News

John Daghita, the son of a head of a U.S. government contractor, faces allegations of stealing over $40 million in cryptocurrency from wallets linked to government seizures. According to NS3.AI, the theft was facilitated through insider access at CMDSS, an IT firm with federal contracts responsible for managing seized digital assets. This incident highlights significant concerns regarding insider threats and the management of government-held cryptocurrency assets as investigations continue.

Strive Asset Manager has replaced its convertible bonds with floating-rate perpetual preferred stock to strengthen its financial framework. According to NS3.AI, this move aims to improve leverage ratios by reclassifying debt as equity, providing creditors with high dividends and priority over common stockholders. This strategic shift could serve as a model for companies like Strategy (MSTR) that are dealing with significant convertible debt challenges.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has declared that Canada will not seek a free trade agreement with China. According to NS3.AI, this decision comes in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's warning of imposing 100% tariffs on Canadian goods if such an agreement were to be pursued. This move highlights the persistent geopolitical tensions affecting global trade dynamics.

The CME FedWatch Tool reveals a 2.8% probability of a 25 basis point rate cut by the Federal Reserve in January. According to ChainCatcher, there is a 97.2% likelihood that rates will remain unchanged. By March, the probability of a cumulative 25 basis point rate cut increases to 15.5%, while the chance of maintaining current rates is 84.1%. The likelihood of a cumulative 50 basis point rate cut stands at 0.4%.

Japan's Prime Minister has issued a warning regarding unusual movements in the yen, following its most significant rally in six months. According to NS3.AI, this development has led to speculation about potential coordinated intervention with support from the U.S. Federal Reserve. Historically, joint interventions have helped stabilize the yen, weaken the dollar, and enhance global assets, including cryptocurrencies. Although a weaker dollar might favor Bitcoin and other digital assets in the long term, short-term volatility is anticipated as leveraged yen positions are adjusted.

FoundryUSA, a leading digital asset advisory firm with the largest Bitcoin mining pool globally, has significantly reduced its hashrate by approximately 60% since Friday due to a severe winter storm affecting vast areas of the United States. According to Cointelegraph, the Bitcoin hashrate on FoundryUSA alone has decreased by nearly 200 exahashes per second (EH/s), or 60%, since Friday, leading to a temporary slowdown in block production to 12 minutes.

Despite the reduction, FoundryUSA still maintains around 198 EH/s of hashing power, representing about 23% of the global mining pool hashrate, as indicated by data from Hashrate Index. The curtailment has also impacted other mining pools serving U.S. users, including Luxor, as reported by TheMinerMag on Saturday. The winter storm, named Fern, is sweeping across the U.S., prompting miners to adjust their energy consumption to alleviate stress on grid infrastructure.

Bitcoin miners play a crucial role in balancing the energy grid during emergencies. They act as a controllable load resource for public electrical grid infrastructure, modifying their energy requirements to stabilize the grid during periods of high demand and low consumer usage. Excess energy within an electrical grid system can damage infrastructure during low demand periods and must be safely dissipated to prevent harm to grid components and individuals. Bitcoin miners can activate their machines when demand is low, diverting potentially harmful levels of power from the grid. Conversely, they can deactivate their machines during peak demand to ensure energy availability for consumers.

The current winter storm in the U.S. is characterized by a mix of snow, ice, and freezing rain across the Southeastern U.S., the Northeast, and parts of the Midwest, according to radar forecasts from The Weather Channel. The storm is expected to stretch approximately 1,800 miles, causing widespread power outages affecting over 1 million residents, as reported by The Weather Channel.

Strive, a bitcoin treasury company, is implementing perpetual preferred equity to address its substantial $8 billion in convertible debt. According to NS3.AI, this novel strategy could become a model for handling long-term leverage in cryptocurrency firms. The approach seeks to alleviate debt burdens while maintaining a balance with investor interests.

Tokenized US Treasuries have reached a total value exceeding $10 billion, signifying their evolution from a proof-of-concept to a functional infrastructure. According to NS3.AI, Circle's USYC has surpassed BlackRock's BUIDL to become the largest tokenized Treasury product. This change is attributed to better distribution, simpler collateral mechanics, and wider investor access, rather than brand strength. The development underscores the growing significance of integration and operational efficiency in the tokenized collateral sector and indicates a rising adoption by institutional users.

On Jan 25, 2026, 20:24 PM(UTC). According to Binance Market Data, Ethereum has dropped below 2,800 USDT and is now trading at 2,792.939941 USDT, with a narrowed 5.59% decrease in 24 hours.

New research indicates that autonomous AI swarms are increasingly complicating the detection and management of online misinformation. According to NS3.AI, these AI agents differ from traditional botnets by mimicking human behavior and coordinating independently, making content moderation more challenging. Experts recommend enhanced identity verification and transparency measures as potential solutions, though they acknowledge that no single approach will fully address the issue.

On Jan 25, 2026, 19:34 PM(UTC). According to Binance Market Data, BNB has dropped below 860 USDT and is now trading at 859.400024 USDT, with a narrowed 3.25% decrease in 24 hours.

SOL has fallen below the 120 USDT mark, currently trading at 119.85 USDT. According to Foresight News, the cryptocurrency has experienced a daily decline of 5.79%.

Hedera (HBAR) has experienced a decline of over 10% in the past week, indicating a potential risk for further correction. According to NS3.AI, the cryptocurrency's price structure has weakened, with capital outflows and deteriorating sentiment contributing to this trend. A head-and-shoulders pattern has formed, with a neckline near $0.102, suggesting a possible additional 20% drop if this level is breached. This is further supported by a negative Chaikin Money Flow and low positive sentiment.

Despite these challenges, there is a possibility for a short-term rebound. Net outflows from exchanges and significant short positions could provide an opportunity for recovery if HBAR manages to reclaim resistance levels at $0.105 and $0.112.

On Jan 25, 2026, 19:21 PM(UTC). According to Binance Market Data, Bitcoin has dropped below 87,000 USDT and is now trading at 86,948.789063 USDT, with a narrowed 2.61% decrease in 24 hours.

A substantial transfer of WLD tokens has been reported. According to ChainCatcher, at 02:30, 8,148,800 WLD tokens were moved from BitGo to its hot wallet. This transaction highlights ongoing activity in the cryptocurrency market.

The likelihood of a U.S. government shutdown by January 31 has surged to approximately 78%, prompting investors to turn to safe-haven assets such as gold and silver. According to NS3.AI, this development has caused a significant drop in crypto market sentiment, which has fallen to 'Extreme Fear' on the Crypto Fear and Greed Index. Concerns over delayed economic data and increased market volatility are contributing to this sentiment.

Historically, precious metals have shown strong rallies during government shutdowns, while cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin tend to experience increased volatility and downside risk. Investors are closely monitoring these trends as the situation unfolds.

Ledger, a prominent manufacturer of cryptocurrency hardware wallets, is reportedly preparing for a $4 billion initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange in 2026. According to NS3.AI, this strategic move reflects the company's confidence in the rising demand for secure crypto storage solutions. Ledger's decision to pursue an IPO aims to leverage the growing interest from both institutional and retail sectors in cryptocurrency custody. The company is positioning itself to capitalize on the expanding market for secure digital asset management.

The CLARITY Act's Section 404 introduces significant changes to stablecoin platforms by prohibiting yield payments solely for holding stablecoins, aiming to prevent them from functioning like traditional bank deposits. According to NS3.AI, the legislation allows rewards linked to active participation, including transactions, liquidity provision, or governance activities, thereby transforming the structure of crypto rewards. Additionally, the Act requires transparent disclosures and restricts issuer involvement in reward programs, which may present compliance challenges and impact platform partnerships.

Tezos, a layer-1 proof-of-stake blockchain network, has implemented its latest protocol upgrade, known as Tallinn, which reduces block times on the base layer to six seconds. According to Cointelegraph, this marks the 20th update to the protocol, aiming to enhance network performance by reducing block times, slashing storage costs, and decreasing latency, ultimately leading to faster network finality times.

The Tallinn upgrade introduces significant changes, allowing all network validators, referred to as 'bakers,' to attest to every block rather than a subset, as was the case in previous protocol versions. This improvement is achieved through BLS cryptographic signatures, which aggregate numerous signatures into a single one per block. By reducing the load on nodes, this development paves the way for further block time reductions. Additionally, the upgrade features an address indexing mechanism that eliminates redundant address data, thereby reducing storage requirements for applications operating on Tezos. Tezos representatives highlighted that this mechanism enhances storage efficiency by a factor of 100.

The latest upgrade underscores the ongoing efforts to develop faster and higher-throughput blockchain networks capable of handling more transactions per second and reducing settlement times to support a growing array of use cases. Historically, the first generation of blockchain networks, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, had transaction speeds of approximately seven transactions per second (TPS) and 15-30 TPS, respectively. Bitcoin's protocol, which produces blocks approximately every 10 minutes, poses challenges for everyday payments and commercial transactions on the base layer. This has led to the development of layer-2 (L2) networks to scale transaction execution. For Bitcoin, this is achieved through the Lightning Network, which facilitates off-chain transactions between parties, posting only the net balance to the base layer once the payment channel is closed. Ethereum, on the other hand, employs a modular approach with an ecosystem of L2 networks, separating execution, consensus, and data availability layers. In contrast, monolithic blockchain networks like Solana integrate all these functions into a single layer, foregoing the need for L2 scaling solutions.

On Jan 25, 2026, 16:20 PM(UTC). According to Binance Market Data, BNB has dropped below 870 USDT and is now trading at 869.789978 USDT, with a narrowed 1.94% decrease in 24 hours.