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Security token platform Securitize announced it has appointed Giang Bui, former head of Nasdaq's equities and exchange-traded products (ETP) division, as its new Vice President and Head of Issuer Growth. In her new role, Bui will lead the expansion of issuer partnerships and the launch of regulatory-compliant tokenized products. Bui spent nearly 10 years at Nasdaq, where she led U.S. equities and ETF strategy. She also reportedly played a role in the process of listing spot BTC ETFs in 2024. Securitize is currently collaborating on tokenization with firms including Apollo, BlackRock, KKR, and BNY Mellon, and is also pursuing an initial public offering (IPO).

MetaPlanet, a publicly listed Japanese firm accumulating Bitcoin, announced plans to purchase additional BTC by raising up to 21 billion yen ($130 million). The company detailed the plan in an official document regarding its 25th issuance of stock warrants, which it shared on its official X account.

A majority of BTC investors are currently holding their assets at an unrealized loss, increasing the risk of short-term price volatility, CoinDesk reported, citing data from Checkonchain. The analysis indicates that approximately 63% of all invested BTC was acquired at prices of $88,000 or higher. According to the on-chain UTXO Realized Price Distribution (URPD) indicator, a high concentration of buyers exists in the $85,000 to $90,000 range, suggesting that a drop below $80,000 could intensify selling pressure. The report further warned that support in the $70,000 to $80,000 range is thin, meaning a breach of the $80,000 level could lead to a rapid decline toward the $70,000s.

South Korean crypto exchange Upbit announced it has updated the token circulation plan for Babylon (BABY) at the project's request. The change reduces the planned circulating supply for the first quarter of this year by 96,595,603 BABY, from 3,185,363,681 to 3,088,768,078. Following the adjustment, the circulating supply for the second quarter is set at 4,428,001,925 BABY.

South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb announced it will temporarily suspend deposits and withdrawals for Flow (FLOW) at 11:00 a.m. UTC on Jan. 29 to support a mainnet upgrade.

A whale investor who executed a leveraged purchase of 532,000 Venus (XVS), valued at $2.81 million, on the Venus Protocol has incurred significant losses amid a sharp price drop, AmberCN reported. The investor had borrowed 1.4 million USDT against XVS collateral to fund the purchase. During the subsequent downturn, 287,000 XVS were liquidated to repay $930,000 of the USDT loan, resulting in a cumulative loss of $1.09 million. The position's Health Factor now stands at just 1.07, with a risk of further liquidation if the price of XVS falls below $3.2. According to CoinMarketCap, XVS is currently trading at $3.45, down 29.69% on the day.

The concurrent decline of Bitcoin and the U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) over the past year indicates that the cryptocurrency market is primarily driven by short-term capital flows and investor sentiment, according to an analysis by JPMorgan. CoinDesk reported that Yuxuan Tang, JPMorgan's head of Asia macro strategy, noted in a recent report that while a weaker DXY is typically favorable for risk assets like BTC, the cryptocurrency has fallen 13% while the DXY dropped 10%. Tang asserted this suggests the market perceives BTC as an asset sensitive to liquidity rather than a reliable hedge against the dollar. He added that many investors looking to diversify away from the dollar prefer assets like gold or emerging market stocks. The report concluded that it will be difficult for Bitcoin to match the rally in traditional safe-haven assets without a clear shift in future monetary policy.

South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb has announced it will temporarily suspend deposits and withdrawals for Story (IP) and Aria Protocol (ARIAIP) at 9:00 a.m. UTC on Feb. 5 due to a Story Network upgrade.

South Korean crypto exchanges Coinone and Korbit have announced the designation of Alpha Venture DAO (ALPHA) as a cautionary investment item. Coinone stated that the decision was made after a comprehensive review identified several shortcomings. The exchange cited concerns regarding the adequacy of the project's disclosures, the transparency of its governance and operations, and its level of community activity, all of which could potentially lead to user harm.

South Korean prosecutors have been hacked for approximately 40 billion won ($28.8 million) in Bitcoin that was seized during a 2021 raid on a gambling website, Segye Ilbo reported. The funds, which were stored across 57 separate wallets, were transferred to a hacker's wallet in just 14 minutes. The speed of the breach across multiple addresses has raised suspicions of a possible inside job. Prosecutors are believed to have discovered the hack at least two months after it occurred, and the assets have reportedly remained in the hacker's wallet for more than five months.

Hong Kong-based asset manager Hang Seng Investment Management has launched a physical gold exchange-traded fund (ETF) that includes a tokenization option, Cointelegraph reported. The Hang Seng Gold ETF began trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Jan. 29 under the ticker 3170 and tracks the LBMA Gold Price set in London. The physical gold backing the fund is stored in a Hong Kong vault, with HSBC acting as the custodian. However, the tokenization feature is not yet live and is currently awaiting regulatory approval.

Venus (XVS) plunged more than 30% in approximately 10 minutes, beginning around 8:05 a.m. UTC on Jan. 29. The token's price fell from around $4.40 to a low of $3.12. As of press time, XVS is trading at $3.32 on the Binance spot market against USDT, down 31.83%.

Six U.S. senators have sent a letter to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche demanding an explanation for an alleged conflict of interest involving his cryptocurrency holdings. They claim that Blanche held up to $470,000 in cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, at the time he ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) to scale back its crypto enforcement and dismantle its national cryptocurrency investigation unit. The senators asserted that this decision constitutes a conflict of interest and could potentially violate federal law.

Coinbase has integrated with the Solana-based decentralized exchange (DEX) Jupiter (JUP) to enable direct trading of Solana-based cryptocurrencies, Cryptopolitan reported. The feature allows users to trade using their Coinbase balance or a self-custody wallet. Jupiter will serve as an execution engine, aggregating liquidity from Solana DEXs, settling on-chain transactions, and optimizing trade routes. Coinbase plans to provide on- and off-ramps for more Solana-based assets in the future, allowing them to be traded without a formal listing process.

Binance has announced the delisting of 21 spot trading pairs, effective at 8:00 a.m. UTC on Jan. 30. The affected pairs are 0G/FDUSD, ARPA/BTC, AXS/ETH, BEL/BTC, BERA/BNB, ENSO/FDUSD, FORTH/BTC, HEMI/BNB, ILV/BTC, JOE/BTC, MAV/BTC, NEAR/BNB, NTRN/BNB, PHB/BTC, PLUME/FDUSD, PORTAL/FDUSD, RED/BTC, SC/ETH, SEI/BNB, SKL/BTC, and SOMI/FDUSD.

Bybit is expanding into the banking sector by launching an account service that allows users to hold fiat currency balances, Bloomberg reported. CEO Ben Zhou said the company plans to introduce the service in partnership with licensed banks, including Fave Bank in Georgia. The accounts will be assigned an International Bank Account Number (IBAN) and will support transfers in 18 fiat currencies. The launch is scheduled for February, pending regulatory approval. Additionally, Bybit is preparing to release a custody product to support real-world asset (RWA) tokenization for institutional investors. The company is also exploring collaborations with licensed partners in the U.S. and is in discussions with major banks about a U.S. stock market listing as a long-term goal.

An early Bitcoin holder, identified by addresses starting with 1011short and 0xb317d, is currently facing an unrealized loss of over $46 million on long positions totaling more than $700 million in BTC, ETH, and SOL, according to The Data Nerd. The holder's positions consist of 212,726 ETH at an average entry price of $3,149, 511,612 SOL at $130.1, and 572 BTC at $91,506.

Swiss crypto bank Sygnum has completed the seed funding round for its Starboard Sygnum BTC Alpha Fund, attracting over 750 BTC from professional and institutional investors in the roughly four months since its launch last October, Cointelegraph reported.

Global asset manager Franklin Templeton has announced a strategic investment in the artificial intelligence project Sentient (SENT). Following the investment, Sentient plans to collaborate on developing institutional-grade financial services using its open-source artificial general intelligence (AGI) technology. According to Sentient, the two firms will work together over the next several months to co-develop advanced AI use cases for the financial sector and apply the project's open-source reasoning technology in live financial production environments.

An amendment to South Korea's Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information, which requires virtual asset service providers (VASPs) to report the criminal records of their major shareholders to authorities, passed the National Assembly's plenary session on Jan. 29, MTN News reported. The legislation, aimed at preventing crypto firms from being used for illicit activities like money laundering, was approved with 246 votes in favor and one abstention out of 247 members present.

The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) has officially approved the dollar-pegged stablecoin USDU, CoinDesk reported. This marks the first USD-based stablecoin to be sanctioned in the UAE under the central bank's Payment Token Services Regulation (PTSR). The stablecoin will be issued and operated by Universal Digital, a firm supervised by the Abu Dhabi Global Market's (ADGM) Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA). Its reserves will be held on a 1:1 basis in accounts at UAE-based banks, including Emirates NBD, Mashreq, and M Bank.

South Korean crypto exchange Upbit announced it will list Sentient (SENT) for trading against BTC, USDT, and the South Korean won (KRW) at 8:30 a.m. UTC on Jan. 29.

South Korean crypto exchange Upbit has announced it will temporarily suspend deposits and withdrawals for Sei (SEI) starting at 9:00 a.m. UTC on Feb. 3 due to a network upgrade.

Holdings in XRP smart money addresses have increased by 11.55% over the past 30 days, Cointelegraph reported, citing data from Nansen. The report noted that while XRP's price has fallen approximately 4% year-to-date amid subdued investor sentiment, the increase in addresses with large holdings could be interpreted as a positive sign for the token's long-term fundamentals.

The following are the long/short position ratios for BTC perpetual futures over the last 24 hours on the world's top three crypto futures exchanges by open interest: Overall: 49.84% long, 50.16% short 1. Binance: 49.98% long, 50.02% short 2. OKX: 49.65% long, 50.35% short 3. Bybit: 50.1% long, 49.9% short