Huobi HTX has launched AERGO perpetual contracts and kicked off a contract trading party.

January 17: Backpack founder and CEO Armani Ferrante took to social media to say many projects billing themselves as "next-gen internet finance" are actually severely limited in functionality, have worse user experiences, higher fees, and weaker security. Some tokens are effectively stocks—but lack dividends, voting rights, or SIPC (Securities Investor Protection Corporation) insurance. Some projects act like banks, yet don’t support direct deposits, check writing, payroll processing, or transfers to other accounts. They charge investors multiple layers of fees, offer no investor protection, and expose users’ personal data publicly.

On January 17, monitoring data from Hyperinsight reveals that the "Strategy Whale"—the second-largest ETH long position address on the Hyperliquid platform—added $127 million to its long positions at a recent low 10 hours ago. The whale increased its ETH long position by 9,890 coins and its BTC long position by 1,018.97 coins. Its total position is now valued at $449 million, with an unrealized loss of $3.42 million.

January 17th — On-chain detective ZachXBT announced on social media that around 11:00 PM UTC on January 10, 2026, a whale investor fell victim to a hardware wallet social engineering scam, losing over $282 million worth of Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin (BTC). Subsequently, the attacker converted the stolen LTC and BTC into Monero (XMR) via multiple instant exchange platforms, triggering a sharp spike in Monero’s price. Some BTC was also bridged to the Ethereum, Ripple (XRP), and Litecoin networks using the Thorchain cross-chain bridge. BlockBeats Note: Social engineering scams are a form of fraud where attackers leverage human weaknesses, psychological manipulation, and trust to trick victims into voluntarily sharing sensitive information, assets, or permissions—instead of accessing systems directly through technical vulnerabilities.

Bloomberg reported Thursday (January 17) citing people familiar with the matter that Anchorage Digital—the first federally chartered digital asset bank in the U.S.—is exploring a new funding round and weighing a potential public listing. One anonymous source noted Anchorage aims to raise $200 million to $400 million ahead of a potential initial public offering (IPO) next year, with valuation details still being finalized. Anchorage Digital Bank NA’s federal charter permits it to issue stablecoins in the U.S. under the GENIUS Act, which went into effect in July 2024. In September 2024, the firm announced plans to partner with Tether Holdings SA—headquartered in El Salvador and the world’s largest stablecoin issuer—to launch the USAT token for the U.S. market. At the end of 2021, Anchorage closed a $350 million funding round led by KKR, with participation from Goldman Sachs, Singapore’s government investment vehicle, and Apollo Credit Fund. That round valued the firm at over $30

On January 17, per LookOnChain data, a suspected BitMine address withdrew an additional 20,000 ETH from exchange Kraken 3 hours prior—valued at roughly $65.4 million.

Jan. 17th — Bitget market data shows U.S. stocks closed mixed-to-lower on Friday, with: - Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow): 0.17% lower (weekly drop: 0.29%) - S&P 500: 0.06% lower (weekly drop: 0.38%) - Nasdaq Composite: 0.06% lower (weekly drop: 0.66%) Crypto-related stocks broadly gained, tracking Bitcoin’s rebound. Notable moves include: - Coinbase (COIN): +0.78% - Circle (CRCL): +2.62% - MicroStrategy (MSTR): +1.64% - Bullish (BLSH): +3.47% - Gemini (GEMI): +4.59% - Figure (FIGR): +13.78% - Bit Digital (BTBT): +0.94% - SharpLink Gaming (SBET): +5.36% - Bit Digital (BTBT): +2.6% - ETHZilla (ETHZ): +3.14% - BTCS Inc (BTCS): +1.05% - ALT5 Sigma (ALTS): +7.02% - American Bitcoin (ABTC): -2.38% - Kindly MD (NAKA): -5.56% This rewrite uses concise, common U.S. media phrasing (e.g., "broadly gained," "tracking," clear bullet points for readability) and standard formatting for financial data. Repeated entries for Bit Digital (BTBT) are retained as