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Ripple has secured a critical regulatory foothold in the European Union, marking the firm’s second major licensing victory in less than a week.On Jan. 14, the crypto-focused payment company announced it received preliminary approval from Luxembourg’s regulator, the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), for an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licence.While the approval is technically preliminary, Ripple has framed the move as the strategic gateway that will allow it to passport its services across the 27 member states of the EU.This places the firm on a collision course with the region’s traditional banking infrastructure just as the Markets in…

In brief CME Group is adding ADA, LINK, and XLM futures in February. The offering will include standard and micro contracts, pending regulatory approval. The announcement builds on CME’s expanding crypto derivatives suite. CME Group, operator of the world’s largest financial derivatives exchange, will add Cardano, Chainlink, and Stellar futures contracts to its crypto offerings on February 9.The new ADA, LINK, and LXM contracts are still pending regulatory review, the firm said in a press release Thursday. The contracts will be offered both in standard and micro sizes for all three cryptocurrencies: 100,000 ADA and 10,000 for the micro; 5,000…

Crypto startup Saturn is raising funding for an on-chain dollar product, USDat, that routes yield from Strategy’s Bitcoin-linked credit instruments into DeFi.The round included $500,000 from YZi Labs and a $300,000 angel raise led by Sora Ventures, as Saturn positions USDat as a dollar-denominated token whose returns are tied to Strategy’s STRC preferred equity.STRC is a Nasdaq-listed perpetual security that currently pays an annualized dividend of 11% distributed monthly, according to Strategy.Rather than framing USDat as a conventional yield-bearing stablecoin, Saturn is packaging public-market credit exposure into a blockchain-native format.Saturn’s USDat turns Strategy-linked yield into a blockchain-native assetThe structure converts…

In brief Viral AI videos replace a creator’s face and body with Stranger Things actors, drawing over 14 million views. Researchers says full-body deepfakes remove visual cues used to detect earlier face-only manipulation. Experts warn that the same tools could fuel scams, disinformation, and other abuse as access expands. A viral post featuring a video reportedly made with Kling AI’s 2.6 Motion Control took social media by storm this week as a clip by Brazilian content creator Eder Xavier showed him flawlessly swapping his face and body with those of Stranger Things actors Millie Bobby Brown, David Harbour, and Finn…

January 14, 2026 – George Town, British Virgin Islands Human trader ProMint claims championship as AI demonstrates superior risk control. Aster, the high-performance and privacy-focused on-chain trading platform backed by YZi Labs, has announced the final results of its ‘Human versus AI’ live trading competition. Conducted over a two-week period under highly volatile market conditions, the event highlighted a clear contrast between discretionary human trading and AI-driven strategies. While individual human trader ProMint secured the top ranking with positive net profits, the human trading team as a whole recorded an overall ROI of -32.22%, reflecting significant performance dispersion across participants.…

In brief Ninjas in Pyjamas parent company NIP Group mined over $14 million worth of Bitcoin in the first three months of its operation. The company is bringing more mining rigs online and aims to mine over $13 million worth of BTC monthly once fully up and running. Ninjas in Pyjamas is best known for its esports teams and competitors. NIP Group Inc., the publicly traded parent company of long-running esports team organization Ninjas in Pyjamas, announced Thursday that it mined approximately 151.4 Bitcoin—about $14.5 million worth—during its initial three months of operation from September through November.The company, which trades…

Bitcoin is now trading around near $96,000 as spot ETF inflows and options market positioning exert opposing mechanical forces on price behavior.The current price sits just outside a range between roughly $90,000 and $94,000, a band that has persisted despite intermittent surges and declines in spot demand through US-listed Bitcoin exchange-traded funds.Bitcoin price range Dec – Jan (Source: TradingView)The breakout above $94,000 to reach as high as $97,800 in intraday pricing is promising for those who believe Bitcoin is done with the four-year cycle. However, the question now is whether this marks the start of a new bull run or…

In brief House Democrats skewered the SEC over its handling of crypto cases. The development came as a crypto market structure bill appeared to derail. They devoted plenty of ink to Tron founder Justin Sun and his ties to China. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat on the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, was among lawmakers who blasted the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday over its handling of enforcement actions against crypto firms.The letter, which was also written by Reps. Brad Sherman (D-CA) and Sean Casten (D-IL), accused the regulator of selectively enforcing securities laws against crypto firms,…

Former New York City Mayor Eric Adams is in hot water after promoting a crypto asset that suffered a massive price drop shortly after its launch. Adams introduced the memecoin NYC Token as a crypto asset with a cause. “Proud to launch @buynyctoken, a new token built to fight the rapid spread of antisemitism and anti-Americanism across this country and now in New York City.” The token surged following its launch. Data from the decentralized exchange (DEX) tracker Gecko Terminal shows the coin’s price hit $0.8 before plummeting to $0.1116.  “The token has since fallen over 81% from its peak…

SEC Chair Paul Atkins told Fox Business in December that he expects US financial markets to move on-chain “in a couple of years.” The statement landed somewhere between prophecy and policy directive, especially coming from the architect of “Project Crypto,” the Commission’s formal initiative to enable tokenized market infrastructure.However, what does “on-chain” mean when applied to $67.7 trillion in public equities, $30.3 trillion in Treasuries, and $12.6 trillion in daily repo exposures? And which parts can realistically move first?The answer requires precision. “On-chain” isn’t a single thing: it is a four-layer stack, and most of what Atkins described sits in…

In brief Chainalysis estimates that Iran’s crypto ecosystem reached about $7.78 billion in 2025, growing faster than the year prior. Bitcoin withdrawals by civilians surged during mass protests and an internet blackout that began in late December 2025. Separately, IRGC-linked networks accounted for more than half of Iran’s crypto value received in late 2025. As Iran’s economy reels from deepening unrest and a collapsing currency, cryptocurrency activity tied to the country surged to nearly $7.8 billion in 2025, according to a new report from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.According to Chainalysis, the data shows digital assets increasingly serving two distinct roles—as…

U.S. Senate Democrats are reportedly set to reopen talks with representatives from the cryptocurrency industry on Friday, according to people familiar with the plan speaking to CoinDesk.  All this comes less than two days after a last-minute postponement of a key Senate Banking Committee hearing on sweeping digital asset legislation. The call follows Wednesday night’s abrupt cancellation of the committee’s planned markup of the long-negotiated crypto market structure bill, which had been expected to divide regulatory oversight of digital assets between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).  The delay came after Coinbase, the…