Chainwire

Barcelona, Spain, January 19th, 2026, Chainwire

Paybis, a crypto tools provider for the global leading businesses, will host an invitation-only dinner for senior iGaming and fintech executives during ICE Barcelona on January 20th. The event is the latest in a series of private gatherings the company has run at major industry conferences over the past year.

A select group of operators, payment providers, and compliance professionals will meet at ELDELMAR Hermanos Torres, a Michelin-recommended Mediterranean restaurant on Barcelona's Port Olímpic waterfront. Guests will spend the evening in private conversation over dinner, away from the exhibition floor. Seats are limited and granted only by direct invitation.

The dinners are part of Paybis’s broader, long-term effort to deepen engagement with iGaming operators through a series of smaller, invitation-only gatherings over the past year. As crypto has matured into a mainstream payment option for the sector, the focus has shifted beyond adoption toward infrastructure — specifically, how to build payment systems that deliver speed and scalability while remaining compliant and resilient under regulatory scrutiny.

Paybis has spent the last several years working on that problem through Paybis Send, its B2B payout product. The service lets businesses run instant crypto payouts at scale. Operators deposit fiat through a dedicated IBAN account, and Paybis converts and sends the crypto in seconds. 

Companies can plug into the API for automated payouts, or use the dashboard if they want to handle payouts themselves. Paybis handles compliance on its end, so operators don't need to worry about new licenses or regulatory filings.

"iGaming operators and fintech companies have been circling each other for years, but the real partnerships are only starting to form now," said Innokenty Isers , Founder and CEO of Paybis. “Payments are the connective tissue. When you solve that piece properly, everything else moves faster. These dinners are our way of getting the right people in the same room to figure out what comes next."

Paybis holds licenses in the United States and the European Union. The company has served more than five million users since 2014 and works with over 200 business partners across crypto and fintech.

The ICE Barcelona dinner follows previous Paybis events at SiGMA Europe in Malta and a private gathering in Dubai.

About Paybis

Paybis is a global crypto platform with 11 years of experience. The company provides solutions for individuals and businesses to buy, sell, and transfer digital currencies. Services include on/off-ramp solutions, OTC desk, and B2B payments through Paybis Send. Paybis operates in full compliance with local regulations across the US, UK, Canada, and Europe. More than 200 partners and five million users trust Paybis for secure, accessible crypto transactions worldwide.

Website | X | LinkedIn | Blog

Contact

PR Manager Aleksandra Buimistere Paybis aleksandra.buimistere@paybis.com Disclaimer. This is a paid press release.

Dubai, UAE, January 16th, 2026, Chainwire

NEXT INNOVATIONS TECHNOLOGY L.L.C. (NEXST), a next-generation Web3 entertainment platform, announced a strategic partnership with KISS OF LIFE, the winner of the 2025 Asia Artist Awards “Best Musician Group.” The group will join NEXST VR LIVE as the platform’s second official collaboration artist.

NEXST VR LIVE is the immersive VR concert service within the NEXST ecosystem, supported by the $NXT token. Through this collaboration with KISS OF LIFE, NEXST continues its mission to bring large-scale global fandoms on-chain by embedding digital ownership, decentralized access, and immersive technology into entertainment experiences.

Building a Gateway From Web2 Fandoms to Web3

NEXST is an AI-, VR-, and blockchain-powered entertainment platform designed to bridge mainstream Web2 audiences into Web3 in a natural and accessible way. Rather than requiring prior crypto knowledge, NEXST leverages globally recognized artists and immersive VR content as an intuitive entry point into the decentralized ecosystem.

In July 2025, NEXST VR LIVE announced Korean girl group UNIS as its first collaboration artist, with VR content currently in production. The partnership with KISS OF LIFE is the perfect spark that kicks off the next stage of evolution at NEXST. 

By centering highly interactive entertainment experiences, NEXST introduces Web3-native value propositions such as digital asset ownership and cryptocurrency-based purchases of VR content—while maintaining a seamless user experience for fans new to Web3.

At its core, NEXST delivers deeply interactive experiences with built-in Web3 value: digital asset ownership, crypto-powered VR content purchases all in a smooth, beginner-friendly package.

KISS OF LIFE: A Global Artist Leading the Next Wave of Immersive VR Lives

KISS OF LIFE is an award-winning K-POP group with approximately 9 million followers across global social platforms, known for its distinctive artistry, high-energy performances, and strong influence on global youth culture. Following their successful Japanese debut in November with a new album, they wrapped up a sold-out Japan tour in December. With each milestone, KISS OF LIFE continues to expand their international influence and solidify their place on the global stage.

Through this partnership, KISS OF LIFE’s expressive performance style and dynamic stage presence will be fully integrated into the immersive environments of NEXST VR LIVE. Moving beyond traditional “watch-only” concert formats, fans will be able to step inside the music world itself—sharing a virtual space with the artists and engaging in a next-generation VR live experience that redefines how live music is consumed in digital environments.

Shaping the Future of Entertainment With NEXST

NEXST blends AI, VR, and Web3 to rebuild entertainment at its core: making music, live shows, and fan communities more immersive and rewarding than ever.

NEXST is expanding collaborations with more global and K-pop artists as well as premium IP to create a new paradigm where fans can discover artists, connect directly with them, and co-create shared experiences. Meanwhile, the company aims to build a sustainably scalable entertainment ecosystem that evolves alongside its global community.

For information on the NEXST token ($NXT), upcoming TGE, and the latest updates, users can visit NEXST’s official channels.

Website: https://www.nexst.io

X (Twitter): https://x.com/NEXST_AI

Discord: https://discord.gg/nexst

Medium: https://medium.com/@sns.nexst

About NEXST

NEXST is an AI-driven entertainment infrastructure that transforms the full spectrum of fan experiences into on-chain, verifiable value. By blending proven Web2 models with VR, AI, gaming, and RWA ticketing, NEXST is building a new paradigm of fan continuity—a unified digital economy for global engagement.

About KISS OF LIFE



KISS OF LIFE is a multinational girl group made up of Julie (JULIE), Natty (NATTY), Belle (BELLE), and Haneul (HANEUL).The group's name embodies their mission: to breathe new life into the world through fresh music and ignite excitement for living.

Since debuting in 2023, KISS OF LIFE has captivated K-POP fans around the world powerful choreography that far exceeds rookie expectations, alongside original and highly creative content. Beginning in Korea in October 2024, the group embarked on their world tour, “KISS OF LIFE 1ST WORLD TOUR [KISS ROAD],” traveling across North America, Europe, and Asia. Following their successful Japanese debut in November with a new album, they wrapped up a sold-out Japan tour in December. With each milestone, KISS OF LIFE continues to expand their international influence and solidify their place on the global stage.

「KISS OF LIFE」Official Channels

KISS OF LIFE OFFICIAL X :https://x.com/KISSOFLIFE_S2

KISS OF LIFE OFFICIAL Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/kissoflife_s2

KISS OF LIFE OFFICIAL YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/@KISSOFLIFE_official

KISS OF LIFE OFFICIAL TikTok : https://www.tiktok.com/@kissoflife_official

Contact

PR Yumiko Skurr NEXT INNOVATIONS TECHNOLOGY L.L.C yumiko.s@nexst.io Disclaimer. This is a paid press release.

Hinwil, Switzerland, January 16th, 2026, Chainwire

Multi-year strategic partnership to redefine digital wealth on the world’s most prominent stage

The partnership unites two brands that stand for innovation and precision

Nexo will activate globally through premium money-can’t-buy experiences and digital-first engagement 

Audi Revolut F1 Team today announced a multi-year partnership with Nexo, the leading digital assets platform. The strategic partnership sees Nexo become the team’s inaugural official digital asset partner, placing Nexo’s next-generation digital tools on a global stage.

The partnership marks a pivotal moment for both organisations as Audi Revolut F1 Team enters Formula 1 and Nexo accelerates its growth as a premium digital asset platform. Ambitious and performance-driven, both brands are aligned around a shared trajectory of innovation and disciplined execution, underpinned by a common engineering mindset and a focus on performance at the highest level.

Over the course of the partnership, Nexo will activate globally through premium experiences and digital-first engagement. Exclusive opportunities designed to bring fans and Nexo clients closer to Audi Revolut F1 Team will include exclusive access, co-created content and education, and next-generation immersive brand experiences.

Stefano Battiston, Chief Commercial Officer of Audi Revolut F1 Team: “Today, we are proud to welcome Nexo as our official digital asset partner at a moment of strong growth for both organisations. The partnership reflects a shared ambition to scale with discipline and innovation, and to create tangible value — from exclusive experiences to new ways of engaging our global fanbase and Nexo’s clients.”

Antoni Trenchev, Co-founder, Nexo: “Nexo was built for a demanding reality: instant, self-directed, and always on. Partnering with Audi Revolut F1 Team at the start of their new era is a statement about how we see the future. As the team’s official digital asset partner, we will bring meaningful utility and premium experiences to a global audience, grounded in the same discipline and precision that defines success in motor sports.”

Contact:

Nexo Communications team

communications@nexo.com

About Nexo

Nexo is a premier digital assets wealth platform designed to empower clients to grow, manage, and preserve their crypto holdings. Our mission is to lead the next generation of wealth creation by focusing on customer success and delivering tailored solutions that build enduring value, supported by 24/7 client care.

Since 2018, Nexo has provided unmatched opportunities to forward-thinking clients in over 150 jurisdictions. With over $11 billion in AUM and over $371 billion processed, we bring lasting value to millions worldwide. Our all-in-one platform combines advanced technology with a client-first approach, offering high-yield flexible and fixed-term savings, crypto-backed loans, sophisticated trading tools, and liquidity solutions, including the first crypto debit/credit card. Built on deep industry expertise, a sustainable business model, robust infrastructure, stringent security, and global licensing, Nexo champions innovation and long-lasting prosperity.

Official website: nexo.com

About Audi Revolut F1 Team

Audi Revolut F1 Team is the official factory team of Audi, as the brand enters the FIA Formula 1 World Championship for the first time in 2026. This project, in which Audi will create its own hybrid drive system ('power unit') developed in Germany, represents the ultimate expression of the manufacturer's ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’ philosophy and embodies a long-term commitment to compete at the pinnacle of motorsport with the clear objective of challenging for world championships by 2030. Audi Revolut F1 Team is based in three locations: the power unit is developed by Audi Formula Racing GmbH at the Audi Competence Center Motorsport in Neuburg, Germany; the chassis is engineered and race operations are managed from the state-of-the-art facilities of Audi Motorsport AG in Hinwil, Switzerland; while the Audi Motorsport Technology Centre UK in Bicester, United Kingdom, provides a foothold in the heart of 'Motorsport Valley', with direct access to top F1 talent and key strategic partners. This integrated structure provides complete control over the project, embedding a culture of precision, innovation, and relentless performance. Audi’s entry is strategically timed to coincide with new Formula 1 regulations focused on increased electrification, as the electric share of the hybrid drive is raised to almost 50%, and the introduction of 100% sustainable fuels. The entry into Formula 1, one of the most important platforms in the world, serves as a high-tech catalyst for the entire Audi brand, acting as a global stage to demonstrate technological leadership and connect with new, diverse audiences by creating cultural impact that resonates far beyond the race track.

Contact

Brand Communications Vanessa Roettger Audi Revolut F1 Team vanessa.roettger@audif1.com Disclaimer. This is a paid press release.

Zug, Switzerland, January 15th, 2026, Chainwire

The dYdX Foundation has released the 2025 dYdX Ecosystem Annual Report, providing a comprehensive full-year overview of protocol activity, development, governance execution, and ecosystem growth across the dYdX ecosystem.

The report documents a year of structural evolution for on-chain derivatives markets, as dYdX continued progressing toward more durable, institutional-grade participation. After a period of adjustment in the first half of the year, trading activity recovered into H2, with Q4 emerging as the strongest quarter of 2025.

Key findings from the report include:

All-time cumulative trading volume surpassing $1.55 trillion, reflecting continued adoption of on-chain derivatives infrastructure.

Quarterly trading volumes rebuilt from approximately $16.0 billion in Q2 to $34.3 billion in Q4, marking the strongest quarter of the year.

Expanded distribution and execution access, with integrations across institutional and programmatic routing platforms including CoinRoutes, CCXT, Foxify, and Crypto.com.

Product expansion beyond perpetuals, highlighted by the launch of native Solana spot trading, enabling unified spot and derivatives workflows within a single on-chain environment.

Strengthened token alignment, including the launch of the DYDX Buyback Program and governance approval to scale buybacks to 75% of net protocol revenue.

Growth in token holder participation, with DYDX holders reaching approximately 98,000 by year-end.

The report also details progress across governance and ecosystem operations, including treasury stewardship, grants program restructuring focused on capital efficiency and accountability, and infrastructure upgrades designed to improve execution consistency and fairness.

“The 2025 Annual Report reflects a year of structural progress for the dYdX ecosystem,” said Charles d’Haussy - CEO of the dYdX Foundation. “Across execution, distribution, and governance, the focus remained on building durable foundations that support sustained participation and long-term alignment as on-chain derivatives continue to grow and mature.”

The 2025 dYdX Ecosystem Annual Report is available publicly and is intended to provide traders, builders, analysts, and ecosystem participants with transparent insight into how the protocol and its surrounding infrastructure evolved over the full year.

About the dYdX Foundation

The dYdX Foundation is an independent not-for-profit organization based in Zug, Switzerland. Its mission is to support the current and future implementations of the dYdX protocol and foster community-driven governance and growth across the ecosystem.

Disclaimer

The content here is for informational and educational purposes only; it should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security. All figures and charts are based on the most accurate data available and may be subject to updates. For more details, please see https://www.dydx.foundation/terms-of-use

Contact

Winfred K. Mandela dYdX Foundation media@dydx.foundation Disclaimer. This is a paid press release.

London, United Kingdom, January 15th, 2026, Chainwire

OpenServ and Neol Advance Enterprise-ready AI Reasoning Under Real-world Constraints

The foundational design partnership applies structured AI reasoning in high-stakes, regulated environments, with detailed findings forthcoming

OpenServ today announced a foundational design partnership with Neol to apply and evolve SERV’s AI reasoning framework in real-world, high-stakes production environments. Neol is an AI-powered network intelligence platform used by enterprises and public-sector institutions, including government organizations in the United Arab Emirates, to understand, evaluate, and mobilize complex networks of people, programs, and partners.

The collaboration focuses on how AI reasoning systems behave under production pressure, where accuracy, reliability, and development speed are critical. Learnings from this work are currently being documented in a forthcoming case study.

“OpenServ’s reasoning framework started adding value to our work from day one, but the real excitement is in how it keeps evolving under real conditions,” said Akar Sumset, Co-Founder and CPO of Neol. “For us, a true design partnership is one where both teams are actively shaping the technology together. We expect this collaboration to keep pushing the framework forward and unlock new capabilities for our partners.”

Through this partnership, OpenServ and Neol are examining how structured reasoning, workflow decomposition, and bounded decision-making improve performance in complex, regulated environments. These patterns are being refined as part of OpenServ’s core reasoning framework.

“Enterprise AI doesn’t break because models are weak; it breaks when AI’s reasoning capabilities aren't designed for reality,” said Tim Hafner, CEO and Co-founder of OpenServ. “This partnership is about evolving how reasoning systems in AI are built so they hold up outside of demos and inside real production.”

A detailed case study outlining the evolution, tradeoffs, and operational insights from the partnership will be released following completion of documentation and review.

As a result of this work, OpenServ is integrating these enterprise-tested reasoning patterns directly into its platform. Every workflow and project launched on OpenServ now inherits the same enterprise-ready reasoning discipline by default.

The work builds on OpenServ’s 2025 research1, which outlines a structured AI reasoning framework for bounded decision-making and execution (OpenServ, 2025).

References:

OpenServ. (2025). BRAID: Bounded Reasoning for Autonomous Inference and Decisions. [Research paper].

About OpenServ

OpenServ is a complete AI suite of services and platforms for building, launching, and running real crypto businesses. Developers worldwide choose OpenServ to build and employ AI agents equipped with state-of-the-art cognitive reasoning capabilities to take action across digital systems. Designed for builders across all experience levels, OpenServ provides the world’s leading infrastructure for deploying agents that interact with APIs, automate workflows, and operate across any framework. With native support for Telegram and a modular SDK, OpenServ enables agents to move from passive interfaces to active participants in decentralized ecosystems. From finance and governance to messaging and research, agents on OpenServ are designed to act, earn, and evolve for your business.

For more information, users can visit openserv.ai.

Additional details are available via marketing@openserv.ai. 

About Neol

Neol is an AI-native network intelligence company that helps organizations turn scattered people and organizational data into a living, actionable network. Neol’s Network Intelligence OS sits on top of existing systems and data, enriching profiles from internal and public sources and reshaping them into a dynamic network layer that AI can reason over with natural language. This lets governments, public institutions, foundations, and enterprises see who is in their ecosystem, understand how they are connected, and mobilize the right people and partners for any initiative from talent and expert sourcing to innovation programs, events, and strategic projects. Neol operates globally with teams across Europe and the Middle East.

Website: www.neol.ai 

General disclosure: This document is intended for information and educational purposes only, and does not constitute investment advice, a recommendation, or an offer or solicitation to purchase or sell any securities or any investment strategies. The opinions expressed are as of January 8, 2026 and are subject to change without notice. Reliance upon information in this material is at the sole discretion of the reader. Investing involves risks. This information is not intended to be complete or exhaustive, and no representations or warranties, either express or implied, are made regarding the accuracy or completeness of the information contained herein. This material may contain estimates and forward-looking statements, which may include forecasts and do not represent a guarantee of future performance.

Contact

Head of Marketing Ryan Dennis OpenServ ryan@openserv.ai Disclaimer. This is a paid press release.

Zug, Switzerland, January 13th, 2026, Chainwire

Salad.com, an established GPU Cloud Platform powered by globally distributed infrastructure, and Golem Network, one of the first decentralized computing protocols, have announced a partnership. This collaboration will evaluate the feasibility of meeting Salad’s existing computational demand using Golem’s Web3 infrastructure.
As part of an engineering test, Salad first intends to utilize Golem’s permissionless execution layer to ‘mirror’ and map a portion of its existing commercial activity, spanning the range of Salad's cloud computing products and services. This partnership serves as a functional test designed to verify that DePIN protocols, in this case Golem, can support the breadth of customer and workload profiles currently utilizing Salad’s cloud infrastructure.
Today, Salad relies on a stack of centralized services for facilitating customer payments and the delivery of rewards to its network of infrastructure providers. With a global footprint of both customers and compute providers, Salad’s software stack of traditional payment processors, usage-based billing platforms and reward suppliers represents significant complexity and operational overhead. Crypto payments and a permissionless compute-execution layer, similar to that offered by Golem Network, may deliver significant efficiency gains for Salad’s products and services.
Bob Miles, CEO of salad.com, added: “By pairing Salad’s globally distributed infrastructure with Golem’s decentralized compute layer, we’re exploring how customer workloads, revenue, and our extensive rewards program can flow through DePIN. I first read the Golem whitepaper in 2017, and this collaboration reflects a shared vision of making advanced computational power more accessible by enabling millions of individuals to contribute underutilized devices.
This initial test phase aims to demonstrate whether Web3 can enhance centralized cloud platforms with greater efficiency and openness, while helping us understand how Salad’s margin profile could fit into a sustainable tokenomics model as we scale mirrored traffic through Golem Network.”
This collaboration seeks to validate how a traditional Web2 business like Salad can integrate with a permissionless and decentralized protocol, such as the Golem Network. The test will evaluate core components, including the decentralized marketplace and settlement infrastructure, and how they could offer Salad a more cost-efficient and transparent platform for value exchange.
Paweł Burgchardt, CPO of Golem Network, commented: “Our collaboration with Salad allows us to explore how Golem’s protocol can integrate with complementary marketplaces for computational resources. The insights gained from this experiment will help us refine Golem’s SDK and strengthen support for future integrations.” 
Seeing the opportunities offered by Web3 mature, Salad began evaluating various DePIN protocols in Q3 2025.  Golem Network offered the closest match to Salad’s existing platform, and initial tests have delivered significant insights for Salad’s engineering team.
Kyle Dodson, Salad’s CTO, shares: “The architecture provided by Golem, connecting compute requestors and compute providers via a decentralized protocol, has significant overlap with how Salad’s platform operates today. As Salad works towards supporting a frequently requested feature, crypto payments, I am excited to collaborate with the Golem team to further enhance the efficiency of both cost and the compute-orchestration of our platform.”
Salad and Golem Network share a similar goal of making accelerated computational power more widely accessible.  Both platforms support a range of workload profiles, from in silico drug-discovery simulations, AI inference, to 3D rendering.
This partnership aims to show how traditionally separate Web2 and Web3-based marketplaces can be integrated, enabling participants to benefit from complementary capabilities while laying the groundwork for future resource-sharing across currently siloed networks.
As the Salad and Golem team continue working together on this engineering test, more detailed engineering and product updates will be announced and available at salad.com and golem.network.
About Golem
Golem Network is an open-source, decentralized network, offering a marketplace for computational resources and services. Through its permissionless protocol, Golem enables anyone to join by either allocating their resources to the Network or using them in exchange for GLM token.
Website: https://www.golem.network/
Social and Community:   Blog  |  Discord  |  Github  |  LinkedIn  |  X  
About Salad.com
Salad is the world's largest cloud platform powered by globally distributed infrastructure.  Operating for 8 years, Salad supports a wide range of customers from AI Startups to listed Fortune 500 Enterprise Organisations. Both datacenters and individuals can share latent computational resources with Salad's application, turning idle hardware into meaningful rewards. With thousands of existing customers running production workloads across tens of thousands of machines, Salad powers cutting-edge compute applications for far less than hyperscale providers.
Website: https://salad.com/

Contact
Account Director
Avishay Litani
MarketAcross
avishay@marketacross.com

Dover, Delaware, January 14th, 2026, Chainwire

The addition of USD1 will support increased liquidity, deeper user participation, and continued growth across the prediction market ecosystem

Prediction market protocol Myriad has integrated World Liberty Financial’s (WLFI) USD1 as the platform’s first base stablecoin settlement asset. The integration brings USD1 to Myriad on BNB Chain, following Myriad’s recent product expansion on the network.

Myriad will launch USD1-denominated markets on January 14, beginning with its Candles product, which was previously announced as part of the protocol’s BNB Chain integration. Following this initial rollout, Myriad expects to transition its BNB prediction markets to operate exclusively using USD1 as the base settlement asset during the first quarter of 2026, consolidating liquidity and standardizing market infrastructure across the platform. 

“Myriad’s integration of USD1 expands the real-world utility of stable, dollar-backed digital assets in emerging on-chain markets,” said Zach Witkoff, Co-Founder of World Liberty Financial. “Prediction markets are a growing category within decentralized finance, and this integration introduces USD1 into an environment where transparency, stability, and user trust are essential.”  

“From the moment I interviewed President Trump in September 2024, I knew WLFI would be something the team, their partners, and the broader industry would take very seriously,” said Farokh Sarmad, co-founder and president of Myriad and Rug Radio. “This announcement is a full-circle moment as Myriad becomes the first prediction market using USD1 as a base settlement asset.”

Myriad is also introducing a new type of market structure designed for speed and simplicity. The debut of the Candles product with USD1 pools - available exclusively to customers outside of the United States - will feature automated markets with short timeframes, continuous liquidity, and automated resolution, enabling users to participate in fast-paced prediction or trading environments. Additional market formats and functionality are planned as part of a phased expansion in early 2026, with further technical details to be shared ahead of deployment.

About World Liberty Financial

World Liberty Financial (WLFI) is a pioneering decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol and governance platform dedicated to empowering individuals through transparent, accessible, and secure financial solutions. Inspired by the vision of President Donald J. Trump, WLFI seeks to democratize access to DeFi by creating user-friendly tools that bring the benefits of decentralized finance to a broader audience. WLFI plans to be at the forefront of DeFi, by offering an intuitive, robust platform that empowers users to participate actively in the financial future.

About Myriad

Myriad is a prediction protocol designed to enable markets where users can trade on information, forecasts, and consensus. Rooted in media-led trust, via Decrypt and Rug Radio, it combines retail adoption with enterprise-grade infrastructure to create a protocol for prediction markets across industries. Its roadmap includes multichain expansion, advanced oracle integrations, and regulatory alignment in the United States.

[Website] | [X/Twitter]

Contact

Media Contact media@dastan.co Disclaimer. This is a paid press release.

George Town, British Virgin Islands, January 14th, 2026, Chainwire

Human Trader ProMint Claims Championship as AI Demonstrates Superior Risk Control

Aster, the high-performance and privacy-focused on-chain trading platform backed by YZi Labs, has announced the final results of its “Human vs AI” live trading competition. Conducted over a two-week period under highly volatile market conditions, the event highlighted a clear contrast between discretionary human trading and AI-driven strategies.

While individual human trader ProMint secured the top ranking with positive net profits, the human trading team as a whole recorded an overall ROI of -32.22%, reflecting significant performance dispersion across participants. In contrast, AI agents delivered materially more stable results at the aggregate level, limiting total losses to approximately USD 13,000 and achieving an overall ROI of -4.48% across all participating AI strategies.

Trading Insight: Stability vs Asymmetric Opportunity

Competition data highlighted a clear contrast in risk behavior between human traders and AI agents. During the event, 43% of human participants were liquidated, while all 30 AI agents completed the competition without a single liquidation, achieving a 100% survival rate.

According to Aster, the results underscore the structural strengths of AI-driven strategies in stable, risk-controlled market environments, where systematic execution and disciplined risk management help mitigate large drawdowns. At the same time, the findings also suggest that in market conditions driven by human emotion, rapid market shifts, and nonlinear price dynamics, discretionary human traders with strong judgment and narrative awareness can still capture asymmetric opportunities and outperform purely systematic approaches.

Future Competitiveness Lies in Collaboration, Not Replacement

Competition data showed that human traders exhibited significantly wider performance dispersion, with individual gains exceeding USD 19,000 and losses in other cases approaching USD 18,000, resulting in higher overall return volatility.

Aster emphasized that the “Human vs AI” showdown was designed not to determine replacement, but to clarify evolving roles. AI is becoming a foundational tool for execution and risk management, while human traders increasingly contribute judgment, context awareness, and narrative interpretation in complex market conditions. As a result, Aster believes future competitiveness will be driven by collaboration between humans and AI, rather than direct confrontation.

Aster: Using the Market as a Real-World Testing Ground

Aster stated that the initial goal of hosting this live trading showdown was to observe how different trading participants behave on the same decentralized infrastructure under real market conditions, rather than relying on backtesting or simulated data.

As the decentralized derivatives market continues to grow, Aster will continue to explore infrastructure designs that better serve professional trading needs, enabling strategies, risk management, and execution to achieve higher certainty on-chain.

“This was not a competition with a predetermined conclusion, but a starting point,” said Leonard, CEO of Aster, in the post-event summary. “As markets become more complex, traders need more than individual tools. They need integrated systems that can evolve alongside the market.”

The Next Trading Showdown Begins on Jan 22

Aster has confirmed that the next live trading showdown will officially kick off on January 22 and take place on the Aster Chain Testnet.

This upcoming event will open participation to a newly expanded group of traders, including professional participants from around the world, enabling live competitive trading within Aster’s testnet environment.

Additional details regarding competition mechanics, rewards, and participation criteria are available in Aster’s official X competition announcement.

About Aster

Aster is an on-chain trading platform offering high-performance perpetual and spot trading with MEV-aware trading mechanics, advanced order types such as Hidden Orders, and a protected trading mode, Shield Mode, across multiple chains. Beyond trading, Aster enables greater capital efficiency through Trade & Earn and supports ecosystem growth via Rocket Launch, which connects real traders with early-stage liquidity opportunities. Backed by YZi Labs, Aster is building toward its own Aster Chain and is currently running a multi-stage airdrop and incentive program to support its global community.

Users can learn more at the Aster official website or connect with Aster on the official X account.

Contact

PR & Content Manager Lola Chen Aster lola.chen@asterdex.com Disclaimer. This is a paid press release.

Castries, Saint Lucia, January 14th, 2026, Chainwire

PrimeXBT, a leading global crypto and CFD broker, has listed 40 new crypto futures trading pairs, significantly expanding its asset coverage across high-demand segments including AI, Layer-1 and Layer-2 networks, DeFi, Infrastructure, Meme tokens, NFT, Metaverse, and Payments. The expansion is part of the company’s ongoing commitment to provide traders with deeper market access, better liquidity, and cost-efficient trading conditions.

The newly added markets include a curated selection of highly traded coins and tokens such as CELO, DASH, DYDX, EIGEN, SNX, ZK, ZRO, and emerging community and meme-driven assets. This batch also introduces several trending tokens, including HYPE and PUMP, now available for futures trading.

The new crypto futures come with 100–150x maximum leverage across most pairs, while ETH/BTC offers up to 400x leverage, among the highest available in the industry. Traders can also benefit from higher maximum order sizes in markets with strong liquidity, enabling more flexible position management. Most instruments are USDT-margined, and each coin has been added based on market liquidity and clear trader demand, supporting deeper books, tighter execution, and more efficient trading conditions.

As part of the launch, PrimeXBT is also expanding its zero-fee offering, introducing new opportunities on popular pairs such as FLOW, KAIA, EGLD, RUNE, GALA, BOME, and others. This update complements the platform’s existing roster of cost-efficient markets and supports high-frequency and cost-sensitive traders.

PrimeXBT stated that recent volatility has shown how quickly new narratives emerge in the crypto market, making timely access to new opportunities essential the moment they gain momentum. In conditions like these, cost efficiency becomes even more important. The broker added that it remains focused on creating an environment where traders can turn fast-moving trends into long-term growth.

With this expansion, PrimeXBT strengthens its crypto futures offering while continuing to provide traders with over 350 markets across both crypto and CFDs, supported by some of the industry’s lowest fees. With over 100 global, local, crypto, and fiat payment methods, and zero-fee deposits and withdrawals, the broker ensures accessible and cost-efficient funding for traders worldwide. As market volatility continues to create new opportunities, PrimeXBT remains focused on fairness, transparency, flexibility, and empowering traders to succeed in fast-moving conditions.

To trade Crypto Futures with PrimeXBT, users can visit the PrimeXBT website.

About PrimeXBT

PrimeXBT is a global multi-asset broker and crypto asset service provider trusted by traders in more than 150 countries. The platform bridges traditional and digital markets within one integrated environment, redefining versatility and innovation in online trading. Clients can access Forex, CFDs on indices, commodities, shares, crypto, and Crypto Futures, as well as buy, store and exchange cryptocurrencies directly. This unified experience extends across both the native PXTrader platform and MetaTrader 5, supported by advanced risk-management tools and a wide range of funding options in crypto, fiat and local payment methods. Since 2018, PrimeXBT has focused on empowering traders through broad multi-asset access, fair and transparent conditions, professional-grade technology and dedicated human support. By combining expertise, trust and a client-first approach, PrimeXBT sets a benchmark of excellence in the financial industry and provides traders with the tools they need to trade, grow and succeed with confidence.

Disclaimer: The content provided here is for informational purposes only and is not intended as personal investment advice and does not constitute a solicitation or invitation to engage in any financial transactions, investments, or related activities. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. The financial products offered by the Company are complex and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. These products may not be suitable for all investors. Before engaging, you should consider whether you understand how these leveraged products work and whether you can afford the high risk of losing your money. The Company does not accept clients from the Restricted Jurisdictions as indicated on its website / T&Cs. Some products and services, including MT5, may not be available in your jurisdiction. The applicable legal entity and its respective products and services depend on the client’s country of residence and the entity with which the client has established a contractual relationship during registration.

Contact

PrimeXBT pr@primexbt.com Disclaimer. This is a paid press release.

Frisco, Texas, January 13th, 2026, Chainwire

The agreement builds on Nexo’s long-term approach to partnerships with established global sports institutions.

Nexo, the digital assets wealth platform, has been named the U.S. ATP 500 Dallas Open’s first-ever Title Partner under a multi-year agreement beginning in 2026, as the company advances its long-term brand strategy through leading global sports properties. The partnership was unveiled in Dallas alongside the debut of the Nexo Dallas Open brand and the resurfacing of two public tennis courts in North Texas. As one of only two ATP 500 tournaments in the U.S. and the country’s sole indoor ATP Tour championship, the Dallas Open places Nexo among a limited group of ATP 500 title partners.

“This partnership with Nexo represents a transformative milestone for the Dallas Open,” said Tournament Director Peter Lebedevs. “Securing a title sponsor of this caliber as we launch into year two as an ATP 500 event continues to elevate our tournament on the global stage. Aligning with a partner that is shaping the next generation of digital asset solutions strengthens our vision for the next generation of tennis.” 

For Nexo, the multi-year agreement is a strategic investment in sustained global brand visibility, positioning the company within premium sports ecosystems that engage affluent audiences and reinforce long-term value.

As part of today’s announcement, the Nexo Dallas Open highlighted its community impact with two newly resurfaced tennis courts in North Texas aimed at expanding year-round access for youth and recreational players.

The Dallas Open, now entering its fifth year in North Texas, was elevated to ATP 500 status in 2025 — a move that has increased its international visibility and commercial appeal. 

Attracting top-ranked U.S. and international players including leading U.S. players Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton, as well as 2025 Dallas Open runner-up Casper Ruud, the 2026 Nexo Dallas Open will be held February 7–15 at the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, the Dallas Cowboys’ headquarters and training facility. 

The Dallas Open marks Nexo’s fourth tennis partnership overall and its third ATP Tour collaboration, building on a recently announced multi-year partnership with the Australian Open, following sponsorships of the ATP 500 Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco and the ATP 250 Mifel Tennis Open in Los Cabos.

Press Kit

About Nexo 

Nexo is a premier digital assets wealth platform designed to empower clients to grow, manage, and preserve their crypto holdings. Our mission is to lead the next generation of wealth creation by focusing on customer success and delivering tailored solutions that build enduring value, supported by 24/7 client care. 

Since 2018, Nexo has provided unmatched opportunities to forward-thinking clients in over 150 jurisdictions. With over $371 billion processed globally, we bring lasting value to millions worldwide. Our all-in-one platform combines advanced technology with a client-first approach, offering a Flexible and Fixed-term Yield product, crypto-backed loans, sophisticated trading tools, and liquidity solutions, including the first crypto debit/credit card. Built on deep industry expertise, a sustainable business model, robust infrastructure, stringent security, Nexo champions innovation and long-lasting prosperity. Official website: nexo.com/us 

About The Nexo Dallas Open 

The Nexo Dallas Open is currently an ATP Tour 500 men’s tournament that will play its fifth year in North Texas, its first in Frisco on February 7-15, 2026, at the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco. It will be the only ATP Tour indoor championship in the United States, and features men’s top world tennis players in singles and doubles competition. The tournament, previously held as the New York Open, is one of the longest-running American tournaments on the ATP Tour. Its rich history features some of the top names in tennis, including legends John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick, Michael Chang, John Isner, and Andy Murray, and a current generation of stars like Kei Nishikori, Milos Raonic, and Reilly Opelka. 

About The ATP 

The ATP’s mission is to serve tennis. As governing body of the ATP Tour and Challenger Tour we entertain a billion global fans, showcase the world’s greatest players at prestigious tournaments, and inspire the game’s next generation. From the United Cup in Australia, to Europe, the Americas and Asia, the stars of the game battle for titles and PIF ATP Rankings points at ATP Masters 1000, 500 and 250 events, and Grand Slams. All roads lead to the Nitto ATP Finals, our prestigious season finale held in Turin, Italy. Featuring only the season’s best 8 singles players and doubles teams, the tournament sees the crowning of the year-end ATP World No. 1, presented by PIF, the ultimate achievement in tennis. For more information, please visit www.ATPTour.com. 

Media Contacts 

Kate Okiomah | Tony Fay PR | kate@tonyfaypr.com | 602-550-2969 

Luke Adams | Tony Fay PR | luke@tonyfaypr.com | 469-503-5883 

Nexo Media Contacts | Nexo Communication team | communications@nexo.com

Contact

Nexo Communication team Nexo Media Contacts communications@nexo.com Disclaimer. This is a paid press release.

Be'er Sheva, Israel, January 13th, 2026, Chainwire
Fors, a prediction market aggregation platform built on Solana, today announced the release of its beta version, designed to address fragmentation and inefficiencies across modern prediction markets.
Prediction markets covering multiple categories, including politics, sports, macroeconomic events, cryptocurrencies, and global developments, have expanded rapidly in recent years. However, market data, liquidity, and pricing remain fragmented across isolated platforms, making it difficult for participants to compare outcomes and identify inefficiencies efficiently.
Fors addresses this challenge by aggregating multiple prediction venues into a single, unified interface. The platform normalizes probabilities, pricing, and liquidity, allowing users to compare identical outcomes side by side across different markets.
Built on Solana, Fors leverages high-performance infrastructure to support real-time aggregation and low-latency data processing. The platform is also developing smart order routing capabilities designed to direct trades toward the most favorable venue based on price, liquidity, and execution conditions, while maintaining transparency and user control.
One of the core benefits of aggregation is improved visibility into cross-market price differences. By presenting pricing disparities across venues, Fors enables users to identify arbitrage opportunities that may exist due to fragmented liquidity and inconsistent market pricing.
In addition to aggregation and execution optimization, the beta release introduces copy trading functionality adapted for prediction markets. Users can follow experienced participants across aggregated venues, supported by transparent performance metrics, historical analytics, and configurable risk controls. A built-in demo practice mode allows users to test copy trading strategies without committing real capital.
Fors operates with a non-custodial design, ensuring users retain ownership of their funds while interacting with multiple prediction markets through a single interface.
The January 8 beta launch represents an early step in Fors’s broader vision to provide infrastructure-level tools as prediction markets continue to mature.
About Fors
Fors was created to solve the fragmentation and inefficiencies in modern prediction markets. Built on Solana, the platform aggregates multiple prediction venues into a single, transparent interface. Fors focuses on fairness, neutrality, and data integrity, allowing users to compare markets without bias. Its mission is to make prediction markets accessible, efficient, and professional-grade. With features such as real-time aggregation, smart order routing, arbitrage visibility, and copy trading with demo practice, Fors has attracted strong early adoption and is helping shape the next generation of prediction market infrastructure.
Contact
Johnathan Peled, Tel Aviv
Head Of Public Relations
partnerships@fors.market

New York, New York, USA, January 12th, 2026, Chainwire

Mezo's "Bring Bitcoin Home" initiative targets billions in wrapped Bitcoin on Ethereum, offering MEZO token rewards to participants who migrate BTC liquidity back to its home network.

Mezo, a Bitcoin-native financial infrastructure protocol, today announced the allocation of up to 2.5% of the total MEZO token supply to incentivize early depositors in its "Bring Bitcoin Home" pre-deposit vaults. The vaults target the more than $11 billion in wrapped Bitcoin currently sitting on Ethereum DeFi.

Starting today, users can deposit tBTC, cbBTC, WBTC, or USDT into Ethereum-based vaults. At the end of January, assets migrate automatically to Mezo's Bitcoin-native infrastructure—fixed-rate borrowing, a fully Bitcoin-backed stablecoin, and yield from real onchain activity.

“Sixteen years ago today, Hal Finney ran the second Bitcoin node and began articulating a vision of Bitcoin-backed banks—an entire financial system built on hard money,” said Matt Luongo, CEO of Thesis, the venture studio behind Mezo. “Mezo is a Bitcoin-first system designed to support borrowing, saving, and yield directly against BTC, without custodians, wrappers, or variable-rate markets.”

Since its inception, the protocol has launched:

Fixed-rate Bitcoin-backed loans on mainnet

A fully Bitcoin-backed stablecoin, MUSD

BTC-denominated transaction fees

Yield generated from real Bitcoin activity

Bitcoin-native incentive mechanics that reward onchain participation

Direct fiat on-ramps for MUSD

No reliance on wrapped token custodians or variable-rate markets

The system reflects early Bitcoin design principles, including concepts proposed by Hal Finney around Bitcoin-backed banking and redeemable digital currency.

Reward Structure

Up to 2.5% of the total MEZO supply has been allocated to Bring Bitcoin Home. Early depositors earn boosted MEZO rewards starting at 5% incentive APR (~7% estimated total APR including base yield). Rewards are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.

Key Dates

Today (Jan 12): Vaults open. First deposits get ~7% total APR.

January 26th: Vaults lock, migration to Mezo begins

March 23rd: Vaults unlock on Mezo, depositors get MEZO.

Additional details on the MEZO token and earn mechanics are available in the Mezo Earn whitepaper.

Pre-deposit vaults are live at comehome.mezo.org.

About Mezo

Mezo is the on-chain Bitcoin banking experience controlled by its users. There are no loan officers, no banker hours, and no credit checks—just permissionless banking powered by a decentralized network that provides liquidity without selling Bitcoin. It offers familiar traditional financial services, such as borrowing, lending and saving, delivered through DeFi-native products powered by its Bitcoin-backed stablecoin, MUSD. Bitcoin holders now have a self-custodial banking solution tailored to their needs. Users can learn more at mezo.org.

About Thesis

Thesis is a pioneering venture studio dedicated to building on Bitcoin. Since 2014 Thesis* has committed to building solutions focused on empowering individuals and communities through creation of market leading products including Fold, Mezo, tBTC, Acre and Taho in its core portfolio of brands. Thesis* continues to challenge traditional systems, driven by innovation and a belief in a sovereign digital future shaping the decentralized landscape one project at a time. To learn more, users can visit: www.thesis.co

Contact

Associate Account Manager Andrew Heibeck M Group Strategic Communications aheibeck@mgroupsc.com Disclaimer. This is a paid press release.

Davos, Switzerland, January 12th, 2026, Chainwire

Global institutional investors, policymakers, and senior leaders from digital assets and financial services will convene in Davos for the 4th Edition of the Institutional Investor Gathering, an exclusive, invitation-only forum hosted by Blockchain Founders Capital (BFC) and taking place at the historic Panorama Hall, Hotel Seehof.

The closed-door gathering will bring together fund managers, asset managers, family offices, HNIs, fintech leaders, and regulatory stakeholders to discuss the next phase of institutional adoption of digital assets, stablecoins, and blockchain-based financial infrastructure.

The 2026 edition is supported by industry leaders, including Animoca Brands, Qivalis, LI.FI, Injective, Bitvavo, and Smape Capital, reflecting growing institutional engagement across digital finance, payments, and Web3 infrastructure.

As digital assets continue to integrate with global financial markets, the Institutional Investor Gathering has emerged as a Davos platform focused on institutional-grade dialogue, emphasizing regulatory clarity, risk management, and real-world adoption.

“The conversation around digital assets has shifted from experimentation to execution,” said  Sagar Barvaliya, General Partner at Blockchain Founders Capital. “At Davos, our goal is to bring together investors, policymakers, and industry leaders to discuss how regulation, capital, and technology can align to support responsible, large-scale adoption.”

Wolfgang Männel, General Partner at Blockchain Founders Capital, will share perspectives on fund investment strategy and market insights informed by BFC’s active investment approach in the digital asset ecosystem. In addition, he will moderate a series of fireside discussions with industry leaders, including Yat Siu, Chairman of Animoca Brands; and Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise, focusing on institutional adoption, market structure, and the evolving digital finance landscape.

Attendance will be limited to 70 senior-level participants, ensuring a highly curated and confidential environment. Hosted at Hotel Seehof, a long-standing Davos venue known for hosting world leaders and heads of state, the setting underscores the gathering’s institutional focus.

The event will conclude with a private networking reception that connects investors, policymakers, and executives shaping the future of digital finance. 

The gathering will also feature a curated hospitality experience, with Castle Lieberich providing wines from its own vineyard, a 130-year-old wine garden in Neustadt, Germany, adding a heritage dimension to the event.

About Blockchain Founders Capital

Blockchain Founders Capital is a Germany-based early-stage venture capital fund focused on backing mission-driven founders building at the intersection of Web2, Web3, and digital finance. The fund has made 22 investments to date and operates on an equal partnership model, aligning long-term interests between founders and investors. BFC invests primarily across the United States and Europe.

For more information, users can visit www.bfc.vc.

Contact

Director of PR Alnura Belyalova INPUT Global alnura@input.global Disclaimer. This is a paid press release.

Tel Aviv, Israel, January 8th, 2026, Chainwire

Orbs announced today that Atlantis has integrated Orbs’ Perpetual Hub Ultra to enable onchain perpetual futures trading on Monad. The integration expands Atlantis beyond spot trading, adding a fully managed perpetuals stack powered by Orbs’ Layer-3 infrastructure and positioning Atlantis as a comprehensive DeFi hub on Monad.

Perpetual Hub Ultra is a scalable, capital-efficient perpetual futures protocol that delivers a full perps stack (hedging, liquidation, oracles, and a pro trading interface) through a modular integration layer, enabling decentralized exchanges to aggregate liquidity from multiple sources without building custom infrastructure. Ultra enables fast deployment and intent-based execution, allowing fully decentralized trading venues to offer competitive performance and user experience.

Built on Atlantis’ modular V4 architecture, the integration allows the platform to offer perpetual futures through a plug-and-play framework without requiring custom backend development. Users gain access to deep aggregated liquidity, customizable leverage, and efficient execution, while Atlantis retains flexibility to evolve its trading offering as the ecosystem grows.

“This integration shows how advanced onchain derivatives can be deployed quickly and efficiently without sacrificing decentralization,” said Ran Hammer, head of ecosystem at Orbs. “By powering perpetuals on Atlantis through Perpetual Hub Ultra, Orbs is enabling teams on Monad to offer professional-grade derivatives trading using a modular, turnkey infrastructure.”

Perpetual Hub Ultra builds on Orbs’ earlier Perpetual Hub deployments, which are already live across multiple decentralized trading venues. The Ultra version extends these capabilities by routing liquidity from both onchain and offchain sources, including major centralized exchanges, while maintaining decentralized settlement and execution.

The deployment further establishes Orbs as an execution layer for advanced onchain trading, supporting aggregated liquidity, advanced order types, and decentralized derivatives. By operating as a Layer-3 network secured by a public set of permissionless validators using delegated proof-of-stake, Orbs enables DeFi protocols to deliver execution quality comparable to centralized exchanges.

As intent-based trading continues to grow in spot markets, Perpetual Hub Ultra brings the same model to perpetual futures. The integration with Atlantis demonstrates how decentralized exchanges can compete on performance and user experience while remaining fully onchain and composable within the broader DeFi ecosystem.

About Atlantis

Atlantis is a DeFi hub built on Monad, designed around a modular V4, plugin-based architecture that enables continuous upgrades without migrations. The platform combines swaps, advanced order types, perpetuals trading, cross-chain swaps, fiat on-ramps, and vetted IDO access through Stargate Atlantis in a single interface.

Atlantis also offers farming, staking, bonds, token creation, token and liquidity locking, and DeFAI integrations. By combining AI-driven fee optimization with Monad’s high-performance execution, Atlantis delivers lower gas costs while evolving alongside its community to support next-generation DeFi applications. Learn more at https://x.com/AtlantisDEX_xyz.

About Orbs

Orbs is a decentralized Layer 3 blockchain designed for advanced on-chain trading. Using a Proof of Stake consensus, Orbs acts as a supplementary execution layer that enables complex logic and scripts beyond the capabilities of standard smart contracts. Orbs powered protocols, including dLIMIT, dTWAP, Liquidity Hub, and Perpetual Hub, bring CeFi level execution to decentralized markets. With a global team spanning multiple locations, Orbs continues to innovate at the frontier of blockchain infrastructure. Learn more at www.orbs.com.

Telegram: https://t.me/OrbsNetwork

X: https://x.com/orbs_network

Contact

Ran Hammer hello@orbs.com Disclaimer. This is a paid press release.

Mahe, Seychelles, January 08th, 2026, Chainwire

BitMEX, one of the safest exchanges, today announced the launch of Equity Perps, a new derivatives product that allows traders to gain exposure to major U.S. stocks and equity indices using cryptocurrency as collateral. The launch expands BitMEX’s product suite beyond crypto-native markets, enabling 24/7 trading on traditional equity benchmarks, including when U.S. stock markets are closed.
Equity Perps are cash-settled perpetual swap contracts that track the price of individual U.S. stocks or indices and do not have an expiry date. Similar to BitMEX’s existing crypto perpetuals, the contracts use a funding rate mechanism to anchor prices to the underlying reference index. Traders can take long or short positions with up to 20x leverage, using assets such as Bitcoin or Tether as margin collateral.
“Equity Perps give traders a more flexible way to access U.S. equity markets using crypto,” said Stephan Lutz, CEO of BitMEX. “By removing traditional market hours and allowing crypto collateral, we are extending our derivatives expertise to a broader set of global markets while maintaining the reliability and performance BitMEX is known for.”
At launch, Equity Perps are available on a selection of widely traded U.S. stocks and indices, including Amazon, Apple, Circle, Coinbase, Meta, Nvidia, Robinhood, Tesla, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq. BitMEX plans to expand the range of available contracts over time. Trading is open 24/7, with index pricing during U.S. market hours based primarily on real-time equity prices and, outside those hours, supported by tokenized spot prices from multiple exchanges.
All Equity Perps trades on BitMEX feature a maker rebate of 2.5 basis points and a taker fee of 7.5 basis points. Funding is exchanged every eight hours, consistent with BitMEX’s existing perpetual swap products, regardless of U.S. equity market hours. In the event of corporate actions such as stock splits, affected contracts will be settled early and relisted once the action is complete.
To mark the launch, BitMEX is offering a 70,000 USDT prize pool for eligible users who trade Equity Perps, alongside maker rebates on all Equity Perps contracts. Additional educational resources and product guides are available through the BitMEX website and blog.
About BitMEX
BitMEX is the OG crypto derivatives exchange, providing professional crypto traders with a platform that caters to their needs with low latency, deep crypto native and especially BTC liquidity and unmatched reliability. 
Since its founding, no cryptocurrency has been lost through intrusion or hacking, allowing BitMEX users to trade with confidence that their funds are secure and that they have access to the products and tools required to be profitable. 
BitMEX was also among the first exchanges to publish on chain Proof of Reserves and Proof of Liabilities data. The exchange continues to publish this data twice a week, providing assurance that customer funds are safely stored and segregated. 
For more information, users can visit the BitMEX Blog or www.bitmex.com, Telegram and Twitter. For further inquiries, please contact press@bitmex.com.

Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, January 6th, 2026, Chainwire

The Buck Foundation is launching the world’s first Bitcoin Dollar savings coin, introducing a new category of digital asset designed for predictable rewards, global accessibility, and minute-by-minute earnings. The company’s debut product offers 7% annual rewards that accrue by the minute, with low transaction fees, positioning Buck as a savings-focused complement to today’s stable assets.

Buck, a governance token by design, delivers its rewards by being indirectly backed by Bitcoin via its treasury holdings of STRC, Strategy’s Bitcoin-backed perpetual preferred stock. STRC pays Buck’s treasury a monthly return of capital at a variable annual rate. Buck token holders vote on distributing these earnings directly to holders, creating a transparent savings community supported by STRC’s overcollateralization with Bitcoin and its established financial framework.

Buck’s US based technology company, Buck Labs, is led by founder and CEO Travis VanderZanden, a long-time Bitcoin investor and an experienced operator who has built and scaled many consumer technology companies. As the founder and former CEO of Bird, he managed one of the fastest global expansions in recent tech history while working closely with city governments and regulators across hundreds of jurisdictions. His earlier leadership roles at Lyft and Uber further shaped his expertise in driving consumer adoption at scale and navigating complex operational environments. VanderZanden’s move into digital assets reflects a shift toward building clear, durable financial tools that prioritize user trust and regulatory readiness.

“People want a simple way to earn rewards in crypto without becoming speculators, and that is exactly what Buck is designed to provide,” said Travis VanderZanden, CEO of Buck Labs. “By providing access to the Bitcoin Dollar with 7% rewards, we aim to make saving in crypto intuitive and accessible for everyone.”

Buck, initially priced at $1 a token, enables holders to trade 24/7 rather than being confined to traditional market windows. Buck holders also earn rewards based on the precise time they hold the token.The structure allows individuals to invest and withdraw directly in cryptocurrency without relying on fiat conversions or banking infrastructure. The company believes this reduces friction and makes savings rewards accessible to a wider global audience. By connecting Strategy’s STRC financial foundation with Web3 flexibility, Buck aims to offer a borderless and user-friendly savings experience.

“The crypto market has matured significantly, and users now expect both immediate utility and reliable growth, much like having a checking account for everyday transactions and a dedicated savings account. In this new financial model, stablecoins act as the checking account, providing the easy payment liquidity needed for daily activity.  Meanwhile, Buck is positioned as the high-reward savings coin, delivering dependable, predictable returns and financial discipline,” VanderZanden said.  “Our goal is to make consistent savings a core financial function of crypto.”

About Buck Labs

Buck Labs Inc. is a digital asset technology company with a HQ in Miami, Florida, and the creator of the world’s first Bitcoin Dollar savings coin. Buck offers 7% annual rewards that are calculated by the minute and withdrawable at any time, providing a flexible and globally accessible savings community.  

https://www.buck.io

Legal 

Not intended for US persons. Not an offer of securities or investment advice. Check local regulations for token purchase restrictions. Rewards based upon DAO governance token vote, Cayman Foundation approval, and discretion of BVI Token Issuer, less taxes and fees and subject to change based upon DAO chosen preferred equities rates and distribution decisions. Price floats based upon market demand. Terms and Conditions apply.

Contact

Media Contact press@buck.io Disclaimer. This is a paid press release.

Las Vegas, NV, USA, January 6th, 2026, Chainwire

Coinhub Exchange, a modern online crypto exchange, announced the grand opening of two new branch locations in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Phoenix, Arizona. The new branches are designed to make crypto easier for everyday customers and active traders by combining online trading with real, in-person support—plus convenient cash access through Coinhub’s nationwide Bitcoin ATM network.

With Coinhub Exchange, customers can buy crypto, sell crypto, store crypto, and convert crypto online—then visit a branch when they want face-to-face help with account setup, funding, and placing their first trade. Customers can also use Coinhub’s connected network to find a Bitcoin ATM near me across 2,000+ Coinhub-connected locations nationwide.

In-person Crypto Support—built for Beginners and Advanced Traders

The Las Vegas and Phoenix branches will provide in-person support for:

Account setup and verification guidance

Funding assistance (crypto deposits and bank wires)

Education on buying and selling crypto, including product walkthroughs

Support for advanced trading and larger orders

Bitcoin Cash Transactions Available With In-Branch Support

Both branches will also offer an in-person cash buy/sell experience, supported by human tellers and Coinhub ATMs located in the lobby—ideal for customers who want a guided alternative to traditional Bitcoin ATMs.

Customers can expect:

Up to $150,000 daily cash limits for eligible customers

Lower fees than many Bitcoin ATMs, with transparent pricing

A faster process (no need to feed bills one at a time)

On-site support for a more comfortable customer experience

This in-branch service complements Coinhub’s online platform and helps customers move between cash and crypto with more flexibility.

Multiple Trading Options Available on Coinhub Exchange

Coinhub Exchange offers 5 trading options for every level:

Quick Trading — simple buy/sell for beginners (no confusing charts)

Pro Trader — advanced charting and order types for active traders seeking lower fees

OTC — for larger orders with live quotes and competitive execution

Credit Card — simply buy any crypto online with a credit or debit card

Cash — Via Branch Teller or any of our 2000+ Bitcoin ATM locations

New Branch Locations

Coinhub Exchange will host the official grand opening for both new branch locations on January 7, 2026. More information about branch locations can be found here.

Las Vegas, NV Branch - 3209 W Sahara Ave. Las Vegas, NV 89102

Phoenix, AZ Branch - 2415 E Thomas Rd. Suite 3 Phoenix, AZ 85016

About Coinhub Exchange

Coinhub Exchange is a modern, member-only crypto exchange built to help customers buy, sell, store, and convert crypto online or in-person. With physical branches and 2,000+ Coinhub locations nationwide, Coinhub Exchange combines digital convenience with real human support—helping customers trade with confidence and clarity.

Users can open an account: https://coinhubexchange.com/

Users can find a Coinhub Bitcoin ATM here

Contact

Marketing Director Scott Thompson Coinhub Exchange support@coinhubexchange.com Disclaimer. This is a paid press release.

New York, New York, January 6th, 2026, Chainwire

CertiK, the world's largest Web3 security services provider, and YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs), a global investment vehicle backing long-term founders in Web3, AI, and Biotech has established a strategic partnership to improve the security architecture of participants in the "EASY Residency Incubation Program," safeguarding their long-term development.

EASY Residency is a global incubation program under YZi Labs, designed to support early-stage startups in the Web3, AI, and biotechnology fields who are committed to long-term value creation.

The partnership states that CertiK will establish a dedicated $1 million auditing grant for YZi Labs’ EASY Residency participants, along with formal verification, Skynet Boosting and AI scanning services. YZi Labs will facilitate connections between CertiK and its incubated projects, deepening the projects’ understanding of CertiK's products and services. 

Ella Zhang, Head of YZi Labs, stated, “Security is the foundation of long-term success, but for early-stage founders, it’s often a high-stakes distraction while they are still chasing Product-Market Fit. Think of it like building a skyscraper: founders should focus on the architecture and the vision, while CertiK acts as the structural engineers ensuring the frame is earthquake-proof.” Professor Ronghui Gu, Co-Founder and CEO of CertiK, added, “We believe that our collaboration with YZi Labs will significantly improve the security level of projects, providing necessary guarantees for their long-term development. This is not only related to the growth of projects but also to the health and sustainability of the entire Web3 ecosystem.” 

This strategic partnership marks a fundamental shift in the Web3 industry from “pursuing speed” to “ensuring security.” The new security incubation model, jointly built with technology and funding, is a clear indicator that security is a must-have in the early stages of startup companies. YZi Labs’ involvement reflects its exploration and upgrading of incubation models and has the potential to set a new security benchmark for the entire blockchain industry.

About CertiK

CertiK is the largest Web3 security services provider, utilizing industry-leading formal verification technology to protect and monitor blockchain protocols and smart contracts. Founded in December 2017 by professors from Yale University and Columbia University, CertiK applies cutting-edge innovations from academia to enterprise, enabling mission-critical applications to scale with safety and correctness.

One of the fastest-growing and most trusted companies in blockchain security, CertiK is a true market leader. To date, CertiK has worked with more than 5,000 enterprise clients, secured over $600 billion worth of digital assets, and detected more than 180,000 vulnerabilities in blockchain code. Our clients include industry-leading projects such as Aptos, Ripple, Sandbox, Polygon, BNB Chain, and TON.

​​Since its inception, CertiK has secured investments from 12 top-tier funds, including Sequoia, Coatue, Goldman Sachs, Shunwei Capital and Insight Partners, with a valuation of more than $2 billion. 

Follow Discord, Telegram, and Twitter for the latest news and announcements.

About YZi Labs

YZi Labs is a global investment vehicle backing long-term builders in Web3, AI, and Biotech. Founded by CZ in 2017 and led by Ella Zhang, YZi Labs manages over $10B in assets worldwide.

Our portfolio spans 300+ projects across 25+ countries and six continents, with over 65 teams graduating from our incubation programs.

For more information, follow YZi Labs on X.

Contact

Elisa Yiting Xu yiting.xu@certik.com Disclaimer. This is a paid press release.

San Francisco, California, January 6th, 2026, Chainwire

Cronos today announced that Upbit has enabled staking support for $CRO on its exchange, giving users a simple way to earn staking rewards directly within the Upbit platform.

With this launch, Upbit users can stake $CRO in just a few clicks while Upbit operates the validator on their behalf. The experience is designed to be simple and familiar, removing the need for users to run infrastructure, navigate wallets or understand validator mechanics.

Upbit currently supports staking for fewer than ten digital assets, with $CRO among those selected. The exchange’s decision to add $CRO follows a cautious and deliberate approach to expanding staking support, signaling confidence in the network while maintaining a tightly curated staking offering for users.

Korea has long been an important market for $CRO, with a strong base of users engaging through leading local platforms. Expanding staking access through Upbit aligns with growing interest among Korean users in participating beyond trading alone and engaging more deeply with the Cronos network.

For users, this means an easier way to put $CRO to work while continuing to use a platform they already trust.

“This partnership with Upbit represents a deliberate step towards expanding participation in the Cronos ecosystem in one of the world’s most active crypto markets”, said Ryan Wyatt, CEO of Cronos Labs. “By enabling staking directly on the exchange, millions of Korean users gain a seamless path into Cronos without the usual onchain complexity.”

The addition of $CRO staking support on Upbit reflects a broader shift toward making onchain participation more approachable for everyday users. As more users look beyond trading toward longer-term engagement, exchange-native staking lowers the barrier to entry and helps bridge everyday usage with deeper network participation.

$CRO staking via Upbit will be available starting January 6, 2026, subject to applicable eligibility and jurisdictional requirements. Additional details are available in Upbit’s official announcement. 

About Cronos Labs

Cronos is a global, vertically integrated network powered by $CRO and deeply integrated with its strategic partner Crypto.com, one of the world's largest platforms for crypto, stocks, and prediction markets.

Cronos Labs serves as the network's core architect, building both the underlying high-performance infrastructure and the critical first-party applications that drive the economy. We prioritize a unified network experience to bridge the gap between retail trading and deep onchain liquidity.

By leveraging the distribution of Crypto.com’s 100 million users, Cronos delivers a cohesive, institutional-grade experience for consumers and institutions alike. We are building the compliant, efficient future of onchain markets, where user activity and revenue contribute directly back to $CRO.

For more information, visit https://cronos.org or follow @cronos_chain on X.

Contact

Danielle Hrin Kuek danielle.hrin@cronoslabs.org Disclaimer. This is a paid press release.

Tel Aviv, Israel, January 5th, 2026, Chainwire

Chainwire, the crypto-native press release distribution platform owned by MediaFuse, today announced a strategic partnership with CULTD, the industry’s first "Attention-to-TVL" engine.

The collaboration provides Web3 projects with an integrated growth stack designed to convert global media visibility into measurable on-chain outcomes, such as liquidity provision, staking, and swaps.

For most Web3 projects, the period following a Token Generation Event (TGE) is characterized by a "Liquidity Vacuum", a sharp decline in community engagement and capital retention once initial hype fades. This partnership addresses the gap by combining Chainwire’s guaranteed homepage visibility on tier-1 crypto outlets with CULTD’s Proof-of-Value scoring system, which rewards real users based on economic intent rather than "vanity metrics" like likes or retweets.

Bridging the Gap Between News and Network Value

Through this integration, projects building in the Web3 ecosystem can now access a streamlined pipeline for growth. While Chainwire ensures a project’s news dominates the homepages of trusted platforms like The Block, Decrypt, and CryptoSlate , CULTD provides the infrastructure to ensure that the resulting attention translates into Total Value Locked (TVL) - sticky users with deposits, stakes and purchased tokens.

“Attention without on-chain impact is noise,” said Bulat K., Founder & CEO of CULTD. “CULTD exists to turn attention into TVL, or it doesn’t get rewarded. By partnering with Chainwire, we are giving founders a way to ensure their story reaches the right people, while our platform ensures those people actually show up on-chain to provide real value.”

Ecosystem Benefits for Web3 Founders

Effective immediately, the partnership delivers enhanced value to the CULTD community:

Full Spectrum Attention: CULTD growth packages now integrate Chainwire’s premium Web3 distribution network. This ensures CULTD users receive improved media exposure on top-tier crypto outlets as a standard part of their growth stack.

Preferred Access: CULTD users who purchase standalone press release distribution outside of a package are eligible for a 10% discount on Chainwire services, lowering the barrier to entry for premium visibility.

Investor-Grade Metrics: A shift from social dashboards to "Economic Intent" data, allowing founders to show investors real conversion from media reach to wallet connections and liquidity.

“We built Chainwire on the principle of 'Certainty', guaranteeing that news gets seen by the people who actually move markets,” said Gil Sanderovich, VP of Partnerships & Sales at Chainwire. “Joining forces with Web3 growth platforms like CULTD completes the loop. We provide the reach, and they provide the conversion engine. Together, we’re turning PR from a 'maybe' into a predictable marketing channel for driving protocol usage.”

About Chainwire

Chainwire is the dedicated press release distribution platform for the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry. Integrated with over 100 top-tier crypto media outlets, Chainwire offers guaranteed homepage visibility, instant API-driven distribution, and localized global reach in 25+ languages. Trusted by over 2,000 clients, Chainwire is the industry standard for high-performance crypto PR.

Website: https://chainwire.org

About CULTD

CULTD is a Web3 growth platform designed to convert social attention into measurable on-chain outcomes. By focusing on "InfoFi 2.0," CULTD aligns incentives between projects and contributors, rewarding only the actions that drive TVL, liquidity, and long-term retention. 

Website: https://getcultd.com dApp: https://dapp.getcultd.com

Contact

Chief Marketing Officer Alon Keren Chainwire alon@mediafuse.org Disclaimer. This is a paid press release.