According to SoSoValue, on Jan. 7 (ET), U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded total net outflows of $486 million. Spot Ethereum ETFs saw net outflows of $98.45 million, XRP spot ETFs recorded net outflows of $40.80 million, while Solana spot ETFs posted net inflows of $1.97 million. — link

BINANCE FUTURES LAUNCHES TRADFI PERPETUAL CONTRACTS: INFINITYHEDGE

*XAUUSDT (Gold) and XAGUSDT (Silver) available for trade. Binance will continue to expand the list of available TradFi perpetual contracts.
*Mark Price: Updates every second during trading hours. Outside these hours, it uses a smoothed futures price calculated with an EWMA to prevent sudden price swings and unnecessary liquidations.
*Deviation Constraints: Limits the difference between Mark Price and Price Index (e.g., ±3% for commodity contracts like XAUUSDT) to manage risk.

Opinion: The AI Bubble and the Crypto Bear Market Are Just Noise

In today’s media environment, a small elite holds the power to set the agenda and hijack the public’s attention. In blockchain, the market has grown increasingly speculative in recent years, yet amid the noise the core infrastructure has largely removed throughput bottlenecks in transaction processing — now sufficient for low-latency, high-performance, large-scale on-chain applications. Read more: — link

According to Bitcoin Magazine, Florida has recently introduced an innovative bill proposing the establishment of a strategic Bitcoin reserve. The bill would allow the state government to allocate up to 10% of key public funds to hold Bitcoin and Bitcoin ETF products. — link

U.S. initial jobless claims for the week ending January 3 came in at 208k, versus an expected 210k, and the prior week’s figure was revised from 199k to 200k. U.S. trade balance for October was a deficit of $29.4 billion, compared with an expected $58.9 billion deficit, and the previous figure was revised from $-52.8 billion to $-48.1 billion.

Josh Swihart, CEO of Electric Coin Company (ECC), the core developer of Zcash, stated that the ECC team has recently left its original governance structure and plans to establish a new company, citing that the nonprofit Bootstrap, responsible for ECC governance, had “significantly deviated” from Zcash’s core mission. According to Binance data, ZEC fell to $408.41 today, a 24-hour drop of 16.19%. — link

CZ revealed the Chinese noscript of his memoir may be "Binance Life" (币安人生), with the English noscript yet to be determined, expecting a self-published release in 4-6 weeks. He clarified the noscript is unrelated to any meme tokens or listing plans, and he holds no position in such assets. CZ pledged to donate all book proceeds to charity. Notably, the "币安人生" meme token was recently listed on Binance Spot. — link

Optimism Foundation has proposed using 50% of Superchain revenue to buy back OP tokens. Pending a January 22 vote, the program is set to launch in February, with repurchased tokens returned to the treasury for potential burning or staking rewards. Over the past 12 months, Optimism generated 5,868 ETH in revenue, all allocated to the governance treasury. — link

According to Barron’s, Morgan Stanley is advancing a strategy spanning digital assets, wealth management, and private markets. The firm plans to enable trading in Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana on its E*Trade platform in the first half of 2026, followed by the launch of a proprietary digital wallet in the second half. In private markets, Morgan Stanley may explore equity tokenization to improve transaction and settlement efficiency. — link

President Trump Shows No Interest In Pardoning Sam Bankman-Fried Despite His Lobbying: NYT

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President Donald Trump told The New York Times that he has no plans to pardon former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). SBF was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2023 on fraud and conspiracy charges and is currently appealing the conviction. He donated $5.2 million to the Biden campaign in 2020. Trump also defended his pro-crypto stance, saying it helped him win votes and that he has “come to like crypto.” — link

Bloomberg, citing Artemis Analytics, reports that stablecoin transaction volume rose 72% YoY to a record $33 trillion in 2025. USDC led with $18.3 trillion in transactions, surpassing USDT’s $13.3 trillion to become the most-used stablecoin by transaction flow. While USDT still leads by market cap (~$187 billion), USDC dominates in DeFi, where frequent trading leads to higher velocity. Bloomberg Intelligence projects stablecoin payments could reach $56 trillion by 2030. — link

Publicly traded Ethereum treasury firm SharpLink Gaming announced it has deployed and staked about $170 million worth of ETH on Ethereum layer-2 network Linea. As the second-largest public ETH treasury company, SharpLink holds ~864,800 ETH worth nearly $2.7 billion. Notably, its chairman Joseph Lubin is the founder and CEO of Consensys, which incubated Linea. Since launching its token last September, Linea’s TVL has fallen about 89% from a peak of ~$1.64 billion to ~$186 million. — link

ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood said that crypto was part of the reason Donald Trump won the presidential election and remains a politically significant issue ahead of the upcoming midterm elections. She added that the U.S. bitcoin strategic reserve currently consists mainly of confiscated assets, but its original target was to hold 1 million bitcoins, and direct purchases could be initiated in the future. — link

Altair Technologies disclosed that Bitmain has recently pushed a new firmware update to its Antminer lineup that disables the control board’s microUSB port. The change affects multiple Bitcoin ASIC models, including the S19k Pro, S21, and S21 Pro (first observed on the S21 XP). The microUSB port was previously used for flashing third-party firmware and system recovery; disabling it significantly increases maintenance difficulty and limits miners’ ability to independently optimize performance and power efficiency. — link

DIAN has issued Resolution No. 000240, requiring crypto exchanges and service providers to report users’ Bitcoin, Ethereum, and stablecoin (e.g., USDT, USDC) transactions in line with the OECD’s CARF. The rules apply from the 2026 tax year, with the first filing due in May 2027. Required data include account holder identity, transaction amounts, volumes, and market value. Penalties may reach up to 1% of transaction value, and single transfers over $50k will be automatically reported. — link

According to The Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s Supreme Court of Korea has ruled for the first time that bitcoins held on exchanges such as Upbit and Bithumb are subject to seizure under the Criminal Procedure Act, as they constitute electronically recorded assets with economic value that may be lawfully seized by investigators. — link

Plume Network is bringing Brazilian credit card receivables onchain via its institutional-grade RWA infrastructure. Asset originator BlackOpal has launched GemStone on Plume to tokenize Brazilian card receivables. The assets are acquired via true sale at a discount, allowing merchants to receive about 95% upfront, with tokens redeemed at par after Visa or Mastercard settlement. The USD-denominated, FX-hedged product is backed by a $200 million, three-year commitment from Mars Capital Advisors. — link

On Jan. 8 (ET), spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net outflows of $399 million, spot Ethereum ETFs saw net outflows of $159 million, while spot Solana ETFs posted net inflows of $13.64 million and spot XRP ETFs recorded net inflows of $8.72 million. — link

South Korea said in its 2026 Economic Growth Strategy that it plans to allow spot digital asset ETFs, including spot Bitcoin ETFs, this year, while the Financial Services Commission (FSC) accelerates phase-two digital asset legislation. The government cited active spot Bitcoin ETF trading in markets such as the U.S. and Hong Kong as a key reference. — link