postponed

An executive from Bithumb stated that they will "focus on preparing for an IPO by 2027." CFO Jeong Sang-gyun mentioned at the company's annual shareholders' meeting that Bithumb is "strengthening accounting policies and internal controls" after signing an IPO consulting contract with Samjong KPMG. Previously, Bithumb had planned to go public in 2025.At the shareholders' meeting, CEO Lee Jae-won was re-elected for another two years. During his tenure, Bithumb faced a six-month operational suspension and a $24 million fine from South Korean regulators for allegedly violating anti-money laundering regulations.Additionally, another major exchange in South Korea, Upbit's operator Dunamu, also plans to conduct an IPO after completing a stock swap with Naver Financial, expected to take place in September.

The first batch of issuer licenses in Hong Kong was originally scheduled to be issued in March 2026, but it has not materialized as planned. A spokesperson for the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) responded that the HKMA is fully committed to advancing the licensing process and will make announcements to the public at the appropriate time.Regarding who will obtain the first batch of stablecoin licenses in Hong Kong, the market has previously focused on two major Hong Kong dollar issuing banks, HSBC and Standard Chartered. HSBC has not publicly disclosed whether it has submitted an application for a stablecoin license. However, as early as mid-January this year, there were rumors in the market that HSBC had a good chance of obtaining the first batch of licenses. Currently, there is no clear official disclosure on why the issuance of stablecoin licenses has been delayed beyond the anticipated timeline.Individuals close to the stablecoin license applications revealed that the HKMA has been in close contact with the first batch of potential compliant licensees, and there are still proposed amendments regarding the issuance matters. In addition, the second batch of compliant stablecoin licenses in Hong Kong is also in the application process. Reliable sources indicate that Futu Securities and OSL Group are strong contenders for the second batch of licenses.

According to Jinshi News, Nomura Securities has postponed the Federal Reserve's interest rate cut expectations to September and December, citing new inflation risks arising from the Middle East conflict. Nomura's Chief U.S. Economist Jeremy Schwartz pointed out that the delay in the confirmation process for Federal Reserve Chair nominee Kevin Walsh is also a reason for his revision of the interest rate cut timetable. Although price pressures are viewed as transitory, the Federal Reserve may remain cautious in the short term, with policymakers still maintaining a preference for easing.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse stated that the company expects to achieve a record first quarter driven by mergers and acquisitions, and mentioned that it has invested approximately $4 billion in the crypto ecosystem, including the acquisition of Hidden Road for $1.25 billion and the acquisition of GTreasury for about $1 billion.He also pointed out that the progress of digital asset legislation in the United States is slower than expected, with the CLARITY Act potentially being delayed from its original plan of April to May, and called for avoiding excessive politicization of regulation that could impact industry development.

According to Jinshi reports, Morgan Stanley expects the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates in September, with previous expectations set for June.

According to The Block, investment bank TD Cowen stated that the time window for the U.S. to pass the crypto market structure bill may extend to the August recess, breaking the previous expectation that legislation needed to be completed before the Easter recess.Jaret Seiberg, managing director of TD Cowen's Washington research team, pointed out that the Easter recess is not a critical milestone, and legislative work can continue before and after the recess. With the conclusion of the primaries, some lawmakers will have greater flexibility for negotiations. Seiberg believes that the August recess is the last meaningful legislative window, after which Congress will only meet for 12 days in September and 2 days in October, which is only enough time to handle spending bills and defense authorization bills.He also reiterated that if control of Congress changes after the 2026 midterm elections, the bill may be delayed until 2027. It is expected that the House may shift to Democratic control, at which point the Democrats may choose to delay until 2027 to gain greater leverage. Currently, the crypto bill is stalled due to opposition from the banking sector regarding stablecoin yields and the Democrats seeking conflict-of-interest provisions for government officials, but both sides are reportedly close to reaching a compromise. Seiberg stated that if the bill does not pass in 2026, the SEC will provide the regulatory actions needed for the crypto industry.

The organizers of the Dubai TOKEN2049 Summit plan to postpone the event to April 21-22, 2027. The conference was originally scheduled to take place from April 29 to April 30, 2026, but recent conflicts in the Middle East have spread to Dubai.

According to The New York Times, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated last July that the company's new artificial intelligence model would be launched in about a year. However, according to three insiders, Zuckerberg seems to be increasingly struggling to meet that deadline.Sources indicate that Meta's new generation "frontier" artificial intelligence model, developed over several months, has not performed at the level of leading AI models from competitors like Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic in internal tests focused on reasoning, programming, and writing abilities.Two insiders revealed that the model, codenamed "Avocado," performs better than Meta's previous AI models, but its performance falls short of the "Gemini 3.0" model launched last November. As a result, Meta has postponed the release of the "Avocado" product from this month to at least May.

According to Coinbase Markets, Coinbase has postponed the launch date for the spot trading of Limitless (LMTS) to March 6, 2026. The LMTS-USD trading pair will open for trading at 9 AM Pacific Time or later, provided that liquidity conditions are met, and it will only be available in supported trading regions.

The voting on Jupiter's proposal to "reduce the net release of future tokens to zero" officially ended today at 19:00, with the community passing the proposal with a 75% support rate.Previously, Jupiter initiated a new proposal to reduce the net release of JUP to zero in the foreseeable future. The proposal mainly targets the three major sources of JUP releases at present ------ Jupuary airdrop, team share unlock, and Mercurial quota unlock. The specifics are as follows:First, the Jupuary airdrop will be indefinitely postponed, and all 700 million JUP will be returned to the community multi-signature cold wallet for future use. The usage amount and staking snapshot at the current time will be retained. When the market environment, token status, and market sentiment are more suitable, this matter will be re-discussed with the DAO.Second, the release of tokens to team members will be indefinitely suspended. As an alternative, team members will receive JUP in the form of Jupiter's balance sheet debt. If any member wishes to sell their allocated tokens, they will be directly purchased by Jupiter's balance sheet. This move will further strengthen JUP reserves while demonstrating the team's commitment to the future of the JUP token.Third, the selling pressure from Mercurial stakeholders will be fully hedged, which will accelerate the unlocking process, and an equivalent amount of tokens will be purchased through Jupiter's own balance sheet to absorb any impact from potential token sales.

Story Protocol has postponed the unlocking of early investor and team tokens originally scheduled for February 2026 by 6 months to August of this year, in order to reduce short-term selling pressure and market volatility.This plan has been agreed upon by major investment firms such as a16z and Polychain Capital. The board stated that this move aims to avoid anticipated sell-offs before the unlocking and will use the next 6 months to promote revenue growth, validate PMF, and collaborate with a large AI company. After the adjustment, investors will unlock 25% of their tokens 18 months after the TGE, with the remaining portion released monthly in a linear fashion before the 42nd month.

The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee has announced that its previously scheduled hearing on the cryptocurrency market structure bill has been postponed, and the bill text will be released on January 21, followed by a markup hearing. The committee stated that this adjustment aims to ensure transparency in the legislative process and provide members with more time for review.Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman stated that the bill will provide clarity and certainty for the cryptocurrency market while protecting consumers and supporting American innovation. Meanwhile, the Senate Banking Committee will hold a separate markup hearing this week on its version of the cryptocurrency market structure bill. The current version from the Agriculture Committee has not yet been released in formal text, with related contentious points including ethical provisions and the composition of regulatory agency members.

According to crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett, U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman stated that the committee will postpone the revision phase of its cryptocurrency market structure bill to the last week, instead of holding it as originally planned on Thursday alongside the Senate Banking Committee.Boozman mentioned that more time is needed to maintain bipartisan support.

ZAMA co-founder Rand Hindi posted on the X platform that the ZAMA token auction date has been changed. The adjusted auction time is from January 21 to 24, and the token claim date is set for February 2.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has designated a longer period to make a decision on a rule change proposal submitted by Nasdaq ISE.The proposal aims to increase the position and exercise limits for iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) options from the current 250,000 contracts to 1,000,000 contracts. The SEC has extended the decision deadline to February 24, 2026, to allow sufficient time to review the impact on the market after significantly relaxing the limits.

The decentralized derivatives trading platform edgeX confirmed during yesterday's Community Call that the project's TGE will be postponed, with the latest delay until March 31.edgeX is a high-performance, order book-based perpetual contract exchange incubated by Amber Group.

The South Korean government is formulating the "Basic Law on Digital Assets" (Phase Two Legislation on Crypto Assets), which is expected to include several investor protection measures, such as introducing strict liability for digital asset service providers and establishing bankruptcy risk isolation mechanisms for stablecoin issuers. However, due to significant disagreements on core issues such as the issuers of stablecoins, the submission time for the government proposal is expected to be delayed until next year.According to reports, in the government draft that the Financial Committee is studying, stablecoin issuers may be required to allocate their reserve assets in low-risk assets such as deposits and government bonds, and to deposit or trust funds equivalent to no less than 100% of the issuance balance with banks or other management institutions to prevent the risk of issuer bankruptcy from being passed on to investors. At the same time, the information disclosure obligations, terms, and advertising regulatory standards for digital asset operators will be close to the level of traditional financial institutions. In the event of a hacker attack or system failure, strict liability for damages may be applied in accordance with the Electronic Financial Transactions Act.In addition, the draft may allow the sale of digital assets within South Korea under the premise of strengthening information disclosure, in order to correct the previous practice of "overseas issuance, domestic circulation" caused by administrative restrictions on ICOs.Although the legislative framework has initially taken shape, there are still disagreements between the Financial Committee and institutions such as the Bank of Korea on key issues such as the qualifications of stablecoin issuers, approval mechanisms, minimum capital requirements, and whether exchanges can serve both issuance and circulation functions. The Financial Committee stated that relevant departments are continuously working to narrow the gap in positions, and no final conclusions have been reached on the proposed plan.

According to Cointelegraph, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee has confirmed that it will not be able to complete the markup process for cryptocurrency market structure legislation by 2025, and related hearings will be postponed until early 2026.As the final legislative week of 2025 approaches, members of both the House and Senate will begin to return home for the holidays this Wednesday, causing the legislative process to be forced to pause. It is reported that the committee has been working on a bipartisan consensus version of the bill text for the past two months, and it is currently uncertain whether the latest draft will be released before the recess. Meanwhile, the Senate Agriculture Committee has also not scheduled a review date for its related text, further extending the timeline for the Senate leadership's original plan to complete the legislative process within the year. This delay will leave the cryptocurrency industry operating under regulatory uncertainty for at least several more months.

According to CoinDesk, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee will hold a revised hearing on legislation defining how federal regulators oversee the market structure of the cryptocurrency industry next year. Previously, many had hoped for a hearing later this week, but it ultimately did not materialize.A committee spokesperson stated in a release on Monday, "Chairman Tim Scott and the Senate Banking Committee have made significant progress with their Democratic colleagues on this bill," but lawmakers are still negotiating. Although the delay was anticipated, it remains a significant blow to the crypto industry. The industry at least hoped to see a revised hearing, especially since there were expectations for a comprehensive new law to be introduced by 2025, but no substantial progress has been made. It is still unclear how quickly lawmakers will be able to restart negotiations in the new year. Upon returning after the congressional recess, the top priority will be to fund the U.S. government, as a current appropriations bill is set to expire on January 30. Assuming the government does not shut down again, lawmakers will have limited time to address market structure issues before the midterm elections next year become the primary focus.

According to the Hong Kong Economic Journal, there is new progress in the fraud case involving the virtual asset trading platform JPEX. Eight defendants are facing multiple charges, and the case has been postponed to March 16, 2026, for retrial.Reportedly, the eight defendants are former TVB artist Zheng Junxi (31 years old), Xiao Yingqian (28 years old), Lin Zuo (35 years old), internet celebrity "Chen Yi" Chen Yingyi (38 years old), Qu Zhuoji (31 years old), Zhao Jingxian (25 years old), YouTuber "Xiangxiang" Liang Qixiang (31 years old), and He Jiwen (28 years old).The charges include conspiracy to commit fraud, fraud, fraudulently or recklessly inducing others to invest in virtual assets, and handling property known or believed to represent the proceeds of indictable offenses. Except for Zheng Junxi, who did not apply for bail, the other seven defendants were allowed to continue bail under the original conditions, during which they are not allowed to leave Hong Kong and must surrender all travel documents.