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Ethereum has slipped below the critical $3,000 level, adding fresh pressure to a market that is already showing clear signs of hesitation. After weeks of choppy price action, ETH is now entering a more fragile phase where failed recoveries are starting to shift sentiment. With sellers gaining control and bullish momentum fading, several analysts are warning that this breakdown could open the door for a deeper correction if demand does not return quickly.

The timing is important. Ethereum is moving through a pivotal zone where short-term price direction could shape the broader narrative for 2026. If ETH continues to trade below $3,000 and lower support levels fail to hold, the market may transition into a prolonged risk-off regime. On the other hand, a fast recovery back above this psychological threshold could signal that the breakdown was only a liquidity sweep, setting up a rebound toward higher resistance.

Despite a weakening price structure, on-chain activity suggests large players remain active. Market data shows that Bitmine staked another 171,264 ETH, worth roughly $503.2 million, just a few hours ago. The move adds to the firm’s growing exposure and reinforces the idea that institutional-scale actors are still positioning aggressively, even as Ethereum faces one of its most decisive moments of the year.

Bitmine’s ETH Staking Signals Long-Term Conviction Despite Short-Term Weakness

According to data from Arkham, Bitmine has now staked a total of 1,943,200 ETH, worth roughly $5.71 billion, marking one of the most aggressive Ethereum accumulation and yield-positioning moves currently visible on-chain.

Staking at this scale removes a significant amount of ETH from liquid circulation, effectively shifting supply away from exchanges and into long-term validator positions. In practical terms, it suggests Bitmine is not positioning for a short-term flip, but rather treating Ethereum as a strategic asset that can generate native yield while potentially appreciating over time.

This activity stands out because it is happening while Ethereum is under pressure after losing the $3,000 level. At the moment, the market is stuck in a fragile, risk-sensitive phase, where traders are reacting quickly to breakdowns and failed recoveries. Momentum has weakened, liquidity remains thin, and analysts are increasingly warning that a deeper correction could unfold if key supports continue to fail.

However, Bitmine’s staking expansion provides a counter-signal: large players appear willing to keep committing capital even as sentiment deteriorates. That divergence highlights the current split in the market—short-term participants are defensive, while longer-term allocators are still building exposure. If price stabilizes, this kind of staking-driven supply reduction can become a structural tailwind.

Ethereum Downtrend Pressure Builds

Ethereum is trading near $2,940 after losing the key $3,000 psychological level, putting the market back into a fragile position. The chart shows ETH has been trending lower since the October peak, with a clear sequence of lower highs and heavy sell-side volatility that accelerated into November. Although ETH managed to stabilize into a broad consolidation range between roughly $2,850 and $3,250, the most recent breakdown suggests buyers are struggling to defend support when momentum fades.

From a trend perspective, Ethereum remains capped beneath its major moving averages. Price is trading below the green long-term average and the blue mid-term average, both of which are sloping downward and acting as dynamic resistance.

The recent rebound attempt toward the $3,300–$3,400 zone failed right under the green line, reinforcing that sellers are still controlling rallies. Meanwhile, the red long-term average sits higher near the mid-$3,000s, highlighting that ETH remains far from reclaiming a macro bullish structure.

Volume has increased on the sharp red candles compared to the slower grind higher, which often signals distribution rather than healthy accumulation. If ETH cannot reclaim $3,000 quickly, downside risk opens toward the $2,850 range floor. A clean recovery back above $3,150–$3,250 would be needed to reduce bearish pressure and reset the near-term trend.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com 

South Korean authorities have come under scrutiny after a large stash of seized Bitcoin went missing during a routine check. The loss was discovered when officials found that some of the wallets that had been held as criminal evidence were empty.

According to multiple reports, the value of the missing Bitcoin is about 70 billion won — roughly $47.7–$48 million.

How Officials Found The Theft

Reports say the gap showed up during a routine audit of confiscated digital assets at the Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Office.

An internal check flagged transfers from wallets that had been marked as evidence, and investigators traced the movement back to external addresses. The office immediately opened an inquiry to determine how access was lost and whether any recovery is possible.

Initial findings point to a phishing scam as the trigger. According to local coverage, a staff member accessed a fraudulent website that impersonated a legitimate service, and that interaction exposed passwords and private keys.

Once the credentials were captured, the Bitcoin was moved out in transactions that cannot be reversed.

Security Lapses And USB Storage

Reports note that some of the access details for the seized assets were kept on portable drives rather than in hardened custody systems.

That practice appears to have made it easier for attackers to grab the keys once the phishing trap was sprung. Simple mistakes can cost millions when the asset is bearer-like and transfers are final.

The theft has raised hard questions about how state agencies handle crypto. Some experts say that the tools used by prosecutors were more suited to personal use than to government-level custody.

There are calls for stricter rules, multi-signature setups, and cold storage protocols that do not rely on easily copied passwords.

Tracing The Bitcoin

Blockchain records show the funds moving through several wallets after the initial transfer. That public trail gives investigators leads, but tracing tokens to a final cash-out point is often slow and requires cooperation from foreign exchanges and on-chain analytics firms. Reports say authorities are working with outside specialists to map the flow.

What Prosecutors Are Doing Next

The Gwangju prosecutors’ office has vowed a full probe, and officials are trying to reconstruct events step by step.

There are also signs that the incident will trigger a review of national procedures for holding seized digital property. Some lawmakers and legal experts have already called for clearer standards and oversight.

Featured image from Pexels, chart from TradingView

The US crypto market has welcomed a new entrant as 21Shares rolls out its Spot Dogecoin ETF, giving investors another avenue to engage with the infamous dog-themed meme coin. Trading kicked off amid a mix of curiosity and caution, with on-chain data already showing how much the DOGE ETF has performed so far. 

21Shares Launches Dogecoin ETF

In a press release on Thursday, January 22, 21Shares announced the official launch of its Spot Dogecoin ETF, TDOG, which began trading on NASDAQ the same day. The new ETF provides investors with direct exposure to Dogecoin through a fully backed, regulated, and transparent vehicle. Each ETF share is also backed 1:1 by DOGE held in institutional-grade custody. 

Notably, the launch of the new TDOG ETF brings the total number of US Dogecoin ETFs to three, joining Grayscale’s GDOG and Bitwise’s BWOW. 21Shares is also the only ETF provider endorsed by House of Doge, the official corporate arm of the Dogecoin foundation, highlighting the global asset manager’s close ties to the meme coin. 

As one of the largest crypto ETF issuers, 21Shares continues to expand its crypto product lineup with the introduction of TDOG. This follows the investment company’s previous ETF offerings, including TSOL, a Solana ETF released in November 2025; ARKB, a Spot Bitcoin ETF launched in January 2024; and TETH, an Ethereum ETF introduced in July of the same year. Together, these products demonstrate 21Shares’ commitment to providing institutional-grade access to high-demand digital assets. 

Federick Brokate, Global Head of Business Development at 21Shares, highlighted DOGE’s large and active global community, calling it a unique digital asset with constantly growing use cases. He added that the new TDOG ETF will give investors regulated, physically backed exposure through a familiar ETF structure they know and trust. 

Marco Margiotta, the CEO of House of Doge, also shared comments on the recently launched 21Shares ETF. He said that TDOG is a step toward making Dogecoin easier to access through traditional financial systems. He also disclosed that House of Doge’s partnership with 21Shares will help more people get involved as the Dogecoin ecosystem grows. 

How 21Shares Dogecoin ETF Has Performed So Far

Contrary to expectations, 21Shares’ recently launched Dogecoin ETF saw weak performance on the first day of trading, signaling investors’ lack of interest in the investment product. Data from SoSoValue shows that TDOG experienced no inflows on January 22 and instead declined by about 0.07%. Despite it being the second day of trading, the DOGE ETF has still not registered any flows. 

This lackluster performance has been observed across all Dogecoin ETFs this week. Grayscales’ GDOG and Bitwise BWOW have reported zero inflows over the last week. The last time GDOG saw positive activity was on January 8, when it received around $333,083 in investments. Before that, the ETF recorded its highest inflows on January 2, totaling roughly $2.3 million. Since its launch in November 2025, GDOG ETF inflows have been unstable, with more days of inactivity than significant investment. 

Michael Saylor says Strategy’s evolving capital-markets machine is starting to resemble a “central bank of Bitcoin,” positioning the company as a conduit between traditional money markets and the Bitcoin network. In an interview with Gatecast, the Strategy executive chairman argued the firm’s shift toward perpetual preferred equity and “digital credit” instruments is designed to fund continuous bitcoin accumulation while stripping out refinancing risk.

Saylor traced the company’s pivot to the COVID-era shock of 2020, when “the physical economy of the world came to a grinding halt and the financial system was turned upside down.” Facing what he framed as an existential decision, he said Strategy discovered Bitcoin during “the war on COVID and the war on currency,” and used it to “escape a pretty miserable existence and turned into something digital and modern and much better.”

Strategy Is Building A ‘Central Bank of Bitcoin’

That transformation now sits on a scale Saylor claims is often misunderstood. Addressing criticism that Strategy is simply levering up to buy more Bitcoin, he said the firm has raised roughly $44 billion over the past year and a half and characterized “most of that” as equity rather than debt. “There isn’t really leverage,” Saylor said. “Equity is capital that you have forever. We’re funneling that capital into the crypto economy. We’re buying Bitcoin.” He added that Strategy has acquired “about $48 billion worth of Bitcoin” across “like 88 different transactions,” purchasing “as soon as we raise the capital.”

When asked whether Strategy is still just a buyer or something closer to a “shadow central bank of Bitcoin” given its holdings, Saylor leaned into the analogy. “Bitcoin is digital capital. It is the world reserve capital network. It’s replaced gold as the global non-sovereign store of value for the human race,” he said. Then came the framing: “Banks normally buy credit. We actually sell credit. So what we’re doing is the reverse of commercial banking, retail banking. It is sort of like central banking. We are sort of like the central bank of Bitcoin.”

Saylor’s “central bank” claim hinges on a product stack meant to translate Bitcoin’s balance-sheet asset into yield-bearing instruments for investors who won’t hold BTC directly. He described STRC as “a currency that’s pegged to the dollar” and “backed […] with Bitcoin,” with proceeds recycled into BTC purchases. In his telling, that mechanism links “the Bitcoin economy” to “the traditional finance economy and to the money markets of the world.”

Michael Saylor: “We are sort of like the central bank of Bitcoin.” pic.twitter.com/IyZ9EHLAQn

— TFTC (@TFTC21) January 22, 2026

The more material shift, he argued, is Strategy’s progression away from maturity-driven debt toward perpetual structures. Saylor laid out a four-stage evolution: initial use of credit and leverage, a senior note secured by BTC collateral that the company later refinanced and vowed not to repeat, then non-recourse convertible bonds, an approach he said became constrained by market size and retail inaccessibility and finally “digital credit,” which he described as “an equity […]a perpetual preferred equity.”

In one of his clearest statements of intent, Saylor said Strategy’s priority is to prevent principal from ever coming due. “We don’t want to have leverage. We want to have amplification via equity. We never want the principal to come due. We’d rather pay a higher dividend forever,” he said. “I’d rather pay 10% forever than pay 5% for 5 years.” Strategy, he added, has “announced a $1.44 billion cash reserve for the dividends,” giving it “the option to not raise any capital in the capital markets for up to two years,” and in his view “effectively stripped the credit risk off of the business.”

Saylor also pitched liquidity as a differentiator. He said Strategy has raised $7 billion over the last nine months via these instruments and described an emerging market of about $8 billion outstanding. Where preferred stocks typically trade thinly, he argued Strategy’s “digital credit instruments were trading 30 million a day,” with “Stretch […] more than a hundred million a day,” which he framed as a step-change in market access.

The firm’s investor pitch, as Saylor described it, splits the world into capital and credit buyers. “Bitcoin is digital capital. The world will be built on digital capital. But the world will run on digital credit,” he said, arguing that products like Stretch can offer a money-market-like alternative “powered by digital capital” while sidestepping Bitcoin’s volatility.

At press time, BTC traded at $89,250.

Nathaniel Chastain, a former product manager at OpenSea, will not face a retrial after federal prosecutors chose to drop their re-review of his insider trading case.

Reports say the US Attorney’s Office reached a deferred prosecution agreement with Chastain that will lead to dismissal of the charges once the agreement runs its course.

What Prosecutors Decided

Prosecutors told a Manhattan federal court they would not retry Chastain following an appeals court ruling that tossed his earlier conviction.

Under the deferred prosecution deal, the government will dismiss the case about a month after notifying the court, and Chastain has agreed to forfeit roughly 15.98 ETH tied to the trades. He has already served three months in prison from his original sentence.

How The Appeals Court Changed The Case

According to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the jury in the first trial had been given the wrong instructions about what the wire fraud law covers.

The judges said confidential information only counts as property under the statute when it has commercial value to the employer, and jurors might otherwise convict someone for behavior that is unethical but not criminal. That legal point is at the heart of the reversal.

Reports note that prosecutors had called the matter the first-ever insider trading case tied to NFTs. Now, lower courts and enforcement teams will have to think carefully before using traditional fraud laws to police activity in NFT markets.

The ruling highlights a gap between old statutes and new kinds of online goods, which may push lawmakers to give clearer rules for how to treat confidential business signals related to crypto platforms.

OpenSea: The Case’s Earlier Chapters

Chastain was first charged in mid-2022 after prosecutors said he bought certain NFTs before they were featured on OpenSea’s homepage, then sold them after prices rose.

He was convicted at trial in 2023 of wire fraud and money laundering and received a sentence that included three months behind bars. The US Attorney’s Office originally described the scheme as a novel use of insider knowledge in digital markets.

With the deferred prosecution agreement in place for OpenSea, prosecutors can close this chapter without a new trial.

Chastain’s forfeiture of crypto assets and his already served time mean the government has secured some remedy, while the appellate decision leaves open big questions about when private business information can be treated as property for federal fraud charges.

Legal teams, judges, and regulators are likely to keep a close eye on how similar cases are handled in the future.

Featured image from Getty Images, chart from TradingView

Bitcoin’s price is fluctuating below the $90,000 mark as volatility increases across the entire cryptocurrency market. During the bearish price action, attention is now being shifted to the cautious signal from the Bitcoin Open Interest in BTC terms, which has remained below past all-time high in years.

Open Interest Tells A Different Story When Measured In BTC

Amid the ongoing volatile action of the crypto market, the derivatives market for Bitcoin is providing a more subdued message. This message is unfolding on the Bitcoin Open Interest (OI) in BTC terms as outlined in a recent research by Joao Wedson, a market expert and founder of the Alphractal analytics platform.

In the report shared on the X platform, the market expert highlighted that the open interest measured in BTC terms has failed to reach new all-time highs since 2022. The BTC-based perspective shows a more restricted usage of leverage over cycles, whereas dollar-denominated measures frequently climb in tandem with price.

On Thursday, the metric experienced a bounce, but Wedson stated that the upward move was mainly in USD-dominated open interest. This pattern suggests that traders are becoming more cautious in the market by allocating capital more carefully as opposed to putting it all into risky positions.

According to the expert, the trend simply suggests that speculation is present in the market and it’s currently expanding. However, the chart shows that the broader market is still far from any form of extreme or irrational euphoria. 

Not Enough Profit To Trigger A Bullish Recovery

BTC’s inability to produce another major rally is linked to the level of investors in profit. Darkfost stated that there are still not enough investors in profit to hope for a sustainable bullish recovery. Thus, it is crucial to understand that latent profits are not harmful to a market; it is quite the opposite.

When investors are most in profit, the situation is much more comfortable, which motivates them to hold. However, this only holds up to a certain point. Also, when the supply in profit surpasses 95% or even 100%, latest profits begin to impact the market and may trigger essential corrective phases.

The ongoing correction remained moderate with a drawdown to around 31%, but it was able to sharply reduce the percentage of supply in profit, suggesting very late entry by many investors. Currently, over 71% of BTC is in profit after dropping as low as 64%, a very concerning level that has typically been observed only when Bitcoin was entering a bear market. 

However, in Darkfost’s view, the market must reclaim above 75% supply in profit to regain a more stable structure. As long as it stays above this level, the supply in profit has historically been associated with positive periods, as shown in the chart. 

With the recent price rebound, the supply in profit saw a brief climb back to 75% before getting rejected. Meanwhile, many BTC investors possibly used this opportunity to exit at break-even or to cut their losses.

Major cryptocurrency exchanges are reportedly positioning to bring tokenized stock trading onto the blockchain, signaling a renewed push to merge traditional financial markets with digital assets. 

According to a report published Friday by The Information, platforms such as Binance are exploring ways to offer crypto tokens that track publicly listed US companies, effectively creating new channels for equity exposure through tokenized instruments.

Binance And OKX Explore Tokenized Stocks

The report says Binance is considering reintroducing stock tokens to its platform, several years after pulling similar products in 2021 amid regulatory uncertainty. 

The plan, cited by a person familiar with the matter, reflects a broader shift within the industry as exchanges revisit tokenized equities under evolving market and compliance frameworks. 

OKX is also said to be evaluating the possibility of offering tokenized stocks, according to Haider Rafique, the company’s global managing partner and chief marketing officer.

Binance has framed the move as part of its long-term strategy to connect traditional finance with the crypto ecosystem. In a statement to CoinDesk, a Binance spokesperson said the exchange is focused on expanding user choice while maintaining strict regulatory standards. 

The company noted that it began supporting tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) last year and recently launched what it described as the first regulated traditional finance perpetual contracts settled in stablecoins. 

Exploring tokenized equities, the spokesperson said, is a natural progression as Binance continues to build infrastructure, collaborate with established financial institutions, and develop new products for users and the wider industry.

Binance and OKX are not alone in this effort. Several major crypto firms, including Robinhood (HOOD), Gemini (GEMI), and Kraken, have already rolled out tokenized stock offerings in Europe. Meanwhile, Robinhood and blockchain startup Dinari are seeking regulatory approval to introduce similar products in the United States.

Tokenized Shares Gain Increased Interest

Robinhood took a significant step in June of last year when it launched trading in tokens linked to publicly listed companies and announced plans to expand into tokenized shares of private firms. 

As part of the rollout, the company distributed tokens pegged to OpenAI. According to Robinhood’s terms and conditions, those tokens function as derivative contracts backed by the firm’s ownership of fund units in a special-purpose vehicle that holds OpenAI convertible notes. 

Coinbase (COIN), on the other hand, is reportedly in discussions with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) about launching tokenized securities that would grant investors the same legal rights and benefits as conventional shares. 

Several issuers involved in the space say they are closely adhering to established rules around securities law, anti-money laundering requirements, bankruptcy protections, and investor safeguards.

Industry leaders argue that, when structured properly, tokenization can strengthen rather than weaken investor protections. Ian De Bode, chief strategy officer at Ondo Finance, said that a careful approach to tokenized securities can enhance safeguards while unlocking efficiencies that traditional markets struggle to achieve.

Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

The XRP Ledger has moved one step closer to a major structural upgrade after validators voted in favor of Permissioned Domains. The amendment has now entered its two-week activation window, which is the standard process on the network before new features go live.  The change may sound technical on the surface, but it carries implications for how XRP-based infrastructure could be used by institutions operating under regulatory frameworks.

Validators Vote Yes On Permissioned Domains

According to commentary shared on X by Vincent Van Code, the amendment introducing Permissioned Domains has received enough validator support to pass. Vincent Van Code is a widely followed software engineer in the community. Amendments on the XRP ledger require sustained validator consensus before activation, meaning this approval reflects alignment across a large portion of the network’s validator set. 

Particularly, amendments on the XRP Ledger require over 80% consensus from trusted validators to hold for two consecutive weeks before activating. This process ensures network-wide agreement, preventing forced changes by any single entity. If support drops below the 80% threshold, the amendment is temporarily rejected, and the two-week period restarts.

As it stands, the consensus on permissioned domains is at 85.29%, and the expected time of approval is on February 4, 2026. Once the two-week waiting period concludes, the permissioned domains feature will become active at the protocol level. 

This means developers and institutions will no longer be building applications through off-chain workarounds or private chains. Developers will now be able to start building applications that rely on controlled access rules directly on the public XRP ledger.

How Permissioned Domains Change What Can Be Built On XRPL

According to the XRP Ledger website, permissioned domains are controlled environments within the broader ecosystem of the XRP Ledger blockchain. Anyone can define a permissioned domain in the ledger. That person becomes the owner of that domain and can update its settings or delete it. 

Permissioned Domains introduce a way to create gated environments on the XRP Ledger, where participation is limited to accounts holding specific verifiable credentials. Instead of every address being treated equally by default, certain activities can now be restricted to verified participants only, without altering the open nature of the base ledger. According to Vincent Van Code, this unlocks institutional use cases by restricting access to accounts with specific verifiable credentials. 

This capability opens the door to permissioned decentralized exchanges where regulated trading of tokenized securities, stablecoins, real-world assets, and even FX instruments can occur among compliant counterparties. The same framework also supports controlled lending protocols, restricted liquidity pools, and treasury operations that only approved entities can access.

The vote on permissioned domains plays into a growing trend of institutional entry into the XRP Ledger. While talking at the World Economic Forum in Davos 2026, Ripple’s CEO discussed increasing integration of the XRP Ledger technology with global financial infrastructure, including stronger engagement with banking partners and tokenization efforts. 

XRP’s price action over the past several days has been tight and uneasy in a way that tends to make traders impatient. XRP is now drifting sideways just below $2, compressing into a narrower range between $1.9 and $1.96. To some, this looks like weakness. 

To others, it looks like upside pressure is building. One technical analyst believes XRP’s price action is approaching a moment that could redefine the entire structure. That view was shared on X by crypto analyst Archie, who noted that its current consolidation is a precursor to a violent breakout that will send its price into new all-time highs.

Why The Current XRP Structure Matters

According to the technical analysis in question, XRP has been carving out a tightening pattern directly beneath a descending trendline that has acted as resistance since the beginning of the year. XRP printed a higher high of $2.4 in early January, retraced, and then began compressing into a narrow range of lower highs on the 30-minute candlestick chart. 

The chart shows how the token has repeatedly respected the trendline without collapsing below support at $1.9. This, in turn, has created what Archie describes as a coil right under the resistance trendline. Interestingly, this kind of structure tends to resolve quickly once price makes contact with the trendline again. 

Trendline Obliteration And The Push Beyond $2

According to the analyst’s prediction, the next touch of the trendline will not be another rejection. Instead, the next touch will lead to a clean break that sends XRP decisively through $2, which is a little more than a checkpoint. From his perspective, the repeated tests of resistance have weakened it, increasing the probability of a breakout as opposed to another downward rejection.

At the time of writing, the altcoin is trading at $1.91, down by 2.6% in the past 24 hours. However, looking closely at the chart Archie shared gives structure to what to expect once the trendline breaks.

The first level is just above the descending trendline itself, around the $2.00 to $2.05 region. In the context of the chart, a clean move through this level is what flips the structure from compression below resistance into expansion above resistance.

Above that, the next highlighted resistance is just below $2.20. The chart then shows a broader resistance cluster between roughly $2.35 and $2.40. Reaching and breaking above this zone is much more significant, as it would show that the breakout is a genuine trend reversal.

At the top end of the projection, the highest marked region is around $2.60. This zone appears to be the final upside target shown on the chart and would place XRP firmly into price discovery territory relative to recent structure.

Over the years, Ethereum staking has become one of the most vital and successful aspects of the broader ETH ecosystem, with big companies steadily jumping into the field. The majority of these companies, especially Bitmine Immersion, are revolutionizing ETH staking, turning it into a massive financial sector and edge.

Bitmine Monetized Ethereum Staking At Scale

After the entry of institutional investors, Ethereum staking has been transformed into a significant business opportunity from a technical requirement. At the forefront of this evolution is Bitmine Immersion Technologies Inc. (BMNR), a leading digital asset platform dedicated to improving the ETH ecosystem.

With its remarkable involvement in ETH staking, Bitmine Immersion is proving just how large this opportunity can be. The digital asset platform has successfully transformed Ethereum staking into a multi-billion-dollar enterprise by growing its validator operations and staking infrastructure.

As outlined by Milk Road on the social media platform X, the company intends to increase its present investment of 1.83 million ETH, valued at approximately $6 billion at current rates, to 4.2 million ETH. Bitmine’s plan and robust participation in ETH staking are a clear sign of the growing institutional appetite for on-chain yield.

This expansion demonstrates how staking is now about creating profitable, long-lasting businesses around ETH’s proof-of-stake economy rather than just protecting the network. Over the past month, Bitmine has been responsible for almost half of all new ETH entering the staking queue. 

Milk Road stated that staking at this scale removes Ethereum from the liquid supply and locks it away in long-term infrastructure rather than short-term trading. When a single player expresses a willingness to commit billions of dollars’ worth of ETH to staking, it points to an increased confidence in ETH’s future economics.

According to the expert, structural pressure is created by a reduced liquid supply and ongoing network demand over time. Given the sustained growth in institutional staking, Milk Road is confident that ETH’s price will move higher in the foreseeable future.

ETH Powering Crypto Native Financial Rails

With crypto native financial rails expanding, Ethereum is increasingly being positioned as the core infrastructure for major financial firms. JP Morgan asset management firm has confirmed this narrative with its latest fund launched on the ETH network.

Milk Road has reported that JP Morgan has introduced a tokenized money market fund on ETH, which is now live and already holds over $100 million in US treasuries. The rails are native to cryptocurrency, and the product appears to be traditional finance.

In reality, there is no separation, and there is only a financial product operating on the trains that make the most sense. Interestingly, this is how institutions move into new systems. “Incrementally, and only after the rules are clear enough to deploy real capital. Once they are live, they don’t leave,” Milk Road stated.

An inactive Ethereum whale has just re-entered the trading scene, withdrawing over $15 million worth of ETH in just a single day. Considering Ethereum’s slow price growth over the past few months and the whale’s sudden appearance despite being dormant for months, there could be a possibility of insider trading.

Dormant Ethereum Whale Moves $15 Million ETH

A sudden $15.14 million Ethereum transaction has caught the crypto market’s attention, with the move either driven by insider knowledge or simple strategic positioning. According to data from blockchain analytics platform, Onchain Lens, the transfer shifted approximately 5,099 ETH from a dormant wallet address on Kraken into active circulation on Thursday, January 22. 

Based on on-chain records, the whale, identified by the address ‘0x761F2F,’ has remained inactive in the market for more than three months. The last few times the whale was actively moving in the market were when it executed a series of stablecoin and HYPE transactions. The anonymous whale had initiated multiple million-dollar trades in UETH, USDT, and USDC. Meanwhile, the HYPE transactions were primarily token burns. 

After withdrawing 5,099 ETH from Kraken, Arkham Intelligence reported that the whale had transferred the ETH to Lido Finance, converting it into 5,100 STETH. While there is currently no evidence of insider trading, the timing of the transaction raises questions, especially given Ethereum’s muted price action over the past few months and the mounting selling pressure from large scale holders. 

Typically, insider trading in crypto occurs when individuals with non-public information make large transactions ahead of major market events that could influence market price. Currently, there has been no spike in Ethereum’s price, nor any major news that could suddenly affect its movements. In fact, ETH continues to trade lower, down by roughly 1.7% over the past 24 hours. Its daily trading volume is also down by 34.89%, signaling reduced confidence among traders and investors. 

Whales Go Long On Ethereum

While dormant large-scale players are suddenly re-entering the market, some active whales remain bullish on Ethereum’s long-term prospects despite its ongoing downtrend. According to well-known market analyst Max Crypto, an anonymous whale has just opened a $202 million long position in ETH with 15x leverage. 

The scale of the trade is extraordinary considering Ethereum’s recent volatility. It shows strong confidence in the cryptocurrency’s future price action and its potential to overcome its ongoing downtrend. Notably, the position has a liquidation price of $2,495, meaning that if ETH falls to that level, the trade could be forcibly closed by the crypto exchange, resulting in substantial losses for the whale. 

Market participants are closely watching the whales’ positioning, with some calling it a brave but chaotic bet. Others have even speculated that the position may have been taken based on insider information, fueling discussions about potential market moves and a possible bullish turnaround for ETH.

Crypto pundit X Finance Bull has explained how Donald Trump’s push to sign the crypto bill into law will boost demand for XRP. This follows White House Crypto Czar David Sack’s prediction about how banks will come into crypto once the CLARITY Act passes.

How Donald Trump’s Crypto Push Will Boost XRP’s Demand

In an X post, X Finance Bull shared a video in which Donald Trump’s crypto adviser, David Sacks, stated that banks will begin to adopt crypto once the crypto bill passes. The pundit noted that this means banks are already positioned, while Ripple has the stack and XRP has the liquidity, and the rails are in place. As such, he believes that the token will be the go-to crypto once these banks enter the crypto industry. 

X Finance Bull further mentioned that institutions that have been waiting over the past few years will return and announce their buys and use of XRP once Donald Trump signs the CLARITY Act into law. The pundit added that this moment resets who is early and that he never needed hype to hold the altcoin. “Research and study were always enough,” he said. 

X Finance Bull also questioned why market participants were panic-selling if banks are going all in once Donald Trump signs the crypto bill into law. The pundit’s statements come just as Ripple partnered with DXC to integrate the token and RLUSD into DXC’s Hogan core banking platform. 

The banking platform powers more than 300 million deposit accounts and over $5 trillion in deposits globally. As such, this is a major step in XRP’s adoption, as the partnership will integrate Ripple’s payment technology into large-scale banking environments.

Trump’s Tariff Move Will Also Boost The Altcoin

In another X post, X Finance Bull claimed that Donald Trump’s move with tariffs will also boost XRP’s demand.  He shared a video of how the U.S. president said that $18 trillion is flowing into the U.S. economy thanks to these tariffs. The pundit asserted that such money flows put pressure on banks, payroll systems, FX rails, and settlement speed. 

X Finance Bull further noted that this creates nonstop cross-border payments and liquidity needs, and this is where Ripple and XRP come in. He explained that while old rails leak money, Ripple and the altcoin were built to stop that. The pundit also alluded to Ripple executives meeting with Donald Trump and to the token being mentioned as part of the digital asset stockpile. He added that the CLARITY Act is next and that when rules lock in, the U.S. capital will need U.S. rails. 

At the time of writing, the XRP price is trading at around $1.92, down almost 2% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson said he will fly to Japan this week for a multi-city community tour focused on Midnight, the privacy-focused network being developed in Cardano’s orbit, while hinting that new “commercially critical integrations” and major launch partners are nearing the finish line.

In a Jan. 22 video recorded from Colorado, Hoskinson framed the trip as both a reconnection with what he called Cardano’s “most critical component” and a staging ground for the next execution phase he wants the ecosystem to pursue: making leading applications meaningfully more competitive by combining Cardano and Midnight capabilities.

Midnight, Privacy, And A Cardano DeFi Push

Hoskinson said the tour will span Sapporo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Naha, and Tokyo, covering “the entire Japanese archipelago” over roughly two weeks. He described the agenda as part Midnight introduction, part Cardano status update, and part technical pitch for what builders can do when the two stacks interoperate.

“As many of you know, Japan is why Cardano exists. There would be no Cardano if there was no Charles and there would be no Cardano if there was no Japan,” Hoskinson said. “I went to Japan in 2015 and with our partners from Emurgo amongst others we were able to go about all of Japan and convinced them that Cardano needs to exist. So they put up the money we built it and the Japanese community still is the largest and strongest Cardano community in the entire world with more than half the supply there.”

That legacy, in Hoskinson’s telling, makes Japan a natural first stop for positioning Midnight not as a side project but as a strategic lever for Cardano adoption.

Hoskinson said that “about [the] middle part of this year” he intends to “aggressively push for the top 15 Cardano dapps to go through a overhaul and get some additional resources.” His stated goal is not incremental polish, but step-function improvements in usage and distribution.

“In my view the best place to take it is to focus on the DeFi ecosystem and the Cardano dapp ecosystem and ask the question how do we make those Cardano dapps more competitive? How do we 10x their TVL and their transactions?” he said. “Get them listed on major exchanges and get them where they need to go.”

The connective tissue, he argued, is Midnight’s privacy mandate, paired with new infrastructure components he referenced, including “new bridges,” “new stablecoins,” and “new oracles.” The pitch is that dapps cannot win on throughput and fees alone; they need new product surfaces that attract users and transactions from other ecosystems.

“My view is Midnight is going to be an indispensable component in that because it’s not good enough just to make them better, faster, and cheaper,” Hoskinson said. “The dapps have to offer new things and being able to combine Cardano technology and Midnight technology together. What that means is that we can actually offer privacy to the masses to Solana, to Ethereum, to Bitcoin and other places.”

Hoskinson also linked the push to Cardano’s broader engineering roadmap, citing Hydra progress while using a roads-and-traffic analogy to argue that application demand, not base-layer capability, needs to be the next constraint to break.

Japan Tour https://t.co/MTq8Trp0UP

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) January 22, 2026

After Tokyo, Hoskinson said he will head to Hong Kong for Consensus, where he plans to keynote and “have some cool announcements for Midnight along with some big big partners” tied to the network’s mainnet launch. He stressed he would not disclose counterparties until agreements are finalized, saying he expects people to be “very happy” with upcoming “commercially critical integrations.”

At press time, ADA traded at $0.3595.

Reports say Capital One will buy stablecoin fintech Brex for $5.15 billion in a deal that mixes cash and stock. According to the bank’s release, roughly half of the price will be paid in cash and the other half in Capital One stock.

Regulators must still sign off. The two companies expect the transaction to finish by mid-2026, though that timing could shift if approvals take longer.

Brex Brings Cards, Software — And Stablecoin Plans

Brex began as a corporate card and expense tool for startups and has added services for larger firms.

Reports note the company moved quickly into payment tech last year when it announced plans to offer native stablecoin payments, letting customers send and accept dollar-pegged tokens with automatic conversion back into USD balances.

That bit of tech is a major part of why the deal matters to a bank that wants faster settlement options.

A Mix Of Old And New

This is not just about software. It is also a play for customers. Brex runs business accounts, serves big names in tech, and has built a set of tools that many businesses use daily.

Some of those clients moved business deposits to Brex after the 2023 banking turmoil, and those relationships are part of the package Capital One is buying.

The price tag looks smaller than Brex’s peak private valuation years ago, which shows how venture valuations have reset across the sector.

Why This Matters For Payments

Banks have been testing token-based rails and faster settlement for a while. By folding Brex into its operations, Capital One gains a ready platform that already experiments with stablecoin rails.

Real-time settlement for businesses can lower friction and could cut the waiting time for funds to clear. At the same time, regulators in the US and abroad are paying closer attention to token projects, so the new setup will run under tighter scrutiny.

Source: Coingecko The Growing Stablecoin Market

Stablecoins have drawn growing attention across traditional finance after Congress approved major rules for the tokens last year.

Based on data from Coingecko, the total value of stablecoins has climbed over 18% to an all-time high of $315 billion since the GENIUS Act was passed in July 2025. USDT takes the lion share of the overall stablecoin market.

Leadership And Market Reaction

Reports note that Pedro Franceschi, Brex’s CEO, will continue to lead the unit after the sale, now inside Capital One.

Investors reacted calmly overall; Capital One’s shares dipped early but were supported by robust quarterly results announced at the same time. That earnings strength helped soften any sharp market moves.

Featured image from YouHodler, chart from TradingView

Qubic says it is now building a Dogecoin mining integration, a step that moves the project’s post-Monero “attention” narrative into an implementation phase and reopens a familiar set of security questions around majority-hashrate risk.

In an X post shared Thursday, Qubic wrote: “The community didn’t hesitate. The vote was decisive: DOGE won with 301 votes. This isn’t a plug-and-play upgrade. Integrating ASIC hardware into uPoW requires real engineering, deep protocol work, and time to do it right. But the upside is significant. DOGE represents one of the largest and most established mining economies in crypto. Bringing it into Qubic’s useful Proof-of-Work model extends uPoW beyond theory, into scale. […] Development is underway. This is just the beginning of what is to come.”

Dogecoin mining integration is actively in development.

The community didn’t hesitate. The vote was decisive: #DOGE won with 301 votes.

This isn’t a plug-and-play upgrade.

Integrating ASIC hardware into uPoW requires real engineering, deep protocol work, and time to do it… pic.twitter.com/7aBgxfLdDR

— Qubic (@_Qubic_) January 22, 2026

Could Dogecoin Suffer A 51% Attack?

The announcement lands with baggage. In August 2025, Qubic ran what it publicly described as a Monero “takeover demonstration,” claiming it had achieved “over 51% hashrate dominance” during parts of the experiment and reporting a brief chain disruption that included a six-block reorganization and orphaned blocks. That episode became a lightning rod for the broader PoW security debate: how quickly external incentives can concentrate hashpower, and how markets react when “51%” enters the conversation.

Subsequent research challenged the strongest interpretation of those claims. A December 2025 paper reconstructing Qubic-attributed activity on Monero describes the operation as an advertised “selfish mining campaign,” finding Qubic’s hashrate share rising into the 23–34% range in detected intervals, while “sustained 51% control is never observed.”

Dogecoin’s mining economy is structurally unlike Monero’s CPU-oriented RandomX landscape. Dogecoin uses Scrypt and has, since 2014, supported merged mining alongside Litecoin, an architecture that has historically helped bolster its security budget by tapping into a broader Scrypt ASIC miner base.

That hardware reality is central to Qubic’s own messaging. The project said “integrating ASIC hardware into uPoW requires real engineering, deep protocol work, and time to do it right,” explicitly acknowledging that this is not a simple pool launch.

It is also where most of the immediate 51% attack fears run into friction. In an August 2025 research note, published when Qubic first began floating Dogecoin as the “next” network after Monero, 21Shares argued that a brute-force Dogecoin majority would be economically prohibitive, estimating that Qubic would need to match and then exceed roughly 2.78 PH/s, implying about $2.85 billion in hardware plus roughly $2.5 million per day in electricity (before logistics).

The more plausible risk vector, if any, is not Qubic buying its way to majority hashrate, but whether it can engineer incentives and integrations that convince existing Scrypt ASIC operators to route meaningful hashpower through a Qubic-mediated setup, an approach 21Shares characterized as “vampire mining.”

At press time, DOGE traded at $0.12521.

A little token that few people had heard of a year ago has become a big mover of money. Reports say the A7A5 stablecoin, launched as a rouble-linked coin, has processed the equivalent of $100 billion in transfers since it began moving at scale.

Elliptic Finds Rapid Growth And Large Volumes

According to analysis by Elliptic, A7A5 grew quickly after its launch and was used heavily for settlement between firms that could not rely on regular banks. The firm traced huge daily flows, with transaction totals rising into the billions and aggregate transfers passing major milestones.

Origins And Backing

A7A5 was set up in a way that tied it to rouble deposits and to a handful of private entities connected to Russia’s financial network.

Reports say the project was linked to a payments group and to banking partners that have been under western scrutiny. Some of the people and firms behind the token were later sanctioned by authorities in the US and the UK.

How The Money Moved

Transactions were concentrated on a small number of exchanges and on on-chain routes that made cross-border transfers possible without the usual banking rails.

In practice, the coin served as a bridge into other stablecoins and crypto markets. That routing let trade keep moving even when formal channels were closed to certain actors.

A7A5 Stablecoin Role In Sanctions Evasion Claims

Reports note that regulators and analysts view those flows as a tool that could help avoid sanctions. Regulators in several countries have taken action against linked platforms and individuals after patterns of transfers were uncovered.

Some of the design choices around the token made monitoring harder for a time, and in a few cases tokens were reissued in new wallets to muddy traces.

Market Reaction And The Wider Impact

Markets noticed. The token’s market cap surged, and exchanges that handled it saw sharply higher volumes.

Ordinary traders were not the main users; activity was often timed with business hours and weekdays, which suggested corporate or institutional flows rather than retail swaps. This type of pattern changed how people outside the region looked at crypto as a payments tool.

Authorities responded by blacklisting some addresses and platforms and by stepping up enforcement against those named in the network.

The moves show that a token can move a lot of value, but it can also draw regulatory heat and prompt countermeasures that affect every participant in the chain.

Featured image from Pixabay, chart from TradingView

The CEO of stablecoin issuer Circle has weighed in on the importance of stablecoin rewards and why he believes the banking industry’s concerns about interest payments on these assets are “absurd.”

Circle CEO Rejects Banks’ Stablecoin Fears

Speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Circle’s CEO, Jeremy Allaire, discussed banks’ growing concerns that paying interest on stablecoins poses a threat to the industry, calling the deposit flight narrative “totally absurd.”

The banking sector has expressed concerns about stablecoin rewards, arguing that interest payments will distort market dynamics and affect credit creation. In the US, banks have heavily criticized the GENIUS Act, claiming that it has loopholes that could pose risks to the financial system.

The executive rejected the sector’s general arguments, citing historical and practical reasons. He asserted that this exact argument has been historically used when new financial products, such as government money market funds, have emerged.

Notably, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan recently compared the digital assets to money market mutual funds, which require reserves to be held in short-term instruments, such as US Treasuries, reducing lending capacity in the system.

The executive told investors that the banking sector, small- and medium-sized businesses in particular, could face significant challenges if the US Congress does not prohibit interest-bearing stablecoins, as up to $6 trillion in deposits, or 30% to 35% of all US commercial bank deposits, could flow out of the banking system and into the stablecoin sector.

However, Allaire pointed out that, despite institutions claiming that financial products would “draw all the deposit base,” their growth has not “stopped the ability for lending to happen.”

The importance Of Rewards

Circle’s CEO also argued that stablecoins should not be singled out when rewards for other financial products exist and contribute to the system. “Those rewards (…) exist in every balance that you have with a credit card that you use. They exist around so many other financial products and services that we have,” he detailed.

“These rewards are actually very important,” Allaire continued. “They help with stickiness, they help with customer traction. They are not themselves like these huge monetary policy dampers.”

Most importantly, he pointed out that lending is moving away from the risk-taking of banks, with “a huge amount of lending is moving towards private credit.”

He cited a Wednesday WEF panel, in which a capital markets participant highlighted how the vast majority of GDP growth in the United States was “formed by capital market formation around junk bonds.”

“So private credit issuing junk bonds, capitalizing the build out of the American technology advancements, not bank credit,” the executive added.

Previously, Coinbase Institute shared a similar argument, affirming that “credit is evolving, not shrinking. Lending is shifting to private credit, fintech, and DeFi channels that don’t depend on deposits. Liquidity moves—it doesn’t vanish.”

Allaire concluded that “we want stablecoin money to be cash instrument money, prudentially supervised, very, very safe money. And then I think what we want to do is we want to build models for lending that build on top of stablecoins.”

Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is preparing to launch new rules related to crypto, including exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Thailand To Regulate Crypto ETFs And Futures This Year

As reported by Bangkok Post, the Thailand SEC is preparing regulatory changes related to crypto to support the growth of investment in the sector. Jomkwan Kongsakul, deputy secretary-general of the SEC, said the regulator is planning to issue guidelines supporting the launch of digital asset ETFs, while also working to enable crypto futures trading on the Thailand Futures Exchange (TFEX).

ETFs are investment vehicles that allow investors to gain exposure to an underlying asset without having to directly own it. In the context of digital assets, ETFs enable traders to invest into coins like Bitcoin without interacting with any on-chain element like wallets or exchanges.

In the United States, spot ETFs gained approval by the nation’s SEC in January 2024 for Bitcoin and July 2024 for Ethereum. Since then, these funds have attracted notable attention, capturing demand from traditional investors who were reluctant to deal with blockchain infrastructure.

Kongsakul noted:

A key advantage of crypto ETFs is ease of access; they eliminate concerns over hacking and wallet security, which has been a major barrier for many investors.

Within Asia, Hong Kong approved spot ETFs for both Bitcoin and Ethereum in April 2024, while South Korea is planning to roll out similar investment vehicles this year.

According to Kongsakul, Thailand’s SEC board has already approved crypto ETFs in principle, with detailed investment and operational rules currently being finalized. Although an exact timeline is unknown, the SEC is expected to introduce the regulations “early this year.”

Alongside ETFs, the SEC is also moving to formally recognize crypto within Thailand’s derivatives framework, allowing digital asset futures products to trade on the TFEX. Kongsakul said crypto futures would provide traders with hedging tools and more sophisticated risk management options.

In related news, the US spot Bitcoin ETFs have faced weak demand recently, with the netflow for the current week sitting at a notable negative value, according to data from SoSoValue.

As displayed in the above graph, the US Bitcoin spot ETFs have witnessed net outflows of $1.19 billion this week so far. These negative netflows have come as the asset’s price has gone through a bearish shift, retracing the recovery it had made earlier this year.

Last week, the funds actually saw net inflows of $1.42 billion, breaking the trend of weak inflows or outright outflows that had persisted since mid-October. But this week’s netflow suggests the bullish market mood couldn’t last.

BTC Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $89,100, down more than 8% over the last week.

The crypto industry is preparing for a potential security challenge with the anticipated arrival of quantum computing. In response to this potential threat, Coinbase (COIN) has announced the formation of an advisory board composed of external experts. 

Coinbase Chief Security Officer’s Warning 

According to a report from Fortune, the newly established board includes academics from Stanford, Harvard, and the University of California, specializing in fields like computer science, cryptography, and fintech. 

Officially titled the Coinbase Independent Advisory Board on Quantum Computing and Blockchain, the group also features experts from the Ethereum Foundation, the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform EigenLayer, and Coinbase itself.

Jeff Lunglhofer, Coinbase’s Chief Information Security Officer, elaborated on the potential impact of quantum computing on current encryption methods. 

He explained that the encryption protecting wallets and private keys of Bitcoin (BTC) holders relies on complex mathematical problems that would take conventional computers thousands of years to solve. 

However, with the computational power that quantum computers promise—potentially a million times greater—these problems could be solved much more swiftly, Lunglhofer asserted.

Although the security implications of quantum computing are genuine, Lunglhofer reassured that they are not expected to become an immediate concern for at least a decade. The purpose of the new advisory board is to examine the upcoming challenges posed by quantum computing in a measured manner. 

This involves fostering initiatives within the blockchain industry that are reportedly already underway to enhance the resilience of Bitcoin and other networks against quantum attacks.

Blockchain Networks Expected To Implement Larger Keys

At present, Bitcoin secures its wallets through private keys, which consist of long strings of random characters. These keys are accessible to their owners but can only be estimated through extensive trial-and-error computations. 

The advent of quantum computing, however, would make it feasible to deduce private keys using trial-and-error methods in a fraction of the time. 

In response to this looming threat, Fortune disclosed that blockchain experts speculate that networks will implement larger keys and add “noise” to obscure their locations, making them more difficult to detect. Implementing these defensive upgrades across blockchain networks is said to take several years. 

In the meantime, the newly formed Coinbase Advisory Board is gearing up to publish research papers and issue position statements aimed at helping the cryptocurrency industry brace for the impacts of quantum computing. 

Their first paper, which will address quantum’s influence on the consensus and transaction layers of blockchain, is expected to be released within the next couple of months.

At the time of writing, Coinbase’s stock, which trades under the ticker symbol COIN on the Nasdaq, is trading at $225.10. This represents a slight drop of 1.2% over the last 24 hours. 

Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

Following the unsuccessful markup of the long-awaited crypto market Structure bill (CLARITY Act) by the Senate Banking Committee, the Senate Agriculture Committee unveiled a new draft of the bill, with a scheduled markup session for Tuesday, January 27.

Stablecoin Yield Regulations Excluded

The Agriculture Committee’s version of the bill primarily addresses regulations under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which would gain expanded authority to regulate cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). 

In contrast, the Senate Banking Committee’s section of the legislation focuses on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and its oversight. Notably, the Agriculture draft allocates $150 million to support the CFTC in the implementation of the proposed law.

Market expert James Murphy reviewed the key provisions of the new draft and expressed optimism about its implications. He highlighted that the bill creates a pathway for decentralized finance (DeFi) to avoid CFTC regulation, providing important protections for developers and specific service providers from liability. 

The Senate Agriculture Committee’s draft also excludes any regulations concerning stablecoin yields. This decision is significant, particularly as it addresses a critical provision that resulted in Coinbase (COIN) withdrawing its support for the Banking Committee’s version of the bill last week. 

The Banking Committee’s version of the CLARITY Act aims to limit the yield that stablecoin platforms can offer. While banks support this approach due to concerns about deposits potentially flowing out, crypto firms oppose it, arguing that such restrictions hinder competition. 

In contrast, the Agriculture Committee bill seeks to exempt stablecoins from CFTC regulations and relies on existing frameworks like the already passed stablecoin bill, or GENIUS Act, which mandates that stablecoins be fully backed.

Banking Committee Delays Crypto Bill’s Consideration

Senate Agriculture Chair John Boozman expressed appreciation for the collaborative efforts among lawmakers, particularly mentioning Senator Cory Booker and his staff for their contributions to consumer protections and CFTC authority. 

Despite the remaining differences in fundamental policy issues with its Democratic counterpart, the Committee’s chair emphasized the importance of moving the bill forward:

While it’s unfortunate that we couldn’t reach an agreement, I am grateful for the collaboration that has made this legislation better. It’s time we move this bill, and I look forward to the markup next week. 

But amid the broader cryptocurrency industry’s optimism surrounding the Agriculture Committee’s version of the market structure bill, the timeline for advancing the overall legislation remains uncertain. 

Bloomberg reported that the Senate Banking Committee is expected to delay consideration of its own portion of the bill, which could push discussions into late February or even March.

Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com