On January 11, 2026, Polymarket announced a partnership with Parcl to create prediction markets tied to median home prices in major U.S. cities such as Miami and Los Angeles. The monthly markets, which first settle on February 1 using Parcl's housing index, let users stake money on whether prices will rise or fall as the housing market grapples with high mortgage rates and limited supply. While Polymarket remains largely waitlist-only in the U.S., competitors like Kalshi and Robinhood are already broadly accessible.

According to TRM Labs' 2026 Crypto Crime Report, illicit crypto inflows reached $158 billion in 2025, a 145% rise from $64.5 billion in 2024. The share of illicit activity fell to 1.5% of on-chain volume and 2.7% of VASP inflows, while Russia-linked A757 and A7 saw $72 billion and $39 billion respectively.

U.S. lawmakers are reviving the Clarity Act, a market structure bill that would establish the first comprehensive legal framework for digital assets. Senate Agriculture and Banking Committees plan to hold hearings on Thursday to revise their sections, addressing stablecoin rewards, DeFi liability, and whether public officials like Donald Trump can profit from crypto while in office. The committees aim to merge their drafts and move the combined bill to a Senate vote ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Americans have lost more than $333 million to scams conducted through crypto ATMs, with $240 million disappearing in the first half of 2025. In response, cities like Spokane and Stillwater have passed local bans, while several other states and municipalities are weighing restrictions or tighter oversight. Industry participants and legal experts argue the machines expose deeper gaps in banking access, even as authorities focus on their role in fast, irreversible fraud.

Venezuela's main stock benchmark, the IBVC, climbed 124% over five trading days last week following the removal of Nicolas Maduro by U.S. forces. Despite the dramatic move and renewed foreign interest, the market remains very small, with fewer than 40 listed firms and annual stock and bond trading barely exceeding $200,000 in 2026. A new ETF has been filed with the U.S. SEC to target companies linked to Venezuela, even as the bolivar slides and liquidity constraints persist.

On January 10, 2026, Jim Cramer urged investors not to chase Apple or Nvidia, citing a calm unemployment report and ongoing market rotation. He said money is moving toward storage and equipment names, and flagged near‑term catalysts including Tuesday's December CPI, the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference, and the start of earnings with JPMorgan Chase.

Mike Burry disclosed in a Substack post that he holds put options on Oracle and has also shorted the shares over the past six months. He points to the company's aggressive cloud and AI build-out, about $95 billion in total debt, and a stock that jumped 36% in September before ending the year roughly 40% below that peak.

In the third quarter of last year, U.S. workers received 53.8% of GDP through wages and salaries, the lowest share since the BLS labor share series began in 1947. Over the same period, labor productivity registered its fastest increase in two years, while employers added 50,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate eased to 4.4% amid subdued hiring. Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin highlighted that firms are leaning on productivity gains, keeping hiring modest even as GDP and corporate profits expand.

According to TRM Labs, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps allegedly used two UK-based exchanges, Zedcex and Zedxion, to route about $1 billion in crypto since early 2023, mostly USDT on the TRON network. Investigators said IRGC-linked flows accounted for 56% of these platforms’ volume between 2023 and 2025 and traced activity across 187 sanctioned wallet addresses.