Cryptopolitan

The crypto market early in 2026 is already in the silent-fading period. The old projects are becoming unsparked as the initial hype dies away. Big investors are no longer content with the big names and are seeking true utility. They desire platforms that will address real issues not the social fads. 

This change is the means of coming out of the era of memes and the beginning of the more serious cycle. There is a new name emerging in the ranks. It is based on strong technology and sustainable development. With the old giants of the past flanking, this new player is about to make a big crypto breakout.

Ethereum (ETH)

Ethereum is still the sovereign of smart contracts, but its halo is weighing down. Towards the end of January 2026, ETH price is around $2,700. It has gone down by almost 10% in the recent past in the span of 24 hours. It still has a huge market cap of more than $350 billion. This excessive size however makes it very difficult to move the price up within a short duration. ETH is now caught in a heavy resistance area of between $3,100 and $3,300.

The faster recovery is an increasing doubt among the analysts. Staking interest is good although the price action is slow. Bearish projections indicate that in case ETH does not stand the threshold at the support of $2,700, the price would drop back to the level of $2,400. 

Solana (SOL) 

Solana is experiencing the pressure of a declining market as well. Following an unstable month, SOL is trading at about $115. It has just fallen below major support parameters, falling over 8% in just one day. The market capitalization is approximately at $66 billion. 

The technical charts indicate a challenging future of SOL. It is now hitting a ceiling of resistance at $120. Analysts caution that the new sell-off may only be the beginning of the extended decline. In the event of failure at the support point of $100, analysts are of the view that the SOL will decrease to $85 or even $70. This decrease in enthusiasm in the premium coins is establishing an opening in the market regarding new protocols.

Mutuum Finance (MUTM) 

The vacuum created by these declining giants is being occupied by a new crypto protocol, Mutuum Finance (MUTM). It is a developing decentralized lending and borrowing protocol. MUTM will enable users to obtain yield by lending their assets or access cash by using their crypto as collateral. The project is at the presale stage of Phase 7, at which MUTM costs $0.04. This is a 300% growth of its initial price which was $0.01.

The project has raised over $20.2 million and has over 19,000 holders. The total supply of the tokens is 4 billion but 1.82 billion are reserved to the presale. More than 830 million tokens are already sold. This is an indication of a high and constant demand. The established MUTM launch bid is $0.06.

Looking at the boundaries of ETH and SOL, the worth of new cryptocurrencies such as MUTM is obvious. Both ETH and SOL are mature networks in which huge investment may yield little returns. As an example, an investment in ETH at a price amounting to $2,700 and a sum of $550 would hardly shift at an increment of $100. Conversely, 13,750 tokens are purchased by the same $550 in MUTM at $0.04. Provided that MUTM reaches its post-launch price expected by many investors of $0.30, then the investment would increase to $4,000.

V1 Launch and Test Security

Mutuum Finance has placed the security principle at the center of its development. To ensure the highest level of technical integrity, the project underwent a rigorous and comprehensive security audit conducted by Halborn Security. 

This independent review focused on the finalized V1 smart contracts, stress-testing the lending and borrowing logic to identify and resolve potential vulnerabilities before any public deployment. By securing this validation from a globally recognized cybersecurity firm, the team has provided a transparent and verifiable foundation for its growing community of over 19,000 investors.

The project’s commitment to safety is further evidenced by its impressive standing with CertiK, where it maintains a high Token Scan score of 90/100. This rating reflects deep analysis of the token’s structure and configuration, highlighting a level of transparency and configuration that is well above the average for early-stage DeFi initiatives.

Beyond these theoretical safeguards, the project has achieved a major milestone with the official activation of the V1 protocol on the Sepolia testnet. This is not merely a conceptual preview but a fully operational environment where users can directly engage with the platform’s core mechanics. 

Participants are already testing the liquidity pools and the innovative mtToken system, which issues interest-bearing receipts to depositors as their share of the pool’s yield grows. By delivering a functioning product that individuals can verify for themselves, Mutuum Finance has moved from the design phase into a stage of functional reality. This rare combination of a working protocol, multi-layered security audits, and massive community backing has firmly placed MUTM at the top of the 2026 cheap crypto tier list.

For more information about Mutuum Finance (MUTM) visit the links below:

Website: https://www.mutuum.com

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mutuumfinance

Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum and a prominent figure in the blockchain space, recently shared his approach to navigating the prediction market Polymarket in an interview with Foresight News.

At this time, he outlined that he begins by identifying markets during a phase he refers to as “crazy mode,” where he bets that extreme scenarios will not occur.

To further elaborate on this point for better understanding, the co-founder gave an example of a recent market bet that suggests whether US President Donald Trump will receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Buterin also mentioned that market speculation holds that the dollar could hit zero in 2027 during periods of heightened anxiety.

Buterin illustrates the crucial value of prediction markets

Buterin stated that he had invested around $440,000 in Polymarket. After placing a bet on the prediction market in 2025, he generated $70,000 in profit, representing a 16% return.  Concerning this profit, the industry executive argued that betting against market hype often proves profitable for him. Therefore, according to his argument, bettors target markets driven by extreme, irrational sentiment to maximize their earnings.

Responding to the Ethereum co-founder’s statement, Loxley Fernandes, a prominent Web3 entrepreneur and fintech innovator, and Dastan, CEO of Dastan company, expressed his belief that Buterin’s success stemmed from identifying and profiting from obviously flawed assumptions, demonstrating the significant value of prediction markets.

“When emotional extremes and irrational feelings affect markets, rational players not only make money but also help bring prices back to reality,” he said, further adding that, “ this is exactly what prediction markets are meant to do: provide clear signals amid all the noise.”

However, as with other marketplaces, Buterin disclosed that betting platforms such as Polymarket face key challenges, particularly regarding how oracles operate. Notably, oracles are decentralized third-party services that bridge real-world event outcomes to the blockchain, automatically and securely resolving market bets. 

To outline some of the challenges faced, the industry executive highlighted an example of a prediction market connected to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. In this prediction market, individuals bet on whether the Russian army would seize control of Myrnohrad, a city in Ukraine. Here, the Oracle for this prediction market used maps retrieved from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a nonpartisan, nonprofit Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

Buterin raises concerns about prediction market oracles’ security measures

Regarding the ISW-sourced maps, Buterin mentioned that they were shared on the social media platform X. In the Russia-Ukraine conflict, an industry executive noted that the prediction market determined “control” based on which army controlled the city’s train station.

Upon the breach of the ISW’s X account, the think tank’s maps were swiftly updated to show that Russian forces controlled the train station. The following day, the Institute apologized and removed the incorrect information.

In the meantime, the precise payout figures were not officially disclosed. Still, local media in Ukraine reported that some participants in this bet may have received returns exceeding 33,000%, with trading volume of approximately $1.3 million. 

At this moment, reports noted that Buterin shared such examples to demonstrate that the security measures of prediction market oracles are inadequate. “They never thought that one message they shared would decide who owned $1 million on the blockchain,” he said.

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Crypto protocol CrossCurve has revealed that its cross-chain bridge was compromised, resulting in a loss of about $3 million across various blockchain networks. 

The attack has raised new security concerns about cross-chain infrastructure, which hackers have repeatedly targeted in the crypto industry. CrossCurve revealed the attack late Sunday in a post on X, stating that its bridge was “under attack” and that a vulnerability in its smart contracts had been exploited. 

The protocol warned users to immediately pause all interactions with CrossCurve while the team looks into what happened. The exploit affected several networks and demonstrated the impact that weaknesses can have on cross-chain systems. Details about the exploit were provided by Defimon Alerts, an X account belonging to a blockchain security firm, Decurity. The attacker compromised one of CrossCurve’s smart contracts and stole approximately $3 million, according to Defimon Alerts. 

The report also said CrossCurve’s contract did not properly verify cross-chain messages. This enabled any party to spoof, or fake, a genuine-looking message. Thus, the attacker was able to circumvent the traditional validation mechanism and unlock tokens without authorization. More specifically, Defimon Alerts mentioned that anyone can invoke a function called expressExecute in the ReceiverAxelar contract. 

This function exploited a phony cross-chain message and bypassed gateway checks by calling it and unlocking tokens on the PortalV2 contract. It trusted that message, and funds were released even after no transaction was made in the original chain. CrossCurve didn’t challenge any of that work, and is also investigating affected contracts. 

The protocol has not yet confirmed whether all users will receive compensation for their losses. In a post on X, Curve advised users whose voting powers were granted to CrossCurve pools to review their positions and consider removing their votes. It also recommends that all investors stay on watch and make risk-informed decisions when interacting with third-party projects.

CrossCurve offers a 10% bounty to recover stolen tokens

In an attempt to recover the stolen funds, the CEO of CrossCurve, Boris Povar, publicly contacted the addresses suspected of receiving tokens through the exploit. Povar shared 10 blockchain addresses associated with the stolen assets and requested that the funds be returned, he said. 

The tokens were “wrongfully taken from users due to a smart contract exploit,” Povar said in his post. There was no clear evidence, he said, that the attack was intentional or malicious. Povar requested cooperation to return the funds and offered a bounty of up to 10% if the tokens were returned within 72 hours. 

Povar added that if no contact was made or the funds were not returned within that time frame, CrossCurve would consider the incident to be a criminal matter. The protocol was ready to coordinate with law enforcement, file civil lawsuits to recoup damages, and partner with other crypto ventures and authorities to freeze assets associated with the exploit, he said. 

Such bounty offers, also known as “white hat” rewards, have become common in the crypto industry. Attackers have returned funds in exchange for a bounty in some cases, while in others the funds have gone unrecovered.

Cross-chain exploits continue to plague the crypto sector

The CrossCurve incident is the latest in a long series of attacks targeting cross-chain bridges and decentralized finance protocols. Over the last few years, billions of dollars have evaporated to bridge exploits. Notable cases include the Ronin Bridge hack, which cost hundreds of millions of dollars, as well as attacks on Wormhole and Nomad platforms. 

A lot of this was due to message verification failures, just as in the CrossCurve case. Cross-chain bridges, as security analysts have long warned, are among the most egregious risks in crypto. Even tiny mistakes in validation logic can result in tokens being minted or unlocked and used without backing, leading to huge losses in a short period of time. 

The growing number of problems has forced regulators, investors, and coders to call for stronger security practices, including greater auditing, simpler designs, clearer audit trails, and monitoring tools. But, as CrossCurve’s experience shows, vulnerabilities still arise, and users are reminded that they remain at significant risk when engaging with decentralized protocols. 

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The electric vehicle boom brought massive investments to parts of America that don’t typically vote blue, but now those bets are looking shaky as the industry pumps the brakes on its electric dreams.

Over the last twenty years, car and battery manufacturers poured more than $200 billion into building electric vehicle plants across the United States, according to research firm Atlas Public Policy. The money didn’t spread evenly across the political map. Republican-controlled areas got the lion’s share, with 84 percent of battery plant dollars and 62 percent of vehicle factory money landing in their districts.

These plants were supposed to bring jobs, more than 200,000 of them. Three-quarters of those positions would have been in Republican areas. The Southeast alone grabbed 40 percent of all the investment money, building on its long history as a car-making region that stretches back fifty years.

But the ground shifted beneath these plans. Federal tax breaks that made electric cars cheaper disappeared, and fewer people bought EVs than expected. Now companies are scrambling to change course, switching production lines to make different types of vehicles or completely different products to avoid red ink and job cuts.

Hyundai Motor Group watched the shift happen in real time

The company, which sells Hyundai, Genesis, and Kia vehicles, had climbed to second place in electric car sales behind Tesla, according to CEO José Muñoz. Then the government incentives vanished.

The numbers tell the story. Hyundai’s electric sales were climbing during the first three months of last year. By the final quarter, they had dropped by half. “We still do better than the industry,” Muñoz said according to CNBC. “But it had an impact in the industry, which we could clearly see in the fourth quarter.”

Hyundai had already placed a massive bet on Georgia. In 2022, the company announced a $12.6 billion factory and battery operation near Savannah, the biggest investment Georgia had ever seen, beating out Rivian’s $5 billion plant outside Atlanta. The plan called for hiring 8,500 workers by 2031, plus another 6,900 at nearby supplier companies. So far, only 1,440 people have jobs there as of January.

Georgia led the country in electric vehicle factory investment last year. Governor Brian Kemp, a Republican, wanted the state to become the “electric mobility capital” of America.

The Savannah plant was meant to build only electric vehicles at first. Hyundai even rushed construction to get its popular Ioniq5 crossover eligible for the $7,500 federal tax credit, which required American assembly and parts. But new legislation wiped out those credits on September 30.

Hyundai responded by adding another $2.7 billion to boost output by 200,000 vehicles, targeting half a million cars each year. The mix changed dramatically – now the factory will make ten different models, both electric and hybrid. Muñoz expects only 30 percent will be electric, with the rest split between hybrids and gas-powered cars.

The financial damage across the industry runs deep. John Murphy from Haig Partners figures American automakers will likely lose at least $100 billion on their electric vehicle bets. “It’s the single biggest capital allocation mistake in the history of the automotive industry,” Murphy said.

The losses have started showing up

As reported by Cryptopolitan previously, Ford announced a $19.5 billion hit on its unprofitable electric car division in December. General Motors took a $7.6 billion charge. Foreign makers like Honda, Porsche, and Volvo warned investors about billion-dollar losses too.

Muñoz thinks Hyundai will dodge these write-offs thanks to flexible factories that can build many different models, letting the company shift as conditions change. “The more flexibility you have, the less issues you have with changes in the environment,” he said.

The industry’s expectations have crashed. President Biden wanted electric vehicles to make up 50 percent of new car sales by 2030. “That was the target,” said Peter Tadros from parts maker Bosch. “Then, over the years, it dropped to 35, to 25, to 17. So now we’re at 17% projection for 2030.”

Bosch spent $250 million on its Charleston, South Carolina factory, including an electric motor division. “Now the investment was not made for 50% market, but it was not made also for 17%,” Tadros said.

The company moved almost all electric motor workers to other departments making stability control systems and fuel injectors – parts needed for regular gas engines. Still, Tadros admitted the electric bet “cause some pain.” The equipment sits ready but underused. “It’s here. It’s ready to go,” Tadros said. “But right now, it’s a difficult situation for that segment.”

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India’s most recent national budget is intended to shield the economy from the growing strain of US trade moves, particularly tariffs imposed under President Donald Trump. 

The budget, delivered on Sunday, outlines how the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government plans to maintain growth, bolster critical sectors, and help the country prepare for a more volatile global trading environment. The budget provides significant support to exporters affected by US tariffs, as well as new financing for priority sectors, including semiconductors, rare-earth minerals, and critical resources. 

The government also announced additional infrastructure spending and an 18% increase in defense expenditure, amid fears over security challenges posed by China and Pakistan. The government also shied away from lavish spending or sweeping tax cuts. 

It largely adhered to its debt targets and kept overall spending in check, a cautionary sign amid Modi’s party gearing up for crucial state elections. Ashok Malik of The Asia Group has said that the budget is designed to “insulate India while being watchful for global headwinds,” rather than push aggressive economic stimulus.

Shares broadly slumped in the wake of the budget announcement — a pullback that investors blamed on a tax hike on equity-market transactions to curb speculation, rather than overall dissatisfaction with the new spending plan. The government also plans to borrow more in the coming fiscal year than the market had expected, a move that’s likely to pressure the bond market on Monday.

Trade tensions force shifts in India’s economic strategy

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India is operating in a difficult global environment where trade systems are under strain and supply chains are being disrupted. Though she did not specifically mention the US, the budget clearly addresses recent American trade moves, including a 50 percent tariff imposed since August. The tariffs, which are associated with some of India’s purchases of Russian oil, have been a burden on labor-intensive sectors like textiles and furniture.

To reduce vulnerability, the government is pressing for greater self-reliance. Recent measures include cutting consumption taxes to boost domestic demand, reforming labor laws to give businesses greater leeway, and opening sectors such as nuclear energy and finance to private investment. Economists say the reforms seek to lift productivity and facilitate business in India. 

Modi’s secondary strategy has been to improve trade relations to offset the US threat. Last week, after nearly two decades of talks, India and the European Union announced the completion of a free-trade agreement, giving exporters on both sides some reprieve from Trump’s tariffs. Last year, India also signed trade pacts with the UK and New Zealand.

India prioritizes self-reliance and new trade partners

The budget expects new investments to be deployed toward building local capacity in the semiconductor manufacturing, pharmaceutical, and rare-earth minerals sectors, it said. Particular attention is paid to mineral-rich areas of eastern and southern India, and plans are to help develop mining, processing, and manufacturing. 

The steps, they say, will be crucial for developing a resilient industrial base in an era of uncertainty. In addition to self-reliance, India is also working to reduce its dependence on the United States by expanding trade ties with other countries. India has recently joined the European Union, seeking to secure free trade with the EU, and has made similar deals with the UK and New Zealand last year. 

But the government anticipates that the economy will grow between 6.8% and 7.2% next year, although many analysts predict it will be weaker. Opposition leaders say the budget is insufficient to address youth unemployment or low household savings. So far, the government is primarily concerned with helping the economy weather global uncertainty while managing public finances.

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Apple has spent years calling the shots with the factories and firms that build smartphone components. That’s changing fast as companies racing to build artificial intelligence systems write enormous checks and snap up the same materials the iPhone maker relies on.

The result is a reversal of fortune for Apple. Parts manufacturers who previously bent over backward to please the tech giant now have enough business elsewhere to demand better terms. Experts predict Apple’s typically fat profit margins will get thinner this year, with consumers potentially facing the consequences down the road.

During Thursday’s earnings call, Apple’s head Tim Cook acknowledged the challenge. He told investors the company was struggling to secure adequate chip quantities while memory costs were climbing at a steep rate. His comments appeared to dampen investor enthusiasm for Apple stock, which remained unchanged despite exceptional iPhone revenue and the company posting its highest-ever earnings.

Sravan Kundojjala, an industry expert at research firm SemiAnalysis, put it bluntly that “Apple is getting squeezed for sure.”

Nvidia overtakes Apple at TSMC

A significant development came when Nvidia, the dominant player in AI processors, overtook Apple as the number-one client of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, known as TSMC. Nvidia’s leader Jensen Huang revealed this on a podcast. Apple had maintained a commanding lead as TSMC’s primary buyer for many years. TSMC produces the planet’s cutting-edge chips powering AI data centers, mobile phones, and various computing equipment.

Large-scale AI computers bear little resemblance to consumer smartphones, yet numerous manufacturers provide components for both categories. Memory chips have become especially scarce as organizations including OpenAI, Google under Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft collectively invest hundreds of billions building out AI infrastructure.

Mike Howard from research firm TechInsights described the situation: “The rate of increase in the price of memory is unprecedented.” His analysis covers NAND flash storage chips that save pictures and clips, plus DRAM chips enabling quick application performance. TechInsights projects DRAM costs will reach four times their 2023 levels before year-end, with NAND surpassing triple.

Howard calculates Apple could face $57 in additional expenses for both memory types in the entry-level iPhone 18 launching this autumn versus the baseline iPhone 17 available now. For a handset priced at $799, such an increase would substantially cut into earnings.

Apple’s financial muscle and electronics design capabilities previously established it as an unbeatable heavyweight among Asian manufacturers producing iPhone components and assembling finished units. The company allocates billions annually just for NAND purchases, according to individuals with knowledge of the spending, positioning it as likely the globe’s largest individual purchaser.

Component makers eagerly pursued Apple contracts, aiming to capitalize on its technical expertise and brand recognition to land additional clients.

Times have changed, though. Ming-chi Kuo from TF International Securities observed: “the companies now pushing the boundaries of human-scale engineering are the ones like Nvidia.”

AI hardware demand outpaces Apple’s growth

Apple’s budget growth appears moderate when measured against the massive expenditures filling AI computing facilities, despite achieving record-breaking iPhone 17 sales.

South Korean manufacturers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are increasing what they charge Apple for a specific DRAM variant, say individuals connected to Apple’s supplier network. Major AI players offer generous compensation and commit to guaranteed purchases with advance funding, providing these chipmakers negotiating strength versus the iPhone producer.

While Apple establishes lengthy supply agreements for memory, it has exploited its market position to extract concessions from vendors. These contracts allowed Apple to renegotiate pricing as frequently as weekly intervals and even completely stop purchases from any supplier whose rates Apple considered unfavorable, say people aware of its procurement practices. Seeking additional bargaining power, Apple began stockpiling larger memory reserves. This represented a departure for Cook, who typically maintains minimal inventories to optimize the company’s available cash.

Apple’s competition extends beyond immediate component deliveries to securing engineers’ focus at manufacturing partners. Specialists in glass technology previously dedicated to perfecting ultra-smooth, lightweight phone screens now also devote hours to specialized glass materials needed for housing sophisticated AI processing chips, industry leaders indicate.

Producers of sensing devices and various iPhone internals are capturing fresh contracts from AI enterprises like OpenAI developing proprietary hardware.

Nevertheless, suppliers indicated they had no plans to walk away from Apple relationships. Partnering with Apple provides valuable learning experiences, they explained, since it continues ranking among the industry’s most exacting and methodical clients.

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In early 2026, a clear divide emerged in the crypto market between established players and true innovators. Many legacy networks are no longer able to maintain the dominance they once held, while a new generation of decentralized finance projects is beginning to capture market attention.

Traders are increasingly focusing on high-utility platforms that introduce meaningful technology and offer early-stage growth potential. This shift is not driven by short-term price action, but by the search for the financial tools of tomorrow before they reach the mainstream. As capital continues to rotate, the signs of a major market transformation are becoming too strong to ignore.

Cardano (ADA) 

Cardano (ADA) has been failing to regain its former glory in the first month of 2026. The token is currently trading at around $0.32 showing a neutral to bearish movement and this has frustrated long term holders. Although the asset experienced a momentary peak at the beginning of the year to the level of $0.40, the same was promptly rejected. 

Technical analysts indicate that there has been a heavy resistance level between $0.35-$0.40. ADA would first have to break these layers of selling pressure before it can experience any real recovery. The 200 day moving average is however moving down meaning that the overall trend is poor. 

Although the Cardano ecosystem is still in the process of building infrastructure, such as integrations of stablecoins and the Leios upgrade, the upcoming price perspective is stuck in a tight range. Such stagnation is causing most investors to seek alternatives that record higher growth.

Mutuum Finance (MUTM) 

Unlike ADA, which has a low velocity movement, Mutuum Finance (MUTM) is in a phase of high growth. The project is at Phase 7 of presale and the price of MUTM is $0.04. This comes on a steady rise from its original Phase 1 price of only $0.01 which is a 300% increase to those who were first movers. Mutuum Finance has already secured a sum of more than $20.2 million and has gained over 19,000 investors.

The protocol is developing a decentralized loaning and borrowing hub. It will permit its users to get liquidity or to get yield without selling their underlying crypto holdings. The team has a high security concern as they have already undergone a full independent audit with Halborn Security. Also, the project has a high rating of 90/100 by CertiK and provides the honeypot with the bug bounty of $50,000 to make the code robust. This is a professional practice that has established great levels of trust in the community.

MUTM vs Cardano (ADA)

The potential difference between the two is obvious when it comes to comparing the two. Cardano is an established network in which a $700 investment would probably yield small returns even in the event of a bullish market. To increase its value by twice, ADA would have to increase its market cap by billions. In addition, ADA has been frequently criticized because of slow development speed and the lack of native stablecoin liquidity, which may slow down its attractiveness to active users of DeFi.

In contrast, MUTM is still at the beginning of its curve of adoption. The present investment of $700 is set by the current price of 0.04 to have the position before the token reaches its verified launch price which is $0.06. This is a 50% discount. As ADA is intensely opposed to, MUTM’s design is supported by a “buy-and-distribute” framework which buys back tokens off the market with protocol fees and redistributes them to stakers. 

V1 Launch and Phase 7 Acceleration

The latest technical milestone for Mutuum Finance (MUTM) is the successful activation of the V1 protocol on the Sepolia testnet. This launch transitions the project from a conceptual stage into a functional reality, proving that the underlying smart contract technology is fully operational. Within this live test environment, users can now directly interact with the platform’s core lending and borrowing engines, providing a hands-on look at how the mainnet version will perform.

The protocol functions through highly structured liquidity pools where users can supply established assets such as ETH, LINK, WBTC, and USDT. These pools act as the backbone of the Peer-to-Contract (P2C) model, allowing for immediate borrowing based on dynamic interest rates that adjust automatically according to market demand.

When a user deposits these assets into a pool, the system issues mtTokens as a digital receipt of the contribution. Unlike static tokens, mtTokens are yield-bearing assets that grow in value relative to the underlying deposit as interest from borrowers is collected, allowing for a seamless and compounding yield experience without the need for manual claims.

To ensure the entire system remains solvent and secure, Mutuum Finance utilizes an over-collateralization model governed by two primary risk metrics: the Stability Factor and the Health Factor. The Stability Factor defines the safe thresholds for collateral, while the Health Factor acts as a real-time indicator of a loan’s safety. A Health Factor above 1.0 indicates a secure position, but if market volatility causes the collateral value to drop and the factor dips below 1.0, an automated Liquidator Bot steps in to manage the debt and protect the protocol’s liquidity.

For more information about Mutuum Finance (MUTM) visit the links below:

Website: https://www.mutuum.com

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mutuumfinance

A Wall Street Journal report claimed that parties linked to President Donald Trump secretly traded a nearly 50% stake in his family’s crypto company, World Liberty Financial (WLFI), for $500 million. 

The sale was made to a senior UAE royal, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, just four days before the U.S. President’s second inauguration last year.

Did Trump secretly sell off nearly 50% of WLFI?

An investigation by The Wall Street Journal has revealed that the Trump family entered into a secret $500 million agreement with a senior United Arab Emirates (UAE) royal just days before Donald Trump’s second inauguration last year.

The deal involved the sale of a nearly 50% stake in the family’s cryptocurrency business, World Liberty Financial (WLFI).

Under the terms of the contract, an Abu Dhabi-based investment vehicle called Aryam Investment 1 agreed to pay $500 million for a 49% stake in the company.

The buyers agreed to pay half of the total amount, $250 million, upfront. Of that initial payment, approximately $187 million was sent directly to Trump-linked DT Marks DEFI LLC and DT Marks SC LLC.

An additional $31 million was directed to entities connected to the family of Steve Witkoff, a real estate mogul who co-founded the project and was later appointed as the U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East. Another $31 million was paid to the project’s other co-founders, Zak Folkman and Chase Herro.

The investor behind the deal, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is often referred to as the “spy sheikh” due to his role as the UAE’s national security adviser. He also supervises a massive financial empire that includes the AI firm G42 and the investment fund MGX.

As part of the investment, two executives from Aryam Investment, who also hold senior roles at G42, were made part of World Liberty Financial’s five-member board, joining Eric Trump and Zach Witkoff.

World Liberty Financial recently applied for a national trust bank charter to formalize its operations under federal supervision. The Trump family has also launched “American Bitcoin,” a crypto mining company, and continues to benefit from $Trump meme coins and other digital assets.

Was the UAE deal linked to U.S. policy changes regarding AI technology?

Under Joe Biden’s administration, American-made artificial intelligence (AI) chips were highly restricted due to national security concerns that the technology could eventually reach China.

However, after the secret deal was signed in May 2025, during a presidential visit to Abu Dhabi, it was announced that the U.S. and UAE had reached an agreement that granted the Gulf state access to roughly 500,000 of the most advanced AI chips every year.

Experts say this quantity is enough to build one of the largest AI data center networks in the world. Notably, about 20% of these chips were allocated to G42, the firm led by Sheikh Tahnoon.

Senator Elizabeth Warren and other lawmakers have called for formal investigations due to the timing of the UAE investment and the approval of AI chip exports.

Ethics experts and lawmakers argue that the $500 million investment creates a massive conflict of interest, as the president’s personal wealth is now directly tied to the financial interests of a foreign government official.

In a recent report titled “Professionalized Corruption,” Democrats on the House Oversight Committee alleged that the Trump family is using digital currencies to accept “backdoor bribery” from foreign interests.

The report claims that since the payments for the UAE deal were sent through private crypto entities, there is very little visibility into who paid the Trump family or what they are receiving in return.

In March 2025, the UAE-backed firm MGX announced it would use World Liberty Financial’s dollar-pegged stablecoin, USD1, to complete a $2 billion investment into Binance. Shortly after this partnership was established, President Trump issued a pardon for Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who had been serving a prison sentence for money laundering compliance failures.

The Trump Organization has firmly denied any wrongdoing. A spokesperson stated that the company “takes its ethical obligations extremely seriously” and is “deeply committed to preventing conflicts of interest.”The organization maintains that it follows all applicable laws and that the investment was a standard business transaction.

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BYD started 2026 with a big drop. The company sold 210,051 cars in January, down from 300,538 the year before. That’s a 30% decline, and it didn’t come out of nowhere.

Buyers rushed to get cars before China’s EV subsidies ended in December. That rush left January dry. The subsidy cut hit mass‑market models hard.

It didn’t help that the Lunar New Year messes with early‑year numbers. That holiday always slows things down, but this time it came with weaker home demand. The EV crowd was watching this.

The question now is whether BYD can recover fast enough as 2026 moves forward. The company is under pressure from both buyers and rivals at home.

BYD leans on exports while China demand fades

Even though domestic sales were down, BYD kept things moving abroad. The company shipped out 100,482 vehicles in January.

That’s nearly half its total monthly sales. It’s not random. On January 24, BYD said it plans to grow exports by almost 25% this year. It’s clear they’re going all in on global markets.

Total sales for 2026 are still expected to beat last year. Analysts are looking for over 5 million units sold, up from 4.6 million in 2025. But that won’t be easy. Chinese rivals like Geely and Leapmotor are getting stronger.

This means BYD has to find other ways to get people interested. That includes rolling out new models and pushing higher-end options. The company’s Denza and Yangwang brands are part of that push. The goal is to get higher average prices, not just higher volumes.

Chinese EV makers hit Europe hard as US stays closed

Europe is becoming BYD’s best shot. In December, Chinese brands made up 9.5% of all car sales in Europe, beating Kia and other South Korean makers.

One in ten passenger cars sold came from a Chinese brand. That includes cars from BYD, Leapmotor, Chery, and SAIC’s MG.

Electrified models are driving this. Chinese automakers took 16% of Europe’s EV and hybrid market in December, and 11% for all of 2025. That’s more than double the share from 2024. Buyers in Spain, Greece, Italy, and the UK are going for cheaper EVs that can actually drive far. And not all are Chinese brands.

Cars built in China and sold by Tesla, Volkswagen, BMW, and Renault push the real number even higher. One in seven electrified cars sold in Europe in 2025 came out of China.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s 100% tariff is still locking Chinese automakers out of the US. So they’re doubling down in Europe. The EU auto sector is huge. It makes up over 7% of GDP and supports 13 million jobs.

But these legacy brands are being squeezed. They’ve got new cars coming, like Renault’s Twingo and Citroën’s ë-C3, but they’re losing ground fast.

BYD’s Seal U DM-i plug-in is already being sold in the UK at £33,340 ($45,935). That’s well below VW’s Tiguan eHybrid, which starts at £42,840.

Both go over 75 miles on electric. Meanwhile, Chery’s Jaecoo 7, nicknamed the “Temu Range Rover,” is picking up fans at £35,000.

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Justin Sun’s alleged ex-girlfriend Ten Ten is back. And this time, she brought names. She posted a long message on X, claiming Justin built his early TRX fortune by using employees’ identities to run fake Binance accounts.

Ten Ten said the reason she released this is because:- “After my last post, he sent out a wave of lies about me using Chinese KOLs. They’re the same ones he’s been paying for years to pump coins before the rug.”

She said these influencers are anonymous, coordinated with projects, and profit by pushing retail traders to buy just before sell-offs. She said some get as much as 20,000 USDT per post. “Once the pump ends, they disappear. Retail loses everything, and no one helps them.”

Ten Ten names twelve employees used to open Binance accounts

Ten Ten said Justin didn’t use bots or fake users. He used real people. “He made his employees give him their ID cards and phone numbers,” she wrote. “Then he had Wang Bingyu open accounts using their names. After that, he started selling TRX through those accounts.”

Ten posted the names of twelve people from mainland China, alleging that all of them worked under Justin at the time.

The list included Zhao Ling, Liu Jintong, Huang Kaijie, Du Xuewen, Quan Yueyuan, Han Min, Zhao Jitong, Liu Tingting, Liu Siqin, Zhang Xin, Jiang Nijun, and Wei Shuai.

“I have full records—emails, exchange activity, login logs, phone data. Everything,” the woman said. She claimed she can hand it over to investigators through secure channels.

She said some of these people were later locked up in Chinese jails “under random excuses.” She didn’t say what charges they faced but said they were removed after playing their part. “They gave him the access, helped him cash out, and then got discarded,” she wrote.

She says entire system was built to drain retail investors

Ten Ten said Justin used public hype to build interest around TRX. “He made people think he was a genius,” she wrote. “But it was just media tricks. He printed coins, told stories, and made everyone believe.” She said the only real plan was to pull in buyers and exit while prices were high.

She explained that KOLs were paid to time their signals around these dumps and they’d post just before a coin crashed. “It was all planned. It happened again and again.”

“In many cases, project teams even collaborated with capital pools and Ponzi-style operations to artificially drive up token prices, jointly harvesting retail investors and then splitting the profits with those capital pools,” said Ten.

“There were no big ideas,” she wrote. “No vision. Just greed.” She said retail traders were always the target, and that the system was never built for them. “They were there to get drained,” she said.

Ten Ten said she doesn’t care about gossip. “People keep talking about me,” she wrote. “But that’s not what matters. The only thing that matters is that everything he built was fake.”

She then followed up with a joke that, “I also have an ‘Epstein files’ of the crypto world.”

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The U.S. government has shut down again, causing global investors to lose faith in the dollar’s stability. 

About $1.2 trillion in federal spending has now been put on hold due to the shutdown affecting a number of vital departments. 

Cryptopolitan reported on January 31 that the SEC will only be running with a very limited number of staff until further notice. The announcement means that there will be extremely limited operations at the SEC until further notice. With this, divisions like Corporation Finance, Trading and Markets, and Investment Management are unable to perform routine activities. 

Financial experts have shared concerns that the U.S. dollar could lose its supremacy due to its recent instabilities. 

Is the U.S. government’s shutdown permanently damaging the dollar’s reputation?

The United States is dealing with a partial government shutdown with serious ramifications, freezing more than $1.2 trillion in federal spending. The departments affected include Defense, Treasury, State, and Health and Human Services. 

Nigel Green, the CEO of deVere Group, recently noted that the dollar’s supremacy is “cracking.” For decades, the dollar has been the world’s primary reserve currency because it was seen as safe and predictable, but with the government being frequently pushed to the edge of a total collapse, that trust has been eroded. 

The U.S. national debt has continued to climb, surpassing $37 trillion in early 2026. Massive debt, coupled with a government that cannot agree on a budget, will cause global reserve managers to look elsewhere. 

Central banks across the globe have already been diversifying their holdings. According to recent data, many are trading their dollar reserves for gold and other currencies like the euro or the Japanese yen.

Is Wall Street shifting toward Bitcoin?

In 2017, Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, called cryptocurrency a “fraud” and then later suggested it was only useful for scammers and money launderers by comparing it to “pet rocks.”

However, JPMorgan recently became the first major bank to issue a U.S. dollar “deposit token” on a public blockchain. Dimon has also admitted that while he may still have personal doubts about Bitcoin as a currency, he acknowledges that “blockchain is real.”

Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, warned in his 2025 annual letter to investors that if the U.S. does not get its debt under control, America risks losing its position as the world’s reserve leader to digital assets. He noted that Bitcoin’s decentralized nature makes it a “flight to quality” during times of high political risk.

The BRICS nations, Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and newer members like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, have been actively developing their own payment systems to bypass the dollar-based SWIFT network. The aim is to trade without being vulnerable to U.S. sanctions or domestic political issues.

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Many legacy projects are struggling to regain momentum, while a quiet shift is building within the decentralized lending sector. Experienced investors are moving away from purely speculative assets and gravitating toward platforms backed by real code and functional tools. A new crypto protocol is now emerging from its development phase and beginning to draw attention. The timing is critical. As the market searches for the next major crypto breakout, early positioners are focusing on signs of technical readiness rather than hype..

What is Mutuum Finance (MUTM) Developing?

Mutuum Finance (MUTM) is developing a platform that transforms the interaction of users with their online assets. The design applies to two major lending markets to offer flexibility. The former is Peer-to-Contract (P2C), in which individuals place their money in common liquidity pools. This system has competitive yields in the form of dynamic Annual Percentage Yield (APY) which is adjusted according to the market demand. 

The second is the Peer to Peer (P2P) market, wherein direct and custom deals are possible between users. This model is most suitable in niche tokens whereby there is the ability of the borrower and the lender to negotiate their interest rates and Loan-to-Value (LTV) ratios. Users can also acquire cash by borrowing up to 75% on stable assets without ever disposing of their crypto holdings.

The project has reached Phase 7 of its presale at the current price of the MUTM, which is $0.04. This is the stage that is gaining momentum, and it is the final stage before the price starts to rise towards the confirmed launch price of $0.06. Mutuum Finance has so far collected more than $20.2 million USD in over 19,000 holders. 

V1 Protocol Success and Analyst Forecasts

The V1 protocol launch on the Sepolia testnet represents the official transition of Mutuum Finance from a technical blueprint into a functional, interactive environment. This release allows the public to explore the foundational components of the lending engine, specifically focusing on initial markets for established assets like ETH, USDT, LINK, and WBTC. 

The core of this release is the Liquidity Pool architecture, which works alongside several critical modules to ensure a smooth user experience. When you supply liquidity, the protocol issues mtTokens as digital receipts. To maintain transparency, the protocol issues Debt Tokens to borrowers. These provide a clear, on-chain record of both the principal amount and the accumulating interest owed to the system.

Market analysts have come out with a positive price forecast relying on this technical advancement. According to many observers, MUTM may go to as high as $0.10 to $0.25 by the end of 2026 when the protocol transitions to its mainnet. This would be the potential 1,000% increase of the present Phase 7 price.

Growth Catalysts

Mutuum Finance’s design employs the buy-and-distribute model to have a healthy token economy. Part of the revenue of the platform will be used to purchase the MUTM tokens on the market and allocate them to the stakers. This generates demand and lowers the supply which is in circulation. Chainlink Oracles are also incorporated in the protocol roadmap to generate the correct price feeds of all collaterals and liquidations.

In the presence of these systems, analysts are of the opinion that a second price surge would see MUTM rise to $1.50 in 2027. The plans of the protocol to introduce its own over-collateralized stablecoin and add to Layer-2 networks to make transactions faster and cheaper support this long-term prediction.

The Next XRP?

Several commentators liken the initial development of Mutuum Finance with the progress of Ripple (XRP). Mutuum Finance is also developing a decentralized worldwide hub just like Ripple intended to overcome the problem of cross-border payments. It concentrates on the high-utility applications that are not limited to mere trading. 

Mutuum Finance, by establishing a safe and secure environment, in which users can lend, borrow, and make real yield, is establishing itself as a pillar of the 2026 DeFi crypto ecosystem. The last opportunity to get in at the valuation of the project of $0.04 comes as the V1 protocol is live and Phase 7 is selling out.

For more information about Mutuum Finance (MUTM) visit the links below:

Website: https://www.mutuum.com
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mutuumfinance

January was loud for the prediction market. Total trading volume cleared $12 billion for the month and set a fresh all-time high. Kalshi, Polymarket, Opinion, and Probable each crossed $1 billion on their own.

Fees followed the activity. On-chain fees passed $11 million in January across the prediction market space. Opinion alone generated $6.14 million.

Polymarket added $2.62 million. The rest of the platforms filled in the balance as users placed bets tied to politics, sports, and other real-world outcomes.

Kalshi and Polymarket lead volumes, shares, and open interest

Kalshi posted a $137 million seven-day average volume, and its thirty-day average stood at $119.66 million, according to data from Dune.

Kalshi’s ninety-day average reached $97.54 million, week-over-week volume rose 10.62%, month-over-month came in at 37.71%, and quarter-over-quarter jumped 128.63%.

Source: Dune

Kalshi currently holds 28.10% market share over seven days, 29.80% over thirty days, and 31.36% over ninety days. Open interest totaled $428.18 million. Its volume-to-open-interest ratio was 32%, a level traders watch closely in any prediction setup.

Polymarket stayed close. Its seven-day average volume hit $129.16 million. The thirty-day average reached $110.19 million. The ninety-day average printed $82.23 million. Week over week volume increased 15.76%.

Month over month climbed 48.53%. Quarter over quarter rose 162.49%. Market share measured 26.49% over seven days, 27.45% over thirty days, and 26.44% over ninety days. Open interest reached $405.85 million. The volume-to-open-interest ratio came in at 31.83%.

Probable showed extreme numbers. Its seven-day average volume reached $101.78 million. Month-over-month volume surged 589.70%. Open interest was only $3.55 million. That pushed the volume to open interest ratio to 2870.49%, one of the highest readings across the prediction sector.

Opinion recorded $101.02 million in seven-day volume, $107.14 million over thirty days, and $90.22 million over ninety days. Open interest sat at $128.23 million, producing a 78.78% ratio.

Smaller platforms post sharp swings across weekly and monthly data

Predict Fun averaged $10.97 million over seven days. Week over week volume fell 25.83%. Month over month jumped 277.84%. Quarter over quarter showed an extreme percentage due to earlier low activity.

Open interest stood at $21.37 million with a 51.36% ratio. Limitless Exchange averaged $3.51 million over seven days. Weekly volume rose 170.03%. Open interest was $364.21k, producing a 962.77% ratio.

SX Bet posted $2.52 million in seven-day volume and $744.08k in open interest. Its ratio reached 338.66%.PancakeSwap Prediction recorded $566.36k in seven-day volume with a 0.12% market share.

Myriad Markets averaged $427.05k with $808.32k in open interest. Football.Fun handled $291.76k weekly while holding $5.09 million in open interest, keeping its ratio low at 5.73%.

Rain showed a massive 8101.94% weekly increase on $116.23k volume.DFlow Prediction Market posted $94.71k with 111.48% weekly growth and $1.41 million in open interest.

Source: Dune

Alpha Arcade, Gacha, Seer, X3X, Truemarkets, Ninja Blaze, and Punk.Coffee all remained small but continued to report volumes, open interest, and ratios, showing how wide the prediction landscape has become.

Regulators are rewriting rules of prediction markets as politics and sports drive activity

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said it will write new rules for the multi-billion-dollar prediction industry. Chairman Michael Selig said, “It is time for clear rules and a clear understanding that the CFTC supports lawful innovation in these markets.” He added, “I will continue to support the responsible development of event contract markets.”

Kalshi Inc. and the US arm of Polymarket operate CFTC-regulated exchanges that let users trade outcomes tied to elections and the Super Bowl. Activity surged even as some state gaming regulators pushed back. Sports contracts drove most of Kalshi’s volume, based on data from Dune Analytics.

The Trump family also entered the space. Donald Trump Jr. became an advisor to both Kalshi and Polymarket. Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. announced plans for its own marketplace. None of the firms commented on the rule changes.

Selig withdrew a 2024 proposal issued under former chairman Rostin Behnam that sought to ban sports and political contracts. He also pulled a 2025 staff advisory tied to litigation. “It has instead contributed to uncertainty in our markets,” Selig said. He added that the CFTC would defend its exclusive authority over commodity derivatives.

Selig took office in December and spoke alongside Paul Atkins, the SEC chairman, at a crypto regulation panel. Both agencies said they will work together while lawmakers debate oversight. The Senate Agriculture Committee passed a bill giving the CFTC authority over spot commodities like Bitcoin. A companion bill in the Senate Banking Committee stalled over limits on exchange rewards. Formal legislation is still required, Selig said.

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The crypto industry in 2026 is no longer driven by hype, but by technology and usable code. Many older projects are steadily losing ground as they fail to deliver new tools or meaningful upgrades. At the same time, a new crypto name is beginning to surface on the radar of experienced investors.

This project spent months in near obscurity, developing in the background. Now, it is stepping into the spotlight. While top cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum continue to drop in value, this altcoin is showing early signs of a potentially massive breakout.

Mutuum Finance (MUTM)

Mutuum Finance (MUTM) is developing a decentralized lending and borrowing protocol. It is developed around the Ethereum network making it very secure and trustworthy. The platform has two broad methods of dealing with loans. The initial one is Peer-to-Contract (P2C). In this market, customers deposit their crypto in communal pools to get yield. 

The second model is the Peer-to-peer (P2P). It is in the case of direct loans between users. It can have custom loans and rate of borrowing. The users have the ability to do their own terms on niche or volatile assets. The protocol resorts to the Loan-to-Value (LTV) system to ensure the safety of everything. In case of the stable assets, LTV is up to 75%. 

This implies that you will be able to borrow $750 on the security of $1,000. In order to insure the mechanism, there is an automated bot that deals with liquidations. When the collateral value goes too low, the bot will close the loan in order to safeguard the lenders.

MUTM Demand and Growth

This project has received an incredible response in the market. Mutuum Finance has formally raised in excess of $20.2 million. The community is also large as there are over 19,000 holders on board. The amount of total MUTM supply is limited to 4 billion tokens. The group has set aside 45.5% of this allocation to the presale. This amounts to 1.82 billion tokens to early adopters. To date, more than 840 million tokens were sold. This is almost a half of the total presale supply.

MUTM has been growing at a steady and good pace. It opened at a low price of $0.01 in Phase 1 beginning 2025. Today, in presale phase 7, the price is $0.04. This is a 3x growth. The launch price is officially pegged at $0.06. It is an indication of a 500% MUTM appreciation on launch to Phase 1 investors. 

Technical Milestone and Price Prediction

The largest news of the project is the release of the V1 protocol into the Sepolia testnet. This occurred in early January 2026. It demonstrates that the technology is practical and actual. The pools of USDT, ETH, LINK, WBTC and the mtToken mechanism can now be tested by the user. Prior to this launch, the team completed a significant audit by Halborn Security. They also score high of 90/100 according to CertiK. These audits indicate that the code is professional and safe to huge sums of money.

The future price of MUTM is very positive to analysts. It is believed that the present price of $0.04 is a giant discount. There are some experts who have proposed a short-term price of $0.25-$ 0.45 at the time when the mainnet is launched. In case more users use the protocol, the price might be at $1.00 in 2027. This would be a x25 fold increase of the current level. 

The Path to Mass Adoption

Mutuum Finance also has even greater plans in the future. The group is planning on a native stablecoin. The protocol assets will provide over-collateralization to this coin. It will enable borrowers to borrow an asset pegged to the dollar in a cheap manner. The project also has an expansion of the Layer-2 networks. This will render transactions to be extremely quick and nearly free. These attributes are paramount to success in the long run. They render the platform user-friendly to all, not only professionals.

And this is the final offer to get MUTM at 50% off the initial price. The chance to enter at this valuation is dwindling as Phase 7 is approaching completion. To the people who want practical utility and a high growth potential, Mutuum Finance is positioning itself as the best altcoin in 2026.

For more information about Mutuum Finance (MUTM) visit the links below:

Website: https://www.mutuum.com
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mutuumfinance

Throughout market history, silver has rarely maintained values exceeding $40 an ounce for extended periods. Last Friday, exhausted traders witnessed something remarkable, the precious metal plummeted by that entire amount in less than a day.

Traders handling metals worldwide had spent recent weeks glued to their monitors overnight. Gold, copper, tin and similar commodities seemed disconnected from typical supply and demand patterns, driven skyward by heavy speculative bets from China.

The surge reversed violently. Within hours, one of commodities trading’s most severe crashes unfolded. Friday saw silver plunge 26%, an unprecedented single-day decline. Gold dropped 9%, recording its steepest fall in more than a decade. Copper had already experienced chaos after spiking above $14,500 per ton before collapsing equally fast.

News that President Donald Trump intended to appoint Kevin Warsh as Federal Reserve chairman sparked Friday’s collapse, strengthening the dollar. However, warnings had circulated for weeks that metal valuations had stretched too far and faced inevitable correction. Still, the velocity and magnitude of the downturn left observers breathless, particularly given gold’s substantial market size and liquidity.

European and American metal traders abandoned normal schedules, working continuously to avoid missing Asian trading hours where dramatic price movements frequently occurred. Some conducted frantic transactions during transcontinental flights. Attendees at Germany’s largest coin conference last week stood motionless, eyes fixed on mobile devices as the crisis developed.

Gold’s ascent began years earlier as central banks accumulated holdings to diversify beyond dollar reserves.

The climb accelerated last year when Western investors embraced the debasement trade strategy. Recent weeks witnessed intensified momentum, propelled by Chinese speculative activity, ranging from individual traders to equity funds entering commodity markets, lifting metals to unprecedented peaks. Trend-following algorithmic trading programs amplified the rally further.

Momentum trade replaces fundamental analysis

Jay Hatfield serves as chief investment officer at Infrastructure Capital Advisors, a hedge fund. “We had identified about three or four weeks ago that it turned into a momentum trade, not a fundamental trade,” he explained to Bloomberg. “We were just riding it, waiting for this type of thing to happen.”

Concerns surrounding Federal Reserve independence and geopolitical tensions spanning Venezuela to Iran dominated headlines. The metal rally symbolized declining confidence in dollar stability among certain investors.

Mounting enthusiasm drew increasing participants, creating gold and silver purchasing fever across China and Germany. The phenomenon mirrored 1979-1980, modern history’s only comparable period of extreme price volatility.

Heraeus operates at maximum production, attempting to satisfy demand, Sperzel noted. “We are sold out in certain bar sizes, weeks in advance and people they still buy,” he said. “People are queuing for hours in front of these shops in order to buy products.”

Silver experienced the most dramatic fluctuations. Its market remains relatively compact,current annual supply valued at merely $98 billion compared with gold’s $787 billion.

The iShares Silver Trust, the largest silver-backed exchange-traded fund trading under ticker SLV, processed over $40 billion on Friday. This positioned it among Earth’s most actively traded securities. Just months earlier, daily volumes rarely exceeded $2 billion.

Options activity, increasingly favored by retail participants recently, reached fever pitch. Reddit discussions documented returns exceeding 1,000% from wagers on silver’s rapid ascent. Major gold and silver funds achieved record call option open interest and volumes lately. SLV call option activity surpassed even the primary Nasdaq 100 technology index tracker.

Abundant outstanding call options create squeeze conditions. Dealers scramble to hedge exposures by purchasing underlying assets during price increases, fueling additional upward movement.

Tuesday evening, Trump characterized the pressured dollar as “doing great,” igniting final speculative buying. Thursday brought gold to $5,595 per ounce, silver past $121, and copper to $14,527.50.

Reversal signs emerged late Thursday as dollar strength returned and gold tumbled abruptly—shedding over $200 per ounce within approximately ten minutes.

Chinese profit-taking seals market fate

Brief stabilization followed. Then Bloomberg and other outlets reported Trump’s intention to nominate Warsh for Fed leadership. Chinese investors pursued profit-taking rather than continued purchases. Friday’s dramatic selloff took root.

Future developments may again hinge on Chinese activity. Shanghai trading commences Sunday evening New York time. Chinese exchange daily limits of 16%-19% on various silver contracts suggest Shanghai valuations require adjustment.

Ahead of Lunar New Year, traditionally a strong buying period, the pullback might attract sidelined retail investors seeking entry opportunities. At Shuibei, a significant bullion trading center, silver availability improved somewhat through weekend selling activity, traders reported. Panic selling remains absent, with Shuibei silver maintaining premiums over exchange contracts.

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Nvidia’s top executive has walked back expectations about a massive investment in OpenAI, saying the chipmaker never made a firm promise to put $100 billion into the artificial intelligence company.

Jensen Huang, who runs Nvidia, told reporters in Taipei on Sunday that the eye-popping sum was simply an upper limit his company could consider investing, not a done deal. The tech boss said Nvidia will look at each chance to invest separately.

“It was never a commitment,” Huang explained to reporters. “They invited us to invest up to $100 billion and of course, we were very happy and honored that they invited us, but we will invest one step at a time.”

The clarification comes after Nvidia and OpenAI signed paperwork in September laying out plans for the chip company to potentially invest as much as $100 billion in the ChatGPT maker.

That money would help OpenAI build massive computer centers and other technology needed to power artificial intelligence systems. The arrangement aimed to create facilities using at least 10 gigawatts of electricity, about as much power as New York City uses when demand hits its highest point. These centers would run on Nvidia’s cutting-edge computer chips, which train and operate AI programs.

Huang dismisses tension as ‘nonsense’, then cuts investment plans

The Wall Street Journal threw cold water on the deal Friday, reporting that the investment plans had hit roadblocks. According to unnamed sources who know about the situation, some people inside Nvidia started having second thoughts about the partnership. The newspaper said Huang had told people privately that the $100 billion figure wasn’t legally binding. He also reportedly criticized how OpenAI runs its business, saying the company lacks proper discipline, and worried about facing too much competition.

When reporters asked Huang on Saturday about the Journal’s story, which suggested tensions between him and OpenAI, he dismissed it sharply.

“That’s nonsense,” Huang said.

He went on to praise OpenAI and promise significant financial support. “We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters. “I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.”

While Huang called the planned investment “huge,” he stopped short of saying exactly how much Nvidia might actually put in. He did make clear that whatever Nvidia contributes to OpenAI’s current fundraising effort won’t come close to $100 billion.

The back-and-forth highlights growing worries about how money flows in the AI industry. Nvidia’s plan to invest heavily in OpenAI raises eyebrows because OpenAI is also one of Nvidia’s biggest customers, buying large quantities of its advanced chips. Critics increasingly question whether these arrangements — where tech companies invest in AI businesses that turn around and buy their products — create fake demand that makes the market look healthier than it really is.

CoreWeave deal adds to the pattern

Nvidia isn’t just doing this with OpenAI. The company recently said it would put another $2 billion into CoreWeave Inc., a cloud computing business that also buys lots of Nvidia chips. That deal targets building 5 gigawatts worth of AI technology infrastructure by 2030. When news of the CoreWeave investment broke on January 26, 2026, the company’s stock jumped 6 percent.

The CoreWeave partnership adds to concerns about this circular pattern in AI financing. Investors are starting to ask harder questions about whether these deals actually reflect genuine market demand or if they’re just tech companies propping up each other’s businesses through investments that eventually flow back to themselves through product sales.

Despite the questions swirling around these investments, Huang remains bullish on OpenAI and the broader AI industry, even as he insists Nvidia will be more measured about how much it actually commits.

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Kevin Moss runs one of the few investment funds giving regular people a chance to buy into major technology companies before they start trading on stock exchanges, with Elon Musk’s SpaceX serving as his biggest draw.

The Private Shares Fund, which manages $1.1 billion, had put 13.68% of its money into the rocket manufacturer as of December, a $151 million position that represents the fund’s top investment. That’s a larger percentage bet than even Cathie Wood has made on the aerospace company.

With several of the fund’s portfolio companies like Discord, Kraken and Motive Technologies getting ready to launch initial public offerings, 2026 looks promising for Moss’s investment approach. These private holdings will soon face their first real market test when they start trading publicly.

SpaceX takes center stage as fund’s top holding

The appeal of owning SpaceX stock showed up clearly in investor behavior. When the news broke about SpaceX planning to go public, money flowing into the fund jumped 201% above what it typically sees in a year. For the 56-year-old Moss, the sales pitch is straightforward: tie up your cash to get early access to major tech names, even though private company values aren’t transparent, profits aren’t guaranteed, and it might take years to cash out.

“We saw SpaceX at the time as an emerging leader,” Moss explained in a Bloomberg interview when discussing his first purchase of $10 million back in 2019. That investment has grown fifteen times since then.

Buying those shares took real effort. Moss traveled to the company’s California headquarters, walked through the factory, and sat down with company officials before completing the transaction.

The rocket company is planning to go public potentially this year, with reports suggesting it could be valued at $1.5 trillion, which would make it the largest stock market debut ever.

Looking at returns, the fund hasn’t beaten the Russell 2000 index over one-year and three-year periods, though it matched the index’s performance over five years, based on Bloomberg data.

While most investment funds buy into companies like SpaceX through special investment vehicles or roundabout methods, Moss purchases shares directly from the company’s official ownership records. SpaceX carefully reviews every potential shareholder. According to Cryptopolitan, SpaceX is looking at possibly combining with Tesla Inc. or artificial intelligence company xAI, another company in Moss’s portfolio.

The fund uses what’s called an interval fund structure. Unlike regular mutual funds, people can only pull their money out during three-month windows. This setup prevents having to sell holdings when markets get rocky. The entry point is $2,500.

Investors don’t get full transparency on some important details

The fund doesn’t reveal its current valuation of SpaceX, how much that holding has contributed to performance, or how a major public offering might change the fund’s worth. Like other interval funds, it provides quarterly reports showing cost basis, position size and fair value.

Even when investor interest spikes, getting more exposure to hot companies like SpaceX isn’t automatic. Private company shares aren’t always up for sale, and when they are, companies like SpaceX strictly control who can buy.

Every Thursday, Moss and his four-person team, two portfolio managers and two analysts, review their roughly 80 investments, working through valuations and exit strategies. They have tough standards. Companies need at least $50 million in revenue and must be growing 30% annually. Moss expects about 10 portfolio companies to go public this year, including Kraken, Discord, and Motive Technologies.

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Tesla is done being a car company. Elon Musk is ripping out vehicle lines, shutting down models, and sinking billions into robots, chips, and software.

So if you’re still tracking car deliveries, you’re wasting your time. Tesla is chasing $25 billion from humanoids.

As Cryptopolitan reported last week, in Tesla’s Q4 earnings report, there was a 16% drop in car deliveries. Then we hopped on the call event and heard Elon say “I’m fine with that.”

Elon scrapped the Model S and X. Straight up killing them off so their factories can be used to build humanoid robots. Elon even changed Tesla’s mission statement to “amazing abundance.”

That’s what he opened the call with. He didn’t talk about earnings. He talked about building a future full of robots and high-performance chips. And he’s backing it up with real money.

His plan is to build chips in-house using a new platform called TerraFab. It’ll cost several hundreds of billions. But Tesla fans think it’s the best long-term bet he’s made in years.

Robotaxi production is also getting ramped up right now. Not next year. Not “eventually.” Now. Elon called this the robotaxi ramp year, and he didn’t follow it with any updates about normal cars. There’s no focus on ownership anymore; just autonomy, production, and software.

Robot numbers and chip goals now drive Tesla’s future

William Blair’s Jed Dorsheimer ran the math on what Elon is trying to pull off. If Tesla makes 500,000 Optimus bots per year and sells each one for $50,000, that’s $25 billion a year.

That’s not some far-off fantasy either. Elon says Optimus V3 is dropping this year, and production starts in 2027. That’s real product, real numbers, and real capital going into it.

On the chip side, TerraFab is a giant project that Tesla is handling on its own. That means the company won’t depend on outside chip suppliers.

Elon wants full control, from hardware to software. And it’s not for fun. It’s to run AI, robotics, and the autonomy systems for everything Tesla plans to roll out over the next few years.

Elon also said Tesla might keep making semitrucks. Maybe a few Roadsters. But the big delivery-focused EV plans? He didn’t mention any. That story’s done.

The market already priced this in. Tesla stock is trading at a forward P/E of 196. General Motors and Ford? They’re sitting in the single digits. That tells you everything. Wall Street doesn’t think Tesla is like the others. Because it isn’t.

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By the end of January 2026, the top cryptocurrency market is entering a pivotal, high-stakes transition. While the opening weeks of the year were marked by cautious optimism, a sharp shift in sentiment is now rippling across the charts. Signs of fatigue are becoming evident among leading cryptocurrencies, suggesting that the momentum driving them over the past several months may be weakening. 

Analysts tracking smart-money flows are noting declining demand for high-cap assets, alongside growing interest in emerging, utility-focused protocols. The market appears to be positioning for a major realignment, one in which only projects with the strongest technological foundations are likely to endure.

Bitcoin (BTC) 

Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at approximately 82,500 at the moment after falling sharply by 5.7% in the past 24 hours. This negative trend has taken the total market capitalization of the asset to about $1.72 trillion. The psychological and technical resistance zone at the levels of $83,000 to 85,000 has turned into a major resistance to many traders. Pricing has been hit by a high selling pressure although there have been a series of attempts to regain the $90,000 mark earlier this month.

The immediate market forecast of Bitcoin is progressively unfavorable to those who are out to make aggressive returns. Technical analysts also fear that in case BTC cannot support itself at its current price, it will cause a drop to $75,000 or even $65,000 by the middle of 2026. 

According to the majority of experts, even in a moderately bullish future, the growth of most of the existing DeFi protocols can be estimated at a rather modest 1.2x to 1.5x in the coming year, which is still minuscule when compared to the growth potential of the new protocols. This is a main motive that has seen most long-term holders selling their BTC to realize gains and diversify to high utility altcoins.

Mutuum Finance (MUTM)

Bitcoin may be losing its momentum for now but Mutuum Finance (MUTM) is taking advantage as an asset to put in high demand. Mutuum Finance is a new crypto developing decentralized lending and borrowing hub based on the Ethereum network. 

Mutuum Finance will enable the users to gain access to liquidity or yield without selling their digital assets. The project has already garnered over $20.1 million and it has already got over 19,000 holders which is a good indicator that the project is highly trusted by the market even before its official launch.

The MUTM presale is at Phase 7, and the price of the token is $0.04. This is a 300% increase over its original Phase 1 price of $0.01. Having a confirmed launch price of $0.06, investors buying at this moment are buying at a 50% discount. 

According to the project, 45.5% (1.82 billion tokens) of the total supply of 4 billion tokens are distributed to the presale, and more than 840 million tokens have already been sold, which indicates that the time to take advantage of an early entry is running out.

V1 Protocol Launch and Community Engagement

The technical milestones make MUTM have the momentum it has. The Sepolia testnet currently has the V1 protocol online and users can use it to test core functionality such as liquidity pools, mtTokens and the auto liquidator bot. This practical product is what distinguishes between MUTM and pure speculative money. 

Moreover, the site accepts direct payments made by card and thus any investor can easily take part in the presale. In order to remain engaged within the community, a 24-hour leaderboard will be used to pay the most active participant of the day with a bonus of $500 in MUTM tokens.

Mutuum Finance has a high level of safety as it has gone through a full independent audit, with Halborn Security. The protocol also has a high score of 90/100 points by CertiK and has a bug bounty of 50,000 USD to guarantee the resilience of the code. 

In the future, the roadmap will involve the introduction of an over-collateralized stablecoin and integration of Chainlink oracles to get true price feeds. These characteristics, along with the Layer-2 expansion strategies, make Mutuum Finance a leader in the new cheap crypto cycle in 2026.

For more information about Mutuum Finance (MUTM) visit the links below:

Website: https://www.mutuum.com
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mutuumfinance