Bhutan Continues Bitcoin Selling As Price Hits $72,000

Bhutan has transferred $22.4 million worth of Bitcoin from its wallets over the past week, continuing a pattern of periodic BTC sales observed over the past several years. 

According to blockchain analytics firm Arkham, one of the transfers, executed five days ago, was sent directly to addresses labeled as belonging to market maker QCP Capital.

Data from Arkham indicates that Bhutan is selling Bitcoin in increments of roughly $50 million, with a particularly heavy selling period recorded in mid-to-late September 2025. Bhutan has been mining Bitcoin since 2019, producing over $765 million in BTC profits while incurring estimated energy costs of around $120 million.

Bhutan…

Read more on BitcoinMagazine

Ripple Teams Up With The Hottest DeFi Protocol In Town, But XRP Dives To $1.50

Ripple (CRYPTO: XRP) is integrating Hyperliquid (CRYPTO: HYPE) into Ripple Prime, its institutional prime brokerage platform, marking the first time the company has directly supported a decentralized finance venue.

The First DeFi Integration

The integration allows Ripple Prime clients to access Hyperliquid’s on-chain derivatives markets while managing those positions alongside traditional markets like foreign exchange and fixed income, a press release announced on Wednesday.

Ripple Prime acts as the sole counterparty, sitting between clients and underlying trading venues.

Institutions can manage positions across multiple platforms under a single risk and margin framework instead of…

Read more on Benzinga

Rutherford Chang Retrospective: Hundreds And Thousands At UCCA Beijing

When people describe Rutherford Chang’s work, you hear words like: obsessive, conceptual, minimalist. These descriptions aren’t wrong, they point to something real in his practice. But they also miss what makes his approach distinctive. Chang worked with objects that industrial culture designed to be identical: records pressed in millions of copies, portraits drawn according to strict house style, coins minted for perfect interchange. His interest lay in the precise moment when the promise of sameness begins to fail, when time and human handling leave marks that transform supposedly identical objects into singular things.

The retrospective Rutherford Chang: Hundreds and…

Read more on BitcoinMagazine

US Gov Cannot ‘Bail Out’ Bitcoin

As Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent testified before the House Financial Services Committee Wednesday morning, Rep. Brad Sherman pressed Bessent over whether the U.S. government could ever step in to “bail out” bitcoin. 

Bessent was presenting over the Financial Stability Oversight Council’s annual report on emerging economic risks and much of the comments and questions from the Council reference the Trump administration growing scrutiny over its economic agenda. 

During a tense exchange, Sherman referenced the 2008 financial crisis and argued that bailouts have historically protected powerful institutions when markets collapse. 

He asked whether Treasury or federal…

Read more on BitcoinMagazine

UBS Building Digital-Asset Infrastructure, Eyes Bitcoin Services

UBS Group AG is exploring ways to offer bitcoin and crypto access to individual clients, CEO Sergio Ermotti said during the bank’s earnings call on Wednesday.

Ermotti said the Zurich-based lender is building the core infrastructure needed for digital-asset services while evaluating targeted products, ranging from crypto access for wealthy clients to tokenized deposit solutions for corporate customers.

“We are building out the core infrastructure and exploring targeted offerings from crypto access for individual clients to tokenized deposit solutions for corporates,” Ermotti said.

The UBS chief stressed the bank does not plan to be a first mover in blockchain-based…

Read more on BitcoinMagazine

Michael Burry: Bitcoin Has ‘No Organic Use Case’ To Stop Its Descent

“Big Short” investor Michael Burry warned that Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) has been exposed as purely speculative with “no organic use case reason to slow or stop its descent,” as BTC wiped out all post-election gains.

Burry’s Cascade Warning

Burry argued on Monday that Bitcoin failed to establish itself as a debasement hedge similar to precious metals, contradicting the argument that its fixed supply makes it comparable to gold.

“Sickening scenarios have now come within reach,” Burry wrote, warning that if Bitcoin falls another 10% from Monday’s levels, Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) will be billions in the red with capital markets essentially closed.

Unlike gold and silver, which surged…

Read more on Benzinga

Inspired By Zohran Mamdani? Polymarket, Kalshi Roll Out ‘Free Grocery’ Gambits For New Yorkers

Prediction market platforms are competing to distribute free groceries in New York City, in a move reminiscent of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s proposal for municipality-owned stores.

Free Groceries For New Yorkers?

Polygon (CRYPTO: POL)-based Polymarket said Tuesday it will launch “The Polymarket,” a “fully-stocked” physical store where New Yorkers can get free groceries.

Polymarket said they have signed the lease after months of planning. The store is set for a “grand opening” on Feb. 12.

The Manhattan-based startup has not disclosed the new store’s address. According to Business Insider, it will operate for a limited period, from next Thursday through Sunday.

Polymarket didn’t…

Read more on Benzinga

Virtune AB (Publ) (“Virtune”) has completed the monthly rebalancing for January 2026 of its Virtune Crypto Top 10 Index ETP – the first crypto index ETP in the Nordics

Stockholm, 4th of February 2026 – Virtune today announces the completion of the monthly rebalancing for the Virtune Crypto Top 10 Index ETP, listed on Nasdaq Stockholm for both the SEK-denominated (ISIN code SE0020052207, ticker name VIR10SEK) and the EUR-denominated (ISIN code SE0020052215, ticker name VIR10EUR) ETP.

In addition to the Virtune Crypto Top 10 Index ETP, Virtune’s product portfolio includes:Virtune Bitcoin ETPVirtune Stellar ETPVirtune Staked Ethereum ETPVirtune Staked Solana ETPVirtune Staked Polkadot ETPVirtune XRP ETPVirtune Avalanche ETPVirtune Litecoin ETPVirtune Chainlink ETPVirtune Arbitrum ETPVirtune Staked Polygon ETP Virtune Staked Cardano ETPVirtune Crypto…

Read more on Benzinga

Mohamed El-Erian Says Gold Has Outperformed Bitcoin Over 5 Years—Says It’s Happening Again In 2026

Economist Mohamed A. El-Erian noted on Tuesday that gold has delivered higher returns than Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) over the last five years.

Gold Outshines Bitcoin

 El-Erian, the Chief Economic Advisor at Allianz, took to X, comparing the performance of the two marquee assets.

“This outperformance is playing out this year…and also today, as gold bounces while Bitcoin continues to languish,” El-Erian said

Spot gold has had the better of Bitcoin lately, leading over the past year and over a 5-year timeframe.

In fact, Bitcoin has crashed below $73,000, hitting levels last seen in November 2024. Meanwhile, the yellow metal is on a record-breaking tear, surging to all-time highs…

Read more on Benzinga