Morning Report | BitMine's Ethereum staking scale reaches 2 million; Coinbase launches copper and platinum contract trading; Tether introduces federally regulated stablecoin USA₮
Overview of Important Market Events on January 27整理：ChainCatcher
Important News:
- Coinbase launches copper and platinum contract trading
- BitMine's Ethereum staking scale reaches 2 million, annual yield may exceed $164 million
- Coinone denies rumors of equity trading with Coinbase, calling them "baseless"
- ClawdBot founder: Please stop harassing me, I will never issue any tokens
- Tether officially launches federally regulated stablecoin USA₮
- Trump family's mining company American Bitcoin Corp increases holdings by 416 BTC
- Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission signs memorandum of understanding with UAE to strengthen digital asset cooperation
What important events happened in the past 24 hours?
According to ChainCatcher, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission signed a memorandum of understanding with the UAE's Capital Markets Authority on January 27 to enhance cross-border regulatory cooperation on digital asset-related matters.
This is the first regulatory cooperation agreement signed by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission with an overseas regulatory body regarding regulated digital asset entities, establishing a framework for enhanced regulatory cooperation, including mutual consultation and information exchange.
Trump family's mining company American Bitcoin Corp increases holdings by 416 BTC
ChainCatcher reports that American Bitcoin Corp (ABTC), a Bitcoin mining company supported by the Trump family, has increased its holdings by 416 BTC, bringing its total holdings to 5,843 BTC.
Binance platform experiences massive outflows over the past 7 days, liquidity contraction may signal increased volatility
ChainCatcher reports that CryptoOnchain stated on social media that the Binance platform has seen massive outflows over the past 7 days, with stablecoins and mainstream assets being significantly transferred from the platform, including:
- USDT (ERC20) net outflow of approximately $2.26 billion
- USDC net outflow of approximately $1.24 billion
- BTC net outflow of approximately $2.14 billion
- ETH net outflow of approximately $1.35 billion
This indicates that funds are simultaneously withdrawing from both "cash" and "assets." While selling pressure may decrease, the buying power within the trading platform is also weakening. Liquidity contraction often signals that volatility may increase, and price discovery may rely more on external capital flows rather than activities within the Binance platform.
ChainCatcher reports that Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, published a lengthy analysis on social media, warning that the U.S. is on the brink of the fifth stage of his "big cycle" theory (the eve of order collapse), with multiple indicators suggesting that society may slide into the sixth stage (civil war and order collapse). His core judgments are based on:
- Deteriorating finances and conflicts: High government deficits and rising debt, coupled with historical highs in wealth and value gaps, constitute a "classic deadly combination."
- Populism and extremism: Increasing political polarization, the silencing of moderates, media becoming a tool for partisan struggles, and the "loss of truth" in the public domain.
- Escalation of violent incidents: Recent deaths of protesters in Minneapolis and conflicts between central and state governments are typical signs of transitioning to the sixth stage.
- System dysfunction: Legal and political systems are increasingly used as weapons in struggles, with rules yielding to the logic of "winning at all costs."
Ray Dalio states that the current situation is highly similar to the early stages of order reorganization from 1930 to 1945. If consensus cannot be built through leadership and painful but necessary reforms are not implemented, society may repeat the cycle of civil war/revolution. Investors and policymakers should recognize the power of cycles, promote productivity-oriented reforms (education, infrastructure, research), and replace "zero-sum struggles" with "win-win cooperation" to avoid a slide into irreversible collapse. Although the trajectory is difficult to change, it is still possible and necessary to mitigate conflicts and reshape broad prosperity through wise choices before slipping into the sixth stage.
ClawdBot founder: Please stop harassing me, I will never issue any tokens
ChainCatcher reports that Peter Steinberger, founder of ClawdBot (now Moltbot), stated on social media:
"Please stop bothering me through private messages or mentions, and cease your harassment. I will never issue any tokens. Any project that lists me as a token owner or related party is a scam. I will not accept any form of cooperation fees. Your actions are seriously damaging the reputation and development of the project. Please remain rational and work together to maintain a healthy industry environment."
Peter also mentioned that the project was originally named ClawdBot but had to be renamed due to trademark issues, resulting in a mishap during the GitHub account renaming process. The new name on X has been registered by crypto speculators, and he is currently seeking help to recover the hijacked account.
ClawdBot founder: GitHub hijacking issue has been resolved, only affecting my personal account
ChainCatcher reports that Peter Steinberger, founder of ClawdBot (now renamed Moltbot), stated on social media that the GitHub account hijacking issue has been resolved, and this issue only affected his personal account, not the organizational account. He specifically warned users to be cautious of about 20 impersonating scam accounts on X.
Tether officially launches federally regulated stablecoin USA₮
ChainCatcher reports that Tether has officially launched the federally regulated stablecoin USA₮, backed by the U.S. dollar. This token was developed under the federal stablecoin framework established by the GENIUS Act and issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, the first federally regulated stablecoin issuer in the U.S. Bo Hines has been appointed as the CEO of Tether USA₮. Cantor Fitzgerald serves as the designated reserve custodian and preferred primary dealer.
USA₮ is designed specifically for the U.S. market and digital payment infrastructure, with initial platforms including Bybit, Crypto.com, Kraken, OKX, and Moonpay. Meanwhile, USD₮ will continue to operate globally. Currently, Tether Group is the 17th largest holder of U.S. Treasury bonds worldwide.
Hang Seng Gold ETF to issue tokenized fund units based on Ethereum
ChainCatcher reports that Hang Seng Investment has announced the issuance of the gold exchange-traded fund "Hang Seng Gold ETF," expected to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. This ETF will have tokenized non-listed fund units, with HSBC acting as the tokenization agent. Initially, Ethereum will be used as the primary blockchain, with the possibility of adopting other public blockchains with equivalent security resilience and distributed ledger technology in the future.
It is reported that fund unit holders can subscribe to or redeem tokenized fund units in token form through qualified distributors.
Coinbase launches copper and platinum contract trading
ChainCatcher reports that Coinbase's regulated derivatives trading platform, Coinbase Derivatives, has launched copper and platinum contract trading.
Base co-founder: The core team will not secretly manipulate the Base ecosystem token
ChainCatcher reports that Base co-founder Jesse Pollak stated that the Base core team will not "secretly manipulate" the Base ecosystem token by privately coordinating and deploying funds to actively drive up asset prices for specific goals, as this would actively harm other assets and cannot be repeated or sustained long-term. It also contradicts Base's values regarding a free and open market and may likely be illegal.
Base is capable and will promote the distribution and promotion of high-quality assets and applications. Base—and all markets—should be free, open, and fair, and my duty is to ensure that this remains the case.
ChainCatcher reports that Lee Chang-yong, attending the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong, stated that due to market pressures, South Korean authorities have allowed domestic residents to invest in virtual assets issued overseas, and financial regulators are considering establishing a new registration system to allow domestic institutions to issue virtual assets.
Lee Chang-yong pointed out that if a won-denominated stablecoin is launched, its main use may focus on cross-border transactions, while tokenized deposits are more suitable for domestic payment scenarios. However, he emphasized that there is still significant controversy surrounding stablecoins. His core concern is whether the won stablecoin could be used to circumvent capital flow management, especially when used in conjunction with U.S. dollar stablecoins.
He further stated that U.S. dollar stablecoins have a wide range of applications and low entry barriers, with associated transaction costs significantly lower than directly using U.S. dollars. When exchange rate fluctuations trigger changes in market expectations, funds may quickly flow into U.S. dollar stablecoins, causing large-scale capital transfers; at the same time, the involvement of many non-bank institutions in stablecoin issuance significantly increases regulatory difficulties.
Additionally, Lee Chang-yong pointed out that South Korea itself has a highly developed fast payment system, so the advantages of retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) are limited. Currently, the central bank is advancing tokenized deposits and wholesale CBDC through multiple pilot programs to maintain the existing dual financial system.
Vitalik: The core difficulties of blockchain scalability are computation, data, and state
ChainCatcher reports that Vitalik Buterin elaborated on his layered understanding of blockchain scalability, pointing out that the difficulties of blockchain scalability range from low to high as computation, data, and state.
Vitalik stated that computation is the easiest to scale, which can be achieved through parallelization, introducing "hints" provided by block builders, or using proofs like zero-knowledge proofs to replace large amounts of computation. The difficulty of data scalability is moderate; if the system requires data availability guarantees, this requirement cannot be avoided, but can be optimized through data partitioning, erasure coding (like PeerDAS), and supports "graceful degradation," meaning that even when node data capabilities are low, blocks of corresponding sizes can still be generated.
In contrast, state is the most difficult part to scale. Vitalik pointed out that to validate even a single transaction, nodes need the complete state; even if the state is abstracted as a tree and only the root node is saved, updating that root still relies on the complete state. Although there are methods to partition state, they usually require significant architectural adjustments and are not universal solutions.
Based on this, Vitalik concluded: if data can replace state without introducing new centralization, it should be prioritized; if computation can replace data without introducing new centralization, it should also be taken seriously.
Federal Reserve states that the interest rate meeting will be held as scheduled
ChainCatcher reports that the Federal Reserve announced that due to severe weather, federal government offices in Washington, D.C. will be closed on January 27 (Tuesday). The Federal Reserve plans to release all announcements, including statistical data, as scheduled. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will hold its monetary policy meeting as planned on January 27 (Tuesday) and January 28 (Wednesday).
The FOMC statement will be released at 2 PM Eastern Time on January 28 (3 AM Beijing Time on Thursday), and the press conference with the Fed Chair will begin at 2:30 PM (3:30 AM Beijing Time on Thursday).
ChainCatcher reports that Tom Lee, chairman of BitMine, stated, "The parabolic and sustained rise of gold and silver is masking the continuous strengthening of the inherent fundamentals of crypto assets (especially Ethereum and Bitcoin).
At the 2026 Davos Forum, financial institutions are preparing to build products on Ethereum and other smart blockchains. When the fundamentals continue to trend upward, price increases are just a matter of time."
BitMine's Ethereum staking scale reaches 2 million, annual yield may exceed $164 million
ChainCatcher reports that BitMine disclosed that it increased its holdings by 40,302 ETH over the past week, bringing its total holdings to 4.24 million ETH, accounting for 3.52% of the circulating supply. Among them, 2.009 million ETH has been staked, with an annual yield of $164 million calculated at a 2.81% compounded Ethereum staking rate (CESR).
Tom Lee stated that if all ETH participates in staking, the annual yield will reach $374 million, exceeding $1 million per day. The company plans to establish its own validation node infrastructure in the U.S. by 2026.
Coinone denies rumors of equity trading with Coinbase, calling them "baseless"
ChainCatcher reports that BitMine disclosed that it increased its holdings by 40,302 ETH over the past week, bringing its total holdings to 4.24 million ETH, accounting for 3.52% of the circulating supply. Among them, 2.009 million ETH has been staked, with an annual yield of $164 million calculated at a 2.81% compounded Ethereum staking rate (CESR).
Tom Lee stated that if all ETH participates in staking, the annual yield will reach $374 million, exceeding $1 million per day. The company plans to establish its own validation node infrastructure in the U.S. by 2026.
Meme Popularity Rankings
According to the meme token tracking and analysis platform GMGN, as of January 28, 09:00,
The top five popular tokens in ETH over the past 24 hours are: SHIB, LINK, PEPE, UNI, ONDO
The top five popular tokens in Solana over the past 24 hours are: arc, USOR, TROLL, USCR, USELESS
The top five popular tokens in Base over the past 24 hours are: PEPE, BASED, SKYA, B3, NATO
What are some must-read articles from the past 24 hours?
We are often misled by the exaggerated trading volumes of stablecoins in article titles, immersed in the excitement of their surpassing V/M trading volumes, dreaming of "plans canceled, preparing to dethrone SWIFT." Comparing the trading volume of stablecoins to Visa/Mastercard is like comparing the volume of funds for securities settlement to Visa/Mastercard; they are not comparable.
Although blockchain data shows that stablecoin trading volumes are huge, most of them are not real-world payments.
Currently, most stablecoin trading volumes come from: 1) fund balancing by trading platforms and custodians; 2) trading, arbitrage, and liquidity cycles; 3) smart contract mechanisms; 4) financial adjustments.
Could the "dark horse" Rieder be the next Fed Chair and bring a bull market?
BlackRock executive Rick Rieder was seen as an outsider two weeks ago, but he has now become the most likely candidate to succeed current Chair Powell in the prediction market. With his advocacy for interest rate cuts and focus on the actual impact of monetary policy, he is becoming the "golden-haired girl" candidate in Trump's eyes—supporting lower interest rates without being widely seen as a threat to the Fed's independence.
According to Barron's, Trump described Rieder as "very impressive" after interviewing him earlier this month. Like Trump, Rieder has explicitly stated that interest rates should be lower. His focus on the real impact of monetary policy, especially in areas like the housing market, aligns closely with the Trump administration's emphasis on affordability.
How did RedotPay achieve a valuation of $2 billion in three years?
According to insiders, RedotPay was initially incubated by Yuan Dawei, who began researching Bitcoin in 2010. He was one of the early co-founders of Huobi and the founder of the KuCoin wallet, possessing deep influence and trust within the early Bitcoin investor community and miner groups. He is also one of the operators behind several popular tokens in recent years, well-versed in the early user growth and narrative logic of the crypto industry.
The team's background determines that RedotPay follows a typical Chinese internet strategy, which is to aggressively capture market share at any cost, and once economies of scale are achieved, to continuously raise funds, ultimately monetizing through diversified financial services.
a16z in-depth article: How to correctly understand the threat of quantum computing to blockchain
The timeline of the threat posed by quantum computing to blockchain has been exaggerated; it is still far from breaking Bitcoin and Ethereum; the real urgency lies in defending against "harvest now, decrypt later" attacks and addressing the governance and implementation security vulnerabilities of blockchain itself.
Risk warning
Risk warning
