Crypto News

- 3 Altcoins Crypto Whales Are Buying For February 2026 Crypto whales are already positioning for the next market phase as February 2026 approaches. On-chain data reveals large holders accumulating select altcoins ahead of a potential trend shift. BeInCrypto has analyzed three such altcoins that stand out as whales are buying, which have strong upside narratives for the coming months. Aster (ASTER) ASTER has emerged as a standout token as whale accumulation accelerates. Over the past month, addresses holding more than $1 million in ASTER added roughly 15 million tokens. This sustained buying highlights growing confidence among large holders, even as broader market conditions remain uneven. Despite strong accumulation, ASTER price...

- How the SEC is Handling Crypto Cases 12 Months Into Trump's Presidency Since U.S. President Donald Trump’s return to public office, the Securities and Exchange Commission has scaled back its crypto enforcement agenda. It has dropped cases, closed investigations, and changed what it prioritizes for enforcement. The most prominent case to fall out of the docket so far is the SEC’s lawsuit against Gemini Trust Company. Earlier this week, the SEC, alongside Gemini’s exchange now operating as Gemini Space Station, filed a joint stipulation to dismiss the Earn case after a “100 percent in-kind return” of investors’ crypto assets. The case was filed in early 2023 over its high-yield lending product, Gemini Earn. The exchange and its...

- Crypto Allocations by Financial Advisors Hit All-Time High in 2025 Broadcast Retirement Network's Jeffrey Snyder discusses the shifting cryptocurrency landscape with Bitwise Asset Management's Matthew Hougan. Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network Matt, it is so great to see you. Thanks for joining us on the program this morning. Matthew Hougan, Chief Investment Officer, Bitwise Asset Management Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network Yeah, and you've got some great survey results here. I have to say, just take from my own personal point of view, 2025 seems to have been a watershed year, landmark year for the cryptocurrency market. I want to get your reaction and...

Welcome to the US Crypto News Morning Briefing—your essential rundown of the most important developments in crypto for the day ahead. Grab a coffee and settle in—things in banking and crypto are about to get interesting. What started as a quiet corner of the digital asset market is now nudging its way into the core of traditional finance (TradFi). Some of the biggest shifts may still be on the horizon, and not all banks are equally ready for them. Crypto News of the Day: Standard Chartered Warns $500 Billion in US Bank Deposits Could Flow to Stablecoins by 2028 Standard Chartered first warned of the threat stablecoins pose to TradFi banks in October. Now the bank is issuing another warning, only this time, with a timeline. The rapid...

- Crypto payments network Mesh has raised $75 million in a Series C round, pushing its total funding past $200 million and valuing the company at $1 billion. The funding round was led by Dragonfly Capital with participation from Paradigm, Moderne Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, SBI Investment, and Liberty City Ventures. The financing comes as investor attention increasingly shifts away from speculative token launches toward the infrastructure needed to support real-world crypto adoption. Mesh positions itself as a unified network designed to connect a fragmented global payments landscape and reduce reliance on traditional settlement rails. Building a Borderless Payments Layer Mesh is tackling the inefficiencies of legacy payment...

- Crypto Community Turns on CZ and Binance as Alpha Listings Keep Crashing—What Went Wrong? Key Takeaways For years, a Binance listing was considered one of crypto’s biggest endorsements. Today, however, for a growing number of traders, it has become a warning sign. Over the past few weeks, frustration across Crypto Twitter (X) has boiled over as users openly accuse Changpeng Zhao (CZ) and Binance of enabling a cycle of hype, extraction, and collapse. A Breaking Point for Binance’s Reputation? The criticism intensified during a broader market pullback when several newly listed tokens, many tied to Binance’s Web3-focused Binance Alpha program, suffered steep declines shortly after launch. What once looked like isolated failures has...

- India and the European Union have successfully concluded a Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The deal’s negotiations were launched in June 2022 and finalized on 27 January 2026. Could “the Mother of all Deals” accelerate India’s push toward clearer crypto regulation? According to the Free Trade Agreement, it grants privileged access for EU exports to the world’s most populous country of 1.45 billion people, potentially doubling EU goods exports to India by 2032, eliminating or reducing tariffs on over 96% of EU goods exports, and eliminating or reducing prohibitive tariffs on key EU agri-food products like wine, olive oil, chocolate, and pastries. The deal is set to save around €4 billion every year in duties on European products...

- There's good reason for this. First of all, Bitcoin is the largest digital asset in the world, with a market capitalization of nearly $1.8 trillion at the time of writing. That's an astronomical sum, and at this level, some investors are right to think about what a continuation of Bitcoin's past performance would mean for its future market capitalization. If Bitcoin doubled four times over, this is a stock that would be nearly $30 trillion, or nearly half the value of the entire U.S. stock market. Now, there are some investors who think Bitcoin can double before the end of this year. One of Bitcoin's most prominent and respected analysts is BitMine's Tom Lee, who thinks Bitcoin could be headed to the $250,000 level before the end...

- CCN Launches Top 101 Ranking Highlighting Crypto’s Most Influential Figures, Projects, and Trends Crypto rarely lacks noise. What it lacks, especially after years of boom-and-bust cycles, is perspective. Against that backdrop, CCN has launched its inaugural Top 101 in Crypto & Blockchain, an editorial project designed to identify the people, projects, and ideas that are driving meaningful, lasting change in the industry heading into 2026. Rather than ranking popularity or price performance, the list aims to answer a harder question: who is actually shaping the future of crypto? The result is a year-long feature that reflects a maturing industry and a growing demand for credibility over hype. A Different Kind of Crypto Ranking...

- South Korea Eyes Domestic Crypto Issuance as Governor Warns on Stablecoin Risks – What’s the Plan? Bank of Korea Governor Rhee Chang-yong revealed South Korea is considering a new registration regime that would allow domestic institutions to issue virtual assets, while warning that won-denominated stablecoins could enable capital flow circumvention. Speaking at the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong, Rhee emphasized that exchange rate volatility could trigger rapid shifts into USD stablecoins and large fund transfers. The announcement comes as South Korean regulators remain deadlocked over comprehensive stablecoin governance, with the Financial Services Commission and Bank of Korea split on whether issuance should be limited to...

- Chinese-Language Networks Now Drive 20% of Crypto Money Laundering Chinese-language money laundering networks (CMLNs) have emerged as the dominant infrastructure for crypto-based illicit fund laundering. The rapid rise of these Telegram-based networks marks a fundamental shift in how criminal proceeds move globally, with significant implications for national security and enforcement strategies worldwide. $16.1 Billion Ecosystem: Scale and Speed According to Chainalysis's 2026 Crypto Crime Report, CMLNs now account for approximately 20% of known cryptocurrency money laundering activity, making them the industry's largest laundering channel. The report reveals that CMLNs processed $16.1 billion in 2025 alone, equivalent to roughly...

- Tucker Carlson Claims Bitcoin Could Replace The US Dollar, Clashes With Peter Schiff Over Gold Push Key Takeaways Media personality Tucker Carlson said Bitcoin (BTC) or Tether (USDT) could replace the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency, arguing that the dollar’s purchasing power is eroding, during a new interview with economist and gold advocate Peter Schiff. The remarks came as Carlson and Schiff clashed over gold’s rally and Schiff’s long-held opposition to cryptocurrencies, as a growing number of commentators echo the skepticism toward digital assets. Tucker Carlson Makes Bold Bitcoin and Tether Claim Carlson framed his argument around what he described as the decline of the U.S. dollar. The comments followed Peter...

- Bitcoin now costs more to mine in the United States than its current market price, according to data from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI). The cryptocurrency is currently trading at around $87,900 according to CoinGecko data, while data from the CBEIC and the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)—which puts the average nationwide cost per kWh of energy in October 2025 at $0.14—suggest that the current cost of mining one Bitcoin is $94,746. This average price incorporates more expensive residential and commercial prices, but when taking only average industrial prices for all states ($0.09 in October), the average cost of mining one Bitcoin is still $86,931. Given ongoing geopolitical and...

- Arizona Lawmakers Advance Bill to Exempt Crypto From Property Taxes Arizona lawmakers are moving to exempt crypto from property taxes, advancing a pair of measures that could lock in statewide tax relief for digital assets, pending voter approval in November. The Arizona Senate Finance Committee voted 4–3 to advance Senate Bill 1044, which would exempt virtual currency from property taxation, alongside Senate Concurrent Resolution 1003 (S.C.R. 1003), which proposes a constitutional amendment to formalize that exemption. Senator Wendy Rogers (R-Flagstaff) introduced the bills last month, with the measures now headed to the Senate Rules Committee. If enacted, S.C.R. 1003 would place a constitutional amendment before Arizona voters...

- Key Takeaways Nearly 60% of the largest banks in the U.S. are either already offering Bitcoin-related services or expect to do so, according to new research from Bitcoin financial services firm River. The analysis, which reviewed Bitcoin custody, trading, and related offerings among the top 25 U.S. banks by assets, found that a growing number of institutions have launched products, announced plans, or are actively exploring ways to serve clients seeking exposure to Bitcoin. Banks In On BTC Several major U.S. banks have already launched BTC-related services, announced imminent plans, or restricted access to select client segments, River’s research shows. JPMorgan Chase has announced Bitcoin trading services, while Citigroup...

- Key Takeaways A parabolic surge in gold and silver prices has drawn investor attention away from strengthening fundamentals in Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), according to Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee. The bullish analyst noted that it was “only a matter of time” before the prices of Bitcoin and Ethereum followed those of precious metals. Lee’s comments came shortly before gold and silver experienced a sharp but brief flash crash, an episode that wiped out trillions of dollars in a matter of hours. Precious Metals Overshadowing Crypto, says Tom Lee In a post on X on Monday, Lee said the relentless rally in precious metals was masking what he described as improving structural trends in major cryptocurrencies. Lee added that...

- Polymarket Makes Bitcoin and Ether Volatility Tradable With New Volmex-Based Markets Decentralized betting platform Polymarket has launched new markets that let traders bet on whether Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) volatility will hit specific levels in 2026, using Volmex’s 30-day implied volatility indices as the settlement source. Instead of betting on where BTC or ETH land, these contracts bet on something else: will the market get wild enough for volatility to touch a set level at any point this year? How Polymarket’s New Volatility Markets Work The markets are framed as “What will the Bitcoin Volatility Index hit in 2026?” and “What will the Ethereum Volatility Index hit in 2026?” with multiple thresholds traders can...

- Hyperliquid Is Now Crypto’s Most Liquid Platform, CEO Claims — How True Is It? Key Takeaways For years, centralized exchanges defined crypto price discovery. That balance is starting to shift. Hyperliquid, a self-funded on-chain perpetuals exchange, has grown fast enough to challenge one of the industry’s longest-held assumptions: that real liquidity can only live on centralized platforms like Binance. When Hyperliquid founder Jeff Yan claimed the protocol is now the “most liquid venue for crypto price discovery,” the statement raised eyebrows across the market. The question isn’t whether Hyperliquid has grown. It’s whether the claim actually holds up. Hyperliquid’s Liquidity Claim Under the Microscope Yan’s argument centers on...

- Silver Moves $2T as Bitcoin Lags, Eyes on Super Wednesday Silver posted one of the most violent trading days on record on Jan. 26. The metal saw nearly $2 trillion in market cap shifting hands within 14 hours. According to data from The Kobeissi Letter, on Jan. 26 between 9:00 AM ET and 1:00 PM ET, silver gained roughly $500 billion in market value. It then dropped about $950 billion over the next three hours, before recovering another $500 billion by 10:30 PM ET. At multiple points during the session, silver’s moves matched the full market cap of Bitcoin within hours. The Kobeissi Letter believes that the current silver price action will be studied for decades to come. This major activity comes as spot silver prices recently...

South Korean investors abandon crypto, back stocks after Trump tariff tirade South Korean crypto trading volumes have plummeted after US President Donald Trump announced 25% tariffs on the East Asian nation, with investors instead turning their attention to the stock market. Trump took to Truth Social on January 26 to announce a rise from 15% to 25% in car, pharmaceutical, and lumber industry tariffs. He slammed his South Korean counterpart, Lee Jae-myung, accusing him of failing to “live up to” a $350 billion investment bill agreed upon in July 2025. South Korean stocks took an initial hit on the news, but have since rebounded. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose by almost 3% to reach a record high of over 5,000 index points...