Since October, shares of major crypto exchange operators have dropped 40–60% amid a severe contraction in spot trading activity. Monthly spot volumes fell from roughly $2.3 trillion in October to $120–150 billion in January 2026, while an October 10 liquidation event erased about $19 billion in positions, raising concerns over market depth.

Unsealed U.S. Department of Justice records related to Jeffrey Epstein reference a July 2014 email about Blockstream’s oversubscribed $18 million seed round and a separate May 8, 2010 note naming Michael Saylor’s $25,000 charity donation. The DOJ has said a name appearing in the materials does not, by itself, indicate wrongdoing.

South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service is upgrading its AI-powered VISTA platform to detect unfair crypto trading, after expanding computing capacity in December. Officials plan phased enhancements through year-end funded by 170 million won, within a legal framework that enables heavy fines and, in extreme cases, life imprisonment for manipulation.

Over the weekend, over $250 billion was wiped from the crypto market as Bitcoin fell from around $84,000 to roughly $76,000 and Ethereum also dropped sharply. Analyst Raoul Pal attributed the downturn to tightening U.S. dollar liquidity driven by Treasury cash flows, the reverse repo drawdown, and a strong gold rally, arguing crypto remains tied to macro risk sentiment rather than suffering a structural breakdown.

The U.S. OCC granted Nubank conditional authority to organize a national bank 121 days after its September 30, 2025 application. Regulators set 12 months to complete capitalization and 18 months to launch, alongside separate authorizations from the FDIC and Federal Reserve. The charter would enable deposits, cards, lending, and federally supervised digital asset custody.

In late January 2026, silver and Bitcoin have moved in sharply different directions, with silver briefly topping $121 per ounce before retreating and Bitcoin sliding toward $82,800. Silver remains up about 25% over the past month and more than 200% over the past year amid falling COMEX inventories and industrial demand, while Bitcoin trades over 34% below its October peak above $126,000 as tighter Federal Reserve expectations and broader risk-off sentiment pressure crypto markets.

On January 29, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs logged $817.87 million in net outflows, according to Sosovalue, while BTC fell to $81,200, its weakest level in nine months. BlackRock's IBIT led with $317.81 million withdrawn, and multiple issuers saw redemptions as January's tally turned negative despite sizeable cumulative inflows since launch.

qLABS plans to launch its qONE token with a limited presale on Thursday, February 5 at 2 p.m. UTC, positioning it alongside its new Quantum-Sig wallet as early post-quantum infrastructure for existing blockchains. The project targets the "harvest now, decrypt later" risk by adding a quantum-resistant signature layer to networks like Ethereum and Solana, while Coinbase, Ethereum Foundation, and Aptos pursue parallel quantum-security initiatives.

Ethereum developer Griff Green outlined a plan to repurpose unclaimed Ether from The DAO's 2016 exploit into a staking-backed security fund for the network. The pool includes roughly 70,500 ETH plus about 4,600 ETH and DAO tokens, with yield earmarked for audits and tooling; the remainder tied to past claims is valued at around $200 million.