On January 27, 2026, Ethereum contributors outlined the ERC-8004 standard, which is intended to bring structured AI agent-to-agent communication and settlement to the mainnet and L2 networks. The proposal focuses on agent discovery and portable reputation so that AI services can interact across organizations without additional screening, while developers can choose among several trust models to manage value at risk. Supporters expect wider AI agent usage to contribute to high on-chain activity and potentially strengthen the market for reputational tools such as ENS names.

Ethereum is preparing to deploy ERC-8004 on mainnet, a MetaMask-developed standard for trustless discovery and verification of AI agents. A possible Thursday rollout was indicated, and an update on January 27, 2026 said the launch would happen on mainnet "soon." The standard enables portable reputation and cross-organization agent interactions.

On January 30, Hong Kong's Legislative Council Finance Committee will brief lawmakers on proposals for a Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework. Public comments remain open until February 6, 2026, and the plan targets an automatic exchange of crypto tax information by 2028 to align with OECD standards and strengthen cross-border transparency.

On 28 January 2026, a new application called Breakout went live on Base, creating an onchain market that allows users to trade on shifts in Crypto Twitter attention instead of token prices. The dApp offers weekly markets where participants outside the US speculate on which curated crypto accounts are gaining or losing relative visibility, backed by more than $30,000 in initial liquidity. It is positioned within the broader "InfoFi" trend, where information signals, rather than traditional securities, become the basis for financial instruments.

Nearly four in ten US merchants now accept cryptocurrency at checkout. A survey conducted in October among 619 payment decision-makers reported strong customer interest, with almost nine in ten receiving crypto payment inquiries and 84% expecting crypto payments to become mainstream within five years.

Rodeo will wind down after struggling to scale, according to CEO Kayvon Tehranian. It will operate normally Jan. 27–Feb. 10, move to read-only from Feb. 10, and shut off by March 10, with media and metadata migration via Arweave. Nifty Gateway extended its asset transfer deadline to April 23.

On 28 January 2026, authorities tracking illicit crypto flows confronted a professionalized laundering layer embedded in Chinese-language financial networks. Stablecoins and self-custodied wallets enable rapid cross-border movement, shifting enforcement from tracing single wallets to disrupting the networks that process these funds.

On January 28, 2026, Mesh Connect reached a $1 billion valuation after closing a new funding round, signaling growing confidence in crypto payments infrastructure. The company is processing close to $10 billion in monthly transactions and plans to expand in Latin America, Asia, and Europe, focusing on deeper integrations rather than direct consumer outreach.