As of January 22, 2026, U.S. lawmakers moved closer to a committee markup on a crypto market structure bill, though partisan divisions remain. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong withdrew support while a16z backed the text, and the Senate's schedule may slide toward late February. The House Agriculture Committee advanced its version 47 to 6, and the Senate draft includes protections for noncustodial developers and a definition for meme coins.

In a January 22 2026 interview, Maelstrom CIO and BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes argued that the easy-money phase in crypto has ended and that revenue now determines which tokens, stablecoins and venues will endure. He said Bitcoin still dominates while many altcoins are "zombie" projects, outlined why only a few stablecoin models such as Tether, Ethena and large banks have durable moats, and predicted that decentralized exchanges could steadily take market share from centralized platforms. Hayes also discussed his focus on cash-flowing businesses, risks in policy-driven macro shocks, and how memecoins reflect pockets of crypto market sentiment.

In a 2026 interview, Maelstrom CIO Arthur Hayes argued that global liquidity conditions, rather than politics or regulation, were the key forces behind crypto's rally and subsequent turbulence in 2025. He attributed much of that year's momentum to DAT-driven demand and linked Bitcoin's April bottom to market reactions after a Trump administration tariff shock. Hayes keeps an aggressive 2026 base case of $250,000 for BTC and $5,000 for ETH, tied to US deficits, stealth QE, and potential banking rule changes, while warning that most altcoins could trend toward zero as capital rotates into revenue-generating protocols.

On January 16, 2026, Atomic Wallet reported online that it could not verify a user’s allegation of losing 633 Monero (around $479,000) through its platform. The company said no support ticket had been filed, screenshots were insufficient proof given Monero’s privacy, and noted unusual activity on the complainant’s X account. The user, posting as Nicolas van Saberhagen, blamed reliance on closed-source wallet software after claiming his XMR balance dropped to zero as the Monero network processed valid transactions.

On January 15, 2026, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the company has withdrawn support for the US Senate's crypto market structure bill after a 48-hour review of the Banking Committee draft. According to his post on X, the text would ban tokenized equities, constrain DeFi, expand SEC authority, weaken CFTC oversight, and curb stablecoin rewards.

In 2025, crypto saw fewer rug pulls but larger losses. Major collapses included Mantra's OM, which plunged over 90% in April as roughly $6 billion evaporated, plus Pi Network's post-mainnet dump and the MetaYield Farm disappearance. Overall theft reached $3.4 billion, with February's $1.5 billion Bybit hack and politically themed memecoins inflicting heavy damage.

Arkham Intelligence data indicates that crypto wallets associated with the US Government transferred more than $225 million in USDT, funds allegedly seized from pig-butchering fraud schemes. The size of the transfer aligns with a stablecoin seizure exceeding $225 million that the US Department of Justice disclosed in June 2025, linked to a large money-laundering network and hundreds of victims. Court documents describe how US Secret Service and FBI investigators traced hundreds of thousands of crypto transactions as part of the operation.

On December 24, 2025, India's Enforcement Directorate conducted coordinated searches under the PMLA, raiding 21 residential and office locations across Karnataka, Maharashtra, and New Delhi. The case names 4th Bloc Consultants and involves allegedly fake crypto investment platforms that targeted investors in India and abroad; no arrests have been announced.

A major Pump.fun whale moved about 3.8 billion PUMP tokens worth roughly $7.3 million to FalconX, crystallizing an estimated $12 million loss after accumulating the position between September 12 and November 4 at around $19.5 million. Over the past 90 days PUMP has fallen more than 71%, while another large holder shifted over 16 million Ethena (ENA) tokens to Coinbase Prime at a steep drawdown, underscoring broader weakness in speculative altcoins.