DXC Technology and Ripple announced a strategic alliance to deliver institutional crypto custody and payment capabilities, integrating Ripple’s stack with DXC’s Hogan core banking platform. The move coincides with Binance listing Ripple’s stablecoin RLUSD, with deposits opening on January 22. RLUSD’s market cap has reached $1.4 billion, and initial trading pairs include USDT and XRP.

Neynar has acquired Farcaster, the decentralized social protocol built on Ethereum and Optimism, after the project's peak valuation of around $1 billion. Farcaster raised about $180 million across rounds, including a $150 million Series A in May 2024 led by Paradigm. According to Neynar, it will maintain the protocol, support clients, operate Clanker, and integrate Farcaster's technology over the next quarter.

On January 21, Ondo Finance deployed more than 200 tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs on the Solana blockchain, expanding its presence beyond Ethereum and BNB Chain. The move makes Ondo the largest real-world asset issuer on Solana by asset count and lets users trade tokenized equities onchain at brokerage-level prices. ONDO’s market performance remains volatile around this launch, with locked value, trading volume and token unlocks closely watched by traders.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry plans to publish new crypto market‑structure legislative text on January 21, following a January 13 announcement and ahead of a January 27 markup. The draft addresses issues such as whether memecoins qualify as "digital goods," token classification, and CFTC oversight funding, while Coinbase's Brian Armstrong has criticized earlier Banking Committee drafts as having "serious issues."

On January 21, 2026, Chainlink introduced on-chain data streams for US stocks and ETFs, offering real-time coverage 24 hours a day, five days a week, including premarket and after-hours. The service spans more than 40 blockchains and opens access to an American equity market valued at $80 trillion. Early integrations include Lighter, BitMEX, ApeX, and Orderly Network.

On 21 January 2026 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Donald Trump said comprehensive US crypto legislation could reach his desk and made its passage a priority. Progress in Congress has been slowed by disputes over stablecoin rewards, with Coinbase withdrawing support and a Senate committee delaying a vote. Officials and industry leaders are urging compromise to keep momentum intact.

On 21 January 2026, Patrick Witt, executive director of the President's Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, urged the U.S. crypto sector to accept trade-offs and advance a market structure bill. He cautioned that waiting for a perfect statute could lead to tougher, crisis-era rules later and said the present political alignment offers a rare chance to shape outcomes.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said he intends to fully rely on decentralized social media in 2026 and is already using the Firefly multi-client for all of his posts and reading. He argued that shared data layers and competition can improve online communication and criticized past token-driven crypto social experiments for focusing on speculation over content quality. He previously donated 256 ETH to privacy-focused messaging projects Session and SimpleX to advance encrypted communication and metadata protection.