Circle Beats Earnings as USDC Circulation Hits $75B

Stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group reported stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday, driven by rapid growth in its USDC stablecoin business and expanding payments operations, underscoring continued momentum in an otherwise challenging crypto market. For the quarter ending Dec. 31, 2025, Circle posted revenue of $770 million, a 77% increase from a year earlier, and reported net income of $133.4 million, or 43 cents per share. Analysts expected per-share earnings of 16 cents on revenue of $747 million.  The strong quarter was fueled in part by a 72% year-on-year increase in…

FCA Selects 4 Firms to Test Stablecoin Innovation in UK Sandbox

The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has selected four companies to join a dedicated stablecoin cohort within its long‑running Regulatory Sandbox. In a Wednesday press release, the FCA said it chose Monee Financial Technologies, ReStabilise, Revolut and VVTX from a pool of 20 applicants to test how their stablecoin services perform under the UK’s proposed rules in a “safe environment.” The UK regulator said that its testing would focus primarily on stablecoin issuance and that the four companies would pilot a range of use cases, including payments, wholesale settlement…

Aave Governance Vote Nears Amid $86M Capital Review

A governance dispute inside the Aave ecosystem intensified after two detailed reports offered contrasting interpretations of the protocol’s past funding and contributions ahead of a vote on a proposed $50 million package for Aave Labs.  Aave Chan Initiative (ACI) founder Marc Zeller on Wednesday published what he called a transparency report reviewing Aave Labs’ historical funding and applied a return-on-investment framework to past DAO grants. Hours earlier, Aave Labs released its own contributions report outlining its role in building the protocol since 2017. The dispute centers on the “Aave Will…

South Korea to Require Crypto, Stock Influencers to Disclose Holdings

South Korea is reportedly preparing new rules that would force social-media personalities promoting cryptocurrencies and stocks to reveal what they own and whether they are being paid. Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Seung-won, a member of the National Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee, is drafting amendments to the Capital Market and Financial Investment Business Act and the Act on the Protection of Virtual Asset Users, according to a report from Korean-language business news website Herald Business. Under the proposal, individuals who repeatedly offer advice or receive compensation to encourage the public to…

US Senator Probes Binance Over Alleged Iran, Russia Sanctions Breaches

A senior US lawmaker launched a congressional inquiry into crypto exchange Binance following reports that the platform processed about $1.7 billion in transactions tied to sanctioned Iranian entities and Russia’s oil “shadow fleet.” On Tuesday, Senator Richard Blumenthal, ranking member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent a letter to Binance CEO Richard Teng requesting documents and internal records related to the exchange’s sanctions controls and compliance practices. Citing reporting from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Fortune, Blumenthal said Binance compliance staff had identified two partner…

Anchorage Digital Buys Strategy STRC as Stock Becomes Most-Shorted

Crypto bank Anchorage Digital said it holds Strategy’s perpetual preferred security STRC on its balance sheet, adding an institutional backer to Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin treasury company at a time when Wall Street traders are increasingly betting against it. In a Wednesday post on X, Anchorage co-founder and CEO Nathan McCauley said the purchase shows alignment between two companies built around Bitcoin (BTC) infrastructure and corporate treasury adoption. “Conviction compounds. Institutions don’t just talk about Bitcoin, they structure around it,” McCauley wrote. “When the company that operationalizes Bitcoin infrastructure puts capital…

Bitcoin ETF Flows Hit $258M in Largest Daily Inflows in Weeks

Flows into US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds turned positive Tuesday as the price of Bitcoin made a modest recovery to $65,000, snapping a run of daily redemptions. Spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs recorded $257.7 million in inflows, marking the largest daily total since early February, according to SoSoValue data. The gains more than offset Monday’s outflows of $203.8 million, pushing weekly flows back into positive territory after five consecutive weeks of net redemptions totaling $3.8 billion. Weekly flows in US spot Bitcoin ETFs since Jan. 23, 2026. Source: SoSoValue Despite the…

Hong Kong to Launch HKMA Digital Bond Platform in 2026

Hong Kong will set up a new digital asset platform this year to support the issuance and settlement of tokenized bonds, as the city pushes to move tokenization from pilot deals into core market infrastructure. In his 2026-27 Budget speech delivered on Wednesday, Financial Secretary Paul Chan said CMU OmniClear Holdings, a subsidiary of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), will build the platform and extend it to other digital assets.  The system will also be linked with regional tokenization platforms. Chan said the platform would be “gradually extended to…

Bitcoin Rebound To $65K Holds As US Stocks Recover From AI Meltdown

Bitcoin’s (BTC) bleed slowed on Tuesday as US markets recovered from Monday’s AI and software-stocks-driven selloff. At the US market closing bell, the DOW locked in a 370-point gain, while the S&P 500 held on to a 0.77% rally. The swift recovery of US equity markets appears to have played a role in easing negative pressure on crypto investors looking to cut risk asset exposure.  Bitcoin analysts continue to stress the importance of the former $65,000 support being reclaimed and the $60,000 level holding, with many suggesting that a dip…

Bitcoin Adoption Hit Record Highs in 2025, Says River

Bitcoin’s adoption by institutions, banks, merchants, public companies, and nation-states has boomed in 2025, despite the recent drawdown in its price, says the financial services company River. “There is no bear market in Bitcoin adoption,” River said in a report published on Tuesday, which noted that while Bitcoin (BTC) is down 50% from its all-time high, “adoption is compounding in ways that aren’t affecting the price, yet.” “Trust in Bitcoin has grown faster than that of any asset in history,” it said. “What began as an experiment is now a…