Today's top news highlights:

The Central Bank of Cambodia has ordered Prince Bank to suspend all new business and place it under the trusteeship and liquidation of an auditing firm.

Trump confirms he will not pardon SBF

Binance Report: Expectations of accelerated interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve in 2026 are beneficial for Bitcoin; January may be a turning point in the bearish trend.

The long positions held by the "Strategy counterparty" have increased to $309 million.

Macro & Regulatory

The US December non-farm payroll data will be released tonight at 9:30 PM.

The US December non-farm payrolls report will be released tonight at 9:30 PM. The market is not only focused on the number of new jobs added, but also closely watching revisions to the previous figure to gauge the true resilience of the labor market. On the same day, the US Supreme Court will also rule on the legality of tariffs.

According to previous reports, the number of initial jobless claims in the United States for the week ending January 3 was 208,000, compared to an expected 210,000.

Trump confirms he will not pardon SBF

In an interview, US President Donald Trump stated that he has no intention of granting a presidential pardon to former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), who was sentenced for the company's collapse. He also explicitly stated that he would not pardon other public figures mentioned by reporters, such as music producer Sean Combs/P. Diddy and former Senator Robert Menendez. This statement effectively rules out the possibility of SBF receiving a presidential pardon, meaning that his sentence and judicial appeals process will still be determined by the court system.

Wall Street and the crypto community have privately made "progress" on market structure legislation.

According to Decrypt, SIFMA, a major Wall Street trade organization, held a private meeting with representatives from the DeFi and crypto industry to discuss disagreements over the Senate's crypto market structure bill, with "progress" made particularly regarding DeFi regulatory provisions. SIFMA objected to regulatory exemptions for certain decentralized financial services and their developers, and the industry attempted to persuade them to change their stance during the meeting. The bill faces a crucial Senate vote next week, and both sides are pressed for time to reach a compromise.

Trump says he has decided on the Federal Reserve Chair.

In an interview with The New York Times, US President Donald Trump said he has decided who to nominate as the next Federal Reserve Chairman, but did not reveal his choice. "I've made up my mind," he said, "but I haven't spoken to anyone yet." When asked about his chief economic advisor, Hassett, Trump said, "I don't want to say," but he called Hassett "definitely one of my favorites." Regardless of Trump's choice, the next Fed Chairman will take over an institution at a critical juncture, at the center of the president's unprecedented pressure campaign to drastically lower interest rates. The prediction market Kalshi currently rates Kevin Warsh 41% as Fed Chairman, Kevin Hassett 39%, and Christopher Waller 12%.

The Central Bank of Cambodia has ordered Prince Bank to suspend all new business and place it under the trusteeship and liquidation of an auditing firm.

According to Phnom Penh Post, due to its founder Chen Zhi's involvement in cryptocurrency fraud cases in multiple countries, the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) has suspended all new business for Prince Bank and placed all its operations and assets under the trusteeship and liquidation of Morisonkak MKA auditing firm. Depositors can withdraw funds normally as stipulated, while borrowers must continue to repay loans.

Colombian tax authorities require encrypted platforms to report user data to prevent tax evasion.

According to The Block, Colombia's National Tax and Customs Directorate (DIAN) issued Resolution No. 000240 on December 24, 2025, requiring all local and Colombian tax-resident cryptocurrency exchanges, intermediary platforms, and other entities to collect and report data on user account information, trading volume, and asset balances. This move aims to enhance tax transparency and compliance in the cryptocurrency sector and align with the OECD cryptocurrency reporting framework. The regulation will take effect from the 2026 tax year, with the first annual report due in May 2027. Failure to report as required will result in a penalty of up to 1% of the unreported amount.

South Korea plans to fine cryptocurrency exchanges that have been hacked up to 10% of the stolen value.

According to Seoul Kyungjae, South Korea's Financial Services Commission (FSC) has drafted a new bill proposing fines of up to 10% of stolen assets against cryptocurrency exchanges that have been hacked. This draft bill comes against the backdrop of the $36 million attack on Upbit in November 2025. If the new regulations had been in effect at that time, the fines would have reached $3.6 million, far exceeding the current $456,000 cap. The FSC emphasizes that exchanges must meet IT security standards comparable to those of traditional financial institutions. Another bill proposes a fine of 3% of annual revenue, potentially reaching $36 million; the direction of this regulatory legislation is still under discussion.

Previous reports indicated that South Korea plans to require stablecoin issuers to be controlled by banks and have a minimum paid-in capital of 5 billion won ; the South Korean Ministry of Finance announced that South Korea will launch a digital asset spot ETF; and the South Korean Supreme Court ruled that Bitcoin held on exchanges can be seized .

Anti-government protests erupted in Iran, causing nationwide internet traffic to plummet to "near zero."

According to Decrypt, Iranian authorities have implemented a nationwide internet blackout due to the ongoing anti-government protests. Cloudflare data shows that since 18:45 UTC (22:15 local time), internet traffic in Iran has been "almost completely zero." The protests are fueled by high inflation, currency collapse, and pressure on people's livelihoods, and have recently escalated further after the exiled crown prince called for large-scale demonstrations. It is currently unclear whether satellite internet services such as SpaceX's Starlink are available in Iran. NetBlocks describes this as a "nationwide digital blockade," which will severely restrict the dissemination of protest images.

The UK's FCA will open the application channel for crypto company licenses in September 2026.

According to Cointelegraph, the UK financial regulator has set a timetable for a new cryptocurrency licensing regime, requiring companies to apply for full authorization before the framework takes effect. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) stated on Thursday that crypto asset service providers (CASPs) can apply to enter the UK market starting this autumn, with the application period expected to open in September 2026, and the timetable to be confirmed in due course. Prior to the new regime's implementation on October 25, 2027, the FCA application channel will provide a limited window for processing applications.

Project Updates

Morgan Stanley plans to launch a digital wallet this year to support tokenized assets.

According to market sources, Morgan Stanley plans to launch a digital wallet later this year to support tokenized assets.

Changpeng Zhao: The Chinese version of my memoir may be titled "Binance Life," which has nothing to do with Meme coin.

Changpeng Zhao stated on the X platform: "I might name the Chinese version of my memoir 'Binance Life.' This has absolutely nothing to do with any Meme coin or related transactions. However, I quite like Meme culture. Disclaimer: I do not hold any 'Binance Life' Meme coin, nor do I intend to hold any of it. Furthermore, I reserve all rights not to use this title, and I may change my mind at the last minute. The book is expected to be released in 4 to 6 weeks, with both Chinese and English versions released simultaneously. I plan to self-publish it because publishing through a publisher takes too long. All proceeds from this book will be donated to charity."

Optimism proposes to use 50% of Superchain's revenue to buy back OP tokens.

Ethereum's L2 network Optimism has published an article stating that DAOs are facing a funding allocation challenge. The Optimism Foundation has proposed a plan to more closely link the OP token with the success of Superchain. According to the proposal, starting in February of this year, 50% of Superchain's revenue will be used to buy back OP tokens. Furthermore, the Optimism Foundation will adjust its capital allocation methods to invest more effectively in Superchain and enhance the role of OP tokens within Superchain.

Andre Cronje's new project, Flying Tulip, has been added to the whitelist of interested parties.

Sonic co-founder Andre Cronje (AC) announced the launch of the Intent Whitelist for his new project, Flying Tulip, on the X platform. However, Cronje specifically noted that no fund transfers are currently involved, and all subsequent updates will be subject to official Flying Tulip announcements. According to previous public offering details disclosed by Flying Tulip, the public offering will be conducted in four rounds: Early Access, Supporter Whitelist, Intent Whitelist, and Open Public, with identical fundraising terms for each round. Previously, in September of last year, Flying Tulip completed a $200 million seed round of financing with a token valuation of $1 billion.

A vulnerability discovered in the Babylon staking code may slow down block generation.

According to Cointelegraph, developers stated in a GitHub post on Thursday that a newly disclosed software vulnerability in the Bitcoin staking protocol Babylon could allow malicious validators to disrupt parts of the network's consensus process, potentially slowing down block generation at critical times. The vulnerability affects Babylon's block signature scheme, the BLS voting extension scheme, which is used to prove that validators have reached an agreement on a block.

Grayscale BNB ETF completes registration in Delaware

Grayscale has officially registered a Binance Coin (BNB)-based ETF entity (in the form of a Delaware statutory trust) in Delaware, USA. This is an important preliminary step towards a potential future BNB ETF investment product. No specific launch timeline or regulatory approval progress has been announced yet.

The Zcash Foundation responded to the ECC changes: Zcash remains decentralized and operates stably.

According to a statement from the Zcash Foundation, regarding the establishment of a new Zcash company by the Electric Coin Company (ECC) team, the Foundation reiterates that Zcash is a decentralized, open-source protocol, not controlled by any single team or institution. The network is maintained by independent nodes worldwide, and the missions of protocol development, research funding, infrastructure, and decentralized governance will continue to advance. The Foundation emphasizes that such organizational changes will not affect the operation of the Zcash mainnet, block production and transaction processing are proceeding normally, and user assets and privacy remain secure.

Previous reports indicated that the Zcash core team has established a new company to launch the "cashZ" wallet and expand its ecosystem .

Immunefi will launch its platform token IMU on January 22nd.

Immunefi, a cryptocurrency bug bounty platform, announced that its native token, IMU, will officially launch on January 22, 2026. Immunefi is committed to protecting on-chain security through bug bounties and other methods, driving the Web3 ecosystem towards trillion-dollar value.

Zerion's L2 network, Zero Network, has been out of production for over three weeks.

Crypto KOL @y_cryptoanalyst posted on the X platform that Zero Network, the L2 network incubated by Zerion, a Web3 wallet company that has raised $22.5 million in funding, has stopped producing blocks for more than three weeks. It was found that Zero Network stated on December 31, 2025, that the network planned to resume operation in mid-January.

Binance will stop supporting deposits and withdrawals of certain network tokens on January 16.

According to a Binance announcement, starting from 16:00 (UTC+8) on January 16, 2026, support for deposits and withdrawals of certain tokens on the following networks will cease: Dar Open Network (D) via the Ethereum network, and Streamr (DATA) via the BNB Smart Chain and Polygon networks. After this date, deposits made through these networks will not be credited and may result in asset loss. Users can still deposit and withdraw these tokens through other networks supported by Binance.

Arkham will remove support for the Manta blockchain on January 11.

According to an announcement on Arkham's official Twitter account, its platform regularly evaluates whether chain integrations need to continue to be maintained based on factors such as user needs and their importance to the crypto ecosystem. Based on a recent review, it has been decided to remove support for the Manta blockchain from the Arkham Intel platform on January 11.

Binance will launch pre-market trading of ZAMAUSDT U-margined perpetual contracts.

Binance Futures announced that it will launch pre-market trading of ZAMAUSDT U-margin perpetual contracts on January 9, 2026 at 17:00 (UTC+8), with a maximum leverage of 5x.

Binance: The DeepNode (DN) airdrop threshold is 246 Alpha Credits.

According to Binance's official Chinese-language announcement, Binance Alpha will launch trading of DeepNode (DN) tokens on January 9, 2026 at 16:00 (UTC+8). Users holding at least 246 Alpha Points can claim an airdrop of 40 DN tokens on the event page, with each claim consuming 15 Alpha Points. If the event continues, the point threshold will automatically decrease by 5 points every 5 minutes. Claims must be confirmed within 24 hours; otherwise, they will be considered automatically forfeited.

Binance Alpha's second round of Bless (BLESS) airdrop rewards is now open, with a minimum of 251 points required to claim.

According to the official announcement, the second round of the Binance Alpha Bless (BLESS) airdrop rewards is now open. Users with at least 251 Binance Alpha Points can claim 2,500 BLESS tokens on a first-come, first-served basis. If the rewards are not all distributed, the points threshold will automatically decrease by 5 points every 5 minutes. Please note that claiming the airdrop will cost 15 Binance Alpha Points. Users must confirm their claim on the Alpha event page within 24 hours, otherwise they will be considered to have forfeited their claim.

21Shares will distribute staking rewards to its Ethereum ETF holders, amounting to $0.010378 per share.

According to Globenewswire, 21Shares, a subsidiary of institutional digital asset brokerage FalconX, announced it will distribute ETH staking rewards to holders of its Ethereum exchange-traded fund, 21shares Ethereum ETF (TETH). Under the distribution plan, TETH holders will receive $0.010378 per share, with the distribution taking place on January 9, 2026. Previously, Grayscale also announced this week that it would distribute Ethereum staking rewards to ETHE holders, awarding $0.083178 per share.

Truebit suffers security breach, over 8,500 ETH stolen.

According to official disclosures from Truebit and Lookonchain, a security incident recently occurred on the Truebit protocol. Its smart contract (address: 0x764C64b2A09b09Acb100B80d8c505Aa6a0302EF2) was maliciously attacked, resulting in the theft of 8,535 ETH (approximately $26.44 million). Truebit has advised users to avoid interacting with the contract and is cooperating with law enforcement agencies in the investigation. The team will continue to release updates through official channels.

Analysis & Opinions

Trader Eugene: SOL is performing best among the three major cryptocurrencies, and I'm buying it back in.

Trader Eugene posted on his personal channel that he is rebuying SOL, stating that SOL is the best performing of the three major cryptocurrencies. From a technical analysis perspective, the price of SOL is expected to fluctuate to $160. If this upward trend continues and BTC reaches $100,000 in the future, SOL may rise to $200. He also added that the best entry point is when the market has not yet reached a consensus on the reasons for going long, and he currently hopes that BTC can hold the $90,000 mark.

Binance Report: Expectations of accelerated interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve in 2026 are beneficial for Bitcoin; January may be a turning point in the bearish trend.

Binance Research's January crypto market report noted that despite the Federal Reserve's accommodative policies, the crypto market continued to decline in December 2025 due to investor caution. However, Bitcoin and Ethereum's market dominance continued to strengthen as asset management firms continued to increase their holdings. January could be a turning point in the bearish trend as investors consider reinvesting in cryptocurrencies from overvalued asset classes. Market participants expect accommodative policies to accelerate in 2026, driven by factors such as tariff shocks, a fragile labor market, and a dovish leadership shift, demanding a higher long-term premium to compensate for "fiscal dominance" and the impending debt burden of over $50 trillion. A steepening yield curve indicates that the market does not accept the Fed's "soft landing" narrative, creating an excellent opportunity for Bitcoin to both capitalize on the influx of cheap short-term liquidity and benefit from long-term fiat credit erosion. Since their inception, altcoin ETFs have mostly attracted net inflows, accumulating over $2 billion, with XRP and SOL leading the way, while other assets have contributed smaller but steady inflows. In contrast, Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs have seen continuous net outflows since October, highlighting a divergence in marginal demand as market momentum slows. Although still in its early stages, the approval of more altcoin ETFs and continued inflows could increasingly impact liquidity distribution, especially if broader market inflows accelerate again. By 2025, six newly launched stablecoins are projected to surpass $1 billion in market capitalization. As stablecoins continue to gain global adoption, their metrics are increasingly becoming an important indicator of global financial activity.

Wintermute CEO: Project investment approval rate in 2025 was only 4%, marking the end of the "scattershot" investment approach.

Wintermute founder and CEO Evgeny Gaevoy stated in an article on the X platform: "We have evolved from the 'scattershot' investment approach of 2021-2022 to a current project approval rate of only 4%. Wintermute Ventures completed 23 investments in 2025, primarily leading Pre-Seed and Seed rounds. These investments are not for obtaining market-making (MM) licenses and are completely independent of the trading business." Wintermute Ventures also stated that it reviewed approximately 600 companies in 2025, with 20% entering the formal due diligence stage and 4% receiving funding. The most common funding structures used in 2025 were equity/SAFE and token warrants. The most suitable funding and investment structure will be matched based on the founders' vision for the project's long-term development.

Report: Illegal cryptocurrency addresses received $154 billion in 2025, a 162% increase year-over-year.

According to The Block, a new Chainalysis report shows that the total value of illicit cryptocurrency addresses received in 2025 reached $154 billion (a conservative estimate), a 162% increase from the revised total of the previous year. This was primarily driven by a surge in activity related to sanctioned entities, including state-sanction circumvention. The illicit share of all cryptocurrency transactions remained below 1%. Chainalysis stated that its methodology does not cover non-crypto-native criminal proceeds, such as traditional drug trafficking using only crypto payments, as on-chain data makes it difficult to distinguish such transactions from legitimate activities. The organization attributed most of the illicit transaction volume in 2025 to a few state-linked actors, including North Korea, Russia, networks allied with Iran, and a money laundering group in an Asian country. In 2025, North Korean hackers stole $2 billion; Russia's ruble-backed A7A5 stablecoin accounted for a large share of on-chain state-linked activities, facilitating over $93.3 billion in transactions in its first year after its launch in February 2025, despite previous US and EU sanctions; and Iranian proxy networks facilitated over $2 billion in on-chain activity related to money laundering, illicit oil sales, and arms procurement. In 2025, stablecoins accounted for 84% of all illicit transactions. Illicit crypto activities rely on full suites of illicit infrastructure service providers, including those used by ransomware, fraud networks, and state-sponsored actors. On-chain crime is increasingly overlapping with violence, such as human trafficking and coercive attacks, forcing victims to transfer crypto assets during periods of market activity.

JPMorgan Chase: The recent sell-off in the crypto market may be nearing its end.

According to a CoinDesk report, a recent report from JPMorgan Chase indicates that the recent sell-off in the crypto market may be nearing its end. Analyst Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou stated that outflows from Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs began to stabilize in January, and futures market positioning indicators also suggest that investor reduction efforts by the end of 2025 have largely been completed. JPMorgan Chase believes that market liquidity remains good, and this round of adjustments was primarily driven by de-risking triggered by MSCI's statement last October regarding the potential exclusion of crypto-related companies, rather than market pressure. MSCI's recent decision not to exclude cryptocurrency-related companies from its February 2026 global equity index review provides short-term relief to the market and reduces the risk of forced selling associated with index changes.

Analysis: The "1011" crash forced market makers to hold large amounts of tokens, causing market liquidity to fall to its lowest point since 2022.

According to CoinDesk, BitMEX stated in its latest report that the October 11, 2025 crash impacted market makers, forcing them to hold large amounts of cryptocurrency. This crash resulted in approximately $20 billion in cascading liquidations, severely damaging market makers' neutral strategies and causing market liquidity to drop to its lowest level since 2022. BitMEX stated, "When the ADL (automatic deleveraging) mechanism was triggered, forcibly closing short positions used by market makers for hedging, these institutions were forced to hold unhedged spot positions during the rapid market decline. This situation broke the promise of a 'neutral strategy' for perpetual contracts, causing market makers to withdraw liquidity globally in the fourth quarter of 2025, resulting in order book liquidity falling to its lowest level since 2022." With a large influx of imitators, the Delta-neutral "easy profits" relying on funding rate arbitrage have shrunk significantly, with annualized returns falling below 4%. At the same time, B-book platforms have reaped considerable profits, the DeFi perpetual contract market remains susceptible to manipulation, while the traditional financial perpetual contract market has experienced explosive growth.

Investment and Financing

AI data platform Protecte has completed a $30 million Series A extended funding round led by a16z.

AI data platform Protege announced the completion of a $30 million Series A extended funding round led by a16z, bringing its total funding to $65 million. Other investors include Footwork, CRV, Bloomberg Beta, Flex Capital, and Shaper Capital. Protege aggregates real-world data from multiple sectors, including healthcare, media, and audio, through licensing, and performs cleaning and format optimization to provide high-quality data support for AI training. Its partners include most of the "AI Big Seven." This round of funding will be used to expand its data reach, deepen institutional partnerships, and develop platform products.

Polygon is close to finalizing its acquisition of Bitcoin ATM company Coinme, in a deal estimated at $100 million to $125 million.

According to CoinDesk, Ethereum scaling network Polygon is nearing completion of its acquisition of Bitcoin ATM provider Coinme, with the deal estimated to be between $100 million and $125 million. Coinme operates Bitcoin ATMs and related services.

mechanism

Bitmine has staked over one million ETH, representing a quarter of its total holdings.

According to Ember, Bitmine has staked over 1.032 million ETH (approximately $3.215 billion) through the Ethereum PoS mechanism, representing a quarter of its total holdings of 4.143 million ETH. As a result, the number of ETH waiting to be staked on Ethereum has accumulated to 1.778 million, while the exit queue has been cleared.

Important data

Bitcoin spot ETFs saw net outflows of nearly $400 million yesterday, marking the third consecutive day of net outflows.

According to SoSoValue data, Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a net outflow of $399 million on January 8th (Eastern Time), marking the third consecutive day of outflows. BlackRock's IBIT experienced the largest single-day net outflow at $193 million, compared to its historical net inflow of $62.658 billion. In contrast, Bitwise's BITB recorded a net inflow of $2.9558 million, and WisdomTree's BTCW saw a net inflow of $1.9187 million. As of now, the total net asset value of Bitcoin ETFs is $117.655 billion, with a cumulative net inflow of $56.653 billion, representing 6.48% of Bitcoin's total market capitalization.

Ethereum spot ETFs saw a net outflow of $159 million yesterday, with BlackRock ETHA accounting for over 60%.

According to SoSoValue data, on January 8th (Eastern Time), Ethereum spot ETFs saw a total net outflow of $159 million. BlackRock's ETHA saw a single-day net outflow of $108 million, with a historical cumulative net inflow of $12.802 billion; Grayscale's ETHE saw an outflow of $31.716 million, with a historical cumulative net outflow of $5.131 billion. As of now, the total net asset value of Ethereum ETFs is $18.926 billion, accounting for approximately 5.05% of the total market capitalization of ETH, with a historical cumulative net inflow of $12.528 billion.

In 2025, the total trading volume of stablecoins reached a new high of $33 trillion, with USDC ranking first in trading volume.

According to Bloomberg, Artemis data shows that the total trading volume of stablecoins surged 72% in 2025, reaching a record high of $33 trillion. Among them, USDC, developed by Circle, stood out with a trading volume of $18.3 trillion, while USDT, issued by Tether, had a trading volume of $13.3 trillion.

Amber Group deposited 5,800 ETH with Copper, equivalent to approximately $18.06 million.

The long positions held by the "Strategy counterparty" have increased to $309 million.

21,000 BTC options and 126,000 ETH options are about to expire, with a total notional value of nearly $2.4 billion.

Uniswap's daily fee capture revenue hit a record high of approximately $1.4 million.

Upbit hackers are continuing to transfer funds to Tornado Cash; 1,400 ETH have already been transferred.

BlackRock deposited 2,164 BTC and 22,902 ETH into Coinbase Prime.

ZEC fell more than 18% intraday after the entire ECC team, the support organization for Zcash, resigned.

PANews data: 63% of short-term markets on Polymarket had zero trading volume in the past 24 hours, and 505 top contracts accounted for 47% of the trading volume.

Jia Yueting: QLGN increased its holdings of crypto assets by $3 million last week.

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