On January 29, 2026, the U.S. SEC published guidance confirming that tokenized securities remain subject to existing federal securities laws. The statement from the Divisions of Corporation Finance, Investment Management, and Trading and Markets details compliance steps for issuers and distinguishes custodial from synthetic third-party models, highlighting added investor protection risks.

The White House will meet banking and crypto executives on Monday to discuss a stalled cryptocurrency bill centered on stablecoin yield provisions. The agenda reflects ongoing tensions between the sectors, and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the current Senate Banking draft cannot be supported as written.

TRM Labs' latest report finds crypto-related crime totaled $158 billion in 2025, up 145% from 2024, while illicit transactions comprised 1.2% of on-chain volume. The firm also measured a 2.7% share of deployable liquidity captured by illicit actors, down from 2.9%, as sanctions-linked stablecoin flows and major hacks drove activity.

Ripple introduced a corporate treasury platform that unifies cash management with blockchain settlement and stablecoin rails for payments and liquidity. The system aims to shorten settlement cycles, improve cross‑border operations, and activate idle cash outside banking hours while preserving existing controls and workflows across enterprise finance teams.

On 28 January 2026, ERC-8004 was presented as set to launch on the Ethereum mainnet with a standard for establishing trust among open AI agents. The design introduces on-chain registries for identity, reputation, and validation to help agents verify counterparts and assess risk. Vitalik Buterin framed 2026 as a year to reclaim self-sovereignty and trustlessness, aligning this effort with broader ecosystem goals.

On January 28, 2026, Kraken announced DeFi Earn, offering DeFi-style rewards with up to 8% APY on cash and stablecoins. The service will initially be available in most U.S. states (excluding New York and Maine), Canada and the EEA, and uses Veda's vaults managed by Chaos Lab and Sentosa.

Zodia Custody, a digital asset custody firm backed by Standard Chartered, has formed a partnership with Dubai Insurance to roll out a crypto-enabled digital wallet for the UAE insurance market. The wallet allows policyholders to pay premiums and receive claim settlements in digital assets within a regulated infrastructure, aiming to modernize insurance operations and enhance transparency. Dubai Insurance will use Zodia Custody's institutional-grade platform as part of its broader digital transformation strategy and alignment with the UAE's fintech ambitions.

Updated January 28, 2026, Bybit EU Co-CEO Georg Harer said at a roundtable that tokenization could become the backbone and rails of future financial infrastructure. He also addressed security, noting Bybit survived a $1.5B heist and has strengthened measures under MiCAR while advocating exchange cooperation against fraud.