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According to Greekwire, Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown has filed a civil lawsuit against the prediction market platform Kalshi, accusing it of violating state betting and consumer protection laws by offering betting services on events such as sports, elections, and wars. The lawsuit has been submitted to the King County Superior Court, seeking to prohibit Kalshi from operating locally, recover lost funds for residents, and impose civil fines. Kalshi's advertisements have suggested that users could bypass local laws to participate in NFL betting, indicating that they "knowingly violated the law."However, Kalshi responded by stating that it is a compliant trading platform regulated by federal authorities, denying the provision of war-related markets, and expressing confidence in winning the case legally. This is reportedly another regulatory action the company is facing recently, as it is currently involved in over 20 civil lawsuits. Previously, prosecutors in Arizona had filed criminal charges against it, which is considered the first criminal case against a prediction market.

GSR content director Frank Chaparro stated on the X platform that Tether has disclosed a total investment of over $1.6 billion in recent months, including: Rumble: $785 million, Elemental Royalty: $250 million, Juventus Football Club: $150 million, Gold dot com: $150 million, Anchorage Digital: $100 million, Gold Royalty: over $90 million, Generative Bionics: $82 million, Speed1: $8 million, Parfin: undisclosed, Adecoagro: undisclosed, Eight Sleep: undisclosed amount; LayerZero: not specifically disclosed.

According to BBX data, yesterday global publicly listed companies showed a strong momentum in transitioning from "self-funded purchases" to "large-scale capital market instruments" in the crypto treasury space:Convertible Bond Heavyweight: Marathon Digital (NASDAQ: $MARA) announced yesterday its plan to issue $500 million in convertible senior notes through a private placement, with the net proceeds primarily intended for purchasing more Bitcoin. This marks a trend among top mining companies to emulate the MSTR model, directly expanding reserves using capital market premiums.Treasury Holdings Increase: Rumble (NASDAQ: $RUM) board approved an additional $20 million allocation for Bitcoin yesterday. As a video platform giant, Rumble is viewing BTC as the core financial settlement asset of its decentralized content ecosystem.Digital Pioneer in Hong Kong: Victory Securities (HKG: 8540) disclosed yesterday that the proportion of digital assets in its proprietary investment portfolio has increased to 35%. The company clearly stated that it will leverage its licensed advantage from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission to continuously expand its financial exposure in the Web3 space.High Retention Strategy: TeraWulf (NASDAQ: $WULF) released its latest operational report, showing that its Bitcoin output retention rate (HODL Rate) reached 95% yesterday. Through the low-cost advantage driven by nuclear energy, the company has achieved nearly full compliance with the "output equals deposit" financial discipline.Small and Mid-Cap Defense: LQR House (NASDAQ: $LQR) confirmed that it has executed the $1 million Bitcoin purchase plan approved yesterday. Although smaller in scale, this further validates that small and mid-cap companies in the U.S. stock market generally regard BTC as a "standard firewall" against cash inflation.

The Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, Sarah D. Morrison, ruled that there is no historical evidence indicating that Congress intended for federal law to take precedence over state regulation of sports gambling, and thus denied the preliminary injunction request filed by the prediction market platform Kalshi.Kalshi had previously sued the Ohio Casino Control Commission in an attempt to prevent it from taking enforcement action against the platform's event contracts under state gambling laws. Last year, the regulatory agency accused Kalshi of operating illegal sports gambling in Ohio.Kalshi argued that the event contracts it offers are derivatives regulated under the Commodity Exchange Act and should fall under the jurisdiction of the CFTC, thereby asserting that federal regulation should take precedence over state gambling laws.However, the judge stated that there is no evidence from historical and legislative context to suggest that Congress intended for the law to supersede state sports gambling regulations, noting that when the Dodd-Frank Act amended relevant laws in 2010, sports gambling was still widely restricted in the U.S.Kalshi announced that it would appeal the ruling. The case is seen as an important test of the legal status of prediction markets, and its outcome could affect the future compliance prospects of other prediction platforms in the U.S., including Polymarket.

According to market news, Nasdaq-listed company Rumble disclosed in its latest annual financial report that it currently holds 210.82 bitcoins, as well as cash and cash equivalents worth $237.9 million, bringing total liquidity to approximately $256.4 million.In addition, Rumble also revealed that the previous $100 million advertising investment from stablecoin issuer Tether will be paid over two years, with $50 million each year, and the first payment will be made in the first quarter of this year. Furthermore, Tether will provide Rumble with a commitment to procure up to $150 million in GPU services over two years and strengthen strategic cooperation to expand AI infrastructure and high-performance computing capabilities.

The Nasdaq-listed company Rumble disclosed in its latest annual financial report that it currently holds 210.82 bitcoins, as well as cash and cash equivalents worth $237.9 million, bringing total liquidity to approximately $256.4 million. In addition, Rumble revealed that the $100 million advertising investment from the stablecoin issuer Tether will be paid over two years, with $50 million each year, with the first payment scheduled for this quarter. Furthermore, Tether will provide Rumble with a commitment to procure GPU services of up to $150 million over two years and strengthen strategic cooperation to expand AI infrastructure and high-performance computing capabilities.

According to Decrypt, a 24-year-old man from Connecticut, Elmin Redzepagic, faces up to 375 years in prison for allegedly embezzling nearly $1 million in cryptocurrency investor funds to gamble on the Stake platform.Prosecutors accuse him of posing as a cryptocurrency investment expert working for a market master named "The Chef," promising clients high returns while actually using the funds for gambling. Last month, a federal grand jury indicted him on 21 counts, including 7 counts of wire fraud, 11 counts of international money laundering, and 3 counts of making false statements to IRS criminal investigators.On Thursday, Redzepagic pleaded not guilty to all charges and was released on a $500,000 bail.

QCP Director Elbert Iswara stated in a Money FM 89.3 radio program that the recent significant fluctuations in Bitcoin resemble a liquidity reset rather than a structural collapse. Although the price briefly fell to $60,033, the subsequent rebound indicates that long-term investors and institutional demand still exist.He pointed out that the current Bitcoin trend is mainly influenced by the macroeconomic environment, while factors such as ETF fund outflows, derivative positions, and leverage liquidations have exacerbated the volatility. Iswara suggested that investors pay attention to the key price range of $60,000 to $65,000, ETF fund flows, leverage liquidation situations, and changes in the correlation between Bitcoin and stocks, and believes that Bitcoin should be regarded as a high beta asset for risk management in the short term.

The cryptocurrency asset management company Grayscale pointed out in its latest report that Bitcoin's recent drop to around $60,000 resembles a pullback of high-growth tech stocks rather than the safe-haven pattern familiar to gold investors. This indicates that Bitcoin still resembles an emerging technology asset rather than a mature store of value at this stage.Although Bitcoin has characteristics such as a fixed supply and a decentralized network, it has only a 17-year history, which is far less than gold's thousands of years as a currency. Grayscale believes that the advancement of stablecoin and tokenized asset regulation, innovations in blockchain infrastructure, and the development of platforms like Ethereum, Solana, and Chainlink are expected to drive the next phase of adoption for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency assets. Meanwhile, if Bitcoin can address issues such as scalability, transaction fees, and quantum resistance, its volatility may decrease, its correlation with the stock market may weaken, and its future performance could be closer to "digital gold."

Shenzhen IT man Li Dong (pseudonym) has been targeted by the police from Hunan and Henan provinces. A large amount of Bitcoin was found in his virtual currency wallet. The public security organs of Zhangjiajie City in Hunan and Changge City in Henan have both filed investigations against Li Dong, with the charge of "operating a casino." The Zhangjiajie police seized over 100 Bitcoins from Li Dong's account, converting them into more than 40 million yuan; the Henan police seized 80 Bitcoins from him, with a market value exceeding 40 million yuan.Later, Li Dong was not charged with "operating a casino." He was prosecuted by the Changge City People's Procuratorate in Henan for suspected theft and infringement of citizens' personal information. In January 2026, the case was publicly heard in the Changge City Court. After the court adjourned, it stated that a new hearing would be scheduled. Li Dong, born in the 1980s, is a network information security engineer, having studied information security in college. He has worked in network security technology for several well-known internet companies and later settled in Shenzhen, where he started and operated an internet company in recent years.According to his family, Li Dong began trading stocks and cryptocurrencies around 2016 and acquired some Bitcoins. However, the police later investigated and believed that the source of his Bitcoins was from another "channel." In September 2024, the Hunan Zhangjiajie Public Security Bureau summoned Li Dong on suspicion of "operating a casino." It turned out that in May of that year, the Zhangjiajie police launched an investigation into an online gambling case based on "anonymous reports," and Li Dong was listed as a suspect. The Zhangjiajie police seized 103 Bitcoins from Li Dong's digital wallet, converting them into over 49.61 million yuan. Soon after, Li Dong was released on bail. On the seizure decision and the bail release document, the charge against Li Dong changed from "operating a casino" to "illegally obtaining data from computer information systems."

According to monitoring by lookonchain, three days ago, the "gambler" address 0xD835 boldly shorted ETH using 3 million USDC, and its ETH short position currently has an unrealized profit of over 1.83 million dollars.Meanwhile, he further increased his bet by opening a new BTC short position with 40x leverage, with a position size of 323 BTC (approximately 30 million dollars).

According to market news, the South Korean National Assembly has voted to pass amendments to the Capital Markets Act and the Electronic Securities Act, marking the formal establishment of a framework for the issuance and circulation of security tokens (STOs) in the country, about three years after the financial regulatory authorities released relevant guidelines. The core content of the amendments includes the introduction of the concept of distributed ledger technology, allowing eligible issuers to directly issue and manage tokenized securities through electronic registration, while also establishing a "Issuance Account Management Institution."In addition, non-typical securities such as investment contract securities will also be included under the regulation of the Capital Markets Act, and their circulation in the over-the-counter market will be permitted through the newly established over-the-counter brokerage business. The amendments to the Capital Markets Act will take effect from the date of publication. However, provisions related to investment solicitation guidelines will take effect six months after publication, while provisions related to over-the-counter trading will take effect one year after publication.

Caixin reported in "After Many Twists and Turns, Southeast Asian Gambling Kingpin She Lunkai is Extradited Back to China | Past Events · Future Events" that the only partner of She Lunkai's blockchain project "Asia-Pacific New City" is the Singapore blockchain company BCB Innovation Ltd. The Fincy payment software based on BCB's blockchain is also promoted within Asia-Pacific New City, aiming to create a Southeast Asian version of WeChat. Fincy and BCB share the same parent company and similar shareholders, providing fiat and cryptocurrency exchange transactions, as well as online gaming.Industry insiders point out that by offering exchanges between fiat and cryptocurrency and online games, it effectively introduces many unrelated participants, breaking down large sums of money into smaller amounts, which ultimately converge into a gambling platform disguised as a game, significantly weakening the regulation of the flow of funds.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked Connecticut from enforcing gambling laws against the prediction market platform Kalshi and ordered state regulators to refrain from taking any enforcement action while the court weighs the company's request for a preliminary injunction.U.S. District Judge Victor Bolden instructed state officials in a Monday order not to take enforcement action against any conduct described in the cease-and-desist letter until the court rules on Kalshi's motion for a preliminary injunction. The previous cease-and-desist letter was sent by the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection to Kalshi and Crypto.com last week, demanding that they stop what the state regulators called unlicensed online sports betting operations.Kalshi argues that, as a CFTC-designated contract market, it enjoys exclusive federal jurisdiction, while Connecticut claims that these contracts violate state gambling laws. The oral arguments for the preliminary injunction are scheduled for February 12, 2026.

According to Decrypt, a 39-year-old man from North Yorkshire, Jason Lowe, embezzled over £500,000 (approximately $659,500) of company funds during his employment, converting it into cryptocurrency for online gambling, and was ultimately sentenced to 33 months in prison.He transferred funds by forging payments to companies like Meteorbrand, and although his bank account showed unusual transactions, he falsely claimed the funds came from a personal business he sold in 2021. The company launched an internal investigation, leading to a crisis of trust among employees, and later, the police's economic crime unit tracked the flow of cryptocurrency, confirming his criminal activities.