Morning News | BlackRock announces S-1 filing for iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF; AVAX spot ETF listed on Nasdaq; Strategy increased holdings by 2,932 bitcoins last week
January 26 Market Important Events Overview整理：ChainCatcher
Important News:
- Moonbirds: No snapshots of Moonbirds, Mythics, Oddities, etc. NFTs have been taken yet
- Vitalik: Reassessing the "Cottage in the Mountains" concept, ZK technology changes the trade-off logic of blockchain
- Spot gold rises above $5100/oz during trading, surging over $110 in a day
- BlackRock releases S-1 application for iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF, fees and trading code information not disclosed
- ARK Invest makes its first crypto-related trade of 2026, buying COIN, CRCL, and BLSH
- The first AVAX spot ETF in the U.S. launches today on Nasdaq
- Strategy spent $264.1 million last week to increase its Bitcoin holdings by 2,932 BTC
What important events happened in the past 24 hours?
Strategy spent $264.1 million last week to increase its Bitcoin holdings by 2,932 BTC
According to ChainCatcher, Michael Saylor posted on the X platform that Strategy increased its holdings by 2,932 BTC, worth approximately $264.1 million, between January 19 and January 25.
As of January 25, the company holds 712,647 BTC, with an average purchase price of $76,037.
According to ChainCatcher, the largest Ethereum treasury company, BitMine, announced that the total value of its crypto assets, cash, and "potential project" investments has reached $12.8 billion. This includes:
- 4,243,338 ETH;
- 193 BTC;
- A $200 million equity investment in Beast Industries;
- A $19 million equity investment in Eightco Holdings (NASDAQ: ORBS) (classified as a "potential project");
- A total cash amount of $682 million.
Bitmine holds 3.52% of the total ETH supply (120.7 million).
Bitmine Chairman and Fundstrat analyst Thomas "Tom" Lee stated: "Last week, we increased our holdings by 40,302 ETH, and since mid-October, the price ratio of Ethereum to Bitcoin (ETHBTC) has been continuously rising. We believe this reflects investors recognizing that Wall Street is building tokenization and other application scenarios on Ethereum. To showcase the scale of Wall Street's construction on Ethereum, the Ethereum Foundation's official website has listed 35 major financial institutions building on Ethereum in just the past few months."
Additionally, Tom Lee mentioned that BitMine currently stakes more ETH than any other entity globally, with an annualized staking yield of up to $374 million, averaging over $1 million per day, calculated at a CESR of 2.81%.
The first AVAX spot ETF in the U.S. launches today on Nasdaq
According to ChainCatcher, the first AVAX spot ETF in the U.S., launched by ETF issuer VanEck, named VAVX, will debut on Nasdaq today.
It is reported that this ETF will stake part of its AVAX holdings, and the rewards generated (after deducting fees) will be returned to the holders. The issuer, VanEck, previously stated that it would waive fees for the first $500 million in assets.
According to ChainCatcher, CryptoQuant analyst @AxelAdlerJr stated that Bitcoin's net realized profit and loss has fallen by 97%, returning to near zero. The last time this occurred was in June 2022, after which Bitcoin dropped from $30,000 to $16,000.
@AxelAdlerJr pointed out that at the current price level, whales are still profitable (with a buffer of 25%-80%), so there is currently no panic. However, the market is supported not by buyers but by the absence of sellers.
Japan's fifth-largest bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group, discloses holdings worth $96.6 million in Strategy shares
According to ChainCatcher, BitcoinTreasuries.NET reports that Japan's fifth-largest bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group, with assets of $633 billion, holds 606,629 shares of Strategy (MSTR), valued at approximately $96.6 million.
According to ChainCatcher, senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas from Bloomberg posted on the X platform that BlackRock has just released the official S-1 application for the upcoming iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF, but fees and trading code information have not yet been disclosed.
The strategy of this ETF is to track Bitcoin price movements and provide premium returns through an actively managed covered call strategy, primarily targeting IBIT stocks and occasionally targeting ETP indices.
ARK Invest makes its first crypto-related trade of 2026, buying COIN, CRCL, and BLSH
According to ChainCatcher, ARK Invest disclosed its first crypto-related trade of 2026, purchasing COIN, CRCL, and BLSH.
Spot gold rises above $5100/oz during trading, surging over $110 in a day
According to ChainCatcher, data from Jin10 shows that spot gold rose above $5100/oz during trading, surging over $110 in a day, an increase of over 2%.
Moonbirds: No snapshots of Moonbirds, Mythics, Oddities, etc. NFTs have been taken yet
According to ChainCatcher, the official Moonbirds account posted on X stating: "We have seen some rumors circulating, so we want to clarify that no snapshots of Moonbirds, Mythics, or Oddities NFTs have been taken yet."
Vitalik: Reassessing the "Cottage in the Mountains" concept, ZK technology changes the trade-off logic of blockchain
According to ChainCatcher, Vitalik Buterin recently posted that he no longer fully agrees with the old view of blockchain "only recording transaction order, not committing to state," and explained the reasons for his change of perspective.
Vitalik pointed out that the early opposition to this concept was primarily based on the fact that if the chain does not commit to state, ordinary users must either fully verify all transactions from the genesis block or be forced to trust a single third-party service provider, both of which are undesirable options. In contrast, designs like Ethereum that commit to state roots in the block headers allow for the verification of any state through Merkle proofs under the "majority honest" consensus assumption, making it more feasible. He emphasized that the real change in trade-offs is due to the development of zero-knowledge technologies like ZK-SNARKs, which make it possible to verify the correctness of the chain without re-executing all transactions, thus "achieving both security and scalability."
Additionally, Vitalik reflected on the uncertainties in the real world: network interruptions, service provider shutdowns, consensus centralization, and censorship risks can occur at any time, so blockchain systems must always retain a fallback that "does not rely on others and can self-verify." In his view, the "Cottage in the Mountains" is not a model for everyone to live in daily, but a safety net in extreme situations, and an important bargaining chip to constrain intermediaries and service providers. Maintaining such a minimally viable, self-sufficient path is an indispensable part of Ethereum's long-term evolution.
Pump.fun co-founder: PENGUIN successfully proves that on-chain transactions have never disappeared, and there are still plenty of opportunities
According to ChainCatcher, Pump.fun co-founder Alon tweeted: "The early success of the Solana ecosystem meme coin PENGUIN proves that on-chain transactions have never disappeared; they are just a 'sleeping giant' waiting for the right moment to be awakened. The psychological barriers are just beginning to be broken. There are still plenty of opportunities ahead."
Placeholder partner: Not yet started buying, will continue to accumulate BTC and some crypto assets if the market crashes
According to ChainCatcher, former Ark Invest crypto head and current Placeholder VC partner Chris Burniske stated: "I have not started buying yet, but if I were a buyer, I think the price ranges of BTC that need to be focused on include:
About $80,000: the low point in November 2025, also the phase low of this bear market;
About $74,000: the low point in April 2025, during tariff panic, slightly below MSTR's cost price (about $76,000);
About $70,000: the upper edge of the $50,000-$70,000 range, close to the high point of the 2021 bull market;
About $58,000: the position of the 200-week moving average, also the on-chain cost range (realized value around $56,000);
$50,000 and below: the lower edge of the weekly range, which has strong psychological significance; if this level is broken, the market may again see claims that Bitcoin is dead.
Importantly, I do not care how the market moves in the short term. If the price rebounds from the current position, I will hold my existing positions and gradually diversify my investments; if the market crashes significantly, I will choose to continue accumulating BTC and some selected crypto assets.
According to ChainCatcher, Matcha Meta posted on the X platform that it has noted a security incident related to SwapNet, and users who turned off "One-Time Approval" on Matcha Meta may be affected.
They have contacted the SwapNet team, which has temporarily disabled its contracts. After reviewing with the 0x protocol team, it was confirmed that this incident does not involve the AllowanceHolder or Settler core contracts of 0x. Users interacting with Matcha Meta through one-time authorization can use it safely. To prevent similar situations from happening again, the function allowing users to set limits directly to the aggregator has been removed.
ChainCatcher previously reported that SwapNet was attacked, resulting in approximately $16.8 million in crypto assets being stolen.
According to ChainCatcher, Nikkei News reports that Japan's Financial Services Agency is expected to lift the ban on spot cryptocurrency ETFs, such as Bitcoin, by 2028.
To achieve this goal, authorities plan to amend the enforcement order of the Investment Trust Law to list virtual currencies as "specific assets" that can be invested in investment trusts. It is reported that large financial institutions such as SBI Holdings and Nomura Holdings are advancing the development of related products. If approved for listing by the Tokyo Stock Exchange, individual investors will be able to trade virtual currency ETFs through securities accounts, just like buying and selling stocks or gold ETFs.
Previous surveys indicated that at least six asset management companies are researching and developing related products, targeting both individual and institutional investors. The prerequisite for lifting the ban is tax reform. Currently, Japan applies comprehensive taxation to virtual assets, with a maximum tax rate of 55%. Related discussions are seeking to adjust it to a separate taxation system with a unified tax rate of 20%. Reports analyze that this move will expand asset allocation options for individual and institutional investors.
According to ChainCatcher, Polymarket data shows that regarding the successor to the Federal Reserve, the implied probability for BlackRock's global fixed income chief investment officer Rieder is 47%, higher than former Fed governor Kevin Warsh's 28%, current Fed governor Christopher Waller's 9%, and White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett's 8%.
The total trading volume for this event exceeds $250 million, and the chart shows that Rieder's pricing curve accelerated upward in January, surpassing competitor Kevin Warsh on January 23.
Meme Popularity Rankings
According to meme token tracking and analysis platform GMGN market data, as of January 27, 09:00,
The top five popular ETH tokens in the past 24 hours are: SHIB, LINK, PEPE, UNI, ONDO
The top five popular Solana tokens in the past 24 hours are: arc, FWOG, USOR, TROLL, PENGUIN
The top five popular Base tokens in the past 24 hours are: PEPE, BASED, SKYA, B3, NATO
What are the exciting articles worth reading in the past 24 hours?
Bankless founder: Ethereum in the new world order
This year's Davos Forum was indeed exciting.
It brought together many heavyweight figures from the cryptocurrency industry, including Brian Armstrong, Jeremy Allaire, CZ, and Larry Fink.
Although cryptocurrency was the focus of this forum, what truly attracted attention was the clear statement from the Trump administration regarding the phased shift in global order.
Two important speeches were delivered at the Davos Forum, highlighting this point. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard delivered a speech titled "Globalization has failed," while Canadian Prime Minister Mark responded, "The rules-based international order is experiencing a fracture, not a transformation."
After decades of research and teaching at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, Jan Liphardt, an associate professor of physics and bioengineering, keenly noticed that a deep structural change is occurring in the robotics field.
On one hand, robots are accelerating their transition from laboratories and factories to real-world scenarios, but their "brains" remain decentralized and closed, with over 150 hardware manufacturers fighting their own battles, and mainstream software still stuck at the mechanical control level, making it difficult for systems to collaborate and impossible for natural interaction between machines and humans, as well as value exchange between machines.
On the other hand, blockchain technology, after more than a decade of development, with its immutable ledger, decentralized governance, and micro-payment capabilities, has provided the possibility for identity recognition, trusted collaboration, and economic interaction between machines at the infrastructure level.
The end of the arbitrage era, Wall Street withdraws from Bitcoin basis trading
Editor's note: Once regarded as a "sure profit" Bitcoin basis arbitrage, it is quietly losing its appeal: CME and Binance's open interest contracts are fluctuating, and the price difference has narrowed to the point where it barely covers funding and execution costs.
On the surface, this is a squeeze on arbitrage space; more deeply, the crypto derivatives market is maturing. Institutions no longer need to rely on "brick-moving" for profits, and traders are shifting from leverage to options and hedging. The era of high returns from simple strategies is coming to an end, and new competition will occur in more complex and refined strategies.
Gold breaks $5000 before ETH, when will the crypto market reverse?
Three months have passed, and today the market has provided an answer.
On January 26, spot gold broke through $5100/oz, while Ethereum remained oscillating between $2800 and $3000, with the overall crypto market being sluggish.
In the face of extreme uncertainty in the macro environment, capital collectively turned to the most traditional safe-haven assets, while cryptocurrencies, as high-volatility risk assets, were the first to be sold off.
Risk warning
Risk warning
