Category: Bitcoin News

Ethereum’s native token, Ether (ETH), dropped to a year-to-date low of $1,927 on Thursday, and is currently down more than 60% from its all-time high of $4,950. Analysts said the decline is stress-testing holders’ conviction, and onchain and crypto exchange inflow data point to the start of a bear market. Despite the selling intensity, one group of Ether holders has been buying, but whether this will help ETH reclaim $2,000 is to be determined. Key takeaways: Mid-sized holders (100–10,000 ETH) reduced their holdings, signaling a capitulation phase. Large holders (10,000-plus…

Circle Internet Group has partnered with Polymarket to transition the prediction market’s settlement infrastructure to native USDC, replacing bridged stablecoin collateral used for trading on its platform. According to Thursday’s announcement, Polymarket currently uses bridged USDC (USDC.e) on Polygon as trading collateral and plans to migrate to Circle-issued native USDC (USDC) over the next few months. Native USDC is issued by Circle’s regulated entities and can be redeemed one-for-one for US dollars, offering a “capital-efficient” and scalable alternative without relying on cross-chain bridges. Cross-chain bridges are protocols that transfer tokens…

Multiliquid and Metalayer Ventures have launched an institutional liquidity facility to provide instant redemptions for tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) on Solana. The facility allows holders of tokenized assets to convert positions into stablecoins instantly. The vehicle is raised and managed by Metalayer Ventures, with infrastructure and market support provided by Uniform Labs, the developer behind the Multiliquid protocol, according to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph. “Traditional finance has repo markets, prime brokerage and overnight lending facilities. Tokenized markets have had nothing comparable, until now,” said Will Beeson, founder and CEO…

Institutional trading and lending desk Secure Digital Markets (SDM) said it sent a $1 million payment to cryptocurrency exchange Kraken over the Lightning Network on Jan. 28. SDM claimed in a Thursday statement shared with Cointelegraph that it is the largest publicly reported Lightning transaction to date and a proof‑of‑concept for seven‑figure transfers between regulated counterparties. The payment cleared in 0.43 seconds and was routed via Voltage’s managed Lightning infrastructure, which provides node management, pre‑provisioned liquidity, and uptime guarantees aimed at exchanges and trading desks.  The previously publicized “record” single…

A Nevada state court denied regulators’ request for an emergency temporary restraining order (TRO) to immediately halt Coinbase’s new prediction market offering. Instead, the court set a hearing for next week so the exchange can respond, according to Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal. The Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) filed a civil enforcement action in Carson City on Monday, accusing Coinbase of offering unlicensed wagers on sports event contracts and asking for a TRO and preliminary injunction to block the products for Nevada residents. Coinbase fights case in state…

The creator of Incognito Market, the online black market that used crypto as its economic heart, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after some blockchain sleuthing led US authorities straight to the platform’s steward. The Justice Department said on Wednesday that a Manhattan court gave Rui-Siang Lin three decades behind bars for owning and operating Incognito, which sold $105 million worth of illicit narcotics between its launch in October 2020 and its closure in March 2024. Lin, who pleaded guilty to his role in December 2024, was sentenced…