MANTRA Announces Layoffs Impacting Multiple Functional Departments

Official sources confirmed on January 14 that OKX’s content community “Planet” has officially launched its public beta today. Per the announcement, resident creators on “Planet” can activate live trading follow-up services, tap into early traffic, and gain access to bonus sharing in the future. Resident readers, meanwhile, get early access to exclusive content and can join Planet-exclusive activities.

**January 14: Bitcoin Miner Bitfarms Taps Edie Hofmeister as Board Chair** Bitcoin mining firm Bitfarms announced Wednesday, January 14, that it has appointed Edie Hofmeister as Chair of its Board of Directors, replacing Brian Howlett. Howlett—who has served as Chair since 2024—will remain with the company as an independent director. The leadership change supports Bitfarms’ strategy to relocate its domicile to the United States, with goals to: - Enhance access to U.S. capital markets - Expand its U.S. investor base - Boost eligibility for inclusion in select U.S. stock indices Separately, in January, Bitfarms sold its Latin American operations for $30 million, further advancing its transition into the artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) sector.

Jan. 14: Per market reports, GOP Congressman Hill says Fed Chair Powell may not testify before Congress in February.

Jan. 14: Fed’s Kashkari says President Trump’s actions toward the Fed are “about monetary policy.” He adds that Fed Chair Powell “accurately” addressed the issue.

On January 14, Ed Clissold—Chief U.S. Strategist at Ned Davis Research—plans to coin a new term: the **Big MAC Trade**, where MAC stands for “Big Midterms Are Coming.” The concept aims to capture what he sees as the core 2026 U.S. stock market theme: the policy trajectory around and after this year’s fall congressional elections, and its market impact. President Trump kicked off the year with a flurry of policy-related statements, signaling he’s focused on boosting the Republican Party’s odds in November’s elections—with policy levers targeting America’s much-debated affordability crisis. The trend’s market impact could be profound. Case in point: - Last week, Trump called on credit card issuers to cap interest rates at 10% (less than half the current average), sending bank stocks tumbling. - He ordered defense contractors to pause dividend payouts and redirect funds to production, triggering sharp drops in the defense sector. - After recent administration attacks on the Fed’s

January 14th — According to CCTV, former China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) officials Yao Qian (ex-Director of the Science and Technology Regulatory Bureau and former head of the Information Center) was approached in 2018 by entrepreneur Zhang, who asked Yao to intervene on behalf of an ongoing initial coin offering (ICO). The ICO raised 20,000 ether (ETH), and Zhang transferred 2,000 ETH to Yao as a thank-you gift, CCTV reported. A task force found a hardware wallet in Yao’s office drawer, plus undisclosed accounts registered under other individuals’ names holding 10 million yuan. The funds were traced through approximately four layers of transactions, originating from a cryptocurrency trader’s account, and were ultimately used to purchase a villa in Beijing.