The popular AI framework Virtuals Protocol will host an in-person meet-up in Hong Kong on Friday, January 17.

January 26th — Per HyperInsight monitoring (via its Telegram channel: https://t.me/HyperInsight), the "BTC OG Insider Whale" has reduced its ETH long position on Hyperliquid by 8,588 ETH over the past 10 minutes. As of press time, the whale still holds 214,752 ETH in 5x ETH long positions, valued at approximately $620 million. Additionally, the whale today moved 6,000 USDC (previously borrowed from Aave) to Binance from a newly created address. This address holds 106,000 ETH (valued at ~$308 million) on Aave, has borrowed $180 million in USDC, and maintains a current health factor of 1.42.

On January 26, CoinDesk reported—citing people familiar with the matter—that blockchain infrastructure firm Zerohash is in talks to raise $250 million, with an expected valuation of $1.5 billion. The firm recently pulled out of acquisition negotiations with Mastercard, though the payment giant is still weighing a strategic investment in Zerohash as discussions continue. The funding round comes amid surging enterprise demand for crypto infrastructure: more financial institutions are scaling up offerings of asset tokenization, stablecoins and on-chain settlement services, boosting demand for platforms like Zerohash.

On January 26, on-chain data shows the new address tied to the "BTC OG Insider Whale" withdrew an additional 23,000 ETH from Binance 10 minutes ago and subsequently deposited it into Aave. This address currently holds 106,000 ETH on Aave—valued at $308 million—has borrowed 180 million USDC, and maintains a current health factor of 1.42.

On January 26, Goldman Sachs projects the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) January meeting will be uneventful, with broad consensus to hold interest rates steady. Governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman are expected to back the decision, while Stephen Miran may be the lone dissenter. Goldman Sachs forecasts two rate cuts in 2026, with the first potentially coming in June.

On January 26, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas took to social media to announce that BlackRock has filed an official S-1 registration statement with the SEC for its upcoming iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF (submitted January 23). Fees and the fund’s ticker have not yet been disclosed. The ETF’s strategy aims to track Bitcoin’s price performance while generating additional income via an active management approach—primarily through selling covered call options on IBIT shares, with occasional trades tied to ETP indices. BlockBeats Note: Filing an S-1 marks the first step in the fund’s official SEC registration process. Next steps may include 19b-4 rule changes, a Nasdaq listing application, and other procedures before the fund receives approval to launch and trade publicly.

January 26th — BitMine, the largest Ethereum-focused treasury firm, announced Thursday that its total holdings of crypto assets, cash and "potential projects" amount to $12.8 billion, per official sources. Key holdings include: - 4,243,338 ETH; - 193 BTC; - A $200 million equity stake in Beast Industries; - A $19 million equity investment in Eightco Holdings (NASDAQ: ORBS) — categorized as a "potential project"; - $682 million in cash. BitMine’s ETH holdings represent 3.52% of Ethereum’s total supply (120.7 million tokens). BitMine Chairman and Fundstrat analyst Thomas "Tom" Lee noted: "Over the past week, we’ve added 40,302 ETH to our holdings. Since mid-October, the ETH-to-BTC price ratio (ETHBTC) has climbed consistently — a trend we believe reflects investors’ recognition that Wall Street is building tokenization and other use cases on Ethereum. To underscore the scale of this activity, the Ethereum Foundation’s website has listed 35 major financial institution