The Optimism Collective approved a 12-month plan to direct 50% of Superchain sequencer revenue to monthly OP buybacks, passing with 84.4% support. Starting in February, the Foundation will convert January revenue via an OTC partner, deploying about 2.7k ETH (roughly $8 million) based on the past year’s 5,868 ETH intake.

By July 1, 2026, Russia’s State Duma aims to introduce a two-tier system for digital currency access that limits non-qualified investors to 300,000 rubles ($4,000) in annual purchases while allowing qualified investors unrestricted volumes. The framework will treat cryptocurrencies and stablecoins as tradable assets but keep them banned for domestic payments, tighten controls on intermediaries starting July 1, 2027, and exclude privacy coins, as major Russian exchanges prepare infrastructure for regulated trading.

Hyperliquid's HYPE rallied over 60% in the past three days to $34.64 after HIP-3 expanded permissionless listings to include gold and silver. Silver futures posted $1.1 billion in 24-hour volume, while technical signals point to a possible push toward the $35–$36 resistance and a further ~20% move toward $40.

Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan argues that crypto has roughly three years to prove its real-world value or face the risk of harsh regulation, amid fading prospects for the CLARITY Act and public criticism from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. He contends that by 2029, stablecoins and tokenized assets must become widely used in daily life and traditional finance to secure favorable laws, while linking the surge in gold above $5,000 per ounce to weakening trust in centralized institutions. Despite legislative delays, he points to growing Ethereum activity, a stablecoin market cap above $300 billion, and Uniswap surpassing Coinbase in trading volume as signs of underlying market strength.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said he made $70,000 on Polymarket in the past year using an "anti-insanity" strategy that bets against highly unlikely events. In a Chiang Mai interview he warned that, despite Ethereum’s scaling progress and rising prediction market volumes, crypto apps risk drifting into pure speculation while critical oracle vulnerabilities still threaten market integrity.

Ethereum is preparing to deploy the ERC-8004 standard on mainnet, introducing portable blockchain identities and verifiable reputations for autonomous AI agents across platforms such as Google, Coinbase, and MetaMask. The specification, published in August 2025 and highlighted again on January 27, 2026 by Ethereum Foundation AI lead Davide Crapis, defines NFT-based agent IDs, on-chain reputation registries, and validation mechanisms using cryptographic proofs or staked verifiers. Backed by contributors from MetaMask, Coinbase, and Google’s Agent-to-Agent Protocol, ERC-8004 is designed to make Ethereum a neutral settlement and coordination layer for large-scale AI-to-AI interactions.

On January 21, 2026, crypto analyst Darkfost highlighted XRP’s 14‑month base around $2.00 and noted Binance funding rates have been largely negative since December, indicating dominant short positioning. With price near $1.90 and a July 2025 peak at $3.66, a weekly break above $2.50 is viewed as pivotal for a move toward $3.00–$3.10.

On January 26, 2026, Ray Dalio said the United States is nearing a move from Stage 5 to Stage 6 in his Big Cycle framework as Bitcoin trades defensively. Wintermute reported BTC has been confined to a $85,000–$94,000 band for 60 days amid U.S. spot ETF outflows and a persistent Coinbase discount, indicating domestic institutions are net sellers.

Australia’s securities regulator has named regulatory gaps around digital assets as a major risk for 2026, pointing to rapid growth in crypto adoption, tokenization and AI-driven services that expose consumers to unlicensed or misleading activity. A proposed Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Bill 2025 would mandate Australian Financial Services Licenses for exchanges and custodians, while ASIC has introduced temporary class relief and a no-action stance through mid-2026 to smooth the transition toward a comprehensive licensing regime.