Proud to announce I'm playing one of the biggest and best festivals in the world @UntoldFestival and on the best stage โค๏ธ Shoutout to Tobias, Brent and the whole @TBV_ team ๐ซถ Uniting music and web3 under one roof ๐
$SOL ย is up ~25%, trading at its highest level since November amid renewed bullish momentum.
The upcoming Alpenglow upgrade will overhaulย #Solanaย โs core consensus, targeting 100โ150 ms transaction finality versus ~12.8 seconds currently.
Institutional interest remains strong, with U.S. spotย #SOLย ETFs reporting ~$857Mย in cumulative inflows.
Technically, SOL has reclaimed its 50-day EMA, with chart patterns suggesting momentum continuation toward higher resistance levels.
Benjamin Cohen, founder of Into The Cryptoverse, says donโt hold your breath for a repeat of the 2020โ2021 crypto boom. Hereโs the gist: the Advance/Decline Index for the top 100 cryptocurrencies has been in a steady downtrend since late 2021.
Back in 2020โ2021,ย $BTC โs growth was supported by: a rising tide of altcoins, massive liquidity inflows from retail and institutional investors.
Fast forward to today: $BTC โs growth is largely driven by defensive demand and institutional buying, while altcoins are losing investor interest and liquidity, and the constant launch of new coins just spreads the volume thinner.
โBitcoinโs bull market masked altcoin weakness for years. Now that growth has stalled, that weakness is too obvious to ignore,โ - Cohen.
Visa partners with BVNK to integrate stablecoins into Visa Direct, moving beyond fiat. Companies will now be able to send digital dollars straight to cryptoย $BTC ย wallets, almost instantly - no banks, no delays, no middlemen โก
This isnโt hype. Itโs real infrastructure upgrade using proven chains like Ethereum, Polygon, and Solana. Pilot starts in high-demand markets, then scales globally ๐
Visa isnโt โgoing crypto.โ Itโs making crypto payments practical at scale โ
Polygonโsย $250Mย Power Play: Buying the Future of Payments ๐ณ๐
$POL ย just dropped a quarter-billion dollars to remind everyone they aren't just a "L2 scaling solution" anymoreโtheyโre becoming a global fintech giant. By acquiring Coinme and Sequence, theyโve effectively bought the plumbing of the U.S. financial system.
While most protocols are busy chasing "vibes," Polygon is integrating 50,000 physical retail locations and smart wallet tech to build an "Open Money Stack." They are betting that the future isn't just trading tokens; itโs trillions of dollars in stablecoin settlements for coffee, rent, and remittances. By securing 48 U.S. state licenses, theyโre basically telling traditional banks: "Weโll take it from here."
If this vertically integrated stack works, the blockchain becomes invisible, and stablecoins become the global standard for 24/7 money. The legacy system is slow and expensive; Polygon is now fast, regulated, and very, very ready.
$BNB Chain Foundation announced new asset purchases under itsย $100Mย incentive program, signaling continued ecosystem support, liquidity expansion, and strategic investment to accelerate developer growth
Dubaiโsย #DFSAย has banned allย #Privacyย -enhancing tokens (including Monero andย $ZEC ย ) within the DIFC, effective January 12, prohibiting trading, promotion, and fund exposure.
Regulators cited AML and FATF compliance concerns, stating privacy features make transaction tracing and ownership verification impractical.
The update also redefines stablecoins, allowing only fiat-backed tokens with high-quality liquid reserves, while excluding algorithmic stablecoins from the category.
#Cardano ย founder Charles Hoskinson announced that theย #MidnightProtocolย will enable private DeFi for Bitcoin and XRP, positioning it as a cross-chain privacy layer.
Midnight will use zero-knowledge cryptography to allow assets like BTC and XRP to interact with smart contracts while keeping transaction data private.
The approach involves wrapping external assets on Midnight, unlocking lending, borrowing, and yield use cases not natively available on Bitcoin or XRP Ledger.
This marks a strategic shift forย $ADA ย , framing Midnight as interoperability infrastructure rather than a standalone Layer-1 competitor.