CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju said Bitcoin is likely to face several months of low-volatility, sideways price action as new capital inflows into BTC have largely stalled. He argued that capital has rotated into equities and commodities and that long-term institutional holders, including a firm with 673,000 BTC, make a deep crash less likely. On-chain metrics such as Net Unrealized Profit/Loss and recent reports on market structure suggest a slower, grinding phase, while analysts remain divided on the outlook for the rest of 2026.

According to the United Nations' latest forecast released Thursday, global growth is set to ease to 2.7% in 2026 from an estimated 2.8% in 2025, with trade growth falling to 2.2% from 3.8%. The report anticipates a modest rebound to 2.9% in 2027 and notes U.S. growth at 2% alongside softer inflation.

Brazil and China collectively bought 12 tonnes of gold in November 2025, worth about $1.88 billion, according to the World Gold Council. Reuters reports Morgan Stanley expects the metal to reach $4,800 per ounce by 2026, while spot gold was $4,442, nearly 3% below its December 2025 high near $4,560.

On January 8, 2026, Coincheck Group said it will acquire about 97% of Canadian manager 3iQ via a stock exchange valuing the firm at roughly $111.8 million. Monex Group will swap its stake for 27.1 million new Coincheck shares at $4 each, with 810,435 additional shares enabling full ownership, and closing is expected in the second quarter of 2026.

Temple Digital Group has introduced a private institutional trading platform on the Canton Network, offering round-the-clock access to cryptocurrencies and stablecoins through a non-custodial, central limit order book model. The live venue supports asset managers, market makers and financial institutions, with support for tokenized equities and commodities targeted for 2026. Recent activity on Canton also includes tokenized US Treasury financing trials and plans to bring JPM Coin and tokenized Treasurys onto the network.

On January 8, 2026, Morgan Stanley was reported to be preparing an expansion of its digital asset offerings, including spot BTC and Solana ETFs and a new proprietary wallet. The bank's wealth management head outlined plans to enable BTC, ETH, and SOL trading on its E*TRADE platform in the first half of 2026, alongside infrastructure for broader tokenized asset support.

In 2026, Morgan Stanley plans to introduce bitcoin, ether, and solana trading on its E-Trade platform and launch a proprietary digital wallet, according to its head of wealth management. The firm has also filed for BTC, ETH, and SOL-based ETFs and progressively opened spot bitcoin ETF access from select high-net-worth clients to all client accounts, including retirement plans. These moves build on prior infrastructure investments and reflect a broader shift among major Wall Street banks toward digital assets.

The state of Florida is advancing SB 1038, a bill to establish a Bitcoin-focused strategic reserve targeted for 2026, after narrowing the scope of an earlier, stalled proposal. The measure would create a standalone reserve under the state's finance department, limited to cryptocurrencies with an average market capitalization of at least $500 billion over the past two years, a threshold currently met only by Bitcoin. Florida's legislative process is still in early stages and trails other states, some of which have already approved or funded similar reserves.