News & Research

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the listing of a spot Chainlink (LINK) ETF from Bitwise, Solid Intel reported. The ETF will trade on NYSE Arca under the ticker CLNK. Coinbase Custody and BNY Mellon will serve as custodians for the fund's assets.

Circle's USDC posted a higher growth rate than Tether's USDT last year, according to CoinDesk. In 2025, USDC's market capitalization increased by 73% to $75.12 billion, while USDT's grew by 36% to $186.6 billion. This follows a similar trend from 2024, when USDC's 77% growth also surpassed USDT's 50% expansion.

One-third of Bitcoin's total supply could be vulnerable to attacks from quantum computing, David Duong, head of institutional research at Coinbase, said in an interview with DL News. He explained that quantum computers could undermine Bitcoin's current security model by either distorting the network's reward structure through hyper-efficient mining or by deriving private keys from public keys to steal funds. Duong emphasized that given the current pace of technological development, the threat of private key derivation is the core challenge facing Bitcoin, more so than the mining-related risk.

Blockchain analytics platform Bubblemaps has refuted claims that an insider trading bet on Polymarket regarding the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is linked to WorldLibertyFinancial (WLFI), BeInCrypto reported. An account on the prediction market platform earned approximately $400,000 by betting on Maduro's arrest shortly before it occurred, leading some in the community to suggest a connection to WLFI co-founder Steve Witkoff. Bubblemaps countered that it is difficult to identify a specific individual based solely on transaction timing and fund flow patterns, noting that thousands of addresses could exhibit similar activity. In response, on-chain analyst Andrew 10GWEI, who initially raised the suspicion, acknowledged that the allegation was based on a hypothesis.

Sui (SUI) is maintaining its upward momentum despite a large-scale token unlock, driven by network expansion following its Mysticeti v2 upgrade, according to an analysis by crypto analyst Kyle Chassé. On Jan. 1, a total of 43.69 million SUI, valued at $65.1 million, was unlocked. Chassé noted that while such events typically exert downward pressure on prices, SUI's rally continued, successfully absorbing the new supply into the market, BeInCrypto reported. The analyst attributed the resilience to fundamental growth, pointing out that Sui's network has maintained 886 transactions per second (TPS) since its Mysticeti v2 consensus engine upgrade in November 2025. He also highlighted growing institutional demand, evidenced by spot SUI ETF applications from Bitwise and Canary Capital. Chassé added that Sui is evolving into a full-stack execution engine, not merely a "Solana killer," with protocol-level privacy features expected to be introduced in the first quarter. According to CoinMarketCap, SUI is trading at $1.95, up 16.12% over the past 24 hours.

A single contract deployer on the Arbitrum (ARB) network has lost $1.5 million after their account privileges were compromised, according to blockchain security firm CyversAlerts. The attacker reportedly gained control of the deployer account for the USDG and TLP projects and then deployed a new contract. The stolen funds were subsequently bridged to the Ethereum network and deposited into the crypto mixer Tornado Cash.

The payment volume on cryptocurrency cards linked with global payments giant Visa surged 525% last year, Cointelegraph reported, citing data from Dune Analytics. According to the data, payment volume across six card types issued by blockchain projects in partnership with Visa grew from $14.6 million in January 2025 to $91.3 million in December of the same year. The card issued by Ether.fi (ETHFI) accounted for the largest share of this volume, with $55.4 million in payments.

The cryptocurrency market is experiencing a broad upswing, driven by a decrease in trading for tax purposes and a stronger preference for safe-haven assets amid geopolitical risks, according to market analysis. Markus Thielen, CEO of 10x Research, stated that market sentiment is improving, with both BTC and ETH shifting into an uptrend, CoinDesk reported. He analyzed that following the options expiration at the end of last month, tax-motivated selling has declined, and corporate trading desks are expected to secure liquidity to diversify risk. Separately, Ryan Lee, Chief Analyst at Bitget, interpreted that growing geopolitical risks, such as U.S. actions against Venezuela, are increasing investor demand for safe-haven assets. Lee suggested the crypto market's rise could signal that it is attracting capital from traditional safe-haven markets like gold.

An address presumed to belong to Bitcoin mining company MARA Holdings transferred 288 BTC, worth $26.3 million, to a wallet associated with crypto market maker Wintermute approximately nine hours ago, according to Lookonchain.

CME Bitcoin futures opened Monday with a $1,065 gap, starting the session at $91,595 after closing the previous trading day at $90,530. The gap, which represents the difference between Friday's close and Monday's open, arises because the CME market is closed on weekends while the Bitcoin spot market trades 24/7. Investors typically monitor these gaps on the expectation that futures prices will eventually move to fill them.