Odaily News: Nicholas Peach, Head of BlackRock iShares Asia Pacific, stated at the Hong Kong Consensus conference that if traditional investment portfolios in Asia allocated just 1% to crypto assets, it could theoretically bring nearly $2 trillion in new capital inflows to the market, highlighting the immense potential scale of traditional financial capital.

Peach pointed out that as institutional acceptance of crypto ETFs continues to grow in Asia, market expectations for digital assets are shifting. Some asset allocation models have already begun recommending the inclusion of a small percentage of crypto assets in standard portfolios. Based on Asia's approximately $108 trillion household wealth, even a very conservative allocation ratio could have a profound impact on the market.

The assets under management of BlackRock's iShares spot Bitcoin ETF, IBIT, have rapidly grown to approximately $53 billion. Concurrently, regulatory bodies in markets such as Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea are gradually promoting the launch of a wider range of crypto ETF products. Industry insiders believe that whether capital can smoothly enter the market in the future still depends on the further improvement of investor education and asset allocation frameworks.

Odaily News: Barry Silbert, founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group (DCG), stated that as market demand for financial privacy rises, an estimated 5% to 10% of Bitcoin capital is expected to flow into privacy-focused crypto assets, represented by Zcash, within the next few years.

Speaking at the Bitcoin Investor Week event in New York, Silbert pointed out that financial privacy is not only a fundamental right but could also become the next area in the crypto industry with asymmetric return potential. He believes Bitcoin remains a core component of asset allocation, but given the current market scale, privacy-focused projects may have higher growth potential.

He also noted that with the development of on-chain analysis tools like Chainalysis and Elliptic, the early narrative of Bitcoin as "anonymous cash" no longer holds true. However, market demand for using digital currencies while ensuring privacy still exists. Silbert has correspondingly increased allocations to privacy and related emerging sectors in his current investment portfolio.

Odaily News Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse stated during an online XRP community event that XRP remains Ripple's "North Star." The company will focus primarily on business integration this year, making large-scale acquisitions unlikely in the short term. However, it does not rule out reassessing merger and acquisition opportunities in the second half of 2026.

Garlinghouse pointed out that last year, Ripple invested approximately $4 billion into the crypto ecosystem through investments, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic partnerships. This includes the $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road and the $1 billion acquisition of treasury management platform GTreasury. Compared to the aggressive expansion in 2025, the company will focus more this year on integrating existing businesses and resources.

He also stated that future M&A activities will still revolve around strengthening the XRP ecosystem and its practical applications, but the overall pace will be more cautious.

Odaily News Nasdaq-listed company and Solana digital asset treasury firm Upexi announced its financial results for the second quarter of the fiscal year ending December 31. The company's revenue for the quarter reached $8.1 million, doubling from approximately $4 million in the same period last year. However, due to the decline in SOL price, the company recorded a net loss of approximately $179 million.

The financial report shows that the digital asset business has become the primary revenue source, contributing $5.1 million for the quarter, primarily from SOL staking rewards, surpassing the $2.9 million revenue from the consumer brand business. The company's gross profit increased by 126% year-over-year to $6.7 million.

However, the loss mainly stemmed from approximately $164.5 million in unrealized paper losses, which are non-cash accounting impacts resulting from the mark-to-market adjustment of crypto assets. Management stated that the underlying treasury business continues to generate cash flow through staking rewards and plans to explore more yield strategies and hedging tools to mitigate the impact of asset price volatility.

As of the end of the quarter, Upexi held over 2.17 million SOL, with approximately 95% already participating in staking; the company indicated that its current holding size is close to 2.4 million SOL.

Odaily News During a hearing held by the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, several Democratic lawmakers questioned SEC Chairman Paul Atkins regarding the recent reduction in enforcement actions against the cryptocurrency industry by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). They also expressed concerns about whether these decisions are linked to former President Trump and his connections to the crypto industry.

The lawmakers specifically highlighted the SEC's suspension of the case against Tron founder Justin Sun and the dismissal of the lawsuit against Binance. Democratic Representative Stephen Lynch stated during the hearing that the decline in SEC enforcement has already impacted the agency's reputation and demanded an explanation for why these cases were not pursued further.

The SEC had sued Justin Sun in 2023 for alleged unregistered securities offerings and market manipulation, later filing in 2025 to stay the case to explore settlement possibilities. In May of the same year, under Atkins' leadership, the SEC dismissed its lawsuit against Binance. Data shows that in 2025, the SEC's overall enforcement actions decreased by approximately 30% compared to the previous year, with crypto-related cases dropping by about 60%. This is seen by observers as a signal of a shift in regulatory priorities.

In response, Atkins stated that the SEC maintains a "robust enforcement posture" and attributed some of the changes to normal adjustments following a change in regulatory leadership.

Odaily News Tether's US subsidiary CEO and former White House crypto advisor, Bo Hines, stated that as demand for USDT and the newly launched stablecoin USAT continues to grow, Tether is expected to further increase its holdings of US Treasury bills (T-bills) this year and has the potential to become one of the world's top ten buyers of US debt.

Data shows that USDT is currently the largest stablecoin by market capitalization, with a circulating supply of approximately $185 billion. According to the latest proof of reserves, about 83.11% of Tether's reserve assets are allocated to US Treasury bills, with a total value exceeding $122 billion. Hines noted that this scale has already positioned Tether within the top twenty foreign holders in the US Treasury Department's rankings, placing it between Germany and Saudi Arabia.

Hines also revealed that since its launch in 2014, the number of USDT users has reached approximately 530 million, currently growing at a rate of about 30 million users per quarter.

Odaily News The U.S. Department of Justice announced that cryptocurrency trading platform Paxful Holdings Inc. has been ordered to pay a $4 million fine for failing to establish effective anti-money laundering controls. Prosecutors allege that the platform long allowed illegal funds associated with fraud, prostitution, and human trafficking to flow through its system and profited from it.

The Department of Justice stated that Paxful continued to provide services despite knowing that some customers' funds were linked to criminal activities, even marketing its lax anti-money laundering oversight as a selling point to attract users. The investigation also pointed out that the platform had processed cryptocurrency transactions for websites including Backpage, which was believed to be used for posting prostitution-related advertisements, some involving minors.

Data shows that between 2015 and 2022, approximately $17 million worth of Bitcoin was transferred to related websites through Paxful wallets, from which the platform earned at least $2.7 million in profit. The Department of Justice claimed that Paxful's founder even referred to the resulting business growth as the "Backpage effect."

Odaily News Coinbase has announced the launch of Agentic Wallets, a wallet infrastructure designed for AI Agents, aiming to "provide wallets for any intelligent agent." This enables AI to independently complete on-chain transactions and payments without human intervention.

The tool is based on the x402 protocol currently under development by Coinbase. It allows AI Agents to autonomously hold funds, send payments, trade tokens, generate yields, and execute on-chain operations, while incorporating built-in security permissions and risk control mechanisms. Coinbase stated that this solution addresses the key limitations AI currently faces in operations involving funds, enabling it to truly perform economic actions.

Agentic Wallets represent a further upgrade from the previous AgentKit tool. They adopt a plug-and-play approach, allowing developers to quickly configure tradable wallets for AI Agents. For example, under preset permissions, AI can automatically adjust asset allocations or capture yield opportunities.

According to the introduction, the feature will initially support the EVM ecosystem and Solana, and can enable gas-free transactions on Base Layer 2, launched by Coinbase. (The Block)

Odaily News: Cryptocurrency infrastructure company Zerohash has announced the addition of support for the Monad blockchain and its network's USDC, aiming to further promote the application of stablecoins in payment scenarios.

Following this integration, Zerohash clients can directly build and launch stablecoin-based payment services without the need to set up their own blockchain infrastructure or obtain relevant licenses. Application scenarios include real-time fund deposits, cross-border payments, inter-enterprise settlements, and on-chain commercial payments. Its clients include prediction market platform Kalshi, HR platform Gusto, and trading platform Public.

The Monad Foundation stated that the network's high performance and near-instant finality characteristics are conducive to the large-scale adoption of stablecoin payments. Zerohash pointed out that although the Ethereum ecosystem still holds the majority share of stablecoin activity, the usage of other Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks is continuously growing as stablecoins gradually enter the payment and settlement fields.

Odaily News: Sonic, a Layer 1 public chain built by the original Fantom team, announced plans to upgrade the value accumulation mechanism for its native token S by building and acquiring core protocol applications and infrastructure. It also hinted at potential related mergers and acquisitions in the future.

In its latest statement, Sonic Labs indicated that the team will focus on deploying key infrastructure at the intersection of token utility, liquidity, and use cases. By internalizing and commercializing core economic activities, it aims to reduce value leakage from the ecosystem's application layer. Meanwhile, Sonic will maintain its openness and permissionless nature for developers.

The team stated that the previous model relying on "user growth — increased transactions — higher Gas consumption — token value recycling" has become difficult to sustain. With the development of Rollups, modular architectures, and high-performance public chains, the increased supply of block space has led to continuously compressed transaction fees. Relying solely on Gas revenue is no longer sufficient to support the long-term value of an L1.

Sonic is a high-performance, EVM-compatible public chain aiming to achieve near-instant confirmation and extremely high throughput. It is currently attempting to reshape the value capture path for Layer 1 through deeper ecosystem integration.

Odaily News According to The Wall Street Journal, three U.S. officials revealed that as the U.S. military prepares for potential attacks on Iran, the U.S. Department of Defense has directed a second aircraft carrier strike group to prepare for deployment to the Middle East. One official stated that deployment orders could be issued within hours. On Tuesday, Trump said he was considering sending a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East in case military action is needed if negotiations with Iran fail. Officials cautioned that Trump has not yet formally ordered the deployment of the second carrier, and plans could change. One official said the Pentagon is preparing to deploy a carrier within two weeks, potentially from the U.S. East Coast. The USS George H.W. Bush is conducting a series of training exercises off the coast of Virginia, and this deployment could accelerate those exercises. If a second carrier is deployed to the Middle East, it would mark the first time in nearly a year that two carriers are present in the region.

Odaily News The U.S. government's fiscal deficit in January decreased compared to last year, while tariff revenue surged. The U.S. Treasury Department reported that customs duties collected that month totaled $30 billion, bringing the total for this fiscal year to date to $124 billion, a 304% increase compared to the same period in 2025. These tariffs have helped slow the growth of the budget deficit. In the fourth month of this fiscal year, the fiscal deficit was approximately $95 billion, about 26% lower than the same period last year. To date, the federal government deficit stands at $697 billion, a 17% reduction from 2025. After calendar adjustments, the deficit reduction is 21%.

Odaily News According to data, the U.S. budget deficit for the four months ending in January fell to $697 billion from $840 billion in the same period last year, a decrease of 17%. The U.S. Supreme Court is currently weighing whether Trump has the authority to impose most of the tariffs, and the reduction in the deficit highlights the significant impact of this ruling on government interests. Due to revenue growing faster than expenditures, total revenue increased by 12%, while spending only rose by 2%. From October last year to January this year, tariff revenue totaled $124 billion, an increase of approximately 304% compared to the same period in 2025. Earlier on Wednesday, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that if the tariffs registered as of November 20th remain unchanged over the next decade, tariff revenue would reduce the federal deficit by $3 trillion. However, this is not enough to offset other deficit-increasing factors in Trump's economic plan. The Congressional Budget Office raised its ten-year total deficit forecast by $1.4 trillion.

Odaily News According to CME "FedWatch": The probability of the Fed cutting interest rates by 25 basis points by March is 5.9%, and the probability of keeping rates unchanged is 94.1%. The probability of a cumulative 25 basis point rate cut by April is 20.5%, the probability of keeping rates unchanged is 78.5%, and the probability of a cumulative 50 basis point rate cut is 1%. The probability of a cumulative 25 basis point rate cut by June is 48.1%.

Odaily News Federal Reserve Governor Milan said on Wednesday that he would be "very happy" to stay at the Fed for a long time if asked, but the decision is not in his hands. Milan's term in his current position has expired, making this seat the only one President Trump could nominate his former Federal Reserve Governor Warsh for before appointing a Fed Chair. Unless Federal Reserve Chair Powell resigns from his position as a Fed Governor when his term as Chair expires in mid-May. Powell has not yet indicated his intentions regarding staying or leaving. In an interview, Milan stated: "The subsequent developments this year depend on multiple factors: whether a vacancy arises, the President's choice, and the Senate's confirmation decision."