📰 Zcash Gets a Major Corporate Boost

Biotech firm Leap Therapeutics has completely shifted its focus and rebranded to Cypherpunk Technologies Inc., making a bold move into digital assets.

The company purchased 203,775 ZEC (~$50M) at an average price of $245, after raising $58.9M in a private round fully funded by Winklevoss Capital

Cypherpunk plans to merge biotech innovation with a digital asset treasury strategy, centered around Zcash — the leading privacy-focused cryptocurrency powered by zero-knowledge proofs.

ZEC recently surged nearly 10x, peaking at $735 before correcting to around $490. The new leadership believes its focus on privacy and “cypherpunk principles” will drive long-term value for shareholders.

📰ASIC manufacturer Bitmain suspected of espionage

According to Bloomberg, Bitmain — a leading manufacturer of bitcoin mining ASICs — is under investigation in the United States over national-security concerns.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is conducting an inquiry known as Operation Red Sunset to determine whether Bitmain’s ASIC devices can be remotely controlled and potentially used to affect the power grid.

Bitmain denies having any such capabilities. The company currently controls more than 80% of the global bitcoin-mining hardware market.

📰 World Liberty Financial buys back nearly $10M worth of WLFI tokens

The crypto project World Liberty Financial, backed by the Trump family, carried out a large WLFI buyback — over six hours, the team repurchased 59 million tokens worth nearly $10 million, according to Arkham Intelligence.

The buying activity immediately impacted the market: WLFI rose 10% over the same period, according to CoinGecko.

🛍 Tether fully retires EUR₮

Tether has officially completed the shutdown of its EUR₮ stablecoin. The token’s issuance was halted back in 2022, and now the company has ended all redemptions across every network.

ПUsers were given a full year to swap their EUR₮ for euros directly with Tether — today that window is closed.

Any EUR₮ that wasn’t redeemed before the deadline will continue to circulate, but without a guaranteed 1:1 exchange. In other words, the remaining tokens are now essentially illiquid assets with no backing.

📰 After 10 years of “sleeping,” an Ethereum whale staked $120 million

A large ETH address from the Ethereum ICO era has awakened and moved 40,000 ETH — worth about $120 million.

Instead of taking profit and sending the funds to an exchange, the owner staked the entire amount.

These tokens were originally purchased for roughly $12,000 during Ethereum’s genesis block launch in July 2015.

📰 Upbit to raise cold wallet ratio to record 99%

Following a $31 million hack, Upbit plans to reduce its hot wallet share to below 1%, pushing cold storage to 99% — higher than Coinbase and Kraken. The exchange already keeps 98.33% of assets offline and states that customer protection remains its top priority.

However, experts warn that such a minimal hot wallet balance may slow withdrawals during periods of volatility, especially in South Korea’s closed market, where arbitrage opportunities are limited and the “Kimchi premium” often emerges.

Upbit insists that its updated infrastructure will ensure adequate liquidity even under heavy load. Still, moving to 99% cold storage sets a new global security standard and could reshape the industry’s approach.

⚡️ Unlock the Future of Unified Liquidity with United Stables: The Next-Gen Stablecoin Revolution!

United Stables ($U) is live and transforming the fragmented stablecoin landscape into a unified, transparent, and fluid layer of money. Launched on BNB Chain and Ethereum, $U has already achieved a monumental milestone: 100,000,000 tokens minted in just 24 hours! Backed 1:1 by USD and trusted stablecoins, $U is designed for everyone—from street vendors in Nairobi to AI agents in Silicon Valley—empowering a truly inclusive digital economy.

What is United Stables?
United Stables is a groundbreaking stablecoin liquidity layer that consolidates scattered stablecoin reserves across exchanges, DeFi protocols, payment networks, and emerging AI systems. It solves key pain points like liquidity fragmentation, inconsistent transparency, and limited usability by creating a universal base currency for global markets. Whether you're trading with tighter spreads, earning yield in DeFi, settling institutional trades compliantly, sending low-cost remittances, or enabling machine-to-machine microtransactions via AI, $U makes it effortless and efficient.

At its core, $U is built to bridge humans and AI through programmable money, fostering an intelligent, autonomous economy. It's not just a stablecoin—it's the foundation for a united financial future where value moves freely without borders or barriers.

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✔️ Near Real-time Proof of Reserve
✔️ Multi-Chain
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✔️ Low Fees
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💰 Use $U Right Now For:
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🛠 Day-One Integrations:
- PancakeSwap (trading & liquidity)
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- Aster DEX (spot trading)
- Wallets: Binance Wallet, Trust Wallet, SafePal
- Even accepted on SUPERFORTUNE AI DApp!

📊 Latest Data (Dec 20, 2025):
- Price: $1.00 (stable peg)
- 24h Volume: >$20 MILLION
- Already integrated across top BNB Chain protocols

🔶 Contract: 0xce24439f2d9c6a2289f741120fe202248b666666`

$U isn’t just a stablecoin — it’s unified digital money for humans and machines. Get in early and enjoy borderless liquidity! 💸

🔗 Official Links:
🌐 https://u.tech
🐦 https://twitter.com/UTechStables

🔥 Gold quietly hit a new record in 2025.

⚡️ Some assets move fast, others move steadily, but both say something about how we react to risk.

🚀 How well do you read these shifts?

👉 Check yourself by taking a short quiz.

🇰🇷South Korea fears losing control over its payment system due to stablecoins

Dollar-backed stablecoins are already being actively used by businesses and for salary payments, displacing domestic solutions thanks to faster and cheaper transfers. Authorities warn that without urgent regulation, control over payments could be lost.

Lawmakers are preparing the Digital Asset Basic Act, viewing stablecoins as a tool to protect against dollarization and a growth driver for small businesses.

📰 Stani Kulechov won the Aave DAO vote

The vote to transfer Aave DAO the rights to the website and social media accounts maintained by Stani Kulechov’s Aave Labs ended in defeat for the DAO. Only 3.5% of token holders voted in favor, 55% voted against, and 41% abstained.

Community members explain the outcome by noting that only three holders control 58% of AAVE tokens. However, a DAO victory could have brought chaos to the operations of one of the largest DeFi lending protocols.

Stani Kulechov promised DAO participants clearer alignment on their shared goals, reminding them that in 2025 the DAO earned $140 million, more than in the previous three years combined.

📰 Bitcoin outperforms gold in returns over the past 10 years

With a price of around $87,000, Bitcoin has outperformed gold and silver by several orders of magnitude in returns since 2015, gaining 27,701%.

According to calculations by analyst Adam Livingston, over the same period silver rose by 405%, while gold gained 283%.

Debates over which asset is the better are resurfacing amid rising precious metals prices, Bitcoin’s stagnation, and a weakening U.S. dollar.

📰 Strategy shifts focus in 2026 — Bitcoin moves to the background

On Jan. 1, Strategy — the largest corporate holder of BTC — shared its vision for 2026, and this time Bitcoin was not the central theme. In a New Year’s post on X, the company emphasized data, analytics, and business solutions aimed at building infrastructure for AI adoption.

With Strategy shares falling for a sixth consecutive month — for the first time since 2020 — this appears to be an effort to reduce dependence on BTC volatility and bring a more predictable revenue stream to the forefront.

📰 Polymarket enters the real estate market

Prediction platform Polymarket is launching betting markets related to housing.

Real estate platform Parcl will provide Polymarket with housing price index data, which will serve as the basis for a new line of markets.

These markets will include bets such as whether a city’s housing price index will fall over the course of a month, quarter, or year.

📰 Record XRP ETF trading volumes as Bitcoin and Ethereum see outflows

The results of the first full week of 2026 were mixed for crypto ETFs. While XRP ETFs reached a record weekly trading volume of $219 million, Bitcoin and Ethereum funds faced combined outflows totaling $750 million.

Since their launch in mid-November 2025, XRP funds have attracted a total of $1.22 billion in net inflows, with net assets reaching $1.47 billion, representing 1.16% of XRP’s market capitalization.

Spot SOL ETFs also recorded positive net inflows for the week, attracting $41.1 million.

🔝 Crypto Trends on X

Crypto has made it into the top trending hashtags on X. The Head of Product at X shared data showing the most popular hashtags from December 2025 to January 14, 2026.

BTC, XRP, and ETH all ranked among the most mentioned topics during this period. Notably, XRP was mentioned more often than ETH, which came as a surprise to many. 👀