Castle Island Ventures Partner: The X Platform is now algorithm-driven, with the crypto community becoming collateral damage

On-chain detective ZachXBT slammed hardware wallet maker Ledger’s plan to go public in the U.S. via an IPO on January 23, citing multiple past hacks that exposed customers’ private data and enabled targeted thefts totaling millions of dollars. ZachXBT also flagged ongoing product issues (including battery problems with the Ledger Nano X) and the company’s recent move to impose a percentage fee for “clear signatures,” arguing the IPO is purely a profit-maximization play. Ledger’s biggest security breach to date was a June 2020 e-commerce database leak: hackers exploited a misconfigured third-party API key on its website to access e-commerce and marketing data, exposing over 1 million email addresses and roughly 272,000 full personal records (including real names, mailing addresses, and phone numbers). Earlier today, Ledger announced plans for a U.S. IPO with a potential valuation exceeding $4 billion. The company has partnered with Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Barclays to advan

On January 23rd, per HyperInsight monitoring (https://t.me/HyperInsight), the whale address 0xa33... closed all 206 of its BTC short positions over the past half hour—valued at ~$18.36 million. With an average opening price of ~$89,280, the closeout has essentially broken even. The address has since withdrawn most of its funds from the account.

Stable, the stablecoin-focused public blockchain, announced on January 23 that its mainnet will undergo an upgrade to version 1.2.0 on February 4. Following the upgrade, the network’s native Gas token will be converted to USDT0, and the wrap/unwrap process will be eliminated. Additionally, the upgrade will enhance the observability of indexers’ staking lifecycles and improve overall network compatibility for developers.

January 23 – Binance founder CZ spoke at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos yesterday, noting that the U.S.’s shifting stance on the crypto space is highly significant and will impact all aspects of the Western world. Following the U.S.’s lead, numerous countries have begun adjusting their positions on crypto assets, including the UAE, Thailand, and several Central Asian nations. The UAE has granted Binance licenses for nearly all its global operations, including futures trading. Beyond regulatory policy shifts, capital flows have also changed. Many traditional funds previously couldn’t allocate to crypto assets—even JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon publicly opposed the space in the past. But now he’s advising clients to allocate a portion of their holdings to crypto assets. Over the past year, new capital inflows into the crypto space have come primarily from traditional financial institutions or family offices.