Binance said it will remove 23 spot trading pairs on January 9 following a periodic review, while the underlying tokens will remain tradable against other available pairs. On January 8, several involved assets declined, with BIO down 10%, amid a broader pullback that also saw BTC slip below $90,000 and ZEC post double‑digit losses.

On January 8, 2026, Vitalik Buterin argued that prioritizing higher bandwidth is safer for Ethereum's scalability than pushing for lower latency. He highlighted PeerDAS and Zero-Knowledge Proofs as paths to potentially scale the network thousands of times, and outlined P2P improvements and smaller per-slot node counts (e.g., 512 vs 30,000) to cut propagation delays without sacrificing decentralization.

SharpLink (Nasdaq: SBET) said it has moved $170 million in ETH onto Linea, aligning with a $200 million crypto treasury program announced last fall. The structure involves Anchorage Digital, ether.fi and EigenCloud to combine qualified custody with onchain yield tools, signaling a push toward institutional-grade DeFi on Ethereum.

On Thursday, Zcash (ZEC) fell more than 20% to about $381 after the ECC's core development team resigned. Technical patterns, including a descending channel and a bear flag, indicate potential downside toward $200–$300, with some analyses suggesting a 40–50% drop in the weeks ahead.

On Thursday, XRP fell to a $2.06 low and was $2.08 at press time, down 6.43% over 24 hours, marking a third straight decline since Jan. 5. CryptoQuant data on Binance inflows shows whales' share has retreated to 60.3% after peaking above 70%, hinting at softer selling. Price remains above the daily 50-MA at $2.01.

Ripple is piloting Amazon Bedrock with Amazon Web Services to accelerate XRP Ledger operational log reviews, reducing checks from 2–3 days to about 2–3 minutes. Details were shared by a solutions architect at a recent tech conference, and a post on January 7, 2026 highlighted ongoing discussions about Bedrock's use for XRPL.

Panos Mekras, founder of Anodos Finance, argues that 2026 is a narrow window for the XRP Ledger to enter the top tier on liquidity and usage, provided Ripple and the XRPL Foundation prioritize consumer onboarding, mainstream payment rails, and faster funding. He flags current metrics—daily DEX volume frequently under $10m, AMM TVL below $50m, and only a few thousand active users—and calls for a clear target: top 3 by volume, liquidity, and overall activity.

Solana's stablecoin capitalization reached $15 billion after nearly $10 billion was issued over the past year, with more than $900 million minted in the last 24 hours. Memecoin trading revived, led by Bonk's 50% and PENGU's 40% gains, while applications generated $2.39 billion in 2025 and Western Union plans a dollar-backed token.