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Binance Co-CEO Richard Teng has refuted reports that the exchange violated sanctions against Iran and fired an internal investigator who discovered Iran-linked transactions, calling the claims entirely untrue. In a post on X, he explained that no employee has ever been fired for raising compliance issues and that Binance has not violated U.S. or international sanctions. Regarding the Iran-related transactions, Teng said there were three unverified wallets between a Binance wallet and the final receiving wallet. He added that after an internal investigation, Binance blocked the relevant accounts and reported the matter to law enforcement, emphasizing that no funds flowed directly from a Binance wallet to any sanctioned or Iran-related entity. Binance previously announced its intention to take legal action against the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) for defamation over its reporting on the matter.

According to CoinNess market monitoring, BTC has risen above $74,000. BTC is trading at $74,042.84 on the Binance USDT market.

Global payment platform i-payout has announced a partnership with Ripple Payments, Ripple's payment platform, to enhance its services. By integrating Ripple Payments, i-payout will leverage crypto infrastructure to accelerate payment speeds and support large-scale cross-border transactions.

The U.S. Secret Service (USS) is launching a joint operation with the UK and Canada to combat cryptocurrency fraud, Decrypt reported. The initiative, dubbed Operation Atlantic, involves collaboration between the USS and law enforcement agencies in the UK and Canada to eradicate pig butchering scams.

A congressional roundtable on cryptocurrency taxes has been postponed again due to flight disruptions in the United States caused by severe storms and tornado warnings, according to Eleanor Terrett, host of "Crypto in America." Two members of the U.S. Congress hosting the meeting were affected by flight delays, forcing the event to be rescheduled.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran has been in contact with U.S. officials, according to Walter Bloomberg.

Whale Alert reported that 250 million USDC has been minted at the USDC Treasury.

U.S. President Donald Trump said the Federal Reserve should immediately hold a special meeting to cut interest rates, Walter Bloomberg reported.

T. Rowe Price has submitted an S-1 application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the launch of its T. Rowe Price Active Crypto ETF. The proposed fund is designed to invest in 15 cryptocurrencies, including BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, ADA, AVAX, LTC, DOT, DOGE, HBAR, BCH, LINK, XLM, SHIB, and SUI.

Institutional investors are choosing to hold Bitcoin during market downturns rather than sell, according to Matt Hougan, chief investment officer (CIO) at Bitwise. In remarks reported by CoinDesk, Hougan noted that spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded approximately $60 billion in net inflows from their launch until October of last year. He explained that despite a subsequent price drop of about 50%, ETF outflows were less than $10 billion. Hougan said this shows that institutional investors have demonstrated so-called "diamond hands" even in a harsh bear market. He added that while Bitcoin's profile has grown in recent years, it remains a non-mainstream asset. According to Hougan, institutions buying Bitcoin now are taking a risk by deviating from the industry consensus. He concluded that these investors generally have very strong conviction and are likely to hold their positions for a relatively long time, even amid high volatility.

An anonymous whale has withdrawn a total of 1,938 BTC, worth $138.24 million, from Binance over the past six days, Lookonchain reported. Withdrawals from exchanges are typically interpreted as a sign of intent to hold.

Nasdaq-listed mining company Bitdeer is launching the SEALMINER DL1 Air, a new machine optimized for mining Litecoin (LTC) and Dogecoin (DOGE), The Block reported. The miner is specifically designed for the Scrypt algorithm used by the Litecoin and Dogecoin proof-of-work blockchains.

According to CoinNess market monitoring, BTC has fallen below $73,000. BTC is trading at $72,999.74 on the Binance USDT market.

Former Morgan Stanley executive Christine Plummer has joined tokenization company Streamex as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO), The Block reported. Plummer brings 20 years of experience from Morgan Stanley and has also served as a global financial manager at Coinbase. In her new role, she will oversee Streamex's finances and lead the expansion of its institutional investment platform.

Canadian crypto mining firm Hive Digital Technologies has announced it is reducing Bitcoin mining hashrate production at its facility in Boden, Sweden, to concentrate on its artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure businesses. According to The Block, the company's Swedish mining subsidiaries have recently faced a deteriorating business environment due to regulatory issues and tax disputes. Hive is now focusing its resources on its AI data center business in Europe and is considering phasing out or completely ending its Bitcoin mining operations in Sweden.

The three major U.S. stock indices opened higher today. - S&P 500: +0.89% - Nasdaq: +1.06% - Dow Jones: +0.76%

Ironlight Group, a developer of tokenized securities infrastructure, has raised $21 million in a Series A funding round, according to a PR Newswire press release. The round saw participation from senior figures in the Wall Street financial industry, including Greg Braca, former CEO and President of TD Bank, as well as the Sei Development Foundation and Laidlaw Private Equity. The funds will be used to further develop Ironlight Technologies, which provides a tokenized securities platform and payment infrastructure.

Li Chenggang, China's deputy international trade representative and vice minister of commerce, announced that the country has reached a preliminary agreement with the United States to maintain stable tariff levels.

Bitmine (BNMR) announced it purchased an additional 60,999 ETH last week, bringing its total holdings to 4,596,000 ETH.

According to CoinNess market monitoring, BTC has risen above $74,000. BTC is trading at $74,008.42 on the Binance USDT market.

Binance has announced that it will list CFG perpetual futures today at 1:00 p.m. UTC. The contract will support leverage of up to 50x.

MicroStrategy has purchased an additional 22,337 BTC for $1.57 billion at an average price of approximately $70,194 per coin. The company now holds a total of 760,068 BTC, acquired for $57.61 billion, bringing its average purchase price to $75,700.

Cryptocurrency brokerage platform Abra has signed a merger agreement with Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) New Providence Acquisition to pursue a Nasdaq listing, the company announced on its official X account. Following the completion of the merger, the company will be renamed Abra Financial and will trade on Nasdaq under the ticker ABRX.

An address believed to belong to market maker Jane Street received 205.36 BTC ($15.08 million) from BitMEX and LMAX Digital over the past two hours, Lookonchain reported. Jane Street was previously sued by Terraform Labs in connection with the collapse of TerraUSD (UST) and Luna (LUNA), facing allegations of insider trading. The firm has also recently been at the center of controversy over claims it was driving down BTC's price through algorithmic selling at 10:00 a.m. U.S. time each day.

On-chain analytics firm Glassnode has observed a significant negative gamma phenomenon in the Bitcoin options market around the $75,000 level, signaling a high potential for volatility. According to the firm, market makers are maintaining positions centered on selling call options at this price. As a result, any price movement could increase the demand for hedging, potentially amplifying short-term volatility.