XRP Spikes 3% as Gold Slips and Bitcoin Extends Gains

Ripple’s ongoing $1 billion capital raise continued to support sentiment among professional traders seeking exposure to regulated-linked tokens.

Prediction Markets Say Government Shutdown Will be Record-Setting: Asia Morning Briefing

Kalshi and Polymarket are pricing in a shutdown that lasts over 40 days.

Bitcoin OG, Who Profited from Trump’s China Tariffs, Now Holds $234M in BTC Short Position: Arkham

BTC has pulled back sharply from Tuesday's high of around $114,000.

APAC's Biggest Stock Exchanges Push Back Against Digital Asset Treasury Strategies: Bloomberg

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing has challenged at least five companies over plans to buy and hoard large amounts of cryptoassets

Bitcoin's ‘Inevitable’ Dip Below $100K Could Be Last Chance to Buy at That Level: Standard Chartered

His third quarter $135,000 target for BTC on hold for now, analyst Geoffrey Kendrick sees a temporary fall below six figures as a setup for the next leg higher.

Crypto Stocks Plunge Wednesday, With Galaxy, Bitcoin Miners Leading Decline

Momentum names are taking a beating on Wall Street, with many AI-related stocks leading that list.

The Protocol: AWS Outage Halts Some Crypto Apps

Also: Monad’s Tech, Quantum Computing and Bitcoin and Securitize’s MCP Server.

Inveniam Capital Partners Acquires Storj to Advance Decentralized Data Infrastructure

Inveniam will integrate the company's decentralized cloud technology into its platform, while Storj retains its operations and leadership.

Hollywood’s Next Financier: You

Tokenization is giving fans the power to greenlight films, writes Republic’s Marc Iserlis.

Stablecoins Will Be Bigger Than Bitcoin

The success of stablecoins isn’t about speculation but about efficient utility — they are quietly becoming the most-used form of digital currency around the world, writes CoinFund’s David Pakman.

A ‘Skinny’ Fed Master Account Could Bring Back Narrow Banking

Fed Governor Chris Waller’s payments account proposal would let the private sector innovate at the front end and keep the Fed as the trusted settlement layer behind it, argues Digital Self Labs’ Linda Jeng.

U.S. Senate Democrats Assure Crypto CEOs They're Still Willing to Move Legislation

Several top crypto executives met with senators to hash out next steps on moving forward with the bill that would regulate U.S. crypto markets.

Crypto Exchange Kraken Is Taking Staff on Caribbean Island Retreat in January: Sources

Kraken has also handed all its employees a special one-off bonus, according to the sources.

Bitcoin Options Open Interest Surges to Record $50B on Deribit as Traders Hedge Downside Risks

A bearish bet that bitcoin will fall to $100,000 or less is becoming just as popular as bullish bets on higher prices.

Fireblocks Acquires Dynamic to Expand On-Chain Developer Stack

The deal unites Fireblocks’ institutional custody infrastructure with Dynamic’s consumer wallet and onboarding tech to create an end-to-end onchain platform, it said.

Binance's CZ Wins Pardon From U.S. President Donald Trump

U.S. President Donald Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao months after he said he'd asked for a pardon.

Stellar Edges Lower 0.4% to $0.3123 as Partnership News Surfaces

Double-top reversal at $0.3147 resistance overshadows collaborative payment infrastructure developments.

Swiss Crypto Bank AMINA Taps Tokeny to Build Compliant 'Bridge' for Asset Tokenization

The partnership combines AMINA Bank’s Swiss-regulated custody with Tokeny’s blockchain infrastructure to ease tokenisation for financial institutions.

Bitcoin Climbs to $111K as Whipsaw Action in Crypto Continues

The trend has most definitely not been your friend this week as dips get bought and rallies get sold.

Asia Morning Briefing: After CZ’s Pardon, Odds Rise for Sam Bankman-Fried’s Second Chance

It's still a long shot that FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried will be pardoned, but odds have spiked as Binance's Changpeng Zhao has its criminal record deleted.