Important news from last night and this morning (January 12-January 13)

Trump Media deposited 2,000 BTC, worth $175 million, into Coinbase last week.

According to Emmett Gallic, Trump Media deposited 2,000 BTC (worth $175 million) into Coinbase last week. The analyst believes this could be as collateral for a loan or for a sale.

The address associated with the Mt.Gox hack deposited another 926 BTC into an unknown exchange today.

According to EmmettGallic, an address associated with Mt. Gox hacker Aleksey Bilyuchenko deposited another 926 BTC into an unknown exchange today. He currently holds 3,000 BTC (worth $275 million). It is unclear whether Bilyuchenko himself actually holds these assets. Bilyuchenko was last publicly reported to be serving a 3.5-year prison sentence in Moscow.

Binance: Booster Earn staked assets will earn Alpha balance points.

According to the official announcement, the Binance Wallet Alpha balance points rules have been updated. Starting from 08:00 (UTC+8) on January 13, 2026, all staking assets of Booster Earn in Binance Wallet, including tETH, miBNB, maUSDT, zkUSDT, bwUSDT, and any newly added staking assets in the future, will be credited to the user's Binance Alpha balance points.

US SEC Chairman: Whether the US will confiscate and seize the Bitcoin held by Venezuela remains to be seen.

According to Cointelegraph, when asked whether the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would seize Bitcoin held by Venezuela, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins did not rule out the possibility. Previous reports suggested Venezuela held up to $60 billion worth of Bitcoin (approximately 600,000 coins), but several analysts stated they could not verify this figure. Atkins responded that what action the U.S. would take if given the opportunity to seize these Bitcoins "remains to be seen," adding that he was not involved in the decision-making process. Previously, the U.S. military, acting on President Trump's orders, arrested Venezuelan President Maduro and extradited him to New York to face criminal charges.

US SEC Chairman: Supports Congress clarifying the division of jurisdiction between the SEC and CFTC regarding crypto regulation.

Paul Atkins, Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), stated on the X platform: “This is a pivotal week for cryptocurrency—Congress is at the forefront of upgrading 21st-century financial markets. I fully support Congress providing a clear definition of the jurisdictional division between the SEC and the CFTC. The most important thing we can do for investors right now is to bring the crypto asset market out of the regulatory gray area. Passing bipartisan market structure legislation will help us guard against bad regulators and ensure that President Trump’s goal of making the U.S. the world’s cryptocurrency capital is achieved. I look forward to President Trump signing bipartisan market structure legislation into law in the coming months. Clear and principled rules based on bipartisan legal texts will foster innovation in our markets while continuing to protect investors.”

The Thai prime minister has ordered stricter regulations on gold trading and digital assets in an effort to combat "grey money."

According to The Nation Thailand, Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has officially launched a comprehensive campaign against "grey money" and illicit financial flows, ordering stricter regulations on gold trading and digital assets. In the digital asset sector, the government will strictly enforce the "Travel Rule," requiring the identification of senders and receivers in all wallet-to-wallet transfers to eliminate anonymity. Furthermore, Thailand will establish a national data bureau (DataBureau) to centrally manage financial data, enabling regulators to track suspicious transactions in real time.

Former New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced the launch of "NYC Token".

According to Fortune magazine, former New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced a cryptocurrency project called "NYC Token," aimed at raising funds to combat anti-Semitism and anti-American sentiment, and to educate children about blockchain technology. However, specific details of the project remain quite vague. At a brief launch event in Times Square, Adams did not specify how the token would specifically combat anti-Semitism, nor did he disclose partners, launch date, or how funds would be used. Adams stated that he will not currently receive a salary from the project, but may reassess it in the future. Adams was a strong supporter of the crypto industry during his presidency, but has also been controversial due to ethical and conflict-of-interest issues. New Mayor Zohran Mamdani has stated that he will not purchase the token. According to information posted by Eric Adams on the X platform, NYC Token appears to have been launched on the Solana network, with its market capitalization briefly surging to $700 million before quickly falling back to $95.47 million.

US Senator Lummis introduced the "Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act" to protect developers in the crypto space.

According to The Block, Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis and Democratic Senator Ron Wyden have introduced a bill that explicitly states software developers who do not control user funds should not be considered money transferors—as senators rapidly prepare a broader cryptocurrency bill. The "Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act," introduced by Lummis and Wyden, was submitted Monday and echoes work already completed in the House of Representatives. The bill would establish clear guidelines on when developers and service providers can be exempt from laws related to money transfers. Wyden stated in a statement, "Forcing developers who write code to follow the same rules as exchanges or brokers is technically unreasonable and constitutes an infringement on Americans' privacy and freedom of speech rights." Sources indicate that the Senate bill may be incorporated into the current version of cryptocurrency market structure legislation by the Senate Banking Committee. Previously, the Senate Agriculture Committee had been considering the cryptocurrency market structure bill until the last week of January.

pump.fun transferred another 148 million USDC and USDT obtained through the ICO sale of $PUMP to Kraken.

According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin, pump.fun transferred another 148 million USDC and USDT obtained through the ICO sale of $PUMP to Kraken 10 hours ago. Over the past two months since November 15th, they have transferred a total of 753 million USDC and USDT obtained through the ICO sale of $PUMP in June 2025 to Kraken.

WLFI officially sent 500 million WLFI tokens to Jump Trading, worth approximately $83.12 million.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, early this morning, World Liberty Finance sent 500 million WLFI tokens to Jump Trading, worth $83.12 million.

The US CFTC is reorganizing its Innovation Committee, with several prominent figures in the crypto industry among its first members.

According to CoinDesk, Mike Selig, the newly appointed chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), announced on Monday that he is reorganizing the agency's advisory groups and re-establishing the Innovation Committee. The core team of this committee will initially consist of cryptocurrency industry professionals. Former CFTC Acting Chairman Caroline Pham, in her final days at the agency, quickly assembled a team of CEOs focused on innovative fintech. Selig, just one month after the Innovation Committee's announcement, identified those on that list as "founding members" of the Innovation Advisory Committee. This means that the committee's initial members will be executives from crypto companies such as Gemini, Kraken, Bitnomial, Crypto.com, and Bullish, as well as executives from traditional companies like Nasdaq, CME Group, Intercontinental Exchange, and Cboe Global Markets. The Innovation Committee will assist the regulator in developing these new rules, building upon the existing Technology Advisory Committee. This committee will be one of five such external committees designed to help guide the agency's work in the areas of expertise of its members. The agency is expected to become one of the leading cryptocurrency regulators in the U.S. and is currently inviting the public to submit more member candidates and topics for consideration by the end of January.

FTX/Alameda has unstaking over 190,000 SOL tokens, worth $27.98 million.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, 195,669 SOL tokens, worth $27.98 million, have been unstaking on FTX/Alameda.

Bessant warns: The Fed investigation could trigger market turmoil and lead Powell to refuse to relinquish power.

According to a report by AXIOS cited by Jinshi, two sources familiar with the matter revealed that U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessant told Trump Sunday evening that the federal investigation into the Federal Reserve Chairman had "made a mess" and could have adverse effects on financial markets. One source familiar with the call between Bessant and Trump said, "The secretary was very unhappy, and he has let the president know about it." Trump currently appears to be deliberately distancing himself from the investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Powell. The source said that the Washington office of U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro launched the investigation without prior notification to the Treasury Department, senior White House officials, or the Justice Department. Another source said that Bessant "thought that Powell would leave when the president appointed a new Fed chairman. But that's not happening now. Now Powell is taking a tougher stance. It's really made a mess of things." However, the source said that Bessant did not question the necessity of investigating Powell in his conversation with Trump, nor was he defending the Fed chairman.

Meta plans to cut investment in its Metaverse team and redirect funds to its VR glasses business.

According to a report by The New York Times cited by Jinshi, three employees familiar with the matter said that Meta Platforms (META.O) is considering layoffs in a branch of its Reality Labs division that works on the "metaverse" business, potentially starting as early as next month, affecting 10% to 30% of the team's employees. This team is primarily responsible for VR headsets and VR-based social networks. Reality Labs comprises the Metaverse and Wearables divisions. Sources indicate that management expects to redirect the savings from the layoffs to an AR glasses project. Meta launched AR glasses in 2021 in partnership with Ray-Ban, and sales have exceeded the company's internal targets. The sources say that Meta is reassessing its Metaverse investments, and within the Metaverse division, executives are considering significant cuts to VR-related positions.

Bitmine has once again staked over 150,000 ETH, worth approximately $479 million.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, Bitmine has staked an additional 154,208 ETH (worth $478.77 million). To date, they have staked a total of 1,344,224 ETH, with a total value of $4.15 billion.

The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee has postponed its review of the cryptocurrency market structure bill until the last week of January.

According to crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman stated that the committee will postpone its revision of its bill on cryptocurrency market structure until the last week of January, instead of holding it concurrently with the Senate Banking Committee as originally planned on Thursday. Boozman said more time is needed to maintain bipartisan support.

Binance announces details of the FOGO Prime Sale; subscriptions open on January 13th.

According to a Binance Wallet announcement, FOGO will hold a Prime Sale from 16:00 to 18:00 (Beijing time) on January 13th, raising a total of $7 million, with a subscription limit of 6 BNB per user. The token price is $0.035 (in BNB), and this issuance represents 2% of the total FOGO supply. After the Pre-TGE phase, users can claim FOGO Keys, and the actual tokens will be airdropped to Binance Alpha accounts at 20:00 on January 15th, at which time they can be traded through Alpha limit orders. Participants must hold sufficient Binance Alpha Points.

Bakkt agrees to acquire stablecoin payment infrastructure DTR

According to an official announcement, Bakkt Holdings (NYSE: BKKT) has reached an agreement to acquire Distributed Technologies Research Ltd. (DTR), a global stablecoin payments infrastructure company, for approximately 9,128,682 Class A ordinary shares, to advance the integration of its stablecoin settlement and digital banking businesses. The transaction is expected to close upon regulatory and shareholder approval, with ICE voting in favor of the deal. The company will change its name to "Bakkt, Inc." on January 22 and will hold an investor day on the NYSE on March 17.

Alphabet's market capitalization surpasses $4 trillion for the first time.

Alphabet (GOOG.O) has surpassed $4 trillion in market capitalization for the first time.

Apple has chosen Google's Gemini to power Siri, the AI system launched this year.

Apple (AAPL.O) will partner with Google to power AI features for products launching later this year, such as Siri. According to CNBC, a statement indicates that this multi-year partnership will leverage Google's Gemini platform and cloud technology to power Apple's future foundational models. Apple stated, "After careful evaluation, we believe Google's technology provides the strongest foundation for Apple's foundational models, and we are excited about the innovative experiences it will bring to users."

Bybit Alpha launches on-chain Meme coin $B, inspired by the "bonk" meme.

According to a Bybit announcement, Bybit Alpha has launched $B, an on-chain token inspired by the "bonk" meme. Users can trade directly on the Alpha platform without connecting to an external wallet and can view market trends in real time. The platform also supports referral bonuses and an agent system, offering up to 30% bonuses for inviting friends to trade and up to 50% bonuses for becoming an agent.

The Bank of Italy simulated a scenario where Ethereum would go to zero, warning of the risks to Ethereum infrastructure.

According to Cointelegraph, the Bank of Italy, in a study titled "What if Ethereum goes to zero? How market risks can evolve into infrastructure risks," points out that if the price of ETH were to drop to zero, it could lead to validator exodus, slower block production, and decreased network security, thereby impacting financial services such as stablecoins and tokenized assets that rely on Ethereum for settlement. The report recommends that regulators weigh whether to allow financial institutions to rely on public blockchains, or introduce risk mitigation mechanisms such as business continuity plans and validator security standards.

WLFI launches "World Liberty Markets," a lending marketplace powered by Dolomite.

World Liberty Financial has launched its lending platform, "World Liberty Markets," supporting peer-to-peer lending between assets including USD1, WLFI, ETH, tokenized versions of BTC, USDC, and USDT. Powered by Dolomite, the platform aims to expand the use cases for the USD1 stablecoin. USD1 currently has a market capitalization of approximately $3.4 billion and was used to acquire a $2 billion stake in Binance through Abu Dhabi's MGX. World Liberty plans to launch a mobile app with integrated lending functionality this year and is seeking a US banking license to expand its institutional business.

Bitmine purchased another 24,266 ETH, bringing its total holdings to over 4.16 million ETH.

According to an official announcement, Bitmine purchased 24,266 ETH (approximately $75.37 million) last week, bringing its total holdings to 4,167,768 ETH (approximately $12.9 billion), representing 3.45% of the total network supply. Of this, 1,256,083 ETH are currently staked. The MAVAN staking network is expected to launch in Q1 2026. Chairman Tom Lee issued a special statement urging shareholders to vote in favor of Proposal No. 2—an increase in authorized shares—at the upcoming annual meeting on January 15th. Because the company's bylaws require support from over 50.1% of the outstanding shares, the threshold is extremely high. If the proposal is not passed, the current 500 million authorized shares will soon be exhausted, potentially limiting the ETH staking plan.

Latin American stablecoin payment company VelaFi completes $20 million Series B funding round, with Alibaba participating.

Latin American stablecoin payment infrastructure company VelaFi announced the completion of a $20 million Series B funding round, led by XVC and Ikuyo, with participation from Alibaba Investment, Planetree, and BAI Capital, bringing its total funding to over $40 million. The funds will be used to expand compliance, banking connectivity, and operations in the US and Asia. VelaFi has processed billions of dollars in transactions for hundreds of enterprise clients, providing stablecoin solutions including cross-border payments, multi-currency accounts, and asset management.

Strategy increased its holdings by 13,627 BTC last week for approximately $1.25 billion, bringing its total holdings to 687,400 BTC.

According to Strategy Inc.'s Form 8-K filing, the company purchased 13,627 bitcoins between January 5 and 11, 2026, using proceeds from the sale of shares via ATMs (Offer-to-Market Offerings), for a total of approximately $1.2471 billion, at an average purchase price of $91,519 per bitcoin. As of January 11, 2026, the company held a total of 687,410 bitcoins, with cumulative purchases totaling approximately $51.8 billion, at an average cost of $75,353 per bitcoin.

BitGo has filed for an IPO in the US, aiming to raise up to $201 million.

According to Reuters, crypto custody company BitGo has filed for an IPO in the US, planning to issue 11.8 million shares at a price range of $15 to $17 per share, raising up to approximately $201 million. Founded in 2013, BitGo is one of the largest crypto asset custody providers in the US. The IPO will use the ticker symbol "BTGO" and is planned to list on the New York Stock Exchange, with Goldman Sachs and Citigroup as underwriters.

Binance will list FOGO spot on January 15th and tag it with a seed label.

According to a Binance announcement, FOGO will launch spot trading on January 15th at 22:00 (Beijing time), offering trading pairs FOGO/USDT, FOGO/USDC, and FOGO/TRY. FOGO is a high-performance primary blockchain based on the Solana virtual machine. The project was previously pre-launched on the Binance Alpha platform; it will be removed from Alpha and its assets transferred after the spot launch. Binance will reserve 50 million FOGO tokens for future market promotion; further details will be announced later. The project has been tagged with a seed tag to warn users of its high volatility and potential risks.

Hassett: Federal Reserve Chairman Powell is a good man

White House National Economic Council Director Hassett: I don't know if President Trump approved the investigation into the Federal Reserve. He remains interested in a Fed position. Fed Chairman Powell is a good man.

Standard Chartered Bank plans to launch a cryptocurrency prime brokerage business to expand its digital asset portfolio.

According to a Bloomberg report citing sources familiar with the matter, Standard Chartered Bank plans to establish a cryptocurrency prime brokerage business through its venture capital arm, SC Ventures, offering services including custody, financing, and market access. The business is currently in its early planning stages. This move would help it circumvent Basel III's capital requirement of up to 1250% for permissionless crypto assets. Standard Chartered has previously been involved in crypto projects such as Zodia Custody and Zodia Markets, and in 2025 became the first global systemically important bank to offer spot crypto trading.

CoinShares: Digital asset investment products saw a net outflow of $454 million last week.

According to CoinShares' latest weekly report, digital asset investment products recorded a net outflow of $454 million last week, with a cumulative outflow of $1.3 billion over the past four days, almost offsetting the $1.5 billion net inflow at the beginning of the year. This was mainly due to the weakening expectation of a Federal Reserve interest rate cut in March. The US market saw a net outflow of $569 million, while Germany, Canada, and Switzerland recorded inflows of $58.9 million, $24.5 million, and $21 million, respectively. Bitcoin and Ethereum saw outflows of $405 million and $116 million, respectively; while Solana, XRP, and Sui saw inflows of $32.8 million, $45.8 million, and $7.6 million, respectively.

Binance will delist several spot trading pairs, including ACT/FDUSD, on January 13.

According to a Binance announcement, to improve market quality, Binance will delist 20 spot trading pairs—ACT/FDUSD, AEVO/FDUSD, AR/FDUSD, DOGS/FDUSD, HEMI/FDUSD, HFT/BTC, IO/FDUSD, MEME/FDUSD, NFP/FDUSD, PENDLE/FDUSD, PHA/BTC, RARE/BTC, RAY/FDUSD, RED/FDUSD, SAND/FDUSD, SHELL/BTC, SXP/BTC, TURTLE/FDUSD, ZBT/FDUSD, and ZK/FDUSD—on January 13, 2026, at 16:00 (Beijing time). These currencies will remain tradable in other trading pairs. Spot trading bot services for the affected pairs will also be terminated simultaneously; users are advised to cancel their bots promptly to avoid potential losses.