Cointelegraph.com
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Cointelegraph.com - 20:37 Jan 03, 2026
The first block was mined and added to the Bitcoin ledger on January 3, 2009, by pseudonymous cryptographer Satoshi Nakamoto. The United States National Debt surged past $38.5 trillion on Saturday, as Bitcoiners celebrated “Genesis Day,” the day the first block was mined on the Bitcoin network by pseudonymous Bitcoin (BTC) creator Satoshi Nakamoto. US government debt at the time of this writing is about $38,561,900,451,378, according to the US National Debt Clock. “Lie, cheat, steal, and print relentlessly. It’s the playbook of fiat currency, and it weakens the money until confidence in that currency ultimately fails,” market analyst James Lavish said in response to the rising debt. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 17:05 Jan 03, 2026
The company continued to diversify into the AI and high-performance computing sectors in 2025, with major deals and credit expansions. The Hut 8 Bitcoin (BTC) mining company expanded its credit facility with crypto exchange company Coinbase to $200 million, building on momentum from 2025 and strong stock performance, setting it apart among players in the struggling mining industry. Hut 8 will use the funds for “general corporate purposes,” according to an amended filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The credit expansion follows Hut 8’s $7 billion agreement with AI cloud platform Fluidstack in December to deliver 245 megawatts (MW) of energy for an AI data center over a 15-year term. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 13:20 Jan 03, 2026
Bitcoin hit a three-week high, but derivatives and spot ETF flows show traders remained cautious, signalling limited confidence in further upside for now. Key takeaways: Bitcoin rose above $90,000, yet options data show traders are not comfortable with downside risk exposure. Bitcoin spot ETF outflows and low leverage demand suggest investors remain cautious about near-term gains. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 12:11 Jan 03, 2026
Wallet drainer phishing losses dropped sharply in 2025, but security researchers warn activity still rises with market rallies and new attack vectors continue to emerge. Crypto phishing attacks tied to wallet drainers dropped sharply in 2025, with total losses falling to $83.85 million, down 83% year over year from nearly $494 million in 2024. The number of victims also declined significantly to 106,000, a 68% drop from the previous year, Web3 security platform Scam Sniffer said in its new report analyzing signature-based phishing across Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains. Despite the steep fall, the report warned that phishing activity has not disappeared. Instead, losses closely followed market cycles, rising during periods of higher onchain activity and easing as markets cooled. The third quarter of 2025, which coincided with Ethereum (ETH)’s strongest rally of the year, recorded the highest phishing losses at $31 million, with August-September accounting for nearly 29% of annual losses. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 10:17 Jan 03, 2026
Bitcoin halted a breakout to new 2026 highs near $91,000 as BTC price action dealt with "geopolitical tension" while TradFi markets were closed. Bitcoin (BTC) dropped below $90,000 on Saturday as crypto markets reacted to the US military action in Venezuela. Key points: Bitcoin attempts to hold recent gains as the US mounts an attack on Venezuela’s capital, Caracas. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 08:19 Jan 03, 2026
Ethereum’s validator entry queue has climbed toward 1 million ETH, with an estimated wait time of nearly 17 days for new validators to become active. BitMine Immersion Technologies has added another 82,560 Ether, worth roughly $259 million, to Ethereum’s staking system, intensifying congestion in the network’s validator entry queue as institutional demand for yield continues to build. Data from Arkham shows that the Ether (ETH) treasury firm sent multiple large deposits to Ethereum’s BatchDeposit contract within the past few hours. With the new stake, BitMine’s total staked ETH has climbed to 544,064 Ether, valued at approximately $1.62 billion at current prices, according to onchain analyst Lookonchain. BitMine first started staking ETH on Dec. 26, transferring nearly $219 million worth of ETH to staking-related contracts on the Ethereum network. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 07:13 Jan 03, 2026
The hacker behind the 2016 Bitfinex breach says he was freed early under Donald Trump’s First Step Act, just over a year after receiving a five-year sentence. Ilya Lichtenstein, the hacker behind one of the largest Bitcoin thefts on record, has been released from prison just over a year after receiving a five-year sentence, thanks to a criminal justice reform law signed during former President Donald Trump’s first term. “Thanks to President Trump's First Step Act, I have been released from prison early,” Lichtenstein said in a Friday post on X. “I remain committed to making a positive impact in cybersecurity as soon as I can,” he added. The First Step Act, passed in 2018, expanded eligibility for sentence reductions through earned time credits and other rehabilitation measures. Lichtenstein was sentenced in November 2024 after pleading guilty to a money laundering conspiracy tied to the 2016 hack of Bitfinex, in which nearly 120,000 Bitcoin (BTC) were stolen. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 06:03 Jan 03, 2026
The crypto market may see FOMO enter the market if Bitcoin suddenly creeps toward the $92,000 price level, according to a crypto analyst. Sentiment among crypto market participants on social media has started the year strong, according to a Santiment analyst, who warned that further market upside depends on retail investors staying level-headed. “We need retail to continue to be a bit cautious, a bit pessimistic, a bit impatient,” Santiment analyst Brian Quinlivan said in a video published to YouTube on Saturday. Despite other crypto sentiment indicators showing fear among market participants, Quinlivan said Santiment’s social media data points the other way. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 03:23 Jan 03, 2026
The US Genius Act dealt with “structurally simpler” issues than the CLARITY Act, which has yet to be passed into US law, according to a Coinbase executive. The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, or CLARITY Act, is moving along the appropriate timeline despite the crypto industry’s growing impatience, according to a Coinbase executive. “I completely understand why this is taking longer,” Coinbase Institutional head of strategy John D’Agostino said during an interview on CNBC on Friday. “It’s the kind of bill that is quite frankly more foundational for the growth of crypto or any real asset class,” he said, emphasizing that it makes sense for the process to take some time. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 22:11 Jan 02, 2026
Following a rejected governance vote, Stani Kulechov laid out a plan to expand beyond DeFi lending and reshape how tokenholders capture value. Aave founder and CEO Stani Kulechov has outlined a broader strategic vision for the protocol following a contentious governance vote that rejected a proposal to transfer control of Aave’s brand assets and intellectual property to its decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). The failed vote has prompted renewed debate within the Aave community over the protocol’s long-term direction and governance structure, an issue Kulechov addressed directly. In a post published Friday on the Aave governance forum, Kulechov argued that the protocol must evolve beyond its core decentralized finance (DeFi) lending business to pursue opportunities in real-world assets (RWAs), institutional lending and consumer-facing financial products. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 22:03 Jan 02, 2026
The largest crypto exchange by trading volume announced two moves related to the FLOW token following the project's foundation updating users on a $3.9 million exploit. Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has announced a change in its policies related to trading and monitoring following a $3.9 million exploit of the Flow blockchain last week. In a Friday announcement, Binance said it would remove nine spot trading pairs from the exchange beginning on Saturday, including one for Flow (FLOW)/Bitcoin (BTC). In a separate notice, the company included FLOW and three other tokens on its monitoring tag list. The tag is featured in tokens exhibiting “notably higher volatility and risks compared to other listed tokens,” the exchange said, noting that tokens with the monitoring tag are at a high risk of no longer meeting listing standards. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 21:55 Jan 02, 2026
Being able to strategically raise capital by having shares ready to issue was one of the secondary reasons Lee gave for the proposal. Tom Lee, chairman of publicly listed Ether treasury company BitMine, urged shareholders to back a proposal to dramatically increase the company’s authorized share count to 50 billion from 50 million, citing the potential need for future stock splits as Ether’s price drives the the company’s valuation. Lee said BitMine’s share price closely tracks the price of Ether (ETH), and that he modeled potential future valuations using the ETH/Bitcoin ratio. According to Lee, ETH could reach $250,000 if Bitcoin (BTC) climbs to $1 million, a scenario that would push BitMine’s share price to levels he said would be inaccessible for most retail investors. BitMine shifted from operating as a Bitcoin mining and holding company to an ETH treasury strategy in 2025, but it still retains some of its Bitcoin operations. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 20:00 Jan 02, 2026
Onchain data shows Bitcoin whale accumulation is overstated as exchange activity skews metrics, while long-term holders quietly turn bullish. Speculation that Bitcoin whales are engaged in a massive reaccumulation phase has been significantly overstated, suggesting the digital asset market structure has not materially changed, according to onchain data from CryptoQuant. The popular narrative that large holders are aggressively buying Bitcoin (BTC) is misleading, said Julio Moreno, head of research at CryptoQuant. Much of the publicly shared “whale accumulation” data is distorted by exchange-related activity rather than genuine investor behavior. Cryptocurrency exchanges routinely consolidate funds from many smaller wallets into fewer large ones for operational and regulatory reasons. This process artificially increases the number of wallets holding very large balances, leading onchain trackers to misclassify the activity as whale accumulation. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 20:00 Jan 02, 2026
Bitcoin bears might have the upper hand at the yearly open, but charts suggest bulls will fiercely defend these key price levels. Key points: Bitcoin is bearish in the short term and could plunge to $50,000 if the $74,508 level is breached. The short-term trend is likely to turn bullish above $100,000, opening the doors for a rally to $126,199. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 19:08 Jan 02, 2026
The incident is potentially related to December's Trust Wallet hack, which left users drained of $7 million in cryptocurrency. An attacker has drained "hundreds” of crypto wallets on Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains, siphoning small sums from each victim in what onchain investigator ZachXBT described as a broad but low-value exploit. The losses appear limited on a per-wallet basis, with each victim losing less than $2,000, according to ZachXBT. The activity has affected wallets on several EVM-compatible networks, indicating a widespread incident rather than isolated to a single blockchain. A fraudulent email disguised as legitimate communication from Web3 wallet MetaMask could have been the vehicle for the attack, said cybersecurity researcher Vladimir S., who cited a clue left by another pseudonymous X user. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 18:30 Jan 02, 2026
Crenshaw’s exit leaves the SEC without Democratic representation as the agency and other US financial regulators face leadership gaps. Caroline Crenshaw, the sole Democratic member leading the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), will be departing the agency this week after serving more than five years. Crenshaw is expected to depart the SEC by Saturday, marking 18 months after her term ended in June 2024. Commissioners are permitted to continue work at the agency, provided the Senate has not confirmed a replacement. The Democratic commissioner, who was sworn into office in August 2020, has often been critical of the agency’s approach to digital assets. She spoke out against the SEC settling its enforcement case with Ripple Labs, and warned that weakening regulations on digital assets could lead to “significant market contagion.” Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 17:31 Jan 02, 2026
BitVentures has launched a US-based crypto mining operation weeks after rebranding, marking its first operational move into digital assets after years of losses. BitVentures Limited has entered the cryptocurrency mining sector, launching a new digital assets business less than two weeks after rebranding to reflect its new focus on blockchain-related ventures. The Hong Kong–based technology company said it has acquired fleets of mining hardware from Bitmain, including three types of Antminer machines, to mine Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC) and Dogecoin (DOGE), according to a Friday report from Investing.com. The company said the acquisition includes 0.5 megawatts of power capacity across data centers in the United States, with deployment of the mining equipment expected later this month. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 16:51 Jan 02, 2026
The company’s energy operations will become “100% North American” following the sale of the Paraguayan site. Bitcoin mining company Bitfarms announced a complete exit from the Latin American market following a $30 million sale of a Paraguayan facility. In a Friday notice, Bitfarms said it had reached an agreement with the Sympatheia Power Fund for its 70 megawatt (MW) facility in Paso Pe, Paraguay. Under the deal, the power company will acquire shares of the Bitfarms subsidiary that holds the assets for the facility, with the crypto miner receiving $9 million in cash in the first quarter of 2026 and $21 million over the next 10 months. According to Bitfarms CEO Ben Gagnon, the company’s energy operations would become “100% North American” following its exit from Latin America, with cash from the deal reinvested into AI and high performance computing (HPC) infrastructure this year. The company said it had 430 MW capacity under development in the US, with 2.1 gigawatts as part of a multi-year plan for North Ame... -
Cointelegraph.com - 16:05 Jan 02, 2026
Crypto regulations are changing around the world in 2026, as several jurisdictions adopt crypto and stablecoin policy frameworks. Crypto laws around the world are changing in 2026, building on the momentum from 2025, which will impact crypto users in the United States, the United Kingdom and the Asia-Pacific (APAC) regions. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), a US banking regulator, published a proposal in December outlining a pathway for banks to be able to issue dollar-pegged stablecoins under the GENIUS stablecoin framework passed by Congress in mid-2025. Under the proposal, banks must issue the stablecoins through a subsidiary, with both institutions subject to FDIC reviews and audits for financial soundness. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 15:29 Jan 02, 2026
Bitcoin could be getting ready for a rally toward $94,500, but higher levels are expected to attract selling by the bears. Key points: Bitcoin’s tight range trading is expected to culminate with a range expansion in the near term. Some major altcoins are showing signs of strength and may start a relief rally in the short term. Read more
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