Arkham Intelligence data indicates that crypto wallets associated with the US Government transferred more than $225 million in USDT, funds allegedly seized from pig-butchering fraud schemes. The size of the transfer aligns with a stablecoin seizure exceeding $225 million that the US Department of Justice disclosed in June 2025, linked to a large money-laundering network and hundreds of victims. Court documents describe how US Secret Service and FBI investigators traced hundreds of thousands of crypto transactions as part of the operation.

The article states Morgan Stanley filed for spot Bitcoin and Solana ETFs on Tuesday as early U.S. trading saw broad crypto weakness. Bitcoin is up 7% in January but failed to clear $95,000 on Monday, while Ethereum faces resistance near $3,300. Analysts cited point to OBV breakouts and relative strength across BTC, ETH, BCH, HYPER and TAO.

In the first week of 2026, Bitcoin trades around $93,000 to $94,000 and Ethereum hovers near $3,300 as risk appetite cautiously returns. Against this backdrop, three presales are drawing attention: Bitcoin Hyper has raised $30.1 million at $0.013535 per token with 39% staking rewards, PEPENODE has collected $2.58 million at $0.0012161 with a 526% APY, and Maxi Doge has brought in $4.4 million. These projects target themes such as Bitcoin Layer 2 scaling, mine-to-earn GameFi, and high-volatility meme trading.

On December 18, a hacker drained $27.3 million from a compromised multisig crypto wallet and has since begun off-loading funds via Tornado Cash. On-chain data shows the attacker pulled 1,000 ETH worth $3.24 million from Aave while still holding a $9.75 million leveraged long, and has funneled a total of 6,300 ETH valued at $19.4 million through the mixer. Separate Tornado Cash activity tied to a pig-butchering investment scam and other 2025 exploits highlight industry-wide losses exceeding $117.8 million in December and $3.4 billion for the year.

On January 6, 2026, the Maine Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection announced a consent agreement with Bitcoin Depot, a large crypto kiosk operator. Under the deal, the company will provide $1.9 million for refunds to Maine residents defrauded by third-party scammers using its kiosks between 2022 and 2025. Eligible victims must file claims by April 1, 2026, and approved payouts are expected to be processed in May.

Francois Villeroy de Galhau of the ECB warned on January 6 in Paris that political attacks on Federal Reserve independence, fiscal doubts, and new trade barriers could undermine the US dollar's global role. He noted France's December 2025 inflation fell to 0.8%, and floated creating a euro-denominated safe asset amid a potential multi-currency landscape.

On Tuesday, Tether launched Scudo, a unit equal to one‑thousandth of a troy ounce and 1/1,000 of an XAUT token, to enable smaller onchain gold transactions. XAUT is backed by more than 1,300 gold bars and has a market cap of about $2.3 billion, according to Tether. The rollout follows a year in which gold prices rose above $4,550 per troy ounce.

Circle's USDC expanded faster than Tether's USDT in 2025, marking a second straight year of outpacing its rival. USDC's market cap rose 73% to $75.12 billion, while USDT climbed 36% to $186.6 billion. Despite USDC's momentum, USDT remains the biggest by market cap and 24-hour volume.