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Bitcoin Dips to $60k as TRM Labs Joins Crypto Unicorn Club

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Crypto markets endured a brutal week as liquidity worries resurfaced in the wake of a high-profile Federal Reserve nomination. Investors watched US liquidity signals tighten while Bitcoin ETFs experienced notable outflows, contributing to choppy price action across the sector. The period also featured a string of high-profile financing moves and notable risk events that underscored the fragility of liquidity and risk appetite in crypto markets. Bitcoin and other large assets began to show resilience only after a brief slide, with traders assessing how policy shifts could shape funding conditions in the months ahead.

Key takeaways

  • Bitcoin ETFs saw three consecutive days of outflows totaling about $431 million, underscoring persistent liquidity concerns even as spot prices fluctuated and regained ground.
  • The crypto market’s largest price swing this week came as BTC traded near the $60,000 neighborhood before reclaiming the $64,000 level, highlighting a delicate balance between selling pressure and support at key levels.
  • TRM Labs closed a $70 million Series C, valuing the blockchain intelligence firm at $1 billion and signaling continued investor confidence in on-chain analytics as a bulwark against AI-augmented cybercrime.
  • Avalanche’s on-chain tokenization activity surged in Q4, with real-world asset tokenization rising to more than $1.3 billion in TVL and daily momentum aided by BlackRock’s BUIDL fund and other institutional partnerships.
  • Jupiter secured a $35 million strategic investment from ParaFi Capital, marking the first time Solana-based Jupiter accepted outside capital while expanding beyond swaps into perpetuals, lending and stablecoins.

Tickers mentioned: $BTC, $AVAX, $JUP, $SOL, $ZEC

Sentiment: Bearish

Price impact: Negative. The week’s liquidity concerns and continued selloffs pressured prices, with intraday volatility driven by ETF outflows and leveraged-liquidation activity.

Trading idea (Not Financial Advice): Hold. The near-term setup suggests sensitivity to macro signals and policy cues, but liquidity adaptations by major players could offer selective opportunities in risk-managed positions.

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Market context: The period reflected broader crypto-market liquidity dynamics, policy expectations around the Federal Reserve, and ongoing flows into and out of crypto-related products that influence price trajectories and risk appetite.

Why it matters

The week highlighted how macro policy choices and liquidity conditions remain core to crypto pricing. The nomination of Kevin Warsh to head the Federal Reserve has sparked debate about whether policy will tilt toward stabilizing liquidity flows or sustaining tight funding conditions. Traders closely watched whether the nomination would translate into a more cautious stance on rate reductions and balance-sheet expansion, potentially placing continued pressure on risk assets, including digital currencies and DeFi platforms.

Meanwhile, institutional interest in on-chain analytics and risk-management tools continued to rise. TRM Labs’ unicorn status after a $70 million Series C underscores the market’s belief that blockchain intelligence and anti-fraud capabilities will be central to enterprise risk management as digital asset ecosystems grow in scale and complexity. The round, led by Blockchain Capital with participation from Goldman Sachs and others, signals ongoing appetite among traditional financial players to integrate crypto-native risk controls into broader financial operations.

On the product and network side, tokenization within Avalanche continued to gain momentum, a trend amplified by the involvement of traditional finance players. The platform’s growth in tokenizing real-world assets, combined with the launch of BlackRock’s BUIDL fund and the S&P Dow Jones partnership with Dinari, demonstrates how tokenized money markets, loans and indexes are becoming more central to institutional experimentation. The quarter’s numbers—an increase of tokenized real-world asset value by hundreds of percent year over year—underscore a shift from speculation toward utility in tokenized finance at scale.

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In parallel, Jupiter’s infusion of outside capital marked a turning point for a Solana-based protocol that has long driven on-chain trading and liquidity aggregation. The ParaFi-led investment, coupled with the company’s expansion into on-chain perpetuals, lending and stablecoins, reinforces the trend of traditional funds seeking strategic exposure to fully on-chain ecosystems that promise deeper liquidity and more resilient product suites. The market also watched for the token’s performance, with Jupiter’s native token price rising in response to the news.

Still, the week wasn’t without turbulence. The Solana ecosystem saw a significant breach in treasury management on one DeFi platform, and other episodes highlighted the ongoing cybersecurity and operational risks that confront decentralized finance as activity scales. While some platforms have moved toward more centralized governance or governance-sharing arrangements, the overarching arc remains: innovation is accelerating, but risk controls must keep pace to sustain long-term confidence.

In aggregate, the DeFi universe ended the week with a mixed risk lens. While several projects advanced tokenization and institutional collaboration, broader market momentum remained tethered to policy signals and the health of traditional liquidity channels. The week’s data points—ranging from ETF withdrawals to multi-billion-dollar liquidation events—reflect a crypto market in transition: not only growing in sophistication but also increasingly sensitive to macro policy and systemic liquidity dynamics.

Avalanche tokenization hits Q4 high as BlackRock’s BUIDL expands onchain

Blockchain network Avalanche demonstrated notable institutional traction in tokenizing traditional assets during the fourth quarter. Total value locked (TVL) in tokenized real-world assets on Avalanche rose 68.6% quarter over quarter and nearly 950% year over year, surpassing $1.3 billion, according to Messari’s state-of-Avalanche Q4 2025 report. The surge was driven in part by the November launch of BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), alongside broader deployments in tokenized money markets and loans.

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The momentum was helped by strategic collaborations—Fortune 500 fintech FIS teamed with Avalanche-based Intain to bring tokenized loans to market, enabling securitization of billions of dollars in credit activity. The S&P Dow Jones Digital Markets 50 Index, launched in partnership with Dinari on Avalanche, tracks a cross-section of crypto-linked stocks and tokens and underscores the ongoing push to tie traditional benchmarks to on-chain exposure. The combination of these partnerships has supported a notable expansion of tokenized assets on the platform, contributing to a broader middleware layer that bridges real-world value with blockchain rails.

Change in Avalanche real-world asset tokenization over the last 12 months. Source: Messari

Traditional finance institutions are increasingly comfortable experimenting with tokenization, and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s more constructive stance toward crypto products has further lowered the regulatory headwinds facing such projects. This backdrop helps explain why on-chain asset issuance and tokenized funding mechanisms have gained traction on Avalanche, with real-world assets expanding beyond conventional crypto collateral and into more diversified financial instruments.

ParaFi Capital makes $35M investment in Solana-based Jupiter

Jupiter, a Solana-based on-chain trading and liquidity-aggregation protocol, announced a $35 million strategic investment led by ParaFi Capital. The deal marks the first time Jupiter has accepted external capital after years of bootstrapped growth. The investment included token purchases at market prices with no discount and an extended lockup period, settled entirely in Jupiter’s JupUSD stablecoin. The terms also included warrants allowing ParaFi to acquire additional tokens at higher prices, aligning long-term incentives with Jupiter’s growth trajectory.

The capital infusion comes as Jupiter broadens its product suite. After delivering a beta on-chain prediction market with Kalshi, the project rolled out JupUSD, a Solana-native stablecoin designed for on-chain settlement. Jupiter’s trading volume has surpassed $1 trillion in the past year, reflecting a rapid acceleration of liquidity and on-chain efficiency on Solana. The company has since expanded beyond swaps to perpetuals and lending, signaling a broader push to become an all-in-one on-chain liquidity hub.

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Source: CoinGecko

Jupiter’s native token (JUP) responded to the news, rising roughly 9% over the prior 24 hours, underscoring investor appetite for Solana-native ecosystems that couple high throughput with diversified on-chain products. This momentum reflects a broader trend of cross-platform collaboration, where on-chain trading, governance, and liquidity provisioning are increasingly integrated with real-world asset workflows and institutional-grade risk controls.

Aave winds down Avara, phases out Family wallet in DeFi refocus

Aave Labs announced a strategic refocusing by winding down its umbrella brand Avara, which encompassed projects including the Family wallet and Lens, as the group doubles down on core DeFi initiatives. Stani Kulechov, Aave’s founder and CEO, noted that Avara is no longer required as the company concentrates on delivering broad DeFi access to users, with onboarding millions of users requiring purpose-built experiences rather than generic wallet interfaces.

The move aligns with Aave’s broader strategy to reallocate resources toward its flagship lending protocol and other core DeFi products. As governance and ecosystem partnerships evolve, projects like Lens have seen stewardship shifts to other collaborations, enabling Aave to focus on what it terms “DeFi for everyone.” The decision underscores the ongoing recalibration within the market as crypto firms chase product-market fit at scale and navigate regulatory expectations alongside user growth.

Source: Stani Kulechov

Kulechov indicated that the total effort within the team remains focused on unifying engineering and design toward a singular mission: bringing DeFi to a broad audience. The development trajectory suggests continued emphasis on user-friendly, accessible financial primitives and streamlined onboarding processes rather than sprawling, multi-brand architectures.

What to watch next

  • Next batch of ETF outflow data and liquidity indicators to gauge whether funding conditions stabilize or deteriorate.
  • Federal Reserve policy signals and potential implications for risk assets as the Warsh nomination progresses through confirmation and policy debate.
  • Continued institutional participation in tokenization and on-chain finance, including Avalanche’s RWAs and partnerships with traditional finance players.
  • Jupiter’s ongoing product expansion and ParaFi’s involvement in governance and token strategies.

Sources & verification

  • Data on Bitcoin ETF outflows and price movements from Farside Investors and Cointelegraph coverage.
  • Record of the Jan. 31 liquidation event reported by CoinGlass and related market data.
  • TRM Labs’ Series C funding round and unicorn status as announced in its press release.
  • Messari’s State of Avalanche Q4 2025 report, detailing RWAs and TVL growth.
  • ParaFi Capital’s $35 million investment in Jupiter and the terms of the deal.

Risk & affiliate notice: Crypto assets are volatile and capital is at risk. This article may contain affiliate links. Read full disclosure

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Crypto World

Hyperliquid crypto price soars as Arthur Hayes predicts HYPE will hit $150

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Arthur Hayes predicts Hyperliquid will reach $150
Arthur Hayes predicts Hyperliquid will reach $150
  • Arthur Hayes predicts the Hyperliquid crypto price could reach $150.
  • Hayes’ prediction is supported by strong trading activity, which fuels more buybacks.
  • The immediate resistance levels to watch sit at $35.03, $39.87, and $43.82.

The price of Hyperliquid (HYPE) has climbed steadily as it responds to growing bullish sentiment around the fast-rising derivatives exchange.

At press time, the token was trading at around the $33 after a strong recovery from recent lows.

Why is the price of Hyperliquid crypto rising?

Much of today’s Hyperliquid crypto price surge can be attributed to the excitement around Arthur Hayes’ prediction that the HYPE token could surge to $150 this year.

This bold forecast has quickly become one of the most talked-about topics in the crypto derivatives market.

Hayes believes the rally could unfold over the next few months as the Hyperliquid exchange continues to expand its ecosystem and attract new trading activity.

He even described HYPE as his largest liquid altcoin bet, a statement that immediately caught the attention of traders looking for the next major breakout project.

Notably, Hayes’ prediction comes at a time when decentralised derivatives platforms are gaining ground in the broader crypto industry.

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More traders are exploring alternatives to centralised exchanges, especially platforms that offer deep liquidity and fast execution, and Hyperliquid has managed to capture that demand by focusing on high-performance infrastructure and a streamlined trading experience.

As a result, Hyperliquid has rapidly built a reputation as one of the most active decentralised derivatives venues in the market.

Strong trading activity supports the bullish HYPE outlook

One of the key factors supporting the bullish narrative is the platform’s growing trading activity.

Higher trading volumes translate directly into revenue for the protocol, and a large portion of this revenue is used to buy back HYPE tokens from the market.

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These buybacks tighten the supply of HYPE tokens available on exchanges and help strengthen price momentum during periods of rising demand.

Nevertheless, analysts believe that reaching Hayes’s ambitious $150 target would likely require a major expansion in exchange revenue.

That kind of growth would depend heavily on continued adoption of derivatives trading within the crypto sector.

The key technical levels to watch

Beyond the fundamental story, technical indicators are also providing clues about where the Hyperliquid (HYPE) price could move next.

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Recent price movements show that $32.28 has emerged as a short-term support zone since it has repeatedly held during recent pullbacks.

If that support gives way, the next support level appears near $28.98, which has acted as a historical price floor.

On the upside, traders should closely watch the $35.03 resistance level.

The cryptocurrency has tested this zone several times in recent sessions.

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A clear breakout above that level could open the door for a move toward $39.87, which analysts say represents the next major resistance area.

If momentum continues beyond that point, the third resistance level sits around $43.82.

Breaking through these resistance levels would likely confirm a stronger bullish trend in the months ahead, likely towards the Arthur Hayes-predicted price target.

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RWAs Will Run on Two Blockchain Rails, Says Redstone Co-Founder

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Banks, Ethereum, RWA, Tokenization, Features, Institutions, Canton

Institutional adoption of real-world assets (RWAs) is splitting between public and permissioned networks, exposing a divide between the liquidity advantages of blockchains like Ethereum and the privacy demands driving systems such as Canton Network.

The divergence is becoming more pronounced as tokenized assets gain traction among major asset managers.

Marcin Kaźmierczak, co-founder of blockchain oracle provider RedStone, said product development is likely to occur on public blockchains, while permissioned systems are better suited for institutional processes that require confidentiality.

“There are some operations between institutions that simply have to stay private, and this is the value proposition that Canton offers very effectively,” Kaźmierczak told Cointelegraph.

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Digital Asset’s Canton Network lets banks and asset managers tokenize and settle RWAs while keeping transaction details visible only to involved parties. The network says it processed $6 trillion in RWA value in 2025.

Rather than converging on a single architecture, banks and asset managers are building parallel systems designed to serve different functions within the tokenized financial stack, according to Kaźmierczak.

Banks, Ethereum, RWA, Tokenization, Features, Institutions, Canton
Canton claims it processed $6 trillion worth of RWAs in 2025. Source: Canton Network

Ethereum’s Merge was Wall Street’s tokenization moment

Tokenization has become one of the main narratives behind institutional blockchain adoption beyond spot crypto exposure and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

In June 2024, McKinsey estimated that tokenized assets could reach around $2 trillion by 2030. More optimistic projections have much higher forecasts, including a $30.1-trillion target by 2034 set by Standard Chartered and Synpulse.

Regulatory clarity in the US has contributed to the shift. The GENIUS Act, passed in 2025, created a federal framework for stablecoins, which serve as the settlement layer for many tokenized assets.

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Banks, Ethereum, RWA, Tokenization, Features, Institutions, Canton
Most RWA assets use Ethereum as a distribution layer. Source: RWA.xyz

Kaźmierczak said confidence in Ethereum began improving earlier, after the network transitioned to proof-of-stake in 2022.

“In 2022, when I was talking to institutions, the Merge was like a big question mark for those institutions,” Kaźmierczak said. “They saw it worked without any hiccups, so it gave them this confidence.”

Kaźmierczak claimed that RWA projects among institutions started in 2023 or 2024, but as institutions work with yearly budgets, developments and project launches don’t occur in weeks or months like they do in crypto. That led to a cluster of institutions announcing tokenization projects last December, he said.

“It’s not that they started in Q4 last year. No, they started a year before, and now we are seeing the fruits.”

Today, over $26.4 billion worth of RWA tokens use blockchains as distribution layers, and over $15 billion of those are on Ethereum. It also holds the deepest liquidity as the veteran in the smart contracts circle, with over $160 billion in stablecoins.

Related: Why institutions still prefer Ethereum despite faster blockchains

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Banks are splitting activity across public and private chains

Institutions separate market-facing activity from internal operations. On one hand, public blockchains provide liquidity, composability and access to decentralized finance (DeFi) strategies such as lending and tokenized vaults. On the other hand, permissioned networks are preferred for settlement processes, bilateral transactions and internal asset management workflows that cannot be exposed on open networks.

Systems such as Canton allow financial firms to automate those processes while keeping transaction details restricted to counterparties. That structure is closer to existing traditional financial (TradFi) infrastructure.

Banks, Ethereum, RWA, Tokenization, Features, Institutions, Canton
Canton’s cryptocurrency skyrocketed into the top 20 by market capitalization since launching in November. Source: CoinGecko

That division suggests institutional blockchain adoption may not converge on a single network model. Instead, financial firms appear to be building parallel infrastructure, with public chains handling liquidity and permissioned systems supporting operational processes behind the scenes, according to Kaźmierczak.

“There are some operations between institutions that just have to stay private, and this is the value proposition that Canton offers very effectively. That’s the reason we want to be on both of those legs,” he said.

Several major financial institutions were involved in the Canton Network from its inception. Digital Asset and a consortium of firms, including Microsoft, Goldman Sachs and Deloitte, announced the network’s launch in May 2023. In September 2024, Digital Asset and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation completed a pilot of the US Treasury Collateral Network on Canton.

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According to RWA.xyz, the Canton Network has over $313 billion in represented RWA tokens, referring to assets that use the blockchain as a recordkeeping layer.

Related: Privacy tools are rising behind institutional adoption, says ZKsync dev

ZK-proofs vs. permissioned privacy

One of the clearest distinctions between the two institutional tracks lies in how privacy is achieved. While many blockchain projects pursue confidentiality through cryptographic tools such as zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs, Canton relies on permissioned data sharing, where transactions are visible only to the parties involved.

Not everyone in the industry agrees that this is the strongest model. Matter Labs CEO Alex Gluchowski said in a social media exchange with Digital Asset’s Yuval Rooz that ZK systems strengthen blockchain security by requiring cryptographic proofs that every state transition follows the protocol’s rules. Even if operators or administrators are compromised, attackers cannot insert invalid transactions into the ledger without generating a valid proof of execution.

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Rooz, in a blog post, claimed that fully opaque implementations of ZK systems could make it harder to audit activity in financial markets. If transaction data becomes entirely hidden, errors or fraud could remain undetected, potentially recreating the kind of “black box” conditions that once enabled corporate scandals such as Enron.

Banks, Ethereum, RWA, Tokenization, Features, Institutions, Canton
Represented RWA cannot be moved to wallets outside the issuing platform. Source: RWA.xyz

The disagreement highlights a broader architectural question for institutional blockchain adoption, as Kaźmierczak pointed out.

Financial firms are experimenting with multiple approaches to balancing privacy, verifiability and control. Public networks continue to host market-facing liquidity and DeFi activity, while permissioned systems replicate institutional processes that require confidentiality, forming parallel rails for the tokenized financial system.

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