An early Ethereum whale completed the distribution of more than 154,000 ETH, moving the final 26,000 coins to Bitstamp. The holder bought at a $517 average and could realize about $274M in net gains, while ETH held above $3,100 and daily volumes approached $20B.

On January 12, 2026, Tether froze $182M in USDT held across five TRON wallets, after tracing activity allegedly tied to known scams. Between 2023 and 2025, the issuer has blocked a cumulative $3.3B in stablecoins and blacklisted 7,268 addresses across Ethereum and TRON. TRON-based USDT supply has grown to over 82B tokens, remaining a key rail for P2P payments despite ongoing scrutiny over illicit use.

On January 8, 2026, the ETH Coinbase premium retreated to levels last seen in February 2025, and ETH traded around $3,110.57. Weaker U.S. spot demand and cautious derivatives activity left price capped below $3,300, with open interest at $17.78B and the fear-and-greed index at 49. A stronger bid may be needed for a breakout.

BNB Smart Chain is scheduled to implement the Fermi hard fork on January 14, 2026, targeting shorter block times and higher throughput. The upgrade follows the Fourier hard fork on Op BNB Chain on January 7, which reduced its block interval from 500 to 250 milliseconds. Despite these network improvements, BNB has dropped below $900 amid a broader market decline, with price volatility driven by long liquidations.

On January 7, 2026, the Wyoming Stable Token Commission opened trading for the Frontier Stable Token (FRNT) on Solana through Kraken Pro. FRNT is a state-launched, USD-backed stablecoin whose reserve interest supports Wyoming’s school program, and the token can also be accessed via other platforms and bridged to multiple chains.

On January 6, 2026, on-chain researchers observed multiple 100 ETH withdrawals from Tornado Cash consolidating to one wallet, followed by 128,808 ETH reaching a ProveX-linked address. Analysts also tied these flows to 112,987 ETH sent by Richard Heart in November 2025. ProveX's sacrifice phase is nearing its end, with a 6.25% rate increase from January 8.

On January 7, 2026, Rumble and Tether unveiled a non-custodial wallet for creators, integrating with Rumble's tipping tools. The wallet supports USDT, XAUt and BTC, and uses Tether's WDK; MoonPay provides a fiat on-ramp via cards, Apple Pay, PayPal and Venmo. It embeds censorship-resistant payments directly into the platform.

On January 6 2026, ZK, the native token of the ZKSync Elastic network, surged to a one-month high after being listed on South Korean exchange Upbit. The asset gained more than 25% in a day to reach $0.04, with open interest on derivatives markets rebounding from $14M to $42M as traders focused on centralized exchanges.

On January 5, 2026, trader Peter Brandt highlighted Bitcoin Cash as a potential leader of a 2026 crypto rally after BCH climbed to about $650 and 0.0070 BTC, marking a one‑year high. The asset has held near $600 for weeks, maintained open interest above $434M with 55% of positions long, and is now facing resistance below $800. Mining activity around 8 EH/s and slightly higher daily profitability than Bitcoin are supporting the network, while BCH sits among the top‑gaining coins over the past three months despite an overall Bitcoin‑dominant market.