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Ledger Wallet’s new bitcoin rewards feature lets self-custody bitcoin holders earn yield, integrating BTC into DeFi through Lombard and Figment without relinquishing control or altering Bitcoin’s base layer.

Ledger has activated these new features inside its Wallet app. It is initially accessible through the Discover section via a Figment-powered dApp that connects to Lombard’s infrastructure.

The company targets long-term holders and active traders seeking additional returns while maintaining control of their assets. Moreover, according to Lombard’s press release, only about 1.5% of the total BTC is currently active on-chain and unused.

With this tool, users deposit bitcoin, which is then converted into LBTC, a liquid token that tracks BTC and is designed to earn staking rewards. Ledger plans to extend the Discover feature to a native slot in the Earn section later in 2026. This would deepen its role as a BTC DeFi access point.

Your $BTC shouldn't just sit idle.

Unlock rewards through the Ledger Wallet app with @Lombard_Finance via @Figment_io.

Through the Figment dApp in Ledger Wallet, BTC holders can access Lombard’s fully backed LBTC and earn rewards while staying fully in control of their assets.… pic.twitter.com/NbqjaBxWif

— Ledger (@Ledger) January 14, 2026

How LBTC and Babylon Generate BTC yield

The yield feature for Bitcoin BTC $97 211 24h volatility: 1.7% Market cap: $1.94 T Vol. 24h: $69.77 B uses third-party integrations rather than built-in wallet code. Bitcoin deposits result in the token LBTC, which is easier to stake and remains usable in more DeFi tools.

LBTC accrues BTC-denominated rewards by helping secure “Bitcoin secured networks” via the Babylon Bitcoin Staking Protocol. Figment is one of the platforms that runs validator infrastructure for this process and connects the different networks.

The mechanism does not involve staking on Bitcoin’s base layer, which does not have this function. Instead, it uses BTC as economic collateral for other networks that settle or reference Bitcoin. This process preserves the holder’s underlying BTC exposure.

According to DefiLlama, Babylon Protocol and Lombard have $5.92 billion and $1.04 billion in TVL, respectively, making them the biggest platforms in Bitcoin DeFi.

Making Bitcoin DeFi Easier

The Ledger–Lombard–Figment partnership brings BTC holders new earning opportunities in DeFi, signaling an expansion of Bitcoin DeFi amid growing demand for safe, yield-bearing BTC products.

Analysts are watching how much BTC this route can attract and how it interacts with DeFi protocol-level risks. Recent attention has focused on Babylon’s consensus bugs and the broader safety of BTC-backed security models.

For now, Ledger has not disclosed key risk-related information, such as expected APY, fee schedules, custodial risks, or regional availability details, in its press releases. Investors must weigh the promise of BTC-denominated rewards against the limited public disclosure of these risks.

It is worth noting that, according to DefiLlama, LBTC on Lombard reports an APY of 0.41%; this figure may change with different incentives.

If more users adopt it, Ledger could drive significant on-chain activity while helping holders maintain ownership of their coins, reinforcing its leadership as a DeFi gateway in an evolving market.

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Bankinter, Spain’s fifth-largest bank, has made a strategic investment in Bit2Me by joining the crypto exchange’s €30 million funding round led by Tether, signaling rising institutional interest in regulated digital asset platforms across Europe.

The operation places a traditional banking heavyweight inside the cap table of one of Spain’s key crypto firms, in a deal led by stablecoin issuer Tether and closed in August 2025.

According to a blog post from Bankinter, the company has entered Bit2Me’s shareholding structure as part of the €30 million investment round led by Tether, becoming the latest major financial institution to back the Madrid-based exchange. Bit2Me already has the support from Telefónica, Investcorp, Inveready, and several Spanish banks.

With this move, Bankinter joins BBVA, Unicaja, and Cecabank as banking shareholders in Bit2Me. This reinforces the exchange’s capital base ahead of its expansion plans in Europe and Latin America.

The bank described the transaction as a way to explore technological and knowledge synergies in distributed ledger technology (DLT) and digital asset services under the EU’s regulatory framework, according to their press release.

🚀 @Bankinter entra en el capital de Bit2Me, banca e innovación digital unidas para construir el futuro financiero 💡

Descubre todos los detalles 🔗 https://t.co/urxzTvDKmH pic.twitter.com/HfFCW4Uxth

— Bankinter (@Bankinter) January 14, 2026

Bit2Me Chief Financial Officer Pablo Casadío stressed that regulated platforms can help banks gain crypto exposure without having to build everything in-house. “Spain and Europe present an unbeatable scenario, and thanks to our technological and regulatory solidity, Bit2Me is the ideal partner for financial institutions to capitalize on this environment,” Casadío noted.

The Fifth-largest Bank and The Leading Exchange in Spain, in Alliance

Bankinter, offers comprehensive banking services and is part of the Ibex 35. Its entry into Bit2Me’s capital provides indirect exposure to the crypto market through a regulated intermediary.

Bit2Me, a Spanish crypto exchange, became the first Spanish-speaking fintech authorized as a Crypto-Asset Service Provider under MiCA in July 2025.

According to the press release, the funds from the €30 million raise will be used to drive Bit2Me’s expansion by launching new services and entering additional European Union markets.

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Bitwise Asset Management launched the Bitwise Chainlink ETF on NYSE Arca on Jan. 14. The fund is the second in the U.S. to offer direct ownership of Chainlink LINK $14.23 24h volatility: 4.7% Market cap: $10.06 B Vol. 24h: $723.07 M tokens, creating competition with Grayscale’s existing GLNK product.

The fund trades under the ticker CLNK with a 0.34% management fee, though the sponsor will waive the entire fee for three months on the first $500 million in assets, according to Bitwise’s announcement.

Bitwise manages more than $15 billion in client assets across over 40 crypto investment products.

Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan described Chainlink as essential infrastructure for connecting blockchains to outside information like price feeds and real-world events.

Applications ranging from lending platforms to prediction markets use Chainlink data to execute transactions automatically.

Today, we’re excited to launch $CLNK, an ETP offering investors spot exposure to Chainlink (LINK)—the leading oracle platform connecting blockchains to real-world data.

Why Chainlink is a big deal:

– It’s the infrastructure behind many of crypto’s most powerful real-world use… pic.twitter.com/13qKJaUXhF

— Bitwise (@BitwiseInvest) January 14, 2026

 

Fee Competition

CLNK’s standard fee of 0.34% is slightly lower than Grayscale’s 0.35%. Both funds are currently operating under fee waivers to attract early investors.

Grayscale launched the first Chainlink ETF on Dec. 2, 2025, and has accumulated $87.5 million in assets, according to Grayscale’s product page. The fund’s fee remains waived until March 2, 2026, or until assets reach $1 billion.

Both products use Coinbase Custody Trust Company to securely hold the LINK tokens and list on NYSE Arca.

Neither fund is registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, which means they have fewer regulatory protections than traditional mutual funds.

Market Context

LINK traded at $14.12 on Jan. 14 with a 24-hour gain of 5.39%, according to CoinGecko data. Chainlink holds approximately 49% of the oracle market by assets protected on its network, compared to roughly 10% for its nearest competitor, Pyth.

According to Chainlink’s own metrics, the platform has facilitated more than $27 trillion in transaction value across more than 70 blockchains since 2017.

Bitwise has been expanding its altcoin ETF lineup. The company filed for 11 new crypto ETFs on Dec. 31, including funds for Tron and Zcash.

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The Sui Network mainnet is suffering a major outage, being effectively down and unusable for approximately three hours as of this writing. This story is still being developed as Sui’s core team is “actively working on a solution,” according to official communication.

Sui Mainnet is currently experiencing a network stall, and the Sui Core team is actively working on a solution. Be aware that dApps such as Slush or SuiScan may not be available, and transactions may be slow or temporarily unable to process at this time. Updates will be shared as…

— Sui (@SuiNetwork) January 14, 2026

Data Coinspeaker retrieved from OkLink on Jan. 14 at 5:36 p.m. UTC shows that the last valid transaction and checkpoint on the Sui Network were registered at 2:22 p.m. UTC (11:22:17 a.m. BRT, in the screenshot). The referenced “checkpoint” was 234608191 and the transaction: GaVmqN8PdKEZP37WJUJxt4yk2TbJgzKdgqsU79LR3jiH.

Sui explorer as of Jan. 14, 2026, at 5:36 p.m. UTC (2:36 p.m. BRT, local) | Source: OkLink

A “checkpoint” on Sui works as a coordination function and provides a canonical ordering of transactions, similar to a “block” in traditional blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Checkpoints hold finalized transactions and are used for node synchronization and global transaction ordering and node synchronization.

Essentially, an hour without checkpoints means the blockchain is effectively “stuck” — no new transactions can be confirmed, and the network state remains frozen until validators resolve the underlying issue and resume consensus.

Snapshots from status.sui.io indicate the investigation started 30 minutes after the last checkpoint was validated before the outage. The issue was flagged as “identified” nearly 1.5 hours later, with a “fix being implemented.”

Sui Mainnet status: “Consensus outage” as of Jan. 14, 2026 | Source: status.sui.io

Sui Network Previous Incidents

This is the second documented major outage for Sui Network’s mainnet and the third relevant incident that affected users’ capacities to make transactions.

On Nov. 21, 2024, Sui experienced its first network outage due to “a bug in congestion control code,” the official account posted on X as a postmortem summary. In that case, the mainnet went through more than 2.5 hours without validating any new transactions and checkpoints—fixed with the v1.37.4 patch, first rolled out on Mysten Validators, according to status.sui.io documentation.

Earlier today, Sui experienced its first network outage due to a bug in congestion control code, which had been recently upgraded to allow for better shared object utilization.

Sui contributors quickly deployed a fix restoring normal network activity in 2.5 hours. The rapid,…

— Sui (@SuiNetwork) November 21, 2024

On Dec. 14, 2025, the network registered “degraded consensus,” with “much higher latencies,” as also described in status.sui. The issue took approximately three hours from the start of the core team’s investigations and its resolution.

In addition, Sui experienced three major exploits in 2025 as Typus Finance’s unaudited contract lost $3 million. Before Typus, CETUS Protocol suffered a major hack in May 2025, losing more than $220 million in assets. Then, Sui-based yield protocol Nemo was exploited for $2.4 million in USDC USDC $1.00 24h volatility: 0.0% Market cap: $74.88 B Vol. 24h: $24.40 B , based on a report from CoinDesk.

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DASH posted a 54% gain over 24 hours, reaching $85.96 as trading volume climbed to $1.29 billion across exchanges.

The token’s daily volume rose 72% from the previous session. Seven-day volume increased 525%, climbing from approximately $39 million on Jan. 10 to $1.29 billion on Jan. 14. Despite the rally, DASH DASH $82.85 24h volatility: 50.3% Market cap: $1.04 B Vol. 24h: $1.35 B remains approximately 94% below its December 2017 peak of $1,493.59. The move extends a seven-day rally that has seen the token gain 107% from its weekly low of $36.87.

DASH price 1D | Source: TradingView

DASH is classified as a privacy coin, a category of cryptocurrency that obscures transaction details using cryptographic features, distinguishing them from transparent blockchains like Bitcoin.

The token led all major privacy coins during the session. Horizen gained 23.1%, Decred added 19.3%, Zcash rose 9.3%, and Monero increased 8.6%, according to CoinGecko category data.

On Jan. 13, Alchemy Pay announced support for DASH, enabling users to purchase the token with credit cards, Apple Pay, and bank transfers across 173 countries, though it remains unclear whether this partnership was a significant driver of the price increase.

We’re excited to support @dashpay on #AlchemyPay’s fiat on-ramp. $DASH can now be purchased with local fiat payments across 173 countries, bringing fast, affordable digital cash closer to everyday use.https://t.co/U6rM4iuCAP$ACH pic.twitter.com/oVbn7gOPh7

— Alchemy Pay|$ACH: Fiat-Crypto Payment Gateway (@AlchemyPay) January 13, 2026

Analyst Commentary

Analyst @CryptoWinkle pointed to improved trading access after OKX, a major exchange, relisted the token. The analyst noted that the relisting “restored access and depth, driving participation” while accumulation patterns became visible as selling pressure faded. The move follows OKX’s Nov. 23 Zcash relisting, signaling renewed exchange appetite for privacy tokens.

$DASH: momentum returning@Dashpay posted a sharp +23% daily move, breaking above key resistance as liquidity improved and sellers stepped aside.

What stands out:1) Liquidity catalyst: OKX relisting restored access and depth, driving participation2) Structure: Price reclaimed… pic.twitter.com/TwntHAjXXH

— Crypto Winkle (@CryptoWinkle) January 13, 2026

Multiple traders on X observed a broader rotation into privacy-focused assets. Trader @rushicrypto characterized the environment as “privacy season,” while @KookCapitalLLC noted that “privacy betas are going crazy.”

Broader Market Conditions

In the derivatives market, traders betting against rising prices were forced to close positions. Total forced closures reached $770.22 million over 24 hours, with short positions accounting for 86.8% of that figure.

Liquidation Heatmap | Source: Coinglass

The Fear & Greed Index, a market sentiment indicator ranging from 0 (extreme fear) to 100 (extreme greed), registered 48, indicating neutral sentiment. This marked a recovery from 26 the previous day. The broader market added 3.42% to total market capitalization, which reached $3.37 trillion.

The privacy coins category gained 13.1% overall, with a combined market cap of $24 billion. The category has added 24.6% over seven days. While DASH led daily gains, Monero holds the largest market cap in the sector at $13.4 billion. Zcash has struggled following the ECC team’s mass resignation on Jan. 7, which triggered a price drop amid governance disputes with the Bootstrap nonprofit board.

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Crypto.com and online casino operator High Roller Inc. have entered into a binding strategic partnership to launch an event-based prediction market service in the US.

According to a Jan. 14 press release, the partnership will focus on developing and serving trade event contracts across markets including finance, entertainment, and sports with contracts offered via Crypto.com Derivatives North America (CDNA), an affiliate of Crypto.com and CFTC-registered contract market and derivatives clearing organization.

High Roller 🤝 @cryptocom! We’re thrilled to announce a partnership to launch event-based prediction markets in the US across markets like finance, entertainment and sports. Together, we aim to deliver customers a safe and trusted platform. https://t.co/81Ud8NFeZS $ROLR pic.twitter.com/mnDBGSazhP

— High Roller (@HighRollerROLR) January 14, 2026

ROLR Stock Lifts on Ambitious Expansion Efforts

High Roller’s ROLR stock surged more than 500% to $21, as of the time of this article’s publication, on the partnership news. This reflects bullish sentiment for the firm’s entry into the US market.

This breakout represents an all-time high for ROLR. High Roller’s previous ATH of about $8.60 occurred shortly after the company filed for IPO and went public in October 2024. After a rolling decline into 2025, ROLR capitulated between $2.00 and $3.00 through most of the year.

ROLR stock reached a new all-time high near $21.00 | Source: TradingView

High Roller posted its first profitable quarter as a publicly traded company in the third quarter of 2025 with $6.3 million in revenue. This growth stage marked the next leg of the company’s planned North American expansion which began in 2022 with the establishment of an office in Las Vegas and includes a planned location in Canada.

Crypto.com Bolsters Its Presence in the Prediction Markets Space

The partnership demonstrates the formalization of Crypto.com’s strategy to serve as a backbone provider for prediction markets. Essentially, Crypto.com is leveraging its US registrations to serve as a conduit for High Roller’s customers.

This allows Crypto.com to function as an underpinning facilitator to the US prediction markets sector, shifting its business model toward enterprise services and positioning it as a primary B2B service provider.

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Ripple XRP $2.17 24h volatility: 4.8% Market cap: $131.65 B Vol. 24h: $5.23 B secured preliminary approval for an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license in Luxembourg on Jan. 14.

This marks its second major European regulatory milestone in less than a week.

The Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) issued a “Green Light Letter” to the enterprise blockchain firm.

This designation indicates that the regulator has completed its legal review of the application. The company must now fulfill specific operational requirements to receive final authorization.

We’ve secured our preliminary Electronic Money Institution license approval from Luxembourg’s Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF). 🇪🇺

This is a pivotal step toward scaling Ripple Payments across the EU, bringing institutional-grade digital asset infrastructure… pic.twitter.com/GW3c9gVhDs

— Ripple (@Ripple) January 14, 2026

 

Once fully authorized, the license will grant Ripple “passporting” rights to offer services across the entire European Economic Area.

This adds to a portfolio of more than 75 licenses worldwide, according to Ripple’s announcement.

The Luxembourg milestone arrived just five days after the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority granted Ripple a full EMI license on Jan. 9.

The British regulator also approved the company’s registration as a crypto asset service provider.

These back-to-back approvals allow the firm to service institutional clients across both the UK and the EU.

European Market Strategy

The license approval validates a long-term regional strategy that began last year.

Ripple initiated its European expansion for the RLUSD stablecoin in July 2025, specifically targeting Luxembourg as its entry point into the bloc.

The “Green Light” status now allows the firm to operationalize those plans as crypto firms prepare for the full implementation of the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation.

Service providers must secure authorization before the transitional period ends on July 1, 2026.

Ripple has focused its recent efforts on acquiring licenses and building infrastructure rather than pursuing public listings.

Company President Monica Long stated that the firm aims to bridge traditional finance with digital assets to activate unused capital. The firm uses the XRP Ledger for its cross-border payment solutions.

Market Context and Competition

The European payments market remains competitive as other entities establish operations in the region. Bitstamp secured a MiCA-compliant license in Luxembourg in May 2025.

Circle, the issuer of USDC, established its regulatory base in France. It holds a full EMI license from the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution, according to its press room.

This regulatory race occurs as the stablecoin market reaches $298.3 billion globally. Tether dominates the sector with $177.9 billion in market capitalization (59%), followed by Circle with $72.8 billion (24%), according to RWA.xyz data.

Ripple’s stablecoin, RLUSD, currently ranks tenth with a $1.4 billion market cap. The company is advancing the token through regulatory channels to challenge these incumbents.

Ripple Payments has processed over $95 billion in volume since its inception. The platform manages end-to-end value flows for businesses and claims to reach 90% of daily foreign exchange markets.

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Backpack Exchange has launched a private beta of its new margin-based prediction market.

This will allow traders to place bets on digital assets and financial outcomes while using the same capital across multiple products.

The feature is available to select active traders only.

Backpack Prediction Market Features

Backpack Exchange has launched the Unified Prediction Portfolio, which allows prediction markets to operate alongside spot trading, perpetual futures, and lending within a single account.

Unlike typical prediction platforms, traders do not need to lock up funds in a single bet.

The platform uses cross-margining, enabling the same capital to support multiple positions at once.

Traders can now place a prediction bet on Bitcoin BTC $96 874 24h volatility: 5.1% Market cap: $1.93 T Vol. 24h: $66.53 B or other crypto markets, hedge it with a futures contract, and maintain spot positions within one account.

This structure aims to reduce the opportunity cost of capital, allowing traders to act on market insights without being sidelined by locked funds.

CEO Armani Ferrante said the goal is to remove the inefficiencies in traditional prediction markets.

“Prediction markets are notoriously inefficient. Capital gets locked up and even skilled traders may not act because of the opportunity cost,” he said in a post on X.

Introducing our first contribution to the prediction market space: The Unified Prediction Portfolio.

Today, @Backpack launches an invite-only private beta to begin building the most cutting edge prediction markets for crypto and finance.

The problem: Prediction markets are… https://t.co/8rn6OaoILS

— Armani Ferrante (@armaniferrante) January 13, 2026

The new system seeks to allow more flexible and active participation.

Broader Vision and Market Context

Backpack Exchange, founded by former FTX employees, acquired FTX EU in January 2025.

The deal granted access to a MiFID II-regulated framework and enabled the recovery of user funds frozen during the 2022 FTX collapse.

In September 2025, Backpack Exchange rebranded FTX EU as Backpack EU.

Essentially, through the rebrand, its objective was to offer regulated perpetual futures across Europe.

The private beta is currently invite-only, targeting the platform’s most active traders. Feedback from this phase will help refine risk management before wider release.

The launch comes as the prediction market sector grows, with platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket reporting billions in trading volume and increasing mainstream visibility.

In addition, Polymarket recently teamed up with Dow Jones and WSJ to share prediction market data.

Backpack’s new offering positions it as a vertically integrated exchange where traders can deploy capital efficiently across products.

The cross-margined prediction market could signal a shift in how crypto-based financial betting operates, offering traders greater flexibility and control over capital.

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Vitalik Buterin declared on Jan. 14 that the technological prerequisites for the original Web3 vision are finally operational.

The Ethereum ETH $3 354 24h volatility: 7.0% Market cap: $404.86 B Vol. 24h: $39.27 B co-founder urged developers to shift focus from speculative narratives to building decentralized applications that permanently protect user rights.

In his extensive statement, Buterin argued that the ecosystem has effectively solved its scaling and privacy challenges.

He cited the maturity of zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machines (ZK-EVMs) and Layer-2 solutions as the tipping point.

In 2014, there was a vision: you can have permissionless, decentralized applications that could support finance, social media, ride sharing, governing organizations, crowdfunding, potentially create an entire alternative web, all on the backs of a suite of technologies.… pic.twitter.com/ihU9qOrXfG

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) January 14, 2026

According to him, these technologies now allow the network to support high-performance applications across finance, social media, and governance without relying on centralized intermediaries.

“Hammers” vs. “Corposlop”

Buterin’s core argument centered on a philosophical distinction between two types of software. He criticized modern centralized services as “corposlop” software that surveils users, restricts features behind subscription walls, and can be disabled remotely.

In contrast, he called for builders to create “hammers.” He defined a hammer as a tool that a user buys once and owns forever. It does not require an account, does not spy on the user, and never stops working.

The Proof of Maturity

To validate his claim, Buterin pointed to specific protocols that are already working. He highlighted Waku, a privacy-focused messaging layer, and Fileverse, a decentralized workspace.

He noted that Fileverse has achieved significant usability gains over the past year. The application passes the “walkaway test.” This test ensures that an application continues to function fully even if its original developers disappear or the company shuts down.

The declaration reinforces Buterin’s earlier comparisons of Ethereum to Linux and BitTorrent, emphasizing that the network’s goal is to serve as neutral, permanent infrastructure.

Market Analysis: Intraday Pullback

Ethereum traded at $3,284 as of Jan. 14, down 1.96% from its daily high of $3,350. Trading volume reached $36.36 billion over the past 24 hours, an increase of 66.9%.

5-day chart with EMA and RSI indicators showcasing an oversold status for ETH | Source: Trading View

The asset holds an 11% share of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization, which stands at $3.3 trillion.

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BitMine has increased its staked Ethereum ETH $3 354 24h volatility: 7.0% Market cap: $404.86 B Vol. 24h: $39.27 B again. The company deposited 186,560 ETH into the Beacon Chain and now has a total staked balance of 1,530,784 ETH.

At current prices, the staked position is worth roughly $5.13 billion.

The transfer was sent to the Beacon Depositor address on January 14 and came just days after BitMine crossed the 1 million ETH staking mark despite a broader bearish market.

Tom Lee(@fundstrat)'s #Bitmine staked another 186,560 $ETH($624.8M) in the past 8 hours.

In total, #Bitmine has now staked 1,530,784 $ETH($5.13B).https://t.co/P684j5YQaG pic.twitter.com/cgeVvUPy7d

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) January 14, 2026

Balance Sheet Snapshot

BitMine now controls about 4% of all ETH staked on the Beacon Chain. Total network staking stands near 36 million ETH.

This makes BitMine the largest known corporate Ethereum staker globally.

Also, the company holds more than 4 million ETH in total. Roughly 37% of its Ether balance is now staked.

As of January 12, BitMine reported holdings of 4,167,768 ETH, 192 Bitcoin BTC $96 874 24h volatility: 5.1% Market cap: $1.93 T Vol. 24h: $66.53 B , close to $1 billion in cash, and a $23 million equity stake in Eightco Holdings.

The firm has the flexibility to keep acquiring and staking ETH without immediate funding pressure.

The staking push comes as Ethereum’s validator entry queue has surged to 2.3 million ETH. This is the highest level since August 2023 and indicates increasing competition for validator slots.

It is important to note that ETH turned bullish in the past 24 hours alongside other cryptocurrencies.

The token gained about 7%, briefly breaking the $3,300 price tag. At press time, ETH trades at $3,286.

January 15 Vote

On January 15, shareholders will vote on Proposal 2, which would raise BitMine’s authorized share count from 500 million to 50 billion.

Management said that the goal is to avoid hitting a capital threshold as the ETH treasury grows.

$BMNR $45 or $25 THIS WEEK

Ethereum Investors are Watching BitMine's Shareholder Vote.

The pivotal event is the deadline for shareholders to approve Proposal 2, which seeks to increase authorized shares from 500 million to an extraordinary 50 billion.Management, led by Tom… pic.twitter.com/CqGb7l26R7

— MNAMD (@neonaveed) January 14, 2026

If the proposal fails, BitMine will eventually lose the ability to issue new equity for ETH purchases.

That would cap growth and limit future acquisitions to its existing cash balance of roughly $988 million.

The vote requires a simple majority. A rejection could delay expansion for months through reconvened meetings.

On the other hand, ahead of the vote, BitMine appointed Young Kim as Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and board member.

Kim brings over two decades of experience across asset management, venture capital, and engineering.

Management is expected to outline post‑vote plans at the annual meeting in Las Vegas, including updates on its Made in America Validator Network and potential open‑market ETH purchases on Jan. 15.

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BNB Chain completed its “Short Block Interval Roadmap” on Jan. 14 with the successful activation of the Fermi hard fork. The milestone marks the transition from the Maxwell block time reduction of 0.75 seconds to a new 0.45-second production speed. This technical achievement brings the Ethereum-compatible environment closer to the physical limits of global block propagation.

The upgrade focused on making the network faster in a predictable way as usage grows. By shortening the block interval, BNB Chain targets “exchange-grade” DeFi operations. This includes reducing slippage for swaps and improving the efficiency of automated liquidations.

The Fermi hard fork is now live on BNB Smart Chain ✅

Block times are now ~0.45s, fast finality has been strengthened, and additional parameter updates, improvements and bug fixes have been added. The network is running more responsively as onchain activity scales.

Thanks to… pic.twitter.com/7BGEe0qT7b

— BNB Chain Developers (@BNBChainDevs) January 14, 2026

According to the official announcement, the Fermi hard fork was activated at approximately 02:30 UTC. The network reached the upgrade at block height 75140593.

The Sub-Second War: Competitive L1 Positioning

The Fermi upgrade represents a strategic move to position BNB Chain against ultra-low-latency rivals. While many Layer 2 solutions offer “soft” speed through sequencers, BNB Chain provides “hard” settlement on the base layer.

Network Block/Slot Time Finality Type 2026 Competitive Status Aptos <0.05s (sub-50ms) L1 Hard Current Speed Benchmark Solana ~0.4s L1 Hard Established Performance Leader BNB Chain 0.45s L1 Hard (~1.1s) Deepening Sub-Second Lead Sui ~0.4s–0.5s L1 Hard Direct High-Performance Rival Base (L2) Sub-second (Soft) L2 Soft / L1 Hard Fast UX, but settlement lag remains

Internal on-chain analysis confirms that the 0.45-second target is being met on the mainnet. Block production is maintaining a cadence of 2 to 3 blocks per second. This represents a 40% efficiency gain over the previous Maxwell-era production speeds.

Institutional Demand and Market Reaction

Evidence of demand for this institutional-grade speed is already building. Recent YZi Labs Genius Terminal investment signals a shift toward professional on-chain trading infrastructure. These platforms require private and high-velocity execution.

Binance Coin/TetherUS Graph | Source: TradingView

The network achieves these gains even as it filters its broader ecosystem. Earlier this month, Binance delisting monitoring tags were applied to several assets to signal higher volatility risks.

The market has adopted a “wait-and-see” posture following the activation. Approximately 11 hours ago, the network saw a brief sell-off to $948. This was followed by an accumulation phase that pushed the price to a peak of $952. BNB BNB $942.5 24h volatility: 3.7% Market cap: $129.97 B Vol. 24h: $2.70 B has since entered consolidation waters. It currently trades near $933.64 with a neutral Relative Strength Index (RSI).

Beyond Human Latency

While Fermi targets immediate DeFi gains, the 0.45-second threshold is also a requirement for the autonomous AI agents planned for 2026. Machine-to-machine economies require coordination across thousands of micro-decisions per hour.

The “Agent Latency Gap” means that delays invisible to humans become compounding bottlenecks for machine-to-machine commerce. By providing predictable sub-second settlement, BNB Chain is positioning itself as an operating layer for autonomous systems.

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The crypto market and investment products showed positivity toward the Jan. 13 US inflation report. The US Consumer Price Index for December 2025 recorded a 2.7% year-over-year increase, as expected and similar to the November rate, CNBC reported. However, the seasonally adjusted inflation rose by 0.3%.

Moreover, the CPI can influence what the Federal Reserve does next, including rates, cuts, or holding steady, for example. At this point, the inflation isn’t showing any signs of heating up again, but it’s still concerning, as it’s still above the 2% Fed target.

“Great (LOW!) Inflation numbers for the USA. That means that Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell should cut interest rates, MEANINGFULLY!!!,” US President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social.

The cryptocurrency market recorded notable gains following the CPI data.

Bitcoin BTC $94 910 24h volatility: 3.1% Market cap: $1.89 T Vol. 24h: $67.99 B rose above $96,000 for the first time in two months. The leading asset is still trading above $95,000.

The leading altcoin, Ethereum ETH $3 295 24h volatility: 5.2% Market cap: $397.41 B Vol. 24h: $36.04 B , is also trading at a two-month high of $3,340 at the reporting time.

Bears Have Been Liquidated

The sudden market-wide spike caught many traders by surprise.

According to data from CoinGlass, the total crypto liquidations increased by 211% in the past 24 hours, reaching $688 million: $93 million longs and $595 million shorts.

Short liquidations have historically proven to add to the bullish momentum of the market. On the other hand, a sudden increase in liquidations can also bring higher volatility, especially for risky assets, such as small-cap altcoins and meme coins.

Bitcoin is leading the chart with $294.7 million in daily liquidations: $28 million longs and $266.7 million shorts.

In total, 126,235 traders have been liquidated over the past day, and the largest wiped-out position is worth $12.9 million in the ETH/USDT pair on Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume.

With the rising sentiment, spot BTC exchange-traded funds in the US recorded a net inflow of $753.8 million, led by Fidelity’s $351.4 million inflow, according to data from Farside. This marks the highest net inflow for the BTC-based investment products since Oct. 7, 2025.

Spot ETH ETFs also registered a $130 million net inflow, led by BlackRock’s $53.3 million buying spree.

The next major catalysts for the crypto market will likely be the US Fed rate decision and the outcome of the Iran-US tensions.

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Pakistan recently signed a memorandum of understanding with SC Financial Technologies, a company linked to World Liberty Financial. The deal focuses on the use of USD1 stablecoin for cross-border payments.

According to a recent report by Reuters, the Pakistan Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority stated that the agreement opens formal technical coordination on digital payment systems. It covers stablecoin settlement, payment rails, and regulatory alignment within Pakistan’s financial system.

This is the first public agreement between World Liberty’s ecosystem and a sovereign state.

Under the memorandum, SC Financial Technologies will work with Pakistan’s central bank on the use of the USD1 stablecoin inside a regulated payment framework. The token is expected to operate alongside Pakistan’s domestic digital currency systems.

The goal is faster settlement and lower transfer costs while being under central bank oversight.

The latest deal expands the country’s ties with World Liberty Financial. In April 2025, the Pakistan Crypto Council signed a separate letter of intent with the company to explore broader blockchain use.

World Liberty Financial is the primary crypto venture tied to the Trump family. SC Financial Technologies is registered in Delaware and shares ownership of the USD1 stablecoin brand with World Liberty.

Zach Witkoff, co‑founder and chief executive of World Liberty, also serves as CEO of SC Financial Technologies. He recently visited Pakistan and met senior officials to discuss digital payments, foreign exchange settlement, and infrastructure design.

Pakistan’s Shift on Digital Assets

Pakistan has accelerated work on digital finance over the past year. In 2025, the central bank confirmed plans for a pilot digital currency and is now finalizing virtual asset regulation. This shift aims to reduce cash use and modernize payment systems, as per the officials.

In December 2025, major crypto exchanges Binance and HTX received preliminary approvals from the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA). This allowed them to register locally and prepare for full licences.

Separately, the finance ministry signed an MoU with Binance to explore tokenising up to $2 billion in government assets to boost liquidity.

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Stablecoin infrastructure is taking a larger role in global payments after BVNK reached a new agreement to support related activity on Visa Direct. Riding on the Visa real-time money movement network, the setup allows select businesses to send and receive digital dollar payments faster, including outside normal banking hours.

Stablecoin Infrastructure Moves into Visa Direct Payments

BVNK will supply the infrastructure that enables businesses to pre-fund Visa Direct payouts using stablecoins instead of only fiat currencies. This means approved clients can hold digital dollars and use them to send payments through Visa Direct without relying on traditional bank rails.

As announced, recipients will also be able to receive payouts directly in stablecoins, placing funds into digital wallets rather than bank accounts. This model supports use cases such as payroll, contractor payments, platform earnings, and cross-border transfers where speed and timing are critical.

Visa Direct already processes about $1.7 trillion in annual payment volume. By adding stablecoin options, Visa is expanding how money moves across its network, especially during weekends, holidays, or periods when banks are closed.

BVNK processes more than $30 billion in stablecoin payments each year and operates across more than 130 countries. Its role will be to handle settlement and movement of stablecoins while ensuring the system works within approved markets and regulatory frameworks.

The rollout will begin in regions with strong demand for digital asset payments. Further expansion will depend on customer usage and local rules.

Earlier, Coinspeaker noted that BVNK raised $50 million in a Series B round at a $750 million valuation. CEO Jesse Hemson-Struthers said stablecoins are an upgrade for legacy payment systems.

Visa Investment Signals Long-Term Confidence in Stablecoins

The partnership builds on Visa’s earlier investment in BVNK through Visa Ventures in May 2025. That backing showed early confidence in BVNK’s stablecoin infrastructure and its ability to support large-scale payment flows.

Visa executives have said stablecoins can reduce friction in payments and improve access to funds for businesses and individuals. Interestingly, in December, Visa launched stablecoin settlement in the US using Circle’s USDC and Arc Blockchain.

More importantly, BVNK leadership sees the integration as a step toward making stablecoins part of everyday financial activity rather than a niche product.

BVNK already works with firms such as Worldpay, Deel, and Flywire. Access to Visa Direct extends its reach into one of the most widely used payment networks in the world. Notably, as adoption grows, stablecoin infrastructure is expected to play a larger role in how money moves globally, guided by demand, regulation, and practical use cases.

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NEAR AI announced it is joining NVIDIA’s Inception Program designed to foster growth of artificial intelligence startups in different stages.

From NEAR’s side, joining the program strengthens its mission of developing verifiable, privacy-preserving tools for AI, according to the announcement on January 13.

“Through the program, NEAR AI gains access to NVIDIA’s technical expertise, advanced tooling, and GPU resources, enabling us to accelerate development while meeting the rigorous performance, security, and reliability standards required by enterprise users,” the team wrote.

This step also places NEAR closer to a privileged position among NVIDIA’s venture capital (VC) network—based on eligibility—and access to specialized investors and NVIDIA executives in networking events, according to the program description on its official landing page.

Notably, NEAR and NVIDIA’s relationship is not new and NVIDIA Confidential Computing is described as a “core component of the NEAR AI stack,” which enables AI workloads to run inside hardware-isolated, trusted execution environments, protecting data at rest, in transit, and also during computation, “a critical requirement for enterprise and government use cases,” the blog post explains.

NEAR AI Cloud’s verifiable privacy has already been adopted by Brave Browser and other notable enterprises, as Coinspeaker reported in December 2025. Moreover, Solana’s official account teased a NEAR integration later last year by sharing a picture of NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang talking to NEAR’s co-founder Illia Polosukhin—co-author of the groundbreaking “Attention is All You Need” AI paper—highlighting the relationship between the two industry leaders.

NEAR Price Analysis

As for the native token, NEAR NEAR $1.87 24h volatility: 11.9% Market cap: $2.41 B Vol. 24h: $368.66 M is changing hands at $1.83, up more than 7% in the last 24 hours, with a price rally intensifying following the recent announcement of the project joining NVIDIA’s Inception Program.

NEAR 24-hour price chart as of January 13, 2025 | Source: CoinMarketCap

The trading volume has also seen a significant increase reaching $270 million intraday, up 11% from yesterday’s trading activity. This current volume accounts for 11% of NEAR’s $2.35 billion market capitalization, positioning the asset in the 39th rank according to CoinMarketCap.

NEAR has gained attention from relevant market participants lately thanks to the NEAR Intents success and has improved its tokenomics with an approved inflation halving on October 28, 2025, reducing the token’s annual tail emission from 5% to 2.5%, receiving 80% approval from the network’s validators.

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Internet Computer posted a 17% gain over 24 hours, climbing to $3.70 as trading volume nearly tripled compared to the previous day.

The token’s daily trading volume reached $186.21 million, up 190% from the prior session, according to data from CoinGecko. ICP ICP $3.48 24h volatility: 10.6% Market cap: $1.91 B Vol. 24h: $228.65 M touched a seven-day high of $3.71 after trading as low as $3.09 earlier in the week. The project, developed by the Swiss nonprofit Dfinity Foundation, currently holds a $2.02 billion market cap.

ICP price 1H | Source: TradingView

Upcoming Tokenomics Announcement

The price movement comes ahead of an anticipated ecosystem announcement. Dfinity founder Dominic Williams confirmed on Jan. 12 that a white paper detailing the Mission70 initiative would be published on Jan. 14. The proposal aims to reduce the rate at which new ICP tokens enter circulation by 70% during 2026.

#Mission70 paper is on its way as promised 🙂

Once that's shipped tomorrow, I'm going to announce an already imminent date for Internet Identity 2.0! Generally speaking, 2026 is going to involve a lot of big announcements, and a lot of impactful new things, so buckle up 💪 https://t.co/YLEgcjc0BB

— dom williams.icp ∞ (@dominic_w) January 12, 2026

Technical analysts also pointed to chart patterns as a contributing factor. Analyst @brain2jene observed that the token’s five-day chart displayed a reversal pattern that erased approximately 20 days of prior losses.

$ICP is sending a clear signal that momentum is building on the 5D chart, combined with a bullish engulfing candle that erased the previous 20 days' losses.#ICP is technically strong, and once liquidity kicks in, I think many will be left behind.

More details and targets in… pic.twitter.com/bA3cQvLIfe

— Brain2jene💫 (@brain2jene) January 12, 2026

On-chain data tracker @icterminal noted that the weekly burn rate, which measures tokens permanently removed from supply, reached 18,728 ICP. This marked the second-highest weekly burn figure since September 2024.

$ICP WEEKLY BURN HITS 18,728.5 — SECOND HIGHEST WEEKLY BURN SINCE SEP 2024

🔥 Majority consensus was correct (52.2% voted >10k)

Go to 👉 https://t.co/WEEgwj4nR8 for weekly burn chart https://t.co/LQwOoLtoGu

— icterminal.com (@icterminal) January 12, 2026

 

Broader Market Conditions

Market-wide data from Coinglass showed $176.55 million in forced position closures over 24 hours, with bearish bets accounting for $104.61 million of that total.

Liquidation Heatmap | Source: Coinglass

The Fear & Greed Index registered 26, indicating fear, down one point from the previous day. The broader crypto market added 1.41% to its total market capitalization, which reached $3.25 trillion. As previously reported by Coinspeaker, the index has remained in fearful territory for an extended period following late December volatility.

ICP falls within the AI and infrastructure categories on CoinGecko. The Dfinity Foundation previously expanded its AI capabilities with the November 2025 launch of its Caffeine application.

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Polygon Labs POL $0.16 24h volatility: 2.1% Market cap: $1.66 B Vol. 24h: $246.98 M announced on Jan. 13 it would acquire crypto payments company Coinme and infrastructure provider Sequence for more than $250 million.

The blockchain developer is building a regulated payments platform for stablecoin transactions in the United States.

The deals bring money transmitter licenses across 48 U.S. states and a physical network spanning more than 50,000 retail locations where customers can convert cash to cryptocurrency, according to Polygon’s announcement.

The firm described the acquisitions as foundational to its Open Money Stack, a payments toolkit unveiled last week. Both transactions are subject to regulatory approval.

BREAKING: Polygon to become U.S. regulated payments platform

We’re acquiring Coinme and Sequence to move all money onchain.→ Regulated money movement in 48 states→ Fiat on/off ramps→ 50,000 fiat-to-crypto locations in the U.S.→ Easy onboarding with wallet infra→… pic.twitter.com/lwvLheEc3P

— Polygon | POL (@0xPolygon) January 13, 2026

The Acquisitions

Seattle-based Coinme, founded in 2014, holds federal money services registration with FinCEN (the Treasury Department’s financial crimes unit) and operates cash-to-crypto kiosks at retailers, including through Coinstar machines.

The company’s backers include stablecoin issuer Circle and major crypto investors Pantera and Digital Currency Group. Coinme will continue operating as a wholly owned subsidiary following the close of the transaction.

New York-based Sequence, founded in 2017, provides wallet technology that simplifies crypto transfers across different blockchain networks. The infrastructure firm counts Brevan Howard Digital and Coinbase among its investors.

Strategic Context

Polygon Foundation founder Sandeep Nailwal described the approach as a reverse of payments giant Stripe’s strategy.

While Stripe acquired stablecoin startups before building its own blockchain, Polygon already operates established blockchain infrastructure and is now adding regulated financial services.

Less than one week ago we shared our vision for the next evolution of Polygon, and for global finance as a whole.

Today, we’re reaching a pivotal milestone for the Polygon Open Money Stack by acquiring @Coinme and @0xsequence.

Polygon’s blockchain rails have been ready for…

— Sandeep | CEO, Polygon Foundation (※,※) (@sandeepnailwal) January 13, 2026

The acquisitions follow President Trump’s signing of the Genius Act stablecoin legislation in July 2025. Polygon has invested in payments infrastructure throughout the past year, including hiring Stripe’s former head of crypto, John Egan.

Coinme’s Regulatory History

Coinme faced enforcement actions from California and Washington regulators in 2025. The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation ordered the company to pay $300,000 in penalties and $51,700 in restitution.

The violations included accepting more than $1,000 daily from individual customers at kiosks, exceeding state limits.

Washington issued a temporary cease-and-desist order in November 2025, alleging Coinme claimed more than $8 million in customer funds as company income when vouchers went unredeemed.

The order was stayed in December 2025 after Coinme agreed to segregate customer assets in protected accounts. Polygon’s CEO expressed confidence in Coinme’s compliance practices despite the regulatory history.

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YZi Labs—formerly Binance Labs, Binance’s venture capital and investment arm—has announced a $10 million seed investment in Genius Terminal. Genius is described as a professional trading terminal for private, high-velocity onchain operations.

According to the announcement, Binance and YZi Labs co-founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has been nominated as one of the startup’s advisors under claims of “alignment” to YZi Labs’ vision of backing infrastructure to compete with centralized exchanges (CEXs). Armaan Kalsi, co-founder and CEO of Genius, is deemed to be “creating an on-chain Binance.”

“The funding is about alignment more than anything else; aligning with YZi Labs means we have the industry’s most thorough and well-resourced backer taking a meaningful swing at creating an ‘on-chain’ Binance, while focusing on what makes CEXs better than DEXs right now: privacy,” said Kalsi.

YZi Labs staff have also vouched for the startup and the mission it is aiming to accomplish. Head of YZi Labs Ella Zhang told how she met Armaan at the NYC Builder Bunker during a BNB Chain MVB demo and praised his attitude and vision. Additionally, Alex Odagiu, investment partner at YZi Labs, elaborated on the thesis that motivated this capital allocation, explicitly mentioning how Genius can offer a private experience with high-velocity execution.

“As the decentralized economy matures, the market is moving beyond basic tools toward a true execution layer with the sophistication of traditional financial terminals,” said Odagiu. “DeFi has long been fragmented and complex. By unifying liquidity and prioritizing privacy and high-velocity execution, Genius is well positioned to become a powerful ‘command center’ for the next generation of institutional and power users.”

DEX-CEX Volume Ratio Favors Decentralized Venues in 2026

According to the announcement and backed by publicly available data, the volume ratio between decentralized exchanges and centralized exchanges (DEX-CEX volume ratio) has been shifting favorably towards decentralized venues in 2026.

Crypto-native traders and other users have been favoring the use of DEXs over CEXs, enjoying the extra security and sovereignty layer of self-custody and credible neutrality blockchains can offer.

In November 2025, CoinGecko reported the exponential growth for the DEX-CEX ratio growing more than three times in the past five years—going from 6% in November 2021 to 21.2% by reporting time. Decentralized exchanges saw a peak of 37.4% market share in June 2025.

DEX to CEX spot volume ratio from January 2021 to November 2025 | Source: CoinGecko

Notably, centralized enterprises like Bitfinex have noted this trend and acted to strengthen their position in response, as Coinspeaker covered in December 2024. Bitfinex, in particular, cut its trading fees to zero in an attempt to regain market share.

On that note, another Binance-backed decentralized exchange and the leading DeFi protocol on the BNB Chain, PancakeSwap, has now proposed a supply reduction for its governance token CAKE, as Coinspeaker reported.

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Ingenico has partnered with WalletConnect Pay to enable in-store payments in stablecoins on its POS terminals. This deepens the push to bring digital currencies into mainstream retail.

The move connects Ingenico’s large merchant network with WalletConnect’s multichain payment rails. Customers can pay directly from Web3 wallets using USDC USDC $1.00 24h volatility: 0.0% Market cap: $74.63 B Vol. 24h: $15.48 B and other supported stablecoins.

Ingenico, a global payments leader, announced a digital currency solution built on WalletConnect Pay, according to its blog. With this integration, merchants using Ingenico infrastructure can accept supported stablecoins at checkout. The rollout starts with USDC across Polygon, Base, Arbitrum, Ethereum ETH $3 193 24h volatility: 2.8% Market cap: $385.28 B Vol. 24h: $25.05 B , and other EVM-compatible networks.

The rollout targets a broad range of in-person use cases. These include retail, hospitality, transportation, fuel, parking, vending, and other self-service environments. Ingenico’s estate spans tens of millions of devices globally and is backed by thousands of payment apps.

How WalletConnect Pay Fits In

Under the integration, consumers can pay with any WalletConnect-compatible wallet that supports stablecoins. Examples include MetaMask, Trust, Safe, or others. Transactions settle directly on-chain. Funds move from the customer’s wallet to the merchant’s payment provider rather than flowing through card networks.

Crypto payments just hit the high street.

Ingenico + WalletConnect Pay enables stablecoin payments for Ingenico terminals across the world, from retail to hospitality to transport.

Any Wallet. Any Asset. Anywhere. pic.twitter.com/Iza1f8MKvo

— WalletConnect (@WalletConnect) January 13, 2026

WalletConnect reports support for more than 700 wallets. Its network has processed over $400 billion in volume in the past year, with stablecoins representing a large share of that activity. This footprint allows the Ingenico integration to plug into existing Web3 user behavior. It presents a familiar checkout flow at physical terminals, according to their press release.

Jess Houlgrave, CEO of WalletConnect, framed stablecoins as a practical tool for value transfer and a logical next step for everyday payments.

“Stablecoins have become an important payment instrument for moving value quickly and efficiently,” said Jess Houlgrave, CEO of WalletConnect. “By working with Ingenico, we’re extending stablecoin payments into real-world retail environments in a way that is practical, familiar and easy for both merchants and consumers around the world.”

Integration for acquirers (banks or companies that process card payments for merchants) and PSPs (payment service providers that help businesses accept electronic payments) is scheduled for January 2026.

Why the Partnership Matters

Ingenico has operated in payment acceptance for more than four decades, with operations across dozens of countries and a leading share of the global POS terminal market. Its terminals are used by merchants across sectors such as retail, transport, and hospitality, and the company is part of Worldline’s broader payment services group after a multi-billion-dollar acquisition in 2020.

They have also worked more closely with the crypto industry. They have formed more partnerships with companies like Binance and Crypto.com in the past. Now that stablecoins are trending, this partnership comes at the perfect time to push crypto adoption in daily life, bringing it closer to card payments.

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BVNK has extended its partnership with Chainalysis to integrate know-your-transaction (KYT) tools into the digital banking platform’s Layer1 self-custody infrastructure.

According to a Dec. 13 press release, enterprise clients using BVNK’s Layer1 self-hosting, self-custody platform will now have access to Chainalysis’ suite of KYT tools including real-time crypto compliance intelligence from within their dashboard and plug-and-play functionality via the firm’s bring-your-own-key (BYOK) model.

The tools provide the necessary security and data management services required for compliance with industry regulations and allow businesses to review risk scores, monitor addresses, and freeze high-risk transactions from within the UI.

🤝 We’re deepening our work with @BVNKFinance. Chainalysis KYT now connects directly into their new Layer1 platform, so teams can plug in an API key, see real-time risk, and freeze high-risk transactions without leaving their payments stack.

✅ Compliance built into self-hosted… pic.twitter.com/K6BzHyGWGk

— Chainalysis (@chainalysis) January 13, 2026

Digital Assets Reach Broad Enterprise Adoption

As Coinspeaker reported in September of 2025, North America cryptocurrency trading volume reached $2.3 trillion between July 2024 and June 2025, representing 26% of all global transaction activity during the 12-month period.

According to Chainalysis, that activity was attributable to a more favorable regulatory outlook and the passage of the GENIUS Act, broader industry adoption of institutional trading strategies, the rise of spot Bitcoin BTC $93 522 24h volatility: 2.1% Market cap: $1.87 T Vol. 24h: $50.68 B and Ethereum ETH $3 193 24h volatility: 2.8% Market cap: $385.28 B Vol. 24h: $25.05 B ETFs, and the rising popularity of tokenized real-world assets.

Cryptocurrency and digital asset adoption among businesses reached all-time highs in 2025. The onset of a positive global regulatory environment for crypto coupled with the surging popularity of stablecoins has positioned blockchain-native firms such as BVNK as lynchpin providers in the digital assets solutions space.

As a result, traditional finance organizations are beginning to infiltrate the crypto and web3 markets. For example, the third-largest bank in the US, Citibank, recently invested an undisclosed sum of money in BVNK as part of a strategic partnership. At the time, BVNK’s valuation had reportedly exceeded the $750 million mark and Bitcoin was teasing new all-time highs.

Citibank CEO Jane Fraser revealed back in July, ahead of the BVNK partnership, that the bank was exploring the development of a Citi-backed stablecoin and seeking to expand its cross-border remittance capabilities.

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