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Markets & Business

Bitcoin ETFs Are BlackRock's Top Revenue Source (5 minute read)

BlackRock's Bitcoin ETFs became the firm's top revenue source despite managing 1,400+ ETFs with $13.4 trillion in total assets. Allocations are nearing $100 billion. IBIT launched in January 2024 and reached $70 billion in assets in a record 341 days, currently sitting at $70.7 billion with net inflows exceeding $52 billion in its first year, while generating an estimated $245 million in annual fees by October. The ETF now holds over 3% of Bitcoin's total supply as BlackRock's own Strategic Income Opportunities Portfolio increased its IBIT stake by 14%. Recent outflows are attributed to expected retail behavior during price drops rather than fundamental weakness.

UK Confirms New Crypto Reporting Rules (8 minute read)

The UK's 2025 Budget confirms Cryptoasset Reporting Framework implementation from January 1, requiring UK-registered exchanges to collect customer cryptocurrency transactions and tax reference numbers, with HMRC forecasting £315 million ($417.3 million) in additional tax revenue by April 2030. Investors failing to provide details face £300 fines, while exchanges risk £300 per unreported customer, and information collected in 2026 will be reported to HMRC in 2027 to verify capital gains tax compliance. Experts warn compliance costs will be passed to customers as exchanges struggle to collect tax details from wary users, potentially driving some traders toward noncompliant platforms until international alignment creates a crypto equivalent to Common Reporting Standard and FATCA. Separately, HMRC published a summary indicating the government leans toward recognizing DeFi lending and staking as taxable only when gains are realized through fiat conversion, though no final decision or timeline has been set.

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Innovation & Launches

Visa Expanding Stablecoin Settlement Across EMEA (4 minute read)

Visa partnered with crypto infrastructure provider Aquanow to expand stablecoin settlement across Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, enabling 365-day settlement for issuers and acquirers using approved stablecoins like USDC. The integration eliminates weekend and holiday delays from traditional banking rails as Visa's stablecoin settlement volume reached a $2.5 billion annualized run rate, with plans to add four stablecoins across four blockchains.

Non-Custodial USDT Visa Card Launching in El Salvador (5 minute read)

Truther will launch a non-custodial USDT Visa card in El Salvador on January 29, enabling real-time spending from self-custody wallets on Polygon without preloading funds, charging 2% currency conversion fees with no IOF tax for Brazilian users as it extends its $40 million daily PIX-connected infrastructure. The card draws funds at the point of purchase rather than requiring top-ups or custodial accounts. Truther plans to migrate to the Liquid network for enhanced privacy while expanding the Swapix API to Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, and Russia, targeting 24/7 QR code-based payment systems. Its wallet currently supports BTC, USDT, and Brazilian real stablecoins. Early 2025 integrations have been planned for tether gold and Argentine peso tokens.

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Guides & Tutorials

Tether's Interest Rate Trade (6 minute read)

Tether is running an interest rate trade – buying gold and Bitcoin, anticipating Fed cuts that would crush their interest income. A 30% decline in these positions would wipe out equity and render USDT insolvent. However, its disclosed reserves operate under a "matching philosophy", showing only liability backing. A separate undisclosed equity balance sheet holds mining operations, equity investments, and corporate reserves funded by $10 billion annual profits from $120 billion treasuries at 4% yields. Tether's equity, valued at $50-100 billion, provides a buffer sellable to cover balance sheet gaps. The company operates at significantly higher collateralization than banks' 5-15% fractional reserves, despite lacking lender-of-last-resort protection.

The State of Ethereum: Digital Oil, L2s, TPS, ETFs, DATs (12 minute read)

Ethereum still dominates DeFi TVL and is rapidly integrating with TradFi via spot ETFs and ETH treasury companies, but ETH has underperformed BTC as investors debate how much value accrues to the base layer vs L2s. The upcoming Fusaka upgrade aims to massively increase throughput and data availability while making it cheaper to run nodes, reinforcing Ethereum's role as the modular settlement and Data availability (DA) layer for L2s and tokenized assets.

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Miscellaneous

Stablecoin Yields on Aave Slide Below T-Bills (3 minute read)

Stablecoin supply APYs on Aave v3 Ethereum have fallen from ~5% in late summer to just above 3%, with USDC/USDT/DAI topping the pool and newer stables like USDe, RLUSD, and USDS under 1.5%. Yields are slightly better on some L2s, but in general, onchain stable rates now sit below the 3-month US Treasury yield (~3.8%), signaling cooling DeFi borrowing demand.

Monad vs. "Just Another L1" – Keone Responds to Hayes (4 minute read)

Monad is meaningfully different from other L1s as it has sub-2s finality with ~170 global validators, a from-scratch C++/Rust codebase, and new consensus and execution designs. It aims to prove that high throughput and decentralization are compatible. Furthermore, MON's Coinbase sale was structured to favor broad distribution over whales.

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Quick Links

Polygon's Payments Ecosystem Reaches Escape Velocity (3 minute read)

Payment apps on Polygon processed $1B in volume in November (up ~3x from January), while local-currency stablecoins like XSGD, BRZ, and JPYC have now done $10B+ lifetime onchain.

X Hiring Money Technical Lead (1 minute read)

X is hiring a Technical Lead for its Money division.

Spot ETFs See First Positive Inflows Since October (2 minute read)

The Bitcoin and Ether ETFs broke four and three-week streaks of outflows on Thanksgiving week.

ETH Burn and Fusaka's Blob Economics (1 minute read)

$12B worth of ETH has been burned since EIP-1559 went live.

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