Elastos Raises $20M to Build Native Bitcoin DeFi Protocol Another project looking to turn Bitcoin into a more fruitful base for DeFi has raised $20 million in funding toward that goal

CoinDesk 20 Performance Update: LTC Surges 16.7% as All Assets Trade Higher Polkadot (DOT) joined Litecoin (LTC) as a top performer, gaining 4.8% from Wednesday.

Crypto Daybook Americas: Litecoin Leads on Optimistic ETF Signal as Market Rallies After Powell Talks Your day-ahead look for Jan. 30, 2025

BlockFills and CoinDesk Indices Launch Options Market for CoinDesk 20 Index The CoinDesk 20 Index gets an options market that will bring institutional liquidity to the index.

World’s Largest Sovereign Wealth Fund Has Indirect Bitcoin Exposure of More Than $355M Norway’s sovereign wealth fund saw a 153% year-over-year increase in indirect bitcoin exposure in 2024, according to K33 Research.

Crypto Critic and Former Senator Bob Menendez Gets 11 Years in Prison for Bribery Menendez is a former senator from New Jersey and a Democrat.

XRP Logged $400M DEX Volumes in January, Ripple’s Brad Garlinghouse Says The rapid expansion of the XRP Ledger’s DEX was one of the key reasons that made 2024 “one of the most monumental years for Ripple.”

Bitcoin, ADA, DOGE Notch Slight Gains as Litecoin ETF Filing Spurs LTC 14% Higher BTC added nearly 3% in the past 24 hours after the FOMC meeting, reversing all losses from a Monday bloodbath that saw prices drop as much as 8%.

Avalanche Blockchain’s December Upgrade Cut Usage Fees by 75% The upgrade was designed to make Avalanche cheaper. It worked.

Bitcoin Friday Futures: CME Group’s Top Crypto Launch Adds Options in February These new financially settled contracts will expire daily from Monday to Friday.

Pudgy Penguins’ Layer 2 Network, Abstract, Struggles to Attract Liquidity Just $33 million worth of ether and stablecoins is currently deployed on Abstract.

ABN AMRO, 21X Conduct Onchain Trade of Tokenized Assets Against Stablecoins ABN AMRO and 21X completed a joint proof of concept for the issuing of a token on the Polygon Amoy Testnet

Ether’s Worst Showing Versus Bitcoin Highlights Cycle of Diminishing Returns: Van Straten The two tokens’ relative performance is more a sign of bitcoin strength than ether’s weakness, one observer said.

Long-Term Bitcoin Holders Are Spending Their BTC, A Bullish Signal, Analysts Say Analysts observing previous BTC bull market said the outlook remains constructive while long-term holders continue to distribute their coins.

Crypto Consortium T3 FCU Helps Spanish Authorities Freeze $26.4M Linked to Crime Syndicate Authorities in Spain say they’ve arrested 23 people and seized $26.4 million thanks to assistance from T3.

Polymarket Still Skeptical of U.S Bitcoin Reserve Despite David Sacks’ Assurance Trump’s crypto czar David Sacks confirmed on Fox News that a national BTC reserve is being studied, but the market isn’t buying it

TRUMP Memecoins Can Now Be Used to Buy Donald Trump Merchandise The move bumps utility and useability for the TRUMP token, which launched on Jan. 17 and has since entered the top-thirty tokens.

Sandboxes Are a Way Out of the Regulatory Sandstorm How regulatory sandboxes can foster innovation, clarify regulations and balance accountability in the crypto industry.

Tesla Marked Up Bitcoin Holdings Valuation in Q4, Booking a $600M Gain New FASB rules allow for corporate bitcoin owners to mark those assets to market.

Cardano’s Plomin Hard Fork Goes Live, Ushering in On-Chain Governance Plomin comes just four months after Cardano’s Chang hard fork, which put many of the mechanisms in place for Wednesday’s upgrade.