News & Research

Ripple has entered into a multi-year strategic partnership with UK-based fintech firm LMAX Group, The Block reported. As part of the agreement, Ripple will invest $150 million to support LMAX's asset diversification and growth. LMAX will also include Ripple's stablecoin, RLUSD, as a collateral asset for its global institutional trading.

CME Group has announced plans to expand its cryptocurrency derivatives offerings with the launch of futures for Cardano (ADA), Chainlink (LINK), and Stellar (XLM) on Feb. 9, according to media reports. The company added that the launch is pending regulatory approval and the products will be available as both standard and micro futures contracts.

According to multiple media outlets, Bitmine (BMNR), a publicly traded company known for its strategic accumulation of ETH, has announced a $200 million equity investment in Beast Industries, the corporate holding company of world-famous YouTuber MrBeast.

A growing number of DeFi protocols are suspending their Discord channels due to the platform's rampant phishing schemes, Cointelegraph reported. DeFi lending protocol MORPHO recently switched its official Discord channel to read-only mode, citing the platform's role as a hotbed for phishing. Similarly, DeFi data platform DefiLlama is also minimizing its channel activity in a move away from Discord. While the platform remains a popular communication tool for cryptocurrency users, its failure to address persistent security issues is reportedly causing a rift with the crypto community.

Blockchain infrastructure firm Global Settlement Network (GSN) has announced a pilot program to tokenize water purification facilities in Jakarta, Indonesia, Cointelegraph reported. GSN stated that it plans to pursue a $200 million tokenization project across Southeast Asia. In the initial phase, the company will tokenize eight government-contracted facilities to raise $35 million, after which it will pilot a rupiah-based stablecoin payment infrastructure over the next 12 months.

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a net inflow of $838.82 million on Jan. 14, according to data compiled by Trader T. This marks the third consecutive day of net inflows and sets a new three-month high for single-day inflows, surpassing the previous day's record. Inflows were led by BlackRock's IBIT with $646.62 million, followed by Fidelity's FBTC with $125.39 million. Other notable inflows included Ark Invest's ARKB ($27.04 million), Bitwise's BITB ($10.60 million), VanEck's HODL ($8.28 million), Franklin Templeton's EZBC ($5.64 million), and Grayscale's GBTC, which saw an inflow of $15.25 million.

The Algorand (ALGO) Foundation is moving its headquarters from Singapore to the United States and launching a new board of directors, DL News reported. CEO Staci Warden said the foundation is focusing on areas where blockchain can have a tangible impact, including immediate global payments, accessibility to financial products, and economic resilience. She added that by realigning its U.S. presence, the foundation aims to help the United States secure a leadership role in next-generation financial infrastructure.

Asset manager Bitwise has listed seven new exchange-traded products (ETPs) based on Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Solana (SOL) on Nasdaq Stockholm in Sweden, Cointelegraph reported. The listing allows Swedish investors to access spot and staking-linked cryptocurrency products denominated in the local currency, the Swedish krona (SEK). The newly listed products include a spot Bitcoin ETP, a spot Ethereum ETP, staking-based ETPs for ETH and SOL, a hybrid ETP combining Bitcoin and gold, and an ETP that tracks the MSCI Digital Asset Select 20 index of the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott stated in an interview with CoinDesk that it would be inappropriate to insert an ethics provision targeting President Donald Trump's cryptocurrency business into a pending crypto bill. Scott argued that such an ethics debate is outside the jurisdiction of the Banking Committee and should be handled as a separate matter by the Senate Ethics Committee. He added that while discussions are possible, adding the provision to the bill as is would be more difficult than expected. The U.S. Senate Banking Committee is scheduled to vote on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act this Thursday.

The FTX estate has announced it will conduct its next round of creditor repayments on March 31. The distribution will be made to creditors registered as of Feb. 14. Concurrently, the estate has submitted a revised proposal to the bankruptcy court to reduce its reserve for disputed claims. If the court approves the proposal, the total amount available for repayment is expected to increase.