On January 23, 2026, the American Bankers Association named halting yield-bearing stablecoins as a top 2026 priority, citing risks to deposits and community lending. Bank of America's Brian Moynihan warned up to $6 trillion could shift, while Circle's Jeremy Allaire and Binance's CZ defended stablecoin yields at the WEF.

Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission is drafting a regulatory framework for crypto exchange-traded funds and futures trading planned for 2026, enabling investors to allocate up to 5% of their portfolios to digital assets. The initiative includes recognizing crypto under the Derivatives Act, tightening rules on financial influencers, and launching a tokenization sandbox with the central bank to test bond tokens.

Certified Elliott Wave analyst XForceGlobal argues that XRP's year-long sideways range is a textbook Elliott Wave flat correction likely to end with a final sharp move before the uptrend resumes. He sees the market in an expanded flat where wave B has exceeded a prior high, warns of one more decisive shakeout that could undercut the $1.70 low, and maintains personal upside targets between $6 and $14, while XRP trades near $1.91. The analyst reports having already taken profits around $2.70 and plans to continue selling into strength depending on how price structure develops.

As January 2026 ends, crypto airdrops are shifting from simple giveaways to strategic reward models that favor real user engagement, loyalty, and capital commitment. Upcoming distributions from projects like Rainbow Wallet, Spacecoin, Solana Mobile, THORWallet, and SillyPong highlight a new era where points systems, hardware ownership, liquidity provision, and even stablecoin rewards define how users earn value from airdrops.

According to Pantera Capital, most cryptocurrencies apart from bitcoin have been in a deep bear market since December 2024, with the broader non‑BTC segment down 44% and a typical token losing about 79% of its value by the end of 2025. The firm notes that while bitcoin slipped only around 6% in 2025, many other tokens dropped close to 60% amid capitulation‑style selling and an October liquidation wave exceeding $20 billion. Pantera's 2026 outlook highlights structural issues in token value capture and suggests investment may shift toward bitcoin, stablecoin infrastructure, and equity‑linked crypto exposure rather than speculative token trading.

On January 23, 2026, Robert Kiyosaki said in an X post that he ignores price swings in Bitcoin, gold, silver, and Ethereum. He argued that rising U.S. national debt and declining dollar purchasing power matter more than short‑term volatility, so he keeps accumulating these assets regardless of day‑to‑day moves.

The meme coin market saw a sharp surge in trading activity this week, with 24-hour volume jumping over 30% to $3.47 billion despite a slight dip in total market capitalization. Traders rotated out of established leaders like DOGE and SHIB into high-risk newcomers, including PolitiFi tokens and Solana-based memes, with some Chinese-language meme coins posting gains above 48,000% in the past month.

In January 2026, decentralized exchanges on multiple chains processed more than $278B in trading volume, marking their strongest January in at least five years. While volumes remain below the absolute 2022 peak, activity on networks such as Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain and Base has surged, with Base alone reaching up to $3.39B in daily trades driven largely by Uniswap and Aerodrome.