Crypto Miners

#Animoca just got regulatory approval in #Dubái

Animoca Brands secured a VASP licence from Dubai’s VARA, allowing it to offer broker-dealer, asset management, and investment services to institutional and qualified investors in the emirate.

The approval strengthens its Middle East expansion and comes as the firm prepares for a planned Nasdaq reverse merger and ramps up focus on stablecoins and real-world asset tokenization.

Animoca holds stakes in 600+ projects across Web3 and gaming, and says operating under regulated frameworks is key as digital asset markets mature.

#OpenAI hires #OPENCLAW founder to lead personal AI agents

Sam Altman confirmed Peter Steinberger, creator of the open source AI agent framework OpenClaw, is joining OpenAI to head development of advanced personal AI agents.

OpenClaw, known for enabling autonomous task execution like email and calendar management through chat interfaces, will transition into a foundation backed open source project with OpenAI support.

The move signals OpenAI doubling down on practical multi agent systems, as competition for top AI talent and real world agent deployments accelerates.

#ARK Rebuilds #coinbase Stake with $15.2M Purchase

#ArkInvest bought $15.2M worth of Coinbase shares across ARKK, ARKW and ARKF, reversing part of its earlier $39M trim.

The move reinforces #CathieWood ’s continued conviction in crypto infrastructure, even as regulatory scrutiny around U.S. exchanges persists.

Coinbase remains ARK’s core public market proxy for digital asset adoption.

#Gold just matched equities in scale.

Tom Lee points out gold’s total market value has climbed to around $40 trillion in early 2026, roughly equal to the S&P 500 excluding the Magnificent Seven. The move follows a massive 2025 rally that pushed prices above $4,300 per ounce amid rising global uncertainty.

His takeaway: gold has been the “monolithic trade” while stocks outside mega cap tech have lagged, raising fresh questions about equities as a long term store of value.

The comparison is also fueling debates around hard assets vs digital ones, with some investors drawing parallels to Bitcoin and Ethereum as modern alternatives in an era of dollar pressure.

#X is adding market data to your timeline, not trading

X’s head of product says “Smart Cashtags” are launching within the next couple weeks. The feature will show live prices, charts, and asset info for stocks and crypto directly inside posts.

It builds on the existing $ticker system, but now tags can point to specific assets or smart contracts, meaning even smaller onchain tokens could appear alongside equities.

Buy/Sell buttons won’t execute trades inside X. Instead, users will be redirected to external brokers or exchanges to complete transactions.

The rollout comes as X pushes deeper into finance with its X Money initiative and new rules aimed at cracking down on spammy crypto apps and bot-driven engagement.

#Vitalik says prediction markets are drifting toward short term speculation instead of real utility.

He argues the stronger use case is hedging real world risk. Think biotech investors offsetting election exposure rather than chasing token price swings.

Longer term, he imagines personalized prediction baskets tied to real expenses, potentially replacing fiat stablecoins with decentralized stability anchored in ETH or equities.

#Grayscale files to convert #AAVE Trust into spot ETF

Grayscale has submitted an S-1 to the SEC to turn its existing Aave Trust, launched in 2021 with roughly $12M in assets, into a spot AAVE ETF. The move would allow investors to gain exposure to AAVE through traditional brokerage accounts without handling custody themselves.

The filing fits Grayscale’s broader 2026 push to expand beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum products into altcoin ETFs, bringing DeFi exposure closer to mainstream capital markets. Aave’s protocol currently secures over $15B in total value locked across its lending ecosystem.

AAVE ticked higher following the news, as markets weigh the growing pipeline of crypto ETF approvals.

Tomasz Stanczak is stepping down from the @
ethereum foundation

@tkstanczak will leave his role as co-executive director at the end of February 2026, less than a year after the foundation introduced its dual-leadership structure. Bastian Aue will step in as interim co-ED alongside Hsiao-Wei Wang.

During his tenure, Stanczak said the foundation sharpened its roadmap and doubled down on scaling, privacy, AI integration, institutional adoption, and L1–L2 coordination. He’ll stay active in the ecosystem as a builder focused on agentic systems and governance.

The leadership change comes as Ethereum pushes into its next phase of upgrades, interoperability work, and institutional growth.

Binance CEO: Agentic AI Will Use Crypto as Its Payment Layer

Speaking at Consensus Hong Kong 2026, #Binance CEO @Richard Teng said autonomous AI systems handling tasks like booking travel or making purchases will rely on crypto and stablecoins for seamless, cross border payments.

He pointed to blockchain’s speed and programmability as key advantages over traditional banking, enabling AI agents to transact instantly without human intervention.

The strong engagement around the remarks reflects growing investor focus on the AI crypto intersection and the potential emergence of a machine driven economy

Chainlink co founder #SergeyNazarov has been appointed to the CFTC’s Innovation Advisory Committee.

The committee advises the U.S. derivatives regulator on emerging technologies, including blockchain and digital assets.

Nazarov’s inclusion places @Chainlink closer to regulatory discussions around oracles, DeFi infrastructure, and TradFi integration.

UK picks #HSBC Orion for digital gilt pilot

The UK Treasury has selected HSBC’s Orion platform to power its Digital Gilt Instrument pilot, testing #blockchain based issuance of sovereign bonds.

The goal is faster settlement, lower operational friction, and modernized infrastructure for government debt markets.

If successful, the UK could become the first G7 nation to tokenize sovereign bonds at scale, pushing real world assets deeper into onchain finance.

#ZEROhash brings stablecoin payments to @monad

#ZEROhash has integrated the Monad network and USDC on #Monad into its platform, letting clients launch stablecoin payment services without running their own blockchain infrastructure or handling licensing.

That means companies using Zerohash, including platforms like Kalshi, Gusto, and Public, can build products like real-time funding, cross-border payments, B2B settlement, and onchain commerce using stablecoins.

Zerohash says Ethereum still dominates stablecoin activity on its platform, but demand across other chains is growing as payment use cases scale.

#Binance and Franklin Templeton are expanding their collaboration

Binance and Franklin Templeton have launched an institutional collateral program that allows eligible clients to use shares of Franklin Templeton’s tokenized U.S. money market fund as off-exchange collateral when trading on #Binance

Assets remain custodied with a regulated third party, improving capital efficiency while helping manage counterparty risk, a key concern for institutions.

The move builds on Franklin Templeton’s push into tokenized real-world assets and Binance’s effort to strengthen its institutional trading infrastructure.

That means tokenized Treasuries can now be used as active trading collateral in crypto markets.

Ondo adopts @Chainlink for tokenized stocks in #defi

#OndoFinance has adopted Chainlink as its official oracle, delivering real time pricing for tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs like SPYon, QQQon and TSLAon.

The feeds now power DeFi use cases, with assets live as collateral on Euler for lending and borrowing. Pricing also accounts for corporate actions like dividends, strengthening onchain risk management and enabling near instant liquidations.

The move expands real world asset utility on Ethereum and signals deeper integration between institutional finance and DeFi infrastructure.

#blackRock is bringing BUIDL directly to #uniswap

BlackRock’s tokenized Treasury fund (BUIDL) will now be tradable onchain using UniswapX, working with Uniswap Labs and Securitize.

Access is still limited to whitelisted institutional investors via Securitize Markets, but this is the first time BlackRock is directly using DeFi trading infrastructure for one of its tokenized products.

BUIDL manages around $2.4B and is backed by U.S. Treasuries and cash equivalents.

BlackRock also picked up an undisclosed amount of $UNI ,and the token jumped about 20% after the news.

#Tether launches USD₮ Directory

@Tether USDT has introduced the USD₮ Tether Directory, a public interactive map highlighting global integrations of its $186B+ stablecoin across exchanges, wallets, payments, and financial services.

Users can filter by category, supported assets, and product type. Projects can submit and claim their profiles, adding another layer of ecosystem transparency.

Built with The Grid, the directory documents verifiable $USDT usage across trading, remittances, and liquidity infrastructure.

A clearer view of where $USDT is actively integrated worldwide.

#Robinhood just launched the public testnet for Robinhood Chain

It’s a financial grade Ethereum Layer 2 built on Arbitrum, focused on tokenized real world assets and bringing financial services onchain with reliability, security, and compliance in mind.

Developers can now connect to the testnet using standard Ethereum tooling, with early infrastructure support from partners like Alchemy, Allium, Chainlink, LayerZero, and TRM.

The network supports seamless bridging, self custody, direct testing with Robinhood Wallet, and testnet only assets including stock tokens for integration testing.

Mainnet is expected later this year. The bigger picture is tapping into Ethereum’s DeFi liquidity while building institutional-grade tokenization infrastructure under the Robinhood brand.

#GoldManSachs now holds $1.1B in #bitcoin ETFs

Goldman Sachs disclosed roughly $1.1 billion in Bitcoin ETF exposure, according to recent filings, making $BTC its largest digital asset position.

Most of that sits in iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), with smaller positions in Fidelity’s Bitcoin ETF (FBTC) and minor exposure to bitcoin-related equities. The filings also show options positions tied to IBIT.

In total, Goldman reported about $2.36B in crypto exposure, including roughly $1.0B in $ETH, $153M in $XRP , and $108M in $SOL , based on reported holdings across ETFs and related instruments.

#Tether just backed #LayerZero

@Tether USDT made a strategic investment into LayerZero Labs, the team behind the interoperability tech used for USDT0.

@LayerZero_Core’s protocol powers USDT0, the omnichain version of USDT that lets the stablecoin move onto chains where it isn’t natively issued. USDT0 stays 1:1 backed with $USDT and has already handled $70B+ in cross-chain transfers since launching earlier this year.

Tether says this is about betting on interoperability, especially as stablecoins start being used by things like AI agents and automated systems that need to move value across chains without friction.

#Safemoon Ex-CEO Braden Karony Sentenced to 100 Months in Prison

Karony received 100 months in U.S. federal prison after being convicted of securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering tied to SafeMoon.

Prosecutors showed he secretly siphoned millions from liquidity pools marketed as “locked,” while publicly promoting the project as safe for investors.

He must forfeit $7.5 million and multiple properties. SafeMoon collapsed nearly 99%, with investor losses reaching the hundreds of millions, closing one of crypto’s most notorious 2021 scandals.