The Protocol: Ethereum’s Wall Street Cheerleader Also: Arbitrum integrates Bitcoin; UBS tests ZKSync for gold

Trump’s CFTC Head Slams Prediction Markets Resistance Under Predecessor Caroline Pham, the agency’s acting chairman, is scheduling an experts roundtable to reset the CFTC’s course on this “sinkhole of legal uncertainty.”

Strategy (MicroStrategy) Reports Q4 GAAP Loss of $3.03 Per Share, BTC Holdings of 471,107 Tokens The company earlier on Wednesday changed its name to Strategy as its primary focus for some time has been bitcoin, not software.

Raydium is Solana’s AMM King. Can it Corner the Perps Market Next? The AMM’s month-old perps service is already seeing $100 million in daily volume.

MicroStrategy Rebrands to Strategy The company said that the name change was a “natural evolution” given its strong focus on bitcoin.

The Great Accumulation: A Corporate Race for Bitcoin Holding bitcoin on corporate balance sheets represents more than a trend — it’s a transformation in how companies can create and preserve shareholder value, says Next Layer Capital’s Brandon Turp.

Bitcoin to Hit $500K by 2028 as ETFs Ease Access, Volatility Drops: Standard Chartered The bank expects institutional inflows into spot bitcoin ETFs to grow as volatility drops, leading to significant price appreciation in the long term.

Gold-Backed Cryptocurrencies Surge as Precious Metal Hits Record Amid Trade War Worry The precious metal has rallied nearly 10% so far this year while most top cryptocurrencies struggled to stay in the green.

Trump’s FDIC Chief Rethinks Crypto Guidance as U.S. Senators Probe Debanking FDIC Acting Chairman Travis Hill said the agency is overhauling its crypto approach, just as U.S. senators examined regulators keeping banks out of crypto.

Blackrock Plans to Launch a Bitcoin ETP in Europe: Bloomberg The fund would be based in Switzerland and BlackRock could start marketing it as soon as this month, according to the story.

Bitcoin-Gold Ratio at 12-Week Low as U.S. Physical Gold Deliveries Soar Traders have been loading the yellow metal on U.S.-bound planes. Investment banking giant JPMorgan plans to deliver $4 billion of gold to New York this month.

Ransomware Payments Fell 35% in 2024 as More Victims Refuse to Pay: Chainalysis According to the blockchain analytics firm, less than half of recorded ransomware attacks resulted in victim payments.

Bitcoin Drops Below Key 2025 Realized Price Level, Raising Risk of Further Downside: Van Straten Over 2.6 million bitcoin in supply are currently at a loss, one of the highest levels this year.

CoinDesk 20 Performance Update: AAVE Gains 6.9% as Index Trades Higher From Tuesday Litecoin (LTC) joined Aave (AAVE) as a top performer, rising 3.7%.

It’s Time to End the Bureaucrat’s Secret Weapon: Debanking Nathan McCauley is CEO Anchorage Digital, an institutional crypto platform. He testifies as a witness before the Senate Banking Committee in today’s hearing: “Investigating the Real Impacts of Debanking in America.”

0G Foundation Unveils $88.8M Ecosystem Fund for Decentralized AI Applications The fund is backed by a number of big-name investors in the blockchain venture capital sector including Hack VC, Delphi Ventures and OKX Ventures.

Textile, 3Box Labs Merge in Decentralized Data Tie-Up for AI Agents The crypto-data veterans shared venture backers and product lines.

Why DeFi Will Benefit From Trade Wars In the short-term, the crypto market will be negatively impacted by increased volatility in global trade, says ML Tech’s Leo Mindyuk. But over time, crypto will be less impacted than traditional finance.

Bitcoin Risks Losing the $90K- $110K Range as These 3 Developments Could Put the Brakes on the Next Bull Breakout BTC looks heavy as critical sources of fiat liquidity begin to tighten, Trump administration goes slow on creation on strategic BTC reserve and charts point to weakening upward momentum.

Bitcoin Network Hashrate Growth Was Muted in January: JPMorgan Mining difficulty fell 2% from the previous month, which is relatively uncommon, the report said.