Bitcoin (BTC) adoption by U.S.-listed public companies continues in full steam.

The latest purchase comes from NYSE-listed Genius Group (GNS). On Jan. 10, GNS reported increasing its bitcoin holding to $35 million, which was ahead of its scheduled target of $120 million. In the process, it acquired 372 BTC at an average price of $94,047 per bitcoin. The first announcement came on Nov. 12, when it announced its “Bitcoin-first” strategy.

On Tuesday, GNS also reported a rights offering, allowing shareholders to purchase additional shares at discounted prices. If fully subscribed, the rights offering could generate $33 million. GNS founder and CEO Roger Hamilton intends to buy join in the rights offering and buy 500,000 shares.

The firm is also pursuing loan finances to accumulate bitcoin. Shares of GNS closed 7% higher on Tuesday.

Apart from GNS, Nasdaq-listed Ming Shing Group (MSW), a wet trades works service provider, also purchased 500 BTC at an average price of $94,375 per bitcoin. MSW shares were up 43% higher year-to-date.

The new wave of bitcoin treasury adoption surges ahead with four publicly traded companies announcing bitcoin buys and seven companies announcing a strategy, but no acquisition.

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Artificial intelligence cryptocurrencies are still making sizable gains—just as asset manager Franklin Templeton highlights how big AI and crypto could be together.

Franklin Templeton said in a Tuesday note that how AI agents interact on blockchains is “very exciting.” And it noted the current buzz surrounding AI16z and the Virtuals Protocol—two tokens that have made some of the biggest gains over the past 24 hours among the top 100 coins ranked by market cap.

AI16z is an investment DAO run by AI agents. CoinGecko data shows that over the past day, its native token has risen by over 18%—after slowing down last week—and is now trading hands for $1.30. It briefly fell out of the top 100 on Monday, but has recovered and bounced back into such valuable company.

The world’s biggest crypto exchange, Binance, announced earlier this month that it would launch perpetual futures contracts trading for AI16z. Even with today’s surge, however, AI16z is down 32% over the last week, and is 47% off its all-time high price of $2.47 set less than two weeks ago.

And Virtuals Protocol’s VIRTUAL—a token launched on Ethereum layer-2 network Base last year—is up by 15% over the past day. It’s now priced at $2.98. Virtuals is used to launch a variety of AI agents, including AiXBT—a token that nearly matched its own all-time high price on Tuesday.

Both tokens had slowed their rallies down in recent days after a white-hot start to the year, but are making a comeback as the broader crypto market recovers Tuesday.

AI agent software programs are designed to help humans by completing tasks on their own. As the hype around AI has grown, many in the field have made big promises on how much such agents will help humans complete tasks. And some of these agents have their own tokens, adding potential utility and speculation into the equation.

Franklin Templeton added that even if AI agents have some way to go to be as refined and useful as envision, the sector holds substantial promise.

“Although these agents are not yet fully autonomous, and have little utility in their current state, this emerging sector may hold significant promise and is worth watching closely as it evolves and matures,” the note said. 

Edited by Andrew Hayward

Bitcoin (BTC) started the new week on a negative note as major investment banks reassessed their expectations for Federal Reserve (Fed) rate cuts following Friday’s strong jobs report.

The leading cryptocurrency by market value dipped below $93,000 during the European hours, representing a 1.6% drop on the day, according to data source CoinDesk. Prices looked set to test the support zone near $92,000, which has consistently acted as a floor since late November.

The CoinDesk 20 Index, a broader market gauge, was down over 3%, with major coins like XRP, ADA, and DOGE posting bigger losses.

In traditional markets, futures tied to the S&P 500 traded 0.3% lower, pointing to an extension of Friday’s 1.5% drop that pushed the index to the lowest since early November. The dollar index (DXY) neared 110 for the first time since late 2022, with elevated Treasury yields supporting further gains.

Data released Friday showed nonfarm payrolls increased by 256,000 in December, the most since March, surpassing expectations for 160,000 job additions and the previous figure of 212,000 by a big margin. The jobless rate declined to 4.1% from 4.2%, and the average hourly earnings came in slightly lower than expected at 0.3% month-on-month and 3.9% year-on-year.

That prompted Goldman Sachs to push out the next interest rate cut to June from March.

“Our economists now expect the Fed to cut just twice in 2025 (Jun/Dec vs Mar/Jun/Dec previously), with another rate cut in June 2026, Goldman’s Economic Research note to clients on Jan. 10 said.

“If December’s FOMC decision marked a significant shift back towards inflation in the Fed’s relative weighting of risks, the December jobs report may have completed the pendulum swing. The soft average hourly earnings figure kept the print from sending a more alarming re-heating signal, but the case for cutting to mitigate risks to the labor market has faded into the background,” the note explained.

The Fed’s rate-cutting cycle began in September when the official reduced the benchmark borrowing cost by 50 basis points. The bank delivered quarter-point rate cuts in the following months before pausing in December to signal fewer rate cuts in 2025. BTC has surged over 50% since the first rate cut on Sept. 18, hitting record highs above $108,000 at one point.

While Goldman and JPMorgan still expect rate cuts, Bank of America (BofA) fears an extended pause, with risks skewed in favor of a rate hike or renewed tightening. Note that the U.S. 10-year Treasury note yield, which is sensitive to interest rate, growth and inflation expectations, has already surged by 100 basis points since the Sept. 18 rate cut.

“We think the cutting cycle is over … Our base case has the Fed on an extended hold. But we think the risks for the next move are skewed toward a hike,” BofA analysts said in a note, according to Reuters.

ING said, “The market is right to see the risk of an extended pause from the Fed” in the light of the recent economic reports.

“That view will only increase if core inflation comes in at 0.3% month-on-month for a fifth consecutive month next week,” ING said in a note to clients over the weekend.

The December consumer price index report is scheduled for release on Jan. 15. Some observers are worried that base effects could accelerate the headline CPI and the core CPI, adding to the hawkish Fed narrative.