On February 3, 2026, Tether Holdings revealed it has built a gold position of about 140 tons worth $23 billion, placing it among the world's largest private bullion holders. The company bought over 70 tons last year for reserves and its XAUT gold-backed stablecoin and is currently adding more than a ton per week, while XAUT has climbed nearly 4% in 24 hours and posted strong weekly and monthly gains.

On February 1, 2026, Ark Invest projected that tokenized real-world assets may surpass $11 trillion in value by 2030, up from an estimated $19–22 billion today. The firm expects growth to be driven by institutional adoption, clearer regulation and tokenization of assets such as sovereign debt, bank deposits and public equities.

On January 18, 2026, BitGo outlined plans to raise about $201 million through a US initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "BTGO." The institutional crypto custodian will sell 11 million new Class A shares plus 821,595 shares from existing holders at an indicative price of $15 to $17, while keeping a dual-class voting structure that leaves CEO Michael Belshe with majority control.

On January 3, 2026, Grayscale filed with the U.S. SEC to convert its Bittensor trust into a spot ETF. The proposal, submitted Tuesday, would list on NYSE Arca under GTAO with Coinbase Custody and BitGo as custodians. After Bittensor's mid‑December halving, TAO later stabilized near $222, according to The Block.

On December 29, 2025, analysis showed references to blockchain in US SEC filings climbed to record levels during 2025, with Bitcoin taking the largest share. Mentions rose to around 8,000 by August and stayed high into November as new federal rules and ETF activity pushed institutions toward regulated Bitcoin exposure.

On December 18, 2025, the US Senate confirmed Michael Selig as chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in a 53-43 vote. The move follows an October nomination by President Donald Trump after withdrawing Brian Quintenz and comes as Congress debates bills that could expand the CFTC's authority over cryptocurrency markets.

Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon was sentenced to 15 years in a New York federal court on December 12, 2025. The case involves fraud linked to TerraUSD and Luna, whose 2022 collapse erased about $40 billion in market value. He pleaded guilty in August to wire fraud and conspiracy, and prosecutors sought additional financial penalties.

Hong Kong has transitioned Project Ensemble from sandbox testing to live pilot operations, enabling real-value transactions with tokenized deposits and digital assets. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced the initial focus will include tokenized money-market fund transactions and real-time treasury management. Interbank settlements will utilize the HKD Real Time Gross Settlement system.

Harvard University raised its stake in BlackRock's IBIT spot bitcoin ETF to 6.8 million shares valued at $442.8 million as of September 30, according to regulatory filings. The holding expanded 257% from 1.9 million shares reported in June. IBIT now represents Harvard's largest declared US investment, surpassing positions in Microsoft, Amazon, and the SPDR Gold Trust.