**Crypto custody startup BitGo** is making headlines with its plans to raise **$201 million** in an upcoming U.S. IPO. The company, known for its secure storage solutions for digital assets, is eyeing an estimated IPO price range of **$15.00 to $17.00 per share**.

### **The Significance of BitGo's IPO**

This move represents a significant milestone for the cryptocurrency industry, as BitGo aims to become one of the few **publicly traded crypto custody firms**. The IPO could signal growing institutional confidence in the crypto space and pave the way for more traditional financial market integration.

### **What This Means for Crypto Adoption**

BitGo's public offering comes at a time when **institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies** is accelerating. As a trusted custodian serving major exchanges, hedge funds, and corporations, BitGo's IPO could:

- **Enhance regulatory compliance** and transparency in crypto custody
- **Provide more secure infrastructure** for institutional investors entering the market
- **Potentially increase mainstream acceptance** of cryptocurrency as an asset class

### **Market Context and Timing**

The decision to go public follows BitGo's expansion of services beyond basic custody to include **staking, lending, and trading solutions**. This diversification has positioned the company as a comprehensive crypto financial services provider rather than just a storage solution.

### **Competitive Landscape**

BitGo faces competition from both traditional financial institutions developing crypto custody services and other specialized crypto custodians. However, its **first-mover advantage** and established reputation in the space could give it an edge in the public markets.

### **Investor Considerations**

For potential investors, key factors to watch include:

- **Regulatory developments** affecting crypto custody
- **BitGo's revenue growth** and profitability metrics
- **Market share expansion** in the rapidly growing custody sector
- **Partnership announcements** with major financial institutions

![BitGo IPO Announcement](https://bitcointoday.app/images/bitgo-ipo-announcement.jpg)

### **The Broader Implications**

BitGo's IPO could serve as a **bellwether for other crypto infrastructure companies** considering public offerings. Success in the public markets might encourage more crypto-native companies to pursue traditional financing routes, potentially bridging the gap between crypto and conventional finance.

As the crypto industry continues to mature, events like BitGo's IPO represent important steps toward **greater institutionalization and mainstream acceptance** of digital assets.

Crypto custody startup BitGo is eyeing up a $201 million raise in its upcoming U.S. IPO. The estimated IPO price will be between $15.00 and $17.00 per share, the co...

BitGo's $201M IPO: The Crypto Custodian's Bold Move to Go Public

## Unprecedented Legal Move Against Fed Chair

The Department of Justice has opened a **criminal investigation** into U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, an unprecedented legal move that has ignited concerns over the central bank's independence. Powell confirmed the investigation in a Sunday statement, noting it centers on allegations he misled Congress about a headquarters renovation project, which he dismissed as a "pretext."

## Powell Frames Inquiry as Attack on Fed Autonomy

Instead, Powell framed the inquiry as a direct attack on the Fed's autonomy. "This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions—or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation," Powell stated.

The probe is being overseen by U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, a Trump appointee, a detail that quickly drew political backlash from within the President's own party.

## Political Backlash and Leadership Concerns

Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, condemned the action as a clear attempt to undermine Fed independence and vowed to block all Fed nominations, including the upcoming Chair vacancy, until the matter is resolved.

"This escalation in Trump's war against the Fed smells like Powell not stepping down from the board after his role as Chair ends... they want to make his life hell to try to force it," according to a tweet from Quinn Thompson, CIO of Lekker Capital, suggesting the fight could create a **leadership vacuum** at the central bank.

## Market Reactions: Bitcoin's Muted Response

In early market reactions, haven assets gold and silver jumped nearly 2% and 5%, respectively. Bitcoin noted a relatively muted response, rising 1.7% to $92,000, according to CoinGecko data.

Jimmy Xue, co-founder and COO of quantitative yield protocol Axis, told Decrypt: "The legal proceedings have added a new layer of uncertainty to the macro front. The challenge to central bank autonomy reinforces **Bitcoin's narrative as a 'neutral' asset** that operates independently of legal or political disputes."

Xue noted that this "perceived neutrality is attracting institutional capital that views Bitcoin as a hedge against the risk that monetary policy could be influenced by executive-level litigation."

## What This Means for Crypto: A Dangerous Precedent

If the Justice Department's case succeeds, it would set an "extremely dangerous precedent," Tim Sun, senior researcher at HashKey Group, told Decrypt. "The President could use executive authority and the judicial system to punish a central bank chair for failing to comply with his preferred monetary stance."

A scenario that directly challenges the foundation of the dollar system by questioning the Fed's independence would destabilize and erode confidence in the entire dollar and U.S. Treasury system, Sun explained. As such, it would embed political intervention into pricing models permanently, benefiting **decentralized, non-sovereign assets** that cannot be manipulated.

In the short term, Sun expects heightened volatility rather than a direct rally. "It would unanchor rate expectations, distorting the yield curve, and initially drive higher volatility across all risk assets—including Bitcoin," he said.

The pivotal shift would come later. "After the market completes this round of repricing, Bitcoin could gradually evolve, at the narrative level, into an **institutional hedge**," Sun said, as investors price in a permanent risk premium for political interference.

"If the Federal Reserve became subordinate to the president, leading to a sharp depreciation of the dollar or a loss of control over rate expectations, then Bitcoin may indeed be approaching its historic moment," he concluded.

Sun tempered immediate expectations, however, noting that Bitcoin remains tethered to the dollar for now.

Experts note Bitcoin’s hedge narrative could strengthen if ​​Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s criminal investigation is successful.

Fed Chair Powell Under DOJ Investigation: Could This Be Bitcoin's Historic Moment as a Hedge Against Political Interference?

## The 5 AM Wake-Up Call That Proved Hyperliquid's Dominance

Jeff Yan was jolted awake at 5:00 a.m. by an alarm designed to blare when something abnormal occurs on **Hyperliquid**, the decentralized crypto exchange he cofounded. On that October morning, things were indeed very abnormal.

That day, crypto traders saw **more than $19 billion in leveraged positions evaporate** after President Donald Trump threatened China with another round of tariffs. "I'm just looking at it and praying that it's good," Yan said, referring to his exchange's systems. Within one hour, using his "every brain cell" to analyze the data, he was confident the platform had worked as intended—surviving a stress test where thousands of traders lost money and others who were shorting the market cashed in.

In coming weeks, the crypto industry would refer to the wipe-out of Oct. 10 as a **flash crash**, one that was the largest liquidation event ever tracked by CoinGlass. It was also one of the clearest signs yet that Hyperliquid had grown to become a **crypto juggernaut**.

## Hyperliquid's Stunning Market Performance

According to CoinGlass, the platform liquidated **more than $10 billion worth of positions** that day, far outstripping the $4.6 billion and $2.4 billion liquidations on Bybit and Binance respectively. (The $10 billion figure refers to the total amount of leveraged positions liquidated; actual trader losses were lower).

Big exchanges like Binance and Coinbase have thousands of employees. By contrast, **Hyperliquid Labs had just 11**. Yet in just over two years, Hyperliquid is competing with the industry's biggest names, posting about **$140 billion in derivatives volume** in the past month according to DefiLlama. This has translated into more than **$616 million in annualized revenue**, while the cryptocurrency linked to its blockchain (HYPE) has grown to a **market capitalization of almost $5.9 billion**.

But Yan wants Hyperliquid to become even bigger. "It's something that no one else is really trying to build exactly at this point in time," he said, "which is something that can really upgrade the financial system."

## The Anti-SBF: Jeff Yan's Unlikely Rise

The crypto world has long been defined by flamboyant figures. Yan doesn't fit that mold. Sporting black-rimmed glasses and crisp shorts, he said he's uneasy in the limelight. "This sort of celebrity is foreign to me," he said, referring to being mobbed at a recent crypto conference in South Korea.

Despite his professed modesty, Yan has been integral to the protocol's rise. Born in the Bay Area, he's your prototypical whiz kid. In high school, he **won gold and silver medals at the International Physics Olympiad**, then attended Harvard University where he studied mathematics and computer science.

Around the time Yan graduated from Harvard, **Sam Bankman-Fried was making a name for himself** with FTX. Even as Bankman-Fried captivated the crypto industry, Yan and his team stayed away, preferring to trade on platforms like Coinbase. "Alameda and FTX, their relationship was not clear to me," he said. "And it felt like it wasn't worth the risk."

## Building After FTX's Collapse

FTX was a black box. Only after bankruptcy did customers see how much capital Bankman-Fried had gambled away. Yan wanted to create a **more transparent trading platform** for crypto perpetuals. He and his team had thought about building their own decentralized exchange prior to FTX's collapse, but the "FTX thing solidified my conviction that it was the right time to build this thing," he said.

Unlike Bankman-Fried, Yan cut an image that was more polished, professional, and sincere, according to a longtime crypto executive who's met both founders. "Jeff has cut his hair. SBF did not," they said. "SBF's shorts were too long and didn't fit. Jeff's look crisp and together."

And, as opposed to Bankman-Fried and countless other crypto founders, Yan and his team decided to **eschew raising money from venture capitalists**. They were already making a sizable amount from their crypto trading operation, and Yan decided to front the cost himself. "If we're going to build something that's really going to be a credibly neutral platform on which everyone else can build, then a really important principle is to sort of not have insiders," he said.

## The Speed Advantage

In 2023, Yan and his team launched Hyperliquid and the blockchain on which the decentralized exchange is built. For months, volume grew steadily, but interest exploded in early 2025.

Hyperliquid is **optimized for speed**. For many traders, seconds mean the difference between profit or loss. "I'm the one user who keeps bugging the team to add more features, and they keep rejecting every feature that I ask for because they want to keep it extremely fast and extremely nimble," said Thanos Alpha, a pseudonymous Hyperliquid power user.

This speed, combined with engineering solutions that allowed Hyperliquid to accommodate larger trades than competitors, set it up for success.

## Mainstream Adoption and Regulatory Challenges

Now, the ecosystem is attracting interest beyond anonymous crypto traders. **Large venture capital firms like Paradigm and Andreessen Horowitz** have taken positions in Hyperliquid's HYPE cryptocurrency. Even Wall Street and large companies are taking notice. **PayPal posted about Hyperliquid on social media** as a crop of companies vied to launch a Hyperliquid-branded stablecoin on the blockchain.

Yan views Hyperliquid as the **Amazon Web Services of financial infrastructure**. Developers are independently deploying different assets to trade on the blockchain, including listings tied to the prices of stocks of major corporations like NVIDIA and Google.

Still, there's no guarantee that Hyperliquid will continue to expand, especially as competitors look to challenge its newfound dominance. That includes Vladimir Novakovski, who has since launched Lighter, his own competing crypto derivatives platform backed by Founders Fund, Ribbit Capital, and David Sacks' Craft Ventures. And then there's Aster, a Hyperliquid copycat closely aligned with Binance.

Moreover, Hyperliquid—like many crypto projects in DeFi—operates in **ambiguous legal territory**. Its users are all anonymous, and no one has to submit documentation to verify their identity. In fact, users linked to North Korea, which has an infamous crypto hacking operation, have traded on Hyperliquid, alleges Taylor Monahan, lead security researcher at MetaMask.

A spokesperson for Hyperliquid Labs said that the website screens traders for risky behavior and enforces sanctions compliance, adding that "any confirmed high risk activity on the application is immediately flagged and the addresses blocked."

And, if Hyperliquid continues to grow, the ecosystem may attract more regulatory scrutiny. "It's a big question about how long they will be allowed to operate in this non-KYC way," said a crypto market maker, referring to know-your-customer laws.

"We are proactively engaging with regulators and policy stakeholders to support greater clarity for decentralized finance," a Hyperliquid spokesperson said in response.

As Hyperliquid wrestles with the evolving competitive landscape, regulatory environment, and making good on Yan's ambitions to reinvent finance, the DeFi founder will likely continue to build out his team. That's why he announced in late October he was hiring to expand the staff at Hyperliquid Labs by almost 30%—from 11 to 14 employees.

Following the collapse of FTX, Hyperliquid founder Jeff Yan has cut a figure as the anti-SBF.

How a Harvard Genius Built Hyperliquid: The $5.9B Crypto Juggernaut That's Beating Binance

Florida lawmakers are advancing a groundbreaking bill to create a **Bitcoin-only cryptocurrency reserve**, signaling strong institutional support for the original crypto. Meanwhile, **DeepSnitch AI** has surged 120% and raised $1.1M in presale, positioning itself as a potential market mover.

## Florida Restricts Crypto Reserve to Only Bitcoin in New Proposal

Florida legislators are pushing **Senate Bill 1038**, sponsored by Senator Joe Gruters, which would establish a strategic cryptocurrency reserve administered by the state's chief financial officer. The bill specifies that only assets with at least **$500 billion average market cap** can be included—making **Bitcoin the sole eligible cryptocurrency**. Introduced on December 30, 2025, the bill will undergo hearings and votes before reaching the Senate floor.

## Next Crypto to Explode: Three Top Coins to Watch Out For

### 1. DeepSnitch AI: Is This the Next Crypto to Explode?

**DeepSnitch AI** is building an **intelligence layer** that democratizes access to institutional-grade AI tools for retail investors. The platform features five AI agents and a live dashboard for monitoring whale movements and market insights.

Key features include:
- **AuditSnitch agent** with a three-tier verdict system (CLEAN, CAUTION, SKETCHY) to assess token safety
- Analysis of over eight risk vectors per token
- Other agents like SnitchScan, SnitchFeed, and SnitchGPT for querying signals, exploring tokens, and tracking market anomalies

The native **DSNT coin** is priced at $0.03334, and the project has already raised **$1.1M in presale**.

![DeepSnitch AI](https://blockchainreporter.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/deepsnitch6.webp)

<iframe title="Best New Crypto AI Coin To Buy for 2026?? DeepSnitch AI is My Pick 🚀" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HVnjHC08u_Y?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

### 2. Sui Meets a Barrier Close to $2.00

The **Sui coin** was trading at $1.80 on January 9 after failing to reclaim the $2.00 level. Despite this resistance, Sui has shown strong performance with **20.5% weekly gains** and **10.7% monthly gains**. The RSI reading of 63 indicates bulls remain in control, with analyst Lucky forecasting a potential rise to **$6.00**.

### 3. Monero Stays Bullish Despite the Correction

**Monero (XMR)**, the privacy-focused cryptocurrency, was priced at $460.30 on January 9. It has gained **10.0% weekly** and **15.7% monthly**, bouncing off an ascending trendline. If XMR maintains this momentum, it could **surpass $500** and potentially reach **$600**.

![Monero Chart](https://blockchainreporter.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/chart611.webp)

DeepSnitch AI offers dual utility—helping traders stay ahead of the market while potentially delivering **100X-300X returns**. The project is expected to launch before the end of the current quarter, with the presale representing an opportunity for early entry.

![DeepSnitch AI Dashboard](https://blockchainreporter.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-07-094528.webp)

*This article is for educational purposes only and not intended as financial advice.*

DeepSnitch AI might be positioned as the next crypto to explode after a 120% surge. Florida lawmakers are backing a proposal that would create a Bitcoin crypto reserve.

Florida's Bold Bitcoin Reserve Plan & AI Crypto Gem DeepSnitch AI Soars 120%: The Next Big Explosion?

## Major U.S. Banks Accumulate Bitcoin Amid Market Volatility

**Major U.S. banks appear to be buying Bitcoin** during recent price swings, even as many retail investors sell out of fear. The trend highlights a clear gap between how large firms and individual traders respond to market stress.

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao pointed this out in a post on X on January 10, writing, "While you were panic selling, U.S. banks were loading up on Bitcoin," Zhao wrote, referring to new disclosures from **Wells Fargo & Company (WFC)**. The bank reported **$383 million in Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund holdings**, more than double its position from the prior quarter.

At the same time, Bitcoin prices fell sharply from their October high above $126,000 to recent levels near $90,000. As prices dropped, retail sentiment weakened fast. The **Crypto Fear and Greed Index fell to a reading of 10 in November**, which signaled extreme fear across the market.

## Institutions Take a Long View

Meanwhile, large investors treated the pullback as an opportunity to add exposure. **Wells Fargo gained its Bitcoin position mainly through the iShares Bitcoin Trust from BlackRock (BLK)**. This structure lets banks gain price exposure without holding Bitcoin directly.

Other large holders followed a similar path. **Strategy (MSTR), formerly known as MicroStrategy Incorporated, purchased 1,229 Bitcoin for $108.8 million** in late December at an average price of approximately $88,568. In addition, **Harvard University increased its Bitcoin exposure** during last summer's market decline, bringing its total holdings to about $443 million.

The difference comes down to time horizon and structure. **Large investors often plan years ahead and avoid heavy leverage**. In contrast, many retail traders rely on borrowed funds. During the late November selloff, nearly 396,000 retail accounts were liquidated, with losses near $2 billion.

## ETF Demand Remains Firm

Despite short-term fear, demand from large firms remains steady. **Bitcoin exchange-traded funds saw about $1 billion in outflows during December**. However, over the full year, **BlackRock's spot Bitcoin fund still attracted more than $25 billion in net inflows**.

Looking ahead, analysts expect this trend to continue. **Bitcoin ETF assets are forecast to reach between $180 billion and $220 billion by 2026**. As access expands through banks like Bank of America Corporation (BAC) and Vanguard Group Inc., large investors are likely to remain active even during periods of price stress.

Overall, recent moves suggest that while retail investors focus on short-term swings, large institutions continue to build exposure with a longer view in mind.

Major U.S. banks appear to be buying Bitcoin during recent price swings, even as many retail investors sell out of fear. The trend highlights a clear gap between ho...

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