🚀 Ethereum Staking Soars, Dash Pumps, Sui Outage

Good afternoon,

Bitcoin pushes past $97K as liquidations pile up and traders eye the $100K target. Ethereum staking hits an all-time high amid rising institutional interest, while Dash spikes on new fiat on-ramp support. Meanwhile, Sui faces a mainnet outage.

Details and more news below! 👇

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News Roundup

Artificial Intelligence

• Pentagon Pushes AI-First Military Strategy, Adds Grok to Classified Networks (Decrypt)

• Political Theorist Claims He Steered Anthropic’s Claude to Echo His Ideology (Decrypt)

• Games Workshop Bans Generative AI From Warhammer Creation (Decrypt)

• Google Moves to Dismiss Publisher Lawsuit Over AI Search Summaries (Decrypt)

Decentralized, Centralized, & Traditional Finance

• Why Stablecoins Are Winning Over Bitcoin in Crypto Payroll (Cointelegraph)

• Lighter Rolls Out Mobile App for On-the-Go Trading (Lighter)

• DZ Bank Wins MiCA License to Launch Retail Crypto Trading in Germany (CoinDesk)

• Paxos’ Asset Base Surges Over 450% on Stablecoin and Gold Token Growth (The Defiant)

• Yield Protocol Loses $3.7M in ‘Unintended’ Stablecoin Swap (The Defiant)

• South Korea’s KB Kookmin Card Files Patent for Stablecoin-Linked Credit Card (The Block)

• BVNK to Power Stablecoin Payments for Visa Direct Pilots (Business Wire)

• Pakistan Explores USD1 Stablecoin in Cross-Border Payments Deal (The Block)

• Ripple Gains Preliminary EMI Approval in Luxembourg to Expand EU Payments (The Block)

• Ethereum Staking Reaches Record High as Institutions Drive Lockups (The Block)

• South Korean Savers Pull Billions From Banks to Buy Bitcoin, Gold, and Stocks (DL News)

• Bitnomial Launches First U.S.-Regulated Aptos Futures (The Block)

• World Liberty Financial’s USD1 Stablecoin Integrates With Prediction Market Myriad (Decrypt)

• Deribit Launches USDC-Settled Options for AVAX and TRX (Deribit)

• Aster Launches Human vs AI Season 2 on Testnet (Aster)

Exchanges

• Coinbase to Launch Raydium (RAY) Spot Trading on Jan. 14 (Coinbase Markets)

• Kraken and Bitget Lead Early Push Into Tokenized Stock Trading (The Block)

• Peter Thiel-Backed Bitpanda Eyes Frankfurt IPO in Early 2026 (The Block)

• Upbit to List Ethena’s USDe With KRW, BTC, and USDT Trading Pairs (Upbit)

Exchange-Traded Funds

• Bitwise Chainlink ETF Approved to Trade on NYSE Arca (SEC)

• U.S. Bitcoin spot ETFs recorded $753.73 million in net inflows on Jan. 13.

• On Jan. 13, U.S. Ethereum spot ETFs attracted $129.99 million in net inflows.

• On Jan. 13, U.S. Solana and XRP spot ETFs saw net inflows of $5.91 million and $12.98 million, respectively.

Infrastructure

• Backpack Rolls Out Private Beta for Integrated Prediction Markets (Armani Ferrante)

• Ledger Launches ‘BTC Yield’ Feature With Lombard and Figment (The Block)

• Oobit Integrates Phantom Wallet, Deepening Solana’s Reach Into Visa Payments (The Block)

• Sui Mainnet Experiences Network Outage (OKLink)

• Figure Launches Onchain Equity Network to Rethink Stock Trading (The Block)

Markets

• Strive, Semler Shares Slide Despite Approval of Bitcoin Treasury Deal (Decrypt)

• Crypto Privacy Coins Surge as Regulation and Capital Rotation Collide (Decrypt)

• Altcoin Rotation Stalls as Retail Favors Stocks Over Crypto (Wintermute)

• U.S. November PPI MoM: 0.2% (exp. 0.2%) (BLS)

• U.S. November PPI YoY: 3.0% (highest since July, exp. 2.7%) (BLS)

• MANTRA Lays Off Staff as OM Token Stays 99% Below Peak (The Block)

• LINK Hits Monthly High as Bitwise Launches Chainlink ETF on NYSE Arca (Decrypt)

• Bitcoin Breaks $97K as Short Liquidations Mount and $100K Bets Rise (The Block)

• Dash Surges Nearly 50% After Alchemy Pay On-Ramp Integration (The Defiant)

Meme Coins

• Startup Claims Eric Adams Hijacked ‘NYC Token’ Idea as Project Stumbles (Decrypt)

Mining

• Bitdeer Surpasses MARA as Largest Bitcoin Miner by Managed Hashrate (The Block)

• CleanSpark and Bitfarms Rally as Miners Pivot to U.S. HPC and AI Growth (The Block)

• Canaan Inc. Mined 86 BTC in December, finishing 2025 with 1,750 BTC and 3,951 ETH (SEC)

Non-Fungible Tokens

• NFT Paris Cancellation Signals a Leaner, More Utility-Driven NFT Market (Cointelegraph)

Politics & Regulation

• January Timeline Set for Crypto Market Structure Bill (Senate Agriculture Committee)

• Russia Moves to Open Crypto Trading to Retail Investors (The Block)

• Bitcoin Advocates Urge Congress to Expand Crypto Tax Relief Beyond Stablecoins (Decrypt)

• Sen. Warren Urges Pause on WLFI-Linked Bank Application Until Trump Divests (CoinDesk)

• Indian Authorities Seize $1.2M in Land and Crypto Fraud Case (Crypto Briefing)

• Rhode Island Revives Bitcoin Tax Exemption Bill for Small Transactions (Bitcoin Magazine)

• SEC Concludes Zcash Foundation Inquiry With No Enforcement Action (Zcash Foundation)

• U.S. Senate Banking Committee Pushes Back on CLARITY Act Criticism (Senate Banking Committee)

Treasuries

• BitMine Stakes 1.5M Ether, Controlling 4% of All Staked ETH (Cointelegraph)

Venture Capital

• Paradigm Leads $7.1 Million Seed Round For Noise Ahead of Base Mainnet Launch (The Block)

• Project Eleven Raises $20M to Future-Proof Crypto Against Quantum Threats (The Block)

• Alpaca Raises $150M Series D at $1.15B Valuation to Scale Tokenized Equity Infrastructure (The Block)

Other News

• Feds Move to Seize $200K in USDT From Tinder ‘Pig Butchering’ Scam (Decrypt)

• Man Accused of $11M XRP Theft Countersues George Jones’ Widow (Decrypt)

• Meta's Latest Job Cuts Compared to Broader Tech Sector (Decrypt)

• Why Dubai and Abu Dhabi Are Becoming Crypto’s New Global Hub (Cointelegraph)

• Impersonation and AI Scams Drove $17B in Crypto Losses in 2025 (CoinDesk)

Check This Out!

The crypto graveyard grew rapidly in 2025, with more than 11.6 million tokens failing during the year, according to CoinGecko.

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