On 7 January 2026, Deutsche Bank released research projecting tokenized real‑world assets to reach about $1.5–$2 trillion by 2030 and roughly $3–$4 trillion by 2035. The study says adoption will be gradual, with liquidity and regulation as key constraints, and suggests the United States could strengthen dollar dominance by leading tokenized market infrastructure.

On January 7, 2026, Rumble and Tether unveiled a non-custodial wallet for creators, integrating with Rumble's tipping tools. The wallet supports USDT, XAUt and BTC, and uses Tether's WDK; MoonPay provides a fiat on-ramp via cards, Apple Pay, PayPal and Venmo. It embeds censorship-resistant payments directly into the platform.

On January 7, 2026, Archax said it partnered with Lloyds Banking Group and the Canton Network to execute the UK’s first Gilt purchase settled with tokenised sterling deposits. The flow used tokenised deposits issued on Canton and a tokenised UK Gilt from Archax, demonstrating interoperability with Lloyds’ traditional accounts.

On January 7, 2026 in Miami, Everstake announced a partnership with Cometh to offer EU institutions a compliant route from bank transfers to crypto staking and back to fiat. Clients complete KYC/KYB, receive a dedicated IBAN and smart account, convert deposits into eligible assets, and stake via Everstake, with rewards settled in fiat.

Dfns has incorporated Concordium's layer-1 identity features into its wallet-as-a-service platform to offer verified Web3 wallets for institutional compliance. The move builds on Dfns' collaboration with IBM and targets banks and enterprises needing privacy-preserving identity controls. The integration aims to streamline onboarding to tokenized assets, stablecoins and on-chain financial services.

According to Reuters, Barclays acquired a stake in Ubyx, a U.S.-based stablecoin settlement startup, as it pursues tokenized money within regulation. Ubyx launched in 2025 and raised $10 million in July, and Barclays joined a 10-bank consortium in October to assess a regulated stablecoin pegged to a basket of G7 currencies.

On January 6, 2026 in Cape Town, QIE Blockchain announced that its validator program is now open to new participants, coinciding with the project's listing on the MEXC exchange. The network reported over 4,000 teams joining its first global developer conference and hackathon, resulting in 180 dApps on the QIE mainnet, while validators share 50,000 QIE in monthly rewards that halve every two years alongside a gas fee burn mechanism.

Visa's crypto-linked card net spend climbed 525% in 2025, rising from $14.6 million in January to $91.3 million in December. The expansion, supported by stablecoin settlement across multiple blockchains, reflects wider use of digital assets for everyday payments. EtherFi led with roughly $55.4 million, followed by Cypher at approximately $20.5 million.