investigation

Balancer announced on platform X that it has received a security report regarding Balancer's reCLAMM (rebalanced concentrated liquidity AMM) submitted by the bug bounty platform Immunefi.As a precautionary measure, Balancer has suspended the operation of the relevant liquidity pools during the investigation. User funds are currently safe and fully accessible, and further updates will be continuously announced.

The 22 bitcoins held by the Gangnam Police Station in South Korea during an investigation have been confirmed to have leaked, amounting to approximately 2.1 billion Korean won at current prices. These bitcoins were voluntarily submitted assets received by the police during a case investigation in 2021.The investigation shows that the cold wallet entity was not hacked, but internal assets were transferred out. Law enforcement agencies have launched an investigation into the flow of assets and the possibility of internal involvement. It is reported that this incident was discovered during a nationwide inspection following the disclosure of the theft of 320 bitcoins from the Gwangju District Prosecutor's Office.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen acknowledged during a closed-door meeting with Senate Republicans on Wednesday the suggestion made by some members—that the Senate Banking Committee, rather than the Department of Justice, should investigate Federal Reserve Chairman Powell. A knowledgeable lawmaker stated that this move is intended to "test" whether it might persuade North Carolina Republican Senator Thom Tillis to lift his hold on the Fed nominee."They want to dangle this condition in front of Thom and see if he accepts it," the lawmaker said. "Thom was expressionless at the time." Other sources indicated that this could be a viable compromise.A Republican congressman stated, "What the president wants is an investigation," and having the Banking Committee "satisfy this desire for an investigation" is certainly an option. However, the aforementioned first lawmaker expressed skepticism: "If Thom accepts, I would be quite surprised."

According to Yonhap News Agency, the Financial Supervisory Service of South Korea has upgraded the investigation level regarding the large-scale Bitcoin mispayment incident at Bithumb exchange from on-site inspection to formal audit, and has initiated a comprehensive investigation on the same day.The Financial Supervisory Service stated that the nature of this incident is extremely serious, and additional personnel have been dispatched to conduct high-intensity audits, focusing on whether the exchange violated the "actual holding obligation," whether there are issues with "phantom currencies," and internal control loopholes. The investigation will primarily focus on the reasons behind Bithumb's actual holding of approximately 46,000 Bitcoins while mistakenly paying out 620,000 Bitcoins, as well as the asset custody and account consistency under its "ledger trading" model.Financial authorities pointed out that this incident could undermine the overall trust in the virtual asset market and will verify whether the mistakenly paid Bitcoins have actual structural risks associated with large-scale withdrawals. Additionally, the internal approval loophole that allows a single operator to complete large transfers at Bithumb will also be closely examined.

According to The Block, a senior Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives has launched an investigation into the cryptocurrency project World Liberty Financial (WLFI) related to Donald Trump, following reports that the project received a $500 million investment from an entity linked to a member of the UAE royal family.U.S. House member Ro Khanna sent a letter to WLFI co-founder Zach Witkoff requesting detailed information and relevant documents. The letter cited an earlier report from The Wall Street Journal, stating that Aryam Investment 1 (controlled by UAE National Security Advisor and President's brother Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan) acquired a 49% stake in WLFI.

The U.S. House of Representatives has launched an investigation into the cryptocurrency project World Liberty Financial related to Trump, focusing on whether it involves foreign sovereign capital and potential national security and policy compliance issues.The investigation stems from a report previously disclosed by The Wall Street Journal: an entity linked to Abu Dhabi had secretly agreed to acquire approximately 49% of World Liberty Financial for $500 million shortly before Trump's inauguration in early 2025. In response, U.S. Congressman Ro Khanna has sent a letter to the company requesting information on its equity structure, payment details, and internal communications, as well as verification of the relevant investment situation. The letter specifically asks World Liberty Financial to confirm whether $187 million has flowed into entities related to the Trump family and whether there are additional payments made to affiliates of the company's co-founder.

According to Jinshi, U.S. Democratic Senator Warren stated that no Republican should agree to advance the nomination of Waller before President Trump halts the investigation into the Federal Reserve.

According to the UK House of Lords Financial Services Regulatory Committee, the committee has announced the launch of an investigation into the growth of stablecoins and proposed regulations, and is now publicly seeking relevant opinions and evidence.The investigation will focus on the development of the global stablecoin market, future trends of pound-denominated stablecoins, the potential impact of stablecoins on the UK economy and financial services, as well as the applicability of the proposed regulatory framework by the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).The committee chair, Baroness Noakes DBE, stated that the purpose of this investigation is to assess the opportunities and risks brought by the growth of stablecoins and to explore whether the regulatory framework proposed by the Bank of England and the FCA can effectively respond to these changes. Experts and interested parties in the relevant fields are welcome to submit their opinions.

According to South Korean media Ohmy News, the Gwangju District Prosecutor's Office recently suspected that a large amount of Bitcoin, seized and stored due to criminal cases, has gone missing. The specific number of lost Bitcoins has not been disclosed, but it is understood to be worth hundreds of billions of Korean won. The prosecution is conducting an internal investigation.The Gwangju District Prosecutor's Office discovered the loss during a routine check for any anomalies in the financial assets. At that time, they were examining the passwords related to Bitcoin stored on a removable storage device (USB drive). A prosecutor official stated, "We learned that the incident occurred during a routine check of the seized Bitcoins, where we inadvertently accessed a so-called 'fake (scam) website.' Internal discussions within the prosecution suggest that the lost Bitcoins could be worth up to 70 billion Korean won." An official from the Gwangju District Prosecutor's Office responded to media inquiries by stating, "We cannot confirm this matter."

On January 21, Saga discovered and responded to a security incident affecting the SagaEVM chain. The incident involved a coordinated deployment of contract sequences, cross-chain operations, and subsequent liquidity extraction. Based on the principle of prudence, the SagaEVM chain has been paused at block height 6593800, and an active investigation and mitigation work is underway. Approximately $7 million worth of USDC, yUSD, ETH, and tBTC has been transferred to the Ethereum mainnet.The team is collaborating with exchanges and cross-chain bridge platforms to blacklist the attack wallet and recover the stolen tokens, and will repair and strengthen the affected cross-chain and deployment components. This incident did not involve a consensus mechanism failure, validator compromise, or private key leakage.According to previous news from ChainCatcher, the Saga chain was allegedly attacked by hackers, resulting in approximately $7 million in assets being stolen.

According to CNBC, White House National Economic Council Director Hassett downplayed the federal criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Friday, stating he expects "no issues." In an interview, Hassett mentioned that the Fed's inquiry is merely a simple request for information, which will be provided shortly, after which the investigation will continue. He also expressed hope for more transparency regarding the cost overruns on the renovations at the Fed's headquarters, which is also a focus of the Justice Department's investigation.

The cryptocurrency market experienced the largest short squeeze since the "1011 crash" this week, with investor sentiment shifting from fear to greed.Nicolai Sondergaard, a research analyst at the crypto data analytics platform Nansen, stated that the uncertainty regarding the independence of the Federal Reserve and rising geopolitical concerns are structural bullish factors for Bitcoin. Although precious metals remain the main beneficiaries in the current market environment, Bitcoin is increasingly becoming part of the discussion as an alternative reserve asset, and the criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell could bring a "risk premium" to BTC. Market data shows that Bitcoin's price has risen 10.6% year-to-date, while the U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) has increased by 0.75% during the same period.

U.S. President Trump said on Wednesday that, despite the Justice Department conducting a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Powell, he currently has no plans to fire him, and it is "too early to determine what action he will ultimately take." When asked if he would attempt to remove Powell from his position, Trump told Reuters, "I have no such plans at the moment."When asked if the investigation gave him reason to take action, Trump added, "For now, we are taking a strategy of holding off on him, and we are studying what to do next. But I can't disclose details. It is still too early." (Jinshi)

The Zcash Foundation stated this Wednesday that the U.S. SEC has officially concluded its years-long investigation into the organization and has made it clear that it does not plan to take any enforcement action or require remediation.The foundation disclosed that it received a subpoena from the SEC in August 2023, related to "In the Matter of Certain Crypto Asset Offerings." Currently, the SEC has completed its review and closed the case. An SEC spokesperson responded that the agency "does not comment on whether an investigation exists."This case closure occurs against the backdrop of a shift in the SEC's stance on crypto regulation. During the Trump administration, the SEC withdrew or terminated enforcement actions or investigations against several crypto entities, including Coinbase and multiple DeFi projects, which is markedly different from the Biden administration's hardline approach characterized by "enforcement-style regulation."Current SEC Chairman Paul Atkins is pushing for updates to crypto regulatory rules through "Project Crypto," focusing on on-chain activities and technological realities.It is worth noting that the Zcash ecosystem has recently experienced fluctuations. On January 8, all employees of the core developer Electric Coin Company collectively resigned due to structural disagreements with the board of its parent organization. In response, the Zcash Foundation emphasized that its commitment to the protocol remains unchanged and pointed out that the Zcash network is independent of any single organization or entity, and that organizational adjustments within the ecosystem do not equate to a deterioration in the health of the network itself.

According to Cointelegraph, Bitcoin briefly rose above $92,000 on Monday due to a criminal investigation by U.S. federal prosecutors into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Analysts are questioning whether the independence of the Federal Reserve might be compromised, which could benefit alternative assets like Bitcoin that are considered scarce.Although this news triggered a brief surge, traders remain cautious overall, primarily influenced by ongoing outflows from Bitcoin ETFs and weak demand for bullish leverage. Even with a recent rebound, Bitcoin is still down about 23% from its peak in October 2025, while gold and silver reached all-time highs in 2026. This divergence in trends has led traders to start questioning whether the narrative of "Bitcoin as a digital store of value" is weakening.The annualized premium of Bitcoin futures (i.e., basis) remains at a neutral to bearish level of about 5%. Generally, when market sentiment truly turns bullish, the premium of Bitcoin futures relative to spot often reaches or exceeds 10%. More importantly, Bitcoin spot ETFs recorded a total net outflow of $1.38 billion over four consecutive trading days.Even more concerning is that despite Strategy increasing its holdings of Bitcoin worth approximately $1.25 billion over the past month, the price of Bitcoin has still failed to effectively hold above $94,000. Overall, the appeal of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies remains sluggish, as reflected in ETF fund flows and weak demand for Bitcoin long positions. This indicates that the probability of an unexpected surge to $105,000 in the short term is relatively low.

According to Jinshi, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen stated that the investigation by Federal Reserve Chairman Powell is "extremely concerning," and the market should pay attention to the independence of the Federal Reserve.

According to Jinshi News, Rogier Quadevelich, an economist at the Dutch Bank, stated in a report that the investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Powell could affect the prospects of interest rate cuts in the short term. He pointed out that challenges to the independence of the Federal Reserve might prompt board members to take a tougher stance, delaying the decision on rate cuts. This investigation involves cost overruns in the renovation project of the Federal Reserve headquarters, and Quadevelich believes this is a means to pressure the Federal Reserve Chairman, which could lead to a delay in rate cuts.

According to Jinshi News, Goldman Sachs Chief Economist Jan Hatzius stated that the latest news regarding the criminal investigation of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will intensify concerns about the independence of the Federal Reserve.He expects that the FOMC will continue to make interest rate decisions based on its statutory responsibilities and economic data.