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A decade-old email is reviving questions about whether projects like Ripple posed a threat to Bitcoin’s development or merely served as competitors that some BTC backers sought to exclude.The email, dated July 31, 2014, appears to show Austin Hill, then described as Blockstream’s chief executive, telling the late Jeffrey Epstein and other recipients that “Ripple, and Jed McCaleb’s new Stellar [were] bad for the ecosystem.” Blockstream is a Bitcoin-focused blockchain technology firm.The correspondence resurfaced after the US Department of Justice published millions of pages of records under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a disclosure that includes emails, files, images, and…

The U.S. government has taken full legal ownership of more than $400 million in seized cryptocurrency, cash, and real estate tied to Helix, once one of the most widely used bitcoin mixing services on the darknet. A federal judge in Washington, D.C., entered a final order of forfeiture on Jan. 21, transferring the assets to the government following the conviction of Helix operator Larry Dean Harmon. The forfeiture includes thousands of bitcoin, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, and an Ohio mansion purchased during the peak of Helix’s operation. Helix functioned as a cryptocurrency mixer, pooling and rerouting bitcoin…

HYPE gained double digits on Monday after the team behind HyperCore, the core infrastructure powering Hyperliquid’s layer-1 network, said it will support the HIP-4 proposal to expand into prediction markets.The integration would allow fully collateralized contracts on Hyperliquid, the largest decentralized perpetual futures crypto platform, enabling traders to wager on political elections, sports and other markets.In an X post on Monday, Hyperliquid said the support was driven by “extensive user demand” for prediction markets and bounded options-like instruments, while adding that HIP-4 could allow other novel applications to be built on Hyperliquid. Source: HyperliquidHIP-4 outcomes would function like a betting…

The most recent crash in the crypto market has undoubtedly been driven by an external shock rather than a protocol failure of any kind. The escalating conflict in the Middle East, a hawkish Federal Reserve, and prolonged economic disruption in the US are amongst the leading reasons for a broad risk-off move. Bitcoin fell to $75,000, triggering over $2.5 billion in leveraged long liquidations in a single day and accelerating a market-wide retreat. Within these market conditions, speculative activity is also diminishing. Bitcoin Everlight has continued to see participation during its second presale phase, offering a clear example of how engagement…

Following the January DOJ disclosures, Swissblock economist Henrik Zeberg said anyone visiting Epstein’s island after 2008 has a moral compass that is broken. Blockstream CEO Adam Back responded to renewed attention around the company after newly unsealed Jeffrey Epstein documents emerged as part of a large US Department of Justice disclosure. In a public clarification, Back said Blockstream has no ongoing or historical financial relationship with the convicted sex offender. Blockstream Says No Epstein Ties Back asserted that any contact occurred briefly during the company’s seed fundraising in 2014 and ended shortly afterward. He explained that Blockstream was introduced to…

Short Bitcoin funds attracted $14.5 million in inflows as investors hedge against falling prices. Investors pulled $1.7 billion from digital asset investment products this past week. This has reversed year-to-date gains and left a net $1 billion outflow globally. CoinShares stated that the decline reflects weaker investor confidence, influenced by a more hawkish US Federal Reserve Chair, continued selling by crypto whales linked to the four-year cycle, and rising geopolitical risks. Since October 2025, when prices reached their highs, total assets under management in digital assets have fallen by $73 billion, amidst a sharp drop in market appetite for the…

The Zamoskvoretsky Court in Moscow has reportedly ordered that BitRiver CEO Igor Runets be held in house arrest amid tax evasion charges.  The founder and CEO of Russian Bitcoin mining firm BitRiver, Igor Runets, has reportedly been detained and charged with multiple counts of tax evasion. According to reports from local media outlets such as RBK and Kommersant on Sunday, Runets was detained on Friday and is facing three charges for allegedly concealing assets to evade taxes.The outlets cite court documents from the Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow indicating that Runets was charged on Saturday and ordered to be placed under house arrest…

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed a new creator token model that combines decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) with prediction market mechanics to incentivize higher-quality content creation.Creator tokens, or content coins, are blockchain-based assets that can grant fans a slice of ownership, access rights, or even royalties for the content creator’s work, which could be in the form of posts, photos, music, or videos. However, in a post on X on Sunday, Buterin said existing creator token platforms notably prioritize mass content creation over quality, and that this is now being exacerbated by AI-generated content.To combat this, Buterin said one idea would…

Iris Coleman Feb 02, 2026 04:03 Tether debuts federally compliant USA₮ through Anchorage Digital Bank while Bitwise brings $15B asset manager to Morpho vaults. Plus Flying Tulip raises $225M. Tether just made its most significant regulatory pivot yet. On January 27, the stablecoin giant launched USA₮ (USAT), a dollar-backed token built specifically for the U.S. market under the GENIUS Act framework. Unlike its offshore USD₮, this one runs through Anchorage Digital Bank—a federally chartered institution—with reserves custodied by Cantor Fitzgerald.Early onchain data shows roughly 20M USAT in circulation with $90M in transfer volume, concentrated among institutional wallets rather than retail.…

CrossCurve, a decentralized cross‑chain liquidity protocol, has confirmed that its cross-chain bridge has been attacked, reportedly resulting in losses of around $3 million.This event adds to a surge in cryptocurrency thefts that claimed nearly $400 million from the industry in January 2026 alone.Sponsored SponsoredCrossCurve Attack Details and ResponseThe CrossCurve exploit targeted a vulnerability in one of the smart contracts. Following the incident, the protocol shared an urgent security warning on its official X (formerly Twitter) account. The team urged users to stop all activity while the issue was investigated. “Our bridge is currently under attack, involving the exploitation of a vulnerability…