Author: NBTC

One or both Senate committees working on crypto market structure legislation plan to hold key hearings and votes next week. You’re reading State of Crypto, a CoinDesk newsletter looking at the intersection of cryptocurrency and government. Click here to sign up for future editions. The narrative Next week could get complicated. Senators Tim Scott and John Boozman, respectively the chairs of the Banking and Agriculture Committees, intend to hold markup hearings and votes on crypto market structure legislation, even as lawmakers continue to hammer out key details of the bill. Why it matters The crypto industry has spent the last…

Pi Network is stepping up its push toward real world use with two major upgrades in early 2026. The project has released a new developer SDK. That makes it easy to add Pi payments to apps. At the same time, it has upgraded its core system by integrating Stellar Core v23 into its own Protocol v23. Together, these moves show Pi Network is serious about building real utility. For many in the community, this marks an important moment in Pi Network news today. New SDK Makes Pi Payments Easy for Developers Recently, Pi Network released a new developer library that…

The world’s largest Ethereum treasury firm, chaired by Tom Lee, BitMine, has turned heads over its large Ethereum staking activity in the last 24 hours. While the firm is known for its aggressive accumulation of Ethereum, it has also maintained one of the strongest long-term staking positions in Ethereum, and it has just executed its largest Ethereum stake so far in 2026. On Monday, Jan. 12, data provided by blockchain analytics platform Arkham shows that BitMine staked about $340 million worth of ETH within the past 24 hours. BitMine’s total Ethereum stakes on track to $4 billion The data further…

The stablecoin market has clocked a new market cap record of $310.117 billion on Saturday, December 13. At the time of writing, the market cap of stable cryptocurrencies is hovering around $309.911 billion, based on data obtained from DeFiLlama. Tether’s USDT remains the largest stablecoin with a market cap of $186.242 billion and a dominance of 60.10%. Circle’s USDC is in second place with a market cap of $78.315 billion and a dominance of around 25%. Stablecoins market cap. Source: DeFiLlama. Stablecoin market continue to grow rapidly The stablecoins sector has been growing massively. In the past 12 months, stablecoins…

Tennessee regulators have ordered Kalshi, Polymarket, and Crypto.com to cease offering sports event contracts to residents in the state, alleging that the firms have violated state gambling laws by operating without the required licenses. In cease-and-desist letters dated Jan. 9, the Tennessee Sports Wagering Council (SWC) accused all three firms of illegally offering sports wagering products under the guise of event contracts. The companies currently operate under registration with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as designated contract markets, offering users the ability to buy contracts based on the outcome of sports events. But under Tennessee’s Sports Gaming Act, any…

America’s grip on Bitcoin mining is slipping as firms race to build out infrastructure for artificial intelligence, providing an opportunity for countries like China—despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s vision for technological dominance. In 2025, North American pools, where miners combine computing power to better their chances of solving a block and obtaining the block reward, saw a consistent decline in block share, or the percentage of total Bitcoin blocks successfully mined, according to a recent report from BlocksBridge Consulting. As of December, BlocksBridge said that Foundry USA, MARA Pool, and Luxor Technologies accounted for 35% of all Bitcoin blocks, down…

Network News BUTERIN SAYS STABLECOINS HAVE DEEP FLAWS: Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said the crypto industry has yet to solve some of the most basic design problems behind truly decentralized stablecoins, arguing that many existing systems rely on fragile assumptions that could break down over time. In a post published on X, Buterin laid out what he described as three core challenges that remain unresolved. Rather than promoting a specific project or proposing a new stablecoin, he framed the post as a critique of how decentralized stablecoins are designed and why those designs may not hold up over the long…

An Ethereum price collapse could break the blockchain’s ability to settle transactions and freeze over $800 billion in assets, a Bank of Italy research paper warns. The paper, authored by Claudia Biancotti of the central bank’s Directorate General for Information Technology, outlined a contagion scenario where ETH’s price collapse degrades the blockchain’s security infrastructure to the point of failure. Such a breakdown, the report argues, would trap and compromise tokenized stocks, bonds, and stablecoins that major financial institutions are increasingly placing on public ledgers. Essentially, the paper challenges the assumption that regulated assets issued on public blockchains are insulated from…

Despite the Fed’s interest rate cut, the cryptocurrency market has continued its negative trend over the past week. Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, is set to close the week down 2.86%. However, the cryptocurrency market will see numerous economic developments and altcoin events in the coming week. Here is the cryptocurrency calendar we have specially prepared for you at Bitcoinsistemi.com. (All times are given in UTC+3 Turkish time) Monday, December 15 STRK – A 5.07% dilution will occur upon token unlocking. VANA – A dilution of 8.63% will occur with the token unlocking. The SEC will be holding a roundtable…

The recent crypto market rally experienced earlier this year stalled recently as traders booked profits. Summary The crypto market is wavering ahead of the upcoming CLARITY Act markup. Senator Tim Scott confirmed that the markup will take place on January 15. The CLARITY Act will likely not lead to a crypto market rally. Bitcoin (BTC) price plunged from the year-to-date high of $94,500 to the current $90,000. Other top altcoins like Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple (XRP) have also pulled back in the past few days. CLARITY Act markup to happen on January 15 The crypto market will be in focus…