Vaklyrie Investments and BitGo have entered into a custodianship agreement, according to an announcement from the latter company on Feb. 1. Mike Belshe, CEO of BitGo, said: “… [Valkyrie] took a new step forward with their newest ETF to help investors around the world get access to Bitcoin. It’s a…

Binance announced on Feb. 1 that it has frozen $4.2 million of XRP that was stolen from a Ripple executive one day earlier. Binance CEO Richard Teng said: “After finding out early on about the exploit … we’re happy to say that the Binance team has managed to freeze $4.2…

Families of Hamas victims have filed a lawsuit against the cryptocurrency exchange Binance in a federal court in Manhattan, alleging that the platform indirectly facilitated financial transactions for Hamas, Bloomberg News reported Feb. 1. The lawsuit accuses Binance of enabling the terrorist organization to bypass sanctions and anti-money laundering laws,…

Options on spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) may not earn regulatory approval for several months, Reuters reported on Feb. 1. Martin Leinweber, digital asset product strategist for MarketVector Indexes, told Reuters that it may take two to ten months for those options to gain approval. This implies a possible approval…

Quick Take Bitcoin’s price rally from October 2023, which saw it soar from $25,000 to $49,000 in January 2024, witnessed the digital asset hitting the $40,000 mark for the first time since April 2022 on Dec. 4. From then on, it steadily consolidated above $40,000 for 49 consecutive days. However,…

The United States, through the Energy Information Administration (EIA), will start collecting data about cryptocurrency miners’ energy consumption rate within the nation starting next week. On Jan. 31, the EIA revealed its intention to initiate a provisional survey targeting commercial cryptocurrency miners. This survey was authorized by the Office of…

Polygon Labs has announced a 19% reduction in its workforce, impacting 60 employees across various departments. The decision, announced by CEO Marc Boiron in an internal memo on Feb. 1, is part of the company’s broader strategy to realign its focus on core projects and accelerate its mission in the…

Hut 8 has formalized a comprehensive four-year partnership with Ionic Digital Inc., encompassing end-to-end managed services across all of Ionic’s Bitcoin mining operations. This move was announced on Feb. 1, marking a significant development for Ionic, a mining-focused entity that recently emerged from Celsius’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Ionic would be…

Singaporean authorities have recently issued a joint advisory through the Singapore Police Force (SPF) and the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA), cautioning crypto traders about the escalating menace of digital asset wallet drainers. In their Jan. 31 advisory, the SPF and CSA highlighted crypto drainers’ pivotal role in phishing…

Welcome to my new weekly column, Core Corner. This feature is focused on Core Blockchain (XCB), a layer-1 ecosystem attempting to reshape the decentralized digital landscape. Last year, I met with the chain’s core developers, CoDeTech, and produced this short documentary on the development up to that point. Since then, the…