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Hong Kong Prepares To Grant Limited Batch Of Stablecoin Licenses In March – Report
Hong Kong financial authorities have announced that they will soon grant the first, limited batch of stablecoin provider licenses as the review process for applications is almost completed.
HKMA To Grant Limited Stablecoin Licenses SoonOn Monday, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA)’s Chief Executive, Eddie Yue, announced that the regulatory agency is preparing to grant the first batch of the highly anticipated stablecoin licenses next month.
At a Legislative Council meeting, Yue affirmed that the financial authority expects to issue a “very small number” of stablecoin issuer licenses in March, according to a Reuters report.
In August, the HKMA enacted the Stablecoins Ordinance, which directs any individual or entity seeking to issue any fiat-referenced stablecoin (FRS) in Hong Kong, or any Hong Kong Dollar (HKD)-denominated token, to obtain a license from the regulator.
Local news outlets have reported that more than 30 companies have applied for the license, including the overseas arm of Chinese mainland financial technology giant Ant Group and logistics technology firm Reitar Logtech.
In December, legal experts suggested that Hong Kong’s ambitions to become a key regulated hub for stablecoins could be clouded by the People’s Bank of China’s explicit crackdown on the sector.
As reported by Bitcoinist, top financial regulators affirmed that stablecoins don’t qualify as legal tender in the mainland, which could delay the original early 2026 schedule and affect the HKMA’s approval of projects involving the yuan or mainland Chinese institutions.
Nonetheless, Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary, Paul Chan Mo-po, recently confirmed the regulators’ plan to grant stablecoin issuers licenses in the first quarter of the year at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
During a Monday media briefing, HKMA’s Chief Executive reportedly noted that their application review process is near its completion. Yue also highlighted that the regulator is focusing on use cases, risk management, anti-money laundering (AML) measures, and asset backing.
Moreover, he asserted that licensed issuers must comply with local regulations for cross-border activities, but added that “mutual recognition arrangements with other jurisdictions could be explored in the future.”
Hong Kong Continues Crypto Regulation EffortsHong Kong has been actively developing a comprehensive framework to support the expansion of the digital assets industry as part of its long-term strategy to become a global crypto hub.
Notably, financial authorities have been exploring rules to enable insurance companies to invest in cryptocurrencies and the infrastructure sector. In addition, the jurisdiction is among the 76 markets committed to implementing the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) new global standard for exchanging tax information related to crypto assets.
The upcoming crypto reporting framework, the Crypto Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), is intended to bring crypto users across borders under global tax transparency rules, thereby preventing tax evasion. Hong Kong is set to begin its first cross-border exchanges of crypto reporting data in 2028.
However, the Hong Kong Securities & Futures Professionals Association (HKSFPA) has expressed its concerns about the implementation of the OECD’s CARF and the related amendments made to Hong Kong’s Common Reporting Standard (CRS).
The group noted that it mostly supports the proposals, but urged regulators to ease the record-keeping requirements for dissolved entities and the uncapped per-account penalties for minor technical errors. The Professionals Association warned that these elements of the CARF and CRS amendments could create operational and liability risks for market participants.
Топ-менеджер Circle посоветовал новым конкурентам отказаться от запуска стейблкоинов
Компания Илона Маска набирает штат специалистов по криптовалютам
ArkInvest Allocates $32.7M to Robinhood as Bitcoin Hyper Pumps
Ark Invest’s latest filing reveals a chunky $32.7M acquisition of Robinhood (HOOD) shares.
On the surface, it’s an equity play, but dig deeper, and it looks like a derivative bet on the resurgence of crypto market participation. Historically, Robinhood’s volume spikes act as a canary in the coal mine for retail capital, typically preceding major on-chain activity by 3-5 weeks.
The timing feels deliberate. As the Federal Reserve signals potential rate pauses, risk-on assets are re-pricing. But buying HOOD is just the surface trade. The inevitable second-order effect of a retail influx? Massive Bitcoin network congestion. When millions of new users try to move $BTC, fees don’t just rise; they skyrocket, making the base layer practically unusable for anyone moving less than six figures.
That bottleneck is exactly why institutional eyes are drifting toward infrastructure that can handle the coming liquidity shock. While Wall Street buys exchange stocks, on-chain capital is positioning into scalability protocols.
Specifically, smart money appears to be front-running the congestion narrative by accumulating Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER), the first protocol to weld the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) directly onto a Bitcoin Layer 2.
Solving the Velocity Problem: Bitcoin Meets SVM SpeedThe thesis here is simple mechanics. Bitcoin is secure but slow; Solana is fast but has faced centralization headaches. By fusing these architectures, Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) attempts a ‘best of both worlds’ environment to solve the trilemma plaguing current Layer 2s.
Most existing Bitcoin L2s still feel sluggish compared to modern DeFi standards. Bitcoin Hyper bypasses the lag by using the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) for execution. The result? Sub-second transaction finality and costs that are fractions of a cent, all while anchoring state to the Bitcoin L1.
That matters because it finally unlocks high-frequency use cases for $BTC, think gaming, real-time payments, and complex DeFi swaps, that were previously impossible (or just too expensive) on the base layer.
Developers are eyeing the Rust-based environment too. The protocol offers a Developer SDK and API in Rust, meaning the massive pool of Solana devs can port their dApps to the Bitcoin ecosystem without rewriting their codebase. This isn’t just about building a chain; it’s about importing an entire developer economy.
Presale Data Signals Institutional AccumulationThe market’s appetite for high-performance infrastructure shows up in the hard numbers. According to the official presale page, Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) has raised over $32M, a figure that frankly outpaces most comparable infrastructure rounds this cycle. The token sits at $0.013675, a valuation that looks modest relative to the utility proposition.
The incentives seem structured to keep that liquidity sticky. Staking opens immediately after the Token Generation Event (TGE), with a 7-day vesting period for presale participants. That lock-up mechanism helps prevent immediate sell-offs, aiming to create a stable floor at launch.
For investors watching Ark Invest buy the ‘shovels’ (Robinhood), Bitcoin Hyper represents the ‘ground’ where the actual digging happens.
Visit the official $HYPER presale here.
The content provided in this article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments, including presales and stocks like Robinhood, carry high risks. Always conduct your own due diligence before investing.
Strategy Announces New Buy Even As Crash Threatens Cost Basis: 855 Bitcoin Added
Strategy’s Bitcoin holdings are in danger of going underwater after the latest price plunge, but that hasn’t stopped the firm from unveiling a new buy.
Strategy Has Bought Another $75.3 Million Worth Of BitcoinIn a new post on X, Strategy co-founder and chairman Michael Saylor has shared information related to the latest Bitcoin acquisition completed by the company. In total, the treasury firm has added 855 BTC to its holdings for $75.3 million.
The average cost of these tokens is $87,974, but during the last few days, the Bitcoin spot price has faced a heavy drawdown below this level, already putting Strategy’s new coins in a state of notable loss.
The purchase’s balance isn’t all that has been affected by the market crash. According to Saylor, Strategy’s entire stack, which has grown to 713,502 BTC after the latest acquisition, has an average cost basis of $76,052. At its lowest, BTC went below $75,000 on Sunday, so the largest Bitcoin treasury firm saw its holdings go underwater.
The asset has since bounced back a bit, however, putting the company back in the green. Though, with a value of $56.28 billion, Strategy’s Bitcoin is currently still very close to its acquisition cost of $54.26 billion. This implies that if bearish winds in the sector continue, the profitability of the firm’s holdings could again be challenged.
The company’s new announcement has come after the crash, but it may not actually be indicative of how the firm will respond to its cost basis being threatened, as the much higher buying price involved would suggest that the actual buy occurred last week and not after the drawdown. Given this, it remains to be seen whether Strategy will keep up its BTC buying spree in the coming week.
According to the filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Saylor’s company funded the new acquisition using sales of its MSTR at-the-market (ATM) stock offering. Not all of the $106.1 million in proceeds have been allocated toward buying Bitcoin, however.
Strategy isn’t the only digital asset treasury company that has revealed a buy amid the market downturn. Bitmine, the largest corporate holder of Ethereum, also announced Monday that it participated in buying over the past week. “Bitmine has been steadily buying Ethereum, as we view this pullback as attractive, given the strengthening fundamentals,” noted Tom Lee, Bitmine chairman.
According to the press release, the company added 41,788 ETH to its reserves with this accumulation spree, taking the total to 4,285,125 ETH. The firm’s holdings are now equivalent to 3.55% of the Ethereum circulating supply, putting it over 70% of the way to its target of 5%.
BTC PriceAt the time of writing, Bitcoin is floating around $78,900, down 9.5% in the last seven days.
Binance SAFU Fund Adds 1,315 Bitcoin ($100M) Amid Market Weakness – Details
Binance has returned to the center of market attention following the October 10 crash, an event that marked one of the most violent deleveraging episodes of the current cycle. On that day, a sharp wave of liquidations swept through derivatives markets, erasing billions in open interest and exposing the extent of excessive leverage across multiple exchanges.
Binance stood out during the turmoil not because it drove the sell-off, but because its liquidation footprint was notably smaller relative to its market share, highlighting differences in leverage concentration and risk management compared with rival platforms.
Fast forward to today, and the broader market backdrop remains fragile. Bitcoin is trading below the $80,000 level, while Ethereum has slipped under $2,300, reinforcing the perception that the market has entered a corrective, if not outright bearish, phase. Macro uncertainty, shrinking liquidity, and weakening spot demand have led many analysts to anticipate further downside before any durable stabilization can occur.
Against this backdrop, new data from Arkham has added an unexpected twist. Arkham reports that Binance’s SAFU fund has begun accumulating Bitcoin, purchasing 1,315 BTC—worth roughly $100 million—within the last hour. This move contrasts sharply with prevailing risk-off sentiment and suggests that, even as prices trend lower, Binance may be positioning defensively or opportunistically amid market stress.
Binance Under Scrutiny as the Market Searches for DirectionMany analysts have been quick to point fingers at Binance and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, following the latest wave of market weakness. The criticism largely stems from Binance’s dominant position in global derivatives trading, its deep liquidity pools, and its outsized influence on funding rates, open interest, and liquidation dynamics.
In periods of stress, any sharp move originating on Binance tends to ripple across the entire crypto ecosystem, reinforcing the perception that the exchange acts as a central transmission point for volatility.
However, despite the intensity of these claims, there is currently no concrete on-chain or market evidence showing that the exchange or CZ actively triggered or engineered the recent sell-off. Liquidation data suggests that leverage was widely distributed across multiple platforms, and in several instances, Binance recorded a smaller share of forced liquidations relative to its market share. This weakens the argument that Binance was the primary source of systemic pressure.
What appears more likely is that Binance is being conflated with broader structural issues: excessive leverage, thinning liquidity, and fragile investor sentiment. These conditions can amplify moves regardless of where they begin. The coming days will be critical. How price reacts, how leverage resets, and whether spot demand returns will determine whether the market stabilizes—or confirms that a deeper bearish phase is unfolding.
Bitcoin Breaks Key Weekly StructureBitcoin’s weekly chart reflects a clear shift in market structure following the loss of the $80,000 psychological level. After failing to reclaim the 50-week moving average (blue line), BTC has resumed its downward trajectory, confirming this zone as active resistance rather than temporary consolidation. The rejection near the mid-$90K area marked a lower high relative to the 2025 peak, reinforcing a broader bearish trend on higher timeframes.
Price is now trading below both the 50-week and 100-week moving averages, while the 200-week moving average (red line) continues to rise well below current levels. This configuration historically signals a transition phase, where momentum has turned negative but long-term structural support has not yet been tested. The recent breakdown toward the $74,000–$78,000 range places Bitcoin back near a former high-volume area from early 2025, which may offer short-term stabilization but does not yet qualify as a confirmed bottom.
Volume dynamics add to the cautionary outlook. Selling pressure has increased on down weeks, while rebound attempts have been accompanied by weaker volume, suggesting limited conviction from buyers. This pattern aligns with distribution rather than accumulation.
Unless Bitcoin can reclaim and hold above the 50-week moving average, the path of least resistance remains to the downside. In this context, the market appears to be entering a corrective or early bear phase, with further downside risk toward deeper demand zones still unresolved.
Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com
BitMine’s $ETH Holdings Reach $10.7B After New Purchase as MAXI Soars
Institutional capital isn’t just tiptoeing around Ethereum anymore; it’s stomping in. BitMine, a heavyweight in digital asset mining, has officially expanded its Ether treasury to a massive $10.7B following its latest strategic acquisition.
This purchase marks a pivotal shift in market structure, moving beyond simple speculation toward genuine balance sheet fortification. The timing is critical. On-chain metrics are already flashing signs of a deepening supply squeeze as exchange reserves hit multi-year lows. BitMine’s aggressive buying acts as a volatility dampener for the second-largest cryptocurrency.
That matters. Large-scale accumulation usually precedes a reduction in liquidity, where price discovery becomes hypersensitive to marginal demand. When entities like BitMine lock billions in cold storage, they effectively remove that supply from circulation, theoretically establishing a higher price floor.
While institutions play the safe long game with blue-chip assets, retail traders are signaling a different kind of appetite. The stability provided by these institutional floors often emboldens high-frequency traders to seek alpha further out on the risk curve. This rotation of capital, from safety to speculation, is fueling a surge in the meme token sector.
That’s where Maxi Doge ($MAXI) has emerged as a focal point for traders seeking high-leverage exposure.
Maxi Doge Brings Gym-Bro Intensity to Ethereum’s Meme EcosystemWhile the broader market watches BitMine stabilize the macro environment, the meme token niche is rewarding projects that bring utility to the culture of volatility. Maxi Doge has captured this sentiment by positioning itself as the ‘Leverage King’ of the ERC-20 space.
Distancing itself from the passive ‘hold and hope’ strategy of earlier dog coins (which often fail to deliver), the project embodies the aggressive mentality of 1000x leverage trading. The brand identity centers on ‘never skipping leg day’ and the perpetual grind of the bull market.
This narrative seems to be hitting home with sophisticated capital. On-chain data from Etherscan shows two whale wallets accumulated $503K in recent transactions, a signal that smart money is hunting for outsized returns beyond standard ETH beta.
The appeal lies in the ecosystem design, which essentially gamifies the trading experience. By introducing holder-only competitions and a ‘Maxi Fund’ treasury, the project aligns community incentives with price performance.
It’s a pivot from memes as passive images to memes as active financial sports. The market data implies that traders are increasingly favoring tokens that reflect their own aggressive strategies, ‘lift, trade, repeat’, rather than those relying solely on cute aesthetics.
Explore the Maxi Doge ecosystem.
Presale Data Points to Strong Momentum for $MAXI Staking ModelThe financial structuring of Maxi Doge focuses on liquidity retention through dynamic staking rewards. Unlike projects that flood the market with tokens immediately, the smart contract governs supply through a 5% staking allocation pool, offering daily automatic distribution for up to one year.
This mechanism encourages holders to lock assets, theoretically reducing sell pressure while earning yield. It’s a strategy that mirrors the institutional ‘hodl’ mentality, just with significantly higher risk-reward ratios.
According to the official presale page, Maxi Doge has raised over $4.5M, validating strong early interest. With tokens currently priced at $0.0002802, the valuation offers an entry point that stands in stark contrast to the multi-billion dollar market caps of established meme coins.
For retail investors, the math is simple: catching a 10x or 100x return is often more probable from a sub-penny price point than from assets already saturated with capital.
Current capital inflows suggest the market is hunting for an Ethereum-based contender to challenge the dominance of Solana memes. By using the security of the Ethereum Proof-of-Stake network while adopting the viral ‘gym bro’ humor that dominates crypto Twitter, the project creates a dual-threat value proposition.
It offers the technical reliability of ERC-20 with the viral velocity of a breakout meme, a counterbalance to the slow, steady accumulation seen in BitMine’s strategy.
Learn more about the Maxi Doge presale.
The content provided in this article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency markets are highly volatile, and meme tokens like $MAXI carry significant risk. Investors should conduct their own due diligence and never invest more than they can afford to lose.
JP Morgan: 89% of Family Offices Still Sideline Crypto While LiquidChain ($LIQUID) Targets Infrastructure Gaps
The number stops you in your tracks: 89%.
According to a recent report from JP Morgan Private Bank, the vast majority of family offices, those quiet giants managing the fortunes of ultra-high-net-worth individuals, still have zero exposure to cryptocurrency. Given that the asset class has outperformed almost every traditional index over the last decade, this hesitation looks paradoxical.
Dig a little deeper, though. The reluctance isn’t just about volatility or fear of the dark. The ‘Global Family Office Report’ highlights that while 11% of these firms are active, the sidelined majority cite specific roadblocks: operational complexity and security risks.
The current market structure, fragmented across incompatible blockchains like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, is a compliance nightmare for institutional capital. They aren’t waiting for higher prices. They’re waiting for better plumbing.
This data point matters. Not because it implies bearish sentiment, but because it predicts a massive capital rotation once those barriers fall. Smart money is watching the infrastructure layer right now, specifically projects that abstract away the chaotic user experience of cross-chain interaction. As the gap between institutional interest and execution capabilities widens, new Layer 3 (L3) solutions are stepping in.
This is where LiquidChain ($LIQUID) enters the picture, gaining traction for its promise to fuse the liquidity of the industry’s biggest chains into a single execution environment.
The ‘Uninvestable’ Nature of Fragmented LiquidityJP Morgan’s report illuminates a critical disconnect. While retail traders might be comfortable bridging assets through sketchy protocols or juggling five seed phrases for five different chains, family offices can’t operate with that level of friction.
Right now, liquidity is trapped in silos. A billion dollars on Ethereum can’t easily talk to a billion dollars on Solana without complex bridging mechanisms that introduce ‘wrapped’ assets, derivative tokens that have historically been major failure points in DeFi hacks. Frankly, for a risk-averse family office, holding a ‘wrapped’ version of Bitcoin on a smart contract chain is a non-starter.
This suggests the next phase of the bull run won’t be driven by new assets, but by the unification of existing ones. The market is desperate for an interoperability standard that removes the technical debt of managing multi-chain portfolios. The 89% aren’t staying away because they hate returns; they’re staying away because the current infrastructure is too “noisy” for compliant, ten-figure execution.
Explore the LiquidChain ecosystem.
LiquidChain Unifies BTC, ETH, and SOL for Institutional Grade ExecutionWhile legacy wealth waits for the dust to settle, LiquidChain is building the solution that directly addresses the fragmentation problem. Positioned as a Layer 3 infrastructure, LiquidChain does what previous bridging solutions couldn’t: it fuses Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana liquidity into a single, unified execution environment.
Here’s what most coverage misses about Layer 3 protocols: they aren’t just faster blockchains. They are application-specific environments designed to hide the messiness of the underlying layers. LiquidChain’s ‘Deploy-Once Architecture’ allows developers to build applications that access users and liquidity from all three major chains simultaneously.
For the user, whether a DeFi native or a family office execution desk, this means single-step execution. There’s no need to manually bridge funds or wrap assets. The protocol handles the settlement verification across chains in the background.
By mitigating the risks associated with wrapped assets and unifying liquidity, LiquidChain presents the kind of streamlined, verifiable settlement layer that institutional capital requires to finally make the jump from the 89% to the 11%.
Learn more about LiquidChain here.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments, including presales and early-stage infrastructure projects, carry high risks. Always perform your own due diligence.
Trump Denies UAE’s $500M in World Liberty as Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) Explodes
The crypto market faced a sharp reality check this morning. Reports confirmed Donald Trump’s camp has officially denied rumors of a $500M investment from the United Arab Emirates into World Liberty Financial (WLFI).
Speculation had reached a fever pitch earlier in the week, traders were practically betting the house that sovereign wealth liquidity would back the former President’s decentralized finance project. But the denial has sent ripples through the governance token market, dampening expectations for a state-backed bailout of the platform’s sluggish token sales.
This matters less for politics than for capital flow. Liquidity isn’t blindly chasing celebrity-endorsed narratives anymore. The rejection exposes the fragility of projects reliant on ‘hype’ rather than technological infrastructure. While WLFI struggles to gain traction without a nine-figure injection, the market’s appetite for high-utility infrastructure remains ravenous.
Smart money is rotating out of speculative governance plays and into solutions that actually address the ecosystem’s technical bottlenecks. That rotation is obvious in the sudden surge of interest surrounding Bitcoin Layer 2 solutions.
As the narrative shifts from ‘who backs it’ to ‘what does it do,’ investors are aggressively positioning themselves in protocols that unlock Bitcoin’s dormant capital. The door is closing on the WLFI rumors. But a new liquidity corridor is opening for projects capable of bringing programmability to the world’s largest asset.
Leading this charge? Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER). It’s quietly absorbing the liquidity looking for a home in the wake of the World Liberty disappointment.
Bitcoin Hyper Brings Solana Speeds To The Bitcoin NetworkThe primary driver behind the rotation into Bitcoin Hyper is its architecture, which fundamentally alters the Bitcoin scalability thesis. While previous Layer 2s (like Stacks or Lightning) have offered partial solutions, $HYPER integrates the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) directly as a Layer 2 execution environment.
This allows the network to bypass Bitcoin’s inherent sluggishness (10-minute block times are painful) while retaining the security guarantees of the main chain.
Using a modular blockchain structure, Bitcoin Hyper separates the settlement layer (Bitcoin L1) from the execution layer (SVM L2). The result?
A high-performance environment where developers can build decentralized applications (dApps) using Rust, the same language powering Solana’s DeFi ecosystem. That matters for one big reason: it creates a Decentralized Canonical Bridge. Users can utilize wrapped $BTC for high-speed payments and complex DeFi maneuvers without the friction usually associated with the Bitcoin network.
The project operates via a single trusted sequencer with periodic L1 state anchoring. This technical nuance ensures that while transactions occur with the sub-second finality of the SVM, the ultimate source of truth remains the Bitcoin blockchain. For developers tired of Ethereum’s congestion or the centralization concerns of other L2s, this offers a new paradigm: the speed of Solana with the security of Bitcoin.
Explore the Bitcoin Hyper ecosystem.
Smart Money Rotates Into $HYPER Presale As Whales AccumulateYou can quantify the market’s hunger for a functional Bitcoin Layer 2 in the project’s early funding data. According to the official presale page, Bitcoin Hyper has raised over $31.2M, a figure that stands in stark contrast to the stalling momentum of purely speculative tokens.
With tokens currently priced at $0.013675, the valuation suggests investors see significant upside potential relative to established L2s trading at multi-billion dollar market caps.
On-chain analysis further corroborates this institutional interest. Etherscan records show that 3 whale wallets have accumulated over $1M.
The largest transaction ($500K) indicates that high-net-worth individuals are positioning themselves well ahead of the Token Generation Event (TGE).
This accumulation pattern often precedes wider retail discovery, as sophisticated actors secure allocations before the asset hits public exchanges.
Beyond the raw capital inflows, the project’s staking mechanics drive retention. Bitcoin Hyper offers high APY incentives with immediate staking available post-TGE. Plus, there’s a 7-day vesting period for presale stakers. That mechanism is designed to prevent immediate sell pressure and align investor incentives with the network’s long-term health.
For a market recovering from the volatility of celebrity coins, these tokenomics offer a structured, utility-driven alternative.
Check out the Bitcoin Hyper presale.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrencies are high-risk assets. Always perform your own due diligence before investing. The dates and figures mentioned regarding future transactions are based on available projection data.
Japanese Banking Giant Cuts Crypto Bets After Q3 Profit Slump
Nomura, Japan’s biggest brokerage and banking giant, said it will temporarily trim its cryptocurrency positions after a weak quarter that dented profits and tightened its short-term risk tolerance. The pullback looks aimed at smoothing swings to earnings while the firm keeps its longer-term plans for digital assets alive.
Bank Cuts Crypto Exposure After Profit DeclineAccording to earnings disclosures and company remarks, Nomura’s net income fell nearly 10 percent in the third quarter that ended December 31, leaving group profit lower than a year earlier and prompting management to curb some crypto trading positions to limit further hits.
Nomura’s European crypto arm, Laser Digital, had posted trading losses during the period, which management singled out as a key factor behind the move to tighten position limits.
Reports note that executives described the steps as temporary and targeted — not an exit from the market but a way to manage volatility while other parts of the business keep growing.
We’ve just announced our 3Q 2025-26 financial results. Here are some key figures from this quarter. View the full announcement here: https://t.co/mdYHgOnN5u pic.twitter.com/sosuQqihni
— Nomura (@Nomura) January 30, 2026
Short-Term Pullback, Long-Term PlayThere is a split in the timeline. On one hand, Laser Digital has recently filed paperwork to expand its services abroad, including applying for a US national trust bank charter as it seeks to offer custody and trading to institutional clients.
On the other hand, trading desks that took losses are being put on a tighter leash so quarterly results don’t swing wildly. That two-track approach is what analysts say explains the seeming contradiction.
Investors reacted quickly. Nomura’s shares slipped after the earnings update, reflecting market concern about the hit to European operations and the extra costs tied to a large acquisition completed in the period.
Management has flagged that one-off charges played a role in the weaker profit line, alongside the trading losses.
Risk Controls Tightened, Growth Goals KeptReports say Nomura has tightened risk controls around digital-asset positions and is conducting stricter oversight of exposures that can swing with crypto price moves.
At the same time, executives stressed the firm’s broader commitment to building crypto infrastructure and services over the medium to long term, rather than abandoning the sector outright.
The immediate effect is clear: fewer large directional bets in the trading book and more cautious position sizing. That reduces profit volatility but can limit upside if crypto prices rebound sharply.
Featured image from The Exchange Asia, chart from TradingView
ING Now Allows Crypto Investments as SUBBD Token Soars
The cryptocurrency market is showing a fascinating divergence: institutional giants are building the floor while retail traders are aggressively testing the ceiling.
Reports that major banking institutions like ING are warming up to direct crypto services signal a critical shift in market structure.
That’s not just about accessibility, it’s about the legitimization of digital assets as a standard portfolio component for conservative European wealth. (Frankly, when a legacy bank moves, it validates the asset class for risk-averse capital that has remained on the sidelines for a decade).
Meanwhile, the retail sector is operating with a totally different risk profile. Just look at the parabolic moves in assets like $SUBBD. The surge in these niche, community-driven tokens suggests that despite macroeconomic headwinds, risk-on appetite remains voracious.
The dichotomy is stark: while bankers analyze Bitcoin ETFs, the ‘degen’ economy is hunting for 100x multipliers in the AI infrastructure sector. This barbell structure, stability on one end, high volatility on the other, implies liquidity is returning to the system, but it’s bifurcated.
But the most astute capital is looking beyond the safety of banks or the casino-like nature of memes. Smart money is positioning itself in the middle ground: utility-driven protocols that solve tangible Web2 problems using Web3 infrastructure.
Specifically, the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and the creator economy is emerging as the next major growth narrative. Investors are increasingly rotating profits from high-volatility plays into infrastructure projects like SUBBD Token that offer sustainable revenue models.
Visit SUBBD Token’s official page.
SUBBD Token Targets the $85 Billion Creator EconomyWhile the broader market debates regulatory frameworks, SUBBD Token is executing a targeted strike on the $85 billion content creation industry. The current Web2 model? It’s fundamentally broken for creators. Platforms often extract up to 70% of earnings in fees, impose arbitrary bans, and enforce strict geographical payment restrictions.
SUBBD uses Ethereum-based EVM-compatible smart contracts to dismantle these barriers, offering a decentralized alternative where creators actually retain control over their content and revenue.
The project differentiates itself by integrating proprietary AI models directly into its ecosystem. This isn’t merely about payment processing, it’s about workflow automation. The platform features an AI Personal Assistant for automated interactions and advanced AI Voice Cloning technology, allowing influencers to scale their presence without scaling their workload.
For fans, the utility is equally tangible: token-gated access creates an exclusive layer of interaction that fiat subscriptions can’t replicate.
From a portfolio standpoint, this represents a shift from speculative assets to productive ones. By merging Web3 transparency with AI-driven influencer tools, the project addresses the fragmentation of current software. Instead of subscribing to five different services for chatbots, voice generation, and payments, creators access a unified ecosystem. That consolidation of utility is precisely what transforms a token from a trading vehicle into a fundamental infrastructure play.
Early Capital Flows and Staking MetricsThe market’s appetite for this AI-Web3 hybrid model is reflected in the early capital inflows. According to official data, the project has already raised $1.4M, a figure that suggests significant conviction from early entrants despite the broader market’s volatility.
With tokens currently priced at $0.0574875, the entry point allows for position sizing that’s difficult to achieve in established large-cap assets.
Beyond the capital raise, the protocol’s retention mechanics are designed to mitigate the sell pressure often seen in new launches. The staking structure offers a fixed 20% APY for the first year, creating a compelling incentive for holders to lock supply. This isn’t just an inflationary reward; it’s a mechanism to align user behavior with long-term platform growth.
Stakers also gain access to XP multipliers and exclusive ‘behind the scenes’ content drops, gamifying the holding process. This approach, combining high-yield staking with functional platform benefits, creates a liquidity sink that stabilizes the token economy.
While ING clients are limited to market-beta returns, SUBBD offers a third path: early-stage exposure to a utility protocol with built-in yield generation.
As the presale advances, the window to acquire tokens at the $0.0002802 valuation tightens, placing a premium on early decision-making.
View the official SUBBD presale site.
The information provided in this article does not constitute investment advice, financial advice, trading advice, or any other sort of advice and you should not treat any of the article’s content as such. Cryptocurrency markets are highly volatile and carry significant risk. Always conduct your own due diligence before making any investment decisions.
Hyperliquid Team Plans Expansion Into Prediction Markets as HYPE Pumps 20%
The decentralized derivatives landscape isn’t just shifting; it’s mutating. Hyperliquid, currently the heavyweight champion of on-chain perps, has signaled a direct expansion into prediction markets.
The market’s reaction was immediate and violent: the HYPE token surged 20% following the revelation, proving there is an immense appetite for infrastructure that bridges traditional trading with event wagering.
Why does this matter? Liquidity consolidation. Until now, prediction markets like Polymarket lived in silos, isolated from high-frequency perp trading. Hyperliquid’s integration hints at a future where capital efficiency rules supreme—traders can hedge election outcomes and leverage long ETH positions from a single collateral pool.
That 20% surge wasn’t just speculation. It was a rapid repricing of the protocol’s total addressable market.
But look closer at the liquidity flowing into high-performance chains. There is a secondary trend brewing: a resurgence of ‘high-conviction’ trading culture.
The traders on Hyperliquid aren’t passive allocators; they’re hunting volatility, leverage, and competition. That specific mindset is exactly what’s now fueling Maxi Doge ($MAXI), a project built for the ‘degen’ trader who treats markets like a contact sport.
Maxi Doge Targets the ‘Leverage King’ DemographicWhile Hyperliquid builds the plumbing for risk, Maxi Doge captures the culture of the risk-taker. Forget the passive ‘hold and hope’ mechanics of yesterday’s meme coins. Maxi Doge positions itself as a 240-lb canine juggernaut, embodying the ‘1000x energy’ of the current bull cycle. Its ethos: ‘Never skip leg-day, never skip a pump’, resonates with retail traders who know the market is a grind requiring serious conviction.
Frankly, the utility goes deeper than just aesthetics. Maxi Doge (unexpectedly for a meme token) integrates Holder-Only Trading Competitions, gamifying the experience like the leaderboards on major perp DEXs. It rewards top ROI hunters, aligning tokenomics with active participation. Plus, the ‘Maxi Fund’ treasury backs this ecosystem, ensuring liquidity for partnerships and high-impact marketing.
Sound familiar? It’s the strategies of top DeFi protocols applied to meme culture.
That cultural alignment counts. In a market where attention is the scarcest asset, projects mirroring their holders’ psychology often cook the hardest. Maxi Doge isn’t trying to be a currency; it’s a badge of honor for the “Leverage King” demographic.
Learn more about the project’s tokenomics.
Whales Accumulate $503K as Presale Momentum BuildsSmart money seems to agree with this thesis. While retail chases green candles elsewhere, on-chain data from Etherscan shows two whale wallets accumulated $503K in recent transactions within the Maxi Doge ecosystem. The largest single clip, a massive $314K transaction, executed on Oct 11, 2025.
That suggests high-net-worth players are positioning themselves well before the token hits public trading venues.
Presale metrics show demand accelerating. According to the official site, Maxi Doge has already raised over $4.5M, with tokens priced at $0.0002802. In a landscape fragmented across L2s and Solana, that’s no small feat. For an Ethereum mainnet token to command this level of early-stage capital signals real confidence in the ‘meme-first, utility-second’ hybrid model.
And then there’s the staking architecture. It’s designed to lock up supply while rewarding conviction. The smart contract governs a dynamic APY with daily automatic distribution from a 5% staking allocation pool. This setup encourages the long-term holding behavior seen in blue-chip DeFi governance tokens, aiming to dampen volatility.
Visit the official site for presale details.
The content provided in this article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Crypto assets are highly volatile.
Bitcoin Rebounds to $78.5K, But Technicals Suggest No Long-Term Support Yet
Bitcoin has managed to claw its way back to $78.5K, a psychological level that has bulls calling for a run to six figures. But pop the champagne just yet? Probably not.
A closer look at the order books reveals a troubling divergence: price is rising, but conviction is thinning.
The bounce looks driven largely by derivatives leverage rather than spot demand. Order block analysis suggests a massive liquidity gap between $72,000 and the current price. Meaning? Any sudden selling pressure could cascade rapidly without structural support to catch the falling knife. It’s a fragile setup where volatility is the only guarantee.
While price action remains choppy, the underlying ecosystem is shifting gears. Smart money is looking past the daily candles—often noise anyway, and focusing on the structural limitations plaguing the network. Every time Bitcoin rallies, fees spike and confirmation times drag.
That bottleneck has catalyzed a rotation of capital into infrastructure plays designed to solve these exact friction points. Investors are increasingly hedging their spot exposure by moving into high-performance Layer 2 protocols. The logic is sound: if Bitcoin succeeds, the network needs scaling; if it stalls, innovation happens on the layers above.
Leading this charge is Bitcoin Hyper, a project that’s becoming a focal point for institutional-grade interest by integrating Solana’s speed directly onto Bitcoin’s security layer.
Bitcoin Hyper Merges SVM Speed With Bitcoin SecurityThe market has long debated whether Bitcoin should remain a store of value or evolve into a programmable platform. Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) renders that debate moot by offering both. As the first Bitcoin Layer 2 to integrate the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM), it delivers technical prowess that legacy sidechains just haven’t achieved.
That matters. Ethereum’s dominance in DeFi stemmed largely from Bitcoin’s inability to handle complex smart contracts. By using the SVM, Bitcoin Hyper introduces low-latency execution to the Bitcoin ecosystem. The architecture is modular: it uses Bitcoin L1 for final settlement and a real-time SVM L2 for execution. The result? Sub-second finality, a stark contrast to the main chain’s 10-minute crawl.
Developers (usually the first to spot technical breakouts) are eyeing the ‘Decentralized Canonical Bridge.’ This infrastructure unlocks high-speed payments in wrapped BTC and enables sophisticated DeFi applications, from lending protocols to NFT platforms, all built with Rust-based SDKs. It solves the “trilemma” by keeping the base layer secure while outsourcing the heavy lifting to a hyper-efficient execution layer.
Check out the Bitcoin Hyper ecosystem.
Smart Money Rotates Into $31M Presale EventWhile the broader market stays tentative about short-term price action, capital allocators are aggressively positioning themselves in the $HYPER presale. The project has raised over $31.2M, a figure that underscores the demand for scalable Bitcoin infrastructure.
On-chain metrics back this up. According to Etherscan records, two whale wallets have accumulated over $1M in $HYPER tokens.
The largest single transaction ($500K) hit the chain on Jan 15, 2026, signaling that high-net-worth individuals are securing positions well before public trading starts. With tokens currently priced at $0.013675, these early entries suggest a belief that the asset is undervalued relative to its utility.
The tokenomics look designed to incentivize long-term holding. The protocol offers high APY staking immediately after the Token Generation Event (TGE), with a modest 7-day vesting period for presale stakers. That structure mitigates the risk of immediate post-launch dumping while rewarding governance participants. For investors weary of Bitcoin’s current chop at $78.5K, the $HYPER presale represents a calculated bet on the future of scalability.
Visit the official presale site.
Disclaimer This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments carry high risks, including the potential for total loss. Always verify presale details independently.
Прокуратура заподозрила Tether и Circle в наживе на мошенничестве
Том Ли: В падении эфира виноват «золотой вихрь»
Bitcoin Coinbase Premium Signals Persistent Weakness In US Spot Demand
Bitcoin entered the weekend under heavy selling pressure, decisively losing the $80,000 support and sliding to the $74,000 area for the first time since April 2025. The move has intensified concerns that the market is no longer in a corrective pause but is instead transitioning into a broader bearish phase. Price weakness has coincided with fading demand signals, particularly from US-based investors, a dynamic now standing out clearly in on-chain data.
A recent CryptoQuant report highlights a structural shift when comparing the February–April 2025 period with market conditions from November 2025 to today. During the first half of 2025, the Coinbase Premium Index frequently dipped into negative territory, but only briefly. Discounts appeared, were absorbed relatively quickly, and did not persist. That behavior was consistent with tactical selling into strength, rather than a sustained absence of buyers.
The current environment looks materially different. Negative Coinbase Premium readings have become deeper and more persistent, suggesting that US spot demand is no longer stepping in to absorb downside moves. Even after significant price adjustments, discounts remain unresolved, pointing to buyers staying on the sidelines. As Bitcoin trades at levels not seen in nearly a year, this weakening spot demand raises the risk that further downside could unfold before a durable base is formed.
US Spot Demand Remains AbsentThe report explains that the current behavior of the Coinbase Premium marks a clear departure from earlier phases of this cycle. Negative prints are no longer brief or episodic. Instead, they are deeper and persist for extended periods, with only short-lived and shallow recoveries. This pattern goes beyond simple selling pressure. It reflects a sustained absence of US spot demand, even as prices move lower.
Short-term discounts can emerge for many reasons, including macro shocks, liquidation events, or temporary risk aversion. However, when the premium remains negative after the price has already adjusted, it typically signals that buyers are not stepping in. In other words, the market is not finding support from US-based spot participants who have historically played a stabilizing role during drawdowns.
In practice, this shift is visible in several ways. Downside moves are not being absorbed by spot inflows on US venues. Rebounds occur, but they lack confirmation from spot demand and fade quickly. As a result, price action becomes increasingly driven by derivatives, leverage, and short-term positioning rather than sustained capital allocation.
Compared with spring 2025, US spot demand is now weaker both in magnitude and persistence. Until the Coinbase Premium turns positive and holds for a sustained period, upside momentum remains structurally fragile, leaving Bitcoin vulnerable to further downside pressure.
Weekly Structure Weakens as Bitcoin Breaks Key SupportBitcoin’s weekly chart shows a clear structural deterioration following the loss of the $80,000 support zone. After topping above $120,000 in mid-2025, price has formed a sequence of lower highs and lower lows, signaling a transition from expansion to distribution. The recent breakdown toward the $74,000–$77,000 area marks the first visit to these levels since April 2025, confirming that prior demand has failed to hold.
From a trend perspective, Bitcoin is now trading below its 50-week moving average, which has started to roll over. This level previously acted as dynamic support throughout the bull phase, but the failure to reclaim it suggests weakening medium-term momentum. The 100-week moving average, currently near the mid-$80,000s, has also flipped into resistance, reinforcing the bearish structure. Meanwhile, the 200-week moving average remains well below price, near the low-$60,000 region, defining a potential downside magnet if selling pressure persists.
Volume dynamics add to the caution. Selling waves during the breakdown are accompanied by elevated volume compared to recent consolidation phases, indicating distribution rather than passive drift. Although the latest candle shows a modest rebound, it lacks follow-through and remains corrective in nature.
The chart suggests Bitcoin is in a transition phase toward a broader bearish regime. Unless price can decisively reclaim the $85,000–$90,000 zone, rallies are likely to be sold, with risk skewed toward a deeper test of long-term demand levels.
Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com
Жертвам криптомошенников в США установили дедлайн заявлений на возврат средств
Time To Buy? Bitcoin Slips Below Cost Basis — Saylor Signals ‘More Orange’
Bitcoin’s price crash over the weekend pushed some big holders into the red for a short while, but a handful of major players signaled they were still buying into the dip.
Strategy’s executive chairman Michael Saylor posted on X “More Orange” after the slide, hinting at fresh accumulation for a company that has been steadily adding to its stash for years.
Reports show Strategy’s holdings remain large, at roughly 712,647 BTC, which underlines why its moves draw so much attention from traders and investors.
Average ETF Cost Still Above Trading LevelsReports say US spot Bitcoin ETFs manage about $113 billion and hold roughly 1.28 million BTC, putting an implied average buy price above current market rates.
This gap explains why many ETF positions are showing losses on paper even though some institutions keep buying.
The fact that passive products can be underwater at the same time a corporate buyer adds to its balance sheet creates an odd mix of market signals.
More Orange. pic.twitter.com/b5iYIMARJX
— Michael Saylor (@saylor) February 1, 2026
Exchange Balances Continue To FallOne sign the sell-off may not be pure panic is the steady flow of coins off exchanges into private wallets. Reports note exchange reserves have slid to levels not seen in years, a trend that often points to long-term hoarding rather than immediate selling.
Lower exchange balances usually mean there are fewer coins ready to be sold quickly, which can make price swings more extreme when demand dries up.
Transaction Costs Remain LowOn the network side, average transaction fees stayed relatively modest during the crash, so ordinary activity did not choke the chain.
Data show the typical fee hovered around $0.7 per transfer in late January, which keeps small transfers practical and means the network was not under strain even as prices moved sharply. Low fees can encourage more on-chain movement without creating bottlenecks.
Network Security Saw A Brief DropReports have highlighted a recent pullback in hashrate, as miners in some regions faced weather and operational disruptions, causing a near-term drop of roughly 12% from prior highs.
Strategy has acquired 22,305 BTC for ~$2.13 billion at ~$95,284 per bitcoin. As of 1/19/2026, we hodl 709,715 $BTC acquired for ~$53.92 billion at ~$75,979 per bitcoin. $MSTR $STRC $STRK $STRF $STRD $STRE https://t.co/6hpAeOxp2I
— Strategy (@Strategy) January 20, 2026
Optimism Is HighStrategy has ramped up its Bitcoin buying after a slower period in 2025, completing its largest purchase since February last year. The firm added 13,627 BTC worth about $1.3 billion, signaling a renewed push to grow its holdings.
Saylor’s latest post fits a familiar pattern that markets have learned to watch closely. Each time Bitcoin stumbles into fear-heavy territory, his brief messages tend to surface, often read as quiet confidence rather than noise.
While prices remain fragile and sentiment uneven, Strategy’s continued signaling suggests conviction has not faded at the corporate level.
Featured image from Alexander Spatari/Getty Images, chart from TradingView
Ripple, Stellar Show Up In New Epstein Files, Ex-CTO Schwartz Reacts
Ripple and Stellar were pulled into a fresh round of social-media speculation this weekend after newly surfaced emails from the Epstein document release appeared to reference the two projects in a 2014 investor dispute. Former Ripple CTO David Schwartz pushed back publicly, saying he knows of no direct links between Epstein and either network, and framed the episode as another example of tribal politics bleeding into crypto.
Schwartz Reacts After Epstein Docs Mention Ripple, StellarThe spark came from a screenshot circulating on X that shows an email chain in which Austin Hill (co-founder of Blockstream) complained to a group of high-profile recipients, including Epstein, about investors allocating capital across competing projects. According to Schwartz, the document “is an email from Austin Hill to Jeffrey Epstein explaining that Hill felt that support for Ripple or Stellar made someone an enemy/opponent,” adding that Hill likely shared similar views “to many other people.”
As the image spread, some posts characterized the mere inclusion of Ripple and Stellar in the email as evidence of deeper involvement. Schwartz responded with a message that tried to separate inflammatory framing from what the document actually shows.
“I don’t know of any connections between Jeffrey Epstein and Ripple, XRP, or Stellar. [I don’t know of] any evidence anyone at Ripple or Stellar ever met with Epstein or anyone closely connected to him,” he wrote. “There are some indirect ties between Epstein and people connected to Bitcoin in various ways, but that’s probably true of most very wealthy people.”
Schwartz’s first post on the thread captured the mood of the day, both suspicion and a reluctance to feed it. “I hate to be a conspiracy theorist, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this is just the tip of a giant iceberg,” he wrote while linking to the DOJ-hosted file. He later argued the more corrosive issue was the “enemy/opponent” mindset, writing that “we really are all in this together and this kind of attitude hurts everyone in the space.”
In the underlying 2014 email described in the source material, Hill is portrayed as objecting to backers funding multiple “horses” at once, treating support for Ripple or Stellar as hostile to the bitcoin-centric “ecosystem” he was building at Blockstream. Reports summarizing the chain say it was sent to Joichi Ito, Epstein, and Reid Hoffman, and included language that investors in both camps were “backing two horses in the same race.”
The resurfaced email also revived an older fault line in how early projects structured themselves. In response to a user asking about Ripple versus Stellar’s nonprofit posture, Schwartz said the idea was debated early on and that he opposed it.
“We discussed it in the early days. I was strongly against it because it seemed dishonest and borderline illegal to have a non-profit whose success was so tied to the gains of private parties,” he wrote. “It felt, at least to me, like Walmart creating a non-profit to help educate people about how much money they could save by shopping at Walmart.”
At press time, XRP traded at $1.64.
62% Of Bitcoin ETF Inflows Underwater As Price Crashes To $76,000
On-chain data shows the Bitcoin spot price is now below the cost basis of nearly two-thirds of inflows into exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
62% Of US Bitcoin Spot ETF Inflows Now In LossIn a new X post, on-chain analyst Checkmate has shared a chart discussing the latest situation related to the Bitcoin spot ETFs. Spot ETFs are investment vehicles that allow investors to gain indirect exposure to an underlying asset. Such funds are available for Bitcoin and other digital assets in many parts of the world, but the ones of interest here are those based in the United States. First approved back in January 2024, US BTC spot ETFs have been in operation for more than two years now, and in that time, they have witnessed significant growth.
Lately, however, the trend related to these funds has been one of net outflows as the wider cryptocurrency sector has gone through a bearish shift. Outflows in the last two weeks, in particular, have been quite intense.
Below is the chart posted by the analyst that shows the trend in the weekly netflow related to the Bitcoin spot ETFs, among other metrics:
From the graph, it’s visible that the Bitcoin spot ETFs have witnessed net outflow spikes of $1.33 billion and $1.49 billion during the last two weeks, representing the third and second largest outflow sprees in the history of these funds. Alongside the negative netflows, Bitcoin has plunged under the $80,000 level. The asset is now trading under the average cost basis of the spot ETFs (marked in the chart using the dashed line), meaning that the majority of capital stored in these funds is now being held at a loss.
In the netflow graph, Checkmate has highlighted which of the weekly inflow spikes are part of this loss of supply. It would appear that the last green inflows are now sitting all the way back in late 2024, with all spikes since then underwater. “If you assume a cost basis of inflows on the day they occurred, 62% of ETF inflows are now underwater,” noted the analyst.
So far in the history of BTC spot ETFs, holders haven’t been underwater to a significant degree as BTC has generally gone up since their launch. During a phase in mid-2024, the cryptocurrency did dip below the cost basis of these traders, but even then, it never went too far below the line.
Given this, the latest breach of the Bitcoin spot ETF break-even level could end up being the first time that these investors would have to deal with the pain of a bear phase. It now remains to be seen how the netflow related to these investment vehicles will develop in the coming weeks.
BTC PriceBitcoin fell to $75,000 on Sunday, but the asset has rebounded a bit to start the new week as its price is now floating around $77,800.
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