Live Feed

Opposition is growing in South Korea from the ruling Democratic Party, industry, and academia against a proposal to cap major shareholder stakes in cryptocurrency exchanges at 15-20%, ZDNet Korea reported. Within the ruling party, there is a strong consensus that strengthening regulations on unfair trading practices should be prioritized over direct ownership limits. Proponents of this view argue that strictly regulating insider trading, market manipulation, and conflicts of interest would be more effective. Concerns have also been raised that excessive ownership restrictions could stifle industry innovation and deter investment. With calls for caution also emerging from within the Democratic Party's task force on the issue, it is expected that the industry's perspective will be significantly reflected in the party's final draft of the Digital Asset Basic Act.

Bitcoin is approaching a critical inflection point, according to Glassnode analyst Chris Beamish. In a post on X, he noted that the recent BTC rebound is increasing the likelihood that short-term holders (STHs) will return to profitability. Beamish explained that this is typically a prerequisite for a resumption of upward momentum. However, he cautioned that if the recovery fails, the rally could prove to be merely a temporary technical rebound.

Japan's largest credit card company, JCB, has begun testing payments using U.S. dollar and Japanese yen-pegged stablecoins at physical stores, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported. For the initiative, JCB is collaborating with banking group Resona Holdings and IT services firm Digital Garage.

Hana Financial Group has formed a consortium of financial institutions to issue a stablecoin, News1 reported. The consortium includes BNK Financial Group, iM Financial Group, Standard Chartered Bank Korea, and OK Savings Bank. The group plans to establish a special purpose company (SPC) through a joint investment to handle the future issuance. This initiative aligns with a plan currently under review by South Korean financial authorities to grant initial issuance rights to consortiums where a bank holds a majority stake of over 50%, a measure intended to ensure market stability.

The number of new Ethereum addresses has surged over the past 30 days, leading to a distinct increase in network activity, CoinDesk reported. The outlet's analysis suggests this indicates an influx of new investors and reflects expanding public interest in DeFi, stablecoin transfers, NFTs, and other applications.

The aggregate 24-hour long/short ratio for BTC perpetual futures across the top three crypto futures exchanges by open interest is 50.34% long to 49.66% short. The individual exchange breakdown is as follows: 1. Binance: 50.59% long / 49.41% short 2. OKX: 50.17% long / 49.83% short 3. Bybit: 50.53% long / 49.47% short

DDC Enterprise, an e-commerce company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, has purchased an additional 200 BTC. The company now holds a total of 1,383 BTC.

The Winklevoss brothers, co-founders of the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, are estimated to hold a total of $1.25 billion in BTC, according to on-chain data platform Arkham. The brothers, who once held 1% of the total BTC supply, are now believed to hold only about 10% of their initial investment.

South Korean crypto exchange Coinone announced that it has designated eight tokens as investment warning assets: Cloudbric (CLBK), LoungeM (LZM), Crust Network (CRU), Fancy (FNCY), Iskra (ISK), Everyworld (EVERY), Havah (HVH), and sKLAY (SKLAY).

South Korean crypto exchange Upbit announced that it has designated GoChain (GO) as an investment warning item.

South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb announced it has placed Witch Token (WITCH), Talken (TALK), and Havah (HVH) on its investment watchlist.

The South Korean crypto exchange Upbit announced that it has designated Napoli (NAP) as an investment warning item.

The city of Cheongju in South Korea's North Chungcheong Province has sold cryptocurrency seized from high-value and habitual local tax delinquents, Newsis reported. The city collected 21 million won (around $15,200) by selling the assets of 12 individuals on the South Korean exchange Upbit and is currently selling assets from eight delinquents on Bithumb. This marks the first time the city has completed a sale of such assets since it began seizing them in 2021.

Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood stated in the firm's 2026 market outlook report that Bitcoin's low correlation with major asset classes like gold, stocks, and bonds makes it a viable alternative for asset allocation investors seeking higher risk-adjusted returns. She added that new Bitcoin issuance is limited to an annual rate of around 0.8% for the next two years, after which it is expected to fall to 0.4%. Wood noted that unlike gold, where mining can increase in response to price hikes, Bitcoin's supply is fixed by its protocol, giving it structural scarcity. This combination of supply constraints and growing demand has contributed to a price increase of approximately 360% since the end of 2022.

South Korea has specified its valuation standards for virtual assets subject to inheritance and gift taxes, Money Today reported. The new rules state that the value of a crypto asset will be determined by its average market price over the two-month period spanning one month before and one month after the date of transfer. This approach excludes professional appraisals, reflecting the nature of assets traded on public markets. The government explained that this change applies the existing tax law principle—valuing assets with verifiable transaction prices at market value—to virtual assets. Additionally, the valuation method for corporate crypto transactions will shift from the first-in, first-out (FIFO) method to the total average method, a change made to account for the high frequency of corporate trading. South Korea's Ministry of Economy and Finance announced these measures on Jan. 16 in a revised enforcement decree following the 2025 tax reform. The ministry plans to promulgate the decree at the end of February.

The team behind Kaito, an AI-based Web3 information platform, is facing allegations from multiple crypto communities of dumping KAITO tokens using inside information. The accusations center on claims that the team had advance knowledge of X's policy change to ban "InfoFi apps" and the subsequent shutdown of its own "Yapping" service, which rewarded users with tokens for posting about the project on X. Crypto influencer vasucrypto, who has approximately 29,000 followers on X, claimed that a Kaito team-affiliated address beginning with 0x049 deposited five million KAITO to Binance seven days ago, likely for the purpose of selling. The influencer also noted that 1.1 million KAITO, the largest single amount ever, is scheduled to be unstaked tomorrow. Given that the unstaking process takes seven days, vasucrypto suggested the team may have initiated the withdrawal after learning about the X policy change and the impending shutdown of its reward service. Further fueling the speculation, the South Korean crypto-focused Telegram channel "Dopamine Research Institute" pointed out that other InfoFi platforms also appeared to have prior knowledge. The channel stated that another platform, Pulse, reportedly received a policy violation notice from the X team on Dec. 3 of last year, and that platforms like COOKIE issued announcements immediately following X's API policy change. Kaito officially announced the termination of its "Yaps" service early yesterday, after which the KAITO token's price fell by approximately 20%.

Whale Alert reported that 260,741,570 USDC has been transferred from an unknown wallet to Coinbase. The transaction is valued at about $261 million.

U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs recorded a net inflow of $164.32 million on Jan. 15, marking the fourth consecutive day of positive flows, according to data from TraderT. No individual fund experienced a net outflow. BlackRock's ETHA led the inflows with $149.11 million, followed by Grayscale's Mini ETH with $15.21 million.

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a net inflow of $104.08 million on Jan. 15, marking the fourth consecutive day of positive flows, according to data compiled by TraderT. BlackRock's IBIT led with an inflow of $319.7 million, while Grayscale's Mini BTC and Valkyrie's BRRR saw smaller inflows of $6.74 million and $2.96 million, respectively. These were partially offset by outflows from Fidelity's FBTC, which lost $188.89 million, and Grayscale's GBTC, which saw $36.43 million exit the fund.

A Utah man has been sentenced to three years in prison for defrauding investors of $3 million by operating an unlicensed cryptocurrency exchange, Decrypt reported. He was found to have lured investors by misrepresenting his educational background and professional experience while promising high rates of return. In addition to the prison sentence, the court ordered him to pay $3.8 million in restitution.

Over the past 24 hours, the cryptocurrency perpetual futures market saw significant forced liquidations, predominantly affecting long positions. Bitcoin (BTC) liquidations totaled $78.47 million, with longs making up 79.25% of that figure. Ethereum (ETH) followed with $51.71 million in liquidations, of which 70.32% were long positions. Solana (SOL) experienced $15 million in liquidations, with an overwhelming 92.35% coming from longs.

Texas-based construction firm Megatel Homes plans to issue a token for cryptocurrency payments and rewards, Reuters reported. Users will be able to make payments with the token via digital wallets and cards. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) previously issued a no-action letter to Megatel, effectively approving the initiative.

Russia's central bank (CBR) is pursuing a plan that would require commercial banks to submit detailed reports on their customers' cryptocurrency-related transactions, Cryptopolitan reported, citing local media. The proposed amendment would mandate that banks report information such as sender and receiver details, transaction methods, intermediaries, fees, and the source of funds. The reporting requirement would also extend to transactions involving NFTs and tokenized real-world assets.

While expectations are growing that Bitcoin could test the $100,000 level in the short term, recent analysis suggests any such move would likely be a temporary, technically driven rebound rather than a structural uptrend. According to crypto market maker and ETF liquidity provider Flowdesk, the recent price increase has been primarily driven by strong short covering and an influx of call option purchases, with over $800 million in recent ETF inflows also bolstering buy-side liquidity. Similarly, Enflux noted that Bitcoin's push past $97,000 was the result of internal market liquidity rather than macroeconomic factors, concluding that the current market is better suited for strategic positioning than for entering a new trend.

An address presumed to belong to crypto ETP issuer 21Shares transferred 6,520 AAVE ($1.11 million) to crypto market maker Flow Traders four hours ago in a likely move to sell the assets, The Data Nerd reported. This follows a pattern over the past three weeks in which the firm has transferred a total of 35,700 AAVE ($5.74 million) to exchanges and Flow Traders for sale.