Wallet

On January 29, 2026, Bybit rolled out a crypto payment card in Georgia with Mastercard acceptance, allowing spending at participating merchants under applicable rules and location limits. The program offers 10% cashback, capped at $150 for new users and $75 for existing users, with a $100 minimum deposit required within 30 days of approval. Virtual and physical cards are available, with EMV 3-D Secure and Google Pay support.

On 28 January 2026, authorities tracking illicit crypto flows confronted a professionalized laundering layer embedded in Chinese-language financial networks. Stablecoins and self-custodied wallets enable rapid cross-border movement, shifting enforcement from tracing single wallets to disrupting the networks that process these funds.

On January 28, 2026, Mesh Connect reached a $1 billion valuation after closing a new funding round, signaling growing confidence in crypto payments infrastructure. The company is processing close to $10 billion in monthly transactions and plans to expand in Latin America, Asia, and Europe, focusing on deeper integrations rather than direct consumer outreach.

Nifty Gateway has set out how it will protect users' NFTs as the Gemini-owned marketplace winds down, including a 90-day withdrawal window ending April 23. The platform plans to move most token metadata and media to Arweave while continuing to host certain 2021-era NFTs on its own servers indefinitely, and is preparing a bulk withdrawal tool for collectors holding multiple assets.

On January 24, 2026, Nifty Gateway said it had moved to withdrawal-only mode and set February 23, 2026 as its closure date. Gemini will continue to support NFTs through Gemini Wallet and will email users holding USD, ETH, or NFTs with redemption steps, including withdrawals via linked Gemini Exchange accounts or bank transfers through Stripe.

On January 27, Tether-backed mobile payments app Oobit began supporting the USD-backed USAT stablecoin, enabling users to spend it wherever Visa credit and debit cards are accepted. The company says American merchants face no new integration requirements, as USAT payments are converted to fiat and settled directly into U.S. bank accounts via Anchorage Digital. Oobit is also using Bakkt's regulated infrastructure and supporting USDT to expand its U.S. footprint and crypto-to-fiat payment capabilities.

On January 26, Santiment said large Cardano wallets accumulated 454.7M ADA over two months while small wallets sold. At press time, ADA was $0.3487, up 0.1% daily, down 2.4% weekly, and 5.6% lower monthly. Santiment's post also noted $161,420,000 in added value and a 22.0K ADA retail outflow over three weeks.

The Federal Court of Australia ordered BPS Financial to pay 14 million Australian dollars ($9.3 million) for operating the Qoin Wallet without an Australian Financial Services Licence and for misleading conduct. The court said the wallet ran from January 2020 to mid‑2023, rejected an authorized‑representative defense in 2024, and affirmed that conclusion on appeal in 2025.

On Tuesday, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission said the Federal Court ordered Gold Coast-based BPS Financial to pay AU$14 million ($9.6 million) in penalties for unlicensed conduct and misleading statements tied to its Qoin Wallet. The court had found in 2024 that BPS engaged in unlicensed conduct for almost three years while issuing the Qoin token and promoting a linked non-cash payment product.

On Tuesday, a long-dormant Ethereum address sent 85,000 ETH—nearly $250 million—to Gemini. EmberCN and Arkham report the wallet 0xb5a…168d6 amassed 135,000 ETH via Bitfinex in 2017 at $90 and later moved its remaining coins over roughly a day, implying around $381 million in profit and a 32x return.