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According to a report by The Wall Street Journal citing informed sources, the Federal Reserve is secretly initiating a legal challenge in response to two subpoenas issued by U.S. prosecutor Jeanine Pirro in the criminal investigation against Powell.Pirro, a longtime ally of President Trump, launched the investigation to examine whether Powell made false statements to Congress last summer regarding the Federal Reserve building renovation project. This action prompted Powell to respond publicly in an unprecedented manner, stating in a video statement on January 11 that the investigation is a guise for Trump's ongoing pressure on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates and undermine the central bank's independence.In the secret proceedings, the Federal Reserve is requesting the judge to quash the subpoenas to reduce or eliminate its obligation to respond. The specific legal arguments have not been disclosed. In high-profile investigations, it is not uncommon for recipients of subpoenas to challenge prosecutors on the grounds that the requests are overly broad or involve information protected by legal privilege.Due to the confidentiality rules applicable to criminal investigations before grand juries, this legal battle is quietly ongoing and not open to the public.

Cactus Custody announced that its self-custody MPC (Multi-Party Computation) solution is officially launched. As a custody brand under Matrixport, Cactus holds a Hong Kong Trust TCSP license and has served numerous industry-renowned clients such as RedotPay, Fosun Wealth Holdings, and TDTC.As the Web3 industry matures, institutional clients are increasingly inclined to gain autonomy in custody while demanding the robust security infrastructure provided by third-party custodians. Cactus Custody's MPC solution cleverly bridges this gap by combining cutting-edge Intel SGX TEE (Trusted Execution Environment) with an institution-centric risk management engine.The core security cornerstone of the platform is the advanced MPC-TSS (Threshold Signature Scheme). Through this technology, private key shards are independently generated by multiple parties and jointly managed by devices controlled by Cactus and the clients. This architecture effectively eliminates the risk of "single points of failure," ensuring that no party can unilaterally transfer funds, thereby providing clients with absolute asset sovereignty and peace of mind.Cactus Custody CEO Daniel Lee commented, "Our new MPC solution is designed for institutions that prefer to manage assets directly while requiring secure and compliant infrastructure. By providing a compliant, flexible, and secure platform, we empower clients to flexibly and fully autonomously scale their digital asset businesses."

According to CoinDesk, although the price of Bitcoin has fallen nearly 17% this month, the stock prices of several Bitcoin mining companies have risen against the trend, such as TeraWulf, which has increased by 31% this month, Cipher Mining by 8%; Hut 8 by 6%; and Core Scientific remaining basically flat.Analysts believe that Bitcoin mining companies are currently one of the targets with a high short-selling ratio among hedge funds. If the fundamentals improve, it may trigger a short covering rally. These companies have secured long-term and attractive power contracts, giving them a structural advantage on the energy cost side. Their strategic value goes beyond just Bitcoin mining, and capital is flowing towards "structural winners," while traditional mining companies may face the risk of being marginalized.

According to market news, the blockchain gaming infrastructure platform Power Protocol has received a $3 million investment from Bitkraft Ventures, bringing the total funding to $15.5 million.Power Protocol has built infrastructure for several partner studios, including Pixion Games, the developer of Fableborne. Its aim is to create scalable systems for multiple games, allowing game developers to adopt POWER token economics and share on-chain infrastructure, rather than launching isolated chains and tokens.

According to Coinglass data, the Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Index has once again set a record for the duration of recent negative premiums, remaining in negative territory for an extended period, currently reported at -0.0335%, surpassing the approximately 30 days of continuous negative premium during the "1011 crash."Since 2026, the index has recorded positive premiums on only 2 trading days. The Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Index is used to measure the difference between the Bitcoin price on Coinbase and the global market average price; negative premiums typically reflect significant selling pressure in the U.S. market, a decline in investor risk appetite, heightened market risk aversion, or capital outflows.

Web3 asset data platform RootData published a daily transparency alert on X, raising concerns about the financing information of projects such as PrimeXBT, Coincall, PowerTrade, Foxbit, and BTC Markets, and calling on project teams to submit/update information on RootData to improve their transparency scores. In addition, RootData stated that it will continue to monitor and expose "black box" projects that lack core information.It is reported that the RootData transparency score is used to measure the integrity and timeliness of a project, aiming to reflect the project's information disclosure situation. The transparency score is divided into 5 levels from A to F, with lower scores indicating less complete information disclosure and higher risks of wrongdoing, requiring investors to exercise heightened caution.

Former President Trump posted on the Truth platform, stating that the government shutdown caused by the Democrats led to a decrease in the U.S. GDP by at least two percentage points. This is why they are now trying to repeat the same old tricks on a smaller scale. Don't let the government shut down again! Also, lower the interest rates. Powell is the worst.

According to Cointelegraph, Senate Banking Committee senior member Elizabeth Warren has written to Treasury Secretary Scott Basset and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, urging the government not to use taxpayer funds to bail out the cryptocurrency industry.In her letter, Warren warned that any form of bailout would mean "transferring wealth from American taxpayers to cryptocurrency billionaires," which is not only "extremely unpopular" but could also directly benefit President Trump and his family's cryptocurrency project, World Liberty Financial.The letter comes at a time when the price of Bitcoin has fallen over 50% from its historical highs, reaching a local low of $60,000. On the same day, World Liberty Financial held its first "World Liberty Forum" at Mar-a-Lago, inviting several executives from the cryptocurrency industry and policymakers who support cryptocurrencies to attend.Warren also referenced the Financial Stability Oversight Council hearing on the 4th of this month, pointing out that Secretary Basset had "avoided core concerns" when responding to questions about a bailout for Bitcoin.She emphasized that the government should not intervene in the Bitcoin market through direct purchases, guarantees, or liquidity tools, to avoid "making cryptocurrency billionaires the biggest beneficiaries of a bailout."

Regarding the recent widely circulated interview with "former Binance listing manager Chase," He Yi clarified that Chase is not the listing manager, but rather in BD (Business Development)."The Binance project analysis and DD (due diligence) listing team does not communicate with the project parties; all contract terms are handled by BD, but BD does not have decision-making power. Therefore, each BD needs to connect with countless projects. Listing and BD belong to two different teams with different reporting lines. Thank you all for your attention. Having different perspectives can help everyone make judgments, which is a good thing. There is no need to overinterpret yesterday's ticket boarding today's ship."ChainCatcher previously reported that former Binance listing manager Chase stated in an interview, "The Binance listing team has a total of more than a dozen people, with 4 of us, including myself, who can actually interact with projects. In my two and a half years of employment, I have seen over 1,000 crypto projects, and I estimate that around 100 projects will have their tokens listed on Binance (including Alpha) by 2025. The proportion of projects that can be listed after communicating with the founders is about 5% to 10%. Bitcoin will definitely set a historical high in 2026."

Ethereum consensus layer core contributor Greg posted on the X platform revealing the insider details of the resignation of Ethereum Foundation Executive Director Tomasz Stańczak. He expressed that he was not surprised by this event, as there has long been power struggles within the Ethereum Foundation. The organizational inertia of "this is how the Ethereum Foundation operates" makes reforms difficult to implement. Over the past year, core figure Vitalik Buterin has been mostly absent, leading to issues such as resource inefficiency and project stagnation within the foundation.The internal reforms initially promoted by Tomasz Stańczak were not widely accepted, which may have led to his departure. In fact, he has extensive industry experience, including backgrounds in Nethermind, Flashbots, and venture capital. Although potential conflicts of interest were disclosed in advance, some community members still have doubts about this.Additionally, Tomasz Stańczak sincerely hopes to return to technical development, but he is likely to encounter resistance in the reform process at the Ethereum Foundation, which may force him to leave. In the future, it will be necessary to introduce leaders with real business experience and decision-making power to drive the organization’s effective operation.

The General Office of the State Council issued implementation opinions on improving the national unified electricity market system, which pointed out the need to enhance various functions of the electricity market, accelerate the establishment of a green electricity consumption certification mechanism, comprehensively introduce technologies such as blockchain, and carry out full-chain certification for green electricity production, consumption, and other links.

Ethereum treasury company ETHZilla Corporation (NASDAQ: ETHZ) has launched the Eurus Aero Token I through its wholly-owned subsidiary ETHZilla Aerospace LLC, which is the first tokenized entity asset backed by commercial aircraft engines.The token is built on the Ethereum Layer 2 network and is supported by two CFM56 commercial jet engines valued at approximately $12.2 million, leased to major U.S. airlines. Each token is priced at $100, with a minimum purchase of 10 tokens, and the target return rate for holding until the lease term expires is about 11%. ETHZilla states that this product provides qualified investors with access to an asset class traditionally limited to private aviation leasing funds or large institutional trades.The token will be exclusively offered through the Liquidity.io ecosystem, utilizing an ERC-20 token structure, with cash flows distributed to token holders monthly. ETHZilla plans to launch more tokenized asset classes in the near future, including manufactured home loans and auto loans.

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 Jinshi News, a research report from CITIC Securities indicates that no further rate cuts are expected during Powell's term. The institution believes that under Walsh's chairmanship at the Federal Reserve, the baseline scenario for the second half of the year will involve 1 to 2 rate cuts, each by 25 basis points.Walsh will not significantly cut rates in response to Trump's demands, still basing decisions primarily on economic fundamentals and paying attention to inflation risks, but he is not entirely hawkish.

According to Cointelegraph, Ray Dalio warned that CBDCs are coming, which will eliminate financial privacy while giving governments the power to tax, seize funds, and cut off the funding sources of political opponents.

As Bitcoin declines, Bitfinex's margin long positions have risen to approximately 77,100 BTC, reaching a nearly two-year high. This trend indicates that there is still significant leveraged buying in the market during the downturn. Additionally, over the past six months, the size of Bitfinex's margin longs has increased by about 64%, which is typically seen as a signal that large players or high-risk appetite funds are continuing to accumulate during periods of market pressure.However, historical experience shows that this indicator often expands during periods of market stress, but it does not necessarily mean that prices have bottomed out. Analysts believe that the current accumulation of margin longs reflects, on one hand, the market's behavior of buying on dips, and on the other hand, it may indicate that the market has not yet completed its final clearing, with short-term volatility risks still present.

MultiversX announces a collaboration with OpenAI and Stripe to support its Agent Commerce Protocol (ACP), providing infrastructure for AI-driven on-chain transactions. ACP is an open standard that allows AI agents to complete product discovery, purchasing, and payment within a chat interface, without the need for wallet operations or paying Gas fees.MultiversX has implemented support for ACP through an open-source adapter and introduced the Relayed v3 protocol, offering native Gasless transaction capabilities, allowing users to complete transactions without holding EGLD.Additionally, MultiversX supports Google's Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), covering the entire shopping process from product discovery to post-sale support. Combined with the upcoming Supernova upgrade (which achieves sub-second finality), MultiversX lays the groundwork for automated work contracts and decentralized value chains between AI agents. This integration enables AI agents to execute transactions seamlessly, driving the development of a machine-to-machine economy and providing new financial infrastructure for both on-chain and off-chain ecosystems.

According to Jinshi reports, Federal Reserve official Barkin stated that the pricing power of businesses is constrained, which is beneficial for controlling inflation.