KADG - World

📅 January 26
Just when it seemed the United States was days away from passing the most important law in cryptocurrency regulatory history, bipartisan negotiations in the Senate unexpectedly broke down. Now, racing against the clock and before a crucial hearing this week, Democratic advisors say they are still willing to return to the negotiating table.

📖Since November, the team of Republican Senator John Boozman, chairman of the Agriculture Committee, worked in close coordination with Democratic lawmakers to draft a bill with bipartisan language outlining how regulatory functions would be divided between the SEC and the CFTC, as well as establishing disclosure requirements for the cryptocurrency market.
For weeks, according to the Democratic advisor himself, they met “with every possible stakeholder, from nine to five,” refining a document they considered an example of cooperation in Washington.
But upon returning from the year-end recess, the Democrats were met with a surprise: the Republican team had rewritten the text without them and planned to bring it to a vote on January 15.
This abrupt change shattered the dynamic of trust. Although the Agriculture Committee is seen as more collaborative than the Banking Committee, the new draft was released last week without Democratic support. Some lawmakers introduced amendments, including one related to the Trump family's crypto interests, but the lead Democratic negotiators refused to participate in the process.
Even so, they maintain that an agreement is “very close” and that they only need to return to the previous bipartisan path to finalize it before the vote scheduled for this Thursday.
Meanwhile, pressure is mounting from the White House. Presidential advisors have insisted that the bill must be passed soon to avoid losing the political momentum favoring cryptocurrencies. Analysts in Washington warn that, without this legislation, the US crypto market will continue to operate with a “structural risk premium” due to the lack of regulatory clarity.

Topic Opinion:
The most delicate issue is not that the bill will be delayed, but that trust will be broken among the teams that have been building something historic. This law needs to be bipartisan to have legitimacy and durability. If a vote is forced without consensus, the result could be a fragile, easily challenged, and politically vulnerable law. And that would be worse than having no law at all.
💬 Do you think this crypto bill should pass even if it's not bipartisan?

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#BTC #CryptoRegulationBattle #Clarity #bitcoin #CryptoNews $BTC

📅 January 26
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, filed a new product with the SEC that could forever change how institutional investors view Bitcoin: an ETF that not only holds real spot BTC, but also generates periodic income through an active strategy.

📖The new fund, called iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF, will track the price of Bitcoin in a similar way to the already successful IBIT, BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF that currently manages approximately $69.75 billion in assets.
The crucial difference is that this new vehicle will not simply hold BTC. The fund's advisor will implement an active covered call strategy, selling call options primarily on the shares of IBIT itself and, occasionally, on other indices linked to the price of Bitcoin. The premiums obtained from these options will become monthly income for the fund.
In simple terms, the ETF exchanges part of Bitcoin's unlimited upside potential for a steady cash flow from the options market. It's a mechanism widely used in traditional stocks that is now being transferred to the institutional crypto ecosystem.
This move places Bitcoin in a category that, until now, has been dominated by products like Ethereum or Solana ETFs, which generate returns through staking. BlackRock, however, found a financial—not technical—way to create returns on BTC without altering its nature.
The result is a product designed specifically for investors seeking exposure to Bitcoin, but with a feature that the traditional market greatly values: predictable periodic income.

Topic Opinion:
This ETF is much more important than it seems. It's not just about financial options, but about the narrative. For over a decade, Bitcoin was seen as a speculative asset with no cash flow. Now, the world's most powerful asset manager is designing a vehicle that gives it precisely the quality that the traditional market demands.
💬 Will this ETF encourage more institutions to invest in Bitcoin?

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#bitcoin #blackRock #etf #IBIT #CryptoNews $BTC $SOL $ETH

📅 January 24
For years, traditional banks viewed cryptocurrencies as a fad, a technological experiment with no major impact on the global financial system. Then came skepticism. Then, the regulation. And now, according to Brian Armstrong himself, CEO of Coinbase, the conversation has completely changed.

📖Brian Armstrong shared on X that, during his week in Davos, the majority of financial leaders he spoke to were not only open to cryptocurrencies, but were actively looking for ways to integrate them into their operations.
The change in position has a clear reason. Banks rely on legacy payment rails, slow clearings, and multiple intermediaries to move value. In contrast, stablecoins and tokenized assets allow for near-instant transfers, direct settlements, and frictionless global access.
According to Brian Armstrong, one of the most discussed topics at Davos was tokenization, which is no longer limited to stablecoins, but is expanding to stocks, credit and other financial products. This trend could allow asset managers, fintechs or digital platforms to offer direct access to tokenized securities without having to go through a traditional bank.
Brian Armstrong also mentioned the 4 billion adults “unbanked” or without access to quality investments in the world, noting that tokenization could close that gap through direct access from a digital wallet.
On a political level, he highlighted the Trump administration's support for laws such as the CLARITY Act, designed to provide a clear regulatory framework for digital assets. According to him, the United States is positioning itself as the “most pro-crypto” government in the world, at a time when countries like China are aggressively advancing stablecoin-based infrastructure.
Another key point was the convergence between AI and crypto. Brian Armstrong argued that future AI agents will likely use stablecoins as the default payment method, completely bypassing traditional banking controls and legacy identity processes.

Topic Opinion:
When the largest banks in the world start talking about cryptocurrencies in terms of existential threat, it means that they already understood something that the retail market saw years ago: crypto does not compete with financial products, it competes with the infrastructure itself of the system.
💬 Are we seeing the beginning of the transformation of the banking system?

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#coinbase #Stablecoins #Tokenization #bitcoin #CryptoNews $BTC $USDC

📅 January 24
For almost three years, the Gemini Earn case was presented as one of the most compelling examples of how the SEC intended to regulate the crypto industry through judicial force. It was the symbol of the “enforcement first” era, where the regulator sought to set precedents through exemplary lawsuits.

📖The SEC filed with the Southern District Court of New York a joint stipulation to dismiss with prejudice its civil lawsuit against Gemini Trust Company over the Gemini Earn program.
The original lawsuit, filed in January 2023 against Genesis and Gemini, accused the program of constituting an unregistered securities offering. Gemini Earn had been launched in February 2021 promising up to 7.4% APY to users who lent their cryptocurrencies. It all came crashing down in November 2022, when Genesis froze withdrawals following the post-FTX credit crisis, leaving around $940 million belonging to 340,000 users locked.
In March 2024, a federal judge denied motions to dismiss the case, stating that the SEC had made “plausible” arguments about securities violations. At that time, the process seemed to be heading towards a trial that could set a historic precedent.
However, between May and June 2024, during the bankruptcy process of Genesis Global Capital, something happened that completely changed the landscape: users received 100% of their crypto assets in kind, that is, not in dollars, but in the same cryptocurrencies that they had deposited.
That fact was key. The SEC explicitly acknowledged that this full recovery was the determining factor in dropping the case. Previous regulatory settlements also weighed in: Genesis paid $21 million to the SEC, while Gemini paid $37 million to the NYDFS and contributed an additional $40 million to the bankruptcy process to facilitate full recovery for customers.
The dismissal “with prejudice” definitively closes the case and joins a series of similar withdrawals by the SEC under the direction of its new chairman Paul Atkins, who took office in April 2025 and has promoted the “Project Crypto” program to modernize the rules instead of continuing with the massive litigation strategy of the Gensler era.

Topic Opinion:
This case marks a before and after in the relationship between the SEC and the crypto industry. Not because Gemini “won,” but because the regulator decided to withdraw after years of building a narrative of securities violations.
💬 Is this the definitive end of the era of massive lawsuits against the crypto sector?

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#Gemini #SEC #CryptoLending #Regulation #CryptoNews $BTC

📅 January 23 |
For the first time since October 2023, onchain data shows something that historically marks the beginning of much more delicate phases of the cycle: investors are starting to realize net losses when moving their BTC. It's not just a price drop, it's a profound change in market behavior. And when this pattern appeared in the past, it didn't anticipate a simple correction... it anticipated a complete bear market.

📖According to CryptoQuant, Bitcoin holders have begun to record net realized losses over the last 30 days, a phenomenon not seen for more than two years.
The firm explains that since December 23, 2025, investors have realized accumulated losses equivalent to 69,000 BTC. This data is not based on assumptions, but on direct analysis of onchain transactions combined with market prices at the time of each transfer.
Each time a bitcoin changes hands, CryptoQuant compares the current price with the price at which that same coin was previously transferred, determining whether there was an actual gain or loss.
The most disturbing thing is not only the recent data, but the pattern that has been forming since the beginning of 2024. The peaks of realized profits have been increasingly smaller in January 2024, December 2024, July 2025 and October 2025.
It is a sequence of declining highs that the firm says reveals that price strength was weakening even as the spot value still remained high.
CryptoQuant points out that this behavior almost exactly reflects the transition from the bullish to the bearish cycle that occurred between 2021 and 2022. At that time, realized gains began to progressively decline throughout 2021 until, months before the 2022 bear market, the flow definitively changed towards net losses.
Currently, annual net realized gains have fallen to 2.5 million BTC, a sharp reduction from 4.4 million BTC recorded in October. It is the lowest level since March 2024 and very similar to the values ​​​​seen in March 2022, when the previous bear market was already underway.

Topic Opinion:
This is one of those indicators that usually go unnoticed by the general public but that onchain analysts consider critical. When investors start accepting real losses instead of waiting for recoveries, the psychology of the market changes. It is no longer about patience, but about progressive capitulation. If this pattern continues, we could be seeing not a temporary correction, but the confirmed start of a new bearish phase for Bitcoin, very similar to the one experienced after the 2021 high.
💬 Are we at the beginning of a new bear market?

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#bitcoin #CryptoQuant #Onchain #bearmarket #CryptoNews $BTC

📅 January 23 |
For years, many tokens lived in the shadow of Bitcoin and Ethereum when it came to regulated financial products. It seemed unthinkable that assets directly associated with crypto exchanges could aspire to have their own ETF approved in the United States. But the regulatory environment changed, the institutional narrative too, and now the map of crypto ETFs is beginning to look more like the real market than Wall Street's conservative ideal.

📖 Grayscale formally filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to register for the Grayscale BNB ETF, which would carry the ticker GBNB and list on the Nasdaq if it receives regulatory approval.
In the document, the firm explains that the fund would directly hold BNB, the native asset of the BNB Smart Chain, as backup for the trust's shares.
For the operational structure, Grayscale appointed Bank of New York Mellon as transfer agent and Coinbase Custody Trust Company as custodian of the digital assets, a detail that reinforces the attempt to present the product under traditional institutional standards.
BNB is currently the fourth largest cryptocurrency on the market, with a capitalization close to $121 billion, according to data from The Block. Its size, liquidity and use within one of the most active blockchain ecosystems in the world make it a logical candidate from a market point of view, although it has historically carried the regulatory weight of its close relationship with Binance, one of the exchanges most closely watched by US authorities in recent years.
Grayscale is not the first firm to try this move. VanEck had already proposed a similar ETF in May 2025, but the new attempt comes at a very different time for the industry. In the last year, the US market has seen the approval and launch of ETFs linked to assets such as Solana, XRP, Dogecoin, Hedera and Chainlink, reflecting a much more favorable political and regulatory climate towards digital assets.

Topic Opinion:
The US regulated market no longer distinguishes between “acceptable” and “controversial” cryptocurrencies, but rather between assets with sufficient size, liquidity and institutional demand. If the SEC approves this product, it will be a powerful signal that the crypto market legitimization process has entered a new phase, where even the tokens most linked to exchanges and old regulatory disputes can find space within Wall Street.
💬 Will the SEC approve an ETF linked to BNB?

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#bnb #Grayscale #etf #SEC #CryptoNews $BNB

📅 January 22 |
For years, a word has circulated quietly among crypto founders, exchanges, developers and financial startups: debanking. Accounts closed without clear explanation. Banks that, overnight, cut off relationships. Companies that, even complying with regulations, are left out of the traditional financial system. Many in the industry called it “Operation Choke Point 2.0”, an alleged silent pressure to expel uncomfortable sectors of the banking system.

📖 According to court documents, Donald Trump's lawyers filed a lawsuit in a court in Miami-Dade County, Florida, alleging that JPMorgan Chase closed several bank accounts related to hospitality and golf course companies linked to the president in February 2021, without prior notice or possibility of remediation.
The lawsuit maintains that the decision was unilateral and that it did not respond to objective financial risks, but to what they describe as political and social motivations at a time when the public and corporate environment was adverse towards Trump after the events of early 2021. In the document, the plaintiffs affirm that the bank acted because it perceived that “the political tide of the moment favored doing so.”
The case reignites a debate that the crypto ecosystem knows all too well. For years, companies in the sector have reported enormous difficulties in opening and maintaining bank accounts in the United States, even complying with regulatory requirements. Hence the comparison with the original Operation Choke Point of 2013, a Department of Justice initiative that sought to limit banking services to industries considered high risk, such as payday lenders and gun sellers. In crypto jargon, version “2.0” referred to regulatory pressures that the industry said pushed banks to cut ties with digital asset companies during the previous administration.
Since the beginning of the current administration, the Federal Reserve, the FDIC and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have promised to stop considering so-called “reputational risk” when evaluating relationships between banks and customers, a change that was widely celebrated by crypto companies that had been affected by sudden closures.

Topic Opinion:
This lawsuit could do more for the debanking debate than years of complaints from the crypto sector. When the problem directly affects the president, the issue stops being anecdotal and becomes structural. If the courts determine that there were political motivations, we could be facing a precedent that changes how banks evaluate their clients in the future.
💬 Could this case indirectly benefit the crypto ecosystem?

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#debanking #JPMorgan #TRUMP #Banking #CryptoNews $TRUMP $BTC

📅 January 22 | DeFi
For years, millions of dollars have quietly “disappeared” from DeFi protocols. Not because of hacks, not because of bugs, but because of an invisible mechanic known as MEV. Bots faster than any human have turned liquidations into a private gold mine.

📖Blockchain infrastructure firm Chainlink announced this Thursday the acquisition of Atlas IP, a transaction ordering solution developed by the Fastlane research team. Although financial terms were not disclosed, Chainlink confirmed that it has brought on board the key team behind Atlas and that, from now on, the technology will work exclusively within its ecosystem, leaving behind its deployment with RedStone, a rival oracle provider.
The Atlas integration will be done directly into Chainlink SVR, the initiative that seeks to enable DeFi applications to recover value that is typically lost in settlement events following price updates from oracles. This phenomenon, known in these cases as Oracle Extractable Value, occurs when automated bots detect that a loan became undercollateralized just after a price update and execute trades in milliseconds to capture virtually guaranteed profits.
In decentralized lending protocols, any participant can liquidate an at-risk position. The problem is that those who arrive first are not usually users, but bots that pay more for priority on the network, take advantage of the collateral discount and sell at the market price. That margin, which historically went to actors outside the protocol, can now be redirected.
Atlas and Chainlink SVR change that dynamic by creating a private and fair auction system for those liquidation events. Instead of the fastest bot winning, bots compete by paying the protocol for the right to execute the trade immediately after the oracle update. In this way, both the bot and the protocol capture value, and money stops leaking out of the ecosystem.
The numbers already show the impact. Chainlink SVR has processed over $460 million in settlements and has recovered around $10 million in what it calls “non-toxic MEV” for leading protocols such as Aave and Compound. With the addition of Atlas, Chainlink hopes to accelerate the expansion of this technology to multiple networks and new ecosystems.

Topic Opinion:
This is one of the most strategic acquisitions Chainlink has made in years. Not because it adds a new visible feature, but because it attacks one of DeFi's biggest and least understood value leaks.
💬 Should all DeFi protocols implement systems against toxic MEV?

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#Chainlink #MEV #defi #atlas #CryptoNews $LINK $AAVE

📅January 21 | Lisbon, Portugal
WalletConnect announced its integration with the TRON network, a move that not only expands connectivity between wallets and applications but also reinforces the role of stablecoins as a real, functional, and dominant payment system in emerging markets and digital economies.

📖The integration announced on January 21st directly connects the WalletConnect ecosystem with the TRON network, one of the world's most widely used blockchain infrastructures for stablecoin transfers. With this move, over six hundred compatible wallets and tens of thousands of decentralized applications can interact natively with TRON, eliminating technical friction and expanding the reach of digital payments based on TRC-20 tokens.
The goal: to make stablecoins a universal means of payment, accessible from any device and without traditional intermediaries. Through this integration, users can move value directly from their wallets to DeFi, NFT, and GameFi applications built on TRON, maintaining self-custody and a seamless experience on both mobile and desktop environments.
For WalletConnect, this move reflects an already irreversible trend. Its CEO, Jess Houlgrave, noted that stablecoins have proven to be faster and more efficient than traditional payment rails, and that the next step is to ensure their global accessibility. In this context, TRON positions itself as a key pillar thanks to its dominant role in USDT settlement worldwide.
The figures reinforce this narrative. In 2025 alone, the TRON network processed an estimated volume of $7.9 trillion in USDT transfers, solidifying its position as the main "digital dollar" highway for P2P payments, remittances, trade settlements, and high-volume transactions. Currently, the network handles more than $21 billion in daily stablecoin transfers, a scale that few traditional financial systems can match without friction.
From an institutional perspective, integration also lowers barriers to entry. Custodians, fintechs, and financial applications can enable TRON support without additional development, accelerating adoption in retail and corporate payments. This takes on even greater significance following the recent announcement that WalletConnect Pay will integrate with over 40 million point-of-sale terminals globally, bringing stablecoin payments directly to brick-and-mortar stores.

Topic Opinion:
The payments infrastructure of the future is already in production. This isn't about promises or experiments, but about real volume, real users, and real merchants. WalletConnect and TRON aren't competing with the traditional financial system; they're simply surrounding it with something faster, cheaper, and more global.
💬 Is TRON establishing itself as the "Visa" of the crypto world?

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#WalletConnect #Tron #Stablecoins #CryptoPayments #CryptoNews $WCT $TRX

📅 January 21 |
While political and financial leaders met in Davos, Donald Trump made it clear that he wants to close the most ambitious chapter of crypto regulation in the United States as soon as possible. But behind the presidential optimism lies a deepening rift. Banks, exchanges, legislators, and the White House itself are clashing over a point that seems technical but actually defines the future of digital money: who can pay yield on stablecoins and under what rules.

📖During his speech at the World Economic Forum, Trump reiterated that the United States is now the “crypto capital of the world” and asserted that he expects to sign the Crypto Market Structure Act “very soon.” The comment comes after a chaotic week in Washington, marked by the withdrawal of support for Coinbase, the postponement of key Senate hearings, and last-minute negotiations that reveal deep internal divisions.
The main focus of the conflict is the treatment of rewards or yields on stablecoins. Although the GENIUS Act, passed months ago, prohibits issuers from paying interest directly to holders, it leaves the door open for intermediary platforms—such as exchanges—to offer incentives. For banks, this regulatory vacuum represents an existential threat: they warn that billions in deposits could migrate out of the traditional banking system, particularly affecting community banks.
From the crypto side, the narrative is the opposite. Companies in the sector are accusing banks of trying to stifle competition after losing their exclusive control over digital payments. They argue that the debate already took place during the passage of GENIUS and that reopening it now puts the entire legislative package at risk.
Tensions reached such a point that Patrick Witt, director of the Presidential Council of Advisors on Digital Assets, warned that the law must be passed before it loses political momentum, even while acknowledging that it will not be perfect. His statements reflect growing anxiety within the White House about the possibility of the project being derailed.
From the industry, Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, called for moving forward without further delay, arguing that a clear framework is preferable to regulatory paralysis. Meanwhile, the White House's AI and crypto czar, David Sacks, publicly acknowledged that the yield issue is the most sensitive point, but insisted on the need for a compromise to get the bill to the president's desk.

Topic Opinion:
This law is no longer just about regulating the crypto market, but about deciding who controls the programmable money of the future. If Congress gives in too much to banking pressure, it risks stifling the innovation it claims to want to foster. If, on the other hand, it leaves too many loopholes, it could trigger a disruption that the traditional system is unprepared to absorb. The balance is fragile, and the political clock is ticking faster than ever.
💬 Should yields on stablecoins be allowed even if they compete with banks?

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#Stablecoins #TRUMP #Ripple #bitcoin #CryptoNews $BTC $XRP

📅 January 20 | United States
In the crypto world, markets never sleep, smart contracts never rest, and capital flows 24/7. This tension between the two systems has been one of the biggest obstacles to the tokenization of real-world assets. Now, Chainlink—the most widely used data infrastructure in the blockchain ecosystem—is pushing that boundary a step further.

📖Chainlink announced the launch of 24/5 U.S. Equities Streams, an extension of its Chainlink Data Streams technology, designed to deliver fast and secure market data for US stocks and ETFs, not only during traditional trading hours, but also in after-hours and overnight sessions, five days a week. In practice, this allows decentralized protocols to integrate tokenized shares and derivatives with a continuity much closer to the "always-on" standard that characterizes blockchain.
This move comes at a time of intense competition to extend trading hours. In recent months, both centralized exchanges and decentralized platforms have accelerated their plans to offer 24/5 or even 24/7 trading of stocks, commodities, and derivatives. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) itself recently confirmed that it is building a tokenized securities platform that could operate almost continuously. At the same time, players such as Kraken, BitMEX and Coinbase Derivatives have expanded continuous access to indices, commodities and perpetual-type products.
Within this new map, Chainlink positions itself as the neutral data layer. Platforms such as Lighter, BitMEX, ApeX, Orderly Network and other protocols have already confirmed that they will integrate these flows 24/5 to offer products linked to US stocks. According to Chainlink, the technology will be available on more than 40 blockchains, using its data standard, significantly expanding the reach of on-chain financial markets.
The differentiating factor is accuracy. Until now, many on-chain solutions only offered a spot price during regular Wall Street hours, creating blind spots overnight or after hours. This increased risk, distorted prices, and limited the design of complex financial products. With continuous data flows, smart contracts can better reflect real-world market conditions, even when traditional exchanges are closed.

Topic Opinion:
Chainlink is resolving one of the most critical bottlenecks preventing stock tokenization from moving beyond the experimental stage and truly scaling.
💬 Would you prefer to trade tokenized equities on DeFi rather than on traditional exchanges?

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#Chainlink #LINK #Tokenization #defi #CryptoNews $LINK

📅 January 20 | United States
For over a decade, Dogecoin has been caught between two opposing realities. On one hand, it has been the eternal meme of the crypto market, fueled by jokes, internet culture, and the occasional endorsement from public figures. On the other, it has maintained one of the largest and most loyal communities in the ecosystem, convinced that DOGE was born for more than just speculation.

📖The new project is called Such and is being developed by House of Doge, the official corporate arm backed by the Dogecoin Foundation, in conjunction with Brag House Holdings, a Nasdaq-listed company with which House of Doge signed a definitive merger agreement last month. Following the closing of that transaction, expected in early 2026, the combined entity will become a publicly traded company.
The Such app, slated for release in the first half of 2026, is aimed directly at the end consumer. The goal is to reduce friction for both those who want to spend Dogecoin and those who want to accept it as a means of payment, without relying on centralized custodians. In its initial version, the app will include self-custodial wallet creation, a real-time transaction feed, and merchant tools known internally as “Hustles”, designed to allow individuals and small businesses to list products or services and manage payments in DOGE.
Development began in March 2025 and is being carried out by a team of 20 people based in Melbourne, Australia, using open-source technology created by the Dogecoin Foundation. Before the public launch, a closed beta is expected, with users invited to test the app and provide feedback. According to its developers, the vision is clear: to allow anyone, from artists to freelancers, to start accepting Dogecoin with just a few clicks.

Topic Opinion:
This represents the most serious moment for Dogecoin in years. Not because it will immediately skyrocket the price of DOGE, but because for the first time, an infrastructure consistent with its original narrative is being built: to be money for ordinary people.
💬 Would you use an app like Such to pay for real services in DOGE?

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#DOGECOİN #DOGE #CryptoPayments #memecoins #CryptoNews $DOGE

📅January 17 | United States
For years, Bitcoin adoption by traditional businesses was concentrated among tech companies, investment funds, and financial corporations. No one imagined that a fast-food chain, famous for its burgers and milkshakes, would end up becoming a case study in real and profitable crypto adoption.

📖This week, Steak ’n Shake announced that it added $10 million in Bitcoin to its corporate treasury, equivalent to approximately 105 BTC at current prices. The company explained that the purchase is part of a cycle it describes as “self-reinforcing”, where customers pay in Bitcoin, sales increase, and all crypto revenue is channeled into what the company calls its SBR, an internal strategic reserve of BTC.
This isn’t a new strategy. Eight months ago, the chain began accepting Bitcoin payments via the Lightning Network at all its US locations. The initial goal was clear: reduce card fees and connect with a younger generation more familiar with digital assets. According to the company, the strategy worked better than expected. Same-store sales grew more than 10% during the second quarter of 2025, while the management team estimates that $BTC payments reduce processing costs by around 50%.
Since then, crypto integration has become part of its identity. In October, Steak ’n Shake launched a Bitcoin-themed burger and began allocating a small portion of each Bitcoin Meal to fund open-source development within the ecosystem. The recent $BTC purchase represents the most direct and decisive step toward a corporate accumulation strategy.

Topic Opinion:
Steak ’n Shake didn’t buy Bitcoin to speculate or jump on a passing fad; it did so after verifying that accepting BTC improved sales, reduced costs, and strengthened its brand.
💬 Would you pay for your next burger in BTC?

Leave a comment...
#bitcoin #CryptoAdoption #SteaknShake #BTC #CryptoNews $BTC

📅 January 17 | Bitcoin Network
In an ecosystem dominated by industrial giants, massive data centers, and pools that concentrate most of the computing power, the idea of ​​a solo miner competing sounds almost romantic. However, this week Bitcoin reminded us that, even if the odds are minimal, chance remains an essential part of its design.

📖The first stroke of luck occurred at the beginning of the week, when a lone miner managed to validate a block and receive a reward of approximately $295,000, according to public network data and mempool trackers. Just days later, another independent operator repeated the feat by mining a block in the early hours of Thursday, obtaining 3,157 BTC, including fees, worth approximately $300,000 at the current bitcoin price.
These events are extremely rare in the current context. Most miners no longer work individually, but participate in mining pools, where computing power is combined to obtain more predictable income, although in exchange for sharing the reward. Foundry USA, AntPool, and F2Pool concentrate a significant portion of the blocks produced, leaving little room for smaller operators to consistently find blocks.
Solo mining, on the other hand, is a long-term gamble. The odds of success are minimal, but when it happens, the miner receives the entire block subsidy and fees, without having to share them. Bitcoin remains a probabilistic system: a higher hashrate increases the odds, but doesn't guarantee that the next block will be yours.

Topic Opinion:
Bitcoin isn't just an industry dominated by balance sheets, cheap energy, and economies of scale; it also remains an open system where, from time to time, the small player can beat the giant. These are unlikely, almost anecdotal stories, but necessary reminders that the network isn't completely closed to those who aren't playing in the big leagues.
💬 Would you dare to mine alone… knowing the odds?

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#bitcoin #Mining #SoloMining #hashrate #CryptoNews $BTC

📅 January 16 | On-Chain Analysis
The recent rebound in Bitcoin has sparked enthusiasm, optimistic headlines, and a renewed narrative that “the market has bottomed out.” However, beneath the price action, the data tells a far less comforting story. While BTC is recovering ground and momentarily moving away from its lows, on-chain indicators suggest this move could be just a temporary illusion within a clearly bearish structure.

📖According to on-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant, Bitcoin's recent rally fits the classic definition of a “bear market rally”, that is, a strong rebound that occurs within a broader downtrend without altering its underlying structure. The firm argues that, although demand conditions have shown a slight marginal improvement, the overall outlook remains fragile.
Bitcoin has risen approximately 21% since November 21, after falling nearly 19% and breaking through its 365-day moving average, a level that CryptoQuant considers the key dividing line between bull and bear markets. Once $BTC fell below that moving average, the bear market was confirmed from both a technical and on-chain perspective.
The current behavior is unsettlingly reminiscent of what happened in 2022, when Bitcoin also registered a significant rebound after losing that same long-term moving average. Back then, the price approached that level again, generating expectations of a sustained recovery, only to fail and resume the downward trend. Today, Bitcoin is once again approaching that critical reference point, located around $101,000, but has yet to reclaim it.
According to CryptoQuant, in previous bearish cycles, the inability to reclaim the 365-day moving average was followed by renewed phases of selling pressure. In this context, the current market optimism is dangerously similar to that observed at other times when many believed the bearish cycle was over, only to later discover that the negative structure remained intact.

Topic Opinion:
I don't rule out the possibility of BTC continuing to rise in the short term, but mistaking a technical rally for the start of a new bull market has historically been one of the most costly pitfalls in the crypto ecosystem.
💬 Do you trust price or on-chain data more?

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#bitcoin #bearmarket #CryptoQuant #OnChainAnalysis #CryptoNews $BTC

📅 January 16 | Washington
In an industry accustomed to seeing governments liquidate seized crypto assets to cover fines, settle legal cases, or simply raise funds, the bitcoin confiscated in one of the most controversial financial privacy cases will not be sold. It will not go to auction, it will not enter exchanges, nor will it put pressure on the price. On the contrary, it will remain immobilized on the State's balance sheet as part of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.

📖White House senior crypto advisor Patrick Witt publicly confirmed that the digital assets seized from the developers of Samourai Wallet were not liquidated and will not be sold, dispelling rumors that circulated earlier this month.
According to Patrick Witt, the Justice Department confirmed that these funds will remain on the federal government's balance sheet as part of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, in direct compliance with Executive Order 14233 signed by Trump in March.
The controversy erupted after BTC Magazine published a report indicating that more than $6 million in Bitcoin may have been transferred to an address associated with Coinbase Prime, raising suspicions of a possible sale by the U.S. Marshals Service. Had it been confirmed, this transaction would have explicitly contradicted the presidential order prohibiting the sale of bitcoin deposited in the strategic reserve under any circumstances.
The executive order clearly states that bitcoins obtained through criminal or civil forfeiture proceedings must be held as reserve assets, not as instruments for tax settlement. These funds may only be used for specific government purposes, always within the existing legal framework, reinforcing the idea that bitcoin is beginning to be treated as a strategic asset and not as confiscated property of little consequence.
The origin of these funds dates back to the Samourai Wallet case, a bitcoin wallet that incorporated mixing tools to obscure the origin of transactions. In November, Keonne Rodriguez was sentenced to five years in prison for facilitating the laundering of millions of dollars, while William Lonergan Hill, former CTO of the project, received a four-year sentence. Both accepted asset forfeiture as part of their plea agreements.

Topic Opinion:
Bitcoin: A Resource to Preserve.
💬 Is Bitcoin's Strategic Reserve a long-term bullish signal?

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#bitcoin #SamouraiWallet #StrategicReserve #BTC #CryptoNews $BTC

📅 January 15 | Social Networks
For years, X was the epicenter of the global crypto narrative: announcements, rumors, trends, and tokens were born and died at the pace of the timeline. But that symbiotic relationship has just abruptly ended. The social network, formerly known as Twitter, has decided to close the door on a model that had been quietly expanding: applications that reward users for posting content, a practice that gave rise to the rise of so-called InfoFi.

📖X confirmed this week that it is reviewing and tightening its API policies for developers, explicitly prohibiting applications that pay or reward users for generating posts on the platform. Nikita Bier, X's product lead, was direct in stating that API access has already been revoked for these types of apps, noting that the user experience should "improve" once bots stop receiving payments for interacting.
The announcement had an immediate impact on the market. KAITO, the native token of the InfoFi Kaito network, fell by more than 10% after the announcement, later extending its losses to nearly 14.5%.
At the time of publication, the token was trading around $0.59, with a market capitalization of approximately $140 million and a fully diluted valuation of approximately $586 million. These figures stand in stark contrast to its peak of nearly $2 billion FDV, reached shortly after its initial airdrop in February 2025.
Kaito had positioned itself as a social analytics layer that aggregated posts from influential accounts within the crypto ecosystem on X, identifying which narratives were gaining traction in real time. However, this model relied heavily on financial incentives to encourage engagement, a practice that, according to X, resulted in a flood of spam, automated responses, and low-quality AI-generated content.

Topic Opinion:
The InfoFi model promised to democratize information and monetize attention, but it ended up amplifying the worst possible incentives. When content exists only because it pays, it ceases to inform and begins to pollute. X didn't kill InfoFi because of ideology, but because of pragmatism: protecting its platform.
💬 Do you think InfoFi can reinvent itself outside of X?

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#KAITO #InfoFi #crypto #X #CryptoNews $KAITO

📅 January 15 | United States
While the US Congress wages one of the most delicate regulatory battles of the crypto cycle—who controls the yield of stablecoins and who keeps the money they generate—a new protocol has decided to get ahead of the political outcome. Generic Protocol isn't waiting for legislative clarity or implicit permissions: it has just launched GUSD, a stablecoin that is private by design and challenges the very logic of the stablecoin business.

📖Generic Protocol launched GUSD as what it calls the first natively private stablecoin, integrating a yield routing model completely different from the traditional one. Built on the Morpho lending protocol, GUSD does not issue new dollars nor does it rely on its own bank reserves. Instead, it functions as a meta-stablecoin, aggregating existing assets such as USDC, USDT, and USDS, and deploying them on on-chain markets.
The key difference lies in the destination of the yield. Unlike classic models—where the issuer captures the yield generated by the underlying assets—Generic redirects those returns to the distribution layer, allowing applications, networks, and end users to decide how to use it.
According to the team, the goal is to correct a structural imbalance that has turned many stablecoins into highly profitable businesses for issuers, but opaque ones for users.
Anthony Leutenegger, CEO of Aragon and founder of Generic, explained that the protocol is designed as a neutral and decentralized layer, not as a traditional issuer. By not controlling issuance, Generic avoids one of the main points of regulatory friction. Furthermore, by decoupling the yield from the asset itself, the protocol allows GUSD's partners to decide how to redistribute that value programmatically, compliantly, and without custody.

Topic Opinion:
GUSD is not just a new stablecoin; it's a technical response to a political problem that remains unresolved. Instead of waiting for Congress to decide who can pay yield and how, Generic redefines the game: it turns yield into infrastructure, not corporate profit.
💬 Do you think this model can avoid the regulatory clash that traditional stablecoins face?

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#Stablecoins #defi #Privacy #USDC #CryptoNews $USDC $USDT

📅 January 14 | United States
For years, the shadow of the SEC has been one of the most difficult risks to quantify for crypto projects. It doesn't matter if the product works, if the network is robust, or if the community remains active: an open investigation is enough to freeze partnerships, halt development, and sow structural doubts. Zcash has lived under this cloud since 2023. Now, at a particularly delicate moment for its ecosystem, news arrives that completely changes the game.

📖The Zcash Foundation confirmed that the SEC has formally concluded a multi-year investigation, initiated after receiving a subpoena in August 2023. The subpoena was part of a broader inquiry titled “In the Matter of Certain Crypto Asset Offerings”, one of the many fronts opened by the regulator during the period of heightened crackdown on the crypto industry.
According to the foundation, the regulatory body stated that it does not intend to recommend any enforcement actions or require any changes related to this matter. Although an SEC spokesperson declined to confirm or deny the existence of specific investigations—as is customary—the foundation stated: the case is closed.
This outcome comes amid a profound shift in the US regulatory stance. Under the administration of Donald Trump, the SEC has withdrawn or dropped dozens of investigations and lawsuits against crypto companies, including landmark cases such as Coinbase, as well as multiple DeFi protocols.
This strategy contrasts sharply with the hardline approach taken during the Biden administration, under which many of these investigations, including the one against Zcash, were initiated.

Topic Opinion:
This is yet another piece of evidence confirming that the era of punitive regulation is losing steam in the US. The SEC closing a case of this magnitude without taking any action sends a powerful signal to the entire sector, especially for privacy-focused projects, which have historically been under greater scrutiny.
💬 Is this enough to restore confidence in the Zcash ecosystem?

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#zcash #zec #SEC #Privacy #CryptoNews $ZEC

📅 January 14 | Global Markets
After weeks trapped in a tight range, with the market split between restrained euphoria and extreme caution, Bitcoin did what it does best: break the equilibrium. The surge above $97,000, its highest level in almost eight weeks, not only caught bearish traders off guard but completely reshaped market sentiment.

📖Bitcoin surpassed $97,300, reaching its highest price since mid-November and comfortably consolidating above $97,000, according to market data. In just 24 hours, the asset registered an advance of over 4.4%, leading a widespread rally that also boosted ether, solana and BNB, while the total crypto market capitalization climbed to approximately $3.4 trillion.
The technical break triggered a violent correction in the derivatives market. More than $680 million in short positions were liquidated in a single day, reflecting the forced unwinding of bearish bets that had dominated recent positioning. This process of forced deleveraging acted as additional fuel for the upward movement, accelerating the rise as traders closed losing positions.
The shift in sentiment was also evident in prediction markets. On Polymarket, the odds of Bitcoin reaching $100,000 before the end of January rose above 60%, a significant jump from previous weeks when that level seemed like a distant and insurmountable psychological barrier.

Topic Opinion:
We are not seeing a rally driven by uncontrolled euphoria, but rather by a combination of short covering, institutional flows, and a favorable macroeconomic environment. This doesn't eliminate the risk of corrections, but it does change the quality of the rally.
💬 Is this the start of the final leg towards $100K?

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#bitcoin #BTC #CryptoMarket #etf #CryptoNews $BTC