orb

According to the Forbes official website, in the latest release of the 11th annual Fintech 50 list, the prediction market platform Polymarket (funding of $2.3 billion), the digital asset securities company Securitize (funding of $425 million), the crypto wallet Phantom (funding of $268 million), the crypto lending company Ledn (funding of $107 million), and the decentralized contract trading platform Hyperliquid (funding of $0 million) made the list.Forbes points out that although the valuation of the cryptocurrency industry is relatively conservative compared to artificial intelligence startups, it still demonstrates innovation and rapid growth potential. According to CB Insights data, the total amount of private financing in fintech is expected to reach $53 billion by 2025, significantly lower than the $152 billion in 2021.

According to Yonhap News Agency, Mirae Asset Group has decided to invest 133.5 billion won (approximately 93.82 million USD) to acquire a 92.06% stake in the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange platform Korbit through its subsidiary, Mirae Asset Consulting.The transaction involves 26.91 million shares, which are all the shares held by Nexon's parent company NXC and SK Square's SK Planet that Mirae Asset is purchasing.

According to an analysis by Forbes of data from the blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intel, as of Monday, approximately 87% of all circulating USD stablecoins (USD1) are held in Binance's own wallets and user accounts—amounting to about $4.7 billion out of a total supply of $5.4 billion—making Binance the platform with the highest concentration of holdings among the top ten stablecoins by market capitalization.Binance responded that its support for USD1 is no different from that of other cryptocurrencies, and it is common for large exchanges to hold significant amounts of specific tokens, asserting that there is no connection between Changpeng Zhao's pardon and the promotion of USD1. World Liberty Financial stated that the related promotions are standard practice and denied that Binance could exert influence over them. The White House Press Secretary stated that Trump has never been and will not be involved in any conflict of interest.

According to Forbes, as the regulatory environment in the United States gradually relaxes, the fintech industry is accelerating its transformation towards "licensed banking." Last year, the approval process for trust bank licenses significantly sped up, with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) approving conditional applications for national trust bank licenses for five companies, including Circle, Ripple, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Paxos. It is reported that having a banking license is also seen as an important means to hedge against fluctuations in the capital markets.Industry insiders believe that the era of fintech companies merely serving as front-end channels for traditional banks is coming to an end. An increasing number of digital finance and crypto institutions are beginning to directly seek banking licenses. By accepting custodial deposits and connecting to the federal payment system, crypto companies can obtain a more stable and lower-cost source of funding.

According to Forbes, Bitcoin has recently experienced a significant pullback, raising concerns in the market about a new round of "deep declines" in crypto assets. Over the past week, the price of Bitcoin has dropped by about 10%, briefly falling below the $80,000 mark, with the latest low reaching $73,000, before slightly rebounding to above $75,000. Amid this sudden shift in market sentiment, CZ publicly stated that his confidence in the "super cycle" of Bitcoin in 2026 has significantly decreased.CZ mentioned that due to market panic (FUD), extreme liquidation events, and geopolitical uncertainties, the current environment will have "very high" volatility. The super cycle could still occur, but the probability has dropped to about 50%. Meanwhile, well-known investor and the inspiration for "The Big Short," Michael Burry, warned that Bitcoin's price could further dip to $50,000. He pointed out that if it falls to that level, Bitcoin mining companies may face severe financial pressure and even bankruptcy risks.Concerns about Bitcoin's weakness in the market have also intensified as funds accelerate their flow into traditional safe-haven assets like gold and silver. LMAX Group CEO David Mercer stated that the current market is experiencing "collateral tightening," with the speed of risk spreading outpacing the support system, leading to significantly amplified volatility. Analysts believe that against the backdrop of rising gold prices and crypto assets being revalued as "high-risk assets," Bitcoin's short-term performance will remain highly dependent on changes in the macro environment and market sentiment.

According to a recent feature report by Forbes, Gate founder and CEO Dr. Han systematically reviewed his entrepreneurial journey in an exclusive interview and elaborated on Gate's development philosophy centered on security, transparency, and long-termism.The report pointed out that Gate is one of the earliest trading platforms in the industry to introduce and continuously disclose proof of reserves. Through higher standards of asset security mechanisms and a comprehensive risk control system, it has gradually established a trust foundation with nearly 50 million users. On the compliance front, Gate actively responds to global regulatory frameworks, including MiCA, with multiple entities under its umbrella having obtained or completed relevant regulatory registrations, license applications, authorizations, or approvals in jurisdictions such as Malta, the Bahamas, Australia, and Dubai.Dr. Han stated that the cryptocurrency industry is entering a critical regulatory period, and platforms that truly possess long-term competitiveness must withstand both market and regulatory scrutiny. Gate is also continuously lowering the barriers for users to enter the digital asset and tokenized financial world through an integrated layout of trading, custody, settlement, and compliance capabilities, promoting the industry towards a more robust and sustainable direction.

In the 2026 Outlook Report published by Wintermute, it is mentioned that the anticipated bullish market did not materialize in 2025, and the traditional four-year cycle is becoming outdated. A few large companies have absorbed the vast majority of new capital, leaving the entire market struggling.To expand market participation in 2026, it depends on whether one of the following three scenarios can significantly increase liquidity, moving beyond just a few large-cap assets.ETFs and DATs expand their investment scope, such as SOL and XRP ETFs.A strong rise in Bitcoin or Ethereum could create a wealth effect, but it remains uncertain how much capital will ultimately flow back into the digital asset space.Retail investors' attention may shift from stocks (AI, rare earths, quantum technology) to cryptocurrencies, leading to new inflows of capital and stablecoin issuance. (The least likely scenario)

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas posted, "The Bitcoin ETF performed strongly yesterday with a net inflow of $843 million, bringing the total net inflow for the past week to $1 billion, and the cumulative net inflow year-to-date is about $1.5 billion. In terms of price, Bitcoin is currently around $97,000, after seemingly oscillating around $88,000 for nearly six months. The overall feeling is that buying pressure may have gradually absorbed, or even exhausted, selling pressure, though we will need to continue observing how this develops."

Korean cryptocurrency exchange Korbit announced that it will accept a nearly $2 million fine and an official warning from the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) without filing an appeal. The FIU conducted anti-money laundering on-site inspections of all fiat exchanges in South Korea in October 2024, discovering approximately 22,000 violations at Korbit, including 12,800 instances of accepting vague or unclear identification documents, as well as allowing users to trade without completing KYC verification.Korbit stated, "We respect and humbly accept the FIU's decision to ensure the transparency and healthy development of the cryptocurrency market, and we have completed all corrective measures." As the first cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, Korbit's market share has now shrunk to 0.5%, with an average daily trading volume of only about $12 million. Securities giant Mirae Asset is advancing an acquisition deal, with amounts ranging from $68 million to $95 million.

Glassnode has released data on social platforms indicating that the selling pace of long-term Bitcoin holders has slowed down. The net outflow has decreased from extreme levels, suggesting that the market is gradually absorbing the supply from long-term holders, and a significant portion of the supply pressure above may have been largely digested.

"1011 Insider Whale" Garrett Jin posted on the X platform, stating that the Nasdaq 100 index is underperforming, while the Russell 2000 index continues to hit new highs. Funds are clearly rotating into small and mid-cap stocks, indicating that risk appetite is expanding. BTC and ETH, as high beta risk assets, will be the next targets for absorbing capital inflows.

Forbes published an article titled "What Is Bitcoin's Price Prediction For 2026," which points out that the currently available Bitcoin price predictions for 2026 vary widely. Analysts from Tom Lee, Standard Chartered Bank, and Bernstein are bullish, but there are also some institutions that are bearish.Although there is currently no single target price for Bitcoin in the market, predictions are concentrated in the range of $120,000 to $170,000, indicating that Bitcoin's price discovery is increasingly influenced by structural factors such as ETF fund flows and corporate treasury assets. If macroeconomic favorable factors strengthen and institutional participation accelerates, the potential upside could reach $250,000 or higher. How institutions choose to deploy capital will be a key factor in the rise of Bitcoin's price.

Analyst Murphy posted an analysis on platform X, stating: "The ETF + DAT companies have absorbed a total of 12.05 million ETH selling pressure in this cycle. Without them, the price performance of ETH would certainly be much worse. The 'activity' of ancient chips held for over 5 years, with a cost below $400, is still very high. Especially when the price approaches or exceeds $4000. Currently, there are still 20 million of these chips, accounting for 17% of the total circulation; similarly, there are 3.79 million BTC chips with a cost below $1000, accounting for 18.9% of the total circulation; however, unlike ETH, among these, 1 million are Satoshi's, and most of the rest have been lost. Coupled with a higher community consensus, the 'chip activity' of these ancient BTC is significantly lower than that of ETH.I personally believe that based on the existing ETF + DAT configuration, if we can add some new narratives and innovations to strive to consume half of the remaining 20 million ancient chips, then the price of ETH is expected to usher in a qualitative leap."

According to the announcement from the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of South Korea, in response to the cryptocurrency exchange Korbit's violation of anti-money laundering (AML) obligations under the Specific Financial Information Act, the FIU has decided to impose an "institutional warning" and a fine of 2.73 billion KRW (approximately 1.88 million USD) on it. Additionally, the FIU has issued a "notice" sanction to its representative office and a "condemnation" sanction to the head of anti-money laundering reporting.The sanctions involve three major violations identified by the FIU during an on-site inspection of Korbit from October 16 to October 29, 2024: Korbit had approximately 22,000 cases of customer due diligence (CDD) and transaction restriction violations, including accepting ambiguous identification documents, allowing transactions with incomplete customer information, and failing to fulfill customer re-confirmation obligations periodically; conducted 19 asset transfer transactions with three undeclared overseas virtual asset service providers; and failed to perform the required money laundering risk assessment obligations before launching 655 new assets, including NFTs.

According to Arkham data, at 12:51, 150 BTC (worth approximately 13.09 million USD) was transferred from Korbit to two anonymous addresses (starting with 3F8XJ... and bc1qs...).

According to the Korea Times, South Korea's major financial group Mirae Asset is considering acquiring the local cryptocurrency exchange platform Korbit. Reports indicate that Mirae Asset is negotiating to acquire approximately 92% of Korbit's shares, with the transaction valued at up to 140 billion won (about 97 million USD).Mirae Asset, headquartered in Seoul, operates in asset management, wealth management, investment banking, and insurance, making it an important institution in South Korea's traditional financial sector. If the deal is finalized, it will be its first direct involvement in cryptocurrency-related business. Reports suggest that Mirae Asset's founder, Park Hyun-joo, has emphasized exploring opportunities for the integration of traditional assets and digital assets in recent years.Industry insiders point out that although Korbit has limited market presence, its years of accumulated financial experience may help it drive differentiated development in the future. Data shows that Korbit currently ranks fourth among six compliant trading platforms in South Korea by trading volume, with a 24-hour trading volume of approximately 11.8 million USD, significantly lower than Upbit (about 1.2 billion USD) and Bithumb (about 475 million USD), while the third place, Coinone, has about 58 million USD.

According to Cointelegraph, Mirae Asset Group is in negotiations to acquire Korbit, the fourth largest cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, with a transaction valuation estimated at around 100 billion to 140 billion Korean won, equivalent to approximately 70 million to 100 million USD.The potential acquisition will be led by Mirae Asset Consulting, a non-financial subsidiary of Mirae Asset Group, which has signed a memorandum of understanding with Korbit's major shareholders. Public information shows that NXC and its subsidiary Simple Capital Futures collectively hold about 60.5% of Korbit's shares, while SK Square holds approximately 31.5%.The report points out that Korbit possesses a complete operating license and compliance system, making it attractive to large financial groups looking to enter the digital asset space in a compliant manner. However, in terms of market share, Korbit has a limited presence in the South Korean cryptocurrency trading market.Data from CoinGecko indicates that out of the approximately 1.21 billion USD in total 24-hour trading volume across six major exchanges in South Korea, Korbit only contributes about 5.75 million USD, accounting for less than 1%. In contrast, Upbit, Bithumb, and Coinone hold significant advantages. Previous reports have indicated that Naver Financial also plans to acquire Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, through a share swap, demonstrating that traditional financial and tech giants in South Korea are continuously increasing their investments in the cryptocurrency asset space.

According to CoinDesk, cryptocurrency investment firm Blockstream Capital Partners (BCP) announced in a press release on Thursday that it plans to acquire Corbiere Capital Management. Corbiere Capital Management is a stock hedge fund based in Jersey, founded by Rodrigo Rodriguez in 2023.The financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed. BCP stated that after acquiring Corbiere Capital Management, it will add stock and event-driven strategies to its existing Bitcoin-related products, building a multi-strategy platform aimed at institutional investors. This merger aims to create a more diversified portfolio that combines traditional securities with Bitcoin-related investment exposure. Rodriguez will serve as the Chief Investment Officer of the newly established asset management entity under BCP—Blockstream Capital Management.