On January 26 2026, reports indicated that Masayoshi Son has halted SoftBank’s planned $50 billion acquisition of U.S. data center operator Switch, a deal meant to underpin the $500 billion Stargate AI infrastructure initiative. SoftBank instead completed a $3 billion purchase of DigitalBridge and is now exploring smaller investment or partnership structures with Switch, while its aggressive AI spending and use of Arm shares for margin loans draw fresh scrutiny from credit rating agencies. The shelved buyout leaves Stargate’s data center strategy unresolved as Switch’s backers weigh a potential IPO valuing the company at about $60 billion including debt.

Synthesia has raised $200 million at a $4 billion valuation to develop interactive AI video avatars focused on sales training, recruitment, and internal HR use. The London startup, backed in this round by GV, Nvidia, Accel, Hedosophia, and Evantic Capital, is shifting away from consumer-facing media toward enterprise training and communications. Led by CEO Victor Riparbelli, the company reports annual recurring revenue exceeding $100 million and is testing new question-answering avatars with clients including Microsoft, UBS, and Ford.

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT alleged that an individual known as Lick, identified as John Daghita—the son of CMDSS CEO Dean Daghita—diverted funds from US government-controlled wallets. He traced activity including a $24.9 million transfer in March 2024 tied to Bitfinex seizure assets, and cited chat evidence showing balances and moves. No criminal charges have been announced.

According to U.Today, Bitcoin is on track for its first four-month losing streak since 2018 after declines of 3.69% in October, 17.67% in November and 2.97% in December. If January ends lower, the run is confirmed. Over the past 13 months, silver rose 270% while BTC fell 11%, and silver’s market cap is 3.5x Bitcoin’s.

Over the weekend, Tezos brought its Tallinn protocol upgrade online, shrinking base-layer block intervals to 6 seconds and enabling all validators to attest to each block via aggregated BLS signatures. The release also adds address indexing that reduces storage demands for applications, marking Tezos’ twentieth on-chain governance-driven protocol change.

On January 26, 2026, Token Terminal reported that active loans on Ethereum-based lending protocols exceeded $28 billion, around a 10x rebound from January 2023 lows. The network’s lending activity also stands roughly 10x ahead of the second-place chain. Separately, Token Terminal said stablecoin issuers on Ethereum earned about $5 billion last year.

Coinbase withdrew its support for the Clarity Act, citing concerns that the measure could undermine stablecoin yield opportunities, and the bill is now reportedly stalled in the Senate. Bitcoin traded below $90,000 as broader crypto markets weakened, with BTC at $87,808.64 and 24-hour losses of 0.94%.

On 26 January 2026, JPMorgan Chase acquired UK-based WealthOS, a cloud-native platform for pensions and investments. The move expands the bank's footprint in the UK's digital pensions market and brings in infrastructure focused on automation, scalability, and compliance. Financial terms were not disclosed.