Iran's government cut internet access as protests over economic conditions spread, constraining routine on‑chain activity. Statista estimates about 7 million of 92 million residents use crypto, and TRM Labs tracked roughly $3.7 billion in flows between January and July 2025; satellite and mesh tools could offer temporary workarounds until connectivity returns.

As of May 2025, the Global Sanctions Inflation Index estimated that just under 80,000 entities and individuals worldwide were subject to sanctions, while Chainalysis reported that illicit cryptocurrency addresses received at least $154 billion that year. The firm said volumes linked to nation-states on-chain activity reached unprecedented levels in 2025, driven in part by sanctioned actors and Russia's ruble-backed A7A5 token, even though illicit activity still accounts for less than 1% of total crypto transaction volume.

Wyoming has released public access to its Frontier Stable Token (FRNT), a state-backed stablecoin that can be purchased on Kraken and runs on Solana. Governor Mark Gordon said it is "the first fiat-backed, fully-reserved stable token" from a U.S. public entity, with peer-to-peer fees near $0.01 and reserve interest flowing back to the state.

Coinbase head of investment research David Duong stated on Monday that quantum computing threatens not only Bitcoin's wallet-level cryptography but also its wider economic and security model. He argued that quantum machines capable of running Shor's and Grover's algorithms could undermine ECDSA-based signatures and SHA-256 mining, even as sceptics such as Adam Back maintain that such risks remain decades away.

PricewaterhouseCoopers' CEO Paul Griggs said the firm decided to scale up its crypto and digital asset services after clearer regulatory moves in the United States, including new leadership at key agencies and stablecoin-focused legislation such as the GENIUS Act. PwC, which reported global revenues of $56.9 billion as of October, now provides a broad suite of crypto services and sees growing client demand across exchanges, financial institutions and public-sector bodies.

Memecoin capitalization climbed more than 23% over the past week, moving from $38 billion on Dec. 29 to $47.7 billion on Monday. Trading activity surged alongside, with transaction volume rising from $2.17 billion on Dec. 29 to $8.7 billion on Monday, a 300% increase. DOGE, SHIB and PEPE led gains, while broader crypto rose more modestly.

On Thursday, CryptoQuant head of research Julio Moreno said most indicators in his bull score index for Bitcoin flipped bearish in early November, suggesting the market has been in a downtrend for about two months. With Bitcoin trading near $88,543 on Friday after peaking at $126,080 in October 2025, he expects the bear market low in 2026 to form around $56,000 to $60,000, based on the realized price and historical cycles.

After the April 2024 halving, Bitcoin set a record high of $126,080 on Oct 6, then finished 2025 below its starting level. The divergence from the post‑halving gains seen in 2012, 2016 and 2020 has rekindled debate over whether the four‑year cycle still guides market behavior.

Session executives Chris McCabe and Alex Linton told Cointelegraph that AI-integrated devices could circumvent app-level encryption on phones and computers, jeopardizing private messaging. They highlighted limited user awareness and cited OpenAI's disclosure last month of a third-party analytics breach, while noting intensifying regulatory pressure on encrypted tools.