Bitcoin dips to $60K, TRM Labs becomes crypto unicorn: Finance Redefined

Cryptocurrency markets experienced a brutal sell-off this week arsenic investor concerns grew implicit stagnating US liquidity pursuing US President Donald Trump's information of Kevin Warsh to pb the Federal Reserve.

Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded 3 consecutive days of outflows, with $431 cardinal exiting connected Thursday, according to data from Farside Investors. Bitcoin’s (BTC) terms concisely dipped to $60,074 connected Friday earlier recovering supra $64,930 arsenic of 7:49 a.m. UTC.

Warsh — who antecedently served arsenic a Fed politician from 2006 to 2011 — is expected to proceed the involvement complaint chopped trajectory. His information whitethorn besides awesome that broader marketplace liquidity is expected to “stabilize alternatively than meaningfully expand,” Thomas Perfumo, economist astatine crypto speech Kraken, told Cointelegraph.

The manufacture recorded its 10th-largest liquidation lawsuit connected Jan. 31, arsenic much than $2.56 cardinal successful leveraged positions were wiped out, according to derivatives information level CoinGlass.

Top 10 largest liquidation events successful crypto history. Source: Coinglass

TRM Labs completes $70M concern circular astatine $1B, becomes crypto unicorn

Blockchain quality level TRM Labs completed a $70 cardinal Series C backing round, valuing it astatine $1 billion, becoming the latest crypto institution to scope unicorn status.

The concern circular was led by effect capitalist Blockchain Capital, with information from Goldman Sachs, Bessemer Venture Partners, Brevan Howard Digital, Thoma Bravo, Citi Ventures and Galaxy Ventures, according to a Wednesday quality release.

TRM Labs seeks to equip nationalist and backstage institutions with AI solutions that combat cybercrime. The institution defends against illicit activities that progressively trust connected automation.

“At TRM, we’re gathering AI for problems that person existent consequences for nationalist safety, fiscal integrity, and nationalist security,” wrote Esteban Castaño, co-founder and CEO of TRM Labs.

“This backing allows our world-class squad — and the radical who volition articulation america adjacent — to innovate alongside institutions connected the beforehand lines of the astir consequential threats, and grow the imaginable of AI to meaningfully amended however our captious systems are protected.”

The $70 cardinal circular shows that superior is flowing into blockchain analytics platforms seeking to halt the dispersed of AI-fueled scams and cyberattacks, including from ample accepted institutions.

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Avalanche tokenization hits Q4 precocious arsenic BlackRock’s BUIDL expands onchain

Blockchain web Avalanche saw expanding organization adoption crossed tokenized wealth marketplace funds, loans and indexes successful the 4th quarter, driving the worth of real-world assets (RWAs) connected the furniture 1 to a caller high.

The full worth locked of tokenized RWAs connected Avalanche roseate 68.6% implicit the 4th fourth of 2025 and astir 950% implicit the twelvemonth to much than $1.3 billion, boosted by the $500 cardinal BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) that launched successful November, Messari probe expert Youssef Haidar said successful a Jan. 29 report.

Fortune 500 fintech FIS partnered with Avalanche-based marketplace Intain to motorboat tokenized loans successful November, further boosting Avalanche’s TVL, Haidar said. Intain enables 2,000 US banks to securitize implicit $6 cardinal worthy of loans connected Avalanche.

The S&P Dow Jones besides partnered with Dinari, an Avalanche-powered blockchain, to motorboat the S&P Digital Markets 50 Index, which tracks 35 crypto-linked stocks and 15 crypto tokens connected Avalanche.

Change successful Avalanche real-world plus tokenization implicit the past 12 months. Source: Messari

Traditional concern firms are progressively assured astir experimenting with tokenization, arsenic the Securities and Exchange Commission has go much unfastened to crypto products implicit the past year.

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ParaFi Capital makes $35M concern successful Solana-based Jupiter

Jupiter said it has secured a $35 cardinal strategical concern from ParaFi Capital, marking the archetypal clip the Solana-based onchain trading and liquidity aggregation protocol has taken extracurricular superior aft years of bootstrapped growth.

The transaction progressive token purchases astatine marketplace prices with nary discount and an extended lockup play and was settled wholly successful Jupiter’s JupUSD stablecoin, the companies said. Financial presumption beyond the $35 cardinal concern were not disclosed.

Source: Jupiter

The concern comes arsenic Jupiter has processed much than $1 trillion successful trading measurement implicit the past twelvemonth and expanded beyond swap routing into perpetuals, lending and stablecoins, according to the company.

The woody besides included warrants allowing ParaFi Capital to get further tokens astatine higher prices, a operation the companies said was intended to bespeak semipermanent alignment. 

The concern follows a caller enlargement of Jupiter’s merchandise offerings. In October, Jupiter rolled retired a beta mentation of its onchain prediction market developed with Kalshi, followed successful January by the launch of JupUSD, a Solana-native, dollar-pegged stablecoin built successful concern with Ethena Labs.

Jupiter’s autochthonal token (JUP) was up astir 9% implicit the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data.

Source: CoinGecko

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Aave winds down Avara, phases retired Family wallet successful DeFi refocus

Aave Labs said it is sunsetting its “umbrella brand” Avara successful the company’s latest determination to refocus connected decentralized concern and simplify its branding.

Aave laminitis and CEO Stani Kulechov posted Tuesday connected X that Avara, a institution encompassing projects including the Family crypto wallet and antecedently the societal media level Lens, “is nary longer required arsenic we spell each successful connected bringing Aave to the masses.”

Kulechov said the Apple iOS-based Family crypto wallet was besides being coiled down arsenic the squad has “learned that onboarding millions of users requires purpose-built experiences, specified arsenic savings, alternatively than generic, open-ended wallet experiences.”

The determination marks Aave’s latest effort to refocus connected products specified arsenic its flagship lending protocol arsenic the task handed stewardship of Lens to the Mask Network past month, with Kulechov saying Aave’s information successful the protocol would beryllium reduced to an advisory relation truthful it tin focus connected DeFi.

Source: Stani Kulechov

Kulechov said successful his latest station that Aave was “now agreed arsenic 1 squad of world-class designers, engineers, and astute declaration experts, aligned astir a azygous mission: bringing DeFi to everyone.”

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Step Finance treasury wallets breached, $27M successful SOL drained arsenic STEP crashes 90%

Step Finance, a decentralized concern portfolio tracker connected Solana, disclosed a information breach that led to the compromise of respective treasury wallets, triggering a crisp sell-off successful its autochthonal token.

“Earlier today, respective of our treasury wallets were compromised by a blase histrion during APAC hours. This was an onslaught facilitated done a well-known onslaught vector,” the level wrote successful a station connected X, adding that they person taken “remediation” steps.

Onchain information reviewed by blockchain information steadfast CertiK shows that astir 261,854 Solana (SOL) (worth astir $27.2 million) was unstaked and transferred from Step Finance-controlled wallets.

Step Finance has not yet confirmed the full standard of the losses. The squad besides did not disclose however the attacker gained access, nor whether the incidental stemmed from a astute declaration flaw, compromised keys oregon an interior entree issue. It besides remains unclear whether immoderate idiosyncratic funds were affected, beyond protocol-owned assets.

The compromised transaction. Source: Certik

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DeFi marketplace overview

According to information from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, astir of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by marketplace capitalization ended the week successful the red.

The privacy-preserving Zcash (ZEC) token fell 35% to grounds the week’s biggest diminution successful the apical 100, followed by the Story (IP) token, down 34% during the past week.

Total worth locked successful DeFi. Source: DefiLlama

Thanks for speechmaking our summary of this week’s astir impactful DeFi developments. Join america adjacent Friday for much stories, insights and acquisition regarding this dynamically advancing space.