Author: Vickie Helm

The U.S. government has taken full legal ownership of more than $400 million in seized cryptocurrencies, cash, and real estate related to Helix, once one of the most widely used Bitcoin mixing services on the darknet. A federal judge in Washington, D.C., issued a final forfeiture order transferring assets to the government on January 21 following the conviction of Helix operator Larry Dean Harmon. Forfeitures include thousands of bitcoins, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, and an Ohio mansion purchased at the height of Helix’s business. Helix acted as a cryptocurrency mixer, pooling and rerouting Bitcoin transactions to obscure…

US President Donald Trump’s nomination of former Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh to head the US central bank sends mixed signals for the cryptocurrency market and the liquidity of the US dollar, market analysts say.President Trump nominated Mr. Warsh, a Bitcoin supporter, on Friday, and assuming the Senate confirms him, he will replace Jerome Powell, whose term ends in May.Warsh’s nomination could mean the Fed will continue its rate-cutting path. However, it also suggests that broader market liquidity is expected to “stabilize rather than meaningfully expand,” according to Thomas Perfumo, global economist at cryptocurrency exchange Kraken.He told Cointelegraph:“This maintains a…

Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed herein belong solely to the authors and do not represent the views and opinions of crypto.news editorials. While telecom giants spend years getting permission to build new towers, ordinary people are already building the internet faster and cheaper. The contrast is striking. A single small cell tower installation can cost up to $300,000, while a complete macro cell tower installation can cost millions of dollars. With decentralized physical infrastructure networks — otherwise known as DePINs for short — the cost to add a new connectivity point is effectively zero, as it uses software to…

Opinion: Daniel Taylor, Head of Policy, ZumoIt’s been five years since we first heard about the UK being a global crypto hub, and the UK has received its fair share of criticism for its crypto strategy. With a constantly delayed regulatory framework, declining business support and growing public criticism of overzealous and insidious ‘positive friction’, British consumers are being left out in the cold when compared to international consumers in both product access and product choice.Meanwhile, those in positions of influence have repeatedly and complacently ignored crypto trends while failing to implement a framework of protection beyond risk warnings.The word…

Bitcoin started the week with a wide gap to CME futures after significant losses in January as weak liquidity and cautious positioning continued to put pressure on the price. summary CME Bitcoin futures have resumed well below their previous close after a weekend sell-off. January’s decline was due to liquidations and reduced liquidity. Technical signals indicate continued pressure below key resistance. Bitcoin-related derivatives began the new trading week with a wide price differential after CME futures resumed around $6,800 lower, reflecting continued pressure after a weak close in January. CME Bitcoin futures opened at around $77,730, down from Friday’s close…

Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed herein belong solely to the authors and do not represent the views and opinions of crypto.news editorials. Currently, stablecoins already move real money and underpin the majority of on-chain payments. McKinsey puts the daily trading volume of stablecoins at around $30 billion, but even if that number is close to reality, calling stablecoins “experimental” is foolish. Still, mass adoption has yet to materialize. summary Stablecoins are not blocked by regulation, they are blocked by liability. Companies won’t adopt payments if they don’t have clear responsibility for errors, disputes, and compliance. The real scaling bottleneck…

According to CompaniesMarketCap, Bitcoin has fallen to the world’s 12th largest asset by market capitalization, trailing Tesla in the rankings. The digital asset’s price fell to $81,000 earlier today and continued to fall as trading progressed. At the time of writing, BTC was down 8% in the past 24 hours and hovering around $77,300, according to TradingView data. The recent decline has brought Bitcoin’s market cap down to around $1.5 trillion, allowing Tesla, currently valued at $1.6 trillion, to rise to 11th place. Earlier this week, Bitcoin fell out of the top 10 global assets, falling behind Metaplatforms and Taiwan…

Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed herein belong solely to the authors and do not represent the views and opinions of crypto.news editorials. ETFs are one of the greatest innovations in modern finance. They have transformed investing for millions of ordinary people by making diversified investing liquid and accessible. They are products of off-chain financial infrastructure, optimized for the world in which they were conceived. summary Crypto ETFs are legacy wrappers for digital native assets. They strip ownership, block on-chain utilities, limit trading hours, and charge high fees while only offering price exposure. Direct ownership allows for personalization and compounding.…

BTC is down more than 30% from its October ATH, and one analyst predicts further losses. Over the past week or so, the bearish trend in Bitcoin that began in early October has only intensified, with the asset falling to $81,000, its lowest level since December. Despite reports that whales have re-entered the Bitcoin ecosystem following the largest buying spree in the past two years, one popular analyst believes the cryptocurrency faces further downside risk. As such, he outlined the goal of a plan to “sell everything” and go all-in on BTC. And, according to Ali Martinez, the target is…

important notesAmboss debuts RailsX on PlanB forums to perform atomic swaps entirely over Lightning Network channels without storage risk. Bitcoin DeFi soared 2000% in 2024, reaching $6.5 billion in TVL, with Babylon driving over 80% of the ecosystem growth. Lightning infrastructure expands as Taproot assets enable multi-asset support and Tether commits $8 million to stablecoin payments. Amboss Technologies launched RailsX, a Lightning-native peer-to-peer (P2P) decentralized exchange, on January 30, 2026 at the PlanB Forum in El Salvador. Unlike other exchanges that build separate protocol layers, RailsX executes trades entirely over the Lightning Network. Transactions function as circular self-payments. Funds are…