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BitGo Eyes Near $2 Billion Valuation In US IPO

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Crypto custody firm BitGo has launched its initial public offering, seeking to raise up to $201 million, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Palo Alto, California-based company is offering roughly 11.8 million shares of Class A common stock at an expected price range of $15 to $17 per share.

The offering includes 11 million shares sold by BitGo and about 821,600 shares offered by existing stockholders, with the company not receiving proceeds from those secondary sales. Underwriters will also have a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1.77 million shares.

Founded in 2013, BitGo is one of the largest crypto custody providers in the U.S., offering secure storage and infrastructure services for digital assets as institutional participation in crypto continues to expand.

The company plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BTGO. Goldman Sachs is serving as lead book-running manager, with Citigroup and several other banks participating in the offering.

Bitgo receives nod from OCC

In December, Bitgo was one of five digital asset firms to receive conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to become a federally chartered national trust bank, alongside Ripple, Circle, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Paxos. 

The decision marked a significant step in bringing major crypto companies further into the U.S. federal banking system.

The conditional approvals allow the firms to convert from state-level trust charters to national trust bank status, pending the fulfillment of OCC requirements. Once finalized, the companies will join roughly 60 existing national trust banks overseen by the OCC, enabling them to offer fiduciary and custody services nationwide. 

Unlike full-service national banks, trust banks cannot take deposits or issue loans, but they can safeguard and manage customer assets, including digital assets.

BitGo’s IPO adds to the growing wave of crypto companies testing the public markets, but it stands apart from the usual exchange-led listings. Instead of relying on trading activity, BitGo makes its money by providing custody, compliance, and infrastructure services tied to safeguarding digital assets.

That difference could resonate with regulators and investors who have grown more cautious about trading-driven crypto businesses.

As attention shifts toward firms focused on compliance, settlement, and asset protection, BitGo’s debut fits a broader narrative gaining momentum in U.S. markets.

South Korea Opens Crypto Investing To Firms, But Sets 5% Cap

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South Korea is reportedly planning to allow corporations to invest in crypto, a move that would see the overturn of a nine-year-old ban.

South Korea Sets Crypto Corporate Investing Limit At 5%

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) has drafted guidelines to allow listed companies and professional investors to trade crypto, according to a report from South Korean media outlet BusinessKorea. The FSC shared the draft with a public-private task force on January 6th, and according to a high-ranking financial industry official, authorities are expected to release the final guidelines between January and February.

Since 2017, corporate and institutional players in South Korea have been under an effective prohibition from trading and investing in digital assets like Bitcoin, with the government citing speculation and money-laundering risks. The country’s stance began to shift in February 2025, when the FSC announced a plan to gradually allow institutional participation in the space. The latest guidelines are a follow-up to this announcement.

South Korea easing up on corporate crypto investments hasn’t come without restrictions, however. Authorities have reportedly set an investment cap of 5% of equity capital, which companies can only deploy into coins inside the top 20 by market cap list. These assets will be determined based on the semi-annual market cap data sourced from the top five domestic digital asset exchanges.

Stablecoins tied to the US Dollar, like USDT and USDC, currently fall inside the top 20 list, but whether they will be included as permitted investment targets is still being discussed.

While South Korea is planning on a 5% investment cap, other countries like the US or Japan have no such limits on corporate investing. One financial industry insider has raised concerns about the restriction, saying that “investment limit restrictions not found overseas could weaken capital inflow factors and prevent the emergence of virtual currency investment specialist companies.”

South Korea has also made other developments related to the crypto industry recently. The East Asian nation is planning to introduce digital asset spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) this year, looking to investment vehicles active in the US and Hong Kong as reference points.

The FSC is also working on the next phase of its digital asset legislation, which could see the establishment of a regulatory framework for stablecoins. As reported by Bitcoinist, the bill has so far been delayed due to a dispute between the FSC and the Bank of Korea (BoK).

The BoK, South Korea’s central bank, has been pushing for banks to own at least a 51% stake in any stablecoin issuer seeking approval in the country. While the FSC agrees that financial institutions should be involved in the issuance of won stablecoins, the regulator has raised concerns that a bank majority requirement could limit market participation and innovation.

Bitcoin Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $90,600, down 2.5% over the past week.

Bitcoin Price Chart

Looks like the price of the crypto has been moving sideways in recent days | Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView

Featured image from Dall-E, chart from TradingView.com

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CoinDesk 20 Performance Update: Solana (SOL) Gains 3.1% as Index Trades Flat

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Ethereum (ETH) joined Solana (SOL) as a top performer, rising 0.9% over the weekend.

Bank of Italy Models Ether-to-Zero Scenario in Stress Test

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The Bank of Italy modeled what would happen to Ethereum’s security and settlement capacity if the price of Ether fell to zero, treating the network as critical financial infrastructure rather than just a speculative crypto asset.

In a new research paper titled “What if Ether Goes to Zero? How Market Risk Becomes Infrastructure Risk in Crypto,” Bank of Italy economist Claudia Biancotti examined how an extreme price shock in Ether (ETH) could affect Ethereum‑based financial services that rely on the network for transaction processing and settlement.

Biancotti focused on the link between validators’ economic incentives and the stability of the underlying blockchain used by stablecoins and other tokenized assets.

The paper models how validators, who are rewarded in ETH, might respond if the token’s price collapsed and their rewards lost value.

In that scenario, a portion of validators would rationally exit, Biancotti argues, which would reduce the total stake securing the network, slow block production and weaken Ethereum’s ability to withstand certain attacks and guarantee the timely, final settlement of transactions.

When ETH price risk becomes infrastructure risk

Rather than treating Ether purely as a volatile investment, the study frames it as a core input into the settlement infrastructure used by a growing share of onchain financial activity. 

Related: Stablecoin risks seen as minimal in Europe amid low adoption and MiCA: ECB

Biancotti argues that Ethereum is increasingly used as a settlement layer for financial instruments, so that shocks to the value of the native token could diminish the reliability of the underlying infrastructure.

What if Ether Goes to Zero? Source: Bank of Italy

This framing allows the Bank of Italy to trace how market risk in the base token could morph into operational and infrastructure risk for instruments built on top, from fiat‑backed stablecoins to tokenized securities that depend on Ethereum for transaction ordering and finality. 

The paper emphasizes that, in such stress, disruptions would not be limited to speculative trading, but could spill over into payment and settlement use cases that regulators increasingly monitor. 

Related: IMF lays out guidelines for addressing stablecoin risks, beyond regulations

ECB warnings on stablecoin spillovers

Other authorities, including the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank (ECB), have warned that big stablecoins could become systemically important and pose financial stability risks if they continue to rapidly expand and remain concentrated in a handful of issuers. 

An ECB Financial Stability Review report published in November 2025 noted that stablecoins’ structural vulnerabilities and their links to traditional finance mean a severe shock could trigger runs, asset fire sales (rapid selling of reserve assets at depressed prices to meet redemptions) and deposit outflows, especially if adoption broadened beyond crypto trading.

The Bank of Italy concluded that regulators face a difficult trade‑off over whether and how supervised intermediaries should be allowed to rely on public blockchains for financial services. 

It sketches two options: either treating today’s public chains as unsuitable for use in regulated financial infrastructure because they depend on volatile native tokens, or permitting their use while imposing risk mitigation measures such as business‑continuity plans, contingency chains and minimum standards for economic security and validators.