ChainCatcher news, according to Bloomberg, the Kenyan government is drafting a law that requires virtual asset service providers to establish local offices to strengthen regulation of the rapidly growing digital asset industry.The proposed policy does not apply to assets that cannot be transferred, traded, or used for payment and investment outside a closed ecosystem, and aims to address the gaps in the legal and regulatory framework in the virtual asset sector, as well as issues related to consumer protection, governance, data privacy, and cybersecurity.Kenya introduced a 3% tax on digital asset trading income in 2023, but has yet to establish a comprehensive regulatory framework for the industry. The government hopes to fill the regulatory gap with this move while addressing industry risks such as money laundering, terrorist financing, tax evasion, fraud, and cybercrime.

ChainCatcher news, Gabor Gurbacs, founder of the digital asset company Pointsville, stated on social media that Trump should fire his cryptocurrency advisory team from top to bottom and replace them with people who truly understand the field.He pointed out that meme coins have already cost the United States, the presidency, and the Trump family a significant amount of credibility, and these effects are far from over.

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, Circle has acquired the tokenized money market fund USYC issuer Hashnote, with a total market capitalization of USDY reaching 1.3 billion dollars.Circle also announced an agreement with Cumberland, a cryptocurrency trading company and market maker under DRW, to provide liquidity and facilitate settlement for USDC and USYC. This collaboration aims to expand the use of USYC as collateral for exchanges and custody platforms.

ChainCatcher news, according to GlobeNewswire, reinsurance solution Oxbridge today announced that its board has approved the decision to hold Bitcoin and Ethereum as treasury reserve assets. This decision reflects Oxbridge's commitment to innovation and its strategy of diversifying financial assets while exploring inflation-resistant assets with long-term growth potential, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and potentially other cryptocurrency-related opportunities.This initiative complements Oxbridge's blockchain-based tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) program. These plans are driven by its Web3-focused subsidiary SurancePlus Inc. ("SurancePlus"), aiming to reshape the accessibility of reinsurance investments through tokenization and decentralization.By leveraging blockchain technology, SurancePlus hopes to enable more people to participate in investments in reinsurance contracts, transforming this asset class, which was previously reserved for ultra-high-net-worth individuals and institutions, into a dynamic and inclusive investment opportunity.

ChainCatcher news, according to Kyodo News, the Bank of Japan is moving towards raising interest rates at this week's meeting.

ChainCatcher news, citing a report from Kyodo News, the Bank of Japan is moving towards raising interest rates at this week's meeting.

ChainCatcher news, according to The Block, the industry organization Obol Collective, established last year to promote distributed validation technology, plans to airdrop the new OBOL token to thousands of network participants. The snapshot was completed on January 13, and the first distribution will take place on Tuesday.The token will serve as a governance token, with 7.5% of the total OBOL supply being airdropped in three phases. The recipients of the airdrop include Ethereum stakers, Rocketpool node operators, and Obol Techne Credential holders.

ChainCatcher news, according to Lookonchain monitoring, today 10 U.S. Bitcoin ETFs had a net inflow of 4023 BTC ($422.23 million), of which Fidelity had an inflow of 3101 BTC ($325.45 million). Currently, Fidelity holds 212,214 BTC, approximately $22.27 billion;Nine Ethereum ETFs had a net inflow of 4000 ETH ($13.31 million), of which Fidelity had an inflow of 4000 ETH. Currently, Fidelity holds 429,001 ETH, approximately $1.43 billion.

ChainCatcher message, on-chain data analysis platform Glassnode data shows that the difficulty regression model estimates the cost of mining 1 Bitcoin to be $33,900, while the current Bitcoin trading price is around $104,000.Although mining difficulty has continued to rise in this cycle, the approximately 3-fold profit margin demonstrates the resilience of miners.

ChainCatcher news, according to Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, Rex has applied for the Doge ETF and Trump ETF.In addition, as shown in the image, Rex has also applied for the ETH ETF, BTC ETF, SOL ETF, XRP ETF, and BONK ETF.

ChainCatcher message, according to Trader T's monitoring, BlackRock IBIT's pre-market trading volume today reached 105 million USD, with 27% being active buy orders and 44% being active sell orders.

ChainCatcher message, in response to the community discussion about ETH holders participating in Ethereum Foundation (EF) governance, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin expressed support for establishing an anonymous voting tool similar to "anoncast" for ETH holders. Through zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP), users can verify the amount of ETH they hold and set their speaking frequency based on a ratio. For example, a user holding N ETH can express an opinion every (120 million / N) seconds.He suggested implementing this mechanism on decentralized social platforms like Farcaster or Lens Protocol to ensure the entire process is intermediary-free and fully trustless. Vitalik believes that this approach can avoid the noise interference of social media while genuinely reflecting the collective voice of ETH holders and showcasing the potential of Ethereum technology.

ChainCatcher news, according to official sources, Aethir and the Avalanche Foundation have announced a strategic partnership aimed at promoting AI innovation within the Avalanche ecosystem. Aethir has an annual recurring revenue of $91 million and possesses powerful computing resources with over 400,000 GPU containers.Through this collaboration, Aethir will leverage a $100 million ecosystem fund to provide computational resource support for AI innovation projects within the Avalanche ecosystem. Aethir will also join the infraBUIDL (AI) project committee to help select funded projects and promote the integration of AI with decentralized infrastructure.

ChainCatcher news, Canaan Technology released an unaudited Bitcoin mining update report for the period ending December 31, 2024, which disclosed a mining output of 62 BTC in December 2024, with a total of 1,293 Bitcoins held by the end of the month. In addition, Canaan Technology also disclosed a preliminary expectation for total revenue in fiscal year 2025 to be between $900 million and $1.1 billion, but actual results may differ from these expectations.

ChainCatcher news, Vitalik Buterin stated in a tweet that the "world computer of the future" is decentralized, and the "world computer" does not solely rely on the Ethereum Foundation (EF). He believes that the EF should focus on the core areas of Ethereum that it can effectively represent, while creating space for other organizations to develop other aspects of the ecosystem in more suitable forms, some of which may even be better suited to operate in a profit-oriented model.

ChainCatcher news, reported by Bitcoin.com, indicates that concerns are growing within the Ethereum ecosystem about its pace of development.Jesse Pollak, head of Base (the second-layer network of Bitcoin), criticized Ethereum's current roadmap, stating that it is too conservative and calling for the originally scheduled updates in 2027 to be moved up to early 2026.Ethereum Foundation developer Dankrad Feist shares a similar view, stating that the current growth plan "lacks ambition" and pointing out issues with the existing upgrade process. Feist also questions the notion that scalability can only be achieved on second-layer networks, emphasizing that large-scale scalability of the Ethereum base layer is feasible.

ChainCatcher message, VItalik posted on platform X stating: "No, this game does not work that way. I am the one who decides the new EF leadership team. One of the goals of the ongoing reforms is to provide EF with a 'proper board', but until then, the decision-making power is with me. If you 'continue to apply pressure', then you are creating an environment that is harmful to top talent.Some of Ethereum's best developers have recently been messaging me, expressing their disgust at the social media environment being created by people like you. You have made my job harder. And you have also reduced my interest in doing 'what you want to do'."