Short News

Starknet, a major Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution, has been down for more than two hours as of January 5, 2026, halting transactions and dApps. The Starknet team confirmed on X that they are investigating the sequencer issues and pushing fixes to restore service quickly. This echoes past outages like the 9-hour September 2, 2025, Grinta upgrade disruption involving Ethereum RPC failures and reorgs reverting hours of blocks. Developers are working to resolve the issue and will provide updates as progress continues.

Japan’s Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama has declared 2026 the nation’s “digital year” and pledged strong support for integrating cryptocurrencies into the mainstream financial system. Speaking at the Tokyo Stock Exchange, she backed allowing digital assets to trade on stock exchanges and pointed to U.S. crypto ETFs as a model worth emulating. Japan is advancing plans to reclassify about 105 major cryptocurrencies as financial products under securities law and cut capital gains tax from as high as 55 % to a flat 20 %, aligning crypto more with stocks and boosting investor access and market growth.

Bank of America updated its policy in December 2025, allowing over 15,000 advisors across Merrill, Private Bank, and Merrill Edge to recommend 1% to 4% crypto allocations via spot Bitcoin ETFs like BlackRock’s IBIT, Fidelity’s FBTC, Bitwise’s BITB, and Grayscale’s Mini Trust starting January 5, 2026. This proactive shift ends prior restrictions requiring client requests, following 2024 SEC ETF approvals and peers like Morgan Stanley (2% to 4%) and Vanguard. Managing $1.7 trillion in assets, the bank views crypto as high-risk innovation akin to private equity, suitable for volatility-tolerant clients.

A Polymarket trader known as “beachboy4” lost more than $2.07 million in just 35 days, even with a 51% win rate across 53 prediction trades. The losses stemmed from huge average bets of about $400,000, frequent high-priced entries, and no stop‑loss or hedging strategies, causing many losing positions to go to zero. His biggest single loss hit $1.58 million, outweighing his largest win of around $936,000. This case highlights how high risk and poor strategy can wipe out profits in prediction markets.

SlowMist’s Chief Security Officer recently flagged a new phishing scam that targets MetaMask wallet owners by copying official security alert pages to steal mnemonic seed phrases. The scam starts with a forged MetaMask alert and leads users through a fake two‑factor authentication flow that includes a countdown timer and looks urgent and legitimate. Victims are eventually asked to enter their wallet recovery phrase, which attackers then use to access and drain funds from the wallet. MetaMask never asks for seed phrases on websites, so always check the URL and avoid entering sensitive information.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has set out a fresh roadmap for 2026, putting a global all-in-one trading platform at the center of the company’s plans. This vision includes a single venue where users can trade crypto, equities, and commodities across spot, futures, and options markets. Coinbase also aims to grow stablecoin and payment usage and move more people on-chain through its developer tools, Base chain, and Base App, while boosting product quality and automation to support that growth.

Investors who bought MicroStrategy ($MSTR) at 2.5x mNAV in June 2021 are now structurally outperforming Bitcoin. The company’s Bitcoin holdings have surged to 672,497 BTC, giving each share significantly more digital asset exposure than at purchase. Today, 1x NAV per share is $170, well above the 2021 entry price, while the balance sheet is stronger than ever with multiple capital taps. MicroStrategy’s approach highlights the power of long-term corporate Bitcoin adoption in amplifying shareholder returns.