In January 2026, crypto venture funding activity fell to a five-year low, with only 67 completed fundraising rounds and a largest single raise of $250M. YziLabs led four deals and Coinbase Ventures backed three, while AI, payments, DeFi, and blockchain infrastructure drew most of the capital. Token sales also cooled, as 37 IDO or ICO events raised $116.9M amid weaker demand for new project tokens.

On January 27 2026, silver trading on Hyperliquid's HIP-3 platform drove record daily volumes of $1.79B, while a rapid price reversal from above $120 to around $101 per ounce wiped out leveraged positions. One whale on the XYZ: silver perpetual futures pair reportedly saw over $8.99B liquidated in a single transaction, contributing to a total of $11M in on-chain silver liquidations.

In a recent X post, Vitalik Buterin said the Ethereum Foundation will adopt an austerity approach and that he will take on more responsibilities, allocating 16,384 ETH over the next five years, with part staked. The Foundation retains 172K ETH, and ETH traded at $2,733.58 following a market downturn.

In 2025 and early 2026, the estimated volume of "lost" BTC decreased as long-dormant wallets began to move coins and early holders adjusted their positions. Billions of dollars' worth of BTC that had been idle for years were transferred for reasons ranging from profit-taking and custody changes to privacy and security concerns. On-chain data show more activity from coins held for over a decade, while newer cohorts favor active trading instead of extended holding.

On January 29, 2026, a newly created whale wallet accumulated almost $7M worth of Tether's XAUT tokens transferred out of Bybit's hot wallet. XAUT trading volumes climbed to a one-month high and open interest reached a record level, while the token traded at a slight premium to spot gold amid renewed demand for gold-backed assets.

Updated January 28, 2026, Bybit EU Co-CEO Georg Harer said at a roundtable that tokenization could become the backbone and rails of future financial infrastructure. He also addressed security, noting Bybit survived a $1.5B heist and has strengthened measures under MiCAR while advocating exchange cooperation against fraud.

Solana’s meme token segment has entered a fresh upswing, with Pump.fun and PumpSwap reportedly producing $5.4M in daily fees and surpassing Hyperliquid’s 24-hour revenue. Meme token creation and trading have climbed back toward an 11-month peak, with more than 320,000 addresses and 13,690 creators returning, while legacy tokens like WIF, PENGU, and PIPPIN see renewed activity.

On January 27, 2026, Ethereum contributors outlined the ERC-8004 standard, which is intended to bring structured AI agent-to-agent communication and settlement to the mainnet and L2 networks. The proposal focuses on agent discovery and portable reputation so that AI services can interact across organizations without additional screening, while developers can choose among several trust models to manage value at risk. Supporters expect wider AI agent usage to contribute to high on-chain activity and potentially strengthen the market for reputational tools such as ENS names.

CME Group reported record crypto derivatives activity in Q4 2025, with engagement, volumes, and open interest all reaching new highs as ETH, SOL, and XRP futures and options gained traction among institutional traders. Over the past year, CME cleared more than $3T in notional crypto futures and options, with average daily volumes more than doubling to 280K contracts and open interest rising to 313K contracts. The exchange is preparing 24/7 trading for its crypto markets, new ADA, LINK, and XLM contracts from February 9, and a Nasdaq CME Crypto Index planned by the end of 2025.