Important news from last night and this morning (January 8th - January 9th)

The Zcash core team has founded a new company to launch the "cashZ" wallet and expand its ecosystem.

Josh Swihart, a former core member of Zcash's Electric Coin Company, announced that his team has left the original ECC to form a new startup with the goal of expanding Zcash to billions of users. The new company will launch a new wallet, "cashZ," built on the Zashi codebase, and early access applications are now open (cashz.org). Swihart emphasized that privacy should be the norm in the digital world, and Zcash needs a "cyberpunk" organizational structure and scalable governance mechanisms to combat the trend of mass surveillance and achieve true global adoption.

AI data platform Protecte has completed a $30 million Series A extended funding round led by a16z.

AI data platform Protege announced the completion of a $30 million Series A extended funding round led by a16z, bringing its total funding to $65 million. Other investors include Footwork, CRV, Bloomberg Beta, Flex Capital, and Shaper Capital. Protege aggregates real-world data from multiple sectors, including healthcare, media, and audio, through licensing, and performs cleaning and format optimization to provide high-quality data support for AI training. Its partners include most of the "AI Big Seven." This round of funding will be used to expand its data reach, deepen institutional partnerships, and develop platform products.

Polygon is close to finalizing its acquisition of Bitcoin ATM company Coinme, in a deal estimated at $100 million to $125 million.

According to CoinDesk, Ethereum scaling network Polygon is nearing completion of its acquisition of Bitcoin ATM provider Coinme, with the deal estimated to be between $100 million and $125 million. Coinme operates Bitcoin ATMs and related services.

Bitmine has staked over one million ETH, representing a quarter of its total holdings.

According to Ember, Bitmine has staked over 1.032 million ETH (approximately $3.215 billion) through the Ethereum PoS mechanism, representing a quarter of its total holdings of 4.143 million ETH. As a result, the number of ETH waiting to be staked on Ethereum has accumulated to 1.778 million, while the exit queue has been cleared.

The Central Bank of Cambodia has ordered Prince Bank to suspend all new business and place it under the trusteeship and liquidation of an auditing firm.

According to Phnom Penh Post, due to its founder Chen Zhi's involvement in cryptocurrency fraud cases in multiple countries, the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) has suspended all new business for Prince Bank and placed all its operations and assets under the trusteeship and liquidation of Morisonkak MKA auditing firm. Depositors can withdraw funds normally as stipulated, while borrowers must continue to repay loans.

Truebit suffers security breach, over 8,500 ETH stolen.

According to official disclosures from Truebit and Lookonchain, a security incident recently occurred on the Truebit protocol. Its smart contract (address: 0x764C64b2A09b09Acb100B80d8c505Aa6a0302EF2) was maliciously attacked, resulting in the theft of 8,535 ETH (approximately $26.44 million). Truebit has advised users to avoid interacting with the contract and is cooperating with law enforcement agencies in the investigation. The team will continue to release updates through official channels.

Wall Street and the crypto community have privately made "progress" on market structure legislation.

According to Decrypt, SIFMA, a major Wall Street trade organization, held a private meeting with representatives from the DeFi and crypto industry to discuss disagreements over the Senate's crypto market structure bill, with "progress" made particularly regarding DeFi regulatory provisions. SIFMA objected to regulatory exemptions for certain decentralized financial services and their developers, and the industry attempted to persuade them to change their stance during the meeting. The bill faces a crucial Senate vote next week, and both sides are pressed for time to reach a compromise.

Trump says he has decided on the Federal Reserve Chair.

In an interview with The New York Times, US President Donald Trump said he has decided who to nominate as the next Federal Reserve Chairman, but did not reveal his choice. "I've made up my mind," he said, "but I haven't spoken to anyone yet." When asked about his chief economic advisor, Hassett, Trump said, "I don't want to say," but he called Hassett "definitely one of my favorites." Regardless of Trump's choice, the next Fed Chairman will take over an institution at a critical juncture, at the center of the president's unprecedented pressure campaign to drastically lower interest rates. The prediction market Kalshi currently rates Kevin Warsh 41% as Fed Chairman, Kevin Hassett 39%, and Christopher Waller 12%.

Trump confirms he will not pardon SBF

In an interview, US President Donald Trump stated that he has no intention of granting a presidential pardon to former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), who was sentenced for the company's collapse. He also explicitly stated that he would not pardon other public figures mentioned by reporters, such as music producer Sean Combs/P. Diddy and former Senator Robert Menendez. This statement effectively rules out the possibility of SBF receiving a presidential pardon, meaning that his sentence and judicial appeals process will still be determined by the court system.

Grayscale BNB ETF completes registration in Delaware

Grayscale has officially registered a Binance Coin (BNB)-based ETF entity (in the form of a Delaware statutory trust) in Delaware, USA. This is an important preliminary step towards a potential future BNB ETF investment product. No specific launch timeline or regulatory approval progress has been announced yet.

The long positions held by "Strategy's counterparty" have exceeded $200 million.

Hyperbot data shows that after continuous rolling additions to their long positions, "Strategy Counterparty" and the whale "pension-usdt.eth" have increased their long positions to $205 million and $60.87 million, respectively. "Strategy Counterparty" currently holds long positions in BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, XPL, and PUMP, while "pension-usdt.eth" holds long positions in ETH.

Morgan Stanley plans to launch a digital wallet this year to support tokenized assets.

According to market sources, Morgan Stanley plans to launch a digital wallet later this year to support tokenized assets.

JPMorgan Chase: The recent sell-off in the crypto market may be nearing its end.

According to a CoinDesk report, a recent report from JPMorgan Chase indicates that the recent sell-off in the crypto market may be nearing its end. Analyst Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou stated that outflows from Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs began to stabilize in January, and futures market positioning indicators also suggest that investor reduction efforts by the end of 2025 have largely been completed. JPMorgan Chase believes that market liquidity remains good, and this round of adjustments was primarily driven by de-risking triggered by MSCI's statement last October regarding the potential exclusion of crypto-related companies, rather than market pressure. MSCI's recent decision not to exclude cryptocurrency-related companies from its February 2026 global equity index review provides short-term relief to the market and reduces the risk of forced selling associated with index changes.

The whale "pension-usdt.eth" has opened a new long position in ETH, with a position size of approximately $12.63 million.

According to Hyperbot data, the whale "pension-usdt.eth" closed all its ETH short positions 7 hours ago and then opened a new ETH long position with 3x leverage a dozen minutes ago. The position has now increased to about $12.63 million, with an average entry price of $3,097.07 and a mark price of $3,099.9.

Strategy's counterparties have turned bullish, with new positions totaling approximately $120 million.

Hyperbot data shows that "Strategy's counterparty" has shifted from a bearish to a bullish stance. After closing all short positions in multiple cryptocurrencies, it opened new long positions in BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, and XPL. After several rounds of rolling additions, its current position size is approximately $120 million.

Bitmine has staked another 57,600 ETH, bringing its total staked ETH to approximately 965,700 ETH.

According to OnchainLens monitoring, Bitmine has staked an additional 57,600 ETH (worth $176.16 million). To date, they have staked a total of 965,792 ETH, with a total value of $2.97 billion.

Optimism proposes to use 50% of Superchain's revenue to buy back OP tokens.

Ethereum's L2 network Optimism has published an article stating that DAOs are facing a funding allocation challenge. The Optimism Foundation has proposed a plan to more closely link the OP token with the success of Superchain. According to the proposal, starting in February of this year, 50% of Superchain's revenue will be used to buy back OP tokens. Furthermore, the Optimism Foundation will adjust its capital allocation methods to invest more effectively in Superchain and enhance the role of OP tokens within Superchain.

The "Strategy counterparty" has closed all short positions in multiple tokens including BTC and ETH, generating a profit of approximately $7.17 million in the past day.

Hyperbot data shows that the "Strategy counterparty" has closed all its short positions in BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, kBONK, SUI, and FARTCOIN within the last 20 minutes, and its perpetual contract positions have been wiped out. It profited approximately $7.17 million in one day and approximately $10.01 million in the past month. This address opened its positions last December, with a total account balance exceeding $31.78 million. After opening its positions, it continuously added to its short positions in major cryptocurrencies such as BTC and ETH. Its BTC short positions were once worth over $120 million, making it the largest BTC short seller on the blockchain. This is comparable to the counterparty of the publicly traded company Strategy, which has consistently bought BTC.

Changpeng Zhao: The Chinese version of my memoir may be titled "Binance Life," which has nothing to do with Meme coin.

Changpeng Zhao stated on the X platform: "I might name the Chinese version of my memoir 'Binance Life.' This has absolutely nothing to do with any Meme coin or related transactions. However, I quite like Meme culture. Disclaimer: I do not hold any 'Binance Life' Meme coin, nor do I intend to hold any of it. Furthermore, I reserve all rights not to use this title, and I may change my mind at the last minute. The book is expected to be released in 4 to 6 weeks, with both Chinese and English versions released simultaneously. I plan to self-publish it because publishing through a publisher takes too long. All proceeds from this book will be donated to charity."

Trader Eugene: SOL is performing best among the three major cryptocurrencies, and I'm buying it back in.

Trader Eugene posted on his personal channel that he is rebuying SOL, stating that SOL is the best performing of the three major cryptocurrencies. From a technical analysis perspective, the price of SOL is expected to fluctuate to $160. If this upward trend continues and BTC reaches $100,000 in the future, SOL may rise to $200. He also added that the best entry point is when the market has not yet reached a consensus on the reasons for going long, and he currently hopes that BTC can hold the $90,000 mark.

Binance Report: Expectations of accelerated interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve in 2026 are beneficial for Bitcoin; January may be a turning point in the bearish trend.

Binance Research's January crypto market report noted that in December 2025, despite the Federal Reserve's accommodative policies, the crypto market continued to decline due to investor caution. However, with asset management companies continuing to increase their holdings, the market dominance of Bitcoin and Ethereum continued to strengthen. January could be a turning point in the bearish trend as investors consider shifting back to cryptocurrencies from overvalued asset classes. In 2025, metals are expected to be a top-performing asset class, driven by factors such as monetary easing, AI demand, and a shift towards "commodity control." While Bitcoin also benefited from similar macroeconomic positives, its performance diverged in the fourth quarter due to the lack of a "strategic asset premium." However, this divergence may be temporary: as US legislation pushes towards institutionalizing a strategic Bitcoin reserve and potentially shifts from holding seized assets to active fiscal procurement, Bitcoin's valuation framework is expected to realign with that of strategic metals. Market participants anticipate accelerated monetary easing in 2026, driven by factors such as tariff shocks, a fragile labor market, and a dovish leadership shift. This necessitates a higher long-term premium to compensate for "fiscal dominance" and the impending debt burden exceeding $50 trillion. A steepening yield curve indicates market skepticism regarding the Fed's "soft landing" narrative, creating a favorable opportunity for Bitcoin to capitalize on both the influx of cheap short-term liquidity and the long-term erosion of fiat credit. Since their inception, altcoin ETFs have largely attracted net inflows, totaling over $2 billion, with XRP and SOL leading the way, while other assets have contributed smaller but steady inflows. In contrast, Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs have seen continuous net outflows since October, highlighting a divergence in marginal demand as market momentum slows. While still in its early stages, the approval of more altcoin ETFs and continued inflows could increasingly impact liquidity distribution, especially if broader market inflows accelerate again. By 2025, six newly launched stablecoins are projected to surpass $1 billion in market capitalization. As stablecoins continue to be used globally, their related metrics are increasingly becoming an important indicator for measuring global financial activity.

The number of Americans filing for initial jobless claims in the week ending January 3 was 208,000, compared to an expected 210,000.

According to Jinshi News, the number of initial jobless claims in the United States for the week ending January 3 was 208,000, compared with an expected 210,000 and a revised 200,000 for the previous week (originally 199,000).

Wintermute CEO: Project investment approval rate in 2025 was only 4%, marking the end of the "scattershot" investment approach.

Wintermute founder and CEO Evgeny Gaevoy stated in an article on the X platform: "We have evolved from the 'scattershot' investment approach of 2021-2022 to a current project approval rate of only 4%. Wintermute Ventures completed 23 investments in 2025, primarily leading Pre-Seed and Seed rounds. These investments are not for obtaining market-making (MM) licenses and are completely independent of the trading business." Wintermute Ventures also stated that it reviewed approximately 600 companies in 2025, with 20% entering the formal due diligence stage and 4% receiving funding. The most common funding structures used in 2025 were equity/SAFE and token warrants. The most suitable funding and investment structure will be matched based on the founders' vision for the project's long-term development.

Report: Illegal cryptocurrency addresses received $154 billion in 2025, a 162% increase year-over-year.

According to The Block, a new Chainalysis report shows that the total value of illicit cryptocurrency addresses received in 2025 reached $154 billion (a conservative estimate), a 162% increase from the revised total of the previous year. This was primarily driven by a surge in activity related to sanctioned entities, including state-sanction circumvention. The illicit share of all cryptocurrency transactions remained below 1%. Chainalysis stated that its methodology does not cover non-crypto-native criminal proceeds, such as traditional drug trafficking using only crypto payments, as on-chain data makes it difficult to distinguish such transactions from legitimate activities. The organization attributed most of the illicit transaction volume in 2025 to a few state-linked actors, including North Korea, Russia, networks allied with Iran, and a money laundering group in an Asian country. In 2025, North Korean hackers stole $2 billion; Russia's ruble-backed A7A5 stablecoin accounted for a large share of on-chain state-linked activities, facilitating over $93.3 billion in transactions in its first year after its launch in February 2025, despite previous US and EU sanctions; and Iranian proxy networks facilitated over $2 billion in on-chain activity related to money laundering, illicit oil sales, and arms procurement. In 2025, stablecoins accounted for 84% of all illicit transactions. Illicit crypto activities rely on full suites of illicit infrastructure service providers, including those used by ransomware, fraud networks, and state-sponsored actors. On-chain crime is increasingly overlapping with violence, such as human trafficking and coercive attacks, forcing victims to transfer crypto assets during periods of market activity.

Andre Cronje's new project, Flying Tulip, has been added to the whitelist of interested parties.

Sonic co-founder Andre Cronje (AC) announced the launch of the Intent Whitelist for his new project, Flying Tulip, on the X platform. However, Cronje specifically noted that no fund transfers are currently involved, and all subsequent updates will be subject to official Flying Tulip announcements. According to previous public offering details disclosed by Flying Tulip, the public offering will be conducted in four rounds: Early Access, Supporter Whitelist, Intent Whitelist, and Open Public, with identical fundraising terms for each round. Previously, in September of last year, Flying Tulip completed a $200 million seed round of financing with a token valuation of $1 billion.

Analysis: The "1011" crash forced market makers to hold large amounts of tokens, causing market liquidity to fall to its lowest point since 2022.

According to CoinDesk, BitMEX stated in its latest report that the October 11, 2025 crash impacted market makers, forcing them to hold large amounts of cryptocurrency. This crash resulted in approximately $20 billion in cascading liquidations, severely damaging market makers' neutral strategies and causing market liquidity to drop to its lowest level since 2022. BitMEX stated, "When the ADL (automatic deleveraging) mechanism was triggered, forcibly closing short positions used by market makers for hedging, these institutions were forced to hold unhedged spot positions during the rapid market decline. This situation broke the promise of a 'neutral strategy' for perpetual contracts, causing market makers to withdraw liquidity globally in the fourth quarter of 2025, resulting in order book liquidity falling to its lowest level since 2022." With a large influx of imitators, the Delta-neutral "easy profits" relying on funding rate arbitrage have shrunk significantly, with annualized returns falling below 4%. At the same time, B-book platforms have reaped considerable profits, the DeFi perpetual contract market remains susceptible to manipulation, while the traditional financial perpetual contract market has experienced explosive growth.

Upbit hackers are continuing to transfer funds to Tornado Cash; 1,400 ETH have already been transferred.

According to MistTrack, the attackers behind the Upbit hack (which resulted in approximately $36 million in losses) (addresses starting with 0x93A0) are continuously transferring funds to Tornado Cash. To date, 1,400 ETH have been transferred.

21Shares will distribute staking rewards to its Ethereum ETF holders, amounting to $0.010378 per share.

According to Globenewswire, 21Shares, a subsidiary of institutional digital asset brokerage FalconX, announced it will distribute ETH staking rewards to holders of its Ethereum exchange-traded fund, 21shares Ethereum ETF (TETH). Under the distribution plan, TETH holders will receive $0.010378 per share, with the distribution taking place on January 9, 2026. Previously, Grayscale also announced this week that it would distribute Ethereum staking rewards to ETHE holders, awarding $0.083178 per share.

BlackRock deposited 2,164 BTC and 22,902 ETH into Coinbase Prime.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, BlackRock deposited 2,164 BTC (worth $195.12 million) and 22,902 ETH (worth $71.43 million) into Coinbase Prime, and may deposit more. Update: As of 19:29 today, BlackRock has deposited 2,390 BTC and 27,700 ETH into Coinbase Prime.

ZEC fell more than 18% intraday after the entire ECC team, the support organization for Zcash, resigned.

According to OKX market data, the ZEC token is currently priced at $393.95, a daily drop of 18.37%. The token price had previously fallen to $381.40 earlier today. Previously, it was reported that the entire ECC team, the organization supporting Zcash, resigned to form a new company to continue the mission of privacy currency.

Zerion's L2 network, Zero Network, has been out of production for over three weeks.

Crypto KOL @y_cryptoanalyst posted on the X platform that Zero Network, the L2 network incubated by Zerion, a Web3 wallet company that has raised $22.5 million in funding, has stopped producing blocks for more than three weeks. It was found that Zero Network stated on December 31, 2025, that the network planned to resume operation in mid-January.