Crypto News

- Steak ‘n Shake to Pay Hourly Workers in Bitcoin Starting March Steak ‘n Shake will begin paying all hourly employees at company-operated restaurants a Bitcoin bonus of $0.21 for every hour worked starting March 1, with funds accessible after a two-year vesting period. The 91-year-old burger chain announced the program through a partnership with Bitcoin rewards app Fold, marking another step in its year-long transformation into what CEO Will Reeves called “a real bitcoin company, putting sound money into the hands of working Americans.“ A full-time minimum wage employee working 40 hours weekly for 30 years could retire with over $3 million if Bitcoin maintains just a 20% annual growth rate, according to Adam Simecka, founder of...

- Key Takeaways Steak ’n Shake, the U.S.-based fast-food chain, has announced plans to pay hourly employees a small Bitcoin (BTC) bonus for every hour worked at company-operated locations. The company has partnered with Bitcoin wallet app Fold to manage the payouts, marking the latest step in Steak ’n Shake’s expanding crypto push. Steak ’n Shake’s Bitcoin Bonus Sparks Backlash The 91-year-old restaurant chain has been steadily integrating Bitcoin into its operations since mid-2025. This includes accepting Bitcoin payments, holding customer BTC instead of converting it to fiat, and building a corporate Bitcoin treasury under what it calls a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.” Against that backdrop, the employee bonus announcement...

- Solana Sees Relatively Strong Investor Interest Solana spot ETFs printed a surprise $3.08 million in net inflows during a period of heavy market stress. Those flows came in as global equities were getting hit, and the broader crypto market saw more than $120 billion wiped off total capitalization. That divergence highlights SOL’s ability to pull capital even in risk-off conditions. The contrast with other crypto products was clear. Bitcoin ETFs saw $483 million in net outflows on Monday as investors de-risked. Most major assets followed the same exit trend. Solana, however, bucked the flow, reinforcing a bullish narrative that could support a rebound. On-chain data tells a similar story. New address growth on Solana stayed...

- SharpLink (SBET) Tumbles 9.6% as Cryptos Fall on US-EU Trade Spat We recently published 10 Stocks Investors Are Dumping. SharpLink Gaming Inc. (NASDAQ:SBET) was one of the worst performers on Tuesday. SharpLink fell by 9.59 percent on Tuesday to finish at $9.94 apiece, mimicking the sentiment of the broader market, as investors parked funds to mitigate risks from the ongoing trade tensions between the US and the European Union (EU). Over the weekend, President Donald Trump threatened to impose 10 percent tariffs on goods from eight countries opposing his planned takeover of Greenland. The tariffs will take effect on February 1 and could rise to 25 percent if a deal is not made on June 1. Meanwhile, the EU said that it would...

- Hong Kong Plans First Stablecoin Issuer Licences in Q1 Amid Crypto Push Hong Kong is preparing to issue its first batch of stablecoin issuer licenses in the first quarter of the year, stepping up efforts to position itself as a regional hub for digital assets amid growing global competition. Key Takeaways: Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan said the city’s approach to crypto regulation remains “responsible and sustainable.” Chan reportedly confirmed that the initial round of stablecoin licenses is expected to be granted in the coming months. Hong Kong Positions Stablecoins at the Core of Its Digital Finance Strategy Chan framed stablecoins as part of a broader push to build a...

- MARA Holdings (MARA) Falls 8.7% as Bitcoin Drops on Trade Concerns MARA Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MARA) was one of the worst performers on Tuesday. MARA Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MARA) fell by 8.71 percent on Tuesday to finish at $10.37 apiece as investors disposed of shares to mitigate risks from the ongoing geopolitical tensions between the US and Europe, having announced a tit-for-tat tariff in relation to their opposing views on the acquisition of Greenland. MARA Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MARA) mirrored the broader market pessimism, which similarly spilled over to Bitcoin prices after President Donald Trump announced plans to impose a 10 percent tariff on eight European countries opposing his plans to take over Greenland. The tariffs...

- White House Digital Asset Advisor Calls for Immediate Crypto Market Structure Bill Patrick Witt, White House Executive Director of the President’s Crypto Council, has advocated for the urgent passage of crypto market structure legislation. Pushing back Coinbase CEO’s “no bill is better than a bad bill” line, Witt argues that it is a “privilege” to say that only because Donald Trump won in 2024 and installed a pro‑crypto administration. He wrote that it is unrealistic to expect a multi-trillion-dollar industry to operate without a comprehensive regulatory framework. Witt bluntly warned that if the bill fails to move ahead, a future Democratic Congress may write punitive legislation in the wake of a crisis, “à la Dodd‑Frank.” “You...

- Extreme Fear Replaces Greed in Crypto Market The Crypto Fear and Greed Index fell to 24 on January 21, 2026, signaling a sharp return to extreme fear after briefly entering greed territory last week. Market sentiment has deteriorated sharply as cryptocurrencies face another major drawdown amid escalating geopolitical tensions. Crypto Market Sentiment Collapses Into Extreme Fear Reports earlier this week indicated that President Trump’s tariff threats against the European Union sparked a wider market sell-off, affecting risk assets significantly. The pressure intensified on Tuesday. Speaking at Davos, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reaffirmed the administration’s readiness to deploy tariffs as a primary geopolitical tool...

- White House Crypto Council Director Says Operating Without Market Rules Is ‘Fantasy’ On Tuesday, the executive director of the President’s Council of Advisors on Digital Assets criticized Coinbase’s recent decision to withdraw support for the Senate’s crypto market structure bill. This marks a growing frustration among lawmakers with industry players concerning potential commercial implications. “‘No bill is better than a bad bill,’” Patrick Witt commented, referencing Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong’s stance when his exchange withdrew support for the CLARITY Act. Witt emphasized the unique moment afforded by the current administration's crypto-friendly stance. In mid-January, Armstrong publicly withdrew the exchange’s endorsement of...

- The Bitcoin price has extended its pullback. BTC is down roughly 3% over the past 24 hours and about 6.6% over seven days, slipping below $90,000 and pushing the $100,000 target further away. Still, this drop is not breaking new ground. Similar pullbacks have appeared before, and in those cases, Bitcoin rebounded once key technical conditions aligned. This time, the setup again hinges on momentum exhaustion and a reclaim of critical moving averages. Hidden Divergence and EMA Reclaim Define the Rebound Setup The rebound thesis starts with momentum. On the 12-hour chart, Bitcoin is showing a hidden bullish divergence. Between mid-December and late January, the BTC price formed a higher low while the Relative Strength Index, or RSI...

- On January 20, 2026, the cryptocurrency market experienced a sharp deleveraging event. More than 182,000 traders had their positions forced closed, totaling over $1.08 billion in liquidations. Long positions accounted for nearly all the losses as Bitcoin and Ethereum futures traders were hit by cascading margin calls. Traders are now confronting higher leverage amid intensifying global macroeconomic pressures and technical weakness across digital assets. Record Liquidations Hammer Leveraged Traders According to CoinGlass data, 182,729 traders were liquidated over the 24-hour period ending January 20, with combined losses totaling $1.08 billion. Most were long positions, totaling $1.08 billion, while short liquidations were far...

- Japan's Bond Volatility Puts Global Liquidity, Bitcoin Under Pressure Turmoil in Japan’s bond market on Tuesday spilled across global markets, dragging cryptocurrencies lower as higher Japanese yields threatened to unwind a long-standing source of cheap global funding. The Nikkei index fell 2.5%, and the S&P 500 index dropped more than 2%, during the U.S. trading session. Bitcoin is down 3.3% over 24 hours to $89,300, according to CoinGecko data. Gold, meanwhile, surged as much as 4% to an intraday record of $4,866 an ounce. “The sell-off has clearly exceeded market expectations, evolving into a broad-based shock to global financial markets,” Tim Sun, senior researcher at Hashkey, told Decrypt. For years, Japan’s ultra-low...

Smart Money Builds Bitcoin Positions as Retail Investors Exit After a challenging end to 2025, the new year began on a positive note for Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency gained more than 7% in the first five days of January, supported by renewed optimism across risk assets. However, the momentum was short-lived, as market turbulence soon returned. Despite a brief recovery last week, broader market conditions deteriorated again after US President Donald Trump announced tariffs targeting 8 nations in the European Union (EU), sparking renewed uncertainty. The news pressured risk assets and contributed to another downturn in the crypto market. BeInCrypto Markets data showed that BTC has declined by 6.25% over the past week. Yesterday, it fell...

- Key Points A couple of weeks into 2026, the cryptocurrency market appears to be roaring back to life. With just a few exceptions, every major cryptocurrency is up to start the year as I write this. But I'm not convinced that this rally is going to persist throughout the year. The following four cryptocurrencies are at serious risk of a decline of 50% or more in value. You have been warned. 1. & 2. Dogecoin and Shiba Inu Let's start with the obvious picks first: Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) and Shiba Inu (CRYPTO: SHIB). Both of these meme coins are up more than 15% to start 2026, but I think this is really just a dead-dog bounce. These meme coins are fundamentally worthless, and their massive market caps are really just a result of...

- Why Bitcoin Stays Quiet as Gold Surges: CEO Insights Good Morning, Asia. Here's what's making news in the markets: Welcome to Asia Morning Briefing, a daily summary of top stories during U.S. hours and an overview of market moves and analysis. As Hong Kong begins another trading day, BTC is trading below $89,000, down nearly 5% due to geopolitical risk and a bond market selloff. Bitcoin is experiencing a period of stagnation, as precious metals enjoy one of their strongest rallies in decades. Despite this, bitcoin remains below its highs, even as institutional ownership continues to increase. According to XBTO CEO Philippe Bekhazi, this divergence is a defining feature of bitcoin's maturing institutional era. Bitcoin is no...

- Bitcoin slid 4% to about $88,000 on Wednesday as a sharp leverage unwind ripped through crypto markets, adding fresh stress to a week already defined by risk aversion across stocks, bonds, and currencies. Spot gold surged past $4,800 an ounce for the first time, while silver also notched record highs, as investors kept leaning into havens during a broad “Sell America” style move that pressured the dollar. Liquidation data from CoinGlass showed 181,570 traders got wiped out over the past 24 hours, taking total liquidations to $1.07B. Long positions took most of the damage, with $998.33M liquidated versus $71.39M in shorts. Market Snapshot Bitcoin, Ether Dominate Liquidations As Equities Stay Under Pressure Bitcoin and Ether...

- Bitcoin has surrendered its 2026 gains, falling approximately 4% in the past 24 hours to around $88,850 as of Wednesday morning Asia time. The price now sits almost exactly where it closed in 2025, erasing a three-week rally that had briefly pushed the cryptocurrency above $97,000. At the time of writing, the token is attempting to rebound after touching a session low of $87,901. A Disappointing Year-End for 2025 Bitcoin closed 2025 at approximately $87,000-$88,000, down about 30% from its October all-time high of $126,000 and posting a roughly 6% annual loss. December proved particularly brutal, with the cryptocurrency falling about 22% for its worst monthly performance since December 2018. The much-anticipated "Santa rally"...

Bitcoin Dips Back Below $90,000 as Global Selloff Deepens Bitcoin slid to its lowest level in more than a week, tracking a sharp selloff across global financial markets as investors continued to de-risk amid ongoing geopolitical tensions. The largest cryptocurrency fell below $90,000 for the first time since Jan. 9, moving in tandem with declines in equities, long-dated Treasuries, and Japanese bonds as volatility rippled through debt markets. After falling as much as 4% on Tuesday, Bitcoin continued to slide Wednesday morning in Asia. It was down 0.5% to $88,894 as of 9:27 a.m. in Singapore. Ninety-thousand has “proven to be a critical level that we’ve seen hold as support since the early days of the year and is likely an important...

- Delaware Life is taking a new step toward mainstreaming Bitcoin exposure in retirement-style products, adding a BlackRock-built index that blends US equities and Bitcoin to its fixed indexed annuity lineup. The insurer, which sits within Group 1001, said Tuesday it has added the BlackRock US Equity Bitcoin Balanced Risk 12% Index to its fixed indexed annuity portfolio, calling it the first time an insurance carrier has offered an index that includes cryptocurrency. Fixed indexed annuities, or FIAs, typically protect the policyholder’s principal while crediting interest that is linked to a market index, often with caps or other limits on upside. The new index is designed to deliver exposure to the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF alongside...

- CFTC Faces Tough Crypto Mandate With Fewer Staff, Inspector General Says Lawmakers are weighing whether to hand the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) a sweeping new role in overseeing crypto markets at a time when the agency is smaller, thinner, and already under internal strain. In a report on Tuesday, the Office of Inspector General identified digital asset regulation as a top management and performance risk for fiscal year 2026, citing pending legislation that could dramatically expand the CFTC’s responsibilities. Expanding the CFTC’s authority would require the agency to hire more staff, build technical expertise, and develop new data systems as its mandate grows more complex, the report adds. The warning lands as...