Jimmy Song, co-founder of the nonprofit ProductionReady, said the Bitcoin network needs a "conservative" node client that avoids major code changes unless there is overwhelming community support. He added that ProductionReady expects to restore the 83-byte OP_Return limit to keep node storage costs low, which he linked to decentralization and resilience. Bitcoin Core 30 removed the OP_Return limit in October 2025 by raising it to 100,000 bytes, a move that coincided with growth in Bitcoin Knots usage to 4,746 nodes, or over 21.7% of the network.

Onchain investigator ZachXBT alleges Circle did not freeze or blacklist roughly $420 million in illicit USDC flows since 2022 across 15 hack-and-fraud cases. He says Circle sometimes had hours or days to act, including cited incidents tied to GMX, Cetus and Drift Protocol, but took limited action or acted after funds were swapped into ETH.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Department of Justice filed separate lawsuits on Thursday against Illinois, Connecticut and Arizona, challenging state actions targeting prediction market platforms. The CFTC argues that event-contract prediction markets fall under its exclusive jurisdiction as federally regulated designated contract markets, after the states sent cease-and-desist letters in 2025 citing gambling and licensing rules.

Soluna Holdings said Thursday it completed a $53 million acquisition of the Briscoe Wind Farm in Briscoe County, Texas, to supply power for its planned Project Dorothy 3 AI data center campus. The company said the site can reach up to 300 MW of capacity and projected annualized revenue of $20 million to $24.4 million. Soluna shares rose about 7.6% after the announcement, trading around $0.76 at the time of writing.

Onchain investigator ZachXBT says Circle, the issuer of USDC, mistakenly froze 16 hot wallets while acting in connection with a US civil case. He alleges the addresses belonged to operating businesses such as crypto exchanges, online casinos and FX services, and argues basic transaction review would have shown they were not related.

At a Wednesday hearing, crypto and market-structure executives told the US House Financial Services Committee that tokenized securities should remain subject to existing investor-protection and market-surveillance rules. Lawmakers also pressed witnesses on how KYC, AML and sanctions compliance would work across permissioned and public blockchains, including whether identifiers can be embedded at the protocol or token level.

21Shares macro head Stephen Coltman said the 2026 divergence between Bitcoin and gold reflects different buyer bases, with gold more tied to central bank demand while BTC is more widely held by individuals. He noted gold slipped to about $4,497 per ounce after peaking near $5,600 in January 2026, while Bitcoin stayed relatively steady as Middle East hostilities began. Coltman argued around-the-clock BTC access can matter during crises, as some regional exchanges were shut down shortly after the conflict started.

SkyBridge managing partner Anthony Scaramucci said Bitcoin’s bear market still fits a four-year cycle framework and may stay volatile for most of the year before turning higher in Q4 2026. He added that ETF inflows and institutional participation have reduced volatility without fully eliminating cyclical behavior, and cited the prior drop from about $126,000 to $60,000 as an example of sentiment getting upended.

Fidelity Investments told the US SEC on Friday that the agency should keep building a clearer framework for broker-dealers to offer, custody and trade crypto assets on alternative trading systems. The firm said comprehensive rules are "critical" for tokenized securities, including third-party issuances, and it also urged guidance to allow distributed ledger technology for ATS recordkeeping.