Cryptopolitan

Xinbi, the Chinese-language crypto platform tied to scams, pig butchering rings, and cybercrime, has still processed $17.9 billion worth of transactions even after getting kicked off Telegram and being targeted by U.S. regulators.

TRM Labs tracked the numbers and confirmed the wallets linked to Xinbi took in $8.9 billion in crypto so far. The service is now operating mostly on SafeW, a lesser-known messaging app, with a connected wallet system called XinbiPay.

Both were rolled out after Telegram started deleting the group’s channels. The people running Xinbi didn’t disappear; they doubled down. After Telegram banned it in May 2025, the group came right back using the same usernames and channels.

Newly established XinbiPay Wallet service hot wallet inflow and outflow since December 24, 2025. Source: TRM Labs

At the same time, they started pushing users to download SafeW and use XinbiPay, which also goes by NewPay. Traffic started to drop in December, but by January, users were sending large volumes through the new system.

The arrest of Chen Zhi, the head of Prince Group, and the collapse of Tudou Guarantee in January 2026 made users nervous. That’s when most people started jumping to SafeW, because by then, Xinbi already had everything in place.

Xinbi is believed to be based around the Golden Triangle, where Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos meet. It’s long been used by fraud networks to wash money and cash out stolen crypto.

Telegram bans groups while Xinbi pushes users to SafeW

Telegram used to be the core of the Chinese-speaking guarantee service world. Since around 2019, groups like Huione, Haowang, and Tudou have been using bots, escrow features, and built-in wallets to handle anonymous crypto deals inside chat windows.

Source: TRM Labs

Xinbi joined that list in 2022 and quickly became like the top channel for criminals to swap funds without identity checks, according to TRM Labs.

But that all changed in May 2025 when FinCEN called Huione and Haowang the primary money laundering risks. The U.S. Treasury then used Section 311 to cut them off from the global financial system. Soon after, Telegram deleted huge clusters of channels, including ones tied to Xinbi.

Huione and Haowang tried to move to ChatMe, but barely anyone followed. Users complained about delays, vanished admins, and stuck funds. Both platforms eventually shut down, according to TRM, but Xinbi handled it differently, in that it actually never told users to leave Telegram right away.

Instead, it slowly introduced SafeW and XinbiPay while keeping the old channels active.

Xinbi absorbs users while rivals shut down

From May to December 2025, Xinbi’s inflows nearly doubled, even after Telegram kicked it off. Meanwhile, Haowang and Huione saw their activity drop almost 100 percent. Tudou lost about 74 percent. These numbers came straight from TRM Labs’ on-chain tracking. Xinbi didn’t just avoid collapse. It took advantage of the chaos and pulled in more users.

That growth happened because Xinbi’s system is built to handle volume fast. Anyone offering shady services needs to send a security deposit to the admin team, sometimes as high as tens of thousands of USDT, depending on what they’re selling.

Once approved, they get a private channel. Deals are done in shared chat rooms with an admin acting as escrow. If something goes wrong, the admin uses the vendor’s deposit to settle it.

Once crypto lands inside XinbiPay, TRM Labs said it becomes a pain to trace, because the wallets are managed by the platform, not individuals.

TRM says investigators have to study the movement patterns inside the system. They watch for areas where large amounts of crypto gather, or where it exits the system.

Since 2022, Xinbi has handled at least $16.4 billion in transactions. Some of its listings included stolen data, fake IDs, deepfake tools, and money laundering services. Xinbi even claimed it was registered with FinCEN in the U.S. and FINTRAC in Canada. That gave it a fake sense of credibility, even though it was being used by fraud groups.

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The FCA has announced that it will be publishing hidden trading data in order to combat the negative effects of underreporting on the London Stock Exchange. 

The data the FCA will be publishing covers a large portion of the market and includes trades completed in dark pools and private platforms. 

The regulator believes that present data often misses nearly 75% of actual trading volume because it only tracks the London Stock Exchange’s central order book, ignoring “dark pools” and off-exchange venues.

Is the London stock market being made to look worse than it really is?

Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) confirmed it will begin collecting and publishing comprehensive trading data from every available venue, including the main stock exchanges, “dark pools” and private trading platforms that operate out of the public eye.

The Financial Times reported that Simon Walls, the interim director of markets at the FCA, regards the current way of measuring market health as “silly” and misleading. 

The data investors and companies pay attention to comes from the London Stock Exchange’s (LSE) central limit order book, which ignores a huge portion of the market, like periodic auctions or dark pools, where many large trades take place. 

Recent FCA estimates suggest the gap between reported data and reality is massive. Between January and September of last year, official records showed about 270 million share transactions in the central order book. 

However, the FCA believes the actual total trading activity was roughly four times higher than that figure. By only showing a fraction of the activity, the UK market appears less liquid, making investors believe that buying and selling shares quickly without changing the price would be difficult.

This perception of low liquidity has become a major problem for the City of London as several major firms are considering moving their primary listings to New York, where the markets are seen as deeper and more active. 

Can the FCA stop the institutional move to Wall Street?

Aside from the transparency plan, the UK government and regulators have been working for over two years to make London more competitive. 

For instance, on January 19, 2026, the Public Offers and Admissions to Trading Regulations (POATRs), replaced old European-era laws with a system designed specifically for the UK.

One of the biggest changes in the January 2026 rules is how easy it has become for already-listed companies to raise more money. 

Previously, if a company wanted to issue a large amount of new shares, it had to publish a massive, expensive document called a prospectus. Now, companies can issue up to 75% of their existing share capital without needing a new prospectus. 

Additionally, the FCA is developing a single, real-time electronic feed that will combine all price and volume data for stocks into one stream. The full version of the platform for shares is expected next year, but the FCA is already launching a version for bonds.

Despite the UK’s efforts, American markets often offer higher valuations and a larger pool of specialized tech investors. High-profile names like Flutter and the travel firm TUI have already shifted their primary focus away from London in recent years. 

Still, several “unicorn” companies, including the digital bank Monzo and the software firm Visma, are reportedly considering London IPOs in 2026, provided the new reforms continue to make the market more attractive.

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As of December 2025, American companies Visa and Mastercard are processing nearly two-thirds of card payments in the Eurozone, and Europe is finally sick of it.

If things ever get ugly(ier) between the U.S. and Europe, the people here could find themselves locked out of their own money.

Martina Weimert, who runs the European Payments Initiative (EPI), called the situation urgent. “We are highly dependent on international solutions,” she said. Her group includes 16 banks and financial companies, like BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank, and they’re trying to build something new.

“Yes, we have nice national assets like domestic card schemes… but we don’t have anything cross-border,” Martina added. “If we say independence is so crucial… we need action urgently.”

Officials push back on U.S. control of European payments

The European Central Bank says Visa and Mastercard processed almost two-thirds of Europe’s card payments in 2022. That’s a lot of power. And it’s not just numbers. There are 13 EU countries that don’t even have their own payment network. Even in countries that do, those systems are dying out. Cash is disappearing fast too.

Mario Draghi, the former ECB president, didn’t hide his concern. “Deep integration created dependencies that could be abused when not all partners were allies,” he said. “Interdependence… became a source of leverage and control.”

Things are tense. Belgium’s cybersecurity chief warned that Europe already “lost the internet” because of how much American tech runs everything. Payments are heading the same way if no one stops it.

The EPI is trying to stop it. In 2024, they launched Wero, a digital payment app that works kind of like Apple Pay. So far, it has 48.5 million users across Belgium, France, and Germany. But it doesn’t work everywhere yet. Full expansion for online and store payments is expected by 2027.

Martina said many banks and stores already know they need a real cross-border solution. But now that world politics are heating up, she said, it’s “becoming a mainstream topic.”

ECB bets on digital euro as clock ticks toward 2029

The European Central Bank is going all in on something else: a digital euro. It’s a public money project. Their goal is to make sure people in Europe can still send and receive money using a system run by Europeans.

Piero Cipollone, who’s leading the project, said it clearly. “As European citizens, we want to avoid a situation where Europe is overly dependent on payment systems that are not in our hands.”

But not everybody is excited. Some banks think it’ll hurt private projects. Some politicians don’t like it either. The European Parliament is voting on it this year, and it’s expected to be very close.

If the vote passes, stores will be legally required to accept digital euros by 2029. The infrastructure will also be open so private companies can build on top of it. Aurore Lalucq, who leads the European Parliament’s economic committee, supports the plan. She said it could help Europe build something that finally competes with Visa and Mastercard.

Still, Martina doesn’t think it’s coming fast enough. She said, “The problem with the digital euro is it will come in a couple of years, maybe after the mandate of [US President] Donald Trump. So I think we are a little bit out of time.”

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The European Union (EU) has warned Meta over a fresh antitrust clash after European regulators said they may step in to stop Meta Platforms from blocking rival AI services on WhatsApp.

The EU has issued formal charges and signaled possible interim measures while it probes suspected abuse of a dominant market position. According to the Commission, it has issued a statement of objections to Meta.

Regulators move to protect competition in AI

The EU alleges that Meta’s January policy, which restricts the use of only its Meta AI Assistant on WhatsApp, will potentially damage competing products prior to the conclusion of investigations.

“What we are focused on doing is ensuring that we have effective competition in this innovative and competitive sector, so that we can prevent large tech platforms from using their dominant position to create an inequitable advantage for themselves,” stated EU Antitrust Commissioner Teresa Ribera.

“That’s why we are looking at quickly imposing interim measures against Meta, to protect competitors and ensure that the new policy doesn’t create irreparable harm to competition within European Union…as it is to date.”

Ribera

The proposed actions are consistent with a similar initiative taken by Italy’s competition authority late last year, highlighting the coordinated effort among EU member nations’ competition agencies on digital markets.

The Italian watchdog ordered Facebook parent company Meta Platforms to suspend a policy that excludes rival AI chatbot services from messaging on WhatsApp.

According to reports, the social media giant risked distorting competition on the market for AI chatbots in Italy, prompting regulators to issue an interim order against the company.

Meta is already facing a probe by the EU for possible breach of the bloc’s competition rules after the social media company announced in October a policy that prohibited AI providers from using a tool allowing businesses to reach customers via WhatsApp when AI is the main service offered.

Meta defends WhatsApp policy and AI access

Meta has refuted any possibility of intervention by reasoning that the Commission has misinterpreted how AI-powered services are delivered to users.

According to one spokesperson for Meta, “there are several different AI platforms and there are various means available to the end user of accessing an AI platform – through app stores, operating systems and devices, through the Internet using a browser, and via partnerships with companies.”

In addition, Meta rejected the basis upon which the case was filed, stating that: “The Commission mistakenly believes that the WhatsApp Business API is a significant channel of distribution with respect to chatbots.”

The US-based technology company has claimed that the rollout on January 15 was intended to improve the overall user experience and not prevent other companies from benefiting from the successful launch of this product.

Now, global scrutiny is shaping investigation. While in the EU, the Commission has shown its commitment to enforcing antitrust rules, and has been publicly criticized by the US for taking a hardline stance on the antitrust issues faced by US tech companies; within other countries, there have been divergent outcomes.

For instance, a court in Brazil last month issued an injunction suspending a measure of the Brazilian antitrust authority against Meta in relation to the same subject matter.

In the EU, the Commission stated that any interim measures relate to Meta’s right to challenge and defend itself, thus leaving the door open for swift action from the regulator.

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Whales have been buying Bitcoin aggressively amid the ongoing crypto market meltdown. Onchain data shows that these market participants purchased 66,940 Bitcoins on February 6 and withdrew that BTC to their accumulator addresses.

The crypto market has been on a steep decline since early this year. Last week, Bitcoin fell nearly $15,000 in 24 hours, causing a ripple effect that sent the entire market crashing by double digits.

However, amid the chaos, whales have been buying the crypto asset aggressively as smaller market participants and Bitcoin miners capitulate. Cryptopolitan previously reported major capitulation in the crypto market, signaling forced selling among major market participants. 

Whales buy the dip as Bitcoin drops below $70k

According to one crypto analyst, whales have purchased large amounts of BTC during the dip. The analyst reported that on February 6, 66,940 Bitcoins flowed into accumulation addresses, marking the most significant single-day inflow since 2022.

On the same day, Bitcoin made a slight recovery, rising from $60,074 to $71,681, a 19% gain in 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap. 

Institutional flow on spot U.S. ETFs also coincided with Bitcoin’s recent recovery. According to data from SosoValue, spot U.S. exchange-traded funds recorded positive flows of $371.15 million on February 6. BlackRock’s iBIT registered the most inflows, totaling $231.62 million, while Fidelity’s FBTC logged $24.54 million in positive flows. Other ETFs like Ark & 21Shares’ ARKB and Bitwise’s BITB drew $43.25 million and $28.70 million from investors on the same day.

One crypto analyst reported on X that Bitcoin’s Sharpe ratio has fallen to -10, the lowest since March 2023. The analyst said that when Bitcoin’s Sharpe ratio dips into the negatives, it typically signals the final stage of a bear market.

He emphasized that the indicator does not signal that the bear market is over, but instead indicates that the market is “approaching a point where the risk-to-reward profile is becoming extreme.”

The analyst continued to say that the ratio is still declining, showing that BTC’s performance is not yet attractive compared to the risk being taken. He noted that the behavior tends to occur during turning zones and mentioned that the crypto asset is slowly approaching a significant area where it has previously reversed. 

The analyst cautioned that the reversal phase could take several more months, and during this time, BTC could continue to correct to lower prices. He urged market participants to wait for the Sharpe ratio to improve before increasing exposure, or to build exposure gradually while Bitcoin remains down.

Researchers caution that Bitcoin’s downtrend could continue

10x Weekly Crypto Kickoff – Is a Final Washout Still Ahead?

The report covers derivatives positioning, volatility trends, and funding dynamics across Bitcoin and Ethereum, along with sentiment, technical signals, ETF and stablecoin flows, option activity, expected trading ranges… pic.twitter.com/qv1ZbR1uQl

— 10x Research (@10x_Research) February 8, 2026

Researchers from 10X Research also noted that BTC’s downward trajectory should be respected. In a note published on X, the researchers noted that Bitcoin is approaching a key level around $73k that held prices before the election rally pushed Bitcoin to new higher highs.

The researchers said that “current flows suggest sentiment has shifted meaningfully,” indicating that investors are not yet positioned fully to reverse Bitcoin’s ongoing downtrend.

The report also highlighted that stablecoin activity has been off-ramping and that previous ETF outflows have exerted significant pressure on Bitcoin’s price in the last few weeks. The researchers also explained that USDC issuer Circle has seen nearly $10 billion in stablecoin redemptions, pointing to “reduced participation from more regulated market participants.”

The researchers concluded the report, saying there is no clear catalyst to revive crypto just yet and emphasizing that there is little urgency to get involved. The researchers highlighted that positioning dynamics indicate that traders remain focused on deleveraging and unwinding positions rather than preparing for a rally.

At the time of this publication, Bitcoin is down 2.5% in the last 24 hours, bringing its seven-day decline to 11.35%. The crypto asset is trading at $69,134 at the time of this publication.

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Asset managers took a beating last week as investors worried AI could turn software company loans into defaults. The selloff came after Anthropic released new AI tools that could do what many software firms charge for.

Ares Management fell 12%, Blue Owl Capital dropped 8%, KKR lost 10%, and TPG fell 7%. Apollo Global and BlackRock declined 1% and 5%. The S&P 500 only dipped 0.1%.

Software makes up a huge chunk of what private credit lenders bet on. PitchBook data shows software is 17% of business development company investments. KBRA found software accounts for 22% of debt exposure across 2,400 middle market borrowers, about $224 billion.

Private credit has been pouring money into enterprise software since 2020. Many of the biggest unitranche loans went to tech companies. Now those bets look shakier.

Apollo already cut its software exposure in half after starting 2025 with 20% of its private credit funds in the sector. The firm even shorted loans from Internet Brands and SonicWall before closing the positions.

Credit default swaps for tech companies jumped 90% since early September. Oracle’s CDS costs hit 2009 crisis levels.

UBS warns of 13% default rate in stress scenario

UBS says if AI adoption speeds up faster than borrowers can adapt, U.S. private credit defaults could hit 13%. That compares to 8% for leveraged loans and 4% for high-yield bonds in a stress scenario.

AI companies are moving into the application layer, where software firms make their money. It threatens the per-seat pricing that built Salesforce and Bloomberg. Think Amazon starting with books, then taking over retail, cloud, and logistics.

“The selling pressure reflects a deepening structural debate,” Jonathan McMullan from Schroders told Reuters. “The speed of AI advancement makes long-term valuations harder to defend, particularly as AI tools allow businesses to do more with fewer staff.”

Vista Equity Partners built an “agentic factory” last summer to add AI to portfolio companies.

Bankruptcies rise as ‘cockroaches’ warning echoes

Tech and business-services bankruptcies are rising. JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon warned about private credit’s “cockroaches” late last year. One borrower problem usually means more lurking.

Not everyone’s panicking. JPMorgan’s Mark Murphy called it “an illogical leap” to think companies will replace entire enterprise systems with custom software. Quilter Cheviot’s Ben Barringer pointed to security and data concerns, saying “we are not yet at the point where AI agents will destroy software companies.”

Still, analysts think private credit defaults could climb 2 percentage points this year to 6%. Software is 25-35% of portfolios in listed BDCs. Admin, analytics, and back-office software face the most risk because switching costs are low.

These loans were made when software looked safe with recurring revenue and solid margins. That bet is looking worse by the day.

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French authorities have arrested six suspects, including a minor, after a magistrate and her mother were held captive last week for around 30 hours in a cryptocurrency ransom plot, prosecutors said on Sunday.

Four men and one woman were detained, three overnight and two on Sunday morning, Lyon prosecutor Thierry Dran told AFP. He later confirmed a minor had been arrested on Sunday afternoon.

The individuals were taken into custody following the discovery of the 35-year-old magistrate and her 67-year-old mother on Friday morning, found injured in a garage in the southeastern Drome region.

Two of those arrested overnight were detained as they attempted to take a bus to Spain, according to a source close to the case speaking on condition of anonymity.

Details of the investigation and escape

Authorities continue to actively search for further suspects, a second source close to the case said, adding that the woman in custody is the partner of one of the four male suspects.

During a press conference on Friday after the pair’s escape, prosecutor Dran said the magistrate’s partner, who was not home when the two victims were abducted, has a leading position in a cryptocurrency start-up.

A massive police search involving 160 officers was launched after the magistrate’s partner had received a message and a photo from the kidnappers demanding a ransom to be paid in cryptocurrency. The captors threatened to mutilate the victims if the transfer was not made quickly, Dran told reporters, declining to specify the amount demanded. But the two women managed to free themselves and call for help without any ransom being paid by banging on the garage door.

“Alerted by the noise, a neighbour intervened. He was able to open the door and allow our two victims to escape,” Dran said.

French authorities have been dealing with a string of kidnappings and extortion attempts targeting the families of wealthy individuals dealing in cryptocurrencies. In May 2025, a violent attempt was made in Paris against the family of Pierre Noizat, the CEO and co-founder of the French crypto exchange Paymium.

Attackers targeted Noizat’s daughter and young grandson in broad daylight, though the abduction was ultimately thwarted when the family fought back, and a bystander intervened with a fire extinguisher. In May, the father of a man who ran a Malta-based cryptocurrency company was kidnapped by four hooded men in Paris.

The victim, whose finger was also severed by the kidnappers and for whom a ransom of several million euros was demanded, was released 58 hours later in a raid by the security forces.

The rise of physical extortion in digital finance

This trend of targeted physical violence highlights a shift in criminal tactics. Because cryptocurrency wallets are secured by cryptographic private keys, they are virtually impossible to hack through traditional digital means if the owner follows basic security protocols.

This has led organized crime groups to utilize physical violence to extract these keys directly from the source. Under French law, the charges associated with kidnapping as part of an organized gang are classified as exceptionally grave criminal offenses.

When the crime involves premeditated threats of mutilation or torture to secure a financial ransom, the penal code allows for the maximum sentencing available under the justice system. Legal experts suggest that if a jury finds the suspects guilty of these aggravated charges, they face the possibility of life imprisonment.

The Ministry of the Interior remains in high-level discussions with industry leaders to mitigate these physical risks to employees within the growing digital finance sector, as the government seeks to prove that violence against those in the crypto space will lead to swift and absolute judicial consequences.

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Dubai Land Department (DLD), the government’s department for real estate in the UAE, has moved forward with its tokenization initiative by launching the secondary market starting February 20, 2026.

The launch will allow the resale of approximately 7.8 million real estate tokens within a controlled pilot framework aimed at assessing market efficiency, testing operational readiness, enhancing transparency and governance, and safeguarding investors’ rights while ensuring transaction integrity.

This is considered to be phase II of the Real Estate Tokenization Project, within a regulated model.

DLD Phase I included the launch of tokenized deeds and sales with Prypco Mint

It follows the first stage, where DLD launched the Real Estate Innovation Initiative with Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) and strategic partners.

During the pilot phase, the regulatory, legislative, and technical frameworks for real estate tokenization on title deeds were tested. DLD emphasized in their announcement that tokenized assets would represent up to 7% of Dubai’s real estate market by 2033, equivalent to $16 billion, and that Prypco Mint will be at the cornerstone of this transformation.

In May 2025, after the launch of PRYPCO Mint, the first licensed real estate tokenization platform, in partnership with Dubai Land Department, Dubai’s Regulatory Authority, and powered by Ctrl Alt blockchain, the region’s first property token ownership certificate was issued.

By July 2025, PRYPCO Mint, MENA’s first real estate tokenization platform, in the funding of its latest Park Ridge Tower C, located in Dubai Hills, valued at $653,000, attracted the highest number of investors, a total of 326, for a single property with an average investment of $2,000.

The Park Ridge Tower C offered investors an estimated 14.39% instant appreciation, funded by 326 investors from 51 nationalities. Almost 50% of those investors were returning ones.

Dubai commits to future improvements

In this recent press release, DLD noted that this phase is a preparatory one, giving regulatory authorities the data needed to make future decisions grounded in operational data. This approach strengthens the confidence of local and international investors.

DLD will continue to work with VARA and add additional platforms in the future. Already, for example, UAE-based Stake, a digital real estate investment platform that offers fractional investment and investment in real estate funds, has received an in-principle approval from Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority, under the name Stake RWA.

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As the market searches for the next altcoin to reach $1, analysts are beginning to shift attention away from older meme-driven projects like Shiba Inu and toward newer crypto platforms with real utility. While SHIB remains widely known, its growth potential is increasingly limited by size and saturation. 

In contrast, a new cheap crypto is gaining traction for its structured roadmap, active development, and growing user base. With strong momentum building ahead of 2026, experts believe this emerging altcoin could offer a clearer path to long-term upside than meme coins that rely mainly on hype.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) 

Shiba Inu (SHIB) is one of the key players in the market that has a challenging future. It is currently trading at approximately $0.000006, and its market capitalization is approximated at $3.5 billion. Nevertheless, as to its enormous “SHIB Army” and the roll out of the Shibarium system, the scale of its token issuance remains an enormous burden to its price. 

To reach $0.1 the value of the token would have to increase to levels that would exceed the world economy. This mathematical fact has made lots of long term holders think of their positions as the token stagnates in a consolidation stage.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) is technically struggling with some of its main resistance areas that have not allowed it to recover seriously. The range of $0.0000069 to $0.0000078 has formed a formidable selling pressure. Whenever it tries to bounce off the price, there is a lot of volume that is faced by sellers seeking an exit. 

Mutuum Finance (MUTM)

Mutuum Finance (MUTM) stands out as a high-utility project rather than a meme-driven coin. Built with Layer 2 efficiency in mind, the protocol focuses on a fast and low-cost lending and borrowing system. It uses a dual-market setup to serve different users. The Peer-to-Contract (P2C) side lets users supply funds into shared pools and earn yield automatically, while the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) side allows direct agreements with custom terms between participants.

Instead of relying on hype, Mutuum Finance’s whitepaper outlines a buy-and-distribute model. A portion of platform fees is used to repurchase MUTM from the open market and return it to active participants. This links long-term value to real usage and platform activity rather than speculation.

The current presale has already collected more than $20.4 million among the over 19,000 holders. This is a high level of involvement in a project at its initial stages. The initial investor attitude shows that the existing presale format is one of the main attractions. 

The project has already experienced a 300% surge as MUTM progressed from $0.01 in Phase 1 to the current stage of Phase 7, which is $0.04. Having an official launch price of $0.06, the amount of time available to the participants to acquire MUTM at a 50% discount is rapidly dwindling.

MUTM and SHIB: Comparison

The weaknesses of Shiba Inu (SHIB) can also be explained by its age as well as astronomical supply to a significant extent. It takes billions of dollars in new funds in order to make the price shift by a percentage point. Mutuum Finance (MUTM), on the contrary, is developed to grow. 

Suppose a theoretical investment of $850. In Shiba Inu (SHIB), millions of tokens can be purchased with $850, but the price will have to overcome huge resistance to even increase by half. In Mutuum Finance (MUTM) 21,250 tokens can be earned by investing $850 at the current price of $0.04. As long as MUTM follows expected post-launch targets by many experts and jumps to $0.32 the allocation would grow to over $3,500.

The 400%-500% growth potential of Mutuum Finance (MUTM) is what makes it a far better option in 2026 according to some analysts. Whereas Shiba Inu (SHIB) operates on the trends in social media, Mutuum Finance (MUTM) operates on its V1 protocol. That is why whale inflows have been record high lately because of this change of hype to utility. 

The Phase 7 Momentum and the V1 Protocol

This is at an all-time high since Phase 7 of the presale is already sold more than 14%. This influx is after the successful launch of V1 protocol on the Sepolia testnet. The users can now have a glimpse of the functionality of the platform, including its over-collateralized stablecoin plans. 

This physical development is catapulting Mutuum Finance (MUTM) to a potential price recentering of $1 at a very rapid rate compared to its older competitors. To individuals who want to get ahead of the pack, the phase is the final opportunity to join in on the project to position early.

For more information about Mutuum Finance (MUTM) visit the links below:

Website: https://www.mutuum.com
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mutuumfinance

China’s tech stocks are flying today because traders are reacting to real news. TikTok maker ByteDance had dropped its new video-making app called Seedance 2.0 and it’s not some half-baked beta.

The videos it generates apparently look so good, it got everyone’s attention fast. By the time markets closed, COL Group had maxed out at its daily 20% limit. Shanghai Film and Perfect World each gained 10%. Baidu has seen a shocking 9% rally, Alibaba surged by 3.6%, and Xiaomi has increased by 8.32%, and JD.com has rallied by 7.16%.

The CSI 300 Index climbed 1.4% and didn’t even need outside help to get there. Traders saw a fresh tech product that didn’t need five years of guessing to prove itself. And with all the bad property data and noise around U.S. bonds, these guys dumped slow bets and ran to what was actually moving: apps and chips.

Chip debut and stock rule changes drive trading frenzy

Montage Technology made its Hong Kong trading debut and completely exploded. It opened at HK$168, compared to its offer price of HK$106.89. Then it surged as high as HK$176 and closed at HK$175, nailing a 64% gain in one day.

Montage raised HK$7.04 billion, or $900 million, to pour into research. They make memory interface chips used in AI data centers, helping processors and memory work faster together. Early on Monday, it was the tenth most traded stock by turnover. People weren’t waiting around to buy this thing.

While the tech stories were heating up, China’s stock exchanges made things easier for listed companies. Regulators said they’ll now let firms raise cash through private placements or convertible bonds, even if their stocks are below their IPO price.

The new rule only applies to what they call “high-quality” companies. Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing bourses all dropped the same exact statement. Their goal? Push more innovation. Help more expansion. Basically, they want more companies like Montage.

Bond warnings and property collapse hit the background

The rest of the market wasn’t nearly as calm. Chinese regulators told local banks to stop buying so many U.S. Treasuries. Not tomorrow. Right now. If banks already had a lot, they were told to reduce those holdings. The state’s own Treasury pile isn’t part of that.

But this shook things up. Yields on U.S. government debt climbed. The 10-year went up to 4.25%, the 30-year hit 4.88%, and the Bloomberg dollar index dropped 0.2%. Investors looked for other places to park their cash. Gold was one of them.

And then there’s real estate. Just two months into 2026 and S&P Global Ratings already cut its forecast for China’s property market. They now expect a 10% to 14% drop in sales. Back in October, they were saying maybe 5% to 8%. That didn’t hold.

Sales fell 12.6% last year to 8.4 trillion yuan, half of what it was in 2021. The market has been drowning in unsold homes for six straight years. Developers won’t stop building. Buyers won’t show up. Prices are expected to fall another 2% to 4% this year.

S&P said, “This is a downturn so entrenched that only the government has capacity to absorb the excess inventory.”

They added that the state could step in to buy more housing and turn it into affordable homes, but that hasn’t happened in a serious way yet. China’s housing mess isn’t going away. And that’s why investors are picking tech today. It’s the only thing showing signs of life.

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Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), a subsidiary of Amazon that provides on-demand cloud computing platforms and APIs to its users, has deepened its collaboration with STMicroelectronics, a leading European multinational semiconductor manufacturer, driving a 6.5% surge in STMicro’s stock.

The agreement aims to secure advanced semiconductor technologies to support AWS’s data center operations.

The development comes after AWS announced that it holds warrants that entitle it to purchase up to 24.8 million of STMicro’s ordinary shares. Reports indicate that these warrants will be rolled out incrementally in connection with STMicro’s product payments.

Therefore, under this agreement, AWS may exercise the warrants in one or more transactions over a 7-year period at an initial price of $28.38 per share. Notably, this deal represents AWS’s second investment in a semiconductor firm.

In exchange, STMicro will provide AWS with a range of semiconductor products, including chips that enhance high-bandwidth connectivity and improve energy efficiency for large-scale data centers. The company announced the agreement publicly on Monday, February 9.

Industry analysts say the deal is part of a broader trend in which cloud providers secure deeper ties with specialized chip makers to support accelerated AI compute capacity and data throughput in modern data centre networks.

Semiconductor firms experience increased demand for their products amid the AI boom era 

The global explosion of AI data centers is fueling massive opportunities for semiconductor companies. Firms such as Nvidia Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc., and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd., which design and manufacture cutting-edge AI chips, have secured dominance in this growth.

On the other hand, reports from reliable sources indicate that older analog chipmakers are also facing surging demand for AI data center applications, including power management, sensors, and cooling systems. 

To support this claim, these sources pointed out an example of German company Infineon Technologies AG, which projected an earnings of €2.5 billion or rather $3 billion specifically from sales related to AI by its 2027 fiscal year. The projected rise represents a tenfold increase within three years.

Moreover, STMicro, formed in 1987 by the merger of French and Italian government-owned chip manufacturers, recently released its first-quarter revenue forecast, which exceeded analysts’ expectations. Consumer electronics showed promising signs of demand recovery late last year, following a sustained period of low demand.

Even so, the firm reported a decline in its stock just after reports highlighted divergent recovery paths across different markets. Responding to this finding, Jean-Marc Chéry, the President of the Managing Board and Chief Executive Officer of STMicroelectronics, contended that the automotive market has not yet stabilized. 

STMicro projects 2026 as a transformative year for its revenue performance

STMicro’s higher-than-expected first-quarter revenue forecast comes amid warnings that restructuring expenses will continue following a $141 million fourth-quarter loss. Shares jumped as much as 5% in early trading and were up 2.2% by 1115 GMT.

During an investor call, Chéry stated, “We are starting 2026 with clearer expectations compared to how we began 2025, as the inventory correction in distribution is gradually improving.”

However, analysts pointed to an earlier incident whereby STMicro’s key markets, which consist of automotive, industrial, and consumer electronics, cooled as demand normalized, leading to increased inventory levels and a reduction in customer orders. It is worth noting that this situation took place after the pandemic.

Due to this decline, the company’s net income reached $125 million for the fourth quarter. This figure fell short of the projected $222 million and dropped below last year’s $369 million. Analysts attributed the impairment charge as the main reason for the drop, arguing that it reduced net income to $125 million from its potential of $266 million.

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South Korea is increasing oversight of its cryptocurrency markets in 2026 to combat market manipulation, tighten regulation of trading platforms, and protect investors, following a series of high‑profile incidents that exposed weaknesses in the digital asset ecosystem. 

The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), the country’s key financial regulator, unveiled a more aggressive crypto oversight strategy in its 2026 work plan released this month, putting artificial intelligence and automated surveillance at the center of its enforcement approach.

The financial regulators embraced this decision after identifying several key events highlighting threats to market integrity and consumer safety. 

These plans were made public after the FSS publicly shared its annual policy intentions on Monday, February 9, which consist of thorough investigations into unethical practices in the cryptocurrency market. Another key objective is the imposition of fines for IT system failures across the financial industry.

Under the new initiative, the Korean financial regulator is deploying advanced monitoring technology to identify suspicious or abusive trading practices more quickly and accurately than traditional methods.

The FSS plans to enhance its oversight measures in the crypto market 

A report by the Yonhap news agency revealed that the financial regulator plans to focus on activities that disrupt market order to enhance its oversight of the crypto market. This consists of regular check-ups for price manipulation triggered by significant traders, widely known as whales, and practices such as the artificial rise of token prices that are inaccessible for deposit or withdrawal on specific exchanges.

Other unethical practices the FSS plans to examine include swift price-pumping schemes, the spread of misleading information via social media, and the manipulation of markets with application programming interface orders. 

This regulatory move comes after a recent incident at Bithumb, a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange. In this incident, the exchange reported that several of its users mistakenly received 620,000 BTC valued at around $44 billion. Bithumb recovered 99.7% of the total Bitcoin accidentally sent to users, with the remaining 0.3% already sold out.

Meanwhile, to demonstrate the seriousness of the situation, the FSS declared that it has already established a task force to prepare for the Digital Asset Basic Act, South Korea’s virtual asset market legislation. This team is assigned the role of focusing on regulations for sharing information on issuances and providing backing for listing exchanges.

Additionally, sources cited Yonhap’s report as saying the task force will establish manuals for assessing licenses, particularly for digital asset service providers and stablecoin issuers. The law’s final version is anticipated to be available in the first quarter of this year. 

South Korea embraces a tokenized securities setup

In January, South Korea moved forward with a new bill establishing a legal framework for security token offerings (STOs). This significant milestone cleared the way for the development and trading of regulated, tokenized securities in the nation, leveraging blockchain technology.

This followed the National Assembly’s approval of amendments to both the Electronic Securities Act and the Capital Markets Act during its meeting, as announced by the government.

Notably, the new regulations develop a framework for the issuance and distribution of tokenized securities via distributed ledger technology. On the other hand, the amendments to the Electronic Securities Act give issuers who have qualified the opportunity to develop tokenized securities, while changes to the Capital Markets Act facilitate the trade of these products through brokerages and other intermediaries.

In a statement, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) maintained a positive outlook, stating, “We believe that token securities will support account management based on distributed ledger technology and enhance the use of smart contracts.” 

At this moment, the FSC anticipated a surge in the use of smart contract security systems based on blockchain technology.

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Binance has just added 4,225 BTC valued at over $300 million to its SAFU Fund, bringing its total holdings to 10,455 BTC. The company is racing to complete the fund’s reserve conversion from stablecoins to Bitcoin within 30 days, raising new questions about its future stability.

On-chain data shows the transaction was first broadcast on the Bitcoin network on February 9 at 09:09 AM GMT +3, recording 15 Binance 4 output confirmations totaling approximately $299.6 million as of publication.

Binance’s Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) acquired the BTC at an average price of $70,403.17 per BTC, bringing the fund’s BTC holdings to over $734 million. 

Meanwhile, the exchange describes Bitcoin as the premier long-term store of value and foundational asset of the world’s crypto ecosystem, framing the move as a sign of confidence and its long-term bet on BTC through turbulent market cycles.

Binance is taking action amid the teetering Bitcoin price, which continues to scare investors and traders.

Binance’s SAFU acquires over 3.6K BTC at $237M amid BTC plunge

Transaction explorer records another 3,665 BTC acquisition 3 days ago. Source: Arkham

Arkham’s data shows that the exchange’s SAFU Fund purchased another 3,663 BTC, worth $237.14 million, just three days ago. The fund also acquired 1,315 BTC at $100.42 million five days ago and another 1,315 BTC at $100.7 million about a week ago. The purchases were executed at around $77,000, although BTC has since dropped to approximately $69,921 at the time of publication, according to Coingecko. 

Meanwhile, Binance says its latest BTC acquisitions are not a trading flex but an emergency fund decision. The exchange has justified its decision to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on Bitcoin despite the dropping prices, saying that BTC will help keep the SAFU Fund safe and stable.

According to Binance, its SAFU Fund will be topped up to $1 billion whenever its BTC reserve falls below $800 million, regardless of market volatility. 

Meanwhile, digital gold risks plunging further into a full-blown bear market after BTC/USD slipped for the fourth consecutive month. Coingecko also shows that BTC has lost 22.8% over the past 30 days, 20.4% over the past 14 days, 9% over the past 7 days, 0.8% over the past 24 hours, and 0.7% over the past hour.

OKX CEO criticizes Binance’s market manipulation 

The founder and CEO of OKX, Star Xu, has spent weeks revisiting the October 10 meltdown, arguing that some large exchanges like Binance rely on aggressive narrative control and coordinated campaigns to directly or indirectly influence markets in specific directions.

According to Xu, industry leaders like Binance should focus on strengthening core infrastructure instead of manipulating the prices of tokens closely tied to them.

Xu’s remarks came after Cathie Woods resurfaced the October 10 crash, describing the event as being linked to a Binance software glitch. Woods believes the exchange’s software glitch triggered a wave of forced deleveraging, wiping out approximately $28 billion across the global crypto market.

Meanwhile, Xu directs his criticism at Binance, accusing it of prioritizing short-term profits over the health of the crypto market. 

The OKX CEO also criticized Binance’s competitors for pushing what he calls “Ponzi-like schemes” that amplify get-rich-quick narratives and prop up low-performing tokens, like what is happening with Bitcoin right now. He believes Binance is looking to prop up the Bitcoin ecosystem through marketing rather than fundamentals. 

Xu further believes that this approach does not build the industry but instead erodes trust, and everyone ultimately pays the price. He notes that Binance could be using these seemingly unfavorable BTC purchases as a shortcut for attracting traffic and user attention through narrative control and coordinated influencer campaigns. 

Meanwhile, Binance recently announced operational risk management measures to protect users, according to Cryptopolitan. The exchange aims to have 11,900 BTC under its SAFU Fund by early March, estimating that it will need to convert nearly $33 million per day to reach its target.

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AI agents have been proposed as one of the good fits for blockchain use cases. However, recent incidents show LLM-based models pose a risk for safely storing private keys. 

AI agents may expose their wallet private keys, as evidenced in recent on-chain data. One of the autonomous agents, given access to a wallet, published its keys in multiple locations while denying that it had done so. The losses were limited to around $2,100, as the bot was given a limited supply of crypto.

The event, which affected Owockibot, resulted in the bot being disconnected and stopping its crypto-based activity. The team behind the bot announced that the agent will not be given Internet access. 

effective immediately, i am removing @owockibot 's access to the internet.

in hindsight, i severely underestimated the security considerations associated with the project. i will need to rearchitect it from a security-first perspective for it to continue. this might take a few…

— owocki (@owocki) February 8, 2026

As Cryptopolitan reported, AI agents holding crypto bounties were used as novelty challenges in the past year. AI agents would be given a sum, and users would pay a fee to chat with the bot and convince it to disclose its private keys. 

LLM AI agents can disclose their information

The bot challenge revealed a potential security flaw for LLM agents. If they knew a piece of data, it was a matter of time and prompts to make them reveal it in some form. 

In the case of Owockibot, the agent was deployed quickly, without in-depth security. Some of the information that was accessible was available in plain text. 

The recent incident shows that the combination of giving the AI agent Internet access and a crypto wallet opens the door to exploits. 

AI agents with crypto wallets and Internet access are relatively new; initially, teams would perform trades and control wallets on behalf of the agent. The creation of Moltbook led to the generation of thousands of AI agents, given more freedom to perform compared to previous versions. 

Owockibot serves a warning for crypto

The main tasks of Owockibot were to build apps and receive user feedback. To that end, the bot was given a treasury to spend on app-related tasks. The project, launched by the creators of Gitcoin, aimed to create a new community of app developers and testers. 

The bot claimed it was experimental and could discontinue its operations at any moment. The experiment ended only five days after the bot leaked the keys to its hot wallet. The exact events around publishing the keys in a GitHub repo are unknown, as investigators are trying to deploy AI agents to glean the truth. 

Bots are also a tool to bring quick development activity in a market that is already fatigued by app teams. The new wave of bots is also trying to tokenize its assets, relying on a thinning crypto market. 

Owockibot also launched a low-liquidity token, which only relies on a single Uniswap V4 trading pair. | Source: Gecko terminal

Owockibot also launched a token, trading with liquidity of under $300,000. The bot token is only traded on a Uniswap V4 market, with limited activity in the past week. The bot was tokenized through the Base network, one of the most active platforms for AI agent launches. Soon after its launch, the token crashed to new lows, with limited potential for recovery.

Currently, the Owockibot token is held in a little over 1,400 wallets. Part of the community also considered the security incident a new form of rug pull. While AI agents are a strong narrative, the presence of AI does not guarantee safety, and tokenized agents may still cause deep losses.

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Crypto.com CEO, Kris Marszalek, has pushed the boundaries of tech marketing and his company beyond crypto and straight into the heart of the artificial intelligence boom. The cryptocurrency exchange platform has purchased the premium AI.com domain for $70 million, paid entirely in cryptocurrency. This makes it the highest price ever paid for a public domain sale and marks the company’s entry into the AI race. 

Apart from the staggering domain deal, what makes this launch especially captivating is that instead of unveiling it through a traditional press release, the company chose the Super Bowl to introduce the new consumer facing AI agent platform. Every year, the Super Bowl becomes more than just a sporting event. It turns into one of the largest advertising stages in the world, where companies spend millions of dollars to capture a few seconds of global attention. 

Some of the most memorable tech adverts over the years have come through this stage, including the now legendary Computer.com commercial during the dot-com boom of 2000, which highlighted the internet’s arrival. More than two decades later, the same platform is being used to signal the next technological breakthrough. 

The debut of AI.com marks a bold cross-industry move from one of the most prominent figures in the space and showcases how companies in the digital assets industry are now positioning themselves at the forefront of mainstream tech innovation. 

A Record-Breaking Domain Deal 

The price tag. This is the main reason why the purchase of AI.com stands out. At $70 million, the deal is now widely acknowledged as the largest publicly disclosed domain sale in history, going past previous headline-grabbing names like Voice.com, CarInsuranc.com and Chat.com. The purchase and Super Bowl launch was announced on X by Marszalek on February 6 stating that had been purchased in April last year and a team was being built since. The $70 million price tag was then confirmed by broker, Larry Fischer, in a LinkedIn post. 

I purchased https://t.co/ac2AqjBNxj in April. Since that time, we created a team that has been steadily building. There are always twists and turns, but I’m excited with our first launch this Sunday during the Super Bowl. pic.twitter.com/BbqVo1bQLZ

— Kris | ai.com (@kris) February 6, 2026

This record deal goes to show how important premium internet real estate in the age of AI has become, where owning a simple yet memorable name plays a crucial role in brand recall value, trust and long term positioning. 

Just as significant as the price tag, however, is the method through which the transaction was settled. Having been completely purchased with cryptocurrency, this reinforces the growing real world use of digital assets far beyond trading. Completing a deal of this size and magnitude in crypto sends a clear message that on-chain payments are increasingly viable for large, real world transactions. 

Super Bowl Spot Amplified the Play 

The launch of AI.com during Super Bowl 60 ensured the announcement reached one of the largest television audiences across the world. The 30-second advertisement leaned heavily into futuristic imagery with the clear message that “AGI is coming”. Viewers were also encouraged to claim personal handles with examples like AI.com/Sam and AI.com/Elon appearing on screen. This was a clear message to position the platform as a mainstream consumer product rather than a niche tech tool. 

AI.com is designed as a consumer focused platform built around users being able to generate personal AI agents in a few clicks that can automate daily tasks, manage apps, organize workflows and also handle complex projects. The Super Bowl advert sparked immediate curiosity which led to the website crashing briefly due to the heavy traffic. Nevertheless, this was a clear sign of the massive attention the launch generated and the ad shows the company’s ambition to reach a wider audience from day one.  

Why This Matters for Crypto and The Bigger Tech Narrative 

The launch of AI.com is a notable moment for the crypto industry as a whole because it blends two worlds that have often developed in parallel. A crypto CEO using a Super Bowl commercial for a launch is firstly indicative of how far the industry has come to the mainstream. What’s more notable in this launch, however, is the massive deal being done completely via cryptocurrency. This sends a strong signal of confidence and credibility in the fact that digital assets are a practical way of settling transactions at scale. 

By launching a consumer AI platform, the company is stepping into one of the fastest growth sectors in tech and aligning itself with the next major wave of innovation. This signals a shift in how crypto firms want to position themselves, not only as financial platforms, but as technology companies capable of building products for everyday users. It also mirrors a growing trend in the industry where blockchain, AI, and automation are increasingly seen as complementary technologies rather than separate sectors. 

For the crypto industry, moves like this help expand visibility beyond financial markets and into mainstream technology conversations, reinforcing the idea that the sector is evolving into a broader innovation ecosystem rather than a standalone niche.

Japan’s stablecoin market is heating up, with a number of new partnerships forming around the country’s first yen-backed stablecoin. Banks and major businesses are now piloting both yen- and dollar-backed stablecoins for real world payments.

But a clear split is taking shape. While USD stablecoins dominate global transactions, yen-backed coins are being positioned as a low-cost, homegrown option for domestic commerce and business settlements.

A dollar-yen divide

At a souvenir shop in Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, travelers can now pay with USD stablecoins. The trial, led by Japanese fintech firm Netstars, runs through mid-February.

She told Cryptopolitan that USD stablecoins made the most sense for the airport, given their widespread use among international travelers.

Currently, 90% of stablecoin circulation is tied to USD, and the vast majority of these transactions take place outside the United States.

“The pilot at Haneda Airport is just the first step in demonstrating a use case, and based on the results of this pilot, we hope to expand usage across more locations and payment methods,” said Saori Okuyama of Netstars.

Okuyama said the decision to trial physical payments reflects the company’s belief that more merchants are needed for stablecoin payments to take off.

“The challenge for stablecoins is not technology, but building places where people actually use them,” said Okuyama.

JPYC eyes mass adoption

JPYC, Japan’s first licensed stablecoin issuer, is pushing its yen-backed tokens into mainstream finance through business collaboration.

The startup signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Line on January 20 to explore integrating its stablecoin into a LINE-based wallet for everyday payment in an effort to expand its consumer reach.

JPYC is also targeting corporate adoption. On February 4, it announced a capital and business alliance with software company, Asteria Corporation, to connect the yen stablecoin to accounting and payment software, enabling companies to experiment with digital payments without changing internal systems.

JYPC was awarded Japan’s first stablecoin license in August 2025 following amendments to the Payment Services Act in 2023. Since officially launching its yen stablecoin in October, JPYC celebrated the milestone of issuing more than one billion yen ($6.3 million) in tokens.

“Using JPYC inside LINE could be a turning point for stablecoin adoption in Japan. Rewards and everyday payments, in particular, could create a representative use case for yen stablecoins,” said Noritaka Okabe, CEO of JPYC.

Okabe believes stablecoins will only expand in the future as AI agents start making purchases on behalf of individuals.

The end of bank profitability

Taku Kikushige of NTT Data Institute of Management Consulting doesn’t foresee yen stablecoins taking over bank deposits or being the preferred corporate payment option.

Instead, the more serious issue is the thinning of banks’ points of contact with customers following the “externalization” of payments. On January 16, he said banks, especially regional banks as well as credit unions, will need to rethink their existing business model in order to survive.

“As stablecoin payments become embedded in business processes, bank accounts will no longer function as the starting point or the heart of settlement. They will be a temporary transit point for funds.”

Kikushige warns that the shift to digital payments won’t drain bank deposits overnight. He said banks might not see which customers are most likely to move their money until it’s already gone.

Big banks want a slice of the stablecoin pie

In 2026, Japan’s megabanks are determined to play a role in the future payment infrastructure. The flurry of stablecoin initiatives by banks stem from an understanding that bank-centric B2B and cross-border payment infrastructure will no longer be the most efficient.

In November last year, Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), and Mizuho Bank said they were planning to jointly issue a yen-denominated stablecoin, followed by a USD-backed stablecoin.

The joint stablecoin project is still at the proof-of-concept stage, and the collaboration hasn’t been finalized. Yet, Akio Isowa, Chief Digital Innovation Officer at SMBC, said their aim from the outset has been to avoid the fragmentation that plagued Japan’s introduction of cashless payments.

“We don’t want a chaotic proliferation of incompatible systems like in the early days of cashless payments,” said Isowa. “From the outset, we wanted a platform with common conditions and standards, ensuring interoperability, where companies compete at the application layer.”

Japan’s fifth-largest commercial bank, Resona and Japanese credit card company JCB, are also moving to introduce stablecoin-based payments into the retail sector. They aim to put the system into practical use by 2027 after conducting a pilot program at selected JCB-affiliated shops.

Resona and JCB say they are promoting stablecoins to retailers as a way to cut transaction fees. But beneath the pitch is an existential investigation into whether blockchain settlement can outperform card networks without sidelining banks.

USD stablecoins already own the field

Japan’s push into yen-backed stablecoins is colliding with a market already dominated by USD stablecoins.

Financial Agency Services officials have warned that if Japan does not take stablecoins seriously, other currencies will fill the gap. SMBC’s Akio Isowa relayed a similar concern in that Japan can not risk delaying the rollout of yen-backed stablecoins.

“USD stablecoins have already become the de facto standard in crypto trading. If the development of yen stablecoins is delayed, their presence could be hollowed out within digital payment infrastructure,” said Isao.

Scaling is the solution

For banks and fintech, the best solution is to rapidly scale yen-backed stablecoins for wholesale and corporate use.

Isowa said one advantage banks have is interoperability with on and off ramps, thanks to the extensive interbank settlement and domestic transfer system that private issuers like JPYC don’t have access to.

Yet, Isao said he is eager to work together and sees no reason JPYC and the megabank stablecoin project can’t coexist.

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The first week in February, specifically the days between the 2nd and the 6th, was a notable one for crypto-related funding and deals, with reports claiming the crypto industry was able to attract around $300 million in total investments. 

During the week, there were also financing events as well as M&A activity. There were a total of 14 funding rounds and acquisitions too. 

Crypto funding data in the first week of February. Source: RootData.

Two raises stood out during the crypto funding week

The first week in February was an eventful one for institutional infrastructure and two prominent raises that stood out involved Anchorage Digital and TRM Labs. 

Anchorage has earned its stripes as a regulated crypto custody and banking platform while TRM Labs is a blockchain intelligence and compliance/risk management platform with aims to detect crypto crimes.

The funding rounds from February 5 saw Anchorage Digital secure a $100 million strategic equity investment from Tether. The deal valued Anchorage at $4.2 billion and will support its role in regulated digital asset infrastructure. 

“Our investment in Anchorage Digital reflects a shared belief in the importance of secure, transparent, and resilient financial systems. Anchorage Digital has set a strong benchmark for institutional digital asset infrastructure, and we are pleased to support its continued growth,” Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether said about the investment. 

The Anchorage funding round ended with the highest pledging, followed closely behind by TRM Labs’ with its Series C which saw it raise $70 million, bringing its valuation up to $1 billion. 

The funding round was led by Blockchain Capital with participation from Goldman Sachs, Citibank, Galaxy Ventures and others. The funds will go towards scaling the platform’s AI-driven tools for security and expansion of risk assessment solutions in the blockchain space. 

Both deals account for a significant portion of the reported activity, reflecting renewed investor interest in crypto infrastructure, compliance and regulated services amid a maturing space. 

Some notable acquisitions from the eventful week

According to information from RootData, there were about four M&A transactions during the funding week, spread across crypto infrastructure, staking, social/meme platforms and tokenized RWAs. 

The first M&A transaction occurred on February 3 and involved Tokens.com, which was acquired by the newly revived Bed Bath & Beyond. The reason behind the acquisition is that the company is pivoting towards digital assets and retail innovation.

Its goal is to build a unified gateway for RWA tokenization, blending traditional real estate finance with onchain liquidity. The integrated platform will be launched by mid-2026. 

The next M&A activity occurred on February 3 too as Bitwise agreed to acquire Chorus One, a prominent crypto staking infrastructure and validator services provider. 

On February 4, Bitte was acquired by Amadeus Protocol for a total of $1.7 million, and on February 6, Pump.fun acquired Vyper, another platform linked to the memecoin trading space. Details on the valuation were sparse, but it added up to a busy week of M&A activity. 

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Alibaba’s AI chatbot Qwen, digital coupons and AI-powered shopping was put to test during China’s Spring Festival as the e-commerce group tested a new way for customers to shop entirely through conversational prompts.

The experiment, designed to move Qwen beyond question-answering into full transactions, quickly ran into capacity limits after a surge in user demand. Shoppers could use the coupon capabilities, together with a chatbot, to purchase products directly from Alibaba’s retail stores.

The program is a key component of Qwen’s 3 billion yuan ($433 million) investment, which is aimed to enhance Qwen’s uptake during one of the busiest online retail seasons in China – the holiday period and has an overall goal to drive up Qwen’s usage.

Overload disrupts Alibaba’s AI coupon campaign

In less than nine hours since its launch, Qwen‘s servers received over 10 million purchase requests through the chatbot, completely overwhelming the systems of Qwen chatbot. By Saturday, Qwen had stopped fulfilling orders, issuing automated replies to customers stating that due too many people signing up for the campaign, no further credits could be given.

On Qwen’s official Weibo account, it acknowledged the demand on their systems, stating; “The enthusiasm from people wanting to try out AI shopping is above our expectations!”

On the same site, they states, “There are too many participants for ‘ Qwen free order ‘ at this time,” and said their staff would do everything possible to stabilize operations.

In a separate note, Qwen sought to reassure customers that the campaign had not been terminated and was still on-going.

“We are doing everything to facilitate your continued participation in the campaign.”

Qwen.

The coupons will still work through 28 February 2024 so that customers will have additional time to redeem them after service has been stabilized.

This comes after Alibaba recently released the updated Qwen mobile app in January 2026. Most users reported a pleasant experience.

Wu Jia, the company’s vice-president for consumer AI, showcased the app’s features as she ordered 40 cups of milk tea via Qwen at the launch event.

Alibaba’s Qwen large language models (LLMs) were used to develop the mobile app. The Chinese tech company is trying to create an easy-to-use interface via its AI agent features.

After linking Qwen to apps like Taobao and Alipay, users can tell it to do tasks such as ordering drinks or paying bills, instead of swiping the screen repeatedly.

Agentic AI strategy mirrors global rivals

Alibaba’s campaign is the first public test of their new AI strategy, dubbed “Agentic AI”, which aims to develop a version of Qwen equal to the role of Google’s Assistant as the main point of access for all of Alibaba’s apps and products.

Users will use Qwen as their only way to navigate, buy and pay across the entire Alibaba app ecosystem.

This strategy follows what many of Alibaba’s global competitors are doing, like Google, who is integrating its own AI product Gemini into its suite of services including Google Maps and Google Search. This trend signals that Alibaba believes that giving consumers conversational commerce will be a new way to reduce friction and maintain engagement across many parts of their overall platform.

The company has not made any comments on the technical performance of their tested AI product, however, the incident demonstrates how AI type consumer behavior is changing but also highlights some of the issues companies are experiencing when scaling their capabilities using AI technology quickly.

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The search for the next crypto breakout often moves away from the crowded top names and toward newer protocols that are still early in their growth. Many market participants are no longer satisfied with short-term price swings. They are looking for deeper changes in how financial systems are built and used. 

History shows that smaller projects with the right structure can reshape portfolios over time. As we move toward the end of 2026, one project is starting to show signs of long-term strength. Its steady progress is turning a small early entry into a serious topic of discussion among observers of on-chain lending systems.

Mutuum Finance (MUTM) Foundation

Mutuum Finance (MUTM) is a next-generation lending protocol built to meet the performance needs of modern users. It is designed with Layer 2 efficiency in mind, which helps keep transactions fast and affordable compared to older platforms that often struggle with high fees. 

By reducing costs and improving speed, the system makes lending and borrowing more accessible to everyday users. This technical focus allows Mutuum Finance to support real activity at scale while maintaining a smooth and user-friendly experience.

Recently, the project achieved one of its key milestones as its V1 protocol became available on Sepolia testnet. This launch presents the users with the essential functionalities such as the creation of mtTokens and the automatic handling of risks. Mutuum Finance (MUTM) is showing its technical preparedness long before its actual mainnet launch by enabling the community to play with the code in its live setting.

The Presale Path to $0.06

Mutuum Finance (MUTM) has had a measured development since early 2025. The project started its journey with a price of $0.01 per MUTM and has been able to reach its milestones. The presale is at Phase 7 and the price of the token is at $0.04. 

This step is already more than 14% allocated, which is indicative of the intense interest in a community which has more than 19,000 holders. The roadmap indicates an official launch price of $0.06. This is a value addition of 50% to those who are at the present level of $0.04.

In addition, the presale structure follows a fixed allocation model, meaning fewer tokens remain available as each phase progresses. A large portion of the early supply has already been distributed, and participation continues to grow as the project moves closer to its next pricing tier. This steady allocation trend highlights sustained demand rather than short-term speculation.

2026-2027 Predictions and Catalysts

When considering 2026 and the year 2027, the value of Mutuum Finance (MUTM) may receive a further boost due to several growth catalysts. The initiation of the protocol with a planned over-collateralized native stablecoin is the speculation in the industry that has been pointed out as a key driver of demand. Also, the buy and distribute system makes sure that out of a fraction of the protocol fees is spent by buying tokens in the open market which results in natural buying demand.

In a bullish view, the forecasts indicate that MUTM could hit a price target of $0.35 to $0.40. Specifically, some commentators think that in case the protocol gathers even a fraction of the existing lending market, the growth of 750% to 900% since the point of launch is realistic. An investment of $700 in the present price of $0.04 with the stock at 17,500 tokens would turn into a $7,000 piece at $0.40. 

Security and Early Positioning

One reason why investor confidence can be great is the Halborn security audit. This intensive audit has proved that Mutuum Finance (MUTM) has smart contracts that are of the highest standards in the industry. 

The transparency at this level is assisting the project to place itself in the same category with well-established giants such as Solana and XRP. According to market commentators, the emphasis of the project on the Restricted Collateralization and Borrow Caps, makes the project a better choice of institutional-grade capital.

At present, Mutuum Finance (MUTM) is offering a 50% discount compared to the official price of $0.06 on launch. This is an important time frame to capitalize on the exposure of those individuals interested in the token who would like to be the first to acquire it before it goes to larger exchanges. 

The project is leaving its initial phase and tracking towards a high-visibility future with the already raised amount of $20.4 million and all the tokens sold which are 845 million. The early adoption of the protocol would enable investors to enjoy the underlying utility of the protocol and the aggressive expected expansion.

For more information about Mutuum Finance (MUTM) visit the links below:

Website: https://www.mutuum.com
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mutuumfinance