Category: Reviews

Sui Suffers Major Outage, No New Checkpoints in 3 Hours

Key Notes Sui’s last validated checkpoint (234608191) was registered at 2:22 p.m. UTC, going more than three hours without any new validated transactions and checkpoints. Sui core team is working on a fix after identifying the issue nearly 1.5 hours after acknowledging the outage. This is the second major outage and third significant network “degraded” performance in Sui’s history following November 2024 and December 2025 incidents. The Sui Network mainnet is suffering a major outage, being effectively down and unusable for approximately three hours as of this writing. This story…

Spain’s Bankinter Joins Bit2Me’s €30M Tether-Led Round in Major Crypto Banking Move

Key Notes Bankinter becomes the fourth Spanish bank to invest in Bit2Me, joining BBVA, Unicaja, and Cecabank as strategic shareholders. Bit2Me achieved MiCA authorization in July 2025, becoming the first Spanish-speaking fintech with EU-wide crypto service permissions. The funding will accelerate Bit2Me’s expansion across European Union markets and enhance institutional custody and trading solutions. Bankinter, Spain’s fifth-largest bank, has made a strategic investment in Bit2Me by joining the crypto exchange’s €30 million funding round led by Tether, signaling rising institutional interest in regulated digital asset platforms across Europe. The operation…

Bitwise Launches Chainlink ETF on NYSE Arca

Key Notes Grayscale’s GLNK has accumulated $87.5 million in assets since its December 2 launch, establishing a competitive landscape for the new entrant. Both funds use Coinbase Custody and trade on NYSE Arca, with Bitwise offering a slightly lower standard fee at 0.34% versus Grayscale’s 0.35%. LINK traded at $14.12 with a 5.39% gain on launch day as Chainlink maintains its position as the dominant oracle platform by value secured. Bitwise Asset Management launched the Bitwise Chainlink ETF on NYSE Arca on Jan. 14. The fund is the second in…

BNB Chain Hits 0.45s Block Times with Fermi Hard Fork to Rival High-Speed Chains

Key Notes BNB Chain has hit its final roadmap milestone by reducing block intervals to 0.45 seconds to rival high-speed chains like Solana. The upgrade delivers “hard” Layer 1 finality to support exchange-grade decentralized finance and high-frequency swaps. Market reaction enters a “wait-and-see” period as the price of BNB consolidates near $933 following the successful mainnet activation. BNB Chain completed its “Short Block Interval Roadmap” on Jan. 14 with the successful activation of the Fermi hard fork. The milestone marks the transition from the Maxwell block time reduction of 0.75…

Ethereum Price Strengthens Amid Shifts in Crypto Market

Key Notes Ethereum price gains attention amid BTC dominance shift, signaling likely altcoin breakout. Rising network transactions and steady ETF inflows point to growing demand beyond short-term trading. Technical patterns and strong DeFi activity keep Ethereum in focus in the coming rally. Ethereum’s ETH $3 354 24h volatility: 6.7% Market cap: $405.43 B Vol. 24h: $37.02 B price is slowly moving back into focus after years of trailing Bitcoin BTC $96 898 24h volatility: 4.8% Market cap: $1.93 T Vol. 24h: $65.86 B . New market data is showing early…

Vitalik Buterin Declares Web3 Vision Realized

Key Notes Vitalik Buterin states that Ethereum’s “sharding” vision is effectively realized through ZK-EVMs. He contrasted permanent decentralized tools (“hammers”) against restrictive centralized software (“corposlop”). The “walkaway test” was cited as the ultimate standard for true user ownership and autonomy. Vitalik Buterin declared on Jan. 14 that the technological prerequisites for the original Web3 vision are finally operational. The Ethereum ETH $3 292 24h volatility: 5.1% Market cap: $397.02 B Vol. 24h: $37.77 B co-founder urged developers to shift focus from speculative narratives to building decentralized applications that permanently protect…

BitMine Staked ETH Now Hits 1.5M

Key Notes BitMine has staked 1.53 million ETH. The company now controls about 4% of all ETH staked on the Beacon Chain. A January 15 shareholder vote could decide whether BitMine can keep scaling its ETH treasury strategy. BitMine has increased its staked Ethereum ETH $3 292 24h volatility: 5.1% Market cap: $397.02 B Vol. 24h: $37.77 B again. The company deposited 186,560 ETH into the Beacon Chain and now has a total staked balance of 1,530,784 ETH. At current prices, the staked position is worth roughly $5.13 billion. The…

Backpack Exchange Launches Margin-Based Prediction Market

Key Notes Backpack launches an invite-only margin-based prediction market for active traders. Unified Prediction Portfolio lets traders use one account for bets, futures, and spot positions. Cross-margining reduces locked capital, letting users act on insights more efficiently. Backpack Exchange has launched a private beta of its new margin-based prediction market. This will allow traders to place bets on digital assets and financial outcomes while using the same capital across multiple products. The feature is available to select active traders only. Backpack Prediction Market Features Backpack Exchange has launched the Unified…

Ripple Wins Preliminary Luxembourg License

Key Notes The UK Financial Conduct Authority granted Ripple a full EMI license and crypto asset registration on January 9. The “Green Light” status confirms legal compliance, though full operational authorization is pending. Ripple processes over $95 billion in volume and claims its network reaches 90% of daily foreign exchange markets. Ripple XRP $2.12 24h volatility: 3.1% Market cap: $128.83 B Vol. 24h: $4.77 B secured preliminary approval for an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license in Luxembourg on Jan. 14. This marks its second major European regulatory milestone in less…

BVNK to Offer Stablecoin Infrastructure in Partnership with Visa

Key Notes BVNK is expanding its stablecoin rail to support payouts on Visa Direct. Businesses can pre-fund and send payments using stablecoins instead of fiat. Recipients may receive digital dollars directly into their wallets. Stablecoin infrastructure is taking a larger role in global payments after BVNK reached a new agreement to support related activity on Visa Direct. Riding on the Visa real-time money movement network, the setup allows select businesses to send and receive digital dollar payments faster, including outside normal banking hours. Stablecoin Infrastructure Moves into Visa Direct Payments…