Month: January 2026

Vietnam Opens Crypto Exchange Licensing Under Pilot Program

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Vietnam began accepting applications for licenses to operate digital asset trading platforms, marking the operational start of the country’s long-planned pilot program for a regulated crypto market. The State Securities Commission of Vietnam (SSC) officially opened the licensing window on Tuesday, following the issuance of new administrative procedures under Decision No. 96 by the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam, which implements a resolution on piloting a regulated crypto asset market.  “Applications for the aforementioned administrative procedures will be accepted beginning January 20, 2026,” the SSC said, framing the move as…

Fedi, Cornell And Bitcoin Think Tank Launch US Financial Privacy Study

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The Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI), Fedi and Cornell University are launching a two‑year study on how Americans view financial privacy, the trade‑offs they will accept and how regulation shapes their behavior.  The initiative brings together a Bitcoin (BTC) wallet company with an academic center and a policy think tank, aiming to connect how privacy tools are built, researched and ultimately governed. According to Fedi and BPI, the research will combine quantitative surveys with qualitative interviews to examine attitudes toward financial privacy and their evolution.  Cornell’s Brooks School Tech Policy Institute…

XRP, BTC, or ETH? The Winner of the Trump Presidency is the One the SEC Hated Most (Gemini Speculates)

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A battle between XRP, ETH, and BTC. Which cryptocurrency stands to gain the most during the rest of Trump’s term? Donald Trump’s presidential term has brought quite a bit of changes to the global economic scene, and the cryptocurrency market is no exception. Before getting elected, he promised that he would turn the United States of America into the crypto capital of the world, and just yesterday at Davos, he reiterated that he’s working towards achieving this goal. Just a couple of days ago, we examined how his term…

Ramaswamy-Backed Strive Plans $150M Preferred Stock Raise to Buy Bitcoin

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Strive, an asset manager co-founded by former US presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy in 2022, plans to raise as much as $150 million through an offering of preferred stock, with proceeds earmarked for debt repayment and Bitcoin purchases. Strive said it plans to sell shares of its Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock, trading under the ticker SATA, according to a Wednesday announcement. The company said the capital raised, alongside existing cash and potential proceeds from unwinding hedging transactions, would be used to pay down liabilities at its wholly owned…

Key Details for Pi Users

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Meanwhile, the native token continues to struggle close to its all-time lows. The Core Team behind the project announced new changes to some of its products that are aimed at helping more Pi users (known as Pioneers) experiment, iterate, and create useful apps that boost Pi utility. The Pi Network App Studio will schedule a contest with a community-wide creator event to strengthen Pi’s real-world utility. These come amid times when the native token has dumped by double digits on a weekly scale, and is close to breaking below…

BitGo Prices IPO Above Range Ahead Of NYSE Debut

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BitGo Holdings, a cryptocurrency custody company, announced the pricing of its initial public offering (IPO) ahead of its shares’ expected debut on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The company priced its IPO at $18 per share, above the earlier indicated marketing range of $15 to $17 per share, according to an official announcement by BitGo. The shares are expected to begin trading on the NYSE under the ticker symbol “BTGO” on Thursday, while the IPO is expected to close on Friday, subject to customary closing conditions. With 11.8 million…

Thailand SEC Prepares Crypto ETF, Futures Trading Rules

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Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission is preparing new regulations to support crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs), crypto futures trading and tokenized investment products. SEC deputy secretary-general Jomkwan Kongsakul said the regulator plans to issue formal guidelines supporting the establishment of crypto ETFs in Thailand “early this year,” the Bangkok Post reported on Thursday. “A key advantage of crypto ETFs is ease of access; they eliminate concerns over hacking and wallet security, which has been a major barrier for many investors,” Kongsakul said. The SEC will also regulate and enable crypto futures…

SagaEVM Chainlet Halted Following $7M Exploit

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Layer-1 blockchain protocol Saga has paused its SagaEVM chainlet after it suffered a $7 million exploit that saw unauthorized funds bridged out and converted into Ether. The Saga team announced in an X post on Wednesday that it had paused the Ethereum-compatible chain at block height 6,593,800 in response to the exploit. In a follow-up Medium post, the team said as part of the ongoing investigation, they have found the security incident appears to have “involved a coordinated sequence of contract deployments, cross-chain activity, and subsequent liquidity withdrawals.” “There has…

Institutional Investors Won’t ‘Run’ Bitcoin Up To $150K: Researcher

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Institutional investors aren’t likely to be the ones to push Bitcoin to new highs this year without a market-moving event, according to macro researcher and FFTT founder, Luke Gromen. “If you’re counting on institutional investors to run it from you know 90 to you know 150, if that’s your plan, that’s probably not going to happen without some major catalyst,” Gromen told Natalie Brunell on an episode of Coin Stories published to YouTube on Wednesday.  “That’s not how institutional investors act,” he said. “They’re going to sit there and just…

Buterin Pitches ‘A Bit Simpler’ Staking Setup for Ethereum

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Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed adding distributed validator technology (DVT) to the blockchain’s staking mechanism, arguing it could simplify the process and the technology backing it. Buterin pitched “native DVT” in a post to the Ethereum Research forum on Wednesday,  which he said would allow Ether (ETH) stakers “to stake without fully relying on one single node.” Currently, Ethereum validators can only run one node to work to secure the blockchain, which can incur penalties if it goes down. Using DVT would mean a validator could use their key…