Crypto

The reported divestment follows Nike’s closure of its digital collectibles unit and comes as market pressures continue to weigh on NFTs. Footwear conglomerate Nike has quietly offloaded RTFKT, the digital collectibles studio it acquired at the height of the non-fungible token (NFT) boom, according to a report by The Oregonian.  The transaction reportedly happened in December, though neither the buyer nor the financial terms have been disclosed. The quiet exit happened almost a year after Nike announced that it was shutting down its RTFKT subsidiary.  Nike has not publicly confirmed the sale, saying only in a brief statement published by The Oregonian that the transaction marked a new chapter for RTFKT and its community. The company said that it continues to invest in digital experiences, mentioning partnerships with gaming platforms.  Read more

Ripple (XRP) trades at $2.28 as key support holds, with traders watching $2.32 resistance, EMA ribbon test, and $2.66 upside target.

The bitcoin treasury company's perpetual preferred equity, STRC, hit $100 for the first time since early November.

Innovation thrives only when blockchain and crypto remain apolitical, compliant and interoperable, ensuring technology serves trust, not political agendas. Opinion by: Marcos Viriato, co-founder and CEO of Parfin Blockchain was born to decentralize power and create systems that operate on transparency, not control. Yet today, the technology is being adopted by the institutions it sought to disrupt.  Governments and corporations are integrating blockchain into their existing frameworks. This turns a tool built for autonomy into one that reinforces oversight. Read more

The investment banking giant is seeking to capture additional yield from the proposed ETF’s Ether holdings via staking, as institutional investors launch more regulated crypto funds. Morgan Stanley has filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch a spot Ether exchange-traded fund (ETF), adding to a growing list of crypto products from the investment banking giant. The US investment bank filed an S-1 form to establish the Morgan Stanley Ethereum Trust, an ETF that seeks to buy, hold and track the price of spot Ether (ETH), according to a Tuesday filing with the SEC. The filing states that the fund will not seek to “speculatively sell” Ether to realize additional returns, but it plans to engage third-party staking services providers to stake an undisclosed amount of their holdings for additional passive yield. Read more

Your day-ahead look for Jan. 7, 2026

Deal follows NFT shutdown as Nike retreats from digital collectibles amid cooling market demand

Ethereum has recently shown a notable shift in short-term momentum, attracting renewed attention as it approaches a technically important area. While the broader structure remains corrective, recent price behaviour suggests that buyers are becoming more active near key technical levels. Ethereum Price Analysis: The Daily Chart On the daily timeframe, ETH has experienced a clear […]

Moody’s said stablecoins and tokenized deposits are evolving into institutional “digital cash,” with trillions in onchain settlement volume and billions in infrastructure investment. Stablecoins are shifting from a crypto native tool to a core piece of institutional market plumbing, according to a new cross-sector outlook report from Moody’s. In the report, published Monday, the ratings agency said stablecoins processed about 87% more settlement volume in 2025 than the year before, reaching $9 trillion in activity based on industry estimates of onchain transactions, rather than purely bank‑to‑bank flows. Moody’s said fiat‑backed stablecoins and tokenized deposits are evolving into “digital cash” for liquidity management, collateral movements and settlements across an increasingly tokenized financial system. Read more

Japan's Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama stood at the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Jan. 5 and declared 2026 a “digital year,” framing traditional exchanges as the primary gateway for investors to access cryptoassets and ETF-like products. As Elliptic noted, she pointed to US spot Bitcoin ETFs as a model, explicitly stating what Japan's Financial Services Agency […] The post XRP currently dominates Japan’s cash inflows, and a new 20% tax rate is about to lock that advantage in appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin trades near $91.7K as exchange supply drops to 13.7%, with low inflows, steady outflows, and key levels at $93.8K and $96.5K in focus.

Industry figures argued that banks’ concerns are valid but exaggerated, urging the creation of comparable rules without stifling innovation.

Barclays has invested in Ubyx, a US stablecoin clearing platform, marking a major move into regulated digital money and tokenized financial services. Barclays, one of the world’s biggest banks and a systemically important global financial institution, has made its first investment in a stablecoin-related company. The United Kingdom-based bank said Wednesday it had invested in Ubyx, a US stablecoin clearing platform that aims to connect regulated issuers with banks and fintech companies. Barclays did not disclose the size of the investment. “As the landscape of tokens, blockchains and wallets evolves, specialist technology will play a pivotal role in delivering connectivity and infrastructure to enable regulated financial institutions to interact seamlessly,” said Ryan Hayward, head of digital assets and strategic investments at Barclays. Read more

Vitalik and Solana's Yakovenko outline competing ideas about resilience, exposing deeper trade-offs between sovereignty, speed and economic design. Ethereum and Solana are not only separated by questions of scalability, they are increasingly divided by competing visions of what blockchain networks must be built to withstand in the future. Recent remarks from the co-founders of each network revealed two competing definitions of “resilience,” rooted in different assumptions about risk, infrastructure and the future shape of blockchain adoption. In an X post revisiting Ethereum’s Trustless Manifesto, co-founder Vitalik Buterin framed resilience as protection against catastrophic failure, including political exclusion, infrastructure collapse, developer disappearance and financial confiscation.  Read more

RAIN is today's top gainer, followed by M and HYPE.

Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) has decided not to exclude digital asset treasury companies (DATs) from its market indexes.

XRP has emerged as the best-performing asset among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization to start 2026, outpacing market leaders Bitcoin and Ethereum. According to data from CryptoSlate, XRP has jumped by 28% since the start of the year to $2.37, its highest price level since November 2025. In comparison, Bitcoin and Ethereum have […] The post XRP ETFs are devouring supply at a rate that exposes a glaring $1 billion institutional secret appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Can ETH reach a new ATH this year?

[PRESS RELEASE – Cape Town, South Africa, January 6th, 2026] QIE Blockchain has announced the opening of its validator program to new participants, coinciding with its recent listing on the MEXC exchange and notable increases in developer adoption across its network. Following its first global developer conference and hackathon, QIE reported participation from over 4,000 […]

[PRESS RELEASE – Las Vegas, NV, USA, January 6th, 2026] Coinhub Exchange, a modern online crypto exchange, announced the grand opening of two new branch locations in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Phoenix, Arizona. The new branches are designed to make crypto easier for everyday customers and active traders by combining online trading with real, in-person […]