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Chicago-based derivatives exchange and clearinghouse Bitnomial has received approval from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to launch a prediction market, Cointelegraph reported. The company plans to offer contracts for betting on cryptocurrency prices, including BTC, and macroeconomic data, in addition to its existing crypto derivatives products. Bitnomial previously announced plans to launch a CFTC-regulated spot cryptocurrency exchange.

The Crypto Fear & Greed Index has fallen six points from the previous day to 23, shifting from the fear to the extreme fear category, according to data from Alternative. The index measures market sentiment on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 represents extreme fear and 100 signifies extreme optimism. The index is calculated based on several factors: volatility (25%), trading volume (25%), social media mentions (15%), surveys (15%), Bitcoin's market cap dominance (10%), and Google search volume (10%).

Global credit rating agency Moody's has proposed a new scoring system to assess the creditworthiness of stablecoins, The Block reported. The framework would evaluate the quality of assets held in a stablecoin's reserves and their custody arrangements. Under this system, different dollar-pegged stablecoins could receive varying credit scores depending on their underlying collateral. Moody's is seeking feedback on the proposal from market participants until Jan. 26.

The blockchain-based zero-knowledge proof network Zerobase (ZBT) has refuted rumors of a front-end hack, which it said were raised by Lookonchain. In an official statement, the team clarified that the incident was a specific traffic hijacking caused by a security vulnerability at an external middleware provider. A forensic analysis concluded that this was not a protocol hack or a smart contract issue, with the team asserting that its protocol and contracts remain 100% safe. The hijacking was described as an isolated, client-side problem stemming from the external provider. Zerobase also reminded users of a previously reported phishing contract on BNB Chain that impersonates its interface to trick users into approving USDT withdrawals. The project has since implemented a security feature that automatically blocks deposits and withdrawals if it detects a user has interacted with a phishing contract while accessing staking services. The team urged users to be cautious of links from unofficial sources.

A man in his 40s has received a suspended prison sentence for embezzling hundreds of millions of won in company funds to invest in virtual assets, Money Today reported. He was accused of embezzling 423.38 million won (approximately $307,000) on four separate occasions to invest in Bitcoin while in charge of his company's financial management.

The DeFi industry has pushed back against a call from major U.S. market maker Citadel Securities for stricter regulation of tokenized securities, The Block reported. Citadel had previously submitted a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) opposing regulatory exemptions for tokenized stocks in DeFi. The firm argued that while many DeFi platforms claim to be decentralized, they often have identifiable intermediaries such as developers and governance groups. In response, the DeFi Education Fund, a16z, the Chamber of Digital Commerce, and the Uniswap Foundation sent a letter to the SEC. They countered that autonomous software and technological infrastructure cannot be considered intermediaries under the SEC's legal definition because traders maintain control over their own assets.

Coinbase announced the addition of LIGHTER to its listing roadmap.

President Donald Trump is considering Kevin Hassett of the White House National Economic Council (NEC) and former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh to lead the central bank, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported. The president has previously stated he will nominate a new Fed chair early next year.

President Donald Trump said he wants U.S. interest rates to be 1% or even lower, The Wall Street Journal reported. When asked about his desired rate level in a year, Trump added that the nation's interest rates should be the lowest in the world.

Whale Alert reported that 234,397,169 USDT has been transferred from an unknown wallet to OKX. The transaction is valued at about $234 million.

Tether has announced its submission of a bid to acquire Italian Serie A football club Juventus. The company plans to invest €1 billion ($1.07 billion) in the club if the acquisition is successful. This move follows a previous CoinNess report that Tether had become the second-largest shareholder in Juventus.

Jump Crypto's Firedancer client has launched on the Solana mainnet, with the goal of processing 1 million transactions per second, The Block reported. The launch is expected to increase Solana's client diversity, which could make it more difficult to disrupt the network, either accidentally or intentionally.

Research firm Kaiko has warned that the concentration of liquidity on the Binance exchange poses a significant risk to the cryptocurrency market, DL News reported. Kaiko explained that while Binance plays a key role in the crypto ecosystem, it is not officially regulated. The firm also noted that the exchange was convicted in the U.S. for neglecting anti-money laundering obligations and does not hold a Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) license in Europe. According to Kaiko, these factors create substantial structural, operational, and legal risks for the crypto industry.

John Ameriks, Head of Quantitative Equity at global asset manager Vanguard, has described Bitcoin as being closer to a speculative digital toy than a long-term investment asset. He argued that the cryptocurrency lacks fundamental characteristics such as cash flow from dividends or interest and the potential for compounding returns. Meanwhile, Vanguard began allowing trading of crypto ETFs and some crypto mutual funds on its platform this month.

Katherine Dowling, head of the Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company (BSTR), predicts that Bitcoin will surpass $150,000 by 2026, driven by regulatory changes, quantitative easing, and inflows of institutional capital. According to DL News, she said these three structural catalysts will overcome short-term selling pressure.

A Bitcoin OG, identified as 1011short, has increased long positions in ETH and SOL despite facing over $21 million in unrealized losses, Onchainlens reported. The investor's current portfolio includes 175,561.8 ETH valued at $539 million, 250,000 SOL worth $33.13 million, and 1,000 BTC worth $89.94 million.

Major exchanges have seen $119 million worth of futures liquidated in the past hour. In the past 24 hours, $417 million worth of futures have been liquidated.

VivoPower subsidiary Vivo Federation has entered into a joint venture (JV) agreement with Lean Ventures, a firm with Korean roots, to acquire $300 million in Ripple Labs shares, CryptoBriefing reported.

The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has conditionally approved an application for a Ripple National Trust Bank, BWE News reported. The regulator also granted conditional charters for trust banks to BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, Paxos, and Circle. Unlike commercial banks, trust banks must focus exclusively on trust services and related activities, and are restricted from general deposit-taking or lending.

Binance and Pakistan have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to explore the tokenization of $2 billion in state-owned assets, Reuters reported. The plan involves tokenizing the country's government bonds and commodity reserves.

According to CoinNess market monitoring, BTC has fallen below $90,000. BTC is trading at $89,926.01 on the Binance USDT market.

An Aave Orbit delegate has questioned whether swap fees from Aave's new CoW Swap-based interface are being sent directly to the Aave DAO or to a separate address. The delegate alleges that this has resulted in the secret diversion of approximately 10% of the Aave DAO's potential revenue.

Major exchanges have seen $113 million worth of futures liquidated in the past hour. In the past 24 hours, $324 million worth of futures have been liquidated.

According to CoinNess market monitoring, BTC has fallen below $91,000. BTC is trading at $90,913.43 on the Binance USDT market.

Backed Finance and Chainlink have launched xBridge, a new bridge designed to transfer tokenized stocks between the Solana and Ethereum blockchains, Coindesk reported. The bridge utilizes Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) and is capable of tracking stock splits, dividends, and other corporate actions. Currently in a pilot phase, there are plans to expand support to other blockchains, including Mantle and Tron.