The SEC has renamed its Division of Enforcement’s Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit (CACU) to the Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit (CETU). CETU’s focus will be, among other things, to combat crypto fraud and cybercrime. The US Securities and Exchange Commission has...

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SEC's CETU aims to combat cyber fraud in AI, blockchain, and fintech, replacing its previous Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit.

Norway’s National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime, or Økokrim, has charged four men for their alleged involvement in a Ponzi scheme that siphoned millions from victims.

After months of rapid expansion, Bitcoin’s hashrate growth slowed down in January, according to the latest report from TheMinerMag.
The network’s difficulty saw its first decline since September, indicating that even though publicly listed companies have kept increasing their hash power, their growth isn’t enough to compensate for the capitulation of other, probably smaller operators.

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The total revenue made from bitcoin (BTC) mining remained stable at $1.4 billion for the month. Publicly traded mining companies, which collectively hold 99,000 bitcoin (worth roughly $9.7 billion), accounted for about 30% of the hashrate market share in January.
Competition between the biggest publicly traded companies has also increased.
The leading mining firm, Marathon Digital (MARA), retained its top spot with a realized hashrate of 41.65 EH/s, followed by CleanSpark at 34.77 EH/s. Riot Platforms, which has been expanding aggressively, is closing in with 31.27 EH/s.

“Notably, the competition within the 30 EH/s group is heating up like never before, while the gap between the 30 EH/s tier and the 10 EH/s group — comprising Core Scientific, Cipher Mining, and Bitfarms — continues to widen,” the report said.
The top miners taking more market share is hardly a surprise as the recent halving event has cut bitcoin mining rewards by half and squeezed the industry’s profit margin, even with the BTC price near $100,000. In such an environment, it’s tough for smaller players to compete with big operations which were already positioned to dominate the market. In fact, a lot of miners are already looking for other revenue sources, such as hosting machines for AI and HPC firms.
Read more: Bitcoin Halving Is a ‘Show Me the Money’ Moment for Miners
The report also said that mining hardware imports to the U.S. also slowed in January, a factor contributing to the stabilization of hashrate growth. However, some firms, including Blockchain Power Corp and AcroHash, have imported a significant amount of cooling infrastructure from Bitmain.
Looking ahead, TheMinerMag predicts another difficulty adjustment decline in February as some smaller mining operators exit the market due to lower profitability.
Read more: Bitcoin Mining Is a Game of Survival, Consolidation and Potential AI Diversification: Bernstein
Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.

After months of rapid expansion, Bitcoin’s hashrate growth slowed down in January, according to the latest report from TheMinerMag. The network’s …

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin expressed his disappointment with some ETH community members and thought it was “bad” that the ecosystem was too welcoming for “casinos.”

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During an ask-me-anything (AMA) on Tako, Buterin responded to a question about whether he had felt disappointed at the Ethereum Foundation, the crypto industry or the community. He answered “of course,” especially when others question why Ethereum has not been more open to applications with blockchain gambling, seemingly taking a jab at its competitor, Solana, and how their ecosystem has embraced a lot of memecoin activity over the past year.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin answers a question on Tako (Tako)
Buterin’s comment comes as the Ethereum community has faced backlash from members raising the alarm that the chain will lose its competitive advantage to rivals if it doesn’t address some core issues, while Solana has attracted more new developers than Ethereum and has poached top talent.

Buterin also said that if the community continues on with this “moral reversal,” he would no longer participate in the Ethereum ecosystem.
“But I found an interesting point: on the internet, many people will say those things, but when I chat with the community in person, everyone’s values are the same as before, so I feel like I have a responsibility to this community and can’t abandon them,” Buterin added.
Read more: Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin Goes on Offense Amid Major Leadership Shake-up