Makina, a DeFi protocol, reported a $4.2 million exploit on 20 January 2026 tied to liquidity providers in its DUSD/USDC Curve pool, adding to rising DeFi attacks in early 2026 with over $34 million in losses already recorded.

Chinese authorities have taken custody of Chen Zhi, a businessman described by U.S. officials as a central figure in a major Bitcoin scam and money laundering operation linked to a record $15B bitcoin seizure. Chen, 38, is the chairman and founder of Cambodia-based Prince Group, a conglomerate that U.S. and U.K. authorities allege was used as cover for transnational criminal activity; Prince Group has denied the allegations.

Washington is preparing a January markup for the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY Act) of 2025, a major U.S. crypto regulation proposal designed to reduce the long-running SEC vs CFTC jurisdiction fight and create clearer rules for digital assets trading.

South Korea’s top securities bourse, the Korea Exchange (KRX), has declared it is technically and operationally ready to list Bitcoin ETFs and other virtual asset ETFs, as well as move toward 24/7 trading starting in 2026. Chairman Jeong Eun-bo announced plans to introduce new crypto investment products and derivatives as part of a broader strategy to tackle the long‑standing “Korea Discount” and modernize the country’s capital markets.

Aave founder and Aave Labs CEO Stani Kulechov has denied allegations that he bought $15 million worth of Aave (AAVE) tokens to sway a contentious decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) governance vote. Responding to criticism from the DeFi community, Kulechov stated that the tokens were not used in the recent vote and emphasized that his substantial personal stake reflects long-term conviction in the Aave protocol and its ecosystem.

The CLARITY Act, which already passed the House alongside the GENIUS stablecoin bill, is now parked in the Senate Banking Committee. There, two separate Senate drafts (Banking and Agriculture) must be merged before any formal markup can even occur.

TRON has announced a major cross-chain integration with Coinbase’s Base network, enabling TRX to be bridged directly into the Base ecosystem via LayerZero. This move brings TRON into one of the fastest-growing Ethereum Layer-2 environments, opening new liquidity routes, DeFi opportunities, and exposure to a broader user base.

HashKey Group is planning an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong that could raise up to $215 million, positioning it to become the city’s first listed crypto exchange. The company aims to sell about 240.6 million shares at a price range of HK$5.95 to HK$6.95, implying a valuation of around HK$19 billion at the top end.

HumidiFi’s chaotic $WET token presale on Solana has sparked controversy after on-chain analytics platform Bubblemaps exposed a Sybil-style bot attack linked to a single actor known as “Ramarxyz.” Using more than 1,000 wallets, this entity allegedly sniped around 70% of the WET public presale allocation on Jupiter Exchange’s Decentralized Token Formation (DTF) launchpad, causing the sale to sell out in just two seconds before most retail investors could participate.

Upbit’s recent $36 million Solana hot wallet hack underscores the evolving role of hot wallet insurance in crypto exchange security. After detecting unauthorized withdrawals, Upbit’s CEO pledged that all losses would be covered from the company’s own holdings, mirroring its response to a $50 million Ethereum hack in 2019.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the world’s largest financial derivatives exchange, abruptly halted trading for around 10 hours from Thursday into Friday due to a “cooling issue” at the CyrusOne data center in Illinois. The outage stopped trading across CME markets and was resolved with services fully restored by 1:30 pm UTC on Friday.

Strategy Inc. (formerly MicroStrategy) has built a massive $56 billion Bitcoin treasury, holding over 641,000 BTC — nearly 3% of Bitcoin’s total supply — but this aggressive Bitcoin accumulation strategy is now blocking its path into the S&P 500 index. Fueled by $21 billion in equity, preferred stock, and convertible debt issued in 2025, the company transformed from a traditional software and analytics firm into a de facto leveraged Bitcoin investment vehicle.

Crypto treasury firms are facing a $130 billion “value reckoning” as spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs reshape how investors access digital assets. For years, Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) companies like MicroStrategy (now Strategy) and Metaplanet traded at hefty premiums because they offered one of the few regulated ways to gain Bitcoin exposure via corporate balance sheets.

The SEC’s Crypto Task Force has scheduled a public “Roundtable on Financial Surveillance and Privacy” at its Washington, D.C. headquarters. The session, led by Commissioner Hester Peirce, will gather regulators, technologists, market participants, and civil-liberties advocates to discuss how oversight should work in an on-chain world where transactions are transparent by default but users still expect some level of privacy.

Pig-butchering scams, a form of long‑con crypto investment fraud, have exploded from a niche consumer issue into a major national security threat, according to Chainalysis and financial crime experts. In these schemes, scammers build trust over weeks or months—often via online romance or friendship—before steering victims into fake cryptocurrency investment platforms and draining their funds.

The Czech National Bank (CNB) has quietly purchased around $1 million in Bitcoin (BTC), USD-backed stablecoins, and a tokenized deposit, creating a dedicated “test portfolio” for digital assets. This move comes despite European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde’s firm stance that Bitcoin should not be included in central bank reserves under the ECB’s umbrella.

Bitcoin Depot (Nasdaq: BTM), the largest Bitcoin ATM operator in North America, is expanding into Hong Kong as part of its Asia growth strategy, targeting markets with strong demand for easy cash-to-crypto access. The company aims to rank among the top five Bitcoin ATM operators in Hong Kong, underscoring the city’s momentum as a global crypto hub.

The Nasdaq has confirmed that the Canary XRP ETF will begin trading on 13 November 2025 under the ticker symbol XRPC, marking the first spot XRP ETF in U.S. history. The listing follows Canary Capital’s Form 8-A filing received by the SEC on 10 November, which triggered automatic approval, per Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas. The ETF will list on the Nasdaq Global Market with a 0.50% management fee and track the XRP-USD CCIXber Reference Rate Index.

Visa announced a new Visa Direct pilot that lets businesses fund payouts in fiat while recipients opt to receive funds in USD-backed stablecoins like USDC, enabling near-instant, borderless transfers to on-chain wallets. Revealed at Web Summit and expanded from a SIBOS 2025 pilot, the initiative targets faster, more flexible cross-border payments and financial inclusion in regions with currency volatility or limited banking access.

Gemini, the crypto exchange founded by the Winklevoss twins, reported a strong Q3 performance with net revenue rising 52% to roughly $49.8 million, driven by higher transaction fees and fast-growing services such as its crypto credit card, staking, and custody offerings. Trading volume climbed, and services revenue surged, reflecting Gemini’s push into diversified crypto products and international expansion. This marks Gemini’s first earnings update since its Nasdaq IPO under