Crypto Briefs is your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptocurrency and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news. Exchanges news Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME Group), a major financial derivatives marketplace, said today that January 2020 was Bitcoin futures' second-best month since their 2017 launch, averaging 10,800 contracts, 69% greater than the average daily volume in 2019. Also, according to them, new options on Bitcoin futures are a...

The popular oft-debated narrative of Bitcoin (BTC) as a safe haven is being tested yet again, following the U.S. strike in Iran. (Updated at 17:00 UTC: updates in bold). Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force, and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis were killed in an air strike on their convoy in Baghdad airport by the U.S. airstrike late on Thursday, reports Reuters. Veteran war-zone correspondent and political analyst Elijah J. Magnier posted a Twitter t...