Finance

Imagine waking up to find that your bank account or crypto wallet has been frozen, leaving you unable to access your funds. It’s a situation more people are finding themselves in as banks and centralized exchanges (CEXs) enforce stringent regulations under the banner of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and financial crime prevention.

The volatility of cryptocurrency prices creates uncertainty in determining the value involved in criminal cases. Judicial authorities typically liquidate seized assets through third-party agencies after the verdict, but it is difficult to determine the value early in the case. Current methods include market trading prices, third-party appraisals, suspect’s resale amounts, or victim’s loss amounts.

In January 2025, the Web3 industry maintained momentum but experienced a slowdown in funding, with 148 deals totaling $1.44 billion. Compared to December 2024, funding activity declined—deals decreased by 9.75% and total funding amount fell by 53.24%. Blockchain services and CeFi emerged as investment hotspots, while mergers and acquisitions became the primary expansion strategy for industry leaders seeking rapid market share growth. Small and medium-scale funding projects dominated the landscape, reflecting strong market interest in early-stage ventures. The Web3 industry's dynamism was further evidenced by the rapid growth of leading projects like Phantom, SoSoValue, Tea-Fi, Oshi, and Bluwhale.

OnePay, a fintech platform majority-owned by Walmart, is steadily expanding its cryptocurrency offerings. After introducing Bitcoin and Ethereum trading in early 2026, the platform has recently added several crypto assets, including SUI, Polygon, and Arbitrum. OnePay emphasizes that it does not aim to follow hot market trends, but rather selects assets based on marketplace demand, liquidity, and long-term value. The company is progressively developing a super app that integrates banking and digital asset services.

Morpho is a protocol designed to improve efficiency in decentralized lending markets. By introducing a peer-to-peer (P2P) matching mechanism on top of traditional liquidity pool models, it enables more favorable interest rate matching. As demand for DeFi lending continues to grow, Morpho has become widely used to enhance capital efficiency and improve yield structures for users.

Gate Research Weekly Report: BTC surged to $69,305 over the past 24 hours before giving back gains and entering a weaker consolidation phase, while ETH continued to show stronger structure than BTC, rebounding to as high as $2,168 with upside momentum easing at elevated levels. The altcoin market remained structurally mixed, with about 51.02% of tokens posting gains, led by the DID and NFT trading sectors. Stablecoin market capitalization rose to $316.3 billion, up by $640 million over the past week, while Ethereum gas fees remained at low levels. The Drift Protocol exploit, confirmation of the BITA ticker, and approval for options on multi-crypto asset commodity trusts further increased market focus on security risks, yield-enhanced ETF products, and the institutionalization of crypto derivatives. In the coming seven days, HYPE, ENA, and OPN are set to unlock approximately $12.00 million, $19.16 million, and $5.52 million worth of tokens respectively, which may introduce short-term supply pressure.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was created to improve the efficiency and performance of the U.S. federal government, aiming to foster social stability and prosperity. However, with its name coincidentally matching the Memecoin DOGE, the appointment of Elon Musk as its head, and its recent actions, it has become closely tied to the cryptocurrency market. This article will delve into the Department's history, structure, responsibilities, and its connections with Elon Musk and Dogecoin for a comprehensive overview.

Gate Research: In January 2025, significant events in the global economy and financial markets included the rise in U.S. manufacturing PMI, the Federal Reserve's inflation expectations assessment, UK's regulatory adjustments for crypto staking, changes in U.S. inflation data, crypto market volatility, and policy directions from the Trump administration. These events reflected signs of economic recovery, changes in the regulatory environment, and the impact of policy uncertainties on markets, providing important perspectives for understanding current economic conditions and future development trends.

January 2025 was an eventful month for the blockchain and crypto industry, showcasing strong market activity and emerging trends. Key projects such as Uniswap, Aave, EigenLayer, Jupiter, and Chainlink made significant strides in platform launches, service expansions, token issuance, new features, mainnet rollouts, fee governance, and mining activities. These innovations continue to push the boundaries of technology, strengthen community participation, and fuel industry growth.

The latest Web3 on-chain data report from Gate Research reveals that after reaching a record high in January, Bitcoin entered a consolidation phase, with selling pressure from long-term holders easing and the market stabilizing. Bitcoin's net realized profit/loss declined by 82% from its peak, while the proportion of Bitcoin supply held by exchange addresses dropped to approximately 13.7%. Meanwhile, the $TRUMP token saw its trading volume peak at over $30 billion, but the number of holding addresses declined rapidly, indicating strong short-term speculative activity.

This article explores the contradiction between speculation and real-world applications in the crypto economy, highlighting that they are two sides of the same coin. Despite criticisms of financial nihilism, blockchain technology demonstrates potential in democratizing wealth and reducing transaction costs. The article emphasizes that speculative activities play a crucial role in attracting new users and stress-testing systems while also driving the development of real-world applications.

This article proposes an innovative restructuring of the global financial system. Arthur Hayes suggests that the U.S. Treasury should establish Bitcoin as a neutral global reserve asset while keeping the dollar as the main currency for trade settlements. His proposal outlines several key steps: gradually raising Bitcoin's value, extending U.S. Treasury bond maturities, using social media to promote digital dollars, and developing a new blockchain-based financial infrastructure. This strategy aims to protect both America's economic interests and global financial stability.

This beginner’s guide on political memecoins discusses various aspects of political memecoins, including how to avoid fake political memecoins and buy genuine ones, if interested.

This article examines the business operations, market performance, and development strategies of the world's top 10 Bitcoin mining companies in 2025. As of January 21, 2025, the Bitcoin mining industry's total market capitalization has reached $48.77 billion. Industry leaders like Marathon Digital and Riot Platforms are expanding through innovative technology and efficient energy management. Beyond improving mining efficiency, these companies are venturing into emerging fields such as AI cloud services and high-performance computing—marking Bitcoin mining's evolution from a single-purpose industry into a diversified, global business model.

This article will introduce the Silk Road incident, the amount of Bitcoin held by the U.S. government, past auction events, and their impact on the market.