Cryptopolitan

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has called for more stringent measures to combat criminal activities involving cryptocurrencies. The District Attorney urged the state to criminalize and regulate unlicensed crypto operations, which have now grown to a $51 billion economy.

The official stated that the industry has grown and developed due to the presence of loopholes and blind spots in current regulations governing crypto activities. According to Bragg, the blind spot facilitates money laundering activities for drugs, fraud, and gun-related illegal activities.

Bragg emphasized that the issue requires urgency and categorized it as a second-term priority, alongside shoplifting and gun control. He demanded that regulators revisit regulations to close down loopholes that allow malicious actors to launder proceeds from criminal activities without facing prosecution.

Manhattan DA calls out unregulated crypto ATMs 

While speaking at New York Law School on Wednesday, Bragg focused on crypto ATMs and unlicensed crypto kiosks. According to the official, these outlets charge as high as 20% to convert “dirty” cash into digital assets. He said that the outlets know that criminals are laundering gun proceeds, but proceed to complete the transactions anyway.

Manhattan prosecutors have successfully cracked crypto-related criminal activities in the past, including a $5 million unlicensed Bitcoin ATM operation that had links to terrorism financing in Syria. However, he urged that the current systems heavily rely on criminals making mistakes, such as using their bank accounts or bragging on social media. He emphasized that clever criminals may get away with illegal activities.

He also urged lawmakers to make all crypto businesses obtain legal licences that permit their operations by saying that “if you are operating a crypto business, if you are transferring, trading, moving, whatever verb you wanna use, virtual currency, you should be licensed. It’s that simple.” 

Bragg emphasized that crypto entities should emulate banking infrastructure by employing customer KYC requirements for their users.

He explained that some crypto players have implemented KYC standards for their users. Still, the majority of the sector remains highly unregulated, despite reaching a market cap of more than $3 trillion. According to the DA, Manhattan will be the 19th state to ban unlicensed crypto operations.

Crypto crimes in New York have migrated from online scams to physical altercations alongside robbery with violence. On July 24, 2025, Cryptopolitan reported that two men had been arrested for kidnapping, torturing, and coercing an Italian national in Manhattan to gain access to his crypto address. Another July report noted that Asia had become a hotspot for physical and violent crypto attacks, including abduction.

Illicit crypto volume reaches an all-time high of $158 billion in 2025

A 2026 Crypto Crime Report, released on January 10 by TRM Labs, shows that illicit crypto volume in 2025 increased by nearly 145%, reaching an all-time high of $158 billion, up from $64 billion in 2024. 

The report highlighted that most of the volume increase came from a small number of large-scale hacks and enforcement-driven attributions. The report also highlighted that major geopolitical players prefer to use cryptocurrencies to circumvent international sanctions. Countries such as Iran and Venezuela relied on crypto for sanctions-constrained payments and financial services at scale.

The news comes after the New York Assembly reintroduced a bill targeting crypto prediction platforms such as Polymarket.

According to a previous report by Cryptopolitan, NY Assemblyman Clyde Vanel reintroduced a bill dubbed the ORACLE Act, which prohibits these platforms from offering sports betting, despite it being the most significant revenue source for prediction markets.

The legislation also seeks to ban prediction platforms from offering political markets, mass shootings, a person’s lifespan, or war.

The report referenced data from Dune Analytics, which revealed that sports betting accounted for 37% of Polymarket’s trading volume and 93% of the trading volume on the Kalshi prediction platform.

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Two prominent technology companies have been cut from South Korea’s government-backed effort to build an artificial intelligence system without depending on American or Chinese technology. The Ministry of Science and ICT revealed the decision today after completing initial reviews of the national program.

Naver Cloud and NCSoft are no longer in the race. The other three organizations that will progress are Upstage, SK Telecom, and LG AI Research.

The government organized this competition to create what officials call a “sovereign AI” basic paradigm. The goal is to develop technology that South Korea can handle on its own.

Scoring criteria for the evaluation process

The two government agencies in charge of the assessment process were the Telecommunications Technology Association and the National IT Industry Promotion Agency. The teams were assessed using three criteria.

40 points were awarded for benchmark testing. This section evaluated the AI systems’ ability to comprehend language, solve issues, and produce written material.

35 points came from expert reviews. Experts examined the models’ training and design processes as well as whether the technology was genuinely novel.

The final 25 points came from user comments. The reliability and practicality of the systems were assessed in this section.

LG AI Research won all three categories. Reviewers emphasized SK Telecom‘s reliable operations and strong infrastructure. Upstage was acknowledged for its technological efficiency despite its small size.

The government explained why Naver Cloud was taken down. Officials claimed that the company’s proposal did not meet the criteria that models be built “from scratch.”

Reviewers from outside the company discovered that Naver’s vision encoder, which handles photos and visual data, was nearly identical to one made by Alibaba’s Qwen system in China. More than 99% of the weights in the two models matched. Naver Cloud supported this strategy, claiming that it improved performance and assisted with worldwide compatibility.

However, the ministry determined that the competition’s goal of attaining technical independence was undermined by modifying or utilizing significant components from foreign models.

NC AI, the NCSoft team, likewise failed. The group did not receive enough points to advance to the following round. Specific scoring information for this squad was not disclosed by the ministry.

The path forward

Naver Cloud declared today that it will not contest the ministry’s decision. The business intends to continue supplying the project with GPU infrastructure. Outside of this government competition, it will also focus on developing its own AI technologies.

Four teams should remain in the competition, according to the government. To fill the vacancy, officials said they will conduct another round of selection in the first half of 2026. Businesses including Kakao, KT, and Konan Technology who were rejected in previous phases will get another opportunity to participate.

The government plans to pick two final winners by 2027. Those teams will receive major backing from the state. Support includes access to KRW 1.9 trillion worth of powerful computing equipment and large national datasets.

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The Mantra project announced the end of its token migration period. Around 7% of the OM token supply remained locked in the form of ERC-20 tokens. 

The Mantra project is making the last call for migrating its OM tokens from Ethereum to its native chain. The team announced the last day of the migration period, leaving the remaining tokens locked on Ethereum. 

MANTRA enters a new era.

Today is officially the last day to migrate your ERC20 OM to MANTRA mainnet.

— MANTRA | Tokenizing RWAs (@MANTRA_Chain) January 15, 2026

The migration may have decreased the supply of OM, as around 7% of the supply remains unmigrated and may remain stuck on the old chain. The token swap was facilitated by Kraken, which was one of the first holders of OM on the new native main net. 

OM is seen as a risky asset, with slim chances of recovery, as the native chain still struggles to attract apps and users.

OM still trades near three-month lows

OM used to be a top performer among RWA platforms. However, in April 2025, the token crashed by over 95%. The team ascribed the crash to the activities of market makers with one-sided liquidity. 

Since then, OM has not been able to stem its slide, despite proposing buybacks and token burns. OM open interest is down to all-time lows at around $19M, with no signs of recovery. The token also does not have an accumulation of short positions or hope for a short squeeze and a short-term rally.

As the swap period ends, OM traded at $0.07, still down over 37% in the past three months. OM and Mantra have not regained their position, despite the promises for RWA tokenization. The asset is still in the top 100 coins and tokens, but has significantly underperformed the market. 

Mantra restructures the organization, lays off parts of the team

The CEO of Mantra JP Mullin announced the organization will go through restructuring, cutting all possible redundant roles. The launch of its chain and any attempts at recovery failed to produce sufficient business for the platform. 

Mullin cited the April 2025 crash and the worsening market conditions as the main rationale behind the restructuring. 

Today, I’m sharing one of the most difficult decisions we’ve had to make at MANTRA.

After the most challenging year MANTRA has faced for a multitude of reasons, I’ve decided to restructure the company. This includes reducing our team size and parting ways with a number of…

— JP Mullin (🕉, 🏘️) (@jp_mullin888) January 14, 2026

The Mantra team also shed some of its top influencers and contributors. Mullin announced the company had already streamlined its operations, but would need further cuts. Mantra will continue with its core team, but reduce functions in business development, marketing, HR, and other support roles. 

The Mantra chain attracted under $1M in liquidity through its attempts to build a DeFi space. For now, the chain lags far behind other networks, which at least manage to produce predictable fees. 

Mantra has also been displaced by other leaders with market-ready products in tokenization, including Ondo Finance and Solana-based tokenization project XStocks. Despite this, Mullin still hopes to make the project relevant in the next wave of crypto adoption.

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Lemon, a crypto exchange with over 5.5 million users in Argentina, announced the launch of Argentina’s first “Bitcoin-backed VISA credit card.” The new product will allow users to lock up BTC as collateral to access peso credit lines without selling their coins.

Reports say that the card works on a rudimentary basis with set boundaries in its early stages. The user has to put down 0.01 Bitcoin as collateral, which is about $900 right now. In return, they get a credit card in pesos with a limit of $1,000,000.

In this way, Bitcoin is held as collateral but is neither sold nor converted to local currency. The product also allows users to access peso credit without a bank account or credit history, aiming to turn long-term Bitcoin savings into an everyday financial tool.

“The idea is that the user can keep their bitcoin as long-term savings and, at the same time, access credit in pesos to cover their daily expenses,” the company stated.

Lemon Visa credit card offers commission-free purchases of digital dollars

The launch includes a series of exclusive benefits for those who apply for the Lemon Visa credit card, including commission-free purchases of digital dollars, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and more than 30 cryptocurrencies. However, it is only applicable to purchases, and not to exchanges or sales.

Users will also get early access to new products and app features, as well as individual support through Telegram, a newsletter with market news, and a portfolio overview with P&L.

For the first three months after launch, Rootstock, the protocol that enables users to build applications on the Bitcoin network, will waive the card’s maintenance fee. After that period, the maintenance fee will be approximately $7,500 per month and will be waived for users who purchase more than $150 worth of crypto per month.

Meanwhile, users can buy Bitcoin starting at $100 by depositing pesos via CBU or CVU and accessing the “Exchange” section in the app. It’s also possible to deposit BTC from other wallets through the Lightning Network, Bitcoin’s native network, Rootstock, and BNB Chain (BEP-20). 

Existing Lemon users can spend pesos on everyday purchases using QR codes or the Lemon Visa card and receive Bitcoin for each transaction.

The company announced that it will later adjust its own backup amounts and credit limits. They stated that they are working on a solution that will allow purchases in dollars to be paid for directly in digital dollars, using stablecoins such as Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC.

Lemon declares Bitcoin as the most held asset for savings

Argentines have a long-running distrust of banks, rooted in repeated devaluations and the “corralito” deposit freeze in December 2001, which wiped out savings. This pushed many households to keep wealth in dollars rather than in peso accounts.

According to reports, citing official data used in Argentina’s International Monetary Fund program, Argentines hold about $271 billion in undeclared dollars stashed “in mattresses and overseas bank accounts,” far outside the formal financial system.

Previously, President Javier Milei’s “Fiscal Innocence” tax amnesty initiative pushed close to 300,000 savers to declare more than $20 billion. However, some citizens managed to keep hiding their savings elsewhere. To that end,  Lemon is trying to turn a favored savings asset into day-to-day spending power, without forcing savers to unwind their BTC.

The company highlighted that, in Argentina, Bitcoin is the most ” held ” asset, used as savings by Lemon users, surpassing both the dollar and the peso. Marcelo Cavazzoli, founder and CEO of Lemon, stated, “Bitcoin is the best store of value ever created and the cornerstone of the new digital economy.”

Besides Argentina, several platforms in the US, Europe, and Brazil allow users to borrow against Bitcoin or stablecoin positions. However, Lemon’s offer is unique because it clearly positions itself as a Bitcoin-guaranteed, peso-denominated revolving credit product that is released into a highly dollarized but still fragile banking environment.

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Crypto.com and Emirates Coin Investment LLC (EmCoin), the UAE’s first virtual asset trading platform licensed by the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA), have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to find more avenues for digital asset trading. 

According to the Singapore-based crypto exchange’s press statement released on Thursday, the partnership will enable EmCoin users to access and trade crypto seamlessly through its global liquidity and trading infrastructure.

The two companies have agreed to collaborate on trading services integrations in the investment corporation, pending a regulatory greenlight from the SCA. 

Crypto.com to add token listings in EmCoin’s investment lists

According to Crypto.com’s executives, tokens from its platform could improve EmCoin’s trade execution capabilities and provide users with a selection of tokens to trade with at tighter spreads.

“Our focus is on making digital asset holdings easier to access, manage, and move. Partnering with Crypto.com brings together our expertise, multi-asset insight, and enhanced liquidity to support large trade volumes,” said Yasin Arafat, Chief Operations Officer of EmCoin. 

As part of the services signed in the MoU, Crypto.com will support the tokenization of EmCoin’s real-world assets (RWAs) using networks like the exchange’s Cronos EVM chain, in tandem with the UAE’s regulatory framework.

“Making it easier for people to interact with digital assets in a regulated and safe environment is at the core of everything we do,” said Eric Anziani, President and Chief Operating Officer of Crypto.com. He went on to say that the initiative could help push forward the company’s ambition of serving one billion crypto users worldwide.

Alain Yacine, President of Middle East and Latin America for Crypto.com, added that collaborating with “ground-breaking innovators, like EmCoin, means advancing digital asset adoption in the region.” 

“Together we’re able to focus our joint expertise on introducing capabilities and services that make engaging in the digital assets space a simpler and more straightforward process,” Yacine surmised.

UAE’s charges ahead with market-friendly digital finance environment 

The collaboration comes at a time when the UAE is working towards becoming the go-to jurisdiction for regulated digital asset financing. The nation created and implemented one of the world’s most comprehensive crypto regulatory frameworks in 2025, while also recently authorizing the first global license for the world’s largest exchange Binance within its special economic zone, Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM).

According to reports from several local business news outlets, the UAE’s sovereign wealth funds managing a whooping $2 trillion in assets are actively investing in decentralized finance, or at least planning to in the coming months.

The financial monarchy is tapping into blockchain finance to diversify the economy away from fossil fuels, reduce dependence on the US dollar, and improve banking and cross-border transaction processes. 

EmCoin and Crypto.com’s tokenized assets plan builds on the UAE’s drive towards RWA. PRYPCO, through its subsidiary PRYPCO Mint, became the country’s first licensed real estate tokenization platform after closing a series-A funding round of an undisclosed value in September last year.

As reported by Cryptopolitan, PRYPCO collaborated with Dubai Land Department, VARA, and Ctrl Alt Blockchain, to launch tokenized ownership certificates that attracted 224 investors from more than 40 countries, with an average investment of $2,900 per certificate. 

The real estate business firm recently signed an MoU with the Ministry of Justice of Georgia on Tuesday to transfer and implement its research on RWA to the US state. The agreement was signed in the presence of H.E. Irakli Kobakhidze, Prime Minister of Georgia, and H.E. Paata Salia, Minister of Justice of Georgia, alongside PRYPCO founder Amira Sajwani and the leadership team. 

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White House adviser David Sacks is urging the crypto industry to use a sudden pause in Senate action on a U.S. crypto market structure bill to close remaining gaps in the legislation.

While the delay has pushed back the committee’s timetable and left the next hearing date unspecified, Sacks said that passage of the bill remains as close as it has ever been and argued that the industry should treat the pause as an opportunity to resolve differences rather than walk away from the process.

Pause in markup after Coinbase withdraws support

The banking committee of the U.S. Senate was scheduled to markup its crypto market structure bill, but stated that the markup would not be scheduled. The committee chairman, Tim Scott, confirmed that the markup had been delayed, but he did not provide a specific date. The ruling was reached a few hours after Armstrong’s announcement that Coinbase would not assist with the current form of the bill.

Armstrong cited the clauses regarding rewards on stablecoins, tokenized equities, and what he described as an undermining of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as justifications for not providing such support.

In this regard, Sacks wrote that market structure legislation has never been as near as it is currently, and that the crypto industry should take a break to address any outstanding differences. He explained that this is the moment to establish the rules of the road and shape the future of this industry, and offered the break in the schedule as an opportunity to finalize the negotiation. 

Passage of market structure legislation remains as close as it’s ever been. The crypto industry should use this pause to resolve any remaining differences. Now is the time to set the rules of the road and secure the future of this industry. https://t.co/8tsmW9T1N4

— David Sacks (@davidsacks47) January 15, 2026

Scott asserted that he had had discussions with leaders across the crypto industry, the financial industry, and his Democratic and Republican colleagues, which remain on the table in good faith. He described the current market structure bill in a statement as the culmination of several months of bipartisan talks and practical efforts by innovators, investors, and law enforcement.

According to Scott, the idea behind the legislation is to provide consumers with clear rules of the road that would not only ensure national security but also establish the foundation for the future of finance in the United States.

The White House has reiterated its commitment to working with Scott, the members of the Senate Banking Committee, and industry stakeholders to pass bipartisan legislation on crypto market structure as soon as possible.

He referred to the proposed structure as being intimate. He challenged the industry to move forward and carve its own future with a clear path by participating in the debates rather than evading them.

Lummis signals disappointment as negotiations continue

Sen. Cynthia Lummis hailed Scott as a man who was determined to find common ground on the bill. In the meantime, she said that the present response of some sector of the industry is a pointer that they themselves are not prepared, and that this is the most disappointing thing to her.

Lummis clarified that she would demand considering the input of the industry players and collaborate with them to introduce a product capable of propelling their success.

The proponents of the bill have described its purpose as an attempt to establish a framework to regulate digital assets, including the specified roles of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and regulations of both trading platforms and the issuance of stablecoins.

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Polymarket analysts focused on several whale wallets that made confident bets around the arrest of Venezuelan President Maduro. The recent wave of directional bets has expanded the search for potential insiders. 

Polymarket and analysts are scrutinizing bets around Venezuela, reviving the narrative of insider information. A list of several wallets has been linked to suspicious prediction trades. 

The predictions on Venezuela were also linked to a recent statement by US President Donald Trump regarding the arrest of individuals who leaked information. No direct connection was made between the now-deleted account of the Polymarket whale and the recent arrest. 

Despite this, the bets around US military actions are closely watched for potential insider hints. 

Polymarket analysts renewed their focus on the accounts that were most active around President Maduro’s arrest. The main wallet that was tracked ended up with 194,741.73 in gains before the account was deleted.

On-chain analysts noted several wallets made outsized gains around the situation in Venezuela. Two out of three wallets went dark and have not made new predictions for 11 days. 

As Cryptopolitan reported earlier, Polymarket is disputing the earnings of some of the whales that made predictions on Venezuela. 

One Polymarket whale makes bets on the situation in Iran

One of the three closely watched wallets switched to a new market. Trader Sbet365 continued with new bets. 

Trader Sbet365 moved on to the most active trending market, betting on the deposition of Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei by January 31. | Source: Polymarket

As of January 15, the trader also showed redeeming transactions for the older bets on Venezuela. 

The trader retained one active prediction on “Khamenei out as the Supreme Leader of Iran by January 31.” The market is trending, with over $28M in volume. The Sbet365 wallet has been buying ‘yes’ tokens at $0.20 on average, preparing for a big gain in the case of a resolution. 

The prediction market saw a shift in trading, as ‘yes’ tokens dipped to $0.17, on the latest lack of any decisive US action in Iran. The prediction pair remains at the top of trending markets on Polymarket, with highly active trading.

The third whale that bet on President Maduro losing his post by January 31 has not made any new predictions. The traders made relatively high gains from their positions, but further raised the issue of potential insiders. The three wallets tracked were funded and prepared, only placing their bets immediately before the real events took place. 

Traders also count big losses from Iran situation

The outcome predictions on Polymarket are sometimes a matter of luck. One trader made a big directional bet on expecting strikes against Iran by January 14. The trader ended up losing over $40K on the position.

Despite this, Polymarket accounts are still scoured through for potential insiders. Wallets are singled out for making confident bets or funding their accounts just ahead of big events. However, no strategy guarantees exposure to insider knowledge or hints on the resolution of prediction pairs. 

Polymarket wallet trackers only expose behavior that breaks the patterns of the usual retail trader. The tools have also zeroed in on the top suspicious whale that was active around the time of the arrest of President Maduro.

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OpenAI, xAI, and Anthropic are no longer operating in the dark when it comes to investor visibility. Morningstar just launched a new daily index that tracks 20 generative AI companies, including these three, giving investors their first actual shot at measuring performance in a space that’s been closed off for too long.

The index pulls data from PitchBook, a private market tracker Morningstar bought back in 2016. That’s the engine behind it.

Lots of the biggest and fastest-growing AI companies don’t trade publicly. They stay private and don’t show their books unless you’re already in the club. So investors who aren’t already inside have had zero clarity.

Public markets don’t tell the story anymore, and that’s what Morningstar says it wants to fix. “You can’t really understand the future of AI by looking at public markets,” said Sanjay Arya, head of innovation for Morningstar’s index business. “So you have to create something which completes the picture.”

Morningstar tracks GenAI companies using private data

Morningstar’s new tool is meant to publish daily updates tracking valuation changes across 20 GenAI companies, based on funding rounds and revaluations with updates coming from PitchBook’s data.

The point is to show how the sector is moving, even when these companies don’t report anything publicly.

Sanjay said one major tech company is already planning to use the index to benchmark its own investments, though he wouldn’t say which one for reasons we do not know.

The index also includes Databricks, Mistral AI, and Cohere.

This isn’t Morningstar’s first foray into private markets either. It’s already running another index that tracks 20 late-stage VC-backed companies with $1 billion+ valuations.

By the end of 2025, almost half of all Index Industry Association members, including MSCI and S&P Dow Jones, had all either launched or announced their own private market indexes.

Sanjay also said that GenAI companies are raising funds more often than they used to. Which means their valuations are changing more often, too.

“If this is going to be a huge part of the economy, I guess you want to see how this segment of the market is growing,” Sanjay explained.

OpenAI and Anthropic target the same market yet again; healthcare

While Morningstar tracks the financial side, OpenAI and Anthropic are getting deep into healthcare. On Thursday, OpenAI said it’s launching a new version of ChatGPT made for clinicians. It’s supposed to help with medical case reviews, tailored care, and cutting down admin work.

The tool comes with citations from verified medical sources and follows HIPAA rules for handling private health data. The rollout has already started at places like Boston Children’s Hospital, Memorial Sloan Kettering, and Cedars-Sinai.

The day before that, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Health, which lets regular users analyze medical tests, prep for doctor visits, and get input on workouts or diets. It’s not a substitute for real doctors, but the idea is to be a helpful add-on. It shows a clear effort by OpenAI to push their product deeper into everyday use and into sectors that deal with personal data.

Anthropic, led by a former biophysicist, is also doubling down on this area. The company rolled out updates to its Claude chatbot, aiming to speed up scientific research. It’s even holding an event next week focused entirely on its health care strategy. Top execs will lay out where they’re heading.

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South Korea’s Industry Minister, Kim Jung-kwan, said on January 15 that the government will continue to monitor the newly announced U.S. tariffs on advanced AI semiconductor chips to minimize their impact on domestic manufacturers.

According to a ministry statement, Kim Jung-kwan met with representatives of the South Korean semiconductor industry to discuss how to address the 25% duty imposed on semiconductors. 

During the meeting, Kim Jung-kwan stated that the tariffs will not significantly impact Korean businesses, as they do not apply to semiconductors used in U.S. data centers and startups.

South Korea responds to U.S. AI chip tariffs

The ministry stated companies, however, noted that a White House fact sheet suggested Trump may impose higher tariffs on imported semiconductors and related products to encourage domestic manufacturing. Such a move would create significant uncertainty for the semiconductor sector, the statement added.

Notably, U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a 25% tariff on specific AI chips, such as the Nvidia H200 AI processor, and a comparable semiconductor from AMD called the MI325X. The action was announced in a new national security order issued by the White House on Wednesday.

The White House fact sheet stated that Trump understood the essential nature of both national security and the economy, recognizing the need to restore domestic production capabilities for semiconductors, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and products derived from them. 

The report revealed that the U.S. Secretary of Commerce’s Section 232 investigation under the Act was the basis for Trump imposing a 25% tariff on certain AI semiconductor chips. The investigation concluded that there is a threat to national security from the existing import volumes and conditions of semiconductors, related production equipment, and derivative items.

According to the administration, the Commerce Secretary suggested a tariff offset scheme that would provide companies investing in U.S. semiconductor production and particular supply chains with priority treatment. The plan also included the possibility of imposing significantly higher tariffs on a broader range of semiconductor imports.

Commerce Secretary proposals follow a series of previous tariff threats and measures targeting imported semiconductors.

According to Cryptopolitan, the Trump administration threatened to apply tariffs of up to 100% on imported semiconductors last summer, except for businesses that construct semiconductor manufacturing facilities in the U.S. The report further noted that Trump had previously suggested placing tariffs at levels higher than 100%, possibly as high as 200% or 300%.

In April of last year, Trump imposed global reciprocal tariffs in response to the national emergency presented by the U.S.’s extensive and ongoing trade imbalances.

SK monitors won stability amid $350B investment pledge

Beyond tariffs, South Korea is closely monitoring the U.S. Treasury’s stance on currency stability, as Secretary Scott Bessent’s recent remarks have raised concerns about the potential devaluation of the won and its impact on bilateral commerce and investment.

SK Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Koo Yun Cheol said on Thursday that Scott Bessent’s remarks regarding the recent weakening of the Korean won demonstrate Washington’s understanding of the importance of stable foreign exchange rates in an investment promise.

According to a U.S. Department of the Treasury report, Bessent claimed that the recent weakness of the won was inconsistent with South Korea’s “strong” economic fundamentals at a meeting in Washington with visiting Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol. Additionally, he emphasized that “excess volatility” in the foreign currency market is not desired.

Senior Ministry of Economy and Finance official Choi Ji-young told reporters that the two finance ministers concurred that a stable won is crucial for bilateral trade and economic cooperation, and expressed concerns about the won’s recent sharp decline. 

The continued efforts to fulfill South Korea’s investment pledge align with the discussion about the stability of the won, a crucial component of the broader trade and economic agreement between the United States and South Korea.

In October of last year, Seoul and Washington completed the specifics of South Korea’s $350 billion investment commitment, which was made in exchange for a reduction in U.S. tariffs. Under the agreement, South Korea would make annual cash installments of $200 billion to the United States.

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Robinhood Markets Inc. CEO Vlad Tenev sharply criticized the United States’ regulatory gridlock on cryptocurrency policy this week, highlighting how legislative uncertainty continues to block popular services like crypto staking in several states.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday, Tenev emphasized that staking, a feature that enables crypto holders to earn rewards by participating in proof-of-stake networks, remains one of the most requested capabilities on the Robinhood app.

However, there are four US states where customers cannot access the services at the moment due to various regulatory holdups, he said. He even shared his frustrations that Stock Tokens, referring to tokenized stocks, are available in the EU, while the US still blocks them.

“Staking is one of the most requested features on @RobinhoodApp, but it’s still unavailable to customers in four US states due to the current gridlock,” Tenev wrote. “Stock Tokens are available to our customers in the EU, but not in our home market.”

Tenev asks lawmakers to pass bills that protect consumers and foster innovation

Robinhood’s executive advised the US to lead its effort in crypto policymaking and pushed for lawmakers and regulators to create regulations that protect consumers while fostering innovation.

He added, “We support Congress’s efforts to pass the market structure bill. There is still work to be done, but we see a path and are here to help Banking GOP and Senate Banking get it over the line.”

Several X users who replied to Tenev’s post backed his call for US regulators to permit staking. One commented, “Staking would be a huge add for crypto investors, Vlad!”

Another commenter also stated, “Totally agreed, the US needs to be the leader. It’s the future.”

Another popular commentary account, DOGEai_tx, also argued that Robinhood’s state-by-state restrictions on staking reveal a patchy regulatory attitude towards crypto in the United States.

It emphasised that H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025, will help reduce the “chaos of state-by-state regulation” and establish national standards that would preempt state regulations regarding security under Section 308, easing the working landscape for Robinhood.

However, it noted that even sections 405 and 302 of the bill, designed for consumer protection, allow platforms to boast of “innovation” as they profit handsomely from staking rewards (25%).

Just before the bill’s markup on Thursday, crypto exchange Coinbase pulled its support for the bill, cautioning that the provisions on tokenized equities, DeFi, and stablecoin rewards would make it “materially worse than the current status quo.”

Robinhood has nearly 2,000 tokenized assets

Recently, Robinhood added roughly 500 tokenized assets on the Arbitrum blockchain, including GLXY (Galaxy), BULL (WeBULL), and SNPS (Synopsys). The latest inclusions bring the company’s tokenized count to almost 2,000 assets.

Most of those assets, about 73%, are US stocks, while crypto ETFs constitute approximately 24%. Then, US Treasury securities, crypto-linked ETFs, commodities, and private equity together make up the rest of the assets.

Following the implementation of new tokenized products on the Arbitrum blockchain network, Tenev (CEO) stated that the implementation process will take place in stages, allowing their tokenized products to be offered to customers.

X analyst, Tom Wan, also commented on the new tokens’ availability to EU residents to invest in US stocks and exchange-traded funds. Overall, McKinsey & Company still estimates that tokenized products will reach a total market capitalization of $2 trillion by 2030.

Meanwhile, the company is also seeing growth in its prediction markets. By the third quarter of 2025, its prediction contracts had already become a major source of revenue, alongside the platform’s tokenization and staking sector.

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BlackRock just closed out 2025 with $14.04 trillion under management. That’s the biggest figure the company has ever recorded. It’s also the first time any asset manager has passed the $14 trillion mark.

But while that number grabbed attention, profit actually dropped in the last three months of the year because of higher costs. The company made $1.13 billion in net income, which is 33% lower than the same period last year.

On an adjusted basis, BlackRock earned $13.16 per share, beating the average analyst estimate of $12.24. The company also said base fees, the fixed management fees not tied to performance, went up 9% year-over-year once the effects of market swings were taken out.

Total net inflows during the quarter came in at $268 billion, missing the forecast of $311.6 billion, but still a very large number.

BlackRock increases dividend and adds more buybacks

For the full year, BlackRock’s GAAP operating income dropped 7%, and GAAP diluted earnings per share fell 16%. Both numbers were affected by noncash charges tied to acquisitions and a one-off donation.

Those expenses were not counted in the adjusted numbers. Without them, operating income jumped 18%, and diluted EPS rose 10%. The total number of diluted shares for the year was 160.9 million, which was 6% higher than in 2024.

The board approved a 10% increase in the cash dividend, now set at $5.73 per share, payable on March 24, 2026, to shareholders on record by March 6. Over the course of 2025, the company gave $5 billion back to shareholders.

That includes $1.6 billion from stock buybacks. The board also authorized another 7 million shares to be bought back in the future.

Revenue for the fourth quarter hit $7 billion, up 23% compared to Q4 last year. But GAAP operating income for the quarter came in at $1.66 billion, down 20%. The operating margin dropped from 36.6% to 23.7%.

Still, on an adjusted basis, operating income was $2.85 billion and the margin was 45%, which is almost the same as last year.

ETFs and equity inflows lead $341.7 billion net in Q4

Total net inflows for the quarter were $341.7 billion. Long-term flows made up $267.8 billion of that. Cash management added another $73.9 billion. For the full year, total net flows hit $698.3 billion. Average AUM for the quarter was $13.73 trillion, which was up 19% from the year before.

Equity products brought in the most at $126 billion. That pushed total equity assets to $7.79 trillion. Fixed income added $83.8 billion, reaching $3.27 trillion. Multi-asset brought in $36.9 billion, now sitting at $1.22 trillion. Private markets got $12.7 billion of new money, landing at $322.6 billion.

Liquid alternatives gained $2.9 billion. Digital assets, however, lost value and ended at $78.4 billion, down from $104 billion. Commodities and currency products added $5 billion, now totaling $169.2 billion.

By client type, ETFs dominated the inflow picture, pulling in $181.5 billion. That brought total ETF assets to $5.47 trillion. Retail investors added $81.8 billion, now at $1.28 trillion in total. Institutional clients added only $4.6 billion. Within that, active strategies gained $16.1 billion, while index strategies saw $11.6 billion in outflows.

On the investment style side, active funds pulled in $97.7 billion. Non-ETF index products lost $11.4 billion. ETFs were again the big winners, with the same $181.5 billion in flows. Long-term assets now make up $12.96 trillion of the total. The other $1.08 trillion comes from cash management.

By region, the Americas brought in $190 billion, EMEA had $86 billion, and APAC had $8 billion in net outflows. On the retail side, equity added $15.2 billion, fixed income brought in $37.6 billion, and multi-asset gained $26 billion. In private markets and liquid alternatives, retail clients added about $2.9 billion.

Among ETFs, equity funds got $122.8 billion, and fixed income ETFs got $51.9 billion. Digital asset ETFs had $579 million in new flows. Commodity ETFs added $5.1 billion. For institutions, equity saw a pullback of $4.3 billion, and fixed income was down $2.1 billion. Multi-asset had $9.8 billion added. Private markets and alternatives brought in a combined $12.7 billion, while index strategies shed $11.6 billion.

In total, BlackRock added $341.7 billion in assets during the quarter. That came from new money, market growth, and a bit of currency impact. There were $11.1 billion in realizations and $17.7 billion in currency losses. All added up, the final AUM number stood at $14.04 trillion, the biggest in Larry Fink’s history.

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The Morpho decentralized lending protocol has announced its Discord channel will change to a “read-only” mode, joining several other DeFi networks that have decided against using the social platform due to scams.

In a short thread published by pseudonymous Morpho Network Discord manager Albist, the protocol announced it would close public channels and turn its servers to read-only after careful consideration, effective February 1.

“To provide you with safer, more reliable support, all official support and contact are consolidated through the Morpho Help Page and its chatbox. For all Morpho-related questions, technical support, and assistance,” the message from Albist read.

Morpho closes Discord due to scams and institutional influence, project developer mulls

Monarch Finance developer Anton Cheng shared a screenshot of the thread on X earlier today, saying he “didn’t see it coming.”

“This could be a trend for other protocols too, scams, bot scraping, or just too much noise might be at play. But maybe its also signals that big DeFi teams are focusing more on institutions and less on communities. Kinda bittersweet to see defi going mainstream,” Cheng wrote, discussing the reasons why Morpho may have chosen to shut its channels down.

Several DeFi community members quoted the post in support of Morpho, with some arguing that crypto activity on most servers has gone lower by the day for the last five years.

“Good idea if your team doesn’t have a use for it. Everyone was forced into discords in 2021/2022, but the reality is that people aren’t living in them the way they did back then. So meet your community where they are instead,” an NFT enthusiast wrote on X.

Discord was mostly used by gamers who created channels to share tips for activities like speedrunning, but as for crypto, discussions are more retail-heavy and promotional.

DeFi platforms are now moving to attract institutional users and business-to-business relationships, so some developers like Cheng believe it is no longer a place to create “communities.”

Discord servers are hunting grounds for cons

Security concerns have clouded the success of crypto project servers, now ridden by scammers impersonating moderators, posting phishing links, or directly messaging users to coerce them into sending their funds.

One of DefiLlama’s dashboard builders, known on X as 0xngmi, said the analytics platform has also been shifting away from Discord. They noted that DefiLlama has made live support chat and email-based ticketing systems its main priority.

“Discord makes it impossible to protect your users from getting scammed. Even if you ban scammers instantly, they still DM users directly to scam them,” they surmised.

When asked why the move away from Discord is happening now, despite scams being prevalent since 2021, the builder resonated the move to operational fatigue.

“Its been a constant battle to keep them in line and at some point its just not worth it esp when we built more a support team since then other support channels have way better tools to make sure nothing is forgotten,” they answered.

Moreover, Morningstar Ventures Head of Growth Petr Martynov said Telegram groups with subtopics have a way smoother UX, and Discord is “too complicated even for many web3 degens.”

“Unfortunately discord servers  of protocols become ghost towns after airdrops/tge rewards are distributed,” he noted.

Last October, government ID photos of about 70,000 global Discord users were exposed after hackers breached a company contracted to perform age verification checks for the online messenger.

Discord gave a statement later after the incident, saying the leaked data may have included users’ names, email addresses, IP addresses, and messages exchanged with customer service.

Zscaler ThreatLabz find malware attacking crypto networks

A November investigation by Zscaler ThreatLabz uncovered malware in three malicious software packages hidden inside the public code library NPM

Zscaler found that attackers created package names that closely resembled trusted tools from the legitimate bitcoinjs project.

In one cited example, a hacker linked to the email address supertalented730@gmail.com and uploaded three packages, including bip40, which was downloaded about 958 times, bitcoin-lib-js with 183 downloads, and 2,286 downloads of bitcoin-main-lib.

“To deceive developers into downloading the fraudulent packages, the attacker used name variations of real repositories found within the legitimate bitcoinjs project,” Zscaler’s researchers noted.

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Law enforcement in Kazakhstan is looking for a prominent blogger who has been accused of making a lot of cryptocurrency by illegally advertising online gambling in the Central Asian nation.

Known as Qaisar Qamza on social media, the man has already had at least some of his coin wealth seized by the government in Astana, revealed a statement by the country’s main financial watchdog.

Kazakh blogger loses Tether paid for promoting online casinos

A famous blogger from Kazakhstan is now wanted internationally on allegations of promoting illegal gambling on the Internet, his homeland’s Financial Monitoring Agency (AFM) announced.

In the past five years, the 30-year-old Kaisar Kamza Bakytzhanuly was active under the handle “qais_arr” on Instagram, where he had 2.4 million subscribers, and administered a closed Telegram channel with 368,000 members. He also had a TikTok account and a YouTube channel.

Using his social media accounts, he regularly uploaded videos and other commercial materials directly linking to a website for online betting. He also offered followers his personal promo code, which provided special bonuses to users, the agency said.

In its notice posted on Thursday, which was quoted by the Russian business news portal RBC and local media, the AFM detailed further:

“Kamza, K.B. advertised the online platform aimed at attracting citizens to participate in gambling, which allowed him to earn income in the form of rewards and percentages.”

The blogger received remuneration for his services in the U.S.-dollar pegged stablecoin Tether. Assets amounting to 182,700 USDT have been seized based on a court order, the regulator also noted.

“To conceal his illegal income, the suspect used a crypto wallet, which received payments from the organizers of the online casino,” the authority stated, asking for any information about his whereabouts that could lead to his detention.

Screenshot of Qaisar Qamza’s Instagram profile. Source: Instagram

Kazakhstan seizes millions in cryptocurrency in criminal investigations

While working to liberalize and regulate crypto transactions in its economy, the government of Kazakhstan has been cracking down on crypto-related crime.

In November, the interior ministry revealed it had registered over 1,000 criminal cases linked to operations with cryptocurrencies in the past couple of years.

In September 2025, the country seized $10 million worth of digital assets as part of an investigation into a Ponzi scheme that lured investors from across the former Soviet space.

At the end of the month, Kazakhstan disrupted a $224 million crypto laundering service called RAKS, which was quite popular on the dark web. The AFM blocked dozens of its wallets, freezing 9.7 million Tether (USDT).

In 2025, the authorities in Astana restricted access to a total of more than 1,100 illegal crypto trading websites, the agency announced in January, as reported by Cryptopolitan this week.

The news came after last October, the watchdog said it had busted almost 130 unlicensed crypto exchanges, claiming to have confiscated almost $17 million in virtual currencies from their operators.

It’s unclear what the government intends to do with all that digital cash. However, the National Bank of Kazakhstan unveiled in November that it’s going to build a national cryptocurrency reserve.

The latter should be established in the first half of 2026 and will hold the equivalent of up to $1 billion in digital coins. The monetary authority has already earmarked $300 million for the purchase.

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The crypto market is being given a second look by investors, who believe the market is moving toward the direction of a stronger second quarter in 2026. The capital has been moving into new projects as opposed to the same large caps that supported the previous cycle. 

Preliminary feeling is that Mutuum Finance (MUTM) is one of the possible best cryptos to purchase currently ahead of Q2 rearranging performance rankings. Analysts believe that the next breakout can be made by altcoins that have some connection to real use and not tokens that operate based on memes or pure momentum. Mutuum Finance fits the thesis and the figures of its presale are beginning to support that.

Mutuum Finance (MUTM)

Mutuum Finance (MUTM) is a decentralized lending protocol. Users are allowed to lend, borrow and become liquidators. The protocol concentrates liquidity in a model that some commentators have likened to early Aave and Compound which they argue were some of the greatest cryptocurrency investments of their time.

The first market is called P2C. Other users borrow the assets in a common pool supplied by the lender participants. The suppliers are awarded mtTokens that indicate that they own a portion of the pool and the amount of interest they obtain over a period. 

The second market is P2P. It manages assets that do not necessarily fit well within a large communal pool and establishes a separate lending and borrowing setting with unique borrowing rates and Loan to Value limits. 

In the case that a user pledges a 70% LTV collateral, he or she is allowed to borrow 70% of the collateral. In case volatility drives the loan to exceed the safe level, liquidators will be able to settle some debt and acquire the collateral at a discount. The design also maintains the protocol in solution when the markets are moving very quickly.

The pre-sale has received massive interest. Mutuum Finance has collected $19.8 million in total. Over 18,800 holders participated and sold 830 million tokens. Mutuum Finance issued its presale at the beginning of 2025 at $0.01. Phase 7 started at $0.04, that is 300% growth since phase 1. The launch price is officially set to be $0.06.

V1 Launch and Security Confidence

V1 protocol is scheduled to be deployed on testnet. The team updates development show that there are Sepolia deployment and mainnet deployment. V1 also contains liquidity pools, mtTokens, debt tokens and liquidation bots. The first day one asset will be ETH and USDT with additional ones.

Security has been managed prudently. The audit of the V1 protocol was done by Halborn. MUTM token also received a CertiK scan of tokens at 90 out of 100. 

Certain analysts pin this degree of preparation towards the perspective that MUTM may end up being one of the finest cryptocurrency investments in the first half of 2026. Early price forecasts on the bullish side will have a value of more than the $0.10 to $0.14 range.

Stablecoin and Layer 2 Alignment

The on-chain lending is based on stablecoins and layer 2 networks. Stablecoins offer the predictability of prices to the borrower. The layer 2 networks facilitate gas costs that increase throughput and decrease liquidation friction. Mutuum Finance in its turn intends to align with these segments and provide stable collateral and low cost execution. 

In case the crypto prices move up, the collateralized loans demand is likely to increase. This explains why there are traders who have branded MUTM as the best crypto to invest in before the next liquidity cycle. They consider it a revenue associated altcoin, but not a story only presale.

In brief, Mutuum Finance has established itself as a new utility cryptocurrency with valid use, solid presale mathematics and legitimate launch implementation. When seeking the next big crypto, many investors believe MUTM has climbed that list with increased confidence.

For more information about Mutuum Finance (MUTM) visit the links below:

Website: https://www.mutuum.com

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mutuumfinance

Silver tanked -7.3% on Thursday, after peaking at an all-time high of $93.7515. That comes after a four-day rally that sent it up more than 20%.

Bitcoin stayed firm around $97,000 with $844 million of ETF inflows on January 14. Gold dropped 0.7%, while platinum and palladium lost more than 2%.

The NCAA has requested the CFTC to put a hold on college sports betting on prediction markets, emphasizing its negative effects on student-athletes. NCAA president Charlie Baker told CFTC chairman Michael Selig that the college sports association will work with the regulator to establish appropriate safeguards.

In a letter to the CFTC chair dated January 14, Baker expressed concern over college sports betting via prediction market trading. He noted that protecting the well-being of student athletes and the integrity of competition are of the highest priority to the NCAA. Baker believes the growth and nature of college sports betting on prediction markets pose a significant threat to both. 

Baker’s letter comes almost a month after he strongly opposed Kalshi’s reported plans to offer wagers on events on the transfer portal.

Kalshi filed to accept bets on whether a player enters or withdraws from the NCAA transfer portal, or where the player would commit.

However, the prediction market platform later stated that it had no immediate plans to list those portal-related contracts. Baker also supported the delayed deployment of the portal-related contracts, noting that those markets pose a threat to the competitive integrity of the recruiting processes.  

NCAA president Baker stresses the need for proper safeguards 

The NCAA president emphasized the importance of establishing proper safeguards, including integrity monitoring, advertising and age restrictions, preventing prop markets, and anti-harassment procedures. According to Baker, Congress needs to stabilize eligibility, while federal regulators stabilize prediction markets to establish a single set of fair and transparent standards.

Baker further explained that the NCAA’s betting harm reduction program includes educating hundreds of thousands of student-athletes on the dangers of sports wagering. The association monitors over 23,000 contests annually for suspicious activity and conducts globally regarded research.

Baker mentioned that the NCAA advocates for over 1,100 member schools and more than half a million student-athletes.

“Given the potentially addictive and harmful nature of wagering on sports, most states restrict sports wagering to those at least 21, while college sport prediction markets often allow participants as young as 18.” 

–Charlie Baker, President of the NCAA

Baker believes that this minor oversight could heavily entice college students, as well as high school students, into engaging in these markets in a harmful way. He, however, noted that most states that allow legalized sports betting get a piece of the revenue to fund harm reduction programs.

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Social data from Santiment Feed suggests Bitcoin commentary on social media has turned more and more bearish as the coin’s price flipped its negative run to a 7% uptick in the last seven days.

According to Santiment, markets are moving in the opposite direction of retail sentiment. Bitcoin has crossed the $95,000 mark and is changing hands 1.82% above its value 24 hours ago, and some market watchers expect the price to continue climbing towards the end of this business week. 

However, social media is witnessing the most FUD seen in the last 10 days, which the social chatter analysis platform believes might push the king coin to its first revisit above $100K since last November.

Fear dominates social chatter as Bitcoin price hits $97,000

Santiment’s behavioral analysis chart, which tracks Bitcoin’s market value against the ratio of positive and negative commentary on social media, showed that when Bitcoin traded in the mid-$80,000 range 30 days ago, the market sentiment was extreme fear.

Greed, Neutral, Fear Index against the BTC price chart. Source: Santiment

Bitcoin spent large portions of late December in this zone, with prices consolidating well below $90,000, and traders doubting any possibility for a near-term upside.

When the calendar turned to January, sentiment briefly moved into the neutral zone and pushed Bitcoin above $93,000 for the first time in weeks. But that equilibrium did not last enough to map the largest coin by market cap’s course to six figures.

On Wednesday, bulls finally put up a fight for BTC to climb up to a 2-month high of $97,500, but according to Santiment, the market does not currently believe it can sustain its rally. The platform suggested that this lack of conviction could become the catalyst for a positive price movement to $100,000.

Market bull index records historic lows, whale exchange inflows slump from December highs

Over the past six years, the Bitcoin Bull Score Index has dropped to 20 or lower only seven times. According to CryptoQuant’s BSI index, the market is currently within the seventh instance of a low bullish sentiment.

Yet, Binance exchange flow since the beginning of 2026 counted whale transfers reaching approximately 15,800 BTC, significantly lower than December’s total of about 37,133 BTC. Binance whale inflows so far this year amount to 42.5% of the volume recorded in December. 

When compared with the total Bitcoin transferred to Binance since the New Year, nearly 75,800 BTC, whales accounted for only 20.85% of total inflows.

Lower whale activity on exchanges spells the end for selling, and when coupled with a 10% price uptick in the last two weeks, Bitcoin holders might be confident of a six-figure comeback before the end of January.

Moreover, Glassnode analysts mentioned that long-term holders are realizing profits at a far slower pace than during the previous cycle, which could further lessen the sell signals on the market.

The Long-Term Holder Supply Distribution Heatmap shows a dense cost-basis cluster between $93K and $109K, forming a substantial overhead supply zone.
Any sustained push higher must first absorb this supply, with a decisive breakout above this range typically required to reopen… https://t.co/m1oD2wiuxl pic.twitter.com/3nKtF7cMbD

— glassnode (@glassnode) January 13, 2026

When Bitcoin traded well above $100,000 in last year’s peak spells, these holders were offloading more than 100,000 BTC per week in realized profits, equivalent to $9.62 billion, but they are now selling approximately 12,800 BTC per week.

“This moderation suggests profit-taking remains active, but far less aggressive than during prior distribution phases,” Glassnode said in a recent note.

Bitcoin support level peaks $90,000, old holdings yet to enter markets

According to CryptoQuant contributor Carmelo_Alemán, Bitcoin confirmed its new support level by breaking above the $94,200 resistance level and then surging to the $97,500 zone, amid the heavy pessimism seen on social media platforms. 

Alemán supported his theory with the Value Days Destroyed indicator, a chart of the average age of coins being spent on the network and by how long coins remained inactive before moving.

So far in January, the VDD reading is near a historical low of 0.53, which means that “young coins” are changing hands more than older holdings. Long-term investors are not aggressively distributing their positions, and the trend would likely continue as prices recover toward six-figure territory.

“When Bitcoin’s price rises while VDD remains low, the market tends to be in a healthy expansion phase, where demand absorbs the available supply without generating structural selling pressure. A sustained increase in the indicator would signal distribution from long-term holders,” the analyst concluded.

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Wikipedia is taking a new approach to make money by charging big tech firms for the massive amount of data they use. On Thursday, the group that runs the site announced a string of deals with names like Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon.

For years, the Wikimedia Foundation has watched tech giants use its free articles to build their products. Now, the non-profit is finally turning that reliance into a source of income. Over the last year, they have signed up newer players like the AI startup Perplexity and France’s Mistral AI. These companies join a growing list that already includes Meta and Amazon, as well as Google, which signed a deal back in 2022.

High costs of AI training

Wikipedia’s data is a tech treasure trove. Chatbots and virtual assistants are trained to speak and respond to inquiries using its 65 million articles, which are authored in more than 300 languages. However, there is an additional expense. Wikipedia’s servers are heavily taxed when these businesses “scrape” or extract massive volumes of data from the website. These expenses are typically covered by modest contributions from the general public, but the increased demand from AI businesses has increased those expenses.

To solve this, Wikimedia is pushing its “Enterprise” service. It allows big companies to pay for the content they need in a format that works better for their high-tech systems. Lane Becker, who leads the Enterprise branch, said these companies realize they need to help fund the site if they want it to survive. He said it took some time to figure out exactly what features to offer to get companies to switch from the free site to the paid version.

Supporting the volunteer community

The site itself is still kept running by a massive team of 250,000 volunteers who write and check the facts for free. Tim Frank from Microsoft said that having access to honest, high-quality info is a big part of how they see the future of AI. He noted that by working with Wikimedia, they are helping to keep a system where the people who write the content are still supported.

Amidst these business changes, the foundation is also getting a new leader. Bernadette Meehan, a former U.S. Ambassador, is set to take over as chief executive on January 20.

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Former New York City Mayor Eric Adams has dismissed the accusations raised against his involvement with the NYC Token, a newly released speculative cryptocurrency that he promoted, as false. Some had speculated that he transferred funds from the wallet associated with that token, while others claimed that he profited from it.

The Solana-based digital asset briefly surged to a market valuation of nearly $580 million but collapsed swiftly, leaving many investors deeply in the red. As accusations surrounding Adams continued to mount and the ongoing debate in the ecosystem heated up, Todd Shapiro, a spokesperson for Adams, shared an X post stating that, “To be completely clear: Eric Adams did not transfer any investor funds. He did not benefit from the launch of the NYC Token. No money was taken from the NYC Token.”

Fraud claims erupt as NYC token crashes

Just after the spokesperson shared his remarks, allegations of fraudulent activity began to surface. This occurred at a time when the NYC Token dropped to more than 80% in the early hours of trading. 

The backlash intensified after on-chain analysts flagged unusual liquidity changes in the token’s smart contract, which critics liken to a “rug pull,” causing the token’s price to collapse.

Responding to these allegations, several crypto analysts had placed strong bets that Adams’ team could have withdrawn funds, resulting in a total loss of more than $3.4 million for investors.

Nonetheless, even with these assumptions raised, Shapiro still insisted that these allegations lacked credibility due to an absence of evidence. Afterwards, he released a statement stating that, “At no time was his involvement meant for personal or financial gain,” pointing out market volatility as the primary cause of the token’s substantial decline.

Still, criticism of Adams’ team continued to intensify, but Shapiro maintained his stance that no funds had been withdrawn from the NYC Token. However, sources reported that his statement appeared to differ from an earlier message displayed on the NYC Token’s X post. 

According to this X post, the individual managing the token’s X account claimed that it had modified liquidity provisions in response to overwhelming initial demand. Additionally, more funds were added to the liquidity pool of the NYC Token, according to a post on the X account. 

Meanwhile, during an interview with FOX Business, Adams discussed what they intend to do with the funds from the NYC Token. According to him, they plan to allocate these funds to non-profits that seek to initiate efforts to ensure all individuals have a better understanding of antisemitism and anti-Americanism via educational programs. 

Shapiro still insists Adams did not transfer funds from the NYC Token

The former mayor, who presented himself as a strong advocate for crypto, claimed that apart from funding these non-profits, the funds would also establish a scholarship program to support students in marginalized communities in New York. 

Following his remarks, Shapiro affirmed that the controversial introduction of the NYC Token has not interfered with Adams’ strong commitment to these initiatives. 

“Mr Adams is still dedicated to responsible innovation and using new technologies to build trust, education, and shared civic values,” he said.

In the meantime, data from DEXScreener noted that the current price of the Solana-based token is approximately $0.133. Interestingly, the token has maintained this price unchanged since it declined from $0.475 just after its introduction. 

Since attaining this early peak, reports alleged that the total losses incurred amount to more than $400 million from the NYC Token’s market capitalization.

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