Cointelegraph.com
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Cointelegraph.com - 14:07 Jan 28, 2026
Hashrate fell sharply as Bitcoin miners curtailed operations during extreme winter conditions in the US, boosting profitability for companies that stayed online. Bitcoin mining stocks saw a significant bump on Wednesday after the US winter storm forced some companies to wind down operations, leading to lower block competition and more profitable mining operations. Shares of several major mining companies posted double-digit gains over the past 24 hours. TeraWulf rose about 11%, Iren Limited gained 14% and Cipher Mining climbed about 13%, according to data from Barchart. The rally occurred days after the Bitcoin network’s hashrate sank to a seven-month low of 663 exahashes per second (EH/s) on Sunday, a 40% drop in two days due to a severe winter storm battering the US. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 13:46 Jan 28, 2026
Bitget EU expects MiCA approval in Austria by mid-2026 and plans a broker-led model with strict asset standards for European users. Bitget appointed former Bitpanda chief legal officer and prior KuCoin EU head Oliver Stauber as CEO of Bitget EU to lead the exchange’s Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA) expansion and set up its new European headquarters in Vienna. The entity, which applied for a MiCA license in Austria in 2025, expects regulatory approval in the second quarter of 2026 and will not offer services in the European Economic Area (EEA) until authorization is granted, Stauber told Cointelegraph. He said that Bitget EU will ring‑fence EEA users from the offshore Bitget platform via Internet Protocol (IP) address detection and enhanced Know Your Customer (KYC) controls designed to prevent unlicensed entities from onboarding residents through geographic workarounds, marketing or reverse solicitation. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 13:45 Jan 28, 2026
DeFi is still out of scope for DAC8 and CARF, but AML enforcement trends suggest that may not last, according to Taxbit’s Colby Mangels. The European Union’s new cryptocurrency tax reporting framework is built around what governments can immediately enforce, leaving decentralized finance (DeFi) outside its scope for now. A former Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) official who worked on the Crypto Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) said that this gap is a deliberate focus and not a blind spot. “It doesn’t make sense to go to your grandma and ask her to give you all the tax reporting on crypto just because you happened to work with her over a certain period,” Colby Mangels, Taxbit’s global head of government solutions and a former OECD adviser, told Cointelegraph. “You really have to go to the intermediaries that are doing this as a business.” Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 13:20 Jan 28, 2026
Speculative capital is flowing into emerging tech opportunities, as progress with US crypto regulations continues to stall, limiting investor appetite for digital assets, Delphi Digital said. Speculative capital is increasingly flowing out of cryptocurrency markets and into other emerging technologies including artificial intelligence and robotics, according to research company Delphi Digital. Last year’s underperformance of most altcoin sectors shows that crypto is no longer the “default destination” for speculative capital seeking higher-risk opportunities, wrote Delphi Digital in a Wednesday X post. The trend illustrates that emerging tech opportunities may continue limiting investment into the wider cryptocurrency space, specifically from risk-hungry investors looking for the sectors with the highest risk-to-return profiles. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 12:30 Jan 28, 2026
WisdomTree adds Solana to its tokenized fund lineup, citing transaction speed as it expands a regulated multi-chain strategy. American asset management company WisdomTree said on Wednesday that it is expanding its tokenized funds onto the Solana network as part of its “multi-chain deployment strategy.” The exchange-traded product issuer said the strategic expansion enables both institutional and retail users to “mint, trade, and hold WisdomTree’s full suite of tokenized funds on Solana, supporting the growth of on-chain offerings.” All of the company’s tokenized funds — including money market, equities, fixed income, alternatives, and asset allocation — can now be traded on Solana. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 12:30 Jan 28, 2026
Physical co-location and nanosecond advantages end as alpha shifts onchain. High-frequency trading firms own blockchain infrastructure. Opinion by: Annabelle Huang, co-founder and CEO of Altius Labs For centuries, the world’s traders and speculators have pursued one thing above all else: alpha. Not just returns, but an edge — a structural advantage that lets them capture value before everyone else. In modern times, they’ve achieved this through speed and precision, often beating the competition by mere nanoseconds. As markets migrate to blockchain rails, however, the nature of alpha itself is shifting. Future alpha won’t come from co-locating servers next to an exchange or shaving nanoseconds off fiber routes. Rather, it will emerge from using onchain infrastructure in unique ways. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 11:52 Jan 28, 2026
Tether increases physical gold holdings to 130 metric tons while Coinbase promotes futures trading as Bitcoin lags and gold tops $5,300 per ounce. As gold prices surged to $5,300 this week, Tether and Coinbase — the two companies behind the world’s largest US dollar stablecoins — are taking different approaches to gaining exposure to the precious metal. Spot gold climbed above $5,300 per ounce on Wednesday, posting a record high of $5,311 at 3:30 am UTC, according to TradingView data. Amid the rally, Tether, issuer of USDt (USDT), the world’s largest stablecoin, doubled down on its gold accumulation, while Coinbase, a key partner in the USDC (USDC) stablecoin consortium, promoted access to gold futures on its platform. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 11:23 Jan 28, 2026
The Financial Services Commission chief says ownership limits are still under negotiation as lawmakers debate the Digital Asset Basic Act ahead of a mid-February deadline. South Korea’s top financial regulator said crypto exchanges should face ownership limits similar to those applied to securities markets, signaling a harder public stance on governance reforms under the country’s proposed Digital Asset Basic Act. According to a report by The Korea Times, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chair Lee Eog-weon said licensed crypto exchanges should no longer be treated as ordinary private companies but as entities with public-infrastructure characteristics. Lee’s comments come as the FSC reviews a proposal to cap major shareholders’ stakes in crypto exchanges at around 15% to 20%, a measure that has drawn resistance from exchange operators and raised concerns within the ruling Democratic Party. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 11:21 Jan 28, 2026
European Central Bank executive Piero Cipollone has argued that rising geopolitical tensions make a European-controlled payments system a strategic necessity. Rising geopolitical tensions are strengthening the case for a European-controlled digital payments system, according to European Central Bank (ECB) executive board member Piero Cipollone. In an interview with Spanish newspaper El País, shared by the ECB on Wednesday, Cipollone described the proposed digital euro as “public money in digital form,” arguing that it was needed to complement cash and address an increasingly fragmented payments landscape in Europe, especially as e-commerce grows. He noted that cash accounted for around a quarter (24%) of day-to-day transaction value in 2024, down sharply from 2019 (40%), and said the ECB had a responsibility to adapt how it provided money as a public good. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 11:16 Jan 28, 2026
Bitcoin ETF investors contend with price dropping to their aggregate entry level, but a crypto executive claims new institutions are lining up. Bitcoin (BTC) institutional investors face a test of “conviction” as exchange-traded fund (ETF) holdings tumble by $6 billion. Key points: Bitcoin ETF investors now face falling into aggregate loss on their holdings. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 10:30 Jan 28, 2026
Bitcoin price traded below $90,000 as investors braced for Jerome Powell’s post-FOMC speech that could trigger volatile swings toward key BTC price levels. Bitcoin (BTC) is attempting to break the resistance at $90,000 on Wednesday, as traders expect volatile price swings before and after the US policy decision on interest rate cuts. Key takeaways: The odds of the US Federal Reserve leaving interest rates unchanged today are 100%. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 09:43 Jan 28, 2026
A wallet linked to an alleged theft of US government-seized crypto launched a Solana memecoin on Pump.fun that later crashed 97%, raising tokenomics red flags. A cryptocurrency wallet linked by blockchain investigators to an alleged theft of US government-controlled crypto holdings launched a Solana-based memecoin that later collapsed, renewing scrutiny of memecoin launch practices and onchain token distribution risks. The token, called John Daghita (LICK), was created on the Pump.fun launchpad and lost about 97% of its value within its first day of trading, according to onchain data. The token briefly reached a market capitalization of about $915,000 before falling below $25,000 by the time of writing. Leading up to the rally, the token deployer address made four acquisitions, while the coin was still trading below the $21,000 market capitalization, Pump.fun data shows. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 08:00 Jan 28, 2026
OKX says the card supports USDC and USDG spending, is issued via Monavate on Mastercard’s network and is available to verified EU users. Cryptocurrency exchange OKX is rolling out a payment card in Europe, allowing users to spend stablecoins at merchants accepting Mastercard. The OKX Card is issued through the company’s Electronic Money Institution (EMI) partner, Monavate, OKX said Wednesday in an announcement shared with Cointelegraph. At launch, the card supports spending in stablecoins including Circle’s USDC (USDC) and the Paxos-issued Global Dollar (USDG). Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 06:18 Jan 28, 2026
Chainalysis says the on-chain money laundering ecosystem processed $82 billion in funds in 2025, with Chinese-language networks now dominating. The use of centralized crypto exchanges for laundering illicit funds is on the decline, with Chinese-language money laundering networks now being used more than ever, according to Chainalysis. Chainalysis said in a report on Tuesday that informal service-based networks offered through Chinese-speaking channels have a wide variety of laundering-as-a-service businesses that use money mules, informal over-the-counter trade desks, and gambling platforms to mix and swap crypto. The networks emerged during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, and now “dominate known crypto money laundering activity.” Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 00:32 Jan 28, 2026
Morgan Stanley largely sat out the first wave of institutional crypto adoption across 2024–2025 but surprised many with three crypto ETF filings earlier this month. Morgan Stanley has tapped veteran executive Amy Oldenburg to lead the investment bank’s new crypto unit, just weeks after announcing plans to launch three crypto exchange-traded funds and a crypto wallet. Oldenburg will transition to head of digital asset strategy after working in Morgan Stanley’s emerging markets equity team since 2001, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. Oldenburg has been leading the emerging markets team since November 2021, where she was tasked with driving the division’s digital asset strategy. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 21:59 Jan 27, 2026
The US Marshals Service confirmed “the matter is under investigation” following claims that millions in government-seized crypto was stolen. US authorities have confirmed that an investigation is underway into claims that the son of a federal contractor tasked with safeguarding seized digital assets stole more than $40 million in cryptocurrency. A spokesperson for the US Marshals Service confirmed to Cointelegraph that “the matter is under investigation” but declined to comment on details of the case. The investigation centers on social media claims that John Daghita, son of Command Services & Support (CMDSS) president Dean Daghita, gained unauthorized access to wallets managed under the federal asset protection program. Crypto sleuth ZachXBT disclosed on Friday that he had traced a wallet linked to Daghita holding about $23 million in crypto connected to as much as $90 million in assets believed to have been seized by the government in 2024 and 2025. ZachXBT later said that he had reported to authorities ano... -
Cointelegraph.com - 21:49 Jan 27, 2026
AI data center expansion is facing growing local opposition over power, infrastructure and costs, echoing the resistance that once slowed Bitcoin mining. For years, Bitcoin miners expanding across the United States learned that access to cheap power and industrial land did not guarantee community acceptance. Now, as AI hyperscalers and developers race to build power-dense data centers, they are encountering similar local resistance over electricity demand, infrastructure costs and long-term environmental impact, according to the latest Miner Mag newsletter. The parallels are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. Bitcoin mining projects often promised job creation and a stronger local tax base, but those benefits did not always materialize, fueling opposition in several regions. AI data centers are now drawing many of the same concerns, particularly in states such as Texas, Georgia, Illinois and Mississippi, where residents and local officials are questioning the long-term costs of hosting energy-intensi... -
Cointelegraph.com - 21:23 Jan 27, 2026
Despite Bitcoin trading about 12% lower than a year ago, corporate accumulation shows no sign of slowing in 2026. Public companies are quietly expanding their Bitcoin treasuries in early 2026, with new disclosures this week showing continued accumulation despite largely flat prices. Nasdaq-listed American Bitcoin Corporation said on Tuesday that its Bitcoin (BTC) holdings rose to 5,843 BTC, an increase of 416 Bitcoin from prior levels. The company, co-founded by Eric Trump, said it has climbed to No. 18 among public Bitcoin treasury holders since its Nasdaq debut in September 2025, citing a BTC yield of 116% through Jan. 25, 2026, according to an X post. The performance metric tracks the percentage increase in Bitcoin exposure per share. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 20:51 Jan 27, 2026
Data shows February tends to be one of BTC’s best performing months, leading Bitcoin network economist Timothy Peterson to dub it the real “Uptober” event. Will history repeat? Bitcoin’s (BTC) monthly gains have been limited to just 2.2%, but February could mark a bullish shift. Since 2016, the week ending Feb. 21 has recorded the highest median return at 8.4%, with Bitcoin closing higher 60% of the time. Key takeaways: February has delivered a median 7% weekly BTC return historically, outperforming October’s seasonal strength. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 20:12 Jan 27, 2026
The state representative introduced similar legislation shortly after taking office in 2025, but the bill was deferred and not signed into law. A member of South Dakota’s House of Representatives has introduced another bill that would allow the US state to invest in Bitcoin about a year after similar legislation was deferred. Representative Logan Manhart introduced the Bitcoin (BTC) reserve bill, HB 1155, on Tuesday in South Dakota’s legislature. The legislation had only minor changes from a bill the lawmaker sponsored in 2025, by amending the state’s code to allow the State Investment Council to invest up to 10% of public funds in Bitcoin. “Strong money. Strong state,” said Manhart in a Tuesday X post announcing the bill. Read more
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