U.S. CFTC Acting Chairman: Enforcement Division Restructured, Refocused on Combating Fraud

January 15th, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said, “I don’t believe there’s an AI bubble at all. If you buy into AI’s potential, there’s ample reason for rate cuts. The U.S. economy will grow ‘above trend’ over the next few years, and investments are safer now than they were a year ago.” (FX168)

On January 15, Bitcoin dropped below $96,000, while posting a 0.03% gain over the past 24 hours, per HTX market data.

January 15 — Per The Block, LMAX Group has entered into a multi-year strategic partnership with Ripple, which is committing $150 million in funding to support LMAX’s long-term cross-asset growth strategy. Under the agreement, LMAX will integrate Ripple USD (RLUSD) as a core collateral asset into its global institutional trading infrastructure. This will let banks, brokers, and buy-side clients use the stablecoin for margin and settlement across spot crypto assets, perpetual contracts, CFDs (contracts for difference), and select fiat trading pairs. Ripple said the funding underscores its commitment to accelerating the convergence of traditional capital markets and digital asset markets. The collaboration positions RLUSD as a bridge between traditional market infrastructure and on-chain settlement. As more institutional trading platforms explore stablecoins to replace fiat for improved collateral liquidity and 24/7 uninterrupted usability, RLUSD’s role is growing increasingly criti

Jan. 15 — Per Bitget market data, crypto-related stocks broadly declined at the U.S. stock market open, with the following moves: - Coinbase (COIN): down 2.27% - Circle (CRCL): down 1.99% - SharpLink Gaming (SBET): down 1.84% - MicroStrategy (MSTR): down 1.08% - Bullish (BLSH): down 1.03%

On January 15, CoinDesk reported that David Puell—Ark Invest’s analyst and portfolio manager—stated Bitcoin’s next phase will no longer hinge primarily on whether investors “believe” in the asset. Instead, it will depend more on how much exposure they’re willing to allocate and which investment tools they use to participate. With spot Bitcoin ETFs launching in 2024 and digital asset treasury strategies expanding rapidly, Bitcoin has crossed a key threshold to enter an institutionalized, mature stage. Combined holdings of ETFs and digital asset treasuries now account for ~12% of Bitcoin’s total supply—far exceeding expectations—and have become one of the main drivers of 2025 price trends (a trend likely to continue through 2026). As ETF and corporate treasury Bitcoin absorption outpaces forecasts, the market is shifting to a more institutionalized, less volatile phase. Ark Invest remains confident in its long-term Bitcoin valuation framework. Per Ark’s disclosed model, 2030 price

On January 15, MetaMask officially rolled out native support for the Tron network across its mobile app and browser extension — a collaboration with the Tron DAO to advance its multi-chain expansion strategy. Users can now directly manage TRON assets, interact with Tron native dApps, and swap assets between Tron, EVM-compatible networks, Solana, and Bitcoin all within MetaMask. The update also enables sending USDT on the Tron network and staking TRX. Currently, Tron’s daily stablecoin transfer volume exceeds $21 billion.