BitMine Immersion Technology has agreed to invest $200 million in Beast Industries, the entertainment company founded by YouTube star Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, in a deal that marks one of BitMine’s largest non-core equity investments to date.
BitMine will make a $200 million equity investment into Beast Industries, the company announced on Thursday.
Donaldson operates a network of YouTube channels that collectively have more than 450 million subscribers, according to publicly available figures.
“MrBeast and Beast Industries, in our view, is the leading content creator of our generation, with a reach and engagement unmatched with GenZ, GenAlpha and Millennials,” said Thomas Lee, the chairman of BitMine. “Beast Industries is the largest and most innovative creator based platform in the world and our corporate and personal values are strongly aligned.”
The company did not disclose the size of the stake BitMine will acquire, the valuation of Beast Industries or any governance rights tied to the investment
The companies said the deal is expected to close on Monday.
Beast Industries to explore DeFi integration for upcoming financial platform
As part of the deal with BitMine, Beast Industries will explore ways to incorporate decentralized finance (DeFi) in its planned financial services platform, said Jeffrey Housenbold, the CEO of Beast Industries.
The companies have not disclosed any product details, timelines or regulatory framework for the proposed platform, and said no DeFi product has been finalized.
Cointelegraph reached out to BitMine and Beast Industries for comment on the specifics of the deal and the upcoming DeFi integration, but had not received a response by publication.
Related: Sharplink pockets $33M from Ether staking, deploys another $170M ETH
MrBeast started expanding beyond YouTube in 2025, announcing plans to launch a financial services platform during the New York Times’ DealBook Summit in early December.
“We’re also launching a phone company, Beast Mobile, and a financial services platform in there, wrapped in financial literacy and access to the world’s information,” Housenbold told Business Insider on Dec. 3.
Beast Industries generated $400 million in revenue during 2024, according to investor materials seen by Business Insider.
Related: Standard Chartered said to plan crypto brokerage, trims ETH forecast
Magazine: Sharplink exec shocked by level of BTC and ETH ETF hodling — Joseph Chalom
Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently. Read our Editorial Policy https://cointelegraph.com/editorial-policy
The weakness meant that BTC/USD joined oil in diverging from stocks and precious metals, which were up on reports that geopolitical tensions between the US and Iran were de-escalating.
BREAKING: President Trump has told Iran he does not want war and will not launch an attack, according to Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan.
Now, market participants turned to levels in need of preservation during a potential correction within the local uptrend.
“Critical for the bulls to hold the $94K region going forward. Any moves back down that level would not make for a pretty look,” Daan Crypto Trades wrote in a post on X after what he called a “solid breakout.”
“From here on out, the Daily 200EMA is next up. That one rejected price back in November right before the large drop.”
Daan Crypto Trades referred to the 200-day exponential moving average (EMA), currently at $99,555.
Earlier, Cointelegraph reported on the bull market support band around $101,000, now a topic of interest along with the 50-week EMA.
The weekly close target, meanwhile, was set at $93,500 — the site of the 2025 yearly open.
Bitcoin speculators take profit at highs
Continuing, onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant revealed that newer Bitcoin investors had already been tempted to sell.
Related: Fed rate cuts under fire: 5 things to know in Bitcoin this week
As price hit two-month highs, short-term holders (STHs) — entities hodling for up to six months — sent 40,000 BTC to exchanges over a 24-hour period.
Of that total, around 37,800 BTC was sent in profit compared to when it last moved onchain.
“STHs remain clearly impacted by the recent correction, and it seems that more upside and stronger confirmation will be needed to rebuild confidence and generate enough unrealized profits to encourage them to hold rather than sell,” contributor Darkfost wrote in a “Quicktake” blog post.
Bitcoin STH profit and loss to exchanges. Source: CryptoQuant
Separate data from CryptoQuant contributor Axel Adler Jr. put the aggregate cost basis for the STH cohort at $99,600, reinforcing that area as a potential future resistance point.
Bitcoin cost basis data. Source: CryptoQuant
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision. While we strive to provide accurate and timely information, Cointelegraph does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information in this article. This article may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Cointelegraph will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your reliance on this information.
Crypto analytics company CoinGecko seeks to be acquired at $500 million.
M&A in 2026 expected to surpass last year’s eye-watering $37 billion.
Regulatory clarify key driver of institutional interest, industry insider says.
CoinGecko CEO Bobby Ong confirmed on Thursday that the firm is evaluating “strategic opportunities” amid reports it is seeking to be acquired at a valuation of around $500 million.
“We’re growing, profitable, and seeing increasing demand from institutions as traditional finance embraces crypto,” Ong wrote on LinkedIn. “The crypto industry is maturing fast.”
CoinGecko picked the US investment bank Moelis to advise on the sale, CoinDesk reported on Tuesday.
Moelis is a traditional Wall Street firm that has participated in over $5 trillion in transactions in a wide range of industries. The bank advised Netflix on its $83 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery and also was behind Skydance Media’s successful bid for Paramount Global.
That suggests CoinGecko is marketing the deal to traditional Wall Street institutional investors rather than venture capital players.
“Regulatory clarity is improving,” Ong said. “Institutional adoption continues to pick up momentum.”
“We’ve focused on delivering unbiased, high-quality crypto data that investors, builders, and institutions trust to make informed decisions,” Ong said.
$37 billion M&A boom
The positioning by CoinGecko comes as crypto mergers and acquisitions are soaring. Dealmaking this year is expected to surpass the record $37 billion set in 2025.
Karl-Martin Ahrend, co-founder of crypto M&A advisory Areta, told DL News in January that traditional financial institutions are seeking to acquire digital assets capabilities.
“What you have built with Coingecko is a generational outlier,” Ahrend wrote on LinkedIn on Thursday.
Deal volume in 2025 rose 74% year-on-year to 356 transactions, with 39 transactions topping $100 million and 17 exceeding $500 million, according to a report by Architect Partners.
High-profile deals over $1 billion included Coinbase’s acquisition of Deribit, Kraken’s acquisition of NinjaTrader, Stripe’s purchase of Bridge, and Ripple’s purchase of GTreasury.
And Ahrend expects even more transactions in which fintech firms acquire crypto capabilities rather than build them in-house.
“Even in a risk-off scenario, we would still expect M&A to remain active, because the largest exchanges and a handful of scaled infrastructure players have strong balance sheets and meaningful ‘M&A ammunition,’” Ahrend told DL News.
Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email at lance@dlnews.com.
Crypto markets are mostly flat today as ETF inflows stay elevated and analysts note Bitcoin is undergoing a transitional phase.
Crypto markets consolidated on Thursday morning, Jan. 15, following two strong sessions that lifted prices to multi-month highs after a relatively subdued holiday period.
As of press time, Bitcoin (BTC) was trading around $96,035, down about half a percent over the past 24 hours. Total crypto market capitalization stood at roughly $3.34 trillion, down 0.8% today.
BTC 24-hour price chart. Source: CoinGecko
Most of the top-10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization are trading flat or slightly down today, with the exception of TRON (TRX), up 1.5%, and Dogecoin (DOGE), down 3.7%.
Transitional Phase
In an analysis yesterday, Jan. 14, analysts at glassnode suggested that Bitcoin has entered a “transitional phase,” marked by stabilizing structural flows and improving spot-market behavior.
Glassnode also cautioned that the recent move into the $96,000 territory was driven more by mechanical positioning dynamics than organic demand. The analysts pointed out that futures liquidity “remains thin,” and spot participation has “yet to show the persistent accumulation typically seen during full trend expansion.”
Big Movers and Liquidations
Looking at the top-100 assets by market cap, Rain (RAIN) led gains, rising about 10%, per data from CoinGecko.
On the downside, Midnight (NIGHT) fell roughly 11%, while the PEPE memecoin slid nearly 8.4%.
Crypto derivatives activity cooled compared with the prior session as total liquidations over the past 24 hours reached about $350.8 million, according to Coinglass data. Short positions accounted for $142 million of the total, compared with $208 million in long liquidations.
Bitcoin liquidations totaled approximately $103 million, followed by Ethereum at $80 million in the past 24 hours.
ETFs and Macro Conditions
As for exchange-traded funds, spot Bitcoin ETFs continued to see strong demand on Wednesday, recording net inflows of $843.6 million, even higher than Tuesday’s, according to data from SoSoValue.
Spot Ethereum ETFs also saw an even stronger influx, posting $175 million in net inflows yesterday.
On the macro front, attention shifted to comments from Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee, who warned today that attacks on the central bank and Chair Jerome Powell could undermine inflation control efforts, CNBC reports.
“Anything that’s infringing or attacking the independence of the central bank is a mess,” Goolsbee said.
His remarks followed confirmation earlier this week that Powell had been subpoenaed by the Justice Department in connection with the Federal Reserve’s headquarters renovation project.
In crypto policy circles, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said on Wednesday that the largest U.S. centralized exchange doesn’t support the Senate Banking Committee’s draft crypto market structure bill “as written,” arguing it would be worse than having no legislation at all.
As The Defiant previously reported, Armstrong warned that the proposal could amount to a de facto ban on tokenized equities, impose sweeping restrictions on DeFi, potentially giving the government broad access to users’ financial records.
The Senate Agriculture Committee delayed its own bill until Jan. 21, while the Banking Committee is still expected to move ahead with a markup as soon as Friday, Jan. 16.
Global bank messaging network SWIFT has tested Societe Generale’s euro-pegged stablecoin as part of a collaboration aimed at improving interoperability between traditional financial systems and blockchain-based assets.
Societe Generale’s digital asset subsidiary, SG-Forge, on Thursday announced it successfully completed the exchange and settlement of tokenized bonds in both fiat and digital currencies.
The collaboration involved transactions in SG-Forge’s stablecoin EUR CoinVertible (EURCV), which the bank initially launched on Ethereum in 2023.
“This initiative showed that tokenized bonds can leverage existing payment infrastructures, enabling financial institutions and corporates to benefit from faster settlements and secure, compliant operational processes through the integration of ISO 20022 standards,” SG-Forge said.
“First MiCA-compliant stablecoin for SWIFT’s interoperability”
The joint project demonstrated the feasibility of key market operation use cases, including issuance, delivery-versus-payment settlement, coupon payments and redemption.
As part of the cooperation, SG-Forge provided its open-source standard, called Compliance Architecture for Security Tokens (CAST), including its security token and the EURCV stablecoin.
Notably, SG-Forge referred to its EURCV stablecoin as the first onchain settlement asset that is compliant with Europe’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework and is “natively compatible with Swift’s interoperability capabilities.”
SG-Forge’s post on LinkedIn on Thursday. Source: SG-Forge
“By proving that Swift can orchestrate multi-platform tokenized asset transactions, we’re paving the way for our customers to adopt digital assets with confidence, and at scale,” SWIFT’s tokenized assets product lead, Thomas Dugauquier, said in a joint announcement.
Related: Barclays makes first stablecoin investment with stake in Ubyx
“It’s about creating a bridge between existing finance and emerging technologies,” he added.
SWIFT works with 30 banks on a shared blockchain-based ledger
SWIFT had announced plans to “add blockchain-based ledger to its infrastructure stack” in September 2025.
SG-Forge was one of at least 30 financial institutions worldwide that SWIFT named as partners for its ledger project, which focuses on real-time, 24/7 cross-border payments and began with a conceptual prototype developed by Ethereum software firm Consensys.
SWIFT’s post on LinkedIn in December 2025. Source: SWIFT
SWIFT’s forthcoming system is expected to apply blockchain technology to provide a “secure, real-time log of transactions” shared between financial institutions that will record sequence, validate transactions and enforce rules through smart contracts.
Cointelegraph reached out to SG-Forge and SWIFT for comment on the specific blockchain networks used in the recently completed project, but had not received a response by the time of publication.
Magazine: How crypto laws changed in 2025 — and how they’ll change in 2026
Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently. Read our Editorial Policy https://cointelegraph.com/editorial-policy
The United Kingdom is considering new restrictions that could bar children under 16 from using mainstream social media platforms.
The discussion builds on the Online Safety Act, which already requires services with minimum age limits to explain how they enforce them and to use “highly effective” age assurance measures where children are at risk of harmful content.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he is monitoring how Australia’s under‑16 ban works in practice and is “open” to an Australian‑style approach, despite previously expressing personal reservations about a blanket ban for teenagers.
Conservative Party Member of Parliament David Davis said in a post on X that banning social media for children was “the right move,” and added that “mobile phones don’t belong in schools either.”
Conservative MP argues for banning social media for children. Source: David Davis
Related: Age verification has made a colossal misstep, and blockchain needs to get involved
X and Online Safety Act enforcement
The debate comes as UK ministers and regulators are already in conflict with Elon Musk’s X platform over compliance with the Online Safety Act (OSA) and takedown obligations for illegal or harmful content.
Ofcom, the UK’s online safety regulator, is preparing enforcement powers that include large fines and potential access restrictions for services that fail to meet their child safety and illegal content duties.
Critics have warned that aggressive enforcement could have implications for freedom of expression, and Musk’s platform has said the OSA is at risk of “seriously infringing” on free speech.
Aleksandr Litreev, CEO of Sentinel, whose decentralized virtual private network (dVPN) provides censorship-resistant internet access, told Cointelegraph that the UK’s moves on digital freedoms were “concerning,” and echoed the “same failed route as China, Russia and Iran.”
He said that denying youth access to social media and the internet “stifles their ability to learn digital literacy and develop critical thinking,” leaving them “less prepared for adulthood in a connected world.”
Related: Crypto YouTube views sink to lowest level since early 2021, ‘it’s not just X’
Australia and Ireland tighten online ID
Similar moves are underway in other countries. Australia’s eSafety commissioner registered an industry code requiring major search engines to implement age assurance technologies for logged‑in users, with the rules taking effect on Dec. 27, 2025.
Providers such as Google and Microsoft now have to verify users’ ages using methods ranging from government IDs and biometrics to credit card checks, and apply the highest default safety filters to accounts identified as likely under 18.
Ireland, meanwhile, plans to use its upcoming presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2026 to push for identity-verified social media accounts across the bloc.
In the UK, these developments coincided this week with a government decision to abandon plans for a single centralized digital ID system for right‑to‑work checks, which would have become mandatory in 2029.
Related: UK rolls back digital ID for work checks as privacy fears drive backlash
Implications for crypto KYC
Crypto exchanges and trading apps remain subject to existing Know Your Customer (KYC) and biometric verification rules, including checks that typically involve government ID uploads and live selfies or facial scans to verify users’ identities.
Policymakers’ focus on age and identity assurance in social media, search, and other consumer services suggests that similar verification technologies are increasingly being explored and deployed outside financial use cases.
Litreev commented, “If a government sells you something ‘for the sake of safety,’ it’s sure as hell not about safety in any way or form.”
Magazine: When privacy and AML laws conflict — Crypto projects’ impossible choice
Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently. Read our Editorial Policy https://cointelegraph.com/editorial-policy
ETF flows reveal real institutional demand beyond short-term price moves.
Bitcoin treasury stocks can turn BTC exposure into an equity risk shaped by index rules.
Low fees are reviving questions about how Bitcoin may pay for its long-term security.
Scaling now means choosing between Lightning, L2 designs and protocol upgrades.
Everyone’s watching Bitcoin’s (BTC) price, but in 2026, it’s often not the most informative signal.
That’s why it helps to understand what analysts look at when the chart isn’t explaining why the market is moving or where it may move next.
The focus shifts to factors that can quietly reshape Bitcoin’s demand, liquidity and long-term narrative: Who’s buying through exchange-traded funds (ETFs), how “Bitcoin treasury” stocks are treated by indexes, whether miners are earning enough to secure the network, what scaling actually looks like today and how regulation is shaping mainstream access.
Here are five Bitcoin narratives worth watching beyond price in 2026.
1. Reading institutional demand through ETFs
ETF flows may be one of the clearest institutional signals of demand because they reflect real allocation decisions by wealth platforms, registered investment advisors (RIAs) and discretionary desks, not just leverage bouncing around on crypto exchanges.
This idea comes straight from mainstream market reporting and flow data. Reuters framed Bitcoin’s mid-2025 breakout as being “fuelled by strong flows into Bitcoin ETFs” and said the rally looked “more stable and lasting” than earlier, speculation-heavy runs.
Reuters also quoted Aether Holdings’ Nicolas Lin on why this matters for the longer term: “It’s the start of crypto becoming a permanent fixture in diversified portfolios.”
The flip side is also worth noting. Bloomberg highlighted how quickly sentiment can turn when the ETF pipeline reverses, with investors “yanking nearly $1 billion” in a single session, one of the largest daily outflows on record for the group.
Did you know? In February 2021, the Canadian Purpose Investments Bitcoin ETF (BTCC) became the world’s first physically settled Bitcoin ETF, allowing investors to gain direct BTC exposure through a regulated stock exchange, nearly three years before US spot Bitcoin ETFs were approved.
2. BTC as equity products
A growing group of public companies is effectively saying this: Instead of buying Bitcoin directly, buy our stock, and we will hold the BTC on the balance sheet for you.
Naturally, Strategy has been the poster child since 2020. The 2026 narrative, however, is that these types of products are moving into the crosshairs of index providers.
Reuters describes these “digital asset treasury companies” (DATCOs) as companies that “began holding crypto tokens such as Bitcoin and ether as their main treasury assets,” giving investors “a proxy for direct exposure.” The problem is straightforward: If a company is mostly a pile of BTC in a corporate shell, is it an operating business or something closer to an investment vehicle?
That question became a real market risk in early January 2026, when MSCI backed off a plan that could have pushed some of these firms out of major indexes. MSCI said investors were concerned that some DATCOs “share characteristics with investment funds” and that separating true operating companies from “companies that hold non-operating assets… rather than for investment purposes requires further research.”
Barron’s noted that JPMorgan estimated potential selling pressure could have reached about $2.8 billion if MSCI had gone ahead and more if other index providers followed.
Reuters quoted Clear Street’s Owen Lau, who called MSCI’s delay the removal of a “material near-term technical risk” for these stocks that act as “proxies for Bitcoin/crypto exposure.”
Mike O’Rourke of JonesTrading was blunter. Exclusion may simply be “postponed until later in the year.”
If ETF flows are the clean spot-demand story, treasury stocks are the messier cousin. They can amplify Bitcoin through equity mechanics, index rules and balance-sheet optics, even when the BTC chart looks boring.
Did you know? Index providers are companies that decide what stocks qualify for inclusion in major stock market indexes and how those stocks are classified.
3. The security budget question is back
After the 2024 halving, it has become more apparent that Bitcoin’s long-term security story is increasingly linked to transaction fees.
Galaxy put it plainly, “Bitcoin fee pressure has collapsed.” It estimated that “as of August 2025, ~15% of daily blocks are ‘free blocks,’” with the mempool often being empty.
That’s great for users who want cheap transfers. For cryptocurrency miners, it reopens the big question: What pays for security as the subsidy keeps shrinking?
CoinShares made the same point from the mining side, saying transaction fees “have fallen to historic lows,” sitting at “less than 1% of total block rewards” during parts of 2025.
By early January 2026, JPMorgan-linked reporting flagged real stress. Monthly average hashrate fell 3% in December, while “daily block reward revenue” dropped 7% month-on-month and 32% year-on-year, reaching “the lowest on record.”
VanEck also described “a tough structural squeeze” for miners as subsidy cuts collide with rising competition.
With this in mind, analysts are increasingly watching the fee share of miner revenue, hash price and profitability, and whether onchain demand can return without relying on a hype cycle to push fees higher.
4. Lightning, Bitcoin L2s and upgrade politics
Analysts are now watching the full stack when it comes to scaling.
First, Lightning Network remains a primary payments-focused layer, and capacity is rising again. In mid-December 2025, Lightning capacity was reported at a new high of 5,637 BTC. More important than the headline number is who is adding liquidity. Amboss framed it this way: “It’s not just one company … it’s across the board.”
Second, the “Bitcoin L2 / BTCFi” push is receiving institutional research attention. Galaxy counts Bitcoin L2 projects rising “over sevenfold from 10 to 75” since 2021 and argues that meaningful BTC liquidity could move into layer-2 (L2) environments over time. It estimates that “over $47bn of BTC could be bridged into Bitcoin L2s by 2030.” Whether that happens remains the central debate.
Third, Bitcoin’s upgrade debate is back on the table as L2 builders push for better base-layer primitives. OP_CAT “was disabled in 2010” and is now “frequently proposed… using a soft fork.”
Galaxy’s view is that proposals such as OP_CAT and OP_CTV matter because they could support features like “trustless bridges” and “improvements to the Lightning Network.” Ecosystem commentary is now putting timelines on these ideas. Hiro says there is “a good chance” of a covenant-related soft fork “as early as 2026.”
In short, analysts are watching three things: Lightning capacity and liquidity trends, whether Bitcoin L2s attract real BTC rather than incentive-driven capital and whether the soft-fork conversation turns into an actual activation plan.
5. Regulation is deciding who gets access
In 2026, regulation will increasingly shape who gets access to Bitcoin, through which products and on what terms.
In the US, a change in tone is visible at the top. A federal executive order states, “It is the policy of the United States to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.”
It also says that government BTC in that reserve “shall not be sold.” This language frames Bitcoin as a strategic asset in policy terms.
Stablecoin rules are also key because they shape the infrastructure around crypto markets.
A legal breakdown of the GENIUS Act calls it “the first major crypto legislation” in the United States and noted that it creates licensing requirements for payment stablecoin issuers.
Meanwhile, large asset managers are already warning about second-order effects. Amundi’s chief investment officer said mass stablecoin uptake could turn them into “quasi-banks” and “potentially destabilise the global payment system.”
In the EU, Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) acts as a portcullis. Regulators said, “Only firms authorised … are allowed to provide crypto-asset services in the EU,” with a transition window in some countries running until July 1, 2026.
When it comes to regulation, it is important to watch authorization lists and deadlines in the EU, enforcement posture and whether “strategic reserve” language turns into durable policy in the US.
Did you know? One of the biggest crypto rules many are still waiting on in 2026 is a US market-structure law that would finally spell out who regulates what, ending years of overlap between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and setting clear rules for exchanges and brokers.
Where to look when the chart goes quiet
Bitcoin in 2026 appears less driven by hype cycles alone. Instead, attention is shifting to a few pipes and pressure points:
ETF flows show who is allocating and how sticky that demand might be.
Treasury-heavy public companies reveal how Bitcoin exposure is being repackaged for equity markets and how index rules can suddenly matter as much as onchain data.
The security budget debate reminds us that network health depends on incentives.
Scaling discussions have moved from abstract arguments to concrete trade-offs between Lightning, L2 designs and protocol upgrades.
Regulation now determines which doors are open and which stay shut for mainstream capital.
None of these forces moves in a straight line, and none shows up cleanly on a price chart. Taken together, they explain why Bitcoin can look quiet on the surface while something important is changing underneath. For analysts, that is where the data increasingly lives.
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