January 28 — Official sources confirm asset issuance platform MetaDAO will launch the Hurupay ICO payment project on February 3 at 18:30 UTC. Public records show Hurupay is designed to help users secure U.S. dollar and euro bank accounts, plus virtual U.S. dollar cards. The project has backing from Founders Inc. and angel investors affiliated with Microsoft and Bankless.

On January 28, Decrypt reported that Ronin—an Ethereum-based Layer 2 scaling solution—hosts the free-to-play role-playing game **Forgotten Runiverse**, which announced it will shut down its servers and suspend operations this Tuesday. The game’s development team said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that despite efforts to overcome numerous hurdles, they’ve “reached a point where sustaining the game’s operational environment in its current state is no longer financially viable.” Forgotten Runiverse spun out of the Ethereum NFT collection “Forgotten Runes Wizard’s Cult” and launched globally last year—only to announce its closure in less than 12 months. The team noted all accounts and progress data will be securely preserved, but the game will be inaccessible while the team evaluates potential development paths.

January 28th, per Hyperinsight monitoring, two crypto whales—**"BTC OG Insider Whale"** and **"Buddy"**—simultaneously expanded their positions this morning. ### Key Details: #### BTC OG Insider Whale - Added over 5x leveraged long positions on ETH, pushing total holdings to ~$7.58 billion. - Narrowed unrealized loss to $30.79 million. Specific positions: - 5x ETH Long: 212,726.2154 ETH (≈$6.42 billion) - 10x SOL Long: 511,612.85 SOL (≈$64.83 million) - 5x BTC Long: 572.71125 BTC (≈$51.07 million) #### Buddy - Subsequently increased long positions on ETH and HYPE. - As of press time, total position value = $20.53 million; unrealized gain = nearly $1 million.

January 28th, Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan noted the crypto market is at a critical juncture as industry support for the **Clarity Act** wavers. Coinbase’s CEO has labeled the bill’s draft “dead on arrival” and pulled the exchange’s backing, cutting the legislation’s passage odds from 80% to 50%. Hougan warned that if the bill fails, the industry will enter a “prove-yourself period”: it must establish stablecoins and tokenized assets as real-economy staples on par with Uber and Airbnb within three years to secure regulatory concessions. Failing that, catastrophic outcomes could follow if Washington’s stance shifts. He also noted gold’s surge above $5,000 signals a crisis of trust in the fiat system—but regulatory uncertainty has prevented this from fully translating into crypto upside. (CoinDesk)

On January 28, on-chain analyst Ai Auntie (@ai_9684xtpa) reported that smart money has netted $98.18 million from ETH whale botting activity. Three hours ago, the entity transferred 10,000 stETH (valued at $30.12 million) to Wintermute, then received 30.03 million USDC—suggesting a completed dump. It has recently accumulated 70,013 ETH at an average cost of ~$2,907.69. This sale yielded $1.039 million in realized profit, while the remaining 60,013 ETH holds an unrealized gain of $7.243 million. To date, its total ETH botting profits have climbed to $99.22 million.

Jan. 28 (CoinDesk) — U.S. officials are reviewing funding sources for the Maduro regime, including whether associated assets involve physical commodities or digital assets. Patrick Witt, executive director of the White House Digital Asset Advisory Committee, noted that several national security officials are currently investigating the matter.