Crypto Morning Brief: X Revokes API Access for 'Reward Posting Apps', Bitmine Invests in MrBeast

marsbitPublished on 2026-01-16Last updated on 2026-01-16

Abstract

Crypto Morning Brief: X Revokes API Access for 'Reward Posting Apps', Bitmine Invests in MrBeast Key market developments include better-than-expected US jobless claims and the Senate Banking Committee canceling a meeting amid Coinbase controversy. CME Group announced new futures for Cardano, Chainlink, and Stellar. X (formerly Twitter) revoked API access for applications that reward users for posting, citing a flood of AI-generated spam. Interactive Brokers now supports 24/7 USDC deposits for accounts, with plans to add more stablecoins. State Street launched a new digital asset platform. In notable closures, MilkyWay Protocol is shutting down permanently, and Polygon laid off nearly 30% of its staff as it pivots to a payments-focused strategy. CoinGecko's co-founder responded to acquisition rumors, stating the platform is operating normally while evaluating strategic opportunities. Finally, Bitmine announced a $200 million investment into MrBeast's Beast Industries.

Author: Deep Tide TechFlow

Yesterday's Market Dynamics

US Initial Jobless Claims for the Week Ending Jan 10: 198K, Expected 215K

According to Jinshi Data, US initial jobless claims for the week ending January 10 were 198,000, compared to an expectation of 215,000. The previous week's figure was revised from 208,000 to 207,000.

Senate Banking Committee Cancels Market Structure Hearing Due to Coinbase Controversy

As reported by EleanorTerrett, the Senate Banking Committee announced the cancellation of a market structure hearing originally scheduled for tomorrow, citing the controversy with Coinbase that occurred today. A new date for the hearing has not yet been set.

CME Group to Launch Cardano, Chainlink, and Stellar Futures

CME Group announced it will launch futures for Cardano (ADA), Chainlink (LINK), and Stellar (XLM) on February 9th, expanding its crypto derivatives product portfolio.

Fogo Announces Airdrop Claim is Open

According to an official announcement, the SVM Layer1 blockchain project Fogo has opened airdrop claims.

X Revokes API Access for "Reward Posting Apps"

According to X product lead and Solana ecosystem advisor Nikita Bier, the X platform is revising its developer policy and will no longer allow applications that reward users for posting on X. Bier stated that such apps have led to a large amount of AI-generated low-quality content and reply spam on the platform. The X platform has revoked the API access for these applications, and user experience is expected to improve soon. For developer accounts whose API access has been terminated, the X platform stated it will assist in transitioning their business to Threads and Bluesky.

Interactive Brokers Launches 24/7 Account Funding with USDC, Plans to Expand Stablecoin Options

According to The Block, traditional brokerage firm Interactive Brokers announced that traders can now use Circle's USDC for 24/7 account funding operations, enabling round-the-clock trading functionality.

The company's CEO, Milan Galik, stated that stablecoins offer a faster, lower-cost, and globally accessible funding option compared to traditional wire transfers. This integration is supported by crypto infrastructure provider Zerohash. Users can send USDC via the Ethereum, Solana, or Base networks, and the system will automatically convert it to US dollars and deposit it into the brokerage account. Interactive Brokers plans to expand support to include more stablecoin options such as Ripple's RLUSD and PayPal's PYUSD as early as next week.

State Street Launches Digital Asset Platform to Expand Crypto Business

According to Bloomberg, global custody banking giant State Street Corporation announced the launch of a digital asset platform aimed at expanding its business in this rapidly growing asset class. A statement from the Boston-based company said the new platform will develop and support money market funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and cash products including tokenized deposits and stablecoins.

MilkyWay Protocol Announces Imminent Permanent Shutdown

According to an official announcement from MilkyWay Protocol, the protocol is shutting down permanently and will begin the liquidation process.

The announcement stated that the decision to close stems from decentralized finance (DeFi) demand not growing as expected, the transient nature of restaking demand, the interruption of plans for real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, and insufficient funding.

MilkyWay completed a snapshot on January 14th and will automatically distribute protocol fees proportionally to MILK token holders in the form of USDC. All liquid staking functions are disabled effective immediately, and existing positions will be automatically unstaked. MilkyWay initially launched as the first liquid staking token (LST) provider for Celestia, later expanding to the Initia and Babylon ecosystems, and attempted to launch services including restaking, RWA tokenization, and payment cards.

Polygon Lays Off Nearly 30% of Staff, Shifts to Payments Strategy

According to BeInCrypto, Polygon has reduced its workforce by approximately 30%, a move that is part of integration measures following its acquisitions of Coinme and Sequence. The company is shifting from traditional scaling and DeFi narratives to an "open money stack" strategy centered around stablecoin payments. Polygon's CEO confirmed the layoff decision but stated that with the addition of newly acquired teams, the overall headcount is expected to remain stable.

Coingecko Co-founder Responds to Sale Rumors: Regularly Evaluate Strategic Opportunities, Platform Operating Normally

In response to previous reports that crypto data platform CoinGecko was considering a sale at a valuation of approximately $500 million, the company's co-founder and CEO Bobby Ong posted on X, stating that he has received many inquiries about a potential platform sale. Having operated CoinGecko for 12 years, like any growing and profitable company, they regularly evaluate strategic opportunities to strengthen the business and accelerate their mission. He declined to comment on specific acquisition talks for now but expressed excitement about possibilities that could help better serve users and support institutional adoption of cryptocurrency. CoinGecko will continue to operate as usual, with no changes to how they work or provide trusted data.

Bitmine Announces $200 Million Investment in MrBeast's Beast Industries

According to Prnewswire, Bitmine announced a $200 million investment in MrBeast's Beast Industries. The transaction is expected to be completed around January 19th.

Market Dynamics

55TB to 28TB? The Rumor and Panic Behind Rubin's Memory Being Halved

Title: 55TB to 28TB? The Rumor and Panic Behind the Potential Halving of Rubin's Memory. On June 4th, a report from SemiAnalysis suggested NVIDIA's next-gen Vera Rubin NVL72 AI rack may ship with roughly 28TB of SOCAMM DRAM per rack instead of the anticipated 55TB, primarily using 96GB modules. This sparked a market panic, causing Micron's stock to drop over 10% on fears of halved memory demand. However, the article argues this panic is misguided for several key reasons. First, SOCAMM modules are socketed and upgradeable, not soldered. Lower initial configuration doesn't mean permanent demand loss. Second, the primary driver is a severe 2026 LPDDR5X supply shortage, not diminished need. NVIDIA is likely prioritizing rack shipments with available components. Third, with fixed total LPDDR5X supply, using less per rack could allow NVIDIA to ship *more* racks, not necessarily reducing overall memory orders. Micron's sharp drop was also attributed to a broader semiconductor sell-off triggered by Broadcom's earnings, with the SemiAnalysis report providing a convenient narrative for profit-taking after Micron's massive rally. In summary: the report on lower default configurations is likely accurate, but interpreting it as a demand collapse is wrong. The real risk for Micron lies in its reportedly minimal HBM4 share for Rubin, not in potentially flexible SOCAMM demand. The sell-off appears more like a correction amplified by coinciding negative catalysts.

marsbit18m ago

55TB to 28TB? The Rumor and Panic Behind Rubin's Memory Being Halved

marsbit18m ago

Exclusive from Yingke | Tang Wenbin's 'Yuanli Lingji' Merges with Logistics Robotics Company, and Secures Investment from Zhipu, SenseTime, Jieyue, and Others

Exclusive report: Embodied AI company "Yuanli Lingji" recently completed a new round of financing from major AI model firms including Zhipu AI, Stepfun, and SenseTime, alongside continued investments from industrial backers like Huaqin and SAIC Hengxu. Founded in March 2025 by Tang Wenbin, former co-founder and CTO of Megvii, Yuanli Lingji is a general-purpose embodied AI model company. In a notable move, the company has merged with logistics robotics firm "Atomix" (formerly known as Yuanli Juhe) through a share acquisition. Atomix, which originated from Megvii's logistics robotics business led by Tang in 2016 and was spun off in July 2024, has grown to become the world's second-largest supplier of pallet shuttle robots, with annual revenue nearing 1 billion RMB and over 500 projects globally for clients like Uniqlo and CATL. This merger aims to break the industry's "data deadlock" by combining Atomix's extensive real-world operational data from more than 20 countries with Yuanli Lingji's model training capabilities. The company's embodied AI model "DM0" utilizes a cross-domain training approach, integrating internet semantics, autonomous driving rules, and robotics data to achieve hardware-agnostic, precise manipulation even with a compact 2.4B parameter size. The collective investment from key AI players and the strategic merger signal a shift in the competitive landscape, as major model companies pivot from language tokens to physical actions ("from Token to Action"). The industry is entering a consolidation phase where hardware, AI models, data, and application scenarios converge to scale embodied intelligence, a trend mirrored by recent moves from giants like ByteDance and Skild AI.

marsbit26m ago

Exclusive from Yingke | Tang Wenbin's 'Yuanli Lingji' Merges with Logistics Robotics Company, and Secures Investment from Zhipu, SenseTime, Jieyue, and Others

marsbit26m ago

U.S. Stock Market Trends: Dow Hits New High, Nasdaq Falls, Whom Did Broadcom's Slap Wake Up?

U.S. Stocks Split: Dow Hits Record High as Nasdaq Slips; Broadcom's Plunge Sparks Rotation On June 4, the U.S. stock market saw a sharp divergence. The Dow Jones surged 875 points (+1.73%) to a record high of 51,561.93, while the Nasdaq Composite edged down 0.09%. The S&P 500 rose 0.41%. The primary catalyst was a sharp sell-off in AI-related chip stocks, led by Broadcom (AVGO). Despite reporting a 143% year-over-year jump in AI semiconductor revenue to $10.8 billion, the company's shares plunged about 14%. This was triggered by its maintained long-term AI revenue target, which failed to meet heightened expectations for a stock that had gained 55% this quarter and traded at a high P/E ratio. The slide dragged down the broader semiconductor sector and the technology板块. Conversely, money rotated into sectors like Healthcare (+3.14%), Financials (+2.67%), and Real Estate (+1.87%). UnitedHealth and Goldman Sachs were major contributors to the Dow's gains. The rotation was attributed to a search for value outside overheated tech names and a slight dip in Treasury yields. In other major news, SpaceX confirmed its IPO for June 12, targeting a record $75 billion raise at a ~$1.75 trillion valuation. Additionally, initial jobless claims rose to a four-month high, adding nuance to the labor market narrative ahead of the key May non-farm payrolls report. The day's action signaled that while the AI growth story remains intact, excessive valuations are prompting a market reassessment. Funds are moving, at least temporarily, from high-flying tech to more defensive and value-oriented sectors. The sustainability of this rotation hinges on upcoming economic data, particularly the jobs report, and the market's absorption of the massive SpaceX IPO.

marsbit29m ago

U.S. Stock Market Trends: Dow Hits New High, Nasdaq Falls, Whom Did Broadcom's Slap Wake Up?

marsbit29m ago

From 'Old Dogs' to 'New Darlings': How AI is Revaluing Old Infrastructure, from Dell to Nokia

"Old Dogs" Become AI's New Darlings: Revaluing Legacy Infrastructure The AI investment narrative is shifting. Beyond the spotlight on core chipmakers like Nvidia, a new wave of interest is rising for legacy tech companies—Dell, HPE, Nokia, Cisco, Corning, Western Digital—once labeled as slow-growth, outdated stories. This resurgence stems from AI's evolution from model development to real-world deployment, creating massive demand for physical infrastructure. As AI moves into data center construction and enterprise adoption, the focus turns to who can actually build and deliver complex systems. These established players hold decades of experience in supply chains, integration, networking, and enterprise delivery—assets now critical for scaling AI. The revaluation can be grouped into three key infrastructure areas: 1. **Servers & Integration (e.g., Dell, HPE):** They are becoming essential system integrators, transforming GPUs into full-scale AI servers with networking, power, and cooling, then delivering them to clients. Strong recent earnings and AI-specific revenue/order growth for Dell and HPE underscore this shift. 2. **Networking & Connectivity (e.g., Corning, Nokia, Cisco):** As AI clusters grow, high-speed data transfer becomes paramount. Corning benefits from fiber demand for data center links, Nokia is exploring AI-integrated wireless networks (AI-RAN), and Cisco sees surging orders for data center switches—all critical for efficient AI operations. 3. **Storage (e.g., Western Digital, Seagate):** The AI data explosion requires vast capacity. Beyond high-speed memory (HBM), there's growing need for high-capacity HDDs to store training data, logs, video, and cold/archival data cost-effectively. This revaluation, however, is not a blanket endorsement. True reassessment requires concrete proof: AI-driven orders and revenue growth, upward revisions to company guidance, and sustainable improvements in profit quality, not just top-line sales. In essence, AI is not turning all old tech firms into high-growth stocks; it is selectively re-pricing the "old assets" of companies that are mission-critical for building the new AI infrastructure, transforming their legacy capabilities into renewed growth engines.

marsbit38m ago

From 'Old Dogs' to 'New Darlings': How AI is Revaluing Old Infrastructure, from Dell to Nokia

marsbit38m ago

The Bitcoin Roadmap To $500,000: Analyst Shows How Price Will Get There

An analyst projects Bitcoin could reach $500,000 based on technical chart analysis, mapping out a multi-phase roadmap within a long-term ascending channel. The analyst, Crypto Tice, states Bitcoin has completed the first phase ("First touch") of the pattern and is entering a second phase that could trigger its strongest rally yet, potentially driving a more than 693% increase from current levels above $63,000. This would be followed by a final pullback. This outlook comes as Bitcoin faces significant selling pressure, having fallen 17% over three days to around $61,300, erasing roughly $250 billion in market cap. The downturn has also impacted other major cryptocurrencies like Ethereum. Despite the crypto market decline, U.S. equities remain near highs, creating a notable divergence that some suggest could indicate market manipulation or crypto front-running a potential stock market correction.

bitcoinist50m ago

The Bitcoin Roadmap To $500,000: Analyst Shows How Price Will Get There

bitcoinist50m ago

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