On 10 January 2026, Nasdaq and CME Group consolidated their crypto benchmarks into the joint Nasdaq-CME Crypto Index. The basket covers large, liquid assets including Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, Solana, Chainlink, Cardano, and Avalanche to provide market-wide exposure. The collaboration lays groundwork for ETFs and derivatives aimed at institutional investors.

According to a blog post published on Friday, the Pi Network Core Team released a developer library that enables Pi payment integration in under ten minutes. PI has stalled, with recent upside capped below $0.22 and trading just under $0.21, while upcoming unlocks average under 4.5 million coins per day with spikes near 5.5 million.

Ripple obtained fresh approvals from the UK Financial Conduct Authority to operate a regulated digital‑asset and fiat payment stack, embedding its infrastructure in the country's financial system. Aimed at institutional rails rather than retail speculation, the move saw muted market impact, with XRP activity briefly rising on January 6 before fading in the following sessions.

Nasdaq and CME Group have consolidated their separate crypto benchmarks into a single Nasdaq-CME Crypto Index aimed at institutional investors. The index evolves from the former Nasdaq Crypto Index and currently tracks a diversified basket of assets including Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana, Chainlink, Cardano and Avalanche. By focusing on broad market exposure instead of single tokens, the new benchmark is designed to support the next phase of index-based crypto products such as ETFs and structured instruments.

Ripple Markets UK Ltd, a subsidiary of Ripple, has obtained registration as a cryptoasset firm from the UK Financial Conduct Authority under anti-money laundering regulations. The approval allows the company to offer cryptoasset and e-money services in the UK and strengthen its institutional partnerships. Following this regulatory milestone, XRP is trading around $2.09 with multibillion-dollar daily volume and a large market capitalization.

On Friday, Betterment customers reported an unauthorized notification urging them to send up to $10,000 in Bitcoin and Ethereum for a promise of triple returns within a three-hour window. Betterment later said the message mimicked an official promotion but was sent via a third-party communications platform and was not a real offer. The incident coincides with ongoing social engineering and wallet-drain campaigns targeting EVM-compatible networks through phishing and malicious extensions.

Memecoin metrics swung from a mid-December slide to an early January rebound. Sector capitalization climbed from around $38 billion to near $48 billion before easing to $44.69 billion, with volume up 17.42% to $4.75 billion. BONK, SHIB, and PEPE posted double-digit weekly gains, while smaller tokens like WIF and FARTCOIN also advanced.

At the start of 2026, GMT sharply reversed its prior downtrend, jumping 40% in a week and climbing to $0.02260 with a 30% intraday move. The token broke out of a multi-week consolidation range, with RSI in overbought territory, CMF turning positive, and 24‑hour volume soaring over 1020% to $326.49 million. Derivatives data show over $1.55 million in shorts liquidated versus $355k in longs and open interest up more than 245% to $55.08 million, supporting expectations that GMT could test resistance near $0.02600 and potentially target $0.0300 to $0.03600 if momentum holds.