Crypto news digest: Interactive Brokers goes all-in on stablecoins, Bitcoin eyes comeback
Interactive Brokers has found a neat way to make bank transfers feel like dial up. The broker said it will now accept 24/7 deposits in Circle’s USDC, with Ripple’s RLUSD and PayPal’s PYUSD due to follow next week. Clients can send stablecoins from self custody wallets on Ethereum, Solana or Coinbase’s Base to an address secured by Zerohash. The system then converts the stablecoins into US dollars “immediately”, so clients can trade without waiting for wires.
That detail matters because Interactive Brokers sells itself on speed and reach. It offers access to roughly 170 markets, and its more active clients hate funding delays. Meanwhile, chief executive Milan Galik pitched the move as a direct strike at wires and correspondent banks. Those still fail at the most basic promise of global finance: money should arrive when it is sent.
Interactive Brokers said it will not charge a deposit fee. However, clients still pay blockchain network fees, and Zerohash takes 0.3% per deposit, with a $1 minimum. Therefore, this is not “free” money movement. Yet for many cross border users it will still beat wire fees, intermediary lift, and lost time on weekend gaps.
The timing is also pointed. Stablecoins have had their most credible moment in years, with total market value around $310 billion. Transaction volumes have exploded as well, with roughly $33 trillion of stablecoin volume in 2025. USDC accounted for about $18.3 trillion of that, with Tether close behind. Therefore, Interactive Brokers is not betting on crypto as an asset. It is betting on stablecoins as plumbing.
Bitcoin pulls back, but the bid has not vanished
Bitcoin eased back toward the $95,000 area as spot ETF inflows cooled and traders took some heat out of the rally. The market had struggled to clear a Fibonacci level around $97,600, and momentum faded after the initial push. However, the tone did not flip to panic. Traders still treated the dip as a test of support rather than a thesis breaker.
Matrixport flagged easing stress in on chain indicators, which tends to matter when price action looks tired. Meanwhile, Cathie Wood again argued that Bitcoin belongs in diversified portfolios by 2026, not as a punt but as a non correlated asset. Regardless of whether you buy that framing, the message lands with allocators who missed earlier cycles and want a “rule” to lean on.
MicroStrategy’s equity, MSTR, remained a proxy trade for those who want Bitcoin beta inside a brokerage account. Therefore, any sharp move in BTC often spills into MSTR positioning, especially around option expiry.
Memecoins, alts and the futures stampede
Dogecoin bulls continued to watch for an inverse head and shoulders setup, which would need a clean break above nearby resistance to convince anyone beyond Telegram. Meanwhile, Solana hovered around $146 with bearish divergence showing up on some charts, keeping the door open to a breakdown if liquidity thins.
Pump.fun kept printing fees as a torrent of new tokens hit the chain, with roughly 30,000 memecoin launches per day. That number is both impressive and revealing. It shows how low issuance friction has become, and it also shows how quickly attention gets chopped into confetti.
In more institutional news, CME is set to launch futures tied to Cardano, Chainlink and Stellar on 9 February. That gives leveraged traders a regulated venue for risk, and it gives market makers more reason to quote tighter across venues. However, futures listings do not guarantee spot demand. They often increase basis trading first, and narrative later.
XRP held its 50 day moving average even as whale activity cooled, while Polygon saw a burst in fees and token burns that revived talk of an outsized move. Therefore, the alt tape looked lively, but it still lacked a single dominant driver.
Regulation still writes the mood music
On Capitol Hill, a Senate crypto bill vote was delayed by the Banking Committee chair Tim Scott, denting expectations for a smooth run at stablecoin rules. Meanwhile, Coinbase faced renewed scrutiny around the CLARITY Act debates, with critics circling the idea of stablecoin yields and who should be allowed to offer them.
Nexo took a $500,000 fine in California tied to certain lending products. Separately, Brian Sewell of American Bitcoin Academy received a three year sentence over a $2.9 million fraud case. Therefore, the market got a familiar reminder that the next bull phase will still drag a long tail of enforcement.
South Korea also moved to block foreign exchanges in Google Play under VASP rules, tightening access at the distribution layer rather than chasing every token. That is often the more effective route.
Elsewhere, State Street launched a digital asset platform, while Democrats accused the SEC of “pay to play” dynamics. Zcash fell even after the SEC dropped an enforcement action, showing that regulatory relief does not always translate into immediate demand. Meanwhile, Sui blamed a consensus bug for a roughly six hour outage, an operational hit that traders tend to price faster than any whitepaper promise.
DeFi and the weirder corners
Uniswap expanded onto OKX’s X Layer with zero fee swaps, which will test how much volume is purely fee sensitive. Meanwhile, researchers flagged ransomware groups using Polygon smart contracts to obscure flows, highlighting how criminals adapt to whatever chain offers cheap throughput. KAITO’s token sank after developers killed “Yaps”, and perp DEX traders kept complaining that centralised exchanges still win on execution.
By the numbers
- Interactive Brokers stablecoin deposits: USDC live now, RLUSD and PYUSD expected next week.
- Deposit costs: Zerohash charges 0.3% (minimum $1), plus gas fees.
- Stablecoin scale: roughly $310 billion market cap, about $33 trillion 2025 volume.
- USDC activity: about $18.3 trillion in 2025 transactions.
- CME alt futures: Cardano, Chainlink, Stellar contracts launching 9 February.
Key takeaways
- Stablecoin funding at a major broker shortens the “cash drag” that punishes active global traders.
- Watch BTC around $95,000, because a clean hold can revive dip buying, while a break can trigger de risk.
- CME’s new alt futures may boost basis and hedging first, then spot narratives later.
- Memecoin issuance remains extreme, so liquidity can vanish faster than charts can update.
- Enforcement and platform bans still hit fastest at access points, not at token tickers.
