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Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson used the opening of a Midnight workshop in Sapporo (Japan tour) on Jan. 25 to frame Midnight as Cardano’s “crown jewel” and a missing primitive for mainstream crypto adoption, arguing the privacy layer is positioned to outpace incumbent privacy-focused networks within 12 months.

Why Cardano’s Midnight ‘Eclipses’ All Privacy Projects

Hoskinson told attendees that while crypto spent the past decade perfecting transparent ledgers, it never built a first-class “private side” that real businesses and regulators can work with. “When you have the yin and yang, well, we only built one side of the yin and yang. We only built the transparent side. We didn’t build the private side,” he said. “So the challenge is that blockchains, every single one of them, they’re missing something. They’re missing a component that’s required for real-life business.”

In his telling, the gap sits at the intersection of privacy-enhancing technology (PET), compliance, and an emerging “abstraction” stack aimed at making crypto usable without forcing consumers to learn how blockchains work. Hoskinson argued that regulated activity like KYC/KYB/AML requires selective disclosure, but public chains force a tradeoff between compliance and privacy. “If you share information about yourself on a public network, everyone in the world, everywhere in the world, gets to see that,” he said. “That doesn’t make any sense. That doesn’t make sense to do commerce.”

He extended the same logic to intent-based execution and account abstraction-style UX, where users describe outcomes and a solver network routes liquidity and settlement across chains. “If I know your intentions, I can trade against you,” Hoskinson said, warning that revealing price bounds or execution constraints invites adverse selection. “Never tell me your intention because I can use it against you. So, intentions also require privacy.”

Midnight, he said, is designed to supply those primitives without demanding wholesale migration to a new Layer 1. Hoskinson described the network as built for “hybrid applications” across multiple ecosystems, claiming Midnight’s launch architecture connected it to “eight different ecosystems, seven different blockchains,” so users can stay on chains like Solana, Cardano, Bitcoin, or Ethereum while invoking Midnight’s privacy features.

He also positioned Midnight as a catalyst for Cardano’s DeFi ambitions, acknowledging a participation gap between staking and on-chain application usage. “There’s 1.4 million people staking, but only about 50,000 people participating on a monthly basis in our DeFi ecosystem,” Hoskinson said, adding that the next phase is to upgrade a subset of leading Cardano dApps so they can tap Midnight and market privacy-native products—such as private DEXs, prediction markets, or stablecoins—to users from other ecosystems.

On rollout, Hoskinson said the first stage of Midnight launched in December and that the first mainnet is “very soon” to follow. He highlighted what he characterized as an unusually retail-heavy distribution: “We never sold a single token. We just gave it away,” he said, claiming ADA holders received more than 50% of supply and that early trading activity surpassed $9 billion in volume and more than $1 billion in value.

Hoskinson closed with his boldest projection: “Within a year, Midnight is going to eclipse anybody in the privacy space because we know how to solve these problems,” he said, attributing the edge to the depth of Cardano’s research bench.

“Because we hired 168 scientists, and they happen to have spent the last four decades of their life chasing this. One of the guys working on this wrote the first computer game online. He was at Stanford when they were building the internet, […]. He wrote Pong, and it was the first online game. That’s the legacy we have. Now, 40 years later, he’s a fellow in the Royal Society, the same society that Sir Isaac Newton was a member of. He’s working on this, as is that 22-year-old graduate student, as is the developer here in Japan, and everyone in between, and that’s why we’re going to win. It’s not a US cryptocurrency. It’s global,” Hoskison said.

At press time, ADA traded at $0.3512.

60% крупных американских банков уже предоставляют либо планируют предложить клиентам услуги, связанные с биткоином, включая торговлю и хранение, заявили аналитики компании River со ссылкой на свое исследование.

В среду, 28 января, в Москве компания «Вэйморр» проводит закрытую конференцию для майнеров WAYMORR Event 2.0.

Bitcoin treasury company Strategy has unveiled its latest purchase of the cryptocurrency, this time tokens worth a total of $264.1 million.

Strategy Has Expanded Its Bitcoin Treasury By 2,932 BTC

In a new post on X, Strategy co-founder and chairman has shared the details related to the latest Bitcoin acquisition from the company. In total, the new purchase has added 2,932 tokens to the firm’s treasury at an average price of $90,061 per token.

According to the filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the buy took place between January 20th and 25th. Strategy funded the $264.1 million acquisition using proceeds from its STRC and MSTR at-the-market (ATM) stock offerings.

In the last two weeks, the company has made purchases involving a substantial size. Last week, the company added Bitcoin worth $2.13 billion, while the week before that, it spent $1.25 billion on the cryptocurrency. Compared to these, the latest buy isn’t too big, but nonetheless showcases continued resolve for accumulation from Saylor’s firm.

Following the latest purchase, Strategy’s Bitcoin reserves have grown to 712,647 BTC, equivalent to about 3.57% of the asset’s total circulating supply. Currently, these holdings are worth around $62.23 billion, up nearly 15% over the company’s investment of $54.19 billion.

Strategy is the largest digital asset corporate holder in the world, with its closest competition being Bitmine, a BTC mining company that pivoted to an Ethereum treasury strategy last year.

According to a Monday press release, Bitmine has also participated in accumulation during the past week, adding 40,302 ETH ($116.5 million) to its holdings. The firm’s total treasury reserve has now risen to 4,243,338 ETH ($12.24 billion), corresponding to a supply share of 3.52%.

Recently, Bitmine has been putting its Ethereum toward staking to earn a passive interest on its holdings. In the past week, the company has increased its locked stake by 171,264 ETH, taking total staked supply to more than 2 million tokens. “Bitmine has staked more ETH than other entities in the world,” said Tom Lee, Bitmine chairman.

In some other news, Bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw a high amount of net outflows in the past week, according to data from SoSoValue.

As displayed in the above graph, the weekly Bitcoin spot ETF netflow measured at -$1.33 billion last week. This is the highest outflow that these investment vehicles have witnessed since the end of February 2025.

Just a week prior, the market situation was the complete reverse, as spot ETFs saw net inflows amounting to $1.42 billion. The latest streak of outflows, however, have nearly entirely retraced this growth.

BTC Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is floating around $88,000, down more than 5% in the last seven days.

Американская компания Circle, выпускающая стейблкоины USDC, подверглась критике за неспособность своевременно блокировать украденные цифровые активы.

Сооснователь Fundstrat Global Advisors и председатель компании BitMine Immersion Technologies Том Ли (Tom Lee) признал, что криптовалютный рынок значительно ослаб, и объяснил произошедшее в первую очередь ростом цен на золото и серебро.

The cryptocurrency market is facing renewed pressure as a sharp contraction in stablecoin supply raises fresh concerns about Bitcoin (BTC) and overall market liquidity. 

Over the past week, the total market capitalization of ERC‑20 stablecoins has dropped by roughly $7 billion, a move analysts say could signal deeper structural weakness rather than a temporary correction.

Bitcoin Outlook Darkens

According to market analyst Darkfost, who shared the data on social media platform X (previously Twitter), this is the first time in the current cycle that the stablecoin market has experienced such a steep weekly decline from approximately $162 billion to $155 billion in just seven days. 

Darkfost described this drop as a clearly negative signal, suggesting that investors are increasingly choosing to exit the crypto market altogether instead of rotating capital within it.

The mechanics behind the trend are relatively straightforward. When demand for stablecoins falls, it typically means investors are converting their holdings back into fiat currency rather than keeping capital parked on-chain. 

As a result, stablecoin issuers burn excess tokens that are no longer needed, leading to a decline in overall supply. For this reason, a shrinking ERC‑20 stablecoin market cap is widely viewed as a bearish indicator.

Importantly, the same pattern is beginning to appear on other blockchain networks, reinforcing concerns that the trend is not isolated to Ethereum-based assets. 

Darkfost also pointed to historical precedent, noting that a similar contraction in stablecoin supply in 2021 coincided with Bitcoin’s transition into a bear market, although the Terra Luna collapse also played a role during that period.

Analyst Warns Of Potential Crypto Liquidity Crunch 

At the same time, macroeconomic risks are resurfacing. Crypto analyst Crypto Rover has warned that the likelihood of a US government shutdown by January 31 has surged to nearly 80%, up dramatically from estimates of just 10% to 15% one day earlier. 

According to his analysis, a government shutdown could pose serious challenges for Bitcoin and crypto markets due to its impact on liquidity. Historically, when shutdowns begin, the US Treasury rebuilds its Treasury General Account (TGA) by pulling cash out of financial markets. 

During the last shutdown cycle, the TGA increased by roughly $220 billion, effectively draining that amount of liquidity from the system. Crypto markets, Rover argues, are particularly vulnerable to such conditions.

In the previous episode, markets initially rallied briefly before liquidity dried up. That was followed by sharp declines, with Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) falling between 20% and 25%, while altcoins suffered even deeper losses.

This time, the setup appears even more fragile, according to Rover’s view. Liquidity in the market is already thin, investor confidence is weak, and institutional capital is largely concentrated in equities and gold rather than digital assets.

Furthermore, Rover notes that volatility is elevated, and crypto prices are reacting sharply to relatively small capital flows. Under these conditions, a shutdown-driven liquidity drain could be especially damaging, potentially triggering another severe market sell-off.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $88,183, having erased all the gains seen in the first week of the year. It is now down 5% over the past seven days, with the cryptocurrency sitting 30% below the all-time high of $126,000 reached last October. 

Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

Основатель крупнейшей по объему торгов криптобиржи Binance Чанпен Чжао (Changpeng Zhao) на Всемирном экономическом форуме в Давосе объявил, что знает, какой мемкоин является самым устойчивым.

За последнюю неделю капитализация стейблкоинов в сети Эфириума упала на $7 млрд. Аналогичная динамика наблюдалась в 2021 году, когда рынок переходил в медвежью фазу, заявили эксперты ончейн-платформы CryptoQuant.

Japan is reportedly likely to approve and list its first wave of crypto-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the next two years as the country’s financial authorities work on rule changes that allow the investment products.

Japan To Join Global Crypto ETF Race In Two Years

On Monday, news media outlet Nikkei Asia reported that Japan’s first crypto ETFs could be listed as early as 2028, offering retail investors easier access to Bitcoin (BTC) and other digital assets.

This would mark a major shift in the country’s regulatory approach to digital asset-based products. Japanese regulators have been cautious about crypto funds, with the Financial Services Agency (FSA) repeatedly expressing its reservations about the investment products.

The FSA plans to amend the Investment Trust Act’s enforcement order to include cryptocurrencies in the list of specified assets for ETFs. Additionally, the agency will propose stronger safeguards to protect investors, Nikkei added without detailing its sources.

Ahead of the regulatory changes, Japanese giants Nomura Holdings and SBI Holdings are preparing to develop the country’s first crypto ETFs. In August, SBI filed to launch an ETF linked to both BTC and XRP, as well as a Digital Gold Crypto ETF, which would allocate 51% to gold and 49% to digital assets to mitigate investment risks.

As reported by Bitcoinist, Japan’s Minister of Finance Satsuki Katayama highlighted earlier this month that US crypto ETFs have expanded as “a means for citizens to hedge against inflation.”

In her New Year’s address at the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s (TSE) Grand Opening Ceremony, Katayama supported a potential launch of crypto-based investment products, suggesting that similar initiatives to those of the US would be pursued in Japan.

Notably, the US approved the first wave of spot crypto ETFs in 2024, based on Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH), leading pension funds, endowment funds for major universities such as Harvard, and government-affiliated investors to include them in their portfolios.

As of January 23, BTC funds’ total net assets amount to approximately $115.8 billion, according to SoSoValue data. Nikkei noted that Japan’s asset management industry has estimated that Japanese crypto ETFs could eventually reach 1 trillion yen, worth around $6.4 billion.

Authorities Prepare For Japan’s ‘Digital Year’

Japanese authorities have been reviewing their regulatory system over the past few years to develop customer fund safety policies and allow innovation in a more reliable environment.

Last year, the Liberal Democratic Party and the Japan Innovation Party published their upcoming FY2026 Tax Reform. The tax reform is set to introduce significant changes to the existing taxation system, addressing the categorization and regulation of crypto assets, and reclassifying them as financial products.

The reform signals a shift from the regulators’ previous treatment of digital assets as speculative. Moreover, authorities are also exploring introducing a separate taxation system for crypto income, with a flat 20% tax similar to the stock system.

During her New Year’s address, Finance Minister Katayama also recognized the country’s efforts to integrate digital assets and blockchain technology into the local financial markets. She expressed her support of Japan’s development as an asset management nation, affirming that “there is still room for growth.”

Katayama declared that 2026 would be the “Digital Year” for Japan, asserting that this year “is a turning point” in overcoming deflation. Ultimately, she emphasized the importance of stock exchanges in supporting the transition to a growth-oriented economy that opens public access to crypto assets.