In January 2026, U.S. crypto legislation stalled again as Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott’s market structure bill was pushed back to late February or March and faced resistance from Senate Judiciary leaders Chuck Grassley and Dick Durbin over a developer exemption. The Senate Agriculture Committee, led by John Boozman, set a January 27 markup without Democratic backing, while CFTC Chair Michael Selig launched the "Future-Proof" initiative and SEC Chair Paul Atkins oversaw a 60% drop in crypto enforcement actions in 2025, alongside new SEC–CFTC coordination efforts. These moves highlight how regulatory agencies are assuming a larger role as Congress struggles to finalize a durable framework for U.S. digital asset markets.

OpenAI, led by Sam Altman, is under intense pressure in 2026 after burning through about $9 billion last year and projections pointing to a possible $17 billion cash burn this year. Despite reporting more than $20 billion in 2025 revenue and claiming around 800 million weekly users, only a small fraction pay, while the firm is tied to $1.4 trillion in data center commitments. Investors are increasingly focused on costs, monetization and a potential IPO targeted for late 2026 or early 2027, amid growing competition from rivals like Anthropic and shifting market sentiment on AI funding.

GameStop transferred its 4,710 BTC to Coinbase Prime amid a softer market, with Bitcoin around $89,098. CryptoQuant said a sale near $90,800 could realize about $76 million in losses, while GME climbed roughly 6.7% after CEO Ryan Cohen bought 500,000 shares on January 21.

On January 23, Bitcoin rose 0.29% day over day to $89,139, while CoinStats indicated sellers had the upper hand late in the week. A failed move around $88,548 keeps focus on a possible drift toward $88,000 if no rebound appears by day's end, with $88,000-$91,000 consolidation favored and $85,225 in view next month if pressure persists.

On January 23, CertiK stated it is working toward a public listing as it aims to become the first publicly traded Web3 infrastructure firm, supported by a recent investment from Binance that makes the exchange its largest backer. The company is expanding its institutional security products through Skynet Enterprise and advancing formal verification with its Spoq engine, while reporting over $600 billion in secured assets, more than 180,000 detected vulnerabilities, and a valuation above $2 billion.

On January 23, 2026, Novo Nordisk shares advanced after the new oral Wegovy weight-loss pill logged 18,410 first-week prescriptions and outpaced Eli Lilly's Zepbound. The rally was reinforced by a Buy rating from Goldman Sachs, as investors focused on the drugmaker's earnings outlook and expanding position in the GLP-1 obesity market.

On 23 January 2026, Binance submitted an application in Greece for a Markets in Crypto‑Assets license that would grant it EU‑wide authorization under the bloc’s new regulatory regime. If approved, the exchange could passport its services across all member states, with Greece potentially serving as its main regulatory hub in a market where competition among jurisdictions for crypto firms is increasing.

According to on-chain data, Binance shifted 17,527,443,126 Shiba Inu tokens from a hot wallet to an internal cold storage address on the Ethereum network, prompting debate among SHIB holders. The transfer involved no ETH and cost less than $0.01 in gas fees, while SHIB was trading around $0.00000788 with stable volumes and no visible spike in selling pressure. Analysts suggest the operation appears to be a storage and reserve management move rather than a signal of imminent liquidation, though any sharp volatility this week could hint at a broader strategic rebalance.