A new report by Cato Institute analyst Nicholas Anthony, published Thursday, concludes most U.S. debanking cases arise from direct or indirect government pressure. The Institute's account highlighted the study on January 8, 2026. The analysis distinguishes government-driven debanking from political, religious, and operational closures, and notes crypto firms are frequently affected.

X’s head of product Nikita Bier said on Sunday that the platform is developing Smart Cashtags, a feature that lets users tie ticker symbols to specific tokens or smart contracts and view real-time price data. The announcement followed backlash over engagement limits, as Elon Musk promised to open-source X’s new recommendation algorithm within seven days while the company faces EU investigations, fines, and growing criticism about bot activity and throttled crypto reach.

Elon Musk has said on X that the platform's recommendation algorithm will be published as open source within seven days and refreshed every four weeks with detailed developer notes. The initiative aims to increase transparency around how organic and advertising posts are surfaced, drawing both support and skepticism from the crypto community and aligning with calls for auditable social media systems.

On January 11, the chairs of seven UK parliamentary committees sent a letter urging a complete prohibition on cryptocurrency donations to political parties. The move cites risks to transparency, traceability, and enforcement, and follows debates that intensified after a £9 million contribution linked to a crypto investor was flagged in December 2025.

On Sunday, X's head of product Nikita Bier outlined a "Smart Cashtags" feature that will show real-time prices for cryptocurrencies and stocks, with a public rollout targeted for February. The concept includes smart contract data and asset "mentions," and one mockup hints at in-app trading with Buy and Sell buttons.

Betterment said an unauthorized party accessed a third‑party marketing system, leading to bogus push alerts and emails that promoted a "crypto giveaway." The messages promised to triple deposits and instructed users to send between $1 and $750,000 in Bitcoin or Ether within three hours. At the time of writing, the listed wallets held 0.14626084 BTC and $1,779.30 in ETH.

On January 11, 2026, Polymarket announced a partnership with Parcl to create prediction markets tied to median home prices in major U.S. cities such as Miami and Los Angeles. The monthly markets, which first settle on February 1 using Parcl's housing index, let users stake money on whether prices will rise or fall as the housing market grapples with high mortgage rates and limited supply. While Polymarket remains largely waitlist-only in the U.S., competitors like Kalshi and Robinhood are already broadly accessible.

According to Malwarebytes, an alleged security incident has exposed sensitive data from about 17.5 million Instagram accounts, including usernames, email and home addresses, phone numbers and other personal details, which are reportedly being sold on underground forums. Many users say they have received multiple password reset emails, while Meta maintains there was no system breach, attributing the messages to an issue that allowed an external party to trigger reset requests and stating that accounts remain secure.