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A local news outlet reported that a hacking group called the Shiny Hunters sent ransom demands to Waltio after seizing personal data from about 50,000 users. Authorities in France have started a preliminary investigation into a breach of cryptocurrency tax platform Waltio that could have compromised users’ personal data. According to a Thursday notice by French cybersecurity authorities, the Paris Public Prosecutor's Office and the country’s National Cyber Unit were investigating the nature of the stolen data and identities of Waltio users. The notice warned that users affected by the breach could be targeted in an attempt to move their digital assets under the guise of legitimate security concerns. According to a Friday report from Le Parisien, a group of hackers called the Shiny Hunters sent a ransom demand to Waltio following the attack. The hackers obtained personal data from about 50,000 Waltio users, the majority of whom were based in France. Read more
Bitcoin bull market optimism has suffered since the October crash, as chances of a short-term BTC price rally above $100,000 appeared to be fading. Bitcoin (BTC) may remain pinned below $100,000 for the first half of 2026 as the market lacks bullish catalysts amid macroeconomic uncertainties. Key takeaways: BTC price has a less than 10% chance of retaking $100,000 before Feb. 1, according to prediction markets. Read more
The product, if approved, would give US investors access to regulated BNB exposure without needing to hold the token themselves. Grayscale has filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a spot exchange-traded fund tracking BNB, marking one of the asset manager’s most ambitious moves beyond Bitcoin and Ether. According to a registration statement filed on Friday, the proposed Grayscale BNB ETF would hold BNB (BNB) directly and issue shares designed to reflect the token’s market value, minus fees and expenses. The filing indicates the fund is intended to trade on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol GBNB, subject to regulatory approval. If approved, the product would give US investors regulated exposure to BNB without needing to custody the token themselves or hold it on crypto exchanges. Read more
Bitcoin dropped further below $90,000 while gold and silver kept beating records, leading to a long-term price forecast of $23,000. Bitcoin (BTC) stayed trapped below $90,000 at Friday’s Wall Street open as gold and silver approached historic milestones. Key points: Bitcoin fails to shift its sideways trading behavior while gold comes within 2% of $5,000 per ounce. Read more
Crypto is shedding its illicit money image, but central bankers at the World Economic Forum in Davos 2026 warned it threatens monetary sovereignty. While geopolitical tensions and the Greenland standoff set the tone at Davos 2026, crypto resurfaced as a secondary but consequential theme. US President Donald Trump used a few minutes of his Davos speech to double down on his ambition to turn the US into the world’s crypto capital and voice support for crypto-friendly legislation. His tone was different from central banks. In a panel with crypto bigwigs, the governor of the Bank of France criticized private money and yield-bearing stablecoins while promoting central bank digital currencies (CBDC). Read more
The plan would give ultra-high net worth clients an in-house crypto on-ramp at one of the world's biggest private banks. The world’s biggest global wealth manager, UBS, is reportedly exploring a move to open crypto trading to its wealthiest clients. Bloomberg reported Friday, citing a person familiar with the matter, that the Swiss banking giant aims to let select private banking clients in Switzerland trade Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) first, with a possible rollout to the Asia‑Pacific region and the United States later. The person also reportedly said that UBS was currently selecting partners for its crypto offering, although the bank has not publicly confirmed the details. Read more
BTC price faces pressure as markets brace for a sustained rise in long-term yields driven by economic deficits, particularly in Japan. The gap between the United States’ longer-dated and shorter-dated bonds has widened to its highest level since 2021, signaling potential trouble for Bitcoin (BTC) in 2026. Key takeaways: A wider gap means long-term yields are rising, which can pressure Bitcoin. Read more
Revolut is planning to apply for a US banking license through the OCC after previously considering a bank acquisition that could have required branch commitments. Crypto-friendly fintech unicorn Revolut plans to apply for a banking license in the United States, abandoning earlier plans to acquire a local lender as it seeks to expand its global presence, the Financial Times reported Friday. The United Kingdom-based fintech has been in discussions with US officials about applying for a bank license through the Office for the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the newspaper reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. The move, if confirmed, would be a milestone in strategy for Revolut, which said in September 2025 that it was exploring the purchase of a US bank to accelerate its global expansion. Read more
Restaking yields come from token emissions and VC incentives, not productive activity. Complex models concentrate power among large operators, while compounding risk cascades. Opinion by: Laura Wallendal, co-founder and CEO of Acre Restaking is often heralded as the next big thing in decentralized finance (DeFi) yields, but behind the hype lies a precarious balancing act. Validators are stacking responsibilities and slashing risks, incentives are misaligned, and much of the $21 billion in total value locked (TVL) is held by a handful of whales and venture capitalists rather than the broader market. Let’s break down why restaking lacks real product-market fit and how it compounds more risk than it yields. Most importantly, we need to confront the uncomfortable questions: Who profits when the system fails, and who is left holding the risk? Read more
Decentralized social network Farcaster remains operational after its acquisition by Neynar and confirmed plans to return $180 million in capital to investors. Farcaster co-founder Dan Romero moved to quell speculation about the project’s future, saying the protocol is not shutting down following its acquisition by infrastructure provider Neynar. Farcaster is a decentralized social networking protocol that allows developers to build interoperable social apps where users own their identities, social graphs and connections onchain rather than being locked into a single platform. In a post addressing the community, Romero said Farcaster remains operational and continues to see meaningful usage, citing its 250,000 active monthly users in December and more than 100,000 funded wallets. Read more
Bitcoin's profit cycle has turned negative for the first time since 2023, suggesting that BTC is transitioning into a bear market Bitcoin’s (BTC) drop below $90,000 has pushed onchain profitability metrics into the negative territory, signaling BTC’s entry into a bear market, new research revealed. Data from TradingView showed that Bitcoin price action had established a new range on lower time frames, and market observers were watching the key support levels below. Key takeaways: Read more
The proposal would fund the reserve with unclaimed crypto and staking rewards rather than direct state Bitcoin purchases. Lawmakers in the US state of Kansas are considering a bill that would create a state-managed Bitcoin and digital assets reserve fund funded through unclaimed property rather than direct purchases of cryptocurrency. Kansas Senate Bill 352, introduced by Senator Craig Bowser on Wednesday, would establish a “Bitcoin and digital assets reserve fund” in the state treasury, administered by the state treasurer. The fund would consist of airdrops, staking rewards and interest earned on abandoned digital assets held under Kansas’ unclaimed property law. Read more
Binance applied for a MiCA license in Greece shortly after France flagged the exchange as still unlicensed under MiCA ahead of June compliance deadlines. Binance submitted an application for authorization under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) in Greece as regulators warn of looming compliance deadlines. A Binance spokesperson confirmed to Cointelegraph on Friday that the exchange had filed for a MiCA license in Greece and was working with the country’s financial regulator, the Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC). “We welcome the opportunity to work closely with the HCMC as this new regulation takes shape in the EU and look forward to contributing to the long-term growth of the EU’s digital financial ecosystem,” the exchange’s representative said. Read more
Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin details his 2026 “self-sovereign” tech stack, swapping Big Tech apps for encrypted, open-source and local privacy tools. Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin declared 2026 to be the “year we take back lost ground in computing self-sovereignty,” starting with his own devices. In a Friday post on X, he laid out the software changes he has made to reduce reliance on data-hungry, centralized platforms. The “two major changes” to the software he used in 2025 were switching “almost fully” to Fileverse, an open-source, decentralized document platform — a kind of privacy-preserving Google Docs — and switching “decisively” to Signal as his primary messaging app. Read more
The Financial Times reports that Ledger is planning a US IPO at a $4 billion valuation as hardware wallet demand increases amid crypto fraud and hacks. French crypto hardware wallet provider Ledger is planning an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States, which may value the company at more than $4 billion. Ledger is in talks with bankers at Goldman Sachs, Jefferies and Barclays about a potential US listing, the Financial Times reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. In November 2025, Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier said the company was planning fundraising or a listing in New York, noting that money for crypto was “certainly not in Europe.” Read more
Similar XRP funding conditions preceded rebounds of about 50% in August and September 2024 and about 100% in April 2025. XRP (XRP) funding rates on Binance have been mirroring the behavior seen ahead of sharp price rebounds since 2024. Key takeaways: Crowded XRP shorts (negative funding) have preceded rebounds. Read more
PricewaterhouseCoopers says that crypto is working in a “fragmented global ecosystem,” tackling different challenges in different markets. Crypto adoption is growing at different rates around the world, with some regions advancing much faster than others, says accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). “While crypto networks are borderless, adoption is not,” PwC said in its Global Crypto Regulation Report 2026. “Payments, remittances, savings, capital markets, and tokenization use cases are emerging unevenly across regions.” PwC said that crypto adoption still depends on economic conditions, financial inclusion, and existing financial infrastructure, leading to a “fragmented global ecosystem” where the technology solves “very different problems” across different markets. Read more8179 items