Polygon Labs signaled that it’s becoming a regulated payments company by acquiring Coinme and Sequence for a combined $250 million.
Genius Trading is building a privacy-focused DeFi trading platform and aims to become an onchain alternative to Binance.
Franklin Templeton is amending institutional money market funds to support stablecoin reserves and onchain cash use without launching new crypto-native products.
Sequence offers smart wallet routing for "1-click" cross-network transfers, while Coinme has secured U.S. money-transmitter licenses.
Wintermute says crypto liquidity concentrated in BTC, ETH, and a handful of majors as ETF and treasury channels shaped where capital landed.
By integrating WalletConnect Pay, Ingenico is testing whether stablecoins can function as a practical alternative to card networks in everyday commerce.
The move comes as crypto projects increasingly position themselves as offering payment platforms that resemble traditional digital banks, but operate on blockchain rails.
It’s logical to expect developments in algorithmic personalization to influence user behavior on high-stakes digital platforms. Technology tracks betting behaviour, helps personalize retention strategies, and provides tailored promotions, improving the player experience. At the same time, users who decide to cash out early or receive personalized bonuses tend to adjust their betting frequency and stake …
Crypto experts say political pressure on the US Federal Reserve could drive volatility, but also shift flows toward Bitcoin and gold in the long run.
Kalshi has secured temporary relief in its battle with Tennessee regulators over sports event contracts on the prediction market platform.
Monero's surge highlights growing interest in privacy coins, potentially challenging regulatory frameworks and influencing crypto market dynamics.
The post Monero hits record high of $686 after Dubai bans privacy tokens on exchanges appeared first on Crypto Briefing.
In an era marked by rising inflation, Bitcoin was framed as a radical experiment in digital cash. However, as the global economic landscape has shifted, the narrative around BTC has changed. It is now being discussed as a modern savings tool designed for a world where traditional savings are steadily losing their purchasing power. Normalisation Of Bitcoin As A Savings Asset A common framing of Bitcoin today is that it is a savings technology, digital gold, and something to hold, rather than use. According to Ben SAN’s post on X, that framing has become incomplete and ultimately wrong. This is because BTC is not meant to sit alongside fiat as another savings vehicle, but to replace fiat as a monetary base and a financial base that cannot be used or function as money. Related Reading: Bitcoin Supply Is Being Absorbed By Powerful Financial Players — What This Means However, for BTC to operate as a form of finance, it has to be usable at scale. That usability at scale implies execution, settlement abstraction, fast interactions, and cost-efficient transactions. BTC layer 1 is designed for finality and neutrality, not to satisfy these requirements, and it shouldn’t be. This is why BTC needs layer 2s to operate as money. “Once you accept that Bitcoin needs L2s to be usable as money, you stop asking whether alts are competing with Bitcoin and start asking whether they are serving Bitcoin,” the expert stated. If acceptance of altcoins is ever possible in the BTC-first community, it won’t come from alternative monetary assets. Instead, the acceptance of the altcoins will only come from systems that keep BTC as the unit of account and native asset, while extending its usability crucially without weakening its guarantees. In these cases, auxiliary tokens may be introduced, but only where BTC is structurally incapable of performing the required coordination or incentive functions around expressiveness and yield. Furthermore, any non-BTC asset that has a legitimate chance of being accepted within the community will earn that legitimacy by filling those gaps in a way BTC itself cannot fulfill. History Shows What Happens After These Bitcoin Buys Crypto analyst Mattertrades highlighted that Bitcoin is trading above the weekly resistance, and the path is slow and clear. This setup is a result of Michael Saylor stepping in this week with his largest purchase since July, acquiring $1.5 billion worth of BTC. The last time he did this, BTC surged to $126,000. Related Reading: Bitcoin Demand Remains Weak: Setting The Stage For Long-Term Accumulation At the same time, the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI)-related news for Strategy was very bullish, and it actually attracted more buyers. Mattertrades concluded that this is how a bullish case quietly forms. If Saylor’s purchases bring in more buyers, reflexivity will begin because when he starts accumulating such large amounts again, other players will follow suit. Featured image from Getty Images, chart from Tradingview.com
The crypto markets, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP, are heading into CPI Day with price action still tight and traders clearly positioned for a volatility spike. BTC price is holding key support after a muted rebound, ETH remains firm above a major psychological zone, and XRP is consolidating near its short-term pivot, signalling hesitation rather …
ZKsync’s 2026 plan shifts focus from experimentation to production-ready infrastructure designed for banks, enterprises and regulated financial systems.
The Fermi hard fork upgrade has improved BNB Smart Chain's throughput and finality, and Grayscale has filed for a BNB ETF.
Asset manager 21Shares has launched its Bitcoin and Gold exchange-traded product (ETP), known as BOLD, on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), with trading beginning on January 13. The product offers U.K. investors physically backed exposure to both bitcoin and gold within a single exchange-traded vehicle, marking the first time these two assets have been combined …
The asset manager sent 3,290 bitcoin, worth about $298 million, along with 5,692 ether valued near $17.8 million.
BlackRock's significant crypto transfer to Coinbase Prime may signal strategic shifts in institutional crypto engagement amid fluctuating market trends.
The post BlackRock moves $303M in Bitcoin to Coinbase Prime appeared first on Crypto Briefing.
Your day-ahead look for Jan. 13, 2026
The U.K. clearing bank has selected Taurus' wallet infrastructure as it expands into digital assets and stablecoin-based payments.
Bitcoin price is holding steady after a brief rebound, but the market still lacks a decisive trigger. BTC is consolidating above $91,000, while traders keep a close watch on whether the range turns into a breakout or another rejection. Volatility remains compressed, suggesting a larger move could be building as liquidity clusters around key levels. …
Polygon has earned over $1.7 million in fees in 2026, driven in large part by Polymarket’s 15-minute high-frequency prediction markets, which introduced transaction fees that reward liquidity providers and increase network activity. On one day, these markets contributed up to $100,000 in fees. Polygon also achieved a throughput of 16.67 million gas per second and …
BNB Chain’s Fermi hard fork goes live on Wednesday, cutting BSC block times from 0.75 seconds to 0.45 seconds and tightening fast-finality rules.
Bitcoin investors are bracing for a rare convergence of market forces this week, walking into a gauntlet of three distinct macro and policy catalysts packed into a single 72-hour window. The catalysts include the release of December’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Tuesday, a potentially historic Supreme Court opinion day on Wednesday regarding executive tariff […]
The post Bitcoin is walking into a perfect setup for a long-term bull run but first faces a brutal 72-hour gauntlet appeared first on CryptoSlate.
Reckless meme coin trading based on influencer tweets can lead to significant financial losses, highlighting the need for cautious investing.
The post CZ warns traders against chasing meme coins tied to his tweets appeared first on Crypto Briefing.
XRP is trading at around $2.06 on January 13, 2026, leaving its price action a full step below the zone that capped its last rally that ended with a high of $3.65 in July 2025. However, predictions that point to XRP reclaiming that peak and then pushing into new highs above $3.8, have been on the front page of bank research notes and trader-led chart projections. Notably, various technical analyses have suggested that XRP is programmed to return back into the upper-$3s and into new price territories this year. Standard Chartered’s XRP Target Clears $3.8 XRP’s all-time high price now looks out of reach, especially considering the cryptocurrency is now struggling to leave $2 behind. At the time of writing, XRP has dropped by about 44% from its July 2025 peak of $3.65, but institutional buys from Spot XRP ETFs are still giving glimmers of hope. Related Reading: XRP Back At The Edge: Will Breaking $2 Barrier Rewrite Its History? One of the most recently notable institutional-style projections from XRP comes from Standard Chartered’s digital assets research, which lays out a multi-year path that sees XRP breaking well above the $3.8 threshold. According to analysts at the bank, XRP is slated to reach as high as $8 by the end of 2026, a level that comfortably eclipses the previous peak and implies roughly 300% upside from current levels if certain conditions hold. Interestingly, this outlook came from Geoffrey Kendrick, Standard Chartered’s Global Head of Digital Assets Research. The prediction was made based on an outlook of continued institutional adoption and strong inflows into XRP-based spot ETFs. Technical Outlooks As Ripple Heads Into A Consequential 2026 Recent technical commentary from multiple analysts has converged on a bullish bias for XRP. For instance, XRP analyst EGRAG CRYPTO pointed out a developing breakout retest structure on the monthly candlestick timeframe. According to the analyst, historical probabilities favor upside as long as XRP holds above the $1.60 to $1.40 range on higher timeframes, with long-term channel projections placing the XRP price as high as $22. For a shorter-term perspective, Crypto Feras described XRP’s recent break above $2 as a bullish reversal signal. His analysis points to $2.67 and $3.01 as the next resistance levels, areas that could open the path toward a full retest of the prior peak near $3.8 if cleared. Adding to this, ChartNerd noted that XRP’s long-term upside fractal structure is still valid despite the recent XRP price correction. Related Reading: Analyst Updates XRP Price Prediction: Why $16 Is Still On The Table These price projections are being viewed more favorably against the backdrop of Ripple’s momentum heading into the year. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse recently pointed to strong progress in 2025 with examples of major acquisitions of Ripple Prime and GTreasury and a growing global licensing footprint. Now that Ripple is positioning itself for what its leadership has described as a consequential 2026, the combination of technical outlooks and company fundamentals has strengthened the narrative that XRP could be approaching a move to new all-time highs. Featured image from Adobe Stock, chart from Tradingview.com
Elon Musk followed the @PsyopAnime X account and the Solana-based meme token shot from $1 million to $17 million market cap in under an hour. The token peaked above $26 million before pulling back. On-chain data shows traders made serious money on the move. One trader invested $1,653.44 three days ago and now holds $220,100 …
The 21Shares Bitcoin Gold ETP allocates two-thirds to gold and one-third to Bitcoin and trades in pounds sterling and dollars on the London Stock Exchange.
Bitcoin pushed above $92,000 with rising volume; altcoins outperformed as traders rotated into privacy coins and memecoins.
Truebit lost $26 million after a smart-contract overflow bug let an attacker mint tokens at near-zero cost, sending the TRU price down 99%.