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In Peru's diverse landscapes—from Andean highlands to coastal surf towns and Amazonian outposts—Bitcoin is quietly taking root, not through top-down mandates or corporate adoption but through grassroots efforts that blend humanitarian aid with Bitcoin's sense of financial sovereignty. At the forefront is Motiv Peru, a non-profit co-founded by Rich Swisher and Valentin Popescu, which has spent years equipping underserved and unbanked communities to use Bitcoin for everyday needs, education, and local trade. What began as a simple shoe donation program in 2019 has evolved into a network of about 10 active zones with hubs in Lima, Cusco, and Huanchaco and satellite programs in Tarapoto and Iquitos, among others, serving over 750 families weekly. The Motiv team is 50 strong, plus volunteers, and is actively demonstrating Bitcoin's potential as a tool for long-term empowerment in the developing nations rather than short-term foreign aid relief. Most profound of all, Motiv has developed a non-profit strategy that is having deep and lasting social impact, while bootstrapping Bitcoin circular economies, fulfilling an early Bitcoin vision, ‘banking the unbanked'.What did Motiv figure out that other fiat NGO's have not, and what does Bitcoin have to do with it? Peru has an old and curious history with Bitcoin. In early 2011, merchants like Grass Hill Alpacas accepted Bitcoin for wool socks and other goods, exported them from the South American country to the U.S., as noted in Bitcoin Wiki entries and contemporary forum discussions on Bitcointalk. Chainalysis data from 2025 shows Latin America handling significant volumes, with Peru recording around $28 billion in crypto transaction value—part of a broader regional surge driven by remittances, inflation hedging, and smartphone access enabling wallets. Founded by Swisher, a retired U.S. military and police officer with experience in international business, and Valentin, a Romanian expat with experience in non-profit work and logistics, who had lived in Peru since 2007. While Valentin was approached by Jonathan, a seven-year-old orphan living in dire conditions—a mud hut with few possessions, malnourished, and isolated. He was the star,” Valentin told Bitcoin Magazine in an exclusive interview. When offered a granola bar, Jonathan started sharing it with the other kids despite his own hunger. Seeing the extreme need Jonathan was in, Swisher and Valentin called in some donors and managed to buy him a full outfit, a jacket, shoes, pants, and a hat, essential protection from the punishing cold of the Andes highlands. But there was a problem, seeing the gifts brought to Jonathan, the other kids were jealous, they too needed shoes and much more, in this isolated village of Peru. Two months later, they returned to the village with shoes for everyone, bought with donations from Swisher's network, establishing a yearly program to support similar villages upgrading their footwear. Valentin's experience in this remote village taught him an important lesson, which he shared in the interview: “I understood that the story isn't me, a foreigner, coming to feel good about doing this. But what we are trying to do is push so that Peruvians can serve and be leaders in the community. Valentin called Swisher, “Look, we have this situation; we had planned this amount for shoes, so I'm going to do one thing. Why don't you talk to the donors instead of buying shoes now? Swisher talked to the donors but returned with bad news. When donations are made for a specific program or purpose, you can't just pivot at the last minute; the donors refused. He would fund the shoes program this year and cover other essential supplies like food for the village, to help them survive COVID. I was looking for a big store or something. ” Recalled Valentin, “eventually, I found a kiosk that accepted Bitcoin, crypto, everything. And the guy told me, ‘I don't have many things.' We bought some little things from him, but it wasn't what we needed… We're talking hundreads of people, right?” At this point, Motiv was looking to provide supplies to 50 families, a triple-digit number of people. Olger had supplied Motiv in previous shoe donation campaigns, so a relationship already existed, but COVID had hit him hard. He lost his wife and job during the pandemic and was left with three kids to take care of alone. Olger, rather than turn to alcoholism as many did during those hard times, doubled down on his vocation and started teaching people to make shoes, while also accepting Bitcoin from Motiv and becoming a crucial partner of the Happy Steps program. From there, Motiv began organizing a list of merchants and educating them about Bitcoin. They quickly faced negative responses, financial scams of many kinds, crypto included, had savaged the country a few times by this point, so a very simple and different approach to Bitcoin evangelism was needed. Rather than promise financial independence or preach the cypherpunk utopia, Valentin simply sold Bitcoin as a payments tool and taught these merchants to use it as they wished. As merchants got introduced to Bitcoin as a payment method, they began getting interested in it as a technology, and basic Bitcoin and financial literacy education programs followed, hosted at Motiv centers in major locations across Peru. Various education programs were developed to answer the questions of merchants and users alike in an organized manner. Valentin tells us that today Motiv teaches Peruvians about Bitcoin from Monday to Saturday in 15 different locations, touching over 750 families. Motiv events in 2025 reached over 6000 people of all ages, including the Copa Bitcoin soccer tournament, a Christmas event, and various fairs and educational activities. The total number of individual bitcoin transactions made as a result of these efforts ranges between 25 and 30 thousand, with Blink as their entry level go to wallet. Established in 2012, Bitcoin Magazine is the oldest and most established source of trustworthy news, information and thought leadership on Bitcoin.

U.S. seized 127,271 BTC now down $6B as price falls; victims await outcome of ongoing Prince Group fraud and forfeiture litigation. NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, February 11, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Crypto recovery attorney Marc Fitapelli announced today that the United States government's federal Bitcoin holdings have declined by approximately $6 billion in potential market value. As of February 11, 2026, Bitcoin's market price has fallen to roughly $70,000 per coin, reducing the value of the seized assets by approximately $6 billion. On October 14, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice also unsealed an indictment charging Chen Zhi, chairman of Cambodia-based Prince Holding Group, with wire fraud and money laundering. According to the United States Attorney, Chen Zhi allegedly operated forced-labor scam compounds that carried out large-scale “pig butchering” cryptocurrency fraud schemes. Civil asset forfeiture is a legal doctrine rooted in old English admiralty law, where governments seized pirate ships and smuggling vessels by proceeding “in rem” or against the property itself rather than the owner. That concept carried into American law and expanded significantly in the 1980s during the war on drugs, when Congress strengthened federal forfeiture statutes to allow the government to seize assets suspected of being connected to crime, often before a criminal conviction. Now, the Federal government is using civil asset forfeiture to target criminal organizations that are involved in cryptocurrency scams. While forfeiture can serve important law enforcement purposes, it is not designed primarily as a victim restitution system. Seized assets may remain frozen for years during litigation, and victims' attorneys must often pursue separate remission processes to recover funds. On March 6, 2025, the White House issued an Executive Order establishing a U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, directing that Bitcoin “finally forfeited” in criminal or civil proceedings be deposited into the reserve and held as a long-term strategic asset rather than immediately liquidated. If the forfeiture is upheld, federal law provides mechanisms for restitution or remission to identifiable victims. In principle, the system contemplates eventual return to victims. In practice, however, the process is complex, slow, and heavily procedural. During that time, seized digital assets remain in government custody, exposed to extreme market volatility. If the forfeiture succeeds, victims must navigate a separate administrative remission process that is discretionary and does not guarantee full repayment. MDF Law's attorneys are actively evaluating recovery strategies for crypto fraud victims, including civil litigation, asset tracing, and claims against responsible third parties. Consultations are confidential and provided at no upfront cost. MDF Law represents victims nationwide in cryptocurrency fraud, data breach litigation, and investment disputes. MDF Law PLLCwww.MDF-LAW.com Phone number: 800-767-8040 New York City Office: 28 Liberty Street, 30th Floor, New York, NY 10005 California Office: 1902 Wright Place, Suite 200, Carlsbad, CA 92008 Marc Fitapelli MDF Law +1 212-203-9300email us here EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above. EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above. Sign Up for any (or all) of our 25+ Newsletters You are responsible for reading, understanding, and agreeing to the National Law Review's (NLR's) and the National Law Forum LLC's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy before using the National Law Review website. The National Law Review is a free-to-use, no-log-in database of legal and business articles. The content and links on www.NatLawReview.com are intended for general information purposes only. NLR does not answer legal questions nor will we refer you to an attorney or other professional if you request such information from us. Under certain state laws, the following statements may be required on this website and we have included them in order to be in full compliance with these rules. The choice of a lawyer or other professional is an important decision and should not be based solely upon advertisements. Attorney Advertising Notice: Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. If you would like to contact us via email please click here.

Gold, silver prices rise with upcoming payrolls data in focus The $2,000 zone has already flipped from support into resistance, confirming that the short-term structure in Ethereum (ETH-USD) remains negative until that band is reclaimed on a sustained closing basis. That shows deliberate de-risking at the top end in response to volatility and macro uncertainty. At the same time, mid-tier addresses holding 1–1,000 ETH have lifted their share above 23%, and sub-1 ETH wallets now hold a record 2.3% of supply, with much of that linked to staking and long-only strategies. Ethereum (ETH-USD) – Cost basis stress for whales, ETFs and accumulation wallets Spot price in Ethereum (ETH-USD) is now trading below the key cost zones of several dominant cohorts. Accumulation addresses – wallets that only receive ETH and never send out – show an average cost around $2,580, which is firmly above current market levels. Spot ETF exposure is under even heavier pressure, with estimated entry levels around $3,500, leaving many regulated vehicles down approximately 40–45%. With ETH trading near $1,950, long-duration capital is deep in the red, which is why defending the $1,800–$2,000 corridor is critical to avoid sliding into a multi-quarter capitulation phase where these holders are forced to lock in losses. More than 220,000 ETH have recently been withdrawn from exchanges, the largest net outflow since October, and a single large venue saw about 158,000 ETH leave in one day. Sustained net withdrawals mean fewer coins available on order books and usually signal that assets are being moved into self-custody, staking contracts or cold storage rather than being staged for immediate sale. Earlier in the cycle, when DeFi TVL started rolling over, exchange inflows picked up and outflows faded, confirming that capital was shifting into more liquid, potentially sell-ready positions. The current swing back towards strong outflows indicates the market has transitioned from forced de-leveraging into a phase where aggressive spot buyers are selectively absorbing supply at lower levels. That roughly $20 billion contraction shows that a meaningful slice of on-chain capital has rotated out of lending pools, DEX liquidity and yield strategies, either into stablecoins, other chains or off-chain instruments. Historically, falling TVL has been mirrored by rising exchange inflows or softening outflows, as users unwind long-term positions and seek liquidity. Until TVL rebuilds toward and above $70B, any strong rally in Ethereum (ETH-USD) will be fighting a headwind from lower protocol activity and subdued fee generation. Despite the TVL drag, accumulation metrics for Ethereum (ETH-USD) are exceptionally strong. These historical patterns do not guarantee a repeat, but they underline that aggressive spot absorption at depressed prices has often marked the early stages of major upswings in Ethereum (ETH-USD). Spot ETFs linked to Ethereum (ETH-USD) remain under clear mark-to-market stress, with units trading far below estimated average entry levels near $3,500. Nevertheless, recent sessions have shown steady net inflows, including days with more than $50 million in fresh capital. For institutions that cannot hold native ETH on-chain, ETF units provide convenient exposure, and continued buying into weakness transforms those funds into a slow but persistent source of demand under spot price. As long as ETF inflows remain positive while Ethereum (ETH-USD) trades below their cost basis, this channel acts as a structural absorber of supply from stressed holders, helping to anchor medium-term downside even if short-term volatility remains high. Late January saw trillions of dollars in gold market capitalization swing within a single session, forcing margin calls that spilled into equities, credit and crypto. In that context, even resilient digital assets sold off as portfolios were de-leveraged to meet collateral demands elsewhere. Some high-profile macro voices now describe the current phase as a crypto “mini-winter” rather than a full structural bear market, arguing that gold has probably peaked for 2026 while Bitcoin and Ethereum are on track to outperform over the next legs of the cycle. That framing positions Ethereum (ETH-USD) as an asset caught in a violent rotational clean-up between old hedges like gold and newer macro diversifiers, rather than a network facing an existential collapse of its core thesis. In this regime, every push lower risks triggering incremental selling from participants capitulating out of underwater positions, while any sharp recovery into previously traded zones meets heavy overhead supply. Each revisit of $2,000, $2,150 or $2,440 will confront layers of holders who bought there and have been waiting for price to get back to their entry levels. That dynamic creates thick resistance bands and explains why rallies in Ethereum (ETH-USD) can stall multiple times beneath the same levels before either breaking through impulsively or rolling over if structural demand is insufficient. The psychological weight of trapped capital is a real constraint until enough supply changes hands at discounted prices to reset the holder base. Momentum indicators show exhausted conditions: the RSI has slipped to roughly 28 on key timeframes, signalling an oversold state where sharp short-covering rallies are common. The first horizontal shelf sits near $1,960, where Ethereum (ETH-USD) has already attempted to stabilise several times. Below that, the $1,880–$1,898 region overlaps with the concentrated cost basis for around 1.36 million ETH, making it a decisive battleground where failure would push a large cohort further into loss. If that band gives way on daily closes, the market's focus will shift to approximately $1,845 as the final major defence before a deeper reset. Those lower levels only become central if the current effort to build a base between $1,800 and $1,900 is rejected by the market and forced selling accelerates again. Under that scenario, Ethereum (ETH-USD) would likely slice through $1,580 and $1,230 before ultimately forming a major low in the four-figure or even high triple-digit range. Nonetheless, these tail levels must be recognised as part of the risk map in a market that has already demonstrated how quickly liquidity can vanish once confidence is shaken. Recent money flow dynamics explain why the last rebound attempt in Ethereum (ETH-USD) collapsed. Between February 6 and 9, price bounced off local lows, but the Chaikin Money Flow remained below zero and failed to break its own descending trendline, signalling that institutional-scale capital was not backing the move. When price rises while CMF stays negative, rallies are often driven by short covering and retail flows rather than durable accumulation, and they frequently unwind violently as soon as buying pressure fades. The small recent uptick in whale holdings, from about 113.56 million ETH to 113.62 million, is an early hint that larger players are starting to re-engage near support zones, but the size of that change is still modest relative to the earlier distribution. The incentive for whales to defend current levels is clear from their cost structure. Allowing price to decisively breach that cost block and the nearby $1,845 support would drive a large portion of their inventory further into loss and could ignite a more disorderly liquidation cycle. As long as spot remains close to their most recent accumulation zones, it is rational for whales to drip-feed bids and slow the descent, especially with ETF flows and accumulation addresses absorbing a meaningful part of the available float. Second, DeFi TVL must recover convincingly toward and through the $60–70B range, showing that users are redeploying capital into on-chain strategies instead of sitting in cash or rotating to other ecosystems. Third, capital flow indicators such as CMF must turn positive during advances, confirming that institutional-style buying is supporting rallies instead of leaving them to speculative short squeezes. A sustained move above $2,440 would be the first signal that these conditions are coming together; a later break of $2,780–$2,800 would strongly suggest that the broader uptrend in Ethereum (ETH-USD) is re-asserting itself. Momentum is oversold, and cost-basis clusters offer nearby reference points for risk management. Taken together, this combination justifies a high-risk Buy-on-weakness stance rather than a clean Sell or passive neutral posture, with accumulation focused around and below the $1,900–$1,800 band and a clear technical invalidation if Ethereum (ETH-USD) loses the $1,750–$1,745 support area on a closing basis and begins to accelerate toward the $1,580 and $1,230 downside targets.

On February 3, 2026, the UK Information Commissioner's Office (“ICO”) publicly confirmed that it has launched formal investigations into X Internet Unlimited Company (“XIUC”) and X.AI LLC (“X.AI”). The Grok artificial intelligence system is the focus of the ICO's investigation, prompted by reports that it was used to create non-consensual sexual imagery involving individuals, including children. The ICO's inquiry will assess whether Grok's design and deployment adequately considered the risk of generating synthetic images that may result in harm, particularly to children. The ICO indicated that the potential for Grok to generate and distribute sexualized images without permission raises urgent questions about privacy and public safety. The ICO is now examining the extent to which XIUC and X.AI ensured the lawful, fair and transparent processing of personal data, and whether they incorporated adequate safeguards into Grok's design to prevent misuse leading to harmful manipulated content. As part of its investigation, the ICO will gather evidence from XIUC and X.AI, analyzing their legal justifications and technical design choices, assessing the safeguards in place around the Grok system and closely liaising with the Office of Communications (“Ofcom”), the UK's online safety regulator, and other relevant authorities. The ICO stated that no determination has been made yet regarding potential infringements, and any regulatory action will be based on the evidence and representations received from the companies. This latest development builds on the ICO's previous engagement with XIUC and X.AI. The ICO had already reached out to XIUC and X.AI for urgent information in January and is collaborating with Ofcom and other international authorities. Read the ICO's press release here.

Holders of spot ethereum ETFs are in more pain than bitcoin investors. The losses of ethereum ETF holders are larger than bitcoin fund investors based on available data. Over the last 12 years, Bill Barhydt has lived through “multiple 70% bitcoin drawdowns.” Despite having an early lead in year-to-date gains, meme coins have round-tripped and bled even more. Meme coins, cryptocurrencies based on internet jokes that are often critiqued for lacking utility, are reflexive: they can lead gains during bullish market conditions, but see sharper declines in bearish ones. The price action of meme coins comes amid a broader market decline that saw bitcoin drop to $63,000 last week as its peers revisited cycle lows. “The market has, in large, been bleeding, whether major, altcoin, or meme,” according to Nicolai Søndergaard, research analyst at on-chain data firm Nansen. He told Sherwood News, “If we also consider the fact that there are less active wallets now compared to a few months ago, it also makes sense that larger ‘household' memes would decline as money shifts around to the next shiny thing.” Dogecoin has climbed 8% and solana is up 5% in the same period, data from CoinGecko shows. XRP's “price tends to amplify market movements,” Kaiko research analyst Thomas Probst told Sherwood News. “Markets are experiencing a phase of liquidity contraction with increasing volatility. Therefore, rebounds can be frequent, even if they are rarely sustained over the long term.” Crypto analytics firm Santiment flagged that, during the dip, XRP Ledger saw a four-month high of “whale transactions” over $100,000 and a six-month high of unique addresses on the network in one eight-hour candle. “These are both major signals of a price reversal for any asset,” the firm said. Ripple, the company closely tied to XRP and its largest holder, said in a Thursday blog post that XRP is “at the heart of every institutional use case,” such as stablecoin payments, tokenized collateral, and lending markets.

Crypto Insight UK director Will Taylor argued in a new video that XRP is “trading different” this cycle and said he sees a credible path for it to challenge Ethereum's long-held No. Yusko, in Taylor's telling, speculated that a “CBDC version” could emerge where authorities effectively steer users away from assets like USDT and USDC, a framing Taylor said resonated with what parts of the XRP community have anticipated for years. Mark Yusko says he's watching for a potential policy curveball, including a future CBDC framework that could restrict private stablecoins like USDT and USDC, while noting $XRP activity may be happening more behind the scenes. “Now, what have I been saying about XRP this cycle? I've said that it looks different,” Taylor told viewers. Taylor was careful to frame the idea as a non-base-case scenario while emphasizing why he believes XRP is uniquely positioned if US policy and institutional incentives shift in its favor. He pointed to Ripple's US footprint, its endurance through regulatory “trials and tribulations,” and what he characterized as proximity to political power in Washington. In his view, those factors could matter if the next phase of crypto adoption is shaped as much by compliance architecture as by ideology. He also cited comments from Ray Dalio, referenced via an interview Taylor said aired “yesterday,” where Dalio discussed a future of reduced transactional privacy and the risk of being “shut off” if politically disfavored, a scenario Taylor linked to broader CBDC discourse. Taylor emphasized that his point was not whether such an outcome is desirable, but that traders should position for what they think is most likely to happen, not what they want to happen. He revisited a historical example where an 11% bitcoin pullback preceded what he described as a 490% XRP surge, and argued that, historically, drops in bitcoin dominance have tended to coincide with sharp XRP outperformance. Taylor's core claim is that the compression in dominance has persisted for roughly six months and is now at levels he compared to an earlier era, “before ETH and ICOs”, when dominance dynamics looked structurally different. He allowed for the opposite outcome, where dominance squeezes higher and bitcoin “sucks the liquidity in,” but said he increasingly favors a downside dominance break that would mechanically strengthen the case for altcoin beta, with XRP as a candidate beneficiary if narrative catalysts arrive alongside the move. Taylor also leaned on Binance volume comparisons across three-day candles, arguing XRP's recovery volume looked more aggressive than the preceding selloff, while he said sellers appeared more dominant in ETH and BTC over the same framing. He tied that relative read to XRP cross charts versus ETH and BTC, describing repeated attempts at range resistance and suggesting a “positive price action” trigger could accelerate XRP's relative breakout. He flagged near-term calendar items, including yesterday's Clarity Act meeting and the XRP Community Day today, while cautioning against assuming a reflexive pump. Still, Taylor's broader point was about positioning into a regime shift he believes could arrive quickly, pointing to visible liquidity concentrated above spot levels on his charts, extending from roughly $1.50 up toward $4.30, with comparatively less liquidity stacked below. “I think people are going to be shocked when we start to reverse and we reverse quickly,” Taylor said, arguing that a fast upside move could force traders out of short-term positioning. He then mapped his most bullish path: bitcoin returning to new highs – he floated 150K and “180-ishk plus” as targets – while bitcoin dominance “nukes,” setting up what he called “crazy price action” for XRP if it captures share of that dominance unwind. CUSIP Database provided by FactSet Research Systems Inc. All rights reserved. SEC fillings and other documents provided by Quartr.© 2026 TradingView, Inc.

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An earlier version of this story said it was being closed. Arkham Exchange, the cryptocurrency trading platform built by data analytics company Arkham Intelligence, is switching from a centralized to a fully decentralized model, the firm's boss said. "The Arkham Exchange is becoming a fully decentralized exchange rather than a centralized exchange," founder Miguel Morel said in an email after CoinDesk, citing a person familiar with the matter, reported the company planned to close it down. "The future of crypto trading is decentralized, and that's what we're building towards," Morel said. Asked how many staff would lose their jobs as a result of the move, Morel declined to comment. The company, which was founded in 2020 and now boasts over 3 million registered users, floated the idea of adding a crypto derivatives exchange back in October 2024. The plan was to compete with giants such as Binance for retail investors. We don't want to invest in that," he said. By early 2025, Arkham Exchange had added spot crypto trading in a number of U.S. states. Binance, the largest crypto exchange by volume, had almost $9 billion of daily trading, according to CoinGecko data. In addition to Altman, Arkham's backers include Draper Associates, Binance Labs and Bedrock. Ondo and Securitize execs say utility, not hype, will drive tokenization's next phase Executives from both firms say the next phase of tokenization must prioritize functionality and compliance during a panel at Consensus in Hong Kong.

A little over a year on from their initial letter to the Prime Minister, Chancellor and Business Secretary on how they are working to promote economic growth, the ICO have issued an update. The letter provides an update on how the ICO are performing against their commitments set out in HM Treasury's Regulatory Action Plan: techUK welcomes the ICO's ongoing work to promote the Government's growth agenda and eagerly awaits further information of their AI code of practice, review of PECR consent requirements, and efforts to improve their regulatory sandbox. We encourage the ICO to continue engaging with techUK and our members throughout their policymaking journey, as regular meaningful industry engagement is the best mechanism to ensure their regulatory proposals are truly supporting growth. As aforementioned, the ICO have also published their finalised guidance on international transfers, which outlines how Data Protection Offices (DPOs) can transfer personal information abroad. Should the following precepts apply, a transfer is considered “restricted”: For restricted transfers, these must be covered by either UK adequacy regulations, appropriate safeguards, or an exception: At present, all countries in the European Economic Area (EEA) have full adequacy, as well as Andorra, Argentina, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Israel, Jersey, New Zealand, Switzerland, Uruguay, and the Republic of Korea. The ICO have developed a template document, known as their TRA Tool, to guide this process for businesses. For sight of techUK's response to the ICO's consultation on the draft guidance or to raise any questions about this work, please contact Dani (Daniella.bennettremington@techuk.org). Innovate UK has opened a new Skills Development competition under the Robotics Adoption Programme, supporting projects that build capability to enable the effective use of robotics and automation technologies. Barnsley has been named the UK's first government-backed Tech Town, with plans to roll out AI across public services, skills, healthcare and local business as part of a place-based regeneration approach. The Westcott Space Hub has officially been opened in Buckinghamshire. This month's Talking 5 guest is Gurdip Sodhi, Local Government Lead at Salesforce. Scotland will host a new AI Growth Zone in Lanarkshire, as delivered by UK-based data centre firm DataVita, in partnership with AI cloud provider CoreWeave.

Privacy has become one of the most contested design questions in blockchain. Fully private blockchains promise confidentiality, yet often clash with regulatory requirements and real-world compliance needs. That tension has shaped a decade of experimentation, skepticism, and stalled adoption. In this CCN interview, Dr. Lorena Nessi speaks with Fahmi Syed, president of the Midnight Foundation, about how Midnight approaches privacy as a programmable choice rather than a binary feature. Syed frames Midnight's mission around a core contradiction in blockchain design. Distributed ledgers delivered decentralization, disintermediation, and automated transactions through smart contracts. At the same time, they made every action permanently visible. “One of the troubling aspects of the industry as a whole is that everything you do on a blockchain is transparent,” Syed said. “Everything you do on a blockchain is not only transparent, but also immutable.” That judgment applies to cookies, location data, identity, and financial activity. With Midnight, Syed argues the goal is not secrecy, but rational disclosure. “What we are bringing is the core principles of blockchain technology, but then putting on top of that the ability not only to fully shield data and metadata, so who you are, what you're doing and where you're doing it, but also with the use of our smart contract language, Compact, to also then enable selective disclosure of that information,” he said. Permissioned blockchains address compliance, but undermine decentralization by restricting who controls data access. Midnight attempts to merge those models without inheriting their constraints. “With Midnight, we're sort of blending or merging those two worlds,” Syed said. If private, applications can still require disclosures through zero-knowledge proofs without revealing underlying sensitive data. The same logic applies to jurisdiction, accreditation, and regulatory eligibility without exposing identity or transaction history. Control over privacy does not sit solely with application developers. Applications can either run private transactions themselves or delegate execution resources to users. When delegated, users retain control over encryption keys and disclosure choices. The application facilitates access but cannot view private data. Midnight's design also opens a path for regulated decentralized finance (DeFi), an area many institutional actors avoid today. “Within Midnight, you could end up building a DeFi where people can prove their identities,” Syed said. Only participants who meet predefined criteria would access specific liquidity pools. The Midnight Foundation does not operate as a protocol gatekeeper. That includes supporting developers, attracting partners, and positioning Midnight as a privacy layer that can integrate with other blockchains rather than compete with them. While financial use cases dominate blockchain discussions, Syed points to healthcare as one of Midnight's most immediate real-world applications. “We have a partner who is bringing proof of patient data to the Midnight Network,” he said. In Turkey, clinics serving millions of patients use the system to share clinical data securely without exposing personal information. In California, a children's hospital is exploring Midnight for inter-clinical trials across competing institutions. Supply chain applications offer another example, particularly in forensic evidence management. “If you think about forensic evidence around criminal cases, they tend to be very sensitive,” Syed said. “Very important to track that without exposing sensitive data publicly.” A trial in Uttar Pradesh, India focuses on maintaining chain-of-custody records while protecting victim and investigator identities. Syed argues that readiness begins with individuals before institutions. Public awareness of data exploitation has grown alongside concern over manipulation, surveillance, and platform dominance. Institutions face similar pressures, particularly around compliance costs, data breaches, and legal exposure. “If you're a large financial institution, the cost of compliance is very expensive,” Syed said. Midnight, by contrast, allows enterprises to share proofs without surrendering data ownership. “That's where a privacy-enabling solution like Midnight allows those enterprises to think differently about how they build their technology stacks,” he said. Midnight separates ownership from utility through a dual-token model. “It gives you access and ownership of the Midnight Network.” Ownership of NIGHT generates DUST, a secondary resource used to execute private transactions. That separation allows users and enterprises to lock in transaction costs without consuming speculative assets. It also enables transaction delegation, allowing institutions to use Midnight without holding crypto assets on their balance sheets. Midnight launched its ownership token as a Cardano-native asset to leverage existing infrastructure. “So therefore we instantly benefit from Cardano's access to liquidity,” Syed said. The Midnight Network itself rolls out in stages through 2026, allowing the team to prioritize stability, governance, and privacy protections independently of market pressures. He expects Midnight to become infrastructure rather than a headline. “The best outcome for me in the next two, three years is that Midnight is so widely used that we become invisible.”

This is a Mint Premium article gifted to you. The highest US tariffs in almost a century have had a muted impact so far on global growth, but Asian policymakers aren't lulled by the calm. They're taking their cues from jumpy markets and plotting what appears to be a mutiny against King Dollar. The cumulative effects will take time to show. With little fanfare, China's e-CNY, its official digital currency, has gone from being interest-free cash to a yield-bearing product of commercial banks. Until now, the problem with e-CNY adoption was that even Chinese state workers who received their salaries as tokens in e-wallets would immediately swipe them into their bank accounts. For them and their banks, e-CNY is no different from a regular deposit account. Payment apps like Alipay and WeChat Pay work with both. But an e-CNY that's more widely used in China lowers the threat of further dollarization in a scenario where local savers switch to dollar stablecoins. Paying interest on e-CNY is a defensive step because last year's US Genius Act prohibits stablecoin issuers from offering yields. But a moat against stablecoins won't be enough. But outside of Hong Kong, where banks are making yuan-denominated trade finance available to clients in Indonesia and Cambodia, there isn't a deep enough pool of offshore liquidity in the Chinese currency. When I wrote about it 2022, it was just a pilot project of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the monetary authorities of China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the UAE. Some of their financial institutions had come together on a shared blockchain where they swapped prototype digital currencies issued by their central banks to settle cross-border claims of their corporate clients. In 2024, Saudi Arabia joined the experimental payments platform. Yet, it hardly attracted any attention before Russian President Vladimir Putin identified the underlying technology as a tool to circumvent sanctions and potentially undermine the dollar. There are reports that mBridge could morph into something larger. India, which has developed its own central bank digital currency, is looking to propose linking the CBDCs of so-called Brics+ grouping of emerging markets, according to Reuters. The idea will be anathema to Washington. And since New Delhi has agreed to stop buying Russian oil to get out of the Trump administration's tariff prison, it's hard to say if its enthusiasm for a payments corridor that includes Russia and Iran will last. Even if a viable anti-dollar coalition takes time to emerge, Beijing will keep pressing. A few years ago, China's President Xi Jinping's emphasis on its need to build a “powerful currency" that's “widely used in international trade, investment and foreign exchange markets, and attain reserve currency status" would have been dismissed by investors as empty boast. Looking under the hood of what caused the unusual spike in US bond yields after US President Donald Trump launched his tariff war, New York University professors Viral Acharya and Toomas Laarits conclude that “investors lost confidence specifically in the long-term safety properties of Treasuries while still valuing their near-term benefits." They found evidence of a flight towards gold. But gold cannot be a payments currency. About two-fifths of this outsize share has been chalked up to its vehicle-currency status: Funds are first converted into dollars and then reconverted into whatever currency the payee's bank account will accept. Now that superior plumbing have been invented, it won't be allowed to gather rust. The author is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies and financial services in Asia. Download the Mint app and read premium stories You are just one step away from creating your watchlist! In case you can't find any email from our side, please check the spam folder. This is a subscriber only feature Subscribe Now to get daily updates on WhatsApp

After several consecutive days of trading sideways between $68,000 and $72,000, bitcoin's floor gave in hours ago and the asset dipped below $67,000 for the first time since Friday. Most altcoins have joined the ride south, with ETH dumping beneath $2,000, XRP trading below $1.40, and BNB struggling to remain above $600. On January 28, exactly two weeks ago, bitcoin stood tall at $90,000. However, it charted a notable price correction since then that lasted days and culminated, at least for now, last Friday. This became its lowest price point since before the US presidential elections in November 2024. The weekend was calmer, with bitcoin trading sideways between $68,000 and $72,000. Most alts have suffered even more over the past day. SOL, ADA, HYPE, DOGE, LINK, LTC, and many other larger-cap alts are also in the red, while XMR has defied the trend today with a 3% increase to over $340. Pi Network's native token has charted another all-time low, while MYX is down by over 12%. BGB is next in terms of daily losses with a 9% drop. In contrast, ZRO has entered the top 100 alts after skyrocketing by 20%. The total crypto market cap has shed over $50 billion daily and is down to $2.350 trillion on CG. He began writing about blockchain technology in 2017 and now serves as CryptoPotato's Assistant Editor-in-Chief. He has managed numerous crypto-related projects and is passionate about all things blockchain. It does not represent the opinions of CryptoPotato on whether to buy, sell, or hold any investments. You are advised to conduct your own research before making any investment decisions.

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — The investigation into Nancy Guthrie's kidnapping has continued with new images showing an armed person at her house. As of Tuesday evening, it's reportedly still unpaid. Brandon Amacher, the Director of the Emerging Tech Policy Lab at Utah Valley University, said most crypto transactions are publicly available, meaning you can see where they go. But at the same time, they can be done anonymously. There's probably a reason why the ransom was asked for in cryptocurrency. "Dark web and the criminal underground, they were way ahead of the curve when it came to cryptocurrency. Amacher said criminals like cryptocurrency because it allows them do deals online anonymously. "So, does that mean there's no way to track the ransom if it's paid?" "It depends on how savvy this person is,” Amacher said. Amacher said they could be caught by accidentally associating with a wallet that isn't anonymous or if investigators tie together multiple wallets being used to launder the funds. However, if the kidnapper takes the proper security measures, it's possible to get away with it. But what do those measures entail and how hard is it to get them right? However, he thinks the likelihood of them slipping up and getting caught is high just because of how many eyes are on this case. "In this case, it seems like what happened she was not paying for the camera company to store that video, so by default, they probably weren't storing it where they typically store things. Amacher said it could have been in short-term storage that gets cleared out every few days or weeks.

Activity has been observed in the Bitcoin account connected with a ransom note sent following the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Today co-host Savannah Guthrie, who has been missing for 10 days. A source confirms to PEOPLE that a small amount of money, in the "hundreds of dollars," has been transmitted to the Bitcoin wallet connected with the initial ransom note, which was sent to multiple media outlets, including local news outlet KGUN and TMZ. The subject was detained during a traffic stop south of Tucson, the Pima County Sheriff's Department said in a statement. As previously reported by PEOPLE, the first alleged ransom note was sent on the evening of Feb. 2, one day after Nancy was reported missing. It included a description of a damaged floodlight and the location of an Apple Watch left behind in her house, along with a demand for $4 million to be paid to the Bitcoin account by Feb. 5. News of activity in the Bitcoin account follows an extensive search earlier on Feb. 10, in which multiple law enforcement agencies combed the neighborhood where Savannah's sister, Annie Guthrie, lives. The search came hours after authorities released multiple images and video of an armed subject believed to be involved in Nancy's disappearance. In the images, a person can be seen with a mask over their face wearing gloves, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said in a post on X, noting that the subject appears to have tampered with the victim's doorbell camera. Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. "Working with our partners — as of this morning, law enforcement has uncovered these previously inaccessible new images showing an armed individual appearing to have tampered with the camera at Nancy Guthrie's front door the morning of her disappearance," Nanos' post continued. The mother of three is believed to have been taken against her will in the early morning hours of Sunday, Feb. 1, authorities said previously.

That means it is publicly visible but restricted to a limited number of partners and participants who can test its infrastructure and introduce experimental features. In coming months, the “mainnet” version of Robinhood Chain will go live and be used to process customer transactions. “We now have Alchemy, LayerZero, Chainlink, and other big crypto players. But moving forward, when the mainnet is live, customers will be able to interact directly with it,” Robinhood's SVP of crypto, Johann Kerbrat, told Fortune. Kerbrat added that Robinhood Chain will support transactions both in its self-custody crypto wallet, and also in the main Robinhood app. He noted that, on a customer level, the blockchain will be a seamless experience and many people will be unaware they are even using it. Robinhood Chain itself is built on a technology called Arbitrum, a so-called layer 2 blockchain that sits atop Ethereum, and is designed to process transactions in batches in order to make them cheaper and more efficient. Arbitrum is one of two dominant layer 2 technologies in the Ethereum world. The other is called Optimism, and is used by Robinhood rival Coinbase, which has adapted it for its own popular Base blockchain. The launch of Robinhood Chain comes as the company is in a push to embrace tokenization, which CEO Vlad Tenev last year described as a freight train coming to financial markets. The term describes turning various assets into digital tokens, including stocks, that can be traded on a blockchain in the same way as Ethereum. Robinhood posted weaker than expected revenue, however, leading shares to fall in after-hours trading. Jeff John Roberts is the Finance and Crypto editor at Fortune, overseeing coverage of the blockchain and how technology is changing finance. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.