shows that open and permissionless networks can gain trust from enterprises and governments. Buterin explained that Ethereum’s Layer 1 is designed to be …
Rumble and Tether launched Rumble Wallet, a self-custody crypto wallet integrated into the platform for USDT, XAUt, and BTC tips. Using Tether’s Wallet Development Kit and on-ramps like MoonPay, creators can receive instant, global payments without banks or ad networks. This rollout follows Tether’s $775M investment in Rumble and its Bitcoin tipping feature for 68M …
Morgan Stanley filed an S-1 with the SEC for its Ethereum Trust, following recent Bitcoin and Solana ETF submissions. The $1.8 trillion firm will hold ETH directly, stake portions for yield through third parties, and enable in-kind redemptions to simplify client access. Building on its October 2025 crypto rollout via wealth management, this move eyes …
Barclays, which manages $2.2 trillion in assets, has made its first move into stablecoins by backing Ubyx Inc., a U.S.-based clearing system for tokenized deposits and regulated stablecoins. Announced on January 7, 2026, the investment aims to improve connectivity across tokens, blockchains, and digital wallets as adoption of digital money accelerates. Ubyx CEO Tony McLaughlin …
Ethereum launched the BPO2 upgrade at epoch 419072 around 1:01 a.m. UTC on January 7, 2026, increasing the per-block blob target from 10 to 14 and maximum from 15 to 21 blobs. This 40% capacity expansion reduces data costs for rollups like Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base using Dencun’s 128KB blobs, stabilizing fees while achieving nearly …
Nike has quietly sold its digital products subsidiary RTFKT, which it acquired in 2021 as part of a push into NFTs and virtual sneakers, marking the end of its Web3 services announced earlier in 2025. The buyer and terms were not disclosed, but the move comes amid broader strategic shifts at Nike. Reports of the …
XRP surged 25-30% in the first week of 2026, breaking $2.35 and reclaiming a $140B+ market cap, solidifying its top‑4 ranking and earning CNBC’s recognition as the year’s hottest crypto trade over Bitcoin and Ethereum. Spot ETFs attracted over $1.3B in inflows with $46M daily, while exchange reserves fell to multi‑year lows, signaling whale accumulation. …
Ethereum’s 2025 ecosystem report shows major progress across decentralised finance, scalability, and institutional use. DeFi total value locked reached about $99 billion, while stablecoin settlement volume hit $18.8 trillion, reflecting heavy network use. Layer 2 rollups drove efficiency, cutting fees below $0.01 and pushing average throughput above 5,600 transactions per second. ETH held in ETFs and strategic reserves …
Tether has launched Scudo, a new unit of account for its gold-backed token, Tether Gold (XAU₮), to simplify pricing and usage of digital gold. One Scudo equals 1/1000 of a troy ounce of gold, a change aimed at smoother everyday transactions and clearer values on chain. This new unit does not change XAU₮’s structure or …
Binance Wallet has launched its 44th Exclusive TGE on PancakeSwap for Zen Chain (ZTC), a layer-1 blockchain using CLCM consensus to enable cross-chain privacy and scalability. The subscription period runs on January 7, 2026, from 08:00 to 10:00 UTC, exclusively for users with Binance Alpha Points earned through trading and wallet activity. A total of …
Ethereum’s market capitalization has climbed above Netflix’s valuation, reclaiming its place as the world’s 36th‑largest global asset by market cap. With ETH’s current price around $3,238 and a market cap nearing $390 billion, it now outranks the streaming giant’s valuation. This milestone highlights Ethereum’s growing dominance in crypto and traditional finance, fueled by staking growth, …
Morgan Stanley filed an S-1 with the SEC on January 6, 2026, for a spot Bitcoin Trust ETF that directly tracks BTC spot prices using benchmarks from major exchanges. The filing also covers a Solana ETF offering staking rewards, expanding the firm’s digital asset lineup post-2024 BTC ETF approvals. This positions Morgan Stanley to meet …
A hacker took control of a multi-signature wallet, stealing $27.3 million in crypto assets. The attacker recently withdrew 1,000 ETH (about $3.24 million) from Aave and laundered funds through Tornado Cash, with total deposits reaching 6,300 ETH (around $19.4 million). On-chain data shows the hacker still holds leveraged positions worth $9.75 million in ETH and …
On January 6, Bitmine added 186,336 ETH worth $604.5 million to its staking pool, bringing the total to 779,488 ETH valued at $2.52 billion. According to Onchain Lens data, this rapid restake underscores Bitmine’s aggressive expansion as a leading Ethereum validator. This move underscores Bitmine’s confidence in Ethereum and its commitment to the proof-of-stake network. …
Rep. Ritchie Torres has introduced a new bill aimed at banning federal officials from trading on prediction markets using non-public information. The proposal, called the Public Integrity in Financial Prediction Markets Act of 2026, comes after concerns that U.S. insiders may have profited from sensitive Venezuela-related bets. Prediction markets allow users to wager on real-world …
XRP price surged nearly 12% to around $2.40, extending its early-2026 rally as demand outpaced supply. The price broke above a key resistance level that had limited gains for weeks. Strong institutional buying helped fuel the move, with U.S. spot XRP ETFs seeing $48 million in inflows. At the same time, XRP held on exchanges …
Michael Saylor’s “Strategy” has added 1,287 Bitcoin to its holdings, strengthening its position as one of the largest corporate BTC holders. The purchase lifts the company’s total Bitcoin reserve to 673,783 BTC, reinforcing its long-term conviction in the asset. At the same time, Strategy increased its U.S. dollar reserves by $62 million, bringing total cash …
On January 4, 2026, on-chain sleuth ZachXBT revealed Ledger’s latest data breach via third-party payment handler Global-e, which notified customers of “unusual activity” in its cloud system. Exposed info includes names and contact details for some Ledger buyers, no wallet seeds or crypto compromised. Global-e contained the breach and hired forensic experts for a probe. …
Starknet, a major Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution, has been down for more than two hours as of January 5, 2026, halting transactions and dApps. The Starknet team confirmed on X that they are investigating the sequencer issues and pushing fixes to restore service quickly. This echoes past outages like the 9-hour September 2, 2025, …
Binance has launched Brevis (BREV) as the 60th project in its HODLer Airdrop program, rewarding users who held or staked BNB in Simple Earn or On‑Chain Yield products between December 17 and December 20, 2025. Brevis is a scalable computing platform built for blockchain and AI applications, with 15 million BREV (1.5% of total supply) allocated …
Japan’s Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama has declared 2026 the nation’s “digital year” and pledged strong support for integrating cryptocurrencies into the mainstream financial system. Speaking at the Tokyo Stock Exchange, she backed allowing digital assets to trade on stock exchanges and pointed to U.S. crypto ETFs as a model worth emulating. Japan is advancing plans to …
Bank of America updated its policy in December 2025, allowing over 15,000 advisors across Merrill, Private Bank, and Merrill Edge to recommend 1% to 4% crypto allocations via spot Bitcoin ETFs like BlackRock’s IBIT, Fidelity’s FBTC, Bitwise’s BITB, and Grayscale’s Mini Trust starting January 5, 2026. This proactive shift ends prior restrictions requiring client requests, …
A Polymarket trader known as “beachboy4” lost more than $2.07 million in just 35 days, even with a 51% win rate across 53 prediction trades. The losses stemmed from huge average bets of about $400,000, frequent high-priced entries, and no stop‑loss or hedging strategies, causing many losing positions to go to zero. His biggest single …
SlowMist’s Chief Security Officer recently flagged a new phishing scam that targets MetaMask wallet owners by copying official security alert pages to steal mnemonic seed phrases. The scam starts with a forged MetaMask alert and leads users through a fake two‑factor authentication flow that includes a countdown timer and looks urgent and legitimate. Victims are …
PwC is making a major shift to grow its digital asset business after years of caution, driven by clearer US regulations and new stablecoin laws. PwC US leader Paul Griggs says the GENIUS Act, which sets federal rules for stablecoins, and a more supportive regulatory climate have boosted confidence in crypto and created new opportunities …
On Jan. 2, spot Bitcoin ETFs posted $471 million in total net inflows, led by BlackRock’s IBIT with $287 million. Spot Ethereum ETFs also attracted fresh money, recording $174 million in net inflows, with Grayscale’s ETHE topping the list at $53.69 million. Spot XRP ETFs remained in the green too, bringing in $13.59 million in …