📌 TOPINDIATOURS Hot crypto: Crypto’s Next Phase Is Utility Not Price Action: CoinS

The digital asset market recorded an exceptional performance in 2025, broadly validating forecasts made the previous year, according to CoinShares.

Bitcoin reached new all-time highs while crypto returned to daily institutional and media discourse—this time in a far more constructive light than during the downturn of 2022–2023.

The year was not without turbulence. Periods of volatility and liquidation events served as reminders that crypto remains a young asset class.

CoinShares argues that focusing exclusively on price action risks overlooking the industry’s deeper progress. After years of sustained building the foundations supporting digital assets have strengthened materially.

Digital Assets Move Inside the Traditional Economy

CoinShares notes that digital assets are no longer operating outside the traditional financial system. Instead, they are increasingly embedded within it, augmenting core financial infrastructure rather than attempting to replace it outright.

Progress in 2025 was decisive across both technology and adoption. The industry has matured beyond its most speculative instincts, with attention shifting toward protocols and applications delivering measurable real-world utility.

Projects gaining traction today are those solving tangible economic problems, rather than chasing short-term narrative momentum.

Utility Over Narrative Signals Market Maturity

From CoinShares’ perspective, the most meaningful indicators of crypto’s direction are practical integrations rather than speculative cycles. Chainlink’s growing role in connecting blockchain networks with established benchmark providers offers a clearer signal of market evolution than any meme-driven rally.

At the consumer level, the emergence of prediction markets such as Polymarket and Kalshi demonstrates that crypto-enabled applications are reaching product-market fit. These platforms are no longer experimental; they are operational, regulated in parts, and increasingly used.

Meanwhile in the United States, spot Bitcoin ETFs have begun achieving mainstream adoption, gradually reshaping perceptions through familiarity rather than hype.

2026: Adoption Matters More Than Macro Catalysts

Looking ahead, CoinShares acknowledges that many market participants expect a fresh macro catalyst in 2026, potentially through renewed liquidity from the Federal Reserve. While such developments may influence markets, CoinShares argues that adoption will be the more consequential force.

In 2026 CoinShares says app-based retail savings products may begin competing directly with bank deposits while payment companies fintechs and banks expand stablecoin settlement, custody, and trading services. Though gradual, these changes are structural and difficult to reverse once embedded.

Economic Purpose Will Define the Winners

In this environment, CoinShares believes winners will be defined by economic function rather than narrative appeal. Bitcoin continues to solidify its role as a global, non-sovereign asset.

Stablecoins are evolving into settlement rails for a more digital and international economy. Tokenised financial products are beginning to transition from pilot programmes to real issuance.

As these rails mature, decentralised finance increasingly resembles finance itself—delivered through different technology rather than positioned as a parallel system.

Regulation Enables Scale, Not Suppression

CoinShares highlights meaningful regulatory progress, particularly in the United States, where recent legislative developments have clarified frameworks for stablecoins, tokenised assets and market infrastructure.

For Europe, the firm argues the opportunity lies in consistent, pragmatic implementation of regulation that attracts long-term institutional capital.

The objective should not be to constrain innovation through uncertainty, but to make innovation safe enough to scale.

From Graceful Return to Real-Economy Consolidation

CoinShares also cautions that future cycles will still produce micro-bubbles. Some themes will attract excessive capital, and some projects will fail. This, it says, is inevitable in a rapidly evolving frontier market.

The firm believes the direction of travel is increasingly clear. The market is turning toward utility, cash flow and integration. If 2025 represented crypto’s graceful return, CoinShares concludes that 2026 is shaping up to be the year digital assets consolidate into the real economy.

The post Crypto’s Next Phase Is Utility Not Price Action: CoinShares appeared first on Cryptonews.

🔗 Sumber: cryptonews.com

📌 TOPINDIATOURS Hot crypto: Former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison Set for Release in

Caroline Ellison, the former co-CEO of Alameda Research, is scheduled to be released from federal custody on Jan. 21, 2026, according to records from the US Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Ellison, 31, has been in community confinement since October 2025 after being transferred from a federal prison in Connecticut, Business Insider reported earlier this month.

Her release date places her exit from custody roughly 10 months earlier than the full two-year sentence imposed by the court.

Ellison Pleaded Guilty in FTX Collapse That Wiped Out Billions

Ellison pleaded guilty in December 2022 to fraud and conspiracy charges connected to the collapse of FTX, the crypto exchange founded by Sam Bankman-Fried.

The failure of FTX triggered billions of dollars in customer losses and marked one of the most significant scandals in the history of the digital asset industry.

As part of her plea agreement, Ellison cooperated extensively with federal prosecutors and served as a key witness during Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial.

Her testimony detailed how Alameda and FTX commingled customer funds and concealed financial shortfalls, evidence that contributed to Bankman-Fried’s conviction on multiple counts of fraud. He was later sentenced to 25 years in prison.

US District Judge Lewis Kaplan sentenced Ellison in September 2024, ordering her to forfeit $11 billion and serve a two-year prison term beginning in November of that year.

The earlier-than-expected release appears to reflect good-conduct credits and her cooperation with investigators.

In a filing submitted ahead of sentencing, John J. Ray III, the CEO overseeing the FTX bankruptcy estate, said Ellison provided “valuable assistance” that helped recover hundreds of millions of dollars in assets for creditors.

Those efforts played a role in ongoing attempts to return funds to customers affected by the collapse.

Earlier this month, Ellison also agreed to a 10-year ban on serving as an officer or director of public companies or cryptocurrency exchanges.

Following her release, she will remain under supervised release, limiting her future involvement in regulated financial businesses.

Bankman-Fried Seeks Trump Clemency, Claims FTX Case Was Politically Motivated

Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried continues to pursue post-conviction relief. He is seeking clemency from US President Donald Trump, who has previously issued high-profile crypto-related pardons, including for former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao.

Bankman-Fried has argued that his prosecution was politically motivated, a claim prosecutors have rejected.

According to Bureau of Prisons records, Bankman-Fried is currently scheduled for release in September 2044, underscoring the stark contrast in outcomes between the two former executives.

The post Former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison Set for Release in January 2026 appeared first on Cryptonews.

🔗 Sumber: cryptonews.com