Preview: Tonight at 9:15 PM ET, the US will release the December ADP Employment Report, expected to show an increase of 47,000 jobs

Per HTX market data, FXS (FXS Share) saw sharp volatility on January 8, climbing steadily from $0.68 to $1.128 in roughly three hours. It was last trading at $0.98, with a market cap of $86 million and a 60.8% gain over the three-hour period. Earlier, Binance announced it would support the mainnet upgrade and rebranding of FXS to Frax (FRAX). Specifically, Binance will halt trading and delist all existing FXS spot trading pairs at 11:00 UTC+8 on January 13, 2026, and launch FRAX/USDT spot trading at 16:00 UTC+8 on January 15, 2026.

January 8th — Korean media outlet News1 reports Lee Hee-jin, known as the "Cheongdam-dong Stock God," has been transferred from the Seoul Gangnam Police Station to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s Financial Crime Investigation Division amid allegations of virtual asset fraud. Lee was previously sued by a representative of Pica Coin’s issuing company (his former partner) for failing to pay roughly 1.88 billion South Korean won in agreed-upon settlement funds. He faces a second lawsuit seeking 28 billion won (about $19.27 million) in damages. The ex-convict has a prior record: he served a prison sentence from 2016 to 2020 for stock manipulation fraud. After his release, he is suspected of controlling projects like Pica Coin behind the scenes. Pica Coin was a South Korean cryptocurrency project active from 2020 to 2021. It promoted art investment, claiming investors could co-own famous artworks and earn high returns. Listed on South Korean exchange Upbit, it was soon expose

### Perp DEX Volume Shifts: Aster Surges to 2nd, Hyperliquid OI Rises (Jan 8, DefiLlama) As of January 8, **DefiLlama data** reveals key trends in the perpetual futures DEX (Perp DEX) space over the past 24 hours: - Aster’s trading volume has **surged**, now ranking 2nd; - Hyperliquid and Lighter have seen **modest dips** in volume; - Hyperliquid’s open interest (OI) has climbed while its Total Value Locked (TVL) remains stable—signaling existing capital is shifting to leveraged positions, with the **long-short positioning battle intensifying**. ### Key Platform Metrics (24h): | Platform | Trading Volume | TVL | Open Interest | |----------------|----------------|--------------|---------------| | Hyperliquid | ~$6.35B | ~$4.3B | ~$9.12B | | Aster | ~$6.44B | ~$1.25B | ~$2.62B | | Lighter | ~$4.58B | ~$1.25B | ~$1.53B | | EdgeX | ~$3.77B | ~$355M | ~$1B

On January 8, following the departure of anti-crypto Democratic Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the agency now has an all-Republican lineup. The Trump administration is consolidating control over the executive branch in an unprecedented manner, and the SEC—set to be fully Republican by 2026—is expected to speed up the rollout of crypto-friendly regulatory policies, with no internal opposition remaining. The SEC’s three sitting Republican commissioners are Chair Paul Atkins, Hester Peirce (known as “Crypto Mom”), and Mark Uyeda. Two seats are currently vacant, marking the first time all sitting commissioners belong to a single party—a development U.S. economic policy experts have labeled “unprecedented.”

On January 8, monitoring from HyperInsight (via its Telegram channel: https://t.me/HyperInsight) shows the whale dubbed "30 Longs' Repeated Slaughter" closed an ETH long position today, incurring a $45,000 loss. The whale still holds a 10x-leveraged long position of 8,539,326.1 FARTCOIN—valued at approximately $3.28 million. With an average entry price of $0.4299, the position has an unrealized loss of $386,000.

Jan. 8: Per HTX market data, ZEC has dropped to a low of $381 and is currently trading at $383, with a 24-hour decline of 21.3%.