On January 21, 2026, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said he intends to fully rejoin decentralized social networks in 2026. He stressed the need for mass communication tools that prioritize long-term value and user empowerment, noting he has been using firefly.social and plans to post more on Lens while encouraging activity on Farcaster.

On January 21, 2026, CoinGate released its 2025 data report, indicating a structural shift in business crypto usage. The processor handled 1.42 million payments, with Bitcoin at 22.1%, stablecoins at 29.8%, and USDC orders up 1264% year-over-year. Merchant settlements in stablecoins rose to 25.2%, while USDC captured 83.4% of payouts as automation via API became standard.

Blockchain security firm SlowMist warned that attackers re-registered expired domains tied to long-standing Snap Store publishers, enabling fake wallet updates to harvest recovery seed phrases. In a post on X, its CISO 23pds said the scheme impersonates Exodus, Ledger Live and Trust Wallet, and confirmed publisher domains storewise[.]tech and vagueentertainment[.]com were compromised.

Crypto analyst Dom has highlighted a triple tap pattern around the $1.80 area on the XRP chart, describing it as the final stage of a potential bottom formation and warning that further downside could lead to a breakdown. Another analyst, Egrag Crypto, sees XRP still trading within a broader range between roughly $1.85–$1.95 support and $3.40–$3.60 resistance, while also flagging the 21 EMA as downward-sloping resistance. XRP is currently trading near $1.90 and has given back most of its yearly gains following a wider market downturn and a drop below the key $2 psychological level.

Ripple’s U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin RLUSD has been officially listed on Binance, where it will initially trade on Ethereum with XRP Ledger support to follow. Binance is launching XRP/RLUSD and RLUSD/USDT pairs and plans to add RLUSD to its Earn products, while RLUSD’s market cap has recently moved above $1.3 billion amid growing institutional DeFi use.

Canary XRP ETF (XRPC) ended the last session at $20.26, 23.9% below its launch level after briefly reaching the mid-$26 range. The fund fell about 8.5% in the latest session and more than 10% across five trading days, while XRP traded at $1.91 with weekly losses near 10%.

On 20 January 2026, Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds saw notable net outflows as prices slipped below key thresholds, while Solana ETFs continued to register modest inflows. Over the past week, Bitcoin dropped to around $89,000 and Ether fell below $3,000, whereas Solana traded near $127 despite also posting double‑digit percentage losses. At the same time, risk‑off sentiment tied to geopolitical and trade tensions coincided with rising demand for gold and silver as perceived safe‑haven assets.

The Gates Foundation and OpenAI launched Horizon1000, a $50 million initiative to deploy AI across African health systems, starting in Rwanda. The program aims to support up to 1,000 primary clinics by 2028 and address severe staffing gaps, with an AI health hub already established in Kigali. Experts welcome potential benefits but flag risks around errors, privacy, bias, and language barriers.