Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin drew a clear boundary around what he considers real decentralized finance, pushing back against yield-driven stablecoin strategies that he says do not meaningfully transform risk. He argued DeFi's value comes from changing how risk is allocated and managed, not simply generating yield on centralized

Binance added another 4,225 Bitcoin—about $300 million—to its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), blockchain data platform Arkham shows. The purchase lifts the fund’s Bitcoin holdings to more than $720 million at current prices. On X, Binance said, “We’re continuing to acquire #Bitcoin for the

Binance converted $734 million into Bitcoin as part of a plan to shift SAFU reserves, bringing the fund’s holdings to 10,455 BTC. The move is one stage of a broader effort to convert a $1 billion reserve into Bitcoin over a 30-day period. Early batches included roughly 1,

French police arrested six people, including a minor, over the kidnapping of a 35‑year‑old magistrate and her 67‑year‑old mother in a cryptocurrency‑linked ransom plot aimed at the magistrate’s partner, a crypto entrepreneur. The partner received a photo of the magistrate and a threat to

Bitcoin’s mining difficulty fell about 11%, the largest decline since China’s 2021 crackdown, after a sharp drop in hashrate tied to plunging prices and winter storm outages. The metric moved from just over 141.6 trillion to roughly 125.86 trillion as the network rebalanced; difficulty adjusts roughly

A Chinese-language crypto guarantee marketplace known as Xinbi processed nearly $17.9 billion in on-chain transaction volume despite platform bans and United States enforcement actions aimed at dismantling similar services, TRM Labs found. The $17.9 billion figure reflects gross on-chain transaction volume processed by wallets attributed to Xinbi, covering

Crypto fund outflows plunged to $187 million last week, a sharp drop that suggests the recent wave of selling may be losing momentum, the latest CoinShares report shows. Total assets under management fell to $129.8 billion, the lowest level since March 2025. Exchange-traded products saw record activity, with $63.

Bitcoin has fallen more than 22% over the past month, briefly hitting its lowest level in over a year before a partial rebound. Market data showed the largest cryptocurrency dropped to $60,000 on February 6 and was trading at $70,354 at press time, up 1.20% on the

Bitcoin plunged early this month to nearly $60,000, wiping out large chunks of value across the crypto market and vaporizing some trading funds. Most observers blamed macro forces, including the capitulation of spot ETF holders and rumors of funds blowing out positions, but a quieter force likely played a

The Open Network Foundation has launched TON Pay, an SDK designed to make cryptocurrencies usable for everyday consumer transactions inside Telegram. The wallet-agnostic payment layer lets merchants and Mini App developers accept crypto directly through the messaging app. TON Pay provides a single software kit that integrates with Telegram Mini

Ryan Chow, CEO and co-founder of Solv Protocol, says token prices are often a noisy, lagging signal and that real value in crypto would shift to fundamentals if tokens ceased to matter. He argues that adoption, usability and security would become the dominant measures, and that builders would prioritize infrastructure

CoinDesk is hosting its second annual Consensus Hong Kong conference on Feb. 8, 2026, with policymakers and industry participants in town. The event will kick off Wednesday with a speech from Hong Kong Chief Executive John KC Lee. Day one features Financial Secretary Paul Chan and Securities and Futures Commission

Bitcoin begins the second week of February still on the defensive after last week’s sharp drawdown, with traders increasingly eyeing deeper retracements toward $60,000 — and even $50,000 — before a durable macro bottom forms. Market forecasts broadly agree that price has not yet put in a reliable long-term

Concerns that quantum computing could one day break Bitcoin’s cryptography have resurfaced, but CoinShares argues the risk remains distant. The firm frames quantum computing as a long-term engineering challenge and says Bitcoin has ample time to adapt before quantum machines reach a cryptographically relevant scale. In theory, Shor’s

An analysis by Coinglass comparing perpetual decentralized exchange data has sparked a fierce debate and highlighted rifts within the crypto derivatives sector. The study exposed marked discrepancies in trading volumes, open interest and liquidations across Hyperliquid, Aster and Lighter, leaving users asking what qualifies as genuine activity on these platforms.

Jefferies estimates Tether holds at least 148 tonnes of physical gold, valued at roughly $23 billion as of Jan. 31, after buying about 26 tonnes in the last quarter of 2025 and another 6 tonnes in January. The firm now ranks among the top 30 global holders of bullion and

The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) will step up scrutiny of suspected cryptocurrency price manipulation in 2026, targeting high-risk tactics such as large-scale “whale” trades, schemes that exploit exchange disruptions and coordinated trading via APIs or social media. FSS Governor Lee Chang-jin said the agency will focus on practices that undermine

Japan’s blockchain efforts have taken on a more practical tone as major institutions assess where the technology fits into everyday financial and industrial workflows. A clear signal arrived in late 2025 when the government backed a project led by the country’s three largest banks to issue stablecoins for

After falling to nearly $2.0 trillion last Friday, the total crypto market capitalization has rebounded to above $2.3 trillion. Investors appear to be spotting opportunities, and buy-the-dip sentiment is resurfacing. The key question is whether this rebound is strong enough to form a classic V-shaped recovery. One early

South Korea’s top financial watchdog is increasing oversight of crypto markets days after a local exchange mistakenly distributed billions of dollars in bitcoin to users. The Financial Supervisory Service will launch planned investigations into “high-risk” practices that undermine market order, including large-scale price manipulation by so-called whales, trading schemes

Scam Sniffer says two victims lost a combined $62 million to address poisoning since December. One victim copied the wrong address from their transaction history and lost $12.2 million in January, following a similar $50 million incident in December. Address poisoning involves attackers sending small “dust” transactions from addresses

Bitcoin has rebounded nearly 20% after slipping close to $60,000 on February 6, but volume signals, on-chain data and price structure suggest the rally may be fragile. US demand indicators have started to recover, yet several warning patterns resemble setups that preceded major declines earlier in this cycle. The

CoinShares pushed back on growing warnings that quantum computers pose an imminent crisis for bitcoin, arguing that the portion of supply realistically at risk is much smaller than some estimates suggest. The firm disputed figures that put 20%–50% of bitcoin in theoretical danger and instead focused on legacy Pay-to-Public-Key

Coinbase returned to the Super Bowl with a lo-fi, Backstreet Boys karaoke–inspired ad. The one-minute TV spot mainly featured text animation flashing the lyrics to the Backstreet Boys' 1997 hit “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back).” Coinbase marketing chief Catherine Ferdon said the ad aimed to “bring people together for

The Bitcoin Sharpe ratio — a measure of risk-adjusted return — has fallen to -10, its lowest level since March 2023, CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost said on X on Saturday. "The Sharpe ratio has just entered a particularly interesting zone, one that has historically aligned with the final phases of bear markets,