In 2026, ten browser extensions anchor everyday Web3 activity across wallets, trading, research, and security. The lineup spans MetaMask, Phantom, Coinbase Wallet, Trust Wallet, Brave Wallet, Uniswap Extension, Rabby, DeFiLlama, Wallet Guard, and 1inch, reflecting user priorities around adoption, protection, and DeFi features. Highlights include large user bases, multi-chain support, embedded security scans, and advanced DEX aggregation.

On January 21, 2026 in Warsaw, Mana Minds announced a strategic partnership with Wanda Exchange to distribute a regulated crypto gift card product across Europe. The Wanda Crypto Gift Card leverages Wanda Exchange’s licensed VASP platform in Poland and Mana Minds’ global distribution network to offer retailers a compliant way to sell digital assets, with support for multiple major cryptocurrencies and flexible denominations.

Steak 'n Shake plans to introduce a Bitcoin bonus of $0.21 for every hour worked by hourly employees starting March 1, 2026, in partnership with the Fold rewards app. The bonus, which can total about $436 annually for a full-time worker, will vest after two years and has drawn both criticism over its limited value and praise as a way to familiarize staff with cryptocurrency. During this rollout, Bitcoin is trading around $88,732 with weekly losses reflecting broader market pressures.

On January 20, Aave shifted stewardship of Lens Protocol's social applications to Mask Network, assigning the Web3 firm to lead consumer-facing product development while Lens remains open-source. Aave will now focus on its core DeFi business and act only as a technical advisor, with no change to Lens's ownership, smart contracts, or governance. Vitalik Buterin later praised Lens's evolution and voiced optimism about the future of decentralized social platforms built on shared data layers.

In a 2026 interview, Maelstrom CIO Arthur Hayes argued that global liquidity conditions, rather than politics or regulation, were the key forces behind crypto's rally and subsequent turbulence in 2025. He attributed much of that year's momentum to DAT-driven demand and linked Bitcoin's April bottom to market reactions after a Trump administration tariff shock. Hayes keeps an aggressive 2026 base case of $250,000 for BTC and $5,000 for ETH, tied to US deficits, stealth QE, and potential banking rule changes, while warning that most altcoins could trend toward zero as capital rotates into revenue-generating protocols.

On January 21 2026, onchain metrics indicated that Bitcoin holders have entered their first 30-day period of realized losses since October 2023, with prices slipping under the $90,000 mark and dropping 7.11% over the past week. The market downturn has coincided with record-breaking gold prices, a slide in spot Bitcoin ETF flows, and a decline in the crypto fear and greed index to “extreme fear,” even as large institutional buyers continue to accumulate Bitcoin.

On January 17, Donald Trump announced tariffs starting at 10% on goods from eight European nations, rising to 25% on June 1, a move that coincided with a sharp drop in Bitcoin and other risk assets. Despite the renewed focus on acquiring Greenland, crypto-based prediction markets currently assign only a 20% probability that the U.S. will complete a Greenland takeover by December 31, 2026, and 30% by March 31 this year. Analysts argue that these platforms can offer useful sentiment signals but warn that thin liquidity and speculative trading mean their odds should not be treated as definitive forecasts.

On 21 January 2026, Bhutan outlined plans to start operating a validator on the Sei Network in the first quarter, moving the country directly into the consensus layer of a public proof-of-stake blockchain. The initiative is led by Druk Holding and Investments in collaboration with the Sei Development Foundation and could later extend to tokenization, digital payments, and identity-linked services.