CoinPhoton

Tom Lee expects a positive year for crypto as real-world utility gains traction
Tom Lee, a long-time crypto bull and chairman of ethereum treasury firm Bitmine Immersion Technologies, believes the digital asset market is entering a promising phase as the practical value of blockchain technology becomes increasingly recognized.
In a recent interview on the Master Investor Podcast, Lee explained why crypto failed to meet bullish expectations in 2025. According to him, the market was actually outperforming traditional assets until Oct. 10, when a sharp downturn wiped out roughly $500 billion in market capitalization and triggered billions of dollars in liquidations.
Lee acknowledged that limited liquidity and a lack of sustained institutional support remain structural weaknesses in crypto markets and are likely to persist. Even so, he said he is sticking with his $250,000 price target for Bitcoin and expects BTC to set new highs this year.
Lee argued that the next leg higher will be driven primarily by growing awareness of crypto’s real-world usefulness. He noted that banks are increasingly embracing blockchain technology, particularly its strength in delivering settlement finality — an area where blockchain systems clearly outperform traditional infrastructure.
He also pointed to Tether as a concrete example of how blockchain is proving its value in finance. According to Lee, Tether operates a bank-like model that is far more efficient than traditional financial institutions. The company is expected to generate nearly $20 billion in earnings in 2026 with only around 300 full-time employees, compared with roughly 300,000 employees at JPMorgan.
In Lee’s view, the fact that a blockchain-native institution can achieve top-tier profitability with a relatively small balance sheet signals a much broader shift. Financial services, he said, may be steadily moving onchain, laying the foundation for a new growth cycle across the entire crypto ecosystem.

Lens Protocol hands over stewardship to Mask Network
Stani Kulechov, founder of Aave and Lens Protocol, announced that stewardship of Lens Protocol is being transferred to the Mask Network team, the builders behind Orb, as Lens shifts its focus toward deeper application-layer development.
In a post on X, Kulechov said the team spent years building some of the most important onchain financial primitives before expanding that vision to social primitives that users truly own. Lens Protocol and its underlying onchain rails — including advanced decentralized data storage for content governed by smart contracts — were designed to provide neutral social infrastructure that developers can rely on to build consumer-grade applications capable of reaching mainstream users.
According to Kulechov, the transition marks the next phase of Lens’ evolution, with Mask Network taking the lead in advancing the ecosystem at the application layer. He emphasized that Lens’ social primitives will remain fully open source and continue to serve as foundational infrastructure for anyone building decentralized social applications.
The original Lens team will remain involved as technical advisors, while refocusing their efforts on innovation in their core area of expertise: DeFi.

Bitcoin is facing mounting downside risk as technical weakness continues to dominate market structure, according to veteran trader Peter Brandt. In a widely shared post on X, Brandt said Bitcoin could trend toward the $58,000–$62,000 range, arguing that momentum has faded and recent price action lacks the strength needed to sustain a renewed uptrend.

Brandt’s view is rooted in chart behavior rather than conviction-driven forecasting. He emphasized that his projection is probabilistic, not certain, noting that failed rallies below the $100,000 area signal distribution rather than accumulation. Daily charts show Bitcoin trading within a modestly rising channel after a sharp selloff, with momentum indicators pointing to indecision and weakening follow-through.

The following day, Brandt moved away from precise price targets and instead highlighted broader structural risk. He pointed to a rising diagonal formation developing after the decline from recent highs, a pattern he considers unreliable and difficult to trade. According to Brandt, such structures often resolve with sharp moves that catch traders off guard, particularly when upside momentum is already deteriorating.

With resistance holding near $100,000 and multiple downside reference levels stacked through the $80,000 and $70,000 zones, Brandt sees the low-$60,000 area as a realistic outcome if the current pattern breaks lower. Overall, his analysis underscores a cautious outlook, warning that Bitcoin remains vulnerable to further downside unless market structure and momentum improve materially.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), the largest corporate holder of ether, has secured shareholder approval to increase the number of authorized shares, giving the company greater flexibility to raise capital in the future.
The move was approved under Proposal 2 at Bitmine’s annual shareholder meeting on Jan. 15, passing with 81% of votes cast in favor, the company said in a press release on Tuesday.
The approval does not mean new shares will be issued immediately. Instead, it raises the legal ceiling on how many shares the company can issue, enabling Bitmine to fund growth initiatives, pursue acquisitions, or support its ongoing ether accumulation strategy.
Shares of BMNR fell about 8% on Tuesday, tracking a sharp decline in ether’s price to just above $3,000.
Bitmine executives acknowledged that additional share issuance could dilute existing shareholders, but emphasized that the company would not sell equity below its market net asset value (mNAV), which reflects its substantial ETH holdings. Bitmine added 35,268 ETH to its balance sheet last week and is currently trading at around 0.86 times mNAV.
The company also disclosed that its digital asset holdings now total 4.203 million ether, representing roughly 3.5% of ether’s circulating supply, alongside 193 BTC and a $22 million stake in Eightco Holdings (ORBS).

Solayer has launched a $35 million ecosystem fund to support blockchain applications built on its infiniSVM network, with a focus on projects that require real-time execution and can generate sustainable revenue. The capital is provided by Solayer Labs and the Solayer Foundation.
The fund will back early- and growth-stage teams developing on infiniSVM, a layer-1 blockchain that is compatible with Solana’s tooling but engineered for faster execution and near-instant settlement. According to Solayer, the network has demonstrated throughput exceeding 330,000 transactions per second, with finality of around 400 milliseconds.
“We’re solving for real-time behavior, immediate and guaranteed settlement, and ultra-low latency,” said Joshua Sum, Solayer’s chief product officer, in an interview with CoinDesk. “Most blockchains still batch transactions, much like legacy financial systems. We want to replace that with true real-time clearing.”
Rather than emphasizing speculative narratives, Solayer said it will judge success by whether funded teams operate as durable, self-sustaining businesses. “Protocol revenue, projects that can stand on their own, and transaction volume — which proves they genuinely need the throughput our chain provides,” Sum said.
The fund will prioritize applications where speed and finality meaningfully expand what is possible onchain, including DeFi, payments, AI-driven systems, and tokenized real-world assets. Solayer added that projects such as tokenized U.S. Treasuries and AI-powered trading products are already under development.

Japan’s government bond market suffered a sudden shock on Tuesday, with the 30-year JGB yield surging more than 30 basis points to 3.91%, marking a sharp escalation after months of gradual pressure.
The move rippled quickly across global markets. Risk assets sold off, with Japan’s Nikkei falling 2.5% and U.S. equity futures pointing to losses of around 1.5%. Bitcoin, which had held above $95,000 for much of the previous week, slid below $91,000 in early U.S. trading. In contrast, precious metals continued to rally, with gold jumping 3% above $4,700 per ounce and silver surging 7.5% toward the $100 level.
Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, warned that the surge in long-dated Japanese bond yields signals the erosion of one of the world’s most reliable sources of cheap liquidity. For decades, Japan has anchored global carry trades and overseas investment flows, but rising yields are now pulling capital back home, draining liquidity from global markets.
Policy options for Japanese authorities appear limited. Attempts by the Bank of Japan to cap yields could shift selling pressure to the yen, while tighter monetary policy risks further losses in the bond market. Either path, Hansen argued, points to tighter global liquidity ahead.
While headlines remain dominated by geopolitical tensions and tariff threats from President Donald Trump, the turmoil in Japan’s bond market may be the more significant warning sign for crypto and equity markets as global financial conditions tighten.

Bitcoin may be approaching a potential breakout phase as on-chain data shows strong accumulation by large holders despite recent price volatility. According to Santiment, wallets holding between 10 and 10,000 BTC accumulated around $3.2 billion worth of Bitcoin over nine days, while small retail investors continued to sell.
This divergence between “smart money” buying and retail dumping is often seen as a constructive long-term signal. Although Bitcoin has faced short-term pressure from geopolitical risks, particularly renewed tariff threats from President Donald Trump, large investors appear to be positioning for a longer-term upside.
At the same time, market sentiment remains cautious. Social media discussion around Bitcoin has surged, but indicators such as the Crypto Fear & Greed Index and the Altcoin Season Index suggest traders are still risk-averse and heavily focused on Bitcoin rather than altcoins.

Mastercard weighs strategic investment in Zerohash after acquisition talks fall through
Mastercard is evaluating a strategic investment in blockchain infrastructure firm Zerohash after acquisition discussions collapsed when the company chose to remain independent, according to people familiar with the matter.
Last October, reports said the payments giant was in late-stage talks to acquire Zerohash in a deal valued at up to $2 billion. Those talks have since ended, three sources said, though discussions around a potential investment are ongoing.
Zerohash confirmed it is not considering a sale, saying independence best positions the company to continue innovating and scaling commercial partnerships. Mastercard declined to comment.
Founded in 2017, Zerohash provides custody, settlement, and fiat on- and off-ramps that allow financial institutions and fintech firms to offer crypto, stablecoin, and tokenization services without building their own infrastructure. Its platform supports clients such as Interactive Brokers, Stripe, BlackRock’s BUIDL fund, Franklin Templeton, and DraftKings, reaching more than 5 million users across 190 countries.
In October last year, Zerohash raised $104 million in a Series D-2 round led by Interactive Brokers, valuing the company at $1 billion, with participation from Morgan Stanley, Apollo-managed funds, SoFi, Jump Crypto, and others.
The talks highlight renewed deal activity in the crypto sector, where established infrastructure providers with revenue and regulatory footing are increasingly seen as the most attractive targets.

Solana Mobile has officially begun distributing its long-anticipated SKR token, marking a significant milestone in the company’s strategy to tie crypto incentives directly to mobile hardware adoption.
The airdrop went live at 9:00 a.m. Vietnam time on Wednesday, forming part of a broader rollout designed to underpin the Seeker smartphone ecosystem. Seeker is Solana Mobile’s second-generation Web3 device platform and is positioned as a more refined and mature successor to its first Web3 phone, the Saga, following months of buildup.
SKR has a fixed total supply of 10 billion tokens, with allocations structured to support both users and long-term ecosystem growth.
Under the token distribution plan, 30% of the supply is allocated to airdrops, including the initial distribution to eligible Seeker users and developers. A further 25% is reserved for growth initiatives and strategic partnerships, while 10% is set aside to support liquidity and launch-related activities. Another 10% will be directed to a community treasury to fund future ecosystem proposals. The remaining supply is split between Solana Mobile, which receives 15%, and Solana Labs, which receives 10%.
Eligibility for the initial airdrop was determined through a snapshot of onchain activity linked to the Seeker device and its associated applications.
SKR is designed to play a central role in governance and staking within the ecosystem. Token holders can delegate SKR to help secure and scale the mobile platform, earn staking rewards, and participate in decision-making related to the Seeker ecosystem, including economic parameters and development initiatives.
To support early adoption, SKR operates under a linear inflation model. Inflation starts at 10% in the first year and then decreases by 25% annually until it reaches a terminal rate of 2%, at which point token issuance is expected to stabilize.

The June 26 Bitcoin options expiry shows a market that is not outright bearish, but increasingly focused on downside protection. With nearly $3.9 billion in open interest, puts outnumber calls, and a large share of protective positioning is concentrated between $75,000 and $85,000. This indicates deliberate hedging close to spot rather than deep tail-risk bets.
The options market is anchored around an at-the-money reference near $95,000, which traders appear to treat as the most neutral outcome for June. Implied volatility remains relatively low, signaling expectations of controlled price action, but downside insurance is priced at a clear premium, reflected in a negative volatility skew.
Overall, the structure suggests a market that continues to hold upside exposure above $120,000 while actively paying to defend against a defined downside range. Rather than panic, the options data points to structured risk management and a cautious stance into mid-year.

Chainlink has launched 24/5 onchain data streams for tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs, extending its Data Streams technology to cover all trading sessions, including after-hours and overnight markets. The new service enables decentralized protocols to integrate equities more reliably onchain, narrowing the gap between traditional market hours and blockchain’s always-on model.

The move comes amid intensifying competition to offer round-the-clock access to stocks and commodities across both centralized and decentralized platforms. Chainlink’s solution is being adopted by several crypto-native venues, including Lighter, BitMEX, ApeX, and others.

Beyond pricing feeds, the 24/5 equities streams unlock new onchain use cases such as structured yield products, lending and prediction markets, and synthetic equities. Chainlink says this is only the first step, with broader 24/7 coverage planned in the future.

Ray Dalio warned at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the global monetary order is breaking down, as fiat currencies and sovereign debt are no longer trusted stores of value in the way they once were. He argued that geopolitical tensions have moved beyond trade wars into “capital wars,” where foreign nations are increasingly reluctant to hold U.S. debt, threatening the dominance of the U.S. dollar.

According to Dalio, this shift is already visible in markets, with gold outperforming tech stocks as central banks and sovereign entities accumulate hard assets to reduce counterparty risk. He noted that during periods of geopolitical conflict, even allies avoid holding each other’s debt, preferring hard currencies instead. The long-term consequence, Dalio warned, is currency debasement, as governments are forced to buy their own debt to sustain the system.

Crypto payment cards surge as Etherfi leads usage

Crypto-native payment cards are seeing rapid adoption, with daily transactions jumping 22x from December 2024 levels to nearly 60,000 by mid-January 2026. These cards automatically convert crypto holdings into fiat at the point of sale, allowing users to spend digital assets at traditional merchants without using centralized exchange offramping.

Daily volume processed through crypto cards has reached nearly $4 million. Etherfi currently dominates the sector, accounting for around half of all transactions, though competition remains strong from providers such as Gnosis, MetaMask, and Solayer.

Card issuers are still refining their business models, with wide variation in fees and incentives. Many cards boost appeal by offering DeFi-generated yields on balances, enabling users to earn returns while retaining spending flexibility. The reliance on Visa and Mastercard infrastructure highlights how traditional payment networks are becoming key bridges between decentralized finance and everyday commerce.

Noble exits Cosmos, launches standalone EVM Layer 1

Noble, a stablecoin-focused appchain originally built on the Cosmos SDK, is migrating to a standalone EVM Layer 1, marking a major strategic shift for the network. Founder Jelena Djuric said Cosmos served Noble well in its early years, but moving to EVM will allow the project to build a higher-performance stack and position itself as core stablecoin and FX infrastructure rather than a single-purpose app.

Noble EVM is expected to launch on March 18, while the existing Cosmos-based chain will be supported in the short term. Noble previously acted as a neutral liquidity hub for real-world asset issuers such as Circle, Hashnote, and Ondo Finance, processing over $22 billion in volume across around 50 chains since 2023.

Looking ahead, Noble plans to focus on end-user stablecoin applications across DeFi, payments, privacy, and foreign exchange. Its yield-bearing USDN stablecoin will play a central role on the new EVM chain, alongside FX swap protocols, capital-efficient FX perpetuals, and a flagship DEX. The team said IBC connections to the Cosmos ecosystem will remain intact during the transition, with the long-term goal of migrating all liquidity to Noble EVM.

Boundless, the zero-knowledge proof network and marketplace built by RISC Zero, has launched a cross-chain verification system that uses Bitcoin as a settlement and verification layer for computationally expensive ZK proofs. The system will initially run from the Ethereum mainnet and Base Layer 2 to Bitcoin, with plans to expand to additional chains.

By combining BitVM with its ZK-powered network, Boundless enables ZK proofs to be checked and permanently settled on Bitcoin without any changes to Bitcoin’s core protocol. CEO Shiv Shankar said the goal is not to turn Bitcoin into Ethereum, but to secure Ethereum-style execution using Bitcoin as the ultimate verifier and settlement layer.

The launch also integrates Citrea, a Bitcoin-native ZK rollup, highlighting a broader shift in the Bitcoin ecosystem toward supporting more advanced verification use cases. Boundless said it aims to extend support across more blockchains, laying the groundwork for Bitcoin to function as a shared security layer for the wider blockchain ecosystem.

Trump Media & Technology Group announced that it will distribute new crypto tokens to shareholders, with the record date set for 2/2. The company emphasizes that these tokens do not represent shares, are non-transferable, cannot be redeemed for cash, and will only be distributed to actual shareholders, with each person required to hold a minimum of one share.

According to the announcement, the tokens will be "minted" through a partnership with Crypto.com on the Cronos blockchain. Trump Media stated that in the future, token holders may receive benefits or incentives related to the company's product ecosystem, including Truth Social, Truth.Fi, and the Truth Predict prediction platform.

Trump Media recommends that shareholders contact their brokerage to avoid being classified as an "objecting beneficial owner," which could delay the process of determining eligibility for receiving tokens. The company also asserts that this initiative complies with current SEC regulations.

Coinbase CEO sticks with $1 million Bitcoin call

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is standing by his bold prediction that Bitcoin could reach $1 million by 2030, despite recent market pullbacks and rising regulatory tension in Washington. Speaking to Bloomberg, Armstrong said short-term price swings are noise compared to Bitcoin’s long-term trajectory.

Armstrong argued that Bitcoin’s fixed supply is the key differentiator from fiat currencies, which are subject to monetary expansion. As crypto adoption grows while Bitcoin’s supply remains finite, he believes upward price pressure is inevitable. He also warned that investors with less than 5% of their net worth allocated to Bitcoin may regret staying on the sidelines.

Beyond price targets, Armstrong criticized traditional banks for lobbying against crypto competition, particularly around stablecoins. He emphasized that crypto platforms operate with 100% reserves, unlike fractional-reserve banks, eliminating the risk of bank runs and forcing the financial system to innovate through fair competition.

Grayscale has filed an S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch the Grayscale Near Trust, an investment product offering exposure to NEAR. The filing signals Grayscale’s continued push to expand beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum into alternative layer-1 assets.

NEAR is the native token of Near Protocol, a layer-1 blockchain designed for scalability and user-friendly applications. The network uses a Proof-of-Stake consensus model and a sharding architecture called Nightshade, enabling fast transactions and low fees for DeFi, NFT, and Web3 use cases.

Bitcoin’s pricing in 2026 is likely to be shaped less by narratives and more by a small set of structural chokepoints that determine access and liquidity. These include U.S. dollar liquidity and interest-rate expectations set by the Federal Reserve, regulatory market access controlled by the SEC, ETF distribution channels that convert macro sentiment into spot demand, stablecoin supply that underpins settlement and collateral, and exchange-level governance that affects listings, leverage, and execution quality.

Five key figures sit at these chokepoints: Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whose rate-path repricing can quickly shift risk appetite; SEC Chair Paul S. Atkins and Commissioner Hester Peirce, who influence how clearly and efficiently crypto products gain U.S. market access; Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, whose decisions affect stablecoin settlement capacity and system-wide liquidity; and Binance co-CEO Yi He, whose venue policies can rapidly alter trading conditions.

Rather than forecasting personalities, the framework focuses on measurable signals—rate expectations, ETF flows, stablecoin supply changes, and exchange liquidity data—to track when access and liquidity are tightening or easing. For traders and allocators, these chokepoints offer a practical way to monitor what can actually move Bitcoin’s investable boundary in 2026.

A crypto trader is reported to have turned an initial investment of just $285 into approximately $627,000 by buying the ZREAL memecoin early and selling into a wave of retail demand. According to blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain, the trader appears to have been an insider, acquiring more than 66 million ZREAL tokens before the broader market became aware of the project. Roughly 10 million tokens were sold for around $210,000, while the remaining holdings represent an unrealized profit of about $417,000.
On-chain data shows that wallets linked to the trader placed hundreds of market sell orders over a roughly 10-hour window, reinforcing suspicions of coordinated dumping rather than organic trading activity. Such behavior is commonly associated with memecoin “snipers,” insiders who gain early access to a project and use bots to buy at launch, then quickly sell as prices spike once retail traders enter.
The episode comes amid signs of a small revival in memecoin activity, despite the broader hype cycle largely fading in 2025. Trading volumes on memecoin launch platform Pump.fun recently hit record highs, and ZREAL has quickly built a sizable online community and daily trading volume. However, the case also underscores persistent concerns about market manipulation and fairness, especially given past reports claiming that a large majority of memecoins launched on such platforms exhibit fraudulent characteristics.