The ETN lineup includes major assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, Polygon, Chainlink, and diversified crypto indices.
The move follows VanEck’s broader crypto push, including the recent launch of the Avalanche ETF (VAVX) on Nasdaq with integrated staking rewards.
Signals growing institutional acceptance in Europe, as traditional banks increasingly bridge conventional finance and digital assets.
Global asset manager VanEck has announced a partnership with ING Germany, the country’s third-largest bank, to offer retail customers seamless access to cryptocurrency-linked investment products. Beginning February 2026, ING Germany’s retail clients can trade VanEck’s suite of Exchange-Traded Notes (ETNs) directly through their existing “Direct Depot” brokerage accounts.
This integration allows investors to gain exposure to digital assets like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Solana (SOL) without the complexities of managing private keys or digital wallets. The firm already has a history of moving in asset classes, which include gold investment, emerging markets, and EFTs, and is now expanding into digital assets.
Lowering the barrier to entry
The partnership aims to bridge the gap between traditional finance (TradFi) and the digital asset economy. By utilizing familiar banking infrastructure, ING Germany is positioning itself as a primary gateway for regulated crypto exposure.
Under the new arrangement, ING Germany customers can trade 11 VanEck crypto ETNs with reduced or zero execution costs:
Orders of €1,000 or more: No execution fees
Orders below €1,000: Flat fee of €3.90
Savings plans: Executed free of charge
The pricing model is designed to make crypto investments more accessible for long-term and retail investors using traditional brokerage accounts.
“Many investors want a solution that fits into their existing portfolio structures and also offers transparent costs. This partnership delivers exactly that—it brings crypto exposure to where investors are already investing: in their securities accounts,” says Martijn Rozemuller, CEO of VanEck Europe.
List of VaEck crypto ETNs available
The 11 crypto ETNs offer both single-asset and diversified exposure:
DE000A28M8D0 VanEck Bitcoin ETN
DE000A3GPSP7 VanEck Ethereum ETN
DE000A3GWEU3 VanEck Crypto Leaders ETN
DE000A3GWNE8 VanEck Algorand ETN
DE000A3GV1T7 VanEck Avalanche ETN
DE000A3GXNV0 VanEck Chainlink ETN
DE000A3GSUC5 VanEck Polkadot ETN
DE000A3GV1U5 VanEck Polygon ETN
DE000A3GXNT4 VanEck Smart Contract Leaders ETN
DE000A3GSUD3 VanEck Solana ETN
DE000A3GSUE1 VanEck TRON ETN
These products allow investors to participate in the crypto market via regulated securities traded on traditional exchanges.
VanEck’s “altcoin” ETFs
The partnership with ING Germany follows VanEck’s recent move in the U.S. market. Earlier this year, VanEck launched the first Avalanche exchange-traded fund on Nasdaq, listed under the ticker VAVX, giving investors regulated exposure to AVAX without directly holding the token. The ETF tracks AVAX’s price and incorporates staking rewards into its net asset value, offering a yield of about 5.6% as of January 23.
While early trading activity was modest, the launch reflects a broader shift toward using familiar ETF vehicles to gain exposure to blockchain infrastructure. It also serves as a test of investor appetite for crypto assets beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum. Institutions are increasingly seeking to diversify their exposure within regulated market structures.
Further, traditional banks are also increasingly adopting crypto-linked products. The distinction between traditional finance and digital assets is becoming increasingly hazy. The VanEck-ING Germany partnership signals increasing institutional acceptance for crypto ETNs in Europe, offering regulated low-cost access to digital assets through established banking platforms.
Tether open-sources its Mining OS at the Plan ₿ Forum, pushing Bitcoin mining toward open and decentralized infrastructure.
MOS and the upcoming Mining SDK unify mining hardware, energy, and the data while enabling faster custom tool development.
Open-source mining software shifts competition from access to efficiency, strengthening Bitcoin’s global mining ecosystem.
Tether, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, has open-sourced its Bitcoin Mining Operating System (MOS), in a push toward more decentralized Bitcoin mining. The company announced the move on February 2, 2026, making the software publicly available to the mining community.
This update was announced at the 2026 Plan ₿ Forum in San Salvador, highlighting Tether’s expanding focus on Bitcoin infrastructure development.
The announcement also marks a strategic pivot for the $120 billion plus company, aiming to break the “black box” of proprietary software that has long dominated industrial-scale mining operations.
A unified “nervous system” for miners
Current mining operations often resemble a patchwork of disconnected software: one for hashrate monitoring, another for electrical transformers, and a third for cooling systems. MOS seeks to replace this with a single operational layer.
It’s a special computer operating system for Bitcoin mining, designed specifically to run and manage mining hardware and operations. MOS provides end-to-end visibility across mining sites—covering:
Mining hardware performance
Energy consumption and efficiency
Device health and failures
Infrastructure and site-level operations
Tether ❤️ Bitcoin
Tether Mining OS is now fully opensource.
A complete operational platform that can scale from a home setup to industrial grade site, even across multiple geographies.
Super modular, P2P encrypted networking layer. It supports a long list of miners,… https://t.co/VzXywA6IZc
This flexibility removes the need for centralized third-party software and reduces dependence on proprietary mining management platforms.
“Whether it’s a small operator running a handful of machines or a full-scale industrial site, the same operating system can scale without reliance on centralized, third-party software,” said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether.
Introducing the Mining SDK
Alongside MOS, Tether unveiled the Mining SDK, the foundational framework behind the operating system. SDK stands for Software Development Kit. It is a modular toolkit for developers that makes it easier to build new mining software or tools by using ready-made building blocks instead of starting from scratch.
While MOS is ready for immediate deployment, the SDK is being released as a collaborative project to be finalized with the open-source community in the coming months.
The Mining SDK provides developers with:
Pre-built modular components (“workers”)
Simple APIs for device and infrastructure integration
A UI development kit to quickly build dashboards and internal tools
This allows developers and mining companies to build custom mining software without core infrastructure, dramatically lowering development time and cost.
Shifting the competitive landscape
The move reflects a broader shift in Bitcoin mining, where competition is increasingly being defined by operational efficiency rather than access to proprietary technology.
By open-sourcing its mining software stack, Tether aims to lower entry barriers for new miners, enable customization without vendor lock-in, reduce centralization in mining infrastructure software, and strengthen the long-term resilience of the Bitcoin network.
Ardoino shared that the goal is to make Bitcoin mining more open, accessible, and competitive; a goal that “ultimately strengthens the resilience of the Bitcoin network.”
A UAE-backed entity quietly acquired 49% of a Trump-linked crypto firm for $500 million just before the 2025 inauguration.
Large portions of the investment flowed to Trump and Witkoff-linked entities, while Emirati tech executives gained board influence
Months later, the U.S. eased restrictions and allowed the UAE expanded access to advanced AI chips critical for global AI leadership.
Three powerful forces are connected with each other: foreign money, a Trump-linked crypto venture, and U.S. control over advanced AI technology. Just days before Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, an Abu Dhabi–based investment vehicle quietly made a massive move.
According to WSJ report, entities controlled by Abu Dhabi royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan—one of the most influential figures in the UAE & the country’s national security adviser—signed a deal to purchase a 49% stake in the Trump family’s cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial (WLF).
The $500 million agreement—which saw $187 million flow directly to Trump family entities—coincided with the UAE’s successful lobbying for access to highly restricted U.S. artificial intelligence chips.
The “Spy Sheikh” and the Half-Billion Dollar Stake
Sheikh Tahnoon, often referred to as the “Spy Sheikh” due to his role as the UAE’s National Security Adviser, oversees a $1.3 trillion empire that includes the AI firm G42 and the investment powerhouse MGX.
Roughly half of the investment was paid immediately, from that upfront payment, approximately $187 million to Trump family-linked entities, with additional millions tied to families of other co-founders.
$31 million was slated for entities tied to Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy and WLF co-founder. Executives tied to the Sheikh’s tech empire took board positions inside the crypto company. Two top executives from Tahnoon’s G42, including CEO Peng Xiao, reportedly joined WLF’s five-person board alongside Eric Trump and Zach Witkoff. In effect, the Emirati-backed group became the largest outside owner of the project.
A “Coup” for UAE: Chips for Crypto?
The timing of the investment has raised significant questions regarding potential conflicts of interest and national security. For years, the U.S. had blocked the UAE’s access to advanced AI chips over fears of technology leakage to China—specifically through Tahnoon’s G42.
Two months after, in March, the WLF deal was signed, Tahnoon met with President Trump and Steve Witkoff at the White House. In May 2025, the Trump administration committed to providing the UAE with 500,000 advanced AI chips annually—enough to build one of the world’s largest AI clusters.
Shortly before the chip deal, WLF CEO Zach Witkoff announced that Tahnoon’s MGX would use WLF’s stablecoin to facilitate a $2 billion investment into the Binance exchange.
“Ridiculous and Un-American”: The Defense
World Liberty Financial and the White House have vehemently denied any wrongdoing or policy influence.
Spokesman David Wachsman defended the investment, stating, “The idea that, when raising capital, a privately held American company should be held to some unique standard that no other similar company would be held is both ridiculous and un-American.”
White House spokespeople emphasized that President Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children and that Steve Witkoff has divested from World Liberty Financial to avoid conflicts with his role as envoy.
Sources close to Tahnoon claim the investment was a “business decision” and was never discussed directly with President Trump during the due diligence process.
The deal marks the first known instance of a foreign government official taking a nearly half-ownership stake in a sitting U.S. President’s private company. While the Trump Organization has long courted international real estate deals, the integration of sovereign wealth, national security policy (AI chips), and decentralized finance (WLF) represents a new frontier in political-financial entanglements.
How Power Moves In Modern Economy?
First, large investments in digital assets are no longer just speculative bets — they can shape financial systems, create new forms of money, and influence how countries and companies move capital across borders.
Second, AI chips have become one of the most valuable resources in the world. These chips are essential for building advanced artificial intelligence.
Third, foreign money is now deeply connected to government decision-making. When powerful oversea investors are involved in companies linked to political figures, business decisions and public policy can appear closely intertwined – even if no laws ar broken.
The move signals Jupiter’s expansion beyond token swaps into event-based DeFi products.
Users can now trade Polymarket contracts directly within the Jupiter app, removing platform friction.
The integration blends Jupiter’s deep liquidity with Polymarket’s high-volume event markets.
Solana-based decentralized exchange aggregator Jupiter is making a strategic push beyond token swaps and positioning itself as a central hub for prediction markets through a new integration with Polymarket.
Jupiter announced in a post on X that it has integrated the world’s largest decentralized prediction market, Polymarket, directly into its platform, launching a built-in “Prediction” feature with the Jupiter app. The update allows users to trade polymarkets event based contracts directly with Jupiter, marking a significant step in expanding Solana’s DeFi use cases beyond traditional spot trading.
For the first time, @Polymarket is coming to Solana. On Jupiter.
Integrating Polymarket is primed for making Jupiter the most innovative predictions platform on Solana
Trade all the markets you want. On one onchain platform.
“Integrating Polymarket is primed for making Jupiter the most innovative predictions platform on Solana,” the exchange said by highlighting its ambition to become a one-stop destination for onchain trading and event-based prediction markets.
Jupiter expands beyond swaps
The move signals a broader shift in Jupiter’s strategy. Long known as Solana’s leading DEX aggregator jupiter is now developing into multi-product DeFi platforms, blending liquidity aggregation with emerging financial primitives like prediction markets.
The integration removes the need for stablecoin bridging or switching between multiple apps, streamlining the user experience.
This approach positions Jupiter as a gateway for users looking to speculate on real-world outcomes using blockchain-based markets without difficulty. Jupiter co-founder Meow revealed that “Jupiter Predict” will be a core focus for 2026, with plans to launch robust prediction market APIs and advanced market discovery tools.
Golden Age of Prediction Market
The partnership comes as prediction markets enter a “golden age” of volume and mainstream adoption. In January 2026 alone, Polymarket recorded $7.66 billion in trading volume, while its rival Kalshi saw $9.16 billion.
This momentum is being mirrored across the industry:
Polymarket secured an exclusive, multi-year sports licensing agreement with Major League Soccer (MLS) last month.
With a Total Value Locked (TVL) of approximately $2.35 billion and annualized protocol revenue nearing $150 million, Jupiter is leveraging its massive footprint to turn prediction markets into a core pillar of the Solana DeFi ecosystem.
Solana’s role in event-based trading
The integration also underscores Solana’s growing appeal for high-frequency and event-driven markets. With low transition fees and fast settlement time, the network offers a technical advantage for prediction markets that require rapid price updates and frequent traders.
Jupiter’s Polymarket integration highlights how DeFi native platforms are racing to capture the expanding sector. Last week, The Crypto Times highlighted the growing regulatory uncertainty surrounding U.S. prediction markets. The CFTC is resetting its regulatory to prediction markets, aiming to create clearer federal rules for Polymarket and Kalshi platforms as the sector rapidly grows.
The move comes amid rising legal clashes with states, increased trading volumes, and growing scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers as prediction markets expand into mainstream finance.
In the early days of the blockchain revolution, the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) was hailed as the ultimate “corporate killer.” The vision was simple yet profound: an organization with no CEO, no physical headquarters, and no middle management. By replacing human fallibility with smart contracts, DAOs promised a world where “code is law” and every member held an equal stake in a hyper-efficient, neutral entity.
However, by 2026, the honeymoon phase has officially ended. While the technology to execute decisions automatically is better than ever, the human element—governance—has become a massive bottleneck. Many DAOs today are stuck in a “governance trap,” spending more time debating how to vote than actually building products.
We saw this clearly in January 2026. While the technology works, its sociology is broken. Just look at the recent Optimism Superchain vote or the Uniswap Fee Switch debates. These weren’t town halls; they were board meetings where a handful of whales dictated the fate of millions of dollars, leaving the ‘community’ to rubber-stamp the decision.
How a DAO Actually Operates
To understand the current crisis, one must first look at the “Proposal Pipeline.” Unlike a traditional company where a board of directors meets behind closed doors, a DAO’s lifeblood is its public ledger.
Who can propose changes?
Permissionless: Some DAOs allow anyone with a wallet to submit a proposal. While democratic, this often leads to “governance spam,” where the community is flooded with low-quality or scam requests.
Threshold-based: Most mature DAOs (like Uniswap or Aave) require a “minimum stake.” You might need to hold 0.1% or even 1% of the total token supply just to put a proposal on the ballot.
The Pipeline:
Ideation: Discussion on Discord or a governance forum
Formal Proposal: A technical document submitted to a platform like Snapshot.
Voting Period: Token holders cast their votes over a period of three to seven days.
Execution: If passed, the smart contract automatically executes the code—moving funds or updating the protocol—without needing a human “signer.”
The Three Pillars of the Governance Crisis
Despite this elegant technical flow, the “autonomous” dream is hitting three major roadblocks:
1. Voter Apathy:
In 2025 and 2026, data showed that participation rates in major DAOs frequently dipped below 10%. When members are asked to vote on everything from multimillion-dollar grants to the color of a logo, “decision fatigue” sets in. This creates “ghost town” governance where a tiny, active minority makes decisions for the silent majority.
2. The “Whale” Problem:
Most DAOs use a “one-token-one-vote” system. This has inadvertently birthed a new form of digital oligarchy. Wealthy “whales” or venture capital firms can effectively veto or push through any proposal, turning the “decentralized” mission into a playground for the 1%. This can technically make a DAO centralized.
3. Analysis Paralysis:
In a fast-moving tech world, speed is life. A CEO can make a decision in minutes; a DAO often takes weeks to move a proposal through the pipeline. This lag time has caused many projects to lose their competitive edge as they remain paralyzed by internal debate.
When “Code is Law” Becomes a Weapon
The most dangerous consequence of the “Governance Trap” isn’t just slow progress—it’s the risk of Governance Capture. In a system where voting power is a tradable commodity, malicious actors can treat a DAO like a corporate raider would a traditional company, but with the speed and anonymity of blockchain.
1. The Build Finance “Coup” (Feb 2022)
If other governance issues are “heists,” Build Finance was a scorched-earth invasion. Billed as a “venture builder” for crypto projects, Build Finance was literally taken over by a single malicious actor who used the organization’s own democratic tools to dismantle it.
A user known as “Suho.eth” put forward a proposal to take full control of the project’s minting keys, treasury, and governance. After an initial attempt failed, the attacker doubled down with a “stealth” strategy.
To ensure the second attempt passed, the attacker disabled the DAO’s “proposal bot” and Gitbook (documentation site). This effectively blinded the community; because no one was “watching the gates,” the proposal passed with almost no counter-votes.
Once the keys were handed over by the smart contract, the attacker minted over 1 billion new BUILD tokens, drained the treasury of approximately $470,000, and laundered the funds. The project was effectively killed overnight. In a DAO, management isn’t a board of founders; it’s whoever holds the most tokens.
2. The Compound Finance “Golden Boys” Incident (July 2024)
One of the most famous examples of a “Whale Attack” occurred within Compound Finance, a titan of DeFi. A small group of investors, known as the “Golden Boys,” successfully passed a proposal to divert $24 million (5% of the treasury) into a yield-bearing vault they controlled.
Compound Finance’s Golden Boys Proposal | Source: Compound Finance
They didn’t find a bug in the code. Instead, they quietly accumulated COMP tokens on exchanges and through delegation until they had enough power to force the vote through during a period of low community participation.
It was a “governance heist” performed in broad daylight. While an “amicable” solution was eventually reached through intense social negotiation, the event proved that a DAO without high participation is essentially an open vault for wealthy whales.
3. The Tornado Cash Takeover (May 2023)
In another high-profile attack, a malicious actor submitted a proposal that looked like a routine technical update but contained hidden code. Once the community passed the vote, the hidden code granted the attacker complete control over the DAO’s treasury.
This highlighted the “Information Gap.” Most DAO members vote based on the title of a proposal because they cannot read the underlying smart contract code. This creates a massive security hole where “Governance Theater” masks malicious intent.
4. The Beanstalk Farm Exploit (April 2022)
Beyond whales, attackers have used Loans—which is borrowing millions of dollars in tokens for just a few seconds—to manipulate votes. By borrowing a massive amount of voting power, passing a proposal to drain the treasury, and then returning the loan all in a single transaction, hackers have bypassed the need to even own the tokens they are using to “govern.”
Beanstalk Farms exploit was a purely mathematical execution. It proved that if you can “buy” a majority for just one second, you can own the entire protocol.
On April 17, 2022, an attacker used a Flash Loan to borrow nearly $1 billion in assets from Aave and Uniswap. They used this massive capital to instantly acquire a 67% “supermajority” of the protocol’s governance tokens.
Beanstalk’s code had an emergencyCommit function. It allowed a proposal to execute immediately if it reached a 2/3 majority, bypassing the standard multi-day waiting period. Within the same single blockchain transaction, the attacker borrowed the money, voted for a malicious proposal they had seeded 24 hours earlier (BIP-18). This triggered the emergencyCommit function and attacker drained $182 million from the treasury, and repaid the loan.
Vitalik Buterin’s Warning
The cracks in the system have caught the attention of Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin. In a series of 2025 and early 2026 statements, Buterin issued a stark warning.
We Need More DAOs—But Different And Better DAOs: Vitalik
Buterin suggests that different problems need different voting styles. “Concave” problems (like setting a budget) benefit from compromise and wide community input. “Convex” problems (like a major strategic pivot) require decisive, high-conviction leadership that current DAOs lack.
Privacy and ZK-Proofs:
He is advocating for Zero-Knowledge (ZK) voting to prevent “social signaling,” arguing that public voting makes governance a “social game” where people vote to look good rather than to do what’s right.
AI Integration:
Buterin suggests that AI can help reduce “decision fatigue” by summarizing dense forum debates and filtering votes for the community.Vitalik also argued that “walking away from DAOs would be a mistake.”
Why Ethereum Needs High-Quality DAOs To Survive
Vitalik outlined five critical areas where Ethereum needs high-quality DAOs to survive:
Optimizing Oracle Design:
Current oracles are too easily manipulated; we need DAOs to ensure “truth” enters the blockchain neutrally. If the oracle is token based, whales can manipulate the answer on a subjective issue and it becomes difficult to counteract them.
On-Chain Dispute Resolution:
For things like DeFi insurance, we need decentralized “courts” to make subjective judgments.
Keeping Lists Honest:
DAOs are needed to maintain the lists. Preventing “hidden power” by using DAOs to maintain safe-lists of verified apps and registries.
Helping Startup Projects:
Allowing fast, community-led funding for short-term projects that don’t need a full legal entity.
Long-Term Project Stewardship:
Ensuring protocols don’t die just because the original founding team moves on. DAOs are needed for long term project maintenance.
Alongside his DAO comments, Vitalik has pushed for “Protocol Simplification” in 2026. He warns that if Ethereum’s code becomes an “unwieldy mess” that only a few experts understand, then decentralization is an illusion.
He argues that for a DAO to be truly autonomous, the underlying protocol must be simple enough to pass the “Walkaway Test”: if the core developers disappeared today, could a new team understand and run the network tomorrow?
DAOs Turning Votes into Value
To escape the trap, the next generation of DAOs is moving away from simple voting and toward more nuanced models. As we move through late January 2026, the “Governance Trap” is being broken by hard economics. Two of the largest DAOs in history are currently executing “Economic Pivots” that tie their tokens directly to network revenue.
1. The Optimism Superchain Revenue Share:
On January 22, 2026, the Optimism Collective initiated a landmark vote to allocate 50% of Superchain sequencer revenue toward monthly OP token buybacks for 12 months, directly linking network growth to token value beginning in February.
This proposal strengthens the token’s role in the ecosystem. It signals a transition from pure governance utility to a model where token demand scales with network adoption across chains like Base, Uniswap, Ink and World Chain.
2. Uniswap “Unification”:
After years of “Analysis Paralysis,” Uniswap activated its long-debated ‘Fee Switch’ in late 2025. Protocol fees now programmatically burn UNI tokens, turning a “governance-only” asset into a deflationary value-accrual asset. This proposal establishes a long-term model for how Uniswap would operate.
This proposal shifts operational duties from the Foundation to Labs, putting them in charge of ecosystem support, funding, governance, and developer relations. As of January 2026, early data shows annualized burns reaching millions of dollars, proving DAOs can move from “theater” to “business.”
The “Governance Trap” isn’t a sign that DAOs have failed; it’s a sign that they are maturing. As we move through 2026, the focus is shifting from “decentralizing everything” to “decentralizing what matters.” For DAOs to reclaim their original goal, they must find a way to let the code handle the routine and let the humans focus on the vision.
The front page of every financial rag in late 2025 was identical: a chart of Bitcoin’s violent 33% drawdown from its October peak of $126,000 down to a shivering $84,000. To the uninitiated, it looked like the end of the world. To those who survived 2017 and 2021, it looked like a classic “crypto winter” reset. But as we enter the second week of January 2026, with Bitcoin steadily reclaiming the $93,000 mark, it is becoming clear that the old playbook is not just outdated—it’s broken.
The question everyone is asking is: “Are we heading back to $50,000?” In previous cycles, a 50-60% correction from the top was standard. In 2026, however, the math has changed. Bitcoin has matured from a speculative retail toy into a foundational pillar of global finance. To see $50,000 again, we wouldn’t just need a “crypto bear market”; we would need a total systemic collapse of the modern financial order.
The Tale of Three Bulls: 2017, 2021, and 2025
To understand why the floor has moved, we must look at the “Who” and the “How” of the last three major cycles.
2017: The Retail Mania
In 2017, Bitcoin was a “niche” asset. The bull run was fueled by the ICO (Initial Coin Offering) craze and retail FOMO. When the music stopped, there was no safety net. There were no institutional custody solutions, no ETFs, and no corporate treasuries. Bitcoin was a high-risk tech play, and when it crashed from its then ATH of $19,891 to $3128, it fell 84% because there was simply no one “big” enough to catch the falling knife.
2021: The False Prosperity and Leverage
The 2021 cycle was a hybrid. We saw the first corporate buyers like Tesla and MicroStrategy, but the market was still heavily propped up by “false prosperity”—massive pandemic-era stimulus and extreme offshore leverage from entities like FTX and Celsius. The 75% crash in 2022 from $69,000 to $15,460 was the result of a massive leverage flush. The floor was “paper,” and when it burned, it burned fast.
2025: The Year of the Policy-Driven “Slow Bull”
As we look back at 2025, it’s clear this cycle was different. It wasn’t driven by a “blow-off top” but by institutional flows and pro-crypto policy. With the Trump administration’s “Liberation Day” tariffs and subsequent pivot toward a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, the fundamental driver shifted from “speculation” to “national security and treasury management.” With the launch of Spot ETFs and the subsequent passage of the GENIUS Act in the U.S., Bitcoin moved from the fringes of finance to the center of corporate and sovereign balance sheets.
Exactly Where Are We? The “Structural Reset” of 2026
Are we in a bear market? The technical definition of a bear market is a 20% drop from the highs—which we certainly hit in Q4 2025.
However, this is not a “bear market” in the traditional sense of dwindling interest and dying protocols.
As of January 10, 2026, Bitcoin is in a “Structural Reset” phase. We have just finished a massive “leverage reset” where over-leveraged long positions were liquidated during the October–December dip. What remains is a market dominated by “strong hands”—institutions and sovereign entities.
The Bear Market Threshold
To enter a “True Bear Market” (the kind that lasts 18+ months), we would need to see Bitcoin break and hold below the $74,000–$80,000 support zone. This zone represents the aggregate cost-basis for most Spot ETF buyers who entered in late 2024 and early 2025.
Technical analysts in early 2026 view $74,000 as the ultimate line in the sand. This level is protected by massive institutional buy-walls. Even if a “black swan” event were to occur, on-chain models like the MVRV Z-score—which measures the ratio of market value to realized value—currently project a fundamental floor between $53,000 and $58,000.
2026 Crypto Winter: Is $50K Next?
Despite the fundamental strength, several technical signals point toward a potential correction to $50,000. As we sit at around $90,422 in early January 2026, several macro signals point to a potential price crash.
The chart provided offers a sobering perspective on Bitcoin’s current trajectory. While the 2024 halving initially sparked optimism, the emergence of the “orange circle”—historically a marker of cycle exhaustion—suggests that the exuberant “Post-Halving ATH” phase may have concluded.
Historically, the orange circles on the chart align with the beginning of multi-month drawdowns (2018 and 2022). In previous cycles, once Bitcoin hits its post-halving peak, it enters a phase of “distribution,” where long-term holders take profits and the price loses its parabolic momentum. If history “rhymes,” the current circle marks the transition from a bull market into a structural bear phase.
A drop to $50,000 would represent an approximate 45% decline from current levels. While that sounds drastic, it is statistically consistent with “mid-cycle” or “early bear” drawdowns:
2018: Saw a peak near $20k followed by a drop to the $3k support (a ~84% decline).
2022: Saw a peak near $69k followed by a drop to $15k (a ~75% decline).
Target support: On a macro level, $50,000 represents a massive psychological support zone and aligns with historical “retest” levels of previous bull market breakouts.
While the “lengthening cycle” theory suggests Bitcoin may eventually hit six figures, the immediate path looks treacherous. If the support at $80,000 fails to hold, the technical vacuum below could easily pull the market down to the $50,000–$55,000 range before a true macro bottom is found.
Why $50,000 is Unlikely
A drop to $50,000 would require a 45% slide from current levels. In the 2026 landscape, the barriers to such a drop are institutional and sovereign.
The “Sovereign Floor” and Strategic Reserves
In 2026, the conversation has shifted from “Is Bitcoin legal?” to “How much should our country hold?”
The U.S. Strategic Reserve: With the Trump administration treating seized BTC as a strategic national asset—similar to gold at Fort Knox—the government has become the ultimate “HODLer of last resort.” According to the Bitcoin Treasuries, the U.S. currently holds over 328,372 BTC.
State-Level Adoption: Florida has already initiated plans to include Bitcoin by creating a Strategic Bitcoin reserve for the 2026 session. When states and countries are “HODLing,” the floor becomes a matter of national policy, not retail sentiment.
Corporate Treasuries: Companies like Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) have increased their holdings to over 673,783 BTC. These entities do not sell during drawdowns; they use them to issue more debt and buy more coins.
The ETF Wall: $190 Billion in AUM
The introduction of Spot ETFs changed the buyer profile from app-based retail traders to allocation-driven institutional investors.
Institutional capital through Spot ETFs (BlackRock’s IBIT, Fidelity’s FBTC, etc.) now manages over $190 billion. These are managed by Professional Investment Advisors (RIAs) who use rebalancing algorithms. When Bitcoin dips 10-20%, these algorithms automatically sell bonds or stocks to “buy the dip” and maintain their 1-5% crypto allocation. This creates a “permanent bid” that didn’t exist in 2019. Net inflows into spot BTC ETFs are projected to reach a cumulative $220 billion by the end of 2026.
The Death of the 4-Year Cycle
For a decade, the “4-Year Cycle” (driven by the halving) was the holy grail of crypto trading. It predicted a parabolic moon-shot the year after a halving, followed by a multi-year crash.
2026 is the year this myth died. Investors used the halving as a market compass. But according to Bitwise, that compass is failing. Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan argues that the forces previously driving four-year cycles—the halving, interest rate cycles, and leverage-fueled booms—are “significantly weaker” than in the past.
Each subsequent halving is mathematically 50% less important than the last. In 2026, the supply shock is being overshadowed by massive demand shocks from institutions.
Grayscale Research notes that the market is transitioning from a retail-driven boom-bust cycle into a sustained “Institutional Era.” Instead of a sharp 2026 pullback, they predict new all-time high in the first half of the year 2026, driven by dollar weakness and Federal Reserve rate cuts.
In 2026, Bitcoin is defying the traditional post-halving crash for two reasons:
Diminishing Supply Shock: Each halving now reduces the new supply by a smaller absolute amount. The “halving” is no longer the biggest driver; liquidity is.
M2 Money Supply Correlation: Bitcoin is now more correlated with global M2 (money supply) than with its own mining schedule. With global central banks entering an easing cycle in 2026 to combat slowing labor forces, the “liquidity tap” is being opened, providing a constant bid for hard assets.
The Volatility Inversion: Bitcoin as a “Safe Haven”
Perhaps the most shocking data point of early 2026 is that Bitcoin has become less volatile than many S&P 500 stocks, including Nvidia and Netflix.
In late 2025, during a period of geopolitical uncertainty, Bitcoin’s realized volatility stayed below 50% for the first time while its market cap was above $1.5 trillion. We are seeing a “Volatility Inversion”: as the asset matures and the capital base grows, it takes exponentially more money to move the price. This makes the “violent 80% crashes” of the past a statistical relic.
In early January 2026, Silver’s volatility actually surpassed Bitcoin’s. Bitcoin is becoming “Digital Gold” not just in name, but in its price action. It is transitioning from a “risk-on” asset to a “risk-off” store of value, behaving more like a digital version of the 10-year Treasury than a penny stock.
The Verdict: The New “Normal”
So, where are we? We are in the Great Maturation. The “Wild West” days of 2017 and the “Leverage Casino” of 2021 have given way to the “Institutional Era” of 2026.
Wait-and-see investors hoping for a return to $50,000 are likely to be left behind. That price point assumes a world where Bitcoin is a speculative curiosity. But in a world where it is a sovereign reserve, a corporate treasury staple, and a $200B+ ETF asset, $50,000 is no longer a price target—it’s a fantasy.
The math of 2026 is simple. Institutional demand is accelerating just as the “Strategic Reserve” narrative is becoming global. With the Federal Reserve expected to continue rate cuts through 2026, the opportunity cost of holding cash is rising, while the scarcity of Bitcoin remains fixed at 21 million.
The path to $150,000 is paved with institutional mandates and sovereign necessity. The cycle hasn’t just restarted; it has evolved.
Morgan Stanley is the first “Big Six” U.S. bank to file for proprietary spot crypto ETFs.
Morgan Stanley filed S-1s for the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust and Morgan Stanley Solana Trust.
Morgan Stanley (MS) officially entered the crypto-issuer race, submitting S-1 filings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch spot Bitcoin and Solana exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
On January 6, Morgan Stanley marks a historic milestone as it becomes the first major U.S. bank to transition from a custodian and advisor to a direct issuer of cryptocurrency-linked investment products.
The filings, submitted on Tuesday by Morgan Stanley Investment Management, reveal a two-pronged strategy targeting the market’s leading assets. According to the filing, the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust is designed as a passive vehicle holding BTC directly, and the Morgan Stanley Solana Trust introduces a yield-bearing component.
According to the other filing, Solana product plans to stake a portion of its holdings, allowing staking rewards to accrue to the fund’s Net Asset Value (NAV)—a feature that distinguishes it from several existing spot Bitcoin products.
Pending regulatory approval, the fund’s shares will be listed on a national securities exchange under a ticker symbol that remains undisclosed at this time.
Share creation and redemption are restricted to authorized participants transacting in large-scale blocks, facilitated through either cash or in-kind exchanges. For cash-based settlements, the sponsor will manage execution via designated third-party Bitcoin liquidity providers.
Strategic Shift in Mainstream Finance
This filing is the culmination of a broader digital asset evolution for the bank. In October 2025, Morgan Stanley expanded crypto access to all client tiers, and its Global Investment Committee currently recommends a 2% to 4% portfolio allocation to digital assets for diversified accounts.
The filing by Morgan Stanley comes as the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF market reaches a new level of maturity. With total net assets hitting $123 billion, these products now account for 6.57% of the total Bitcoin supply. This institutional appetite remains robust at the start of the new year, with SoSoValue reporting over $1.1 billion in fresh capital entering these funds since January 1st.
Following the expansion of crypto access in October 2025, Morgan Stanley is now using its own ETFs to vertically integrate these products. This allows the bank to keep management fees in-house, rather than outsourcing those revenues to rival fund managers.
The regulatory landscape has played a pivotal role in this timing. Under the current administration, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) recently clarified that banks can act as intermediaries in crypto transactions.
This narrowing gap between traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi) has encouraged peers like Bank of America to allow wealth advisors to recommend crypto allocations without asset thresholds.
Ilya Lichtenstein was released early from his 5-year sentence under the 2018 First Step Act.
A 2025 ruling returned 119,000 seized Bitcoin to Bitfinex, bypassing the U.S. Strategic Reserve.
The $10B recovery is being returned “in-kind,” preventing immediate sell pressure on global Bitcoin prices.
The most notorious chapter in crypto-heist history has reached its final page. Ilya Lichtenstein, the mastermind behind the 2016 Bitfinex hack, has been released early from federal prison, marking the end of a saga that saw 119,756 BTC (worth $72 million at the time of theft) vanished from the exchange’s multi-signature wallets.
Convicted in late 2024 for his lead role in laundering nearly 120,000 BTC, Lichtenstein was originally handed a five-year sentence. However, he has now transitioned to supervised release via credits earned under the First Step Act (2018). His wife, Heather Morgan (aka “Razzlekhan”), broke the news via an emotional airport selfie on X, marking the end of their separation following his 2024 sentencing.
Bitfinex Hack Saga
The story of the Bitfinex hack began nearly a decade ago, on a humid August night in 2016. Hackers exploited vulnerabilities in the cryptocurrency exchange’s multi-signature wallet system (provided by partner BitGo). This resulted in the theft of 119,756 Bitcoin (BTC), valued at approximately $72 million at the time (around $600 per BTC). It was one of the largest crypto thefts in history up to that point, second only to the Mt. Gox collapse.
Lichtenstein gained access to Bitfinex’s internal network and bypassed safeguards to initiate over 2,000 unauthorized transactions that drained users’ segregated wallets. Security lapses contributed, including Bitfinex placing multiple signing keys on the same device and failing to fully implement BitGo’s recommended controls. Bitcoin’s price dropped about 20% immediately after the announcement.
Multi-Signature Setup and Intended Security
Bitfinex partnered with BitGo in 2015 to create individual multi-sig wallets for users.
Each wallet used a 2-of-3 multi-sig scheme:
One key held by Bitfinex (often online for operations).
One key held by BitGo (as a third-party co-signer).
One backup key (sometimes held offline by Bitfinex or the user, varying by account type).
For trading accounts (affected in the hack), Bitfinex controlled two keys, while BitGo held the third.
Transactions required two signatures: typically one from Bitfinex and one from BitGo.
BitGo enforced rules like withdrawal limits and could flag unusual activity for manual review.
Funds were in hot wallets (online for liquidity), not primarily cold storage.
This setup aimed to prevent single-point failures, but Bitfinex’s implementation deviated from best practices recommended by BitGo.
Key Vulnerabilities Exploited
Lichtenstein used advanced hacking techniques to breach Bitfinex’s network (exact initial access method undisclosed, but likely involving credential compromise or server vulnerabilities).
Lichtenstein exploited a flaw allowing him to initiate and partially authorize transactions without fully triggering BitGo’s independent approval or alerts. He programmatically sent requests that appeared legitimate to BitGo’s system, bypassing per-wallet limits by manipulating global or administrative settings.
Bitfinex stored multiple keys and security tokens on the same device/server, creating a single point of failure. Access to admin tokens allowed full system manipulation. Over ~3 hours, ~2,000 transactions drained user wallets. Funds consolidated into a single wallet controlled by Lichtenstein. BitGo signed transactions because they validated against flawed rules; no breach of BitGo’s servers occurred—issue was Bitfinex-side.
Bitfinex never released a full public post-mortem; a confidential Ledger Labs report (leaked via OCCRP) highlighted these lapses but was disputed by Bitfinex as “incomplete.”
The perpetrator was Ilya Lichtenstein (a U.S.-Russian dual citizen), who used advanced techniques to breach Bitfinex’s network, delete logs, and transfer funds to a wallet he controlled. He enlisted his wife, Heather Morgan (known online as rapper “Razzlekhan”), to help launder the proceeds starting around 2019. About 80% of the stolen BTC (~94,000-95,000) remained unmoved in the original wallet until seized.
Investigation and Recovery
In February 2022, U.S. authorities (DOJ, FBI, IRS) arrested Lichtenstein and Morgan in New York after accessing their cloud storage, which contained wallet private keys.
The government seized ~94,631 BTC, worth $3.6 billion at the time (largest financial seizure in DOJ history).
By 2023-2025, additional recoveries brought the total to over 119,000 BTC, valued at ~10 billion+ amid Bitcoin’s price surge.
Both pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy in August 2023.
Sentencing: Lichtenstein received 5 years (November 2024); Morgan got 18 months (November 2024).
The case inspired media, including Netflix’s 2024 documentary ‘Biggest Heist Ever.’ For years, the heist was a digital ghost story, until it transformed into a billion-dollar reality TV plot involving a tech entrepreneur and an eccentric rapper known as “Razzlekhan.”
Why Early Release?
Lichtenstein’s early exit is a result of the 2018 First Step Act (FSA), a law that continues to reshape the consequences for non-violent “white-collar” crypto crimes.
The law, a hallmark of President Trump’s first-term criminal justice reform, allows non-violent offenders to reduce their time through vocational and rehabilitative programs. Despite the astronomical value of the theft, Lichtenstein’s case was classified as a non-violent financial crime.
Thanks to President Trump's First Step Act, I have been released from prison early. I remain committed to making a positive impact in cybersecurity as soon as I can.
To the supporters, thank you for everything. To the haters, I look forward to proving you wrong.
“I remain committed to making a positive impact in cybersecurity as soon as I can,” Lichtenstein posted on X (formerly Twitter) shortly after his release. “To the supporters, thank you for everything. To the haters, I look forward to proving you wrong.”
By participating in “evidence-based recidivism reduction” programs, Lichtenstein likely earned 10 to 15 days of credit for every 30 days of successful programming. The FSA expanded the standard “good time” credit from 47 to 54 days per year.
Lichtenstein’s public pledge to use his talents for cybersecurity aligns with the FSA’s goal of reintegrating skilled offenders into productive roles.
The Bitfinex Restitution: A $10 Billion Windfall
While the hackers are out, the funds are finally moving back to their source. Following a year-long legal battle over whether individual users or the exchange should receive the seized 119,000 BTC, the DOJ confirmed in 2025 that Bitfinex is the sole victim.
Bitfinex has reiterated its commitment to using 80% of the recovered funds to repurchase and burn UNUS SED LEO tokens. While the U.S. government established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve in 2025, the Bitfinex-linked coins were explicitly excluded from the reserve to satisfy restitution mandates. Most of the 119,000 BTC is being returned “in-kind,” meaning the market is closely watching for any potential sell pressure from Bitfinex’s parent company, iFinex.
Razzlekhan’s Return: From Inmate to Influencer
Lichtenstein’s wife and co-conspirator, Heather Morgan (aka the rapper “Razzlekhan”), was released in late 2025 after serving the majority of her 18-month sentence. Unlike her husband, Morgan has leaned back into her eccentric public persona.
She has recently teased a new “misfits’ anthem” titled Razzlekhan vs. The United States, aiming to capitalize on the fame generated by the 2024 Netflix documentary Biggest Heist Ever. While Morgan claims the media “weaponized” her persona, her return to social media suggests she isn’t ready to leave the spotlight just yet.
Morgan has wasted no time reclaiming her digital spotlight. Her post welcoming Lichtenstein home has already garnered millions of views, blending her “Razzlekhan” brand with the narrative of personal redemption.
Insiders suggest Morgan is currently in talks for a multi-part series detailing the couple’s life under house arrest and their eventual cooperation with the DOJ, which led to the recovery of over 119,000 BTC.
Restitution Status: Is Bitfinex Finally Whole?
As of January 2026, the legal dust has largely settled regarding the $10 billion in recovered assets.
In early 2025, a U.S. federal court ruled that Bitfinex is the sole victim entitled to the 94,643 BTC seized in 2022, plus subsequent recoveries. In early 2025, a U.S. federal court ruled that Bitfinex is the sole victim entitled to the 94,643 BTC seized in 2022, plus subsequent recoveries. Despite 2025 proposals to fold seized Bitcoin into a U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, the DOJ successfully argued that the Bitfinex funds must be returned as restitution under the Mandatory Victim Restitution Act (MVRA).
The Lichtenstein case sets a complex precedent. On one hand, the blockchain’s traceability led to the largest financial seizure in history. On the other hand, the use of the First Step Act to release a multi-billion dollar hacker after less than two years of actual post-sentence time has critics questioning if the “punishment fits the crime” in the digital age.
Metaplanet has launched a Sponsored Level I ADR program under the ticker MPJPY.
By partnering with Deutsche Bank, the company is moving from an unsponsored over the counter structure to a sponsored framework, eliminating custodial friction.
Metaplanet Inc., the Japanese investment firm often referred to as “Asia’s Strategy,” has officially launched its Sponsored Level I American Depositary Receipt (ADR) program. Trading is set to begin today on the United States over-the-counter (OTC) market under the ticker symbol ‘MPJPY’.
According to the filing, the program, established with Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas as the depositary bank and MUFG Bank as the custodian in Japan, marks a strategic pivot toward globalizing the company’s shareholder base.
Bridging the gap for U.S. institutions
While Metaplanet shares were previously available via the “MTPLF” OTC ticker, that structure lacked a formal agreement between the company and a depositary bank. The new Sponsored ADR framework removes significant “friction points” for institutional players.
While the move does not involve a fresh capital raise, it marks a critical milestone in Metaplanet’s commercial strategy: removing the custodial and regulatory barriers that have historically prevented US institutional investors from holding its equity. The ratio is set at 1 ADR to 1 common share, and the initiative will not affect the total number of issued shares.
For months, Metaplanet has navigated a unique challenge. Despite massive retail interest and a 4,800% share price surge since its 2024 pivot, many US-based asset managers and fiduciary institutions remained sidelined.
“This directly reflects feedback from US retail and institutional investors seeking easier access to our equity,” said Metaplanet’s CEO Simon Gerovich in a statement on X. The Sponsored ADR program allows these institutions to engage with our equity under a compliant and operationally streamlined framework.
U.S. trading of Metaplanet ADRs begins December 19. Ticker: $MPJPY
This directly reflects feedback from U.S. retail and institutional investors seeking easier access to our equity. Another step toward broader global participation in Metaplanet. pic.twitter.com/XEvfAFw8Z3
The new ‘MPJPY’ ticker aligns the firm with international best practices, allowing shares to be traded, settled, and held with the same ease as domestic US securities.
Metaplanet’s BTC strategy
Under the leadership of Simon Gerovich, a former Goldman Sachs derivatives trader, the company underwent a “Darwinian” pivot:
In April 2024, Metaplanet announced the adoption of Bitcoin (BTC) as its primary reserve asset, citing Japan’s deteriorating fiscal position and the yen’s volatility. As of December 2025, Metaplanet has solidified its position as one of the world’s largest corporate holders of Bitcoin. This expansion to the US infrastructure—denominated in USD—aims to improve liquidity and lower transaction costs for North American investors who view the stock as a regulated proxy for Bitcoin exposure.
The “Asia’s MicroStrategy” playbook
Metaplanet’s strategy is often compared to Michael Saylor’s Strategy (MSTR). Both firms use their equity as a “Bitcoin rocketship,” leveraging financial instruments to stack BTC at a rate that outpaces traditional corporate growth.
As of late 2025, Metaplanet stands as the fourth largest publicly traded Bitcoin holder in the world. It has positioned itself as one of the world’s most aggressive corporate holders, with total Bitcoin holdings now reaching 30,823 BTC.
Looking toward 2027, Metaplanet has publicly committed to an accumulation goal of 210,000 BTC. If achieved, this would give the company ownership of roughly 1% of the total 21 million Bitcoin supply, placing it in direct competition with global pioneers like Strategy.
A “Darwinian Phase” for treasury stocks
While the ADR launch improves accessibility, it comes during what analysts call a “Darwinian Phase” for Bitcoin treasury companies. As the market matures, the premium at which these stocks trade over their Net Asset Value (NAV) has begun to tighten.
By formalizing its US presence, Metaplanet is positioning itself not just as a proxy for Bitcoin, but as a regulated financial gateway for the Western world to participate in the “Bitcoinization” of the Japanese economy.
Faruk Fatih Ozer, the founder and former chief executive of the defunct Turkish cryptocurrency exchange Thodex, was found dead in his prison cell in the western Turkish city of Tekirdag on Saturday, according to Bloomberg report.
Ozer’s death has prompted an immediate investigation, with officials reportedly focusing on the possibility that the former CEO died by suicide, TRT confirmed to Bloomberg.
The news reignites international scrutiny on the 2021 collapse of Thodex, which was one of the largest “rug pulls” in crypto history and left hundreds of thousands of investors with massive losses.
Ozer was serving an 11,196-year prison sentence handed down by a Turkish court two years ago after being convicted of crimes including aggravated fraud, money laundering, and establishing a criminal organization. The non-humanitarian sentence was calculated by accumulating penalties based on the number of victims affected.
Details of the Thodex collapse highlight the immense financial scale of the fraud:
Estimated Losses: While the initial prosecutor’s indictment placed investor losses at approximately $24 million, Turkish media outlets reported figures reaching as high as $2 billion.
Chainalysis Estimate: Blockchain data and analytics firm Chainalysis estimated the total losses incurred by Thodex investors were approximately $2.6 billion.
Ozer, a high-school dropout, founded Thodex in 2017. Following the exchange’s implosion in April 2021, he fled Turkey for Albania, triggering an international manhunt. An Albanian court ordered his extradition back to Turkey in 2022, where he was subsequently tried and convicted.
Analyst Patrick Scott has stated that Hyperliquid is still the top player in the perpetual futures decentralized exchange (Perp DEX) market, even though it saw a recent drop in its share of trading volume and has tough competition.
In an X post on October 2, Scott argued that Hyperliquid’s fundamentals, users, and growth plans position it for continued dominance.
The Aster effect on its trading volume
In the post, Scott addressed Hyperliquid’s drop in Perp DEX trading volume, which fell from 45% to just 8%. He primarily attributed this to a massive, short-term surge from its competitor Aster, a Perp DEX linked to Binance. Aster saw its trading volume explode from $11 billion to over $270 billion in just one week, grabbing over 50% of the market.
Patrick Scott called Aster’s huge volume spike an “anomaly” that needs more time to prove it will last. He also contended that Aster’s surge is driven by incentives, such as promising free tokens (airdrops), instead of genuine platform preference. He affirmed that long-term success depends on “sticky” volume, trades that keep happening because people love the platform; a quality he attributed to Hyperliquid.
Scott emphasized that Hyperliquid’s ability to attract and retain users isn’t something competitors can copy with giveaways or incentives; it requires a better platform. He said that Hyperliquid stands out because it’s a profitable business, unlike many crypto projects that lose money. Its market value is 12.6 times its revenue, which Scott sees as fair given its strong performance over the past year.
He also highlighted that Hyperliquid’s usage has grown in the year since its HYPE token airdrop, demonstrating genuine user retention.
Hyperliquid’s growth and market dominance
Hyperliquid’s trading volume has stayed steady, and Scott thinks that it will keep growing steadily. It holds 62% of the market’s open interest, which is far ahead of its rivals. However, he noted that only 27% of HYPE tokens are currently available, so the total potential value is much higher.
The overall Perp DEX market is growing fast, jumping from less than 2% of centralized exchange (CEX) futures trading in 2022 to over 20% last month, a 10x increase in three years. Hyperliquid has played a big role in this growth and reaps the benefits, Scott said.
He stated that Hyperliquid is branching out to stay ahead of competitors. Its blockchain, HyperEVM, supports over 100 protocols with $2 billion in locked value (TVL) and $3 million in daily app revenue. This includes homegrown projects like Kinetiq and Hyperlend, plus well-known platforms like Pendle, Morpho, and Phantom.
The analyst further highlighted that Hyperliquid wants HYPE tokens to gain value through securing the network and being used as collateral, separate from its trading business. Hyperliquid’s stablecoin, USDH, has a $25 million market cap.
He also said that Hyperliquid is preparing to launch HIP-3, a new feature that lets developers build and run their own trading markets on the platform by locking up 500,000 HYPE tokens. This reduces the number of available tokens and adds more assets for trading, and turns Hyperliquid into a foundation for other businesses to build on.
Further, Scott admitted there are risks to his positive view. He said he’d rethink his position if Hyperliquid’s trading volume drops and it loses market share, showing competitors are taking its users instead of growing the overall market. According to him, if USDH loses value or doesn’t gain traction within a year, it could mean trouble for expanding beyond its main trading business, especially with more HYPE tokens set to be released later.
The US digital currency asset management company, Grayscale, has filed an amended S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to convert its Dogecoin Trust into exchange-traded fund (ETF).
The move leverages recently approved, more lenient listing standards for crypto funds, potentially accelerating the regulatory path for the product.
According to the filing, the proposed Dogecoin ETF would be listed on NYSE Arca under the ticker ‘GDOG.’ Grayscale has chosen Coinbase to be the fund’s prime broker and custodian for the fund, which aims to provide investors with a regulated vehicle for exposure to the popular meme coin.
NYSE Arca has also filed to change the classification of Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust ETF to meet the new listing standards. Grayscale’s attempt to reposition the Ethereum fund shows that the company has a bigger plan to make all of its products comply with the new rules. This might make their operations more efficient and attract more investors.
Grayscale’s filings highlight its argument that the Investment business Act of 1940 should not consider the Dogecoin trust to be a registered investment business. The company’s case is bolstered by the new SEC standards, which require a digital asset to have a futures market on a regulated exchange for a minimum of six months. Grayscale says that Dogecoin has already met this requirement.
The updated S-1 was signed by Barry Silbert, Chairman of the Board of Directors, along with other board members and Grayscale Chief Financial Officer Edward McGee, in accordance with the Securities Act of 1933, a regulation that pertains to securities issuances.
An S-1 is a registration statement that a company files with the SEC in order to provide information about a fund’s structure, management, and investment strategy in order to initiate an ETF.
This latest action follows the recent launch of Grayscale’s multi-asset crypto index fund, which tracks a group of well-known cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), XRP, and Cardano (ADA).
Earlier this year, Eric Balchunas, a senior analyst at Bloomberg, also stated in his X post that there is a 75% chance that Doge ETFs will be approved. The SEC’s getting friendlier, but it’s still a waiting game in the fast-moving crypto world.
Forward Industries, Inc. has announced that it has secured $1.65 billion in cash and stablecoin commitments through a PIPE (private investment in public equity) offering.
As per the official press release, the funding, led by Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin Capital, will be used to launch a Solana-focused digital asset treasury strategy. One of its major shareholders, C/M Capital Partners, has also joined the investment.
This makes Forward Industries one of the first publicly traded companies to build such a large institutional position in the Solana ecosystem for long-term shareholder value.
CEO Michael Pruitt said that Solana is one of the most innovative and widely used blockchains. He added that working with Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin, firms with deep experience in Solana, will help Forward Industries establish itself as a prominent participant in the digital asset industry.
Leadership Changes
As part of the deal, Kyle Samani, Co-Founder of Multicoin Capital and an early backer of Solana, will become Chairman of the Board once the transaction closes. Chris Ferraro, President and CIO of Galaxy, and Saurabh Sharma, CIO of Jump Crypto, are also expected to join as board observers.
Samani said, “Real economic value is being generated on Solana. An institutional-scale treasury can be deployed in sophisticated ways within the Solana ecosystem to create differentiated value and increase SOL per share at a faster rate than simply being a passive holder.”
Support from Key Investors
Galaxy Digital will provide trading, staking, and risk management support to manage Forward Industries’ Solana treasury.
Jump Crypto, which is developing Solana’s new Firedancer validator client, will provide technical and strategic support.
Multicoin Capital, an early Solana backer, makes long-term, high-conviction investments in category-defining companies and protocols.
Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy, said, “Kyle, Chris, and Saurabh are three of the most established names within the broader digital asset ecosystem.” Saurabh Sharma added that Jump Crypto is excited to support Forward Industries as it takes a bold step with Solana at the core of its strategy.
Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. is serving as the lead placement agent, while Galaxy Investment Banking is the co-placement agent and advisor. Skadden, Arps, and DLA Piper are providing legal counsel.
A recent intern survey by Morgan Stanley showed that only 18% of its 2025 summer interns said they own or use cryptocurrency. The figure comes from responses by over 700 interns across the U.S. and Europe, revealing that, despite growing up online, Gen Z isn’t exactly rushing to buy Bitcoin or dabble in DeFi. Even interest is lukewarm; just 26% said they’re curious about crypto at all.
As per the survey, crypto ownership among interns has increased compared to last year. Market analyst Tom Lee pointed out on X that 82% of interns reported not owning any crypto, up from 69% in 2024. Data indicates that Gen Z seems to be taking it slowly despite the growing crypto adoption across the globe.
They Embrace Tech—But Not All of It
This same group of interns also shared that they are deeply immersed in technology. Among them, 96% said they use AI tools at least occasionally, with daily use more than doubling since last year.
As per Morgan Stanley’s data, AI is being used widely as a time-saving tool amongst Gen-Z, where it reflects that, some interns are still skeptical of its accuracy and reliability.
Data also highlights nearly half of the European interns said technology is affecting their mental health, which is a big jump from last year.
For Genz, their career comes first with 89% of US interns rank it as their top priority, increased from 86% last year. Relationships and travel follow next, while starting a family and saving for retirement rank lower.
Morgan Stanley’s data shows that the upcoming leaders are a thoughtful, career-driven generation embracing smart technology like AI, but slow to jump on the crypto bandwagon.
CryptoQuant, a company that analyzes blockchain data, pointed out that Binance and OKX are the top cryptocurrency exchanges with solid reserve ratios and consistent monthly Proof-of-Reserve reports.
CryptoQuant shared this information on X, explaining that these exchanges regularly release monthly proof-of-reserves reports, which help set a good example for others.
The report by analyst JA Maartunn show the analysis of five major exchanges—Binance, OKX, Bybit, Kraken, and Coinbase. Binance emerged as the frontrunner, maintaining a Reserve Ratio above 100% and delivering timely, monthly reports. The Reserve Ratio is calculated by dividing the net customer balances by the exchange’s own holdings, offering a transparent snapshot of financial health and solvency.
OKX followed closely behind, also posting ratios consistently above 100%, albeit slightly lower than Binance. The exchange has matched Binance’s commitment to monthly disclosures, solidifying its position as a trustworthy trading platform.
Bybit took the third spot with Reserve Ratios typically ranging between 105% and 115%. The exchange recently stepped up its transparency game by increasing its reporting frequency from bimonthly to monthly—an encouraging move welcomed by the community.
Kraken retained a Reserve Ratio above 100% but has only published four reports since November 2022, making its data less timely and potentially less reliable for scrutiny.
Coinbase, a publicly traded U.S. exchange, ranked last—not having released a single Proof-of-Reserves report to date. Given the exchange’s size and influence, the lack of PoR reporting raises concerns about transparency and industry leadership.
As crypto markets mature and user demands for accountability grow louder, Proof-of-Reserves is becoming a critical benchmark for assessing platform reliability. Binance’s consistent performance in this area places it at the forefront of industry standards, while Coinbase’s silence is increasingly being seen as a red flag.
Bergen County in New Jersey is starting a big project to put $240 billion worth of property deeds on a blockchain, a type of secure digital record. This five-year plan will move 370,000 property deeds onto the Avalanche blockchain. This project will make managing property records easier, safer, and more open for everyone.
$240B in real estate is coming on-chain.@balconytech is working with Bergen County and multiple other NJ municipalities to digitize property records, and it’s powered by Avalanche.
Using Avalanche, which is fast and can handle lots of data, the county will create a permanent and easy-to-search digital list of property records. This initiative will help prevent fraud in the future, make the process smoother, and cut the time to handle deeds from 90 days to just one day. It’s one of the largest projects in the U.S. and highlights how blockchain can be used for things like real estate.
The Avalanche blockchain has announced that $240B in real estate is coming on-chain. This project fits into a bigger trend where tokenization, turning assets into digital tokens, makes things like real estate easier to buy, sell, or manage.
The project will use AvaCloud to create a special version of the blockchain. It will be designed to handle the needs of big public organizations while keeping things fast and secure. By putting property records on Avalanche, the company Balcony helps local governments establish a strong, unchangeable system that is difficult to hack, enhances information transparency, and ensures safety and trustworthiness during emergencies.
By using Avalanche and AvaCloud, Balcony can create a blockchain system that fits the specific needs of each town in Bergen County while still being able to handle lots of data, stay open and clear, and remain strong and reliable as one big system. The result means every town gets a solution that works for them, but everything still runs smoothly and securely together.
The implementation of this technology by Bergen County might encourage other towns to adopt the same thing. Places like Camden and Fort Lee in New Jersey are already looking into it. Local leaders said that the initiative will help the nearly one million people living in the county’s 70 towns by making property records more accurate and possibly helping the county earn more money.
Many in the cryptocurrency world are excited, thinking the proposal is positive news for Avalanche and for using blockchain in government work. But some residents are unsure; they fear the state may not be ready for this tech. If it works well, this project could change how property records are handled all across the country.
U.S. Senator Dave McCormick, former CEO of investment powerhouse Bridgewater Associates, is investing his money in Bitcoin (BTC) while playing a role on a Senate committee shaping the future of crypto regulation. He has become the largest bitcoin investor in Congress
As per the recent reports, McCormick has invested substantial sums into the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF multiple times in the recent period. The lawmaker reporting system utilizes broadband that allows determining the latest investments at either $310,000 or between $310,000 and $700,000 last month.
The Republican senator from Pennsylvania has held significant government posts in the past and is the head of the Senate Banking Committee’s digital assets subcommittee. The members of this congressional subcommittee are currently in the best position to plan the cryptocurrency legislation that is anticipated to be passed later this year.
As per the records, this month McCormick expanded his Bitwise ETF investment to match the potential value of one million dollars after making his initial $450,000 February disclosure. The investments made by Rep. Patrick McCormick are responsible for being the largest bitcoin investments among members of Congress during the current year. The Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene chose to put her money into the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) by BlackRock rather than make a larger investment in the Bitcoin Trust (IBIT).
During his previous campaign for Senate office, he advocated that America should emerge as a leader in the field of crypto. At the subcommittee’s first digital assets hearing in February, he stated that the current Congress must assist President Trump to develop bipartisan digital asset legislation that will direct future innovation while securing America’s economic stability.
The Crypto Content Creator Campus (CCCC), backed by Bybit, is going to launch a special pilot edition in Bali from April 10 to 13, 2025. The event is aimed at building a sustainable crypto content ecosystem.
The event will bring 150 people together for two days. It will have big speeches, expert discussions, hands-on activities, and personal advice from mentors. The main focus will be on how to grow as a creator, connect with an audience, make money, and understand the changing world of Web3 content.
As per the reports, Asia has a unique crypto scene; it’s smart, based on numbers, and all about community. Particularly, the Mandarin-speaking creators are making a significant impact through their clear explanations, captivating stories, and valuable lessons.
Bybit sees how important good content is for teaching people about crypto and helping new users get into it. Helen Liu, Chief Operating Officer of Bybit, said that, “We’re incredibly proud to support CCCC Bali and the exceptional creators who are shaping the future of crypto education.”
He further added that, “The Mandarin-speaking community is one of the most vibrant and knowledgeable in the world. Bybit is here to listen, collaborate, and help build a strong foundation for long-term growth.”
Bybit is backing the CCCC Bali event because they care about helping people by making them smarter by providing meaningful content about crypto. Bybit aims to gradually assist Asian creators in enhancing their skills as teachers, storytellers, and leaders.
The theme of CCCC Bali 2025, “Building Crypto Ark, Bit by Bit,” is about creating a strong and long-lasting system related to crypto content. It’s like carefully creating a boat of knowledge with honesty and teamwork, similar to how Mandarin-speaking traders plan and analyze. Bybit wants to set up a solid base for the future of crypto content.
CCCC Bali 2025 also focuses on a small, hands-on setting and a program focused on learning, working together, and growing; crypto, content, and culture meet.
FreshRSS 
