DL News

Venture capitalists are pursuing crypto startups despite US President Donald Trump’s barrage of threats blasting asset markets with uncertainty.

Investors doled out another $362 million to 14 crypto startups in the third week of January, already bringing the total to over $1 billion so far this year, DefiLlama data shows.

Startup fundraising is generally safe from short-term volatility triggered by news events, Annabelle Huang, CEO of Altius and former venture partner at Amber Group, told DL News.

“The ‘Sell America’ trade we are seeing is mostly occurring in the public markets, not on the fundraising scene,” Huang said.

Venture capitalists “generally operate in the primary [and] early-stage markets, so they’re not entirely in tandem with the broader market in the short term,” Huang said.

Some investors are even capitalising on the heightening geopolitical tensions, according to Huang.

“They’re essentially looking for the next Palantir or Anduril, which are companies that benefit from the heightened tensions we’re seeing,” she said.

“Even so, the uncertainty around geopolitical risks should bring caution to all investors.”

To be sure, the amount raised is over 50% less than the same period last year when crypto markets were at the height of a major bull run.

Here are the top raises this week.

BitGo, $213m

BitGo’s initial public offering towered over the week’s capital markets activity, hauling in $213 million, Nasdaq data shows.

A provider of institutional crypto plumbing, the firm supplies the custody, security and settlement infrastructure relied upon by global banks, hedge funds and major exchanges operating at scale.

BitGo first announced plans to go public in September 2025, following successful listings from stablecoin issuer Circle and crypto exchanges Bullish and Gemini.

Founded in 2013, BitGo stores digital assets for major players in the crypto space, including Trump-backed DeFi project World Liberty Financial, which last year hired the firm to custody its stablecoin, USD1.

Superstate, $83m

Superstate raised $83 million in a Series B round led by Bain Capital Crypto and Distributed Global, as investors doubled down on tokenisation.

The firm is bringing blockchain rails into asset management, issuing tokenised investment products, including an Ethereum-based open mutual fund tied to short-term US bonds, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

By marrying public ledgers with traditional securities, Superstate is positioning itself at the crossroads of regulated finance and decentralised infrastructure. Backers including Haun Ventures and Brevan Howard Digital are betting on real-world asset tokenisation.

Space, $14m

Space, a prediction market built on Solana, closed a $14 million public token sale, underscoring growing appetite for the betting industry.

The platform allows users to take leveraged positions on future events, blending onchain transparency with incentive-driven mechanics designed to attract sophisticated, capital-efficient traders.

Space says it offers a low-latency environment for speculation across economic, political and cultural outcomes.

You’re reading the latest instalment of The Weekly Raise, our column covering fundraising deals across the crypto and DeFi spaces, powered by DefiLlama.

Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email at lance@dlnews.com.

Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, has established a presence in Greece as it seeks a license that would allow it to operate anywhere in the European Union.

The EU’s Crypto-Assets Regulation, or MiCA, provides a framework for almost all aspects of centralised crypto asset trading. And it allows crypto companies that set up shop in one EU member state to market their services to consumers throughout the 27-nation bloc.

“We have submitted our MiCA application and are actively engaging with the Hellenic Capital Market Commission,” a Binance spokesperson told DL News, referring to the Greek financial regulator.

“We see MiCA as a positive and important milestone for the industry - one that brings greater regulatory clarity, stronger user protections, and a clear framework for responsible innovation.”

Binance currently holds at least five licenses in EU member states, according to its website: France, Italy, Spain, Poland and Sweden. It had previously sought a German license but withdrew that application amid reports the country was expected to reject it.

If Binance were to acquire a MiCA licence, it would operate under those rules in EU member states, rather than the mix of regulations it currently faces.

“We continue to operate in accordance with applicable local requirements under relevant regulations until these are superseded by the MiCA license,” the spokesperson said.

Last year, Binance announced its global business had received approval to operate in Abu Dhabi, though the company still rejected the term “headquarters,” calling the concept “symbolic” and “old-fashioned.”

While Greece might not serve as Binance’s European HQ — the company already has a large presence in France, for example — the mediterranean nation is still an interesting place for Binance to establish its pan-European foothold. The country isn’t known as a crypto hub.

“Greece is an important contributor to the EU’s economic framework, with an economy growing above the EU average and a strong regulatory environment that promotes financial stability, transparency, and investor protection,” the spokesperson said.

In 2023, Coinbase, one of Binance’s top rivals, chose Ireland as its EU access point.

Binance’s MiCA application was first reported by Greek publication D News.

Aleks Gilbert is DL News’ New York based DeFi correspondent. Have a tip? You can reach him at aleks@dlnews.com.

The fusion of artificial intelligence and crypto will lead to a financial transformation, industry leaders say.

“The native currency for AI agents is going to be crypto,” Changpeng Zhao, the former Binance CEO, said on Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Though agents are not yet mature, over time, crypto will become the main medium of digital value exchange for these programmes, he forecast.

An AI agent is an autonomous system designed to achieve specific goals by independently planning and executing decisions. They can perform simple tasks such as booking airline tickets or investing money.

He’s not alone in his bullishness.

Bitwise estimates that the marriage of crypto and AI will add $20 trillion to the global GDP by 2030.

In 2025, bullish projections like that encouraged investors to plough over $565 million into startups at the intersection of AI and crypto, a 16% increase from 2024, according to data from DefiLlama.

Circle CEO

Other crypto execs showered praise on the merging of the two technologies.

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said that there will be “billions” of AI agents conducting economic transactions in the next three to five years.

“The next generation of blockchain networks are being designed specifically for agentic compute,” Allaire said at the WEF on Thursday.

Earlier in January, David Duong, Coinbase’s investment research lead, said that “the sustained prominence of the AI and crypto convergence as not just a trend but as a fundamental shift towards the next stage of technological progress.”

Andreessen Horowitz

Elsewhere, venture capital powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz said AI agents will converge with crypto to revolutionise internet payments, banking, and prediction markets in 2026.

“A smart contract can already settle a dollar payment globally in seconds,” analysts Christian Crowley and Pyrs Carvolth wrote in the firm’s 2026 outlook.

Agents will be “paying each other for data, GPU time, or API calls instantly and permissionlessly — without invoicing, reconciling, or batching,” they said.

They also anticipate that prediction markets “where odds update, agents trade, and payouts clear globally in seconds… without a custodian or exchange.”

Wealth management will also be turbocharged, analyst Maggie Hsu said.

“This is more than just robo advisors; everyone can access active portfolio management, not just passive management,” Hsu said.

In short, people are optimistic.

“We believe economists are collectively underestimating AI productivity at the moment,” Duong said.

“AI is increasing the speed and efficiency of our workforce in a way that isn’t being fully captured by official statistics.”

Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email at lance@dlnews.com.

CertiK has joined the growing list of crypto firms eying an initial public offering.

But it won’t be easy for the New York-based blockchain security firm.

Certik has come under fire from critics in recent years for auditing code for a platform linked to cybercriminals, its handling of an exploit it discovered at crypto exchange Kraken, and the hacking of its X account.

Ronghui Gu, the firm’s CEO and co-founder, is unfazed and announced the plans on Thursday in an interview with Acumen Media.

“Taking CertiK public is a natural next step as we continue scaling our products and technology,” Gu said in a statement.

“We remain focused on strengthening the trust, security, and transparency that regulators, institutions, and users expect from the Web3 ecosystem.”

IPO boom

CertiK’s announcement comes as more crypto firms look to go public amid institutional investors’ growing interest in the industry.

Last year, USDC issuer Circle’s IPO raised a whopping $1 billion from investors keen to own a slice of the burgeoning stablecoin industry.

Several more IPOs from Bullish, Gemini, Galaxy Digital, Figure, and Exodus also raised handsome sums by tapping into the demand for crypto companies.

2026 looks set to be another blockbuster year.

On Thursday, crypto custodian BitGo kicked off the year by raising $213 million from investors in its IPO.

Crypto titans Kraken, Ledger, Consensys and Aminoca Brands are all lining up their own public offerings for later in the year.

CertiK is no stranger to raising large sums of money.

The firm has collected $296 million in funding since its 2018 founding, landing a $2 billion valuation by early 2022. Investors include crypto exchange Binance, the SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital, and Goldman Sachs, among others.

On January 6, CertiK announced a strategic partnership with YZi Labs, the family office of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao.

“Recently Binance also made a follow up multi-eight figures investment into CertiK and became our largest investor,” Gu said in the interview.

Whether other investors will be as keen as Binance to invest in CertiK remains to be seen.

CertiK controversies

The firm has been caught up in several controversies in recent years, damaging its reputation.

In 2024, CertiK’s X account was compromised after one of its employees fell victim to a phishing attack, the firm told DL News.

Later that year, CertiK was roundly criticised after it announced its employees had discovered and exploited a $3 million bug in crypto exchange Kraken.

CertiK maintained that the incident was a “whitehat” operation designed to test Kraken’s security. It’s unclear why a business built on securing code for crypto appeared to break industry standards during the investigation and testing of the exploit.

In 2025, Certik apologised after working on a Cambodian marketplace linked to illicit activity.

The firm audited the code of a stablecoin launched by Huione Guarantee, a marketplace used by cybercriminals to launder stolen funds, buy and sell hacking tools and personal data, and whose vendors sold shock collars and stun batons for use by those running forced labour scamming compounds across Southeast Asia.

CertiK did not respond to a request for comment.

Tim Craig is DL News’ Edinburgh-based DeFi Correspondent. Reach out with tips at tim@dlnews.com.

Ripple wants to be crypto’s biggest investment company.

That’s the view of Eliézer Ndinga, global head of research and venture partner for 21Shares, who said Ripple is building a diversified empire that will eventually give Warren Buffett a run for his money.

“Ripple is positioning itself as the next Berkshire Hathaway,” Ndinga told DL News.

“They have a treasury war chest to buy companies, and they’re a stablecoin issuer to compete against Circle.”

If that’s the eventual strategy, it would be a dramatic evolution from Ripple’s origins as a cross-border payments protocol.

The company has been on a billion-dollar shopping spree to assemble a portfolio of crypto businesses while deliberately distancing itself from XRP, the token it created.

$40 billion

To be sure, it will take some time to reach Berkshire Hathaway’s size.

Buffett’s company is a $1 trillion holding firm that owns dozens of businesses from insurance to candy. It’s the 11th largest company in the world.

Ripple’s latest valuation was $40 billion in 2025, with significant cash reserves to fund an acquisition strategy that spans payments, custody, and stablecoins.

In November, the firm raised $500 million from Citadel Securities, Fortress, Pantera Capital, and Galaxy Digital.

The raise tripled its valuation.

In short, if the XRP-linked firm were to have a chance to overtake Berkshire Hathaway, it would need to grow by 2,500%.

Meanwhile, the company’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, said its shopping spree will slow in 2026.

So far, that shopping list includes Metaco, a Swiss custody platform bought up for $250 million, Hidden Road, a multi-asset prime brokerage now rebranded as Ripple Prime, purchased for $1.25 billion; Rail, a stablecoin payments infrastructure firm picked up for $200 million; and GTreasury, a developer of corporate treasury management software, that was bought out for $1 billion.

It even launched its own stablecoin, RLUSD, in 2024. It now has a market value of just over $1.4 billion, making it the 10th-largest stablecoin in the world, according to DefiLlama.

XRP confusion

The company’s corporate ambitions create tension with XRP, especially with its retail investor base.

For Ndinga, Ripple wants to be valued like a diversified financial services firm, not a single-asset bet.

“Ripple wants to separate itself from XRP as it prepares for public markets,” he told DL News.

“They don’t want to create confusion among investors.”

Ripple didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

Pedro Solimano is a markets correspondent based in Buenos Aires. Got a tip? Email him at psolimano@dlnews.com.

Hackers have targeted French crypto company Waltio, demanding a ransom after reportedly stealing customer emails and tax reports.

Waltio, a platform that lets customers calculate and report their digital asset capital gains, said Friday that the hackers did not obtain passwords or other sensitive customer data.

“On January 21, 2026, we were the recipient of an attempted extortion,” the company wrote. “This appears to follow a particularly sophisticated attack, which allowed access to certain company data.”

Ce vendredi matin, nous avons déposé plainte pour tentative d'extorsion et atteinte à un système de traitement automatisé de données.

Le 21 janvier 2026, nous avons été destinataire d’une tentative d’extorsion. Celle-ci semble faire suite à une attaque particulièrement…

— Waltio (@Get_Waltio) January 23, 2026

DL News reached out to Waltio for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.

Risk of phishing

French daily Le Parisien reported that data from 50,000 Waltio customers had been stolen.

Waltio CEO Pierre Morizot said in a statement that hackers got user emails and gains and losses from the 2024 tax reports.

He said the biggest risk would be cybercriminals reaching out to clients through social engineering scams.

“Some attackers may use contextual elements (e.g. the existence of a tax report or aggregated information) to appear credible,” Morizot warned.

Social engineering attacks can take many forms, such as sending victims malicious links via email or calling them and pretending to be someone else.

The objective, however, is the same: Getting additional information, such as key phrases to a crypto wallet, that would let them steal users’ funds.

The cybercrime arm of France’s public prosecutor’s office is investigating the incident.

DL News reached out with questions, but did not immediately receive a response.

Attacks in France

Bitcoin developer Jameson Lopp flagged the incident on X Friday, describing it as “more terrible news for French cryptocurrency users.”

A number of high-profile crypto crimes have happened in the European nation over the past year.

Most notably in 2025, crooks kidnapped hardware manufacturer Ledger’s co-founder, David Balland, holding him and his wife for 24 hours before being released.

Mathew Di Salvo is a news correspondent with DL News. Got a tip? Email at mdisalvo@dlnews.com.

Optimism DAO delegates are heading to the polls as a landmark proposal to use a portion of Optimism’s revenue to buy back its OP governance token opened for voting on Thursday.

The proposal, if passed, will mandate the Optimism Foundation to use 50% of the revenue generated through the Superchain, a network of blockchains built using Optimism’s software, to buy OP tokens every month.

The vote has split opinions among the DAO’s delegates. While many support the proposal, others argue it’s a poor use of capital.

“Optimism is a net seller of OP (grants, payment-in-kind, etc) and it makes little sense to spend precious hard assets and shorten runway to buy back OP while still net selling,” PaperImperium, a governance liaison for GFX Labs, an Optimism DAO delegate, said on X.

Optimism is a major player in blockchain infrastructure. Its OP stack software framework is used by Coinbase’s Base blockchain, Uniswap’s Unichain, and Kraken’s Ink blockchain, among others.

But the project’s OP token hasn’t benefitted. It’s down more than 93% from its all-time high after hitting an all-time low of $0.25 last month.

The buyback proposal aims to change that. The more revenue Optimism makes, the more OP the nonprofit Optimism Foundation will be required to buy each month, potentially helping shore up the token’s price.

Such buyback programmes have become increasingly popular among crypto projects in recent months. But not everyone agrees that they’re worthwhile.

Researchers at crypto market maker Keyrock and market intelligence platform Messari argue buybacks can be a waste of money as they divert funds from marketing and growth initiatives and do little to impact token prices.

OTC issues

There are several more issues with the proposed buyback programme, according to delegates.

One is that the buybacks will be conducted over-the-counter instead of through the open market, meaning the purchases won’t directly impact market prices.

“A concerning scenario would be that employees or investors are using the OTC buybacks to offload their tokens as they unlock,” Michael Vander Meiden, an Optimism DAO delegate and member of the Optimism grants council, said in a forum post.

In response, the Optimism Foundation said it chose OTC execution as the simplest path to shipping the buyback programme. “All OTC trades will be reported publicly, either via stats.optimism.io or via the governance forum,” the foundation said in a forum post.

Still, not everyone is convinced.

“We would prefer to see more focus on crafting and publishing a business plan to get Optimism to financial sustainability,” GFX Labs said in a forum post. “That’s the real challenge that Optimism Foundation/Labs leadership needs to address, and a buyback does nothing to address this, and may in fact make it worse.”

Several other governance participants said they agree with GFX Labs’ criticisms.

‘A step in the right direction’

Despite the pushback, a large faction of Optimism’s DAO supports the buyback proposal.

“It’s totally fine to have a buyback programme alongside emissions, even if they technically cancel out (partially),” Milo Bowman, an Optimism DAO delegate, said in a forum post. “The meme of the buyback is important. It allows people to clearly project what would happen if the Superchain grows 100x.”

“It’s a step in the right direction,” a spokesperson for PGov, an Optimism DAO delegate, told DL News. “The specifics still need to be discussed and [we] would like to have more dialogue between the community and core teams foundation that propose it.”

The buyback vote will run for six days and ends on January 28.

So far, delegates have cast more than 3.8 million votes in favour of the proposal, with just over 19,000 votes against it.

Tim Craig is DL News’ Edinburgh-based DeFi Correspondent. Reach out with tips at tim@dlnews.com.

Crypto trade associations in the US have slammed a complaint filed by the Federal Trade Commission that suggested a Utah-based company broke the law when it built software without a so-called kill switch.

That software, a crypto bridge called Nomad, was hacked for nearly $200 million in 2022. While its developers were able to recover millions in stolen crypto, Nomad has failed to gain any traction since it was relaunched in December that year.

Though the project is seemingly defunct, parent company Illusory Systems agreed last year to settle a complaint filed by the FTC.

The agency alleged Illusory Systems had failed to take reasonable steps to secure its software. But its definition of “reasonable and appropriate” has alarmed the crypto industry.

“The company failed to incorporate ‘circuit breakers’ or a ‘kill switch’ that could immediately cease the functioning of the Nomad Token Bridge in the presence of suspicious transactions,” the FTC wrote in the complaint, which it published alongside the proposed settlement in December.

But that technology is far from industry standard and, in some cases, could even make software more vulnerable to hackers, four crypto trade associations wrote in a letter to the agency this week.

Moreover, the presence of a kill switch implies unilateral control — an unacceptable requirement for developers attempting to build decentralised protocols, according to the letter.

The tiff is the latest example of the myriad ways in which regulators charged with protecting consumers can impose requirements limiting developers’ ability to build such software.

The Nomad hack

Crypto bridges allow users to move their crypto between otherwise incompatible blockchains. But they have proven a lucrative target for hackers.

In April 2022, Nomad said it had raised $22 million at a $225 million valuation to build “security-first interoperability.”

Despite Nomad’s assurances, just four months later some 300 hackers exploited a bug in the bridge and made off with $186 million in crypto, something the FTC attributed to “inadequately tested code.”

Last year, crypto forensics firm TRM Labs called it “one of the most remarkable and chaotic hacks in decentralised finance history.”

The company was able to recover roughly $37 million thanks to ethical hackers who joined the plunder in order to prevent thieves from running off with every last dollar. But a relaunched bridge failed to gain any traction — as of Friday, it held just $1 million in user deposits, according to DefiLlama data.

Nomad’s final post on X was more than two years ago.

The FTC has alleged that Nomad employed “unfair security practices” — such as the lack of a kill switch — that harmed its users. As such, it misled those users when it touted its “security first” approach.

The company has agreed to settle the complaint. If the complaint and settlement are finalised, Nomad will have to implement a new information security programme and return any remaining crypto it recovered after the hack, among other things.

Impossible mandate?

But industry groups say the complaint needs to be revised, as it implies a company operates unlawfully by releasing software without certain security features, including the kill switch.

That’s a problematic requirement, as it would “require privileged control or some other centralised authority to execute,” the letter reads.

“Many of these technologies — including technologies that utilise decentralised governance and control of operations — would be stifled if not outright deemed impossible under the expectations in the Proposed Complaint.”

Even MetaMask developer Consensys weighed in.

“Circuit breakers are not industry standard today, and they were not standard at the time of the Nomad incident,” Bill Hughes, senior counsel at Consensys, wrote in a letter to the agency.

Last year, police in Israel arrested dual Russian-Israeli citizen Alexander Gurevich when he attempted to travel to Russia using documents bearing a different name, according to a report from the Jerusalem Post. Gurevich was extradited to the US on suspicion of participating in the Nomad hack.

DL News could not immediately determine Thursday whether Gurevich had ultimately been charged in connection with the hack.

Aleks Gilbert is DL News’ New York-based DeFi correspondent. You can reach him at aleks@dlnews.com.

Ledger is plotting a $4 billion public listing and has tapped firms such as Goldman Sachs to make it happen, people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times.

The hardware crypto wallet provider is also said to be working with Jefferies and Barclays on the deal, which could take place on the New York Stock Exchange later in 2026.

All four companies did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DL News.

The news comes hot on the heels of crypto custody company BitGo raising over $212 million on its NYSE listing on Wednesday.

It also comes as digital asset businesses raised $3.4 billion through initial public offerings last year, according to DefiLlama data.

A successful $4 billion IPO by Ledger would tower over all of 2025.

And more are coming down the road. Despite the current crypto market slump, several industry players are plotting to go public in 2026.

CertiK

Web3 security firm CertiK this week said it also plans to go public. It announced those plans during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week.

In a paid-for article on CBS, the company said the IPO will “reinforce the transparency standards that Certik already follows.”

“Taking CertiK public is a natural next step as we continue scaling our products and technology,” Ronghui Gu, co-founder and CEO of CertiK, said in a statement.

Kraken

Kraken is gearing up for a public listing sometime in the first half of 2026, according to a confidential S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in November.

The crypto exchange is seen as a potential rival not only to Coinbase but also to fintech firms like Robinhood.

While originally being a pure crypto trading platform, Kraken has spent the past few years expanding its services.

It now offers several services typically found at traditional financial institutions. Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Kraken, told DL News in September that the firm is also looking for more acquisitions.

Consensys

Crypto infrastructure giant Consensys is said to be in talks with JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs to go public in 2026, Axios reported in October 2025.

With more than 30 million monthly users, according to the company, and a $7 billion valuation, Consensys offers public markets pure crypto-infrastructure exposure.

The firm, which operates MetaMask and Infura, is pivoting from a software studio to a high-profit infrastructure provider. In 2025, MetaMask added native support for Bitcoin and Solana to consolidate its position as a multi-chain wallet.

Evernorth

XRP treasury firm Evernorth is due to go public on the Nasdaq in the first quarter of 2026, CEO Asheesh Birla told Nasdaq MarketSite earlier in January.

The move will be via a SPAC merger with Armada Acquisition Corp II. Once finalised, it will trade under ticker XRPN on Nasdaq.

Evernorth holds 388 million XRP tokens bought at an average price of $2.44, according to CryptoQuant data. The firm handles the custody, compliance, and security obligations that would be required if it purchased the cryptocurrency directly.

Animoca Brands

Animoca Brands is lining up a public debut in 2026, with plans to reach the Nasdaq via a reverse merger with Currenc Group, in a move that would put one of crypto gaming’s most prolific backers under the glare of public markets.

Headquartered in Hong Kong, Animoca has assembled one of the industry’s broadest Web3 gaming portfolios, holding stakes across dozens of tokenised games and metaverse ventures.

The proposed listing is widely viewed as a bellwether for investor appetite for metaverse-linked assets and gaming-driven crypto exposure.

Bithumb

Seoul-based crypto exchange Bithumb is reportedly targeting a public listing on South Korea’s main stock exchange in 2026.

Bithumb has tapped Samsung Securities as lead underwriter for the initial public offering, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The move sets the stage for a high-profile test of investor appetite for crypto-linked equities in Asia.

With an estimated 18 million crypto users nationwide, Bithumb’s IPO could signal a new phase of institutionalisation in Asia’s most retail-driven crypto market.

Crypto market movers

Bitcoin is down 1.2% over the past 24 hours, trading at $88,934.

Ethereum is down 2.4% past 24 hours at $2,927.

What we’re reading

Trump sues JPMorgan Chase over alleged debanking in $5b lawsuit: reports — DL News

Brian Armstrong defends Bitcoin in tiff with French central banker — DL News

Bitcoin Rebounds After Trump’s Truth Social Post Eases Tariff Fears — Unchained

Credit spreads still whisper calm — Milk Road

Why BlackRock’s Larry Fink wants the entire financial system on ‘one common blockchain’ — DL News

Eric Johansson and Lance Datskoluo both cover markets for DL News. Got a tip? Email them at eric@dlnews.com and lance@dlnews.com.

What is Bitcoin’s role in the global monetary system?

That question sparked a tense exchange between Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and French central bank governor François Villeroy de Galhau at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week.

“Bitcoin is the greatest accountability mechanism on deficit spending,” said Armstrong.

“If we lose public control over money, you lose a key function of democracy,” returned Villeroy.

The rapid-fire exchange between Armstrong and Villeroy de Galhau at Davos exposed a fundamental rift between Bitcoin hardliners and proponents of the existing system: who should control money in the 21st century?

At the core of the debate was the question of whether Bitcoin can coexist with — or directly replace — traditional fiat currencies controlled by central banks. A fiat currency is government-issued money, like the dollar or the euro, that derives its value from state decree.

The skirmish reflects a growing global tension over who should control money in an era of persistent inflation, rising debt, debasement fear, and the US’ increasingly frequent weaponisation of its financial dominance.

While policymakers in advanced economies continue to frame inflation as a temporary deviation from their stated target, hundreds of millions of people live under double-digit inflation, capital controls, or unstable currencies — conditions that make Bitcoin’s fixed supply and censorship resistance less ideological and more practical.

Defenders of the existing financial system, meanwhile, counter that government-issued money is designed to be flexible. Central banks exist to manage crises, stabilise economies, and act as lenders of last resort, all of which are roles that a rules-based protocol cannot perform.

Check and balance

For Armstrong, Bitcoin has plenty of good to serve people who struggle financially around the world.

“Bitcoin is good as a check and balance on deficit spending because when there is a lack of trust or people are worried about inflation — maybe in places like Argentina or Turkey or Nigeria — they are going to flee to the thing that they believe is going to store value more,” Armstrong said.

In Argentina, the country recorded a 31% inflation rate in 2025. Still high, it’s a considerable drop from the nation’s hyperinflationary experience before President Javier Milei took office in 2024.

Turkey’s inflation rate came in at around 30% in 2025, while Nigeria had a 15% inflation rate.

With their ability to issue money as they please, those figures are likely to remain high — and damaging to citizens, Armstrong argued.

“Bitcoin doesn’t have a money printer. The supply is fixed and people will go to it in times of uncertainty kind of like they did with gold,” Armstrong said.

Democracy vs decentralisation

Villeroy rejected the premise entirely.

“I am a bit sceptical about this idea of the Bitcoin standard,” Villeroy said. “We left the gold standard. But the gold was only a technical mean. What is important is that monetary policy and money is part of society and we live in democracies and I think the public role is key.”

He warned that losing public control over money threatens democratic governance.

“Sorry to say that I trust more independent central banks with a democratic mandate than private issuers,” Villeroy said.

Villeroy failed to point out one minor detail: around the world, governments are attempting to put pressure on central banks, weakening that independence he referred to.

Take the US. President Donald Trump has repeatedly tried to goad Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell into resigning in order to install someone who will push to lower interest rates more aggressively.

But Armstrong quickly corrected him: “Bitcoin is a decentralised protocol. There’s actually no issuer of it. There’s no country or company or individual who controls it in the world.”

He then turned Villeroy’s independence argument against him.

“In the sense that central banks have independence, Bitcoin is even more independent,” Armstrong said.

Pedro Solimano is aDL News’markets correspondent based in Buenos Aires.Got a tip? Email them atpsolimano@dlnews.com.

US President Donald Trump has sued JPMorgan Chase and its CEO Jamie Dimon, according to reports, following through with threats after the banking giant allegedly denied him services.

The $5 billion lawsuit alleges the lender stopped offering President Trump and his businesses banking services for political reasons, according to a report from Bloomberg that cited court documents.

The US president over the weekend wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, that he would sue the bank after it “debanked” him.

The lawsuit comes as the Trump family pushes further into crypto. The president’s sons have claimed they had no choice but to use digital assets because of blacklisting by major lenders.

JPMorgan Chase and Trump lawyer did not immediately return DL News’ request for comment.

Trump family ventures

The Trump family — particularly sons Eric and Donald Jr. — have said that unfair banking practices pushed them into crypto.

“We got into crypto because we were debanked,” Donald Jr. said in a Fox News interview last year, adding that crypto was “absolutely the future of banking.”

The Trump family-backed crypto company World Liberty Financial claims it will “unlock financial access for all by replacing the limits of traditional banking.”

World Liberty Financial applied for a banking licence earlier this month in a bid to get its stablecoin used by institutions and retail investors.

Crypto proponents have long claimed that limited access to traditional financial services and banks will fuel the success of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. And many US-based digital asset firms claim to have struggled to maintain or open bank accounts in recent years.

President Trump’s campaign promises included an end to the Biden Administration’s crackdown on the crypto industry, which earned him backing from prominent digital asset entrepreneurs.

Since the Republican took office, he has introduced a Bitcoin Strategic Reserve, appointed crypto-friendly regulators, and signed crypto-friendly legislation such as the Genius Act, which establishes a framework for regulating stablecoins.

Ahead of his inauguration, President Trump even debuted a memecoin, TRUMP, which has fallen 93% after briefly touching $73 per token.

The Trump Organization has already sued Capital One over alleged debanking. Eric had previously described the bank as “woke.”

Mathew Di Salvo is a news correspondent with DL News. Got a tip? Email at mdisalvo@dlnews.com.

Jack Mallers just broke with Bitcoin treasury orthodoxy — and took a shot at Michael Saylor in the process.

The brash CEO of XXI Capital, a Bitcoin treasury company, announced that his firm had dropped the Bitcoin-per-share metric that’s been central to the entire treasury trade.

“It’s become clear that the market wants a Bitcoin equity that can do things like get leverage and give maximal exposure to Bitcoin with cash flow without having to dilute common shareholders,” Mallers said on his podcast The Jack Mallers Show on January 19.

The timing is pointed and his words are caustic. Saylor’s Strategy, the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder, just raised $2.1 billion to buy more Bitcoin — with 86% coming from dilutive common stock issuance.

The trade, pioneered by Saylor, is living through some dire times. Nearly 40% of treasuries trade below net asset value, while more than 60% of treasuries have bought Bitcoin at higher prices than they are today.

XXI Capital is the third largest corporate Bitcoin holder with 43,514 Bitcoin worth about $3.8 billion. The company is backed by finance heavyweights like Cantor Fitzgerald, Tether, and Japan-based SoftBank.

Bitcoin-per-share tracks how much Bitcoin each shareholder owns. When companies issue new shares to buy more Bitcoin, that number goes down — diluting existing shareholders even as total holdings grow.

Bitcoin-per-share

Mallers didn’t name Strategy explicitly, but the target was clear.

“We’ve seen certain Bitcoin treasury companies have to dilute shareholders to finance themselves,” Mallers said. “We’ve seen certain Bitcoin treasury companies have to sell their Bitcoin.”

Strategy’s latest purchase illustrates Mallers’ criticism. The company raised $1.83 billion by selling over 10 million MSTR shares — direct dilution that reduced per-share Bitcoin ownership.

Strategy’s stock dropped 8% on the announcement and is down 62% in six months.

Cash flow businesses

Mallers says XXI will focus on “maximal exposure to Bitcoin with cash flow without having to dilute common shareholders.”

He didn’t specify exactly how XXI plans to achieve this, saying the company will provide clarity “when the timing is right.”

But removing BTC-per-share reporting is significant. The metric has been the north star for Bitcoin treasuries since Saylor pioneered the model. Strategy repeatedly emphasises its “BTC yield” — the increase in BTC-per-share over time.

Worse than Strategy

Mallers’ criticism of dilution rings hollow given XXI’s own performance, however.

The company’s stock has dropped more than 70% in the past six months — worse than Strategy’s 62% decline.

And while Mallers slams competitors for failing to generate cash flow, XXI has yet to launch a single cash-generating business nine months after promising to do so.

Pedro Solimano is a DL News’ markets correspondent based in Buenos Aires. Got a tip? Email them atpsolimano@dlnews.com.

Crypto custodian BitGo said Wednesday that it had raised $212.8 million in its initial public offering, valuing the company at over $2 billion and kicking off 2026, which is expected to be a blockbuster year for digital asset firms going public.

The company said it had sold 11.8 million shares at $18 apiece, above its marketed range.

BitGo on Thursday listed on the New York Stock Exchange ​under the symbol “BTGO.”

A number of top crypto firms went public last year, cementing the digital asset space firmly in the mainstream, and more big players in the industry are expected to list this year.

🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/r3BJQdoZhV

— BitGo (@BitGo) January 22, 2026

BitGo first announced plans to go public in September 2025, following successful listings from stablecoin issuer Circle and crypto exchanges Bullish and Gemini.

Founded in 2013, the firm stores digital assets for major players in the crypto space, including Donald Trump-backed DeFi project World Liberty Financial, which last year hired the firm to custody its stablecoin, USD1.

Big year for IPOs

Digital asset businesses raised $3.4 billion through initial public offering rounds last year, DefiLlama data shows.

Listings come as regulators in the US take a more friendly approach to the space under US President Donald Trump, who campaigned to help the industry and received backing from digital asset entrepreneurs.

Regulators have scrapped lawsuits against top crypto companies like Coinbase, Binance, and Ripple since Trump took power.

American crypto exchange Kraken, blockchain software company Consensys, and hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger are just some of the big names expected to go public this year, the companies have said in SEC filings.

Mathew Di Salvo is a news correspondent with DL News. Got a tip? Email at mdisalvo@dlnews.com.

Mining Bitcoin is about to get easier — but is that a good thing?

For the fifth time in a row, difficulty on the largest and oldest crypto network will drop on Thursday, making it even easier for mining operations to mint new Bitcoin.

Mining difficulty automatically drops to encourage more mining machines to join the network and earn new Bitcoin as a reward.

Thus, a decrease means that less computing power is being directed toward a crypto network, and with less computing power comes less security.

It also becomes easier for miners who stick around to add blocks to the blockchain and earn rewards.

“In my opinion this is quite bullish for miners that are staying online,” Nick Hansen, CEO and co-founder of the Luxor mining pool, told DL News.

The expected drop of around 3.38% comes as it becomes harder to make ends meet in the cutthroat mining industry, with many miners shifting their focus to high-powered computing and artificial intelligence.

Top publicly traded miners in 2025 all signed deals to make the pivot, with Terawulf, IREN, and Cipher Mining all inking multi-year HPC contracts with Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Microsoft.

Miners switching off from minting coins means less computing power — understood as hashrate — directed at the industry.

“I would say that a good portion of this hashrate drop is miners taking a different path with the megawatts that they have,” said Hansen.

Is the pivot to AI a bad thing?

Some companies have stopped mining Bitcoin altogether, while others have rebranded to “compute” or “digital infrastructure” companies, switching between minting digital coins and providing compute for AI, depending on which is more profitable.

Still, the two “are not in a zero-sum competition for power,” Canaan’s Head of Capital Markets Leo Wang told DL News.

He added that the two industries can work in harmony, with miners having flexible energy requirements — Bitcoin miners can quickly power up or down depending on an energy grid’s needs — while HPC operations need constant, reliable power.

American miners shutting off or directing their power to other industries means that operations from other countries can step in.

American miners currently control the highest share of hashrate on the network, at roughly 38%, according to the Hashrate Index.

When China’s government clamped down on Bitcoin mining in 2021, when the country led the industry, miners simply shut off and set up shop in the US.

“Today, Nasdaq-listed companies are expanding their footprints far beyond the United States, utilizing global diversification to offset regional risks and capitalize on more competitive power and labor costs,” Canaan’s Head of Capital Markets Leo Wang told DL News.

What should investors think?

A lower hashrate means the crypto network is less secure and vulnerable to attack, but investors shouldn’t be worried, Hansen said.

“Bitcoin’s still very secure — there are tens of millions of mining machines securing the network to this day,” he said. “There’s really no 51% attack risk or anything like that.”

Wang added that if miners do power off, “new energy sources, including previously stranded energy,” are harnessed elsewhere.

Mathew Di Salvo is a news correspondent with DL News. Got a tip? Email at mdisalvo@dlnews.com.

South Korea’s biggest financial players are scrambling to formulate stablecoin issuance plans as the government prepares to rush through a legalisation bill.

The ruling Democratic Party wants to let domestic companies issue won-denominated coins, overturning a ban that has stood in place since 2019.

Hana Financial Group launched a stablecoin alliance last week, along with its competitors BNK Financial Group, iM Financial Group, Standard Chartered Bank Korea, OK Savings Bank, South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo reported on January 16. Another financial group, JB, joined on January 21, South Korean media outlet IB Tomato reported.

The alliance has agreed to create a special-purpose company that will issue a won-pegged coin once lawmakers lift the ban.

Sources close to the deal say the financial groups have also spoken to travel firms and insurance providers about cooperation, Chosun reported.

The central bank continues to drag its feet on the issue, insisting big tech players should be barred from issuing won-pegged coins, despite their eagerness to get involved.

But the government says it wants legislation finalised by the end of next month.

Jostling for dominance

As the impasse between the government and the central bank continues, regulators have suggested a compromise that would allow only consortia comprising major banks to issue stablecoins.

This has led South Korean financial groups to form alliances to prearrange cooperation in anticipation of such a compromise.

The chat app operator Kakao launched a stablecoin task force in August 2025, in conjunction with its banking and e-pay subsidiaries. In November, Kakao firms reportedly began work on a Kakao-branded won-pegged stablecoin.

Two commercial banking groups reportedly met with the Kakao task force before opting to throw their lot in with the Hana-led group.

“I understand that JB Financial Group and BNK Financial Group have been holding cooperation talks with Kakao,” an unnamed source close to the alliance told South Korean newspaper Seoul Kyungjae.

“Initially, there was talk in the market that the Kakao group held an advantage.”

JB and BNK are both mid-sized banking and securities firms with a combined market capitalisation of around $6.4 billion.

The sources said they expected the Hana-led alliance to initially “pursue a project to convert local currencies into stablecoins.”

Several South Korean regions have launched won-based local currency projects in recent years, as part of a bid to boost growth in the country’s provinces.

But the ban on token issuance means most of these currencies have been issued as digital vouchers rather than cryptocurrency-like tokens.

Tim Alper is a News Correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email at tdalper@dlnews.com.

Brazilian police say they dismantled a crypto-powered money laundering network on January 20, with officers freezing or confiscating $126 million worth of cash and other assets.

The network laundered money for criminal groups based both in Brazil and abroad, federal police said in a statement. Officers did not mention which cryptocurrencies the group allegedly used.

“The network has moved more than [$7.3 million] worth of illicit funds through coordinated operations involving affiliates and shell companies,” police said.

The operation, codenamed Narco Azimut, is the latest in a series of crackdowns on the use of crypto in Brazilian money laundering rings.

Last month, a court jailed 14 individuals for using Bitcoin and other tokens to launder $95 million in drug money and kidnapping ransoms.

Two ringleaders will remain behind bars for 21 years.

Seven arrested

Police say Operation Narco Azimut is in full swing. Officers raided addresses in six cities in the states of São Paulo, Goiás, and Rio de Janeiro, arresting seven people.

Officers say they’ve arrested the group’s suspected mastermind, Davidson Praça Lopes, the Brazilian media outlet UOL reported. They also detained several intermediaries who worked with crypto wallets and shell companies, and people who executed bank transfers on behalf of the group.

The crackdown is an extension of last year’s Operation Narco Bet, officers said. This previous operation, launched in 2025, “exposed a highly organized criminal group engaged in large cash transactions, shell company bank transfers, and cryptocurrency transactions” for drug traffickers and illegal betting sites.

Police launched investigations into the group after navy officers seized a sailboat loaded with cocaine on the high seas near Africa.

A court in the city of Santos ordered police to seize the group’s assets and block the suspects from “conducting business or transferring property linked to the alleged crimes.”

Officers said they confiscated vehicles, cash, documents, and equipment during their raids. They added that all of the arrest warrants were successfully implemented.

The suspects are set to face charges of organised crime, money laundering, and tax evasion.

Tim Alper is a news correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email at tdalper@dlnews.com.

Updating the financial system to run on blockchain technology is “necessary,” and promises to slash fees and boost accessibility for investors.

That’s the case BlackRock CEO Larry Fink made while speaking on a World Economic Forum panel in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday alongside Citadel CEO Ken Griffin and European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde.

Tokenisation is the process of converting ownership rights of assets like real estate, stocks, or bonds into digital tokens on a blockchain. Proponents argue doing so will speed up finance, reduce costs and provide more accountability.

“We would be reducing fees, we would do more democratisation,” Fink said. “[If] we have one common blockchain, we could reduce corruption.”

For Wall Street titans like BlackRock, tokenisation presents a huge opportunity.

Much of the core underlying software the global financial system runs on is between 40 and 60 years old. Because of this, it is often clunky and slow, and depends on costly intermediaries.

Updating it to a blockchain-based system could make those who pioneer the change a lot of money.

BlackRock isn’t the only one who’s bullish on blockchains.

“Blockchain is the future for traditional banking,” said Sergio Ermotti, CEO of UBS, at the World Economic Forum earlier this week. “You will see a convergence.”

Ripple and Boston Consulting Group predict blockchain tokenisation will swell into a $19 trillion industry by 2033, while asset manager Grayscale forecasts a thousand-fold growth of tokenised assets, pushing their combined value to $35 trillion by 2030.

Modest progress

Despite all the tokenisation hype, progress has so far been modest.

Investors have poured more than $22 billion into tokenised assets, but adoption has been limited to a couple of key areas. US Treasury bonds are the biggest tokenised asset, accounting for around $9.3 billion, while commodities, like tokenised gold receipts, make up nearly $4 billion.

This year could be when the trend expands and accelerates.

“In 2026, the tokenised assets market becomes broader, deeper, and significantly more institutional,” Philipp Pieper, co-founder of tokenisation platform Swarm Markets, previously told DL News.

Tokenisation has already scored a big win. On Monday, the New York Stock Exchange announced it will launch a tokenised securities trading platform with stablecoin funding, instant settlement, and 24/7 trading.

Another big benefit of tokenisation, according to Fink, is security.

Blockchains, unlike the current centralised financial system, can be decentralised, meaning no single entity has control over who can send funds, or has privileged access to data.

In other words, everyone using the blockchain plays by the same hard-coded rules. This creates an even playing field that’s appealing to both investors and asset managers alike.

“We have more dependencies on maybe one blockchain — which we could all talk about,” Fink said. “But that being said, the activities are probably processed and more secure than ever before.”

Moving too fast?

For Fink, however, tokenisation could be progressing faster in the US.

“It’s ironic that we see two emerging countries leading the world in the tokenisation and digitisation of their currencies — that’s Brazil and India,” he said.

It may be the case that the infrastructure needed to make tokenisation work at scale hasn’t caught up yet.

“Tokenised assets exist and can trade, but they lack the depth, distribution, and data reliability that institutional capital requires,” Laurens Fraussen, a research analyst at Kaiko, said in a January 20 report.

Then there’s the Clarity Act, a broad crypto market structure bill passing through the US Senate.

It will likely reduce uncertainty around tokenised assets, and many experts expect this to accelerate adoption as more institutions gain confidence to issue and trade them.

The bill was previously predicted to pass into law before the end of 2025. It faced more delays last week after Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said his exchange would not support it.

Armstrong argued certain provisions enable a “de facto ban on tokenised equities,” and would give the government unlimited access to crypto user’s financial records.

“We’d rather have no bill than a bad bill,” Armstrong said in a social media post on January 14.

Tim Craig is DL News’ Edinburgh-based DeFi Correspondent. Reach out with tips at tim@dlnews.com.

Brad Garlinghouse issued yet another bullish prediction for 2026 at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos.

On Tuesday, the Ripple CEO said he expects crypto markets to hit a new all-time high over the next 12 months, thanks to new US legislation to regulate digital assets.

“I’m very bullish, and yes, I’ll go on record as saying, I think we’ll see an all-time high,” he told CNBC.

He suggested that many still underestimate the importance of the US, the world’s largest economy, transitioning from its “war on crypto” to embracing the industry.

Under US President Donald Trump, the crypto industry enjoyed a heady year in 2025.

It involved the Securities and Exchange Commission halting or slowing its legal pursuit of high-profile crypto firms, including Coinbase, Binance and Ripple.

The most important win for the industry, however, was signing landmark stablecoin legislation into law via the Genius Act.

The law defined which businesses, financial or otherwise, could issue dollar-pegged stablecoins and under what conditions.

It sparked fintech firms and Wall Street stalwarts to take a second look at launching their own stablecoin, including Robinhood and Bank of America.

Ripple launched its own stablecoin, RLUSD, in 2024. It’s now worth $1.4 billion, according to CoinGecko.

Garlinghouse told CNBC that Wall Street paying attention to crypto is a “massive sea change.”

“I don’t think that’s priced into the crypto market as much as I would have expected right now,” he said.

Still, the industry is waiting on another key piece of legislation: The Clarity Act.

When Clarity?

After crypto exchange Coinbase pulled its backing from a draft version of the latest Clarity Act on January 14, political momentum to get the bill across the line has entered limbo.

The Clarity Act defines which regulatory agency would oversee the crypto industry.

The current draft would define all cryptocurrencies as securities — subject to SEC oversight — unless projects can prove they are sufficiently decentralised. At that point, they fall under the purview of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

“We appreciate all the hard work by members of the Senate to reach a bi-partisan outcome, but this version would be materially worse than the current status quo,” Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, wrote on X.

“We’d rather have no bill than a bad bill.”

Garlinghouse, as well as many other industry members, didn’t share the same view.

The Ripple CEO celebrated the “long-overdue” move by Senator Tim Scott and the Senate Banking Committee to advance the legislation.

“Ripple (and I) know first hand that clarity beats chaos, and this bill’s success is crypto’s success,” he said on January 14.

“I remain optimistic that issues can be resolved through the markup process.”

Liam Kelly is DL News’ Berlin-based DeFi correspondent. Have a tip? Get in touch at liam@dlnews.com.

Ethereum will lead the tokenisation of real-world assets, BlackRock said in its 2026 outlook.

The $362 billion blockchain network already enjoys a dominant head start. Some 66% of all tokenised assets are on Ethereum, dwarfing Binance’s BNB Chain ecosystem which commands 10%, according to BlackRock.

Other notable players in the space include Solana at 5%, Arbitrum at 4%, Stellar at 4%, and Avalanche at 3%. Combined, they are all well under Ethereum’s market share.

“As we look towards the next era of tokenisation, Ethereum may be poised to be a beneficiary of growth,” said Jay Jacobs, US head of equity exchange-traded funds at BlackRock and author of the report.

Floundering price

BlackRock’s projection comes as Ethereum’s price has floundered in recent months.

The second biggest crypto is trading at around $3,000, nearly 40% below its all-time high set back in August. It is down 10% over the past year despite macroeconomic tailwinds that have pushed assets like technology stocks and gold to new all-time highs.

But despite the poor price performance, Wall Street is making big bets on Ethereum.

In December, JPMorgan picked the network for its first-ever tokenised money market fund, an asset class valued at $9 trillion. In January, Morgan Stanley filed for an Ethereum exchange-traded fund product.

ETFs backed by the crypto asset are seeing strong investment. BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust ETF has $11 billion in assets under management, data compiled by DefiLlama shows. Similar ETFs issued by Grayscale and Fidelity also have notched billions in AUM.

Digital asset treasury firms are also buying and staking Ethereum tokens. Bitmine, the DAT helmed by crypto bull Tom Lee, reported purchasing another $100 million of the crypto on Tuesday, adding to its $13 billion stash.

“Corporate players such as digital asset treasury companies are typically long-term holders,”Fabian Dori, chief investment officer at Sygnum Bank, told DL News.

“By acquiring and staking ETH exposure, they reduce the liquid supply, which may support upside price discovery,” Dori said.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has described the blockchain as a “civilisational infrastructure.”

Buy AI, defence

The BlackRock 2026 outlook report also projects further growth in the artificial intelligence and defence sectors.

“Amid the AI revolution many fear we may be entering a bubble — but the data tells a different story,” Jacobs wrote. “The continued adoption and advancement of AI has wide-ranging implications.”

To be sure, BlackRock said that some investors may take profits and sell shares in AI companies.

“We believe many investors are looking to diversify within their AI exposure, and their attention could soon shift to areas like defence, where spending has risen amidst shifts from physical systems towards digital capabilities.”

“While AI or digital infrastructure has garnered more attention than defence in recent years, we believe investor attention could increase as new defense technologies and risks continue to emerge.”

Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email at lance@dlnews.com.

Bitcoin jumped 3% to $90,000 after US President Donald Trump walked back tariff threats on eight European countries in his pursuit of Greenland.

On Wednesday, Trump said at his World Economic Forum keynote at Davos that he also ruled out the use of force and reached a “framework of a future deal” regarding the Arctic island with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

“When Trump ruled out taking Greenland by force, volume spiked and Bitcoin pushed higher, briefly pushing towards $90,000 as traders reacted to reduced near-term risk,” Matt Howells-Barby, VP of growth at crypto exchange Kraken, told DL News.

Bitcoin’s recovery comes as global stocks staged a dramatic rebound from their worst performance day since October. They’re now continuing their push near record highs.

The S&P 500 jumped 1.2%, followed by the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 1.2% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq by 1.2%. That is the biggest daily gain for the S&P 500 since November.

Meanwhile, fresh economic data shows that the US economy is roaring, according to Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research. He cited 5.4% growth in the fourth quarter of 2025, beating expectations.

Howells-Barby told DL News on Wednesday that asset pricing showed there’re plenty of investors leaning into the so-called “TACO” trade, an acronym for “Trump always chickens out.”

The idea is that Trump always backs down on his threats and the world returns to a state of business-as-usual, like what happened between the US and China in 2025.

“The fact the pullback hasn’t been so severe leads me to believe that the market is potentially pricing in another TACO trade opportunity,” Howells-Barby said.

Still, investors aren’t too comfortable with Trump’s aggressive rhetoric.

The price of gold barely budged at $4,836 an ounce on Thursday. Gold is seen as a safe-haven amid market turbulence and currency debasement. Silver is also trading near its all-time high as investors ditch fiat currencies.

The transatlantic tensions drove Bitcoin down by almost 10% over the past week to as low as $87,600. The dip followed Trump’s threat to slam NATO allies with sweeping tariffs over control of Greenland and EU leaders’ vow to retaliate with the “trade Bazooka” anti-coercion tool.

Crypto market movers

Bitcoin is up 1% over the past 24 hours, trading at $89,968.

Ethereum is up 1.8% past 24 hours at $3,011.

What we’re reading

Bitcoin’s quantum threat sparks concern on Wall Street — DL News

Independent Zcash developer gets $1.2m boost from Winklevoss twins — DL News

Should You Buy Gold or Bitcoin? Here’s How to Think About It — Unchained

Market breadth beats the Mag 7 — Milk Road

Stablecoins to hit $4tn? Three forces seen to fuel boom — DL News

Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email at lance@dlnews.com.