Binance launched a four-week WLFI airdrop on January 23, 2026, running through February 20. The exchange will distribute $40 million, allocating $10 million per week to users holding USD1, with rewards sent to Spot wallets by 18:00 UTC on Fridays. Eligibility requires net USD1 balances and full KYC, with certain regions excluded.

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire told attendees at the World Economic Forum in Davos that, within three to five years, billions of autonomous AI agents could use crypto and stablecoins to handle routine payments. He argued that stablecoins are the only practical foundation for AI-native economic systems, a view echoed by Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao, while new protocols from Coinbase and Google aim to support this emerging form of AI-driven commerce.

The SEC and CFTC will host a joint event at CFTC headquarters to advance regulatory harmonization for digital assets, led by Chairs Paul Atkins and Michael Selig. The initiative targets overlapping rules and seeks clearer oversight aligned with the current administration’s crypto agenda.

Peter Schiff argued on X that Bitcoin's best run ended once Wall Street embraced it, saying it has underperformed since. From 2024 into early 2026, institutions expanded with spot ETFs, new trading venues and custody, while BTC briefly touched $90,000 before pulling back. Debate now centers on whether this reflects underperformance or market maturity.

On Thursday, with Bitcoin trading just above $89,000 after sliding below $90,000 earlier in the week, Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor posted on X that he was "thinking about buying more bitcoin." The remark revived speculation about another near-term BTC purchase by Strategy, which recently increased its holdings to 709,715 BTC worth over $60 billion and has spent roughly $3.4 billion on additional coins in the past two weeks. Despite this, market reaction stayed subdued, with MSTR shares slipping 1.4% and BTC still struggling to reclaim the $90,000 level.

According to PwC's Global Crypto Regulation Report, 2026 will mark a turn from rulemaking to full-scale enforcement, with clearer frameworks spurring jurisdictional competition. The analysis highlights the EU's MiCA rollout, a U.S. focus on regulated stablecoin payments amid the delayed CLARITY Act, and U.K. plans to bring crypto under FSMA oversight.

On January 22, 2026, Maple said it is live on Base, the Coinbase-incubated Layer 2, extending institutional-grade credit and yield products to the network’s users. According to Maple, it has facilitated more than $17 billion in loans, with "Aave support on the way" and Chainlink enabling secure cross-chain access between Base and Ethereum.

On January 22, 2026, Chainlink announced it acquired FastLane's Atlas and folded its order-flow/OEV recapture stack into Security Verified Revenue. Atlas will now exclusively back SVR, with a migration path for RedStone users. The companies say SVR has processed more than $460 million in liquidations and recaptured over $10 million.

On January 21, 2026, Ray Dalio argued that the fiat monetary system, domestic politics, and global geopolitics are breaking down. In posts shared over the past 24 hours, he said central banks are reassessing fiat currencies and U.S. dollar debt as stores of wealth, while the U.S.–foreign debt relationship is fraying and China has continued reducing its Treasury exposure.