The UK Financial Conduct Authority plans to open a crypto licensing gateway in September 2026. Under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, the regime for cryptoasset service providers will begin on 25 October 2027, requiring FSMA authorisation. Draft rules propose an application window of at least 28 days, closing at least 28 days before the start.

The European Union's DAC8 directive entered into force on January 1, 2026, obliging custodial crypto-asset service providers to submit user identity data, tax IDs, and transaction histories to national tax authorities. The regime applies to crypto-to-fiat trades, crypto-to-crypto swaps, and transfers from custodial platforms to external wallets, while non-custodial wallets remain outside the reporting scope. Estimates indicate DAC8 could add around €1.7 billion in annual tax revenue, alongside substantial one-off and recurring compliance costs for the industry.

On January 7, 2026, Barclays said it acquired an equity stake in Ubyx, a United States stablecoin settlement provider, marking its first direct investment in stablecoin infrastructure. The bank did not disclose deal size or valuation. Ubyx previously raised a $10 million seed round in June 2025 led by Galaxy Ventures with Coinbase Ventures participating.

Turkish crypto exchange BtcTurk reported a $48 million loss on 1 January 2026 after attackers drained funds from its hot wallets on Ethereum, Arbitrum and Polygon. The incident is the platform's third major hack since 2024, following earlier breaches in June 2024 and August 2025, and raises fresh questions about its custodial security and regulatory oversight.

On 05 Jan 2026, MetaMask users were warned about a new phishing campaign that mimics two-factor authentication checks to steal seed phrases. Attackers use typosquatted domains and countdown-style warnings to pressure victims into entering full wallet recovery phrases. Once obtained, the scammers import the wallets and rapidly drain user funds.

On 1 January 2026, Ripple unlocked 1 billion XRP under its programmed escrow schedule and subsequently sent 700 million tokens back into new escrow contracts while retaining 300 million XRP for liquidity and operations. After these movements, 34.185 billion XRP remain locked in programmatic escrow and the circulating supply stands at 65.78 billion, with 14.2 million XRP permanently removed via network fee burns.

On 03 Jan 2026, Ripple managing director Reece Merrick publicly backed Franklin Templeton's decision to position XRP as a foundational asset via its XRPZ ETF on NYSE Arca. Franklin Templeton, which manages about $1.6 trillion in assets, uses the XRP Ledger for tokenized money market funds alongside Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin and the sgBENJI USD money market token listed on DBS Digital Exchange.

On 31 December 2025, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong set three priorities for 2026: grow a global "everything exchange," scale stablecoins and payments, and move more users onchain. Earlier, on 17 December 2025, Coinbase added commission-free stock trading, prediction markets, a tokenisation service for institutions, and integrated the Jupiter DEX into its platform. The firm also highlights ETFs, stablecoins and tokenisation as key market drivers in 2026, alongside the Base layer-2 network and USDC-powered payments.

Starting January 1, 2026, the People's Bank of China will require commercial banks to pay interest on eligible e-CNY wallet balances and record them as deposit liabilities. The framework brings the digital yuan onto bank balance sheets with deposit insurance and reserve requirements, while usage had reached 3.48 billion transactions and 16.7 trillion yuan by November 2025.