On Jan. 9, Tether announced a partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to bolster cybersecurity awareness, digital asset safety, and anti-trafficking initiatives across Africa and other emerging regions. The joint programs include youth-focused cybersecurity education in Senegal, funding for anti-trafficking organizations in several African countries, and fraud-prevention initiatives tied to universities in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The collaboration aims to build safer digital ecosystems as crypto adoption accelerates in developing markets and digital crime risks increase.

According to TRM Labs' forthcoming 2026 Crypto Crime Report, UK-registered exchanges Zedcex and Zedxion operated as a single platform that routed about USD 1 billion, mostly in USDT on TRON, through wallets linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The analysis shows that IRGC-associated activity dominated Zedcex's flows in 2023, 2024, and 2025, including more than USD 10 million in late 2024 reportedly transferred directly to an OFAC-designated Houthi financier without intermediaries. TRM argues this case illustrates how offshore crypto exchanges can become long-term sanctions-evasion infrastructure rather than one-off laundering channels.

Since launching in November 2025, XRP ETFs have attracted $1.22 billion in cumulative inflows and added another $4.93 million on January 9, even as Bitcoin and Ethereum products saw sizable outflows. XRP is now trading near $2.08 within a tight $2.04–$2.13 range, with technical patterns and strong ETF demand pointing to a possible breakout if key resistance levels are cleared.

BNY Mellon has launched tokenized bank deposits for institutional clients, using an in-house permissioned blockchain to represent onchain cash claims fully backed by the bank. The initiative aims to improve settlement speed, transparency, and liquidity as U.S. regulators in September 2025 outlined plans for around-the-clock capital markets. Positioned alongside similar moves by major banks exploring real-world asset tokenization, the product is initially focused on collateral and margin use cases as part of a broader shift toward always-on finance.

In early January 2026, crypto reporter Eleanor Terrett reported that a newly formed group called Investors For Transparency began running prime-time Fox News ads urging opposition to DeFi-related provisions in the CLARITY Act. The campaign portrays decentralized finance as a regulatory threat, drawing criticism from industry figures who question the group's anonymous backing and warn that applying traditional banking rules to DeFi could damage the $120 billion decentralized lending market.

On January 1, 2026, the UK's HMRC brought in new rules requiring cryptocurrency platforms to gather and submit detailed user information to help recover an estimated £300 million in tax. The framework targets Capital Gains Tax on digital asset disposals, sets a £3,000 tax-free CGT allowance, and encourages investors to use self-assessment and voluntary disclosure for past gains.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chair John Boozman is weighing whether to delay a January 15 markup of a broad crypto market structure bill as bipartisan negotiations with Cory Booker continue. The talks aim to strengthen cross-party backing for the legislation while parallel action in the Senate Banking Committee and pressure from the White House highlight growing urgency around digital asset regulation. At the same time, US community bankers are urging Congress to tighten the GENIUS Act to curb stablecoin-related rewards they say could pull deposits from local banks.

In the third quarter of 2025, Tiger Global Management founder Chase Coleman sold Meta Platforms shares valued at about $3.49 billion and reduced stakes in several other major public companies. Over the same period, he opened new positions in tech names including MongoDB, with an investment of roughly $105.84 million, and Netflix, with a stake of around $242.06 million.