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Digital Asset Integrations Signal Demand from Institutions, Derivatives Traders
Fireblocks, a major blockchain infrastructure platform, recently announced "the integration of the Canton Network, the privacy-enabled open blockchain network, purpose-built for institutional finance." According to a press release, "[t]he launch enables secure custody for Canton Coin (CC) and gives financial institutions a governed, secure environment to begin settling assets on Canton with Fireblocks' enterprise policy controls and workflow automation."
In other news, according to reports, Rails, an institutional crypto derivatives provider, recently announced the launch of Institutional-Grade Vaults on the Stellar network. The new product reportedly allows brokerages and other intermediaries to more easily access crypto perpetuals.
And in another integration, Elliptic, a blockchain analytics company, recently announced that it has added the HyperEVM blockchain to its suite of blockchain analytics solutions. According to an Elliptic blog post, the integration is intended to meet the growing demand for decentralized derivatives. The blog post notes, "With HyperEVM, Hyperliquid has emerged as the dominant decentralized perpetual futures exchange, processing nearly $3 trillion in trading volume through 2025."
For more information, please refer to the following links:
- Fireblocks Launches Canton Support to Expand Its Regulated Tokenization and Settlement Infrastructure
- Rails taps Stellar to launch onchain vaults for institutional derivatives liquidity
- Elliptic integrates with HyperEVM as institutional demand for decentralized derivatives grows
2026 Global Digital Asset Adoption Index Published
By Jonathan Cardenas and Robert A. Musiala Jr.
The institutional data research division of a leading digital assets media company recently published its "2026 Global Digital Asset Adoption Index" report, which provides an overview of 2025 digital asset adoption trends around the world. Key findings from the report include the following:
- Asia is the world's leading region for digital asset and Web3 adoption and leads globally in stablecoin transaction volume.
- North America is the "compliance and capital formation center of the crypto economy," and while the U.S. dominates the global narrative, the data shows its adoption footprint is narrower.
- Europe excels in regulatory clarity through its MiCA regulation but shows weaker consumer and transactional adoption.
- The U.K. is cited as an example of a jurisdiction in which users remain active in digital asset markets by accessing offshore exchanges and liquidity notwithstanding the U.K.'s "constrained" onshore crypto market.
- Similar to Europe, the Middle East has implemented advanced digital asset regulatory frameworks but demonstrated relatively limited stablecoin usage and user activity in the region in 2025.
- Latin America and Africa show the strongest utility-driven adoption, anchored in stablecoins as an alternative for inflation-prone local fiat currencies. However, neither region has a strong, unified regulatory framework like Europe's MiCA.
- User adoption of digital assets is increasingly driven by global liquidity, rather than by infrastructure capabilities in local markets.
For more information, please refer to the following link:
Regulation 1
During a recent address at the joint event on harmonization by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), new CFTC Chairman Michael Selig gave his first public remarks, providing insight on new initiatives and guidance for crypto asset markets. Among other updates, Selig announced that instead of correspondent separate initiatives, the CFTC is partnering with the SEC on Project Crypto, which recognizes that crypto markets traverse both agencies' regulatory boundaries, and is intended to bring coordination, coherence and a unified approach to the federal government's oversight of crypto asset markets. Selig further noted that through the partnership, the two agencies "will advance a clear crypto asset taxonomy, clarify jurisdictional lines, remove duplicative compliance requirements, and reduce regulatory fragmentation" and will work together to consider joint codification of a framework addressing certain assets and commodities that would not be characterized as securities.
In his remarks, Selig addressed a number of other important topics that he intends to explore, including the development of rules to enable the deployment of additional forms of eligible tokenized collateral, the onshoring of true perpetual derivatives, assessing potential innovation exemptions for software developers to facilitate permissionless innovation, enhancing optionality in connection with leveraged crypto asset trading, and working on clearer rules regarding prediction markets.
For more information, please refer to the following link:
OFAC Designates Iran-Linked Crypto Exchanges, Adds Public Keys to SDN List
On Jan. 30, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned multiple Iranian regime officials. As part of the action, OFAC designated two U.K.-registered digital asset exchanges that have processed large volumes of funds associated with IRGC-linked counterparties. According to a press release, "[t]his marks OFAC's first designation of a digital asset exchange for operating in the financial sector of the Iranian economy." As part of the action, multiple digital asset addresses were added to OFAC's Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List.
For more information, please refer to the following links:
- Treasury Sanctions Iranian Regime Officials for Violent Repression and Corruption
- Iran-related Designations; Counter Terrorism Designations; Non-Proliferation Designation Update and Designation Removal
- OFAC Designates Iranian-Linked Crypto Exchanges in First-Ever Action Targeting Digital Asset Firms in Iran's Financial Sector
DOJ Actions Target Darknet Markets
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced that the U.S. government "obtained legal title over more than $400 million in seized cryptocurrencies, real estate, and monetary assets tied to the operation of the darknet mixing service, Helix." According to a DOJ press release, "[t]he United States previously seized the assets from Larry Dean Harmon, the operator of Helix, which processed transactions involving over $300 million worth of cryptocurrency from 2014 to 2017."
Another recent DOJ press release announced that "RUI-SIANG LIN was sentenced to 30 years in prison for conspiring to distribute narcotics, money laundering, and conspiring to sell adulterated and misbranded medication, in connection with LIN's ownership and operation of the Incognito Market, an online narcotics marketplace that sold more than one ton of narcotics before its closure in March 2024." The press release notes that transactions on the Incognito Market were facilitated by cryptocurrencies.
For more information, please refer to the following links:
- Government Forfeits Over $400M in Assets Tied to Helix Darknet Cryptocurrency Mixer
- "Incognito Market" Owner Sentenced To 30 Years For Operating One Of The World's Largest Online Narcotics Marketplaces
Step Finance Hacked for $27M; Crypto Stolen in January 2026 Tops $370M
By Om M. Kakani
On Feb. 1, Solana‑based decentralized finance platform Step Finance disclosed that several of its treasury wallets were compromised. Onchain data reviewed by CertiK showed that approximately 261,854 SOL, valued at around $27.2 million, was unstaked and transferred from wallets controlled by the platform. According to reports, the full scope of losses or the underlying cause of the treasury wallet compromise has yet to be disclosed.
In other news, blockchain security firm CertiK recently reported that approximately $370.3 million in cryptocurrency was stolen in January 2026, marking the largest monthly total in 11 months and a nearly 400 percent increase year over year compared with January 2025. According to CertiK, 40 exploit and scam incidents were recorded during the month, with the majority of losses attributable to a single social engineering case in which one victim lost roughly $284 million. Phishing scams accounted for about $311.3 million of the total stolen. January's figures also represent a 214 percent increase from December 2025, when $117.8 million in crypto theft was reported. The total is the highest since February 2025, when attackers stole approximately $1.5 billion, most of which is attributed to a $1.4 billion hack on crypto exchange Bybit.
Security firm PeckShield counted 16 hacks totaling $86.01 million in losses for the month, including the following notable exploits:
- Step Finance: approximately $28.9 million stolen
- Truebit protocol: $26.4 million loss due to a smart‑contract flaw
- SwapNet: $13.3 million stolen
- Saga network: $7 million exploit
For more information, please refer to the following links:
- Step Finance treasury wallets breached, $27M in SOL drained as STEP crashes 90%
- Crypto thieves, scammers plunder $370M in January: CertiK
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