Democrat Maxine Waters demands an SEC oversight hearing after the agency dropped major cases against Coinbase, Binance, and other crypto firms. US Representative Maxine Waters has called for a hearing with Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Paul Atkins, highlighting concerns over the agency’s dismissal of crypto cases, and nine other points of contention. In a letter on Sunday to French Hill, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, Waters argued that a hearing was well overdue highlighting what she sees as “questionable policy changes” at the SEC. “Chair Gensler testified before the Committee twice during his first year. Despite having a clear obligation to oversee the SEC, the Committee has not held a single hearing with Chairman Atkins, despite the agency’s rapid, significant, and questionable policy shifts during the Trump Administration,” she wrote. Read more
Bitcoin selling pressure from long time hodlers is finally abating and Ether whales are adding to their holdings. Markets remain bearish, however. Long-term Bitcoin holders have pumped the brakes on selling their fat stacks for the first time in six months, while Ether whales have ramped up accumulation of the digital asset. Wallets holding Bitcoin (BTC) for at least 155 days trimmed their positions from 14.8 million coins in mid-July to 14.3 million in December. However, crypto investor and entrepreneur Ted Pillows noted in an X post on Monday the selloff has tapered off. “Long-term holders have stopped selling Bitcoin for the first time since July 2025. Things are looking good for a relief rally here,” he said. Read more
Widespread protests took place in Iran’s capital after the rial slid to record lows, prompting Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley to argue Bitcoin could help Iranians protect their savings. Protests erupted across Iran’s capital of Tehran on Monday as the rial hit record lows against the US dollar, a currency collapse that locals blame on the central bank’s poor fiscal policies as they watch the value of their life savings evaporate. While there’s no single solution to the economic hardship that Iranians are facing, Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley suggested that Bitcoin (BTC) is a way for people around the world to protect themselves from plunging currency values. “Economic mismanagement — The story of the past, present, and future,” Bitcoin is a new way for the people to protect themselves,” Horsley said in a post to X Monday. Read more
Analysts are split on whether Bitcoin’s typical four-year cycle has ended in 2025, with institutional ETFs and regulatory shifts cited as key factors. A wave of institutional crypto participation spurred by exchange-traded funds, an easing of regulations in the US, an increase in global liquidity, and a Federal Reserve leadership change are just some of the reasons why analysts think the typical four-year crypto cycle is broken. The four-year cycle is tied to Bitcoin (BTC) halving events, which cut miner rewards in half, reducing the supply of new Bitcoin entering circulation. Historically, this was seen as the catalyst for a predictable pattern: accumulation, a post-halving bull run that peaked around 18 months later, followed by a sharp correction and multi-year bear market. Read more
An Investigation from ZachXBT traced the suspect through posts gloating on social media and Telegram activity. An alleged scammer posing as a Coinbase help desk worker has reportedly stolen around $2 million in crypto from users of the exchange, according to blockchain sleuth ZachXBT. In a Monday X post, ZachXBT claimed that he had managed to pinpoint the identity of the alleged scammer after cross referencing Telegram group chat screen shots, social media posts and wallet transactions. ZachXBT alleged that the “Canadian threat actor” had “stolen $2M+ via Coinbase support impersonation social engineering scams in the past year blowing the funds on rare social media usernames, bottle service, & gambling,” Read more
Dragonfly’s Haseeb Qureshi predicts Big Tech and Fortune 100 companies will start building in crypto in 2026, but that corporate L1s will fail to challenge Ethereum and Solana. A Big Tech company will integrate a crypto wallet in 2026, and more Fortune 100 companies will start their own blockchains, crypto VC firm Dragonfly’s managing partner Haseeb Qureshi has predicted. He also tipped that fintechs launching L1s to compete with public chains like Ethereum and Solana will fail to attract enough users. In a post to X on Monday, Qureshi said much of the Fortune 100 adoption is likely to come from the banking and fintech sectors, with many leveraging the Avalanche blockchain and existing crypto toolkits like OP stack, Orbit, and ZK Stack. The setup would enable these networks to more private and permissioned while remaining connected to a public blockchain. A number of Fortune 100 firms in the financial services industry have already built private blockchains, including JPMorgan, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs,...
Viral “U cards” are quietly onboarding Chinese users to crypto, and the digital yuan can now earn depositors interest at banks. Asia Express. Stablecoins are finding an indirect path into China via payment cards going viral on social media. Locally referred to as U cards, overseas Visa or Mastercards linked to stablecoin balances such as USDT, have surged in popularity on Chinese social platform Xiaohongshu, also known as Little Red Book. Posts explain how to obtain the cards with ease and use them for everyday overseas payments, such as subscriptions to services. Such cards allow users to spend dollar-denominated stablecoins while merchants receive fiat currency, meaning Chinese businesses never directly touch crypto. Conversion is handled by overseas banks or licensed payment institutions, placing the transaction outside Chinas domestic financial rails. Read more
According to Coinbase researcher David Duong, decentralized platforms and shifting trader behavior have pushed perpetual futures into a more central market role. Crypto derivatives activity picked up sharply in 2025 as traders increasingly turned to onchain perpetual futures, according to Coinbase researcher David Duong. By late in the year, decentralized exchanges were processing more than $1 trillion in monthly perpetual futures volume, underscoring the growing role of onchain derivatives markets. In a post published Monday on X, Duong said the trend was driven in part by the absence of a traditional altcoin season, which led traders to seek higher returns through leverage rather than spot markets. He added that the “unprecedented degree of leverage” available in perpetual futures allowed traders to amplify exposure with relatively small amounts of capital. Duong noted that the surge in activity has been driven mainly by decentralized trading platforms, with onchain venues such as Aster and Hyperliquid acco...
Although recovery of assets affected in a $3.9 million exploit of the Flow blockchain isn't guaranteed, many users responded positively to a change in the remediation plan. The Flow Foundation, behind addressing a remediation plan following a $3.9 million exploit of the blockchain, has scrapped a proposal that would involve rolling back the layer-1 Flow chain after community criticism. In a Monday X post, Alex Smirnov, founder of bridge provider deBridge, said there would be “no rollback” and no reorganization of the blockchain as part of an updated recovery. Flow released a technical implementation plan, saying it had already temporarily restricted accounts affected by the exploit and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) operations were read-only as part of phase one of the recovery. “There will be no chain reorganization,” said Flow. “All legitimate transactions that occurred prior to the halt remain valid and will not require resubmission or reconciliation.” Read more