[Policy]
1. A new presidential decree in Uzbekistan envisages the introduction of tax exemptions for income obtained from operations involving crypto assets;
2. The government of Singapore, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and 16 other companies including Mastercard, Mitsubishi Corporation, DBS Bank, Tokio Marine and Marubeni Corporation have partnered to speed up the deployment of digital technologies in trade and commerce including distributed ledger technology;
3. Romania has amended its tax laws, allowing it to start taxing gains from Bitcoin investments at a rate of 10 percent.
[Cryptocurrency]
1. The NEM Foundation announced the public testnet and the new name for SYMBOL from NEM, the blockchain platform developed under the codename "Catapult;"
2. Several major BCH mining pools including BTC.TOP, AntPool, BTC.com, ViaBTC, and Bitcoin.com prepare to implement a 6-month short-term donation plan, and provide sufficient development funds for BCH developers;
3. The Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract has passed the last hurdle with an end to end formal verification by the aptly named Runtime Verification;
4. The legendary co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak, sat down for lunch with TRON creator Justin Sun who later said, “Looking forward to our partnership.”
[Exchange & Wallet]
1. Crypto wallet ZenGo has added support for Tezos staking;
2. Kraken listed ALGO-based trading pairs against USD, EUR, BTC, and ETH.
[Others]
1. Vodafone does not rule out the possibility of future cooperation with Libra Association after leaving it;
2. Japan BCCC established a new stablecoin committee on Jan 22 and announced the issuance of a stable coin ZENX, a currency with the same concept and mechanism of Facebook's Libra;
3. The HKMA and the Bank of Thailand published a report on a joint Central Bank Digital Currency research project named Project Inthanon-LionRock on Jan 22.

In the latest from U.S. Security and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) ongoing lawsuit against Telegram for its offering of Gram tokens, the commission bashes the messaging service’s blockchain and related token.
“Telegram Has Put Forth No Evidence Regarding the TON Blockchain’s State of Development at Launch,” the Jan. 21, 2020 document reads, adding, “Telegram Marketed Few, if Any, Expected Uses for Grams.”

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has granted a license to Decent Finance Limited, a subsidiary of CEX.IO Group, allowing it to carry out electronic money activities in the country.
With this license in hand, CEX.IO will launch a new regulated business in the United Kingdom, allowing clients to invest in various digital assets.

According to court documents, Kik technical advisor Tanner Philp must be deposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) related to the company's $100 million KIN token sale, elongating the discovery process in the messaging App’s battle with federal regulators.
The SEC wants Kik to provide more testimony, documents and details on its business and plans surrounding the KIN token offering. The regulator alleged Kik violated federal securities laws last year during the KIN sale, suing the messaging platform in federal court in June.

Monitored by Whale Alert, at 21:18:20 UTC on Jan 22, 1,111 BTC (9,591,883 USD) were transferred from an unknown address starting with 38P1sXY to Binance.
The transaction hash is d33410eac6b2c5a5f0bfe0540e8ef3eae395f29967768ad5b8f766687998f430.

The legendary co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak, sat down for lunch with TRON creator Justin Sun.
The two met at Mandarin Gourmet in Cupertino, California on Tuesday (Jan 21). Wozniak posted the news via Twitter, joking that he didn't charge Sun for the meeting.
Neither Wozniak nor Sun divulged any specifics on what was discussed. However, Sun is launching one of his trademark pre-announcement announcements, and says a partnership is on the horizon.

As reported by CoinNess.com, several mining pools will launch the infrastructure funding plan for Bitcoin Cash. Whale Panda, a cryptocurrency proponent and angel investor, reposted the article which was released by JIANG Zhuoer and comment on the issue, saying that BCH's implementing a 12.5% miner's tax is hilarious and anyone who do not donate will have their blocks orphaned. "Literally a centralized totalitarian regime with a 51% attack threat," it added.

CoinNess.com now delivers a special report featuring the closing prices of the U.S. blockchain stocks at the end of the day.
NYSE Bundle:
Eastman Kodak Company (KODK): $3.88, +5.72%;
IBM Common Stock (IBM): $143.89, +3.39%;
Accenture Plc (ACN): $209.41, +0.12%；
Square Inc (SQ): $68.69, +0.56%;
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM): $136.68, -0.12%;
NASDAQ Bundle:
Overstock.com (OSTK): $8.75, -2.89%;
Marathon Patent Group Inc (MARA): $0.98, +0.27%;
RIOT Blockchain Inc (RIOT): $1.34, -4.29%.

Citing Whale Alert, at 20:35:28 UTC on Jan 22, 1,500 BTC (13,046,050 USD) were transferred from an unknown address starting with 1DHyr2iV to OKEx.
The transaction hash is bcc89f36001160367767a1a70c2d4e2eb1d8c035f279bd43ac706d4257853067.

The General Administration of Customs (GAC), a ministry-level administrative agency within the government of China, will further promote the establishment of China Customs' scientific and technological innovation application ecosystem from the aspects of mechanism guarantee, system support, technology research and development, team building, field service, etc. The agency will boom the customs career by depending on new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and blockchain.

As reported by CoinNess, 13 million USDC were newly minted at the USDC Treasury at 19:33:04 UTC on Jan 22. Only about eight minutes later, 13 million USDT were transferred from the same USDC Treasury address to an unknown address starting with 0x28c5b at 19:41:17.
The transaction hash is 0xad001dead3c2e12cda251a93a5b1f3b4cbcb1470787ced782500d8cd56a0a226.

Citing Whale Alert, at 19:33:04 UTC on Jan 22, 13,000,000 USDC (13,000,000 USD) were minted at the USDC Treasury starting with 0x55fe00.
The hash is 0x2a46f604dd7c2a448eff704caaa2455f186f374deb0fefe7191fad0c0f8ff344.

2020 has brought a large new movement of anonymity within Bitcoin nodes. Thanks to the use of TOR (The Onion Router) Network, Bitcoin nodes are now becoming completely anonymous to run. According to data from Bitnodes, the first two weeks of January have seen the number of anonymous nodes increase from 2.1% to 19.7%, which is the largest contribution that the TOR network has ever had.

According to Whale Alert, at 18:18:55 UTC on Jan 22, 580 BTC (5,041,694 USD) were transferred from Huobi to OKEx.
The transaction hash is 78b0b09b555a3a2cd95b21076c0a7db8459d1233777324a95f9e321ca8ed6cc9.

As of 18:00 (UTC) on Jan 22, the global price index of Bitcoin (BTC) is still trading above $8,650. At present, the coin marks $8,681.42 with an increase of 0.45% in the past 24 hours.
The CoinNess.com Bullish vs. Bearish Indicator shows our four-hour technical bias on BTC is "Neutral" with six indicators sending out selling signals, six showing neutral signals, and six indicating buying signals.
The broad market is experiencing an uptrend, with 63 out of Top 100 cryptos by market cap rising.
The global market cap reads $240.30 billion, and the 24-hour trading volume is $90.93 billion.
Major Coins
1. BTC quotes show 8,677.69 USDT on Binance, $8,664.00 on Bitfinex, $8,652.77 on Coinbase Pro and 8,679.17 USDT on Boboo.com;
2. CoinNess.com Market Index presents quotes for major cryptocurrencies besides BTC as following: ETH marks $168.43 (+0.44%); XRP marks $0.2369 (+1.08%); BCH marks $345.69 (+2.11%); LTC marks $58.37 (+1.90%); EOS marks $3.67 (+1.23%); ETC marks $9.30 (+5.32%).
Top 3 Gainers and Losers in Cryptocurrencies
1. Top 3 gainers among Top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap: GNT (+26.57%), SXP (+19.39%), and KMD (+15.00%);
2. Top 3 losers among Top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap: CENNZ (-9.65%), BCD (-3.75%), and DGD (-3.72%).
Cap Flows of Coins/Exchanges
1. Top 3 capital inflows within the last 24 hours: BTC (+$64.91 mln), ETH (+$59.20 mln), and PAX (+$33.58 mln);
2. Top 3 capital outflows within the last 24 hours: BSV (-$24.84 mln), MOF (-$6.25 mln), and KCS (-$3.54 mln);
3. Net inflows/outflows of exchanges: Binance (-$150.75 k), Bitfinex (-$1.88 mln), and Coinbase Pro (-$1.21 mln).

Bakkt's consumer App is set to roll out in 2020, Bakkt president Adam White revealed while speaking at Davos. White said the App would possibly support cryptocurrencies, as well as equities and loyalty rewards.

Grayscale Investments, a cryptocurrency asset management firm, will continue to fund ETC Cooperative, a non-profit organization dedicated to the development of the Ethereum Classic ecosystem, for another two years. The announcement read, "The ETC Cooperative today announced that Grayscale Investments have extended their generous funding of the ETC Cooperative for a further two years, through until April 2022."

Bitcoin's lightning torch is back, and it's zipped through at least 38 countries already.
The torch is a digital game first ignited in January 2019 by pseudonymous Bitcoin enthusiast Hodlonaut, known for his Twitter avatar of a cat in a spacesuit. Each "torchbearer" sends a tiny amount of Bitcoin to the next. A key rule is to add a little bit more money to the payment each time it moves to someone new.

Bitcoin's highly cited Stock-to-Flow model has been updated to account for a large portion of the BTC supply being lost forever, due to the disappearance of the asset's creator.
Satoshi Nakamoto was said to have over 1 million BTC, which could be forever locked away, altering the total supply of the first-ever cryptocurrency.

JIANG Zhuoer, the CEO of BTC.TOP, released a post on Weibo (Chinese Twitter), unveiling that several major BCH mining pools including BTC.TOP, AntPool, BTC.com, ViaBTC, and Bitcoin.com prepare to implement a 6-month short-term donation plan, and provide sufficient development funds for BCH developers to accelerate the development of BCH before the 2020-2021/2022 bull market arrives. For the purpose of providing this funding, mining pools intend to donate 12.5% of the BCH block reward to a foundation that supports the Bitcoin Cash infrastructure. The financing plan will last 6 months, and will provide the Bitcoin Cash ecosystem with the important and much-needed support. Supporters include JIANG Zhuoer (BTC.TOP), WU Jihan (AntPool and BTC.com), YANG Haipo (ViaBTC), and Roger Ver (Bitcoin.com).

The Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract has passed the last hurdle with an end to end formal verification by the aptly named Runtime Verification.
There were some subtle bugs, some of which had to do with the compiler, but they've now all been addressed with the release of version 0.10 just over a week ago.
That means the deposit contract is now good to go, with it unclear whether it will launch on testnet first or straight to mainnet. That's because last month Danny Ryan, the ETH 2.0 coordinator, said: "Runtime Verification will be publishing their full formal verification, analysis, and report within the month. Once that is published, we can deploy the contract."

Payments provider Square has won a U.S. patent for a new network that enables seamless crypto-to-fiat transactions.
Granted Tuesday (Jan 21) by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the patent details a payments system allowing users holding different asset types to transact with one another in real-time.

A key on-chain metric has witnessed growth over the past 12 months, possibly indicating steady accumulation of Bitcoins by retail traders.
As of Jan. 14, there were 784,000 addresses holding one or more Bitcoins, up nearly 11 percent from 707,000 seen a year ago, according to blockchain intelligence firm Glassnode. The number has more than doubled since early 2015.

Madison Holdings Group released an announcement that on January 22, 2020, the company's subsidiary intends to sell the entire equity of Madison Future Games Limited to ZHANG Shurong, who owns 51% shares of Diginex HPC and entire equity of Sweden-based High Performance Computing. The sold company is principally engaged in cryptocurrency mining business.
After the deal, Madison Holdings will stop the business in aforementioned filed.

US Judge McAliley has denied United Corp's request for an extension to serve accusations to Bitmain and its CEO, WU Jihan, citing the plaintiff has more than enough time to send the necessary documents across. United Corp., recently requested an additional 90 day extension period to serve translated documents to Hong Kong-incorporated crypto giant, Bitmain, having already had over a year to do so.
Click 'Read More' for details.

Citing ChainNews, Tezos Foundation has completed the third funding plan within the Tezos ecosystem, providing 21 grants to 16 teams. The funding plan aims to provide funds for developers and applications developers built on the Tezos protocol, and financial support for projects that help Tezos promote in education or marketing.

Sports live-streaming provider SportsCastr is launching its own cryptocurrency to reward viewers and encourage interactions.
The company – which is backed by the NFL Players Association – announced that it has teamed up with the FanWide platform for the effort. The new FanChain (FANZ) token will be made available on FanWide, which helps people locate local game watch parties, and given out to people checking in to listed events.

Hyperledger has announced a new working group at Davos that will explore how blockchain can help the world meet climate goals set out in the Paris Agreement.
The enterprise blockchain consortium launched the Hyperledger Climate Action and Accounting Special Interest Group (SIG) during the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting. Said to be the first of its kind, the Climate SIG will enable participants to share ideas and findings on how distributed ledgers can help governments and companies coordinate on reducing global emissions.

Citing data from BTC.com, up to 12:30 (UTC) on Jan 22, the BTC mining difficulty marks 14.78 T, estimated to increase by 4.63% to 15.46 T in five days and 22 hours. The 24-hour transaction rate marks 3.77 txs/s, with the network hashrate reporting 109.57 EH/s.