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

A new survey by CoinShares shows that the majority of wealthy investors in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and Switzerland already hold crypto assets, with an average allocation of around 10% of their portfolios. The survey covered 2,230 investors with at least $500,000 in investable assets; Sweden had a 54% crypto adoption rate among respondents, while the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Switzerland all clocked in at around 70%. Among investors who already hold digital assets, at least 85% in five of the seven countries plan to add to their crypto holdings by 2026, with that figure hitting 91% in the U.S., U.K., and Germany. The crypto market downturn in February this year did not significantly dampen investment appetite; across the seven countries, more respondents said the selloff boosted their willingness to invest than those who said it reduced it. The survey found that long-term appreciation and portfolio diversification are the primary motivations for crypto investments, with only 6% of respondents identifying as primarily short-term traders. Bitcoin remains the most widely held digital asset, with an average of 80% of crypto investors holding BTC; 77% of respondents believe BTC will play an important role in the future global financial system, and 79% support stronger regulation of digital asset markets. Meanwhile, roughly 40% of respondents in Switzerland, France, the U.S., and Germany who work with financial advisors say their advisors are overly cautious about digital assets. CoinShares noted that wealthy investors' interest in crypto is creating a stark contrast with the traditional wealth management industry's caution toward the asset class.

Altius Labs Co-Founder and CEO Annabelle Huang stated that the crypto industry’s development focus is gradually shifting from creating new assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, NFTs, and meme coins in its early days to building new markets around existing entities. Prediction markets, perpetual contracts for crude oil and gold on Hyperliquid, and pre-IPO perpetual contracts are establishing 24/7 trading markets for previously real-time pricing-deficient assets such as news events, commodities, and private companies. Blockchain is thus not only creating assets but also expanding the boundaries of "what can be priced." Traditional financial price discovery is often constrained by trading hours, access barriers, and valuation cycles, while on-chain markets operate continuously, absorb new information quickly, and lower participation thresholds. Going forward, market participants may prioritize gaining exposure to asset prices rather than holding the actual assets. Huang noted that if the crypto industry aims to become a critical global price discovery infrastructure, it needs to prioritize improving throughput, latency, liquidity depth, and reliability to support high-frequency trading, risk management, and large-scale capital participation. Therefore, the next phase of the crypto industry may not lie in creating the next new asset, but in building pricing infrastructure for an increasing number of existing assets and events.

According to BIT (bit.com) market data, security tokenization platform Securitize announced it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with South Korean tech firm LG CNS to explore products including tokenized funds, stocks, and stablecoins, aiming to drive South Korean financial institutions’ adoption of tokenized assets and digital asset infrastructure. Following the announcement, Securitize (ticker: SECZ) saw its share price jump nearly 8% to around $12.60 in Tuesday’s pre-market trading, though the gain later moderated. Last week, South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) proposed a regulatory framework for security tokenization, planning to standardize the issuance and circulation of tokenized securities such as stocks, bonds, and funds starting in February 2027. LG CNS concurrently launched a blockchain infrastructure platform to provide support for stablecoins and tokenized securities to banks and financial institutions. Securitize has emerged as a key player in the real-world asset (RWA) tokenization space, where the current market size is approximately $400 billion. As traditional financial institutions accelerate exploration of on-chain stocks, the market value of tokenized stocks has risen 10.6% over the past 30 days, reaching around $3.2 billion. Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo previously stated that even limited mainstream adoption of tokenized stocks could significantly expand the crypto market’s scale.

Likely driven by news that Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund led a $5 million investment to acquire Anvil’s governance token, ANVL has surged over 83% in 24 hours, currently trading at $0.001242, with its market cap rising to $109.4 million, fully diluted valuation (FDV) standing at $124 million, and 24-hour volume hitting just $415,000. Built on Ethereum, Anvil aims to use digital assets as collateral for financial commitments such as payments and credit. Its developer, Anvil Research Labs, has also launched an SDK to help enterprises and financial institutions integrate the protocol without writing blockchain code. Partners include Consensus, Bitcoin.com, and payment firm Flexa, among others. ANVL’s total supply currently stands at 100 billion tokens, with a circulating supply of around 80 billion. Anvil network’s total value locked (TVL) is approximately $14 million. Unlike traditional DeFi lending protocols, Anvil primarily secures financial commitments via on-chain collateralized assets, rather than allowing users to borrow funds and pay interest.

Pump fun(@Pumpfun) sold another 102,495 $SOL ($12.41M) 8 hours ago. In total, has sold 5,347,925 $SOL ($861.47M) at an average price of $161.

The U.S. government transferred out another 834 $BTC ($71.56M) and 40,285 $BNB ($31.63M) today. Of these, 834 $BTC ($71.56M) was deposited into #CoinbasePrime.