On January 17, 2026, the European Securities and Markets Authority registered the Pi Network white paper under entry number 549, filed by PiBit Ltd, marking a formal step for the project in the EU. The registration does not yet make Pi an approved crypto asset under MiCA, as the project must still satisfy EU requirements on areas such as anti-money laundering, data protection, and financial reporting. Meanwhile, Pi Coin trades around $0.2051, up 0.28% in 24 hours but remaining over 90% below its all‑time price as daily volume drops 33%.

On 15 January, CME Group announced plans to introduce futures on Cardano (ADA), Chainlink (LINK) and Stellar (XLM), with trading scheduled to start on 9 February subject to regulatory review. The contracts will come in standard and micro sizes and build on CME's record 2025 crypto derivatives volumes, positioning these altcoins more firmly within regulated institutional markets. The move has already prompted new ETF filings tied to these assets, highlighting growing demand for diversified digital asset exposure.

Shiba Inu completed another hourly death cross in 2026 as the 50-hour MA slipped under the 200-hour MA. The token climbed to $0.00001017 in the first days of 2026, then fell six of seven days from Jan. 6–12, touched $0.00000815, and was last up 0.82% at $0.00000853.

On January 17, 2026, on-chain analytics indicated the top 10 XRP wallets hold 18.56% of circulating coins, addresses ranked 10–50 account for 24.85%, and 56.59% is dispersed among millions of smaller holders. Ripple’s escrow manages 45% of total supply, while operational wallets hold nearly 1%. Major exchanges like Binance and Bithumb each hold about 1.8 billion XRP, and the price stands at $2.06 after a 0.17% dip.

According to ChatGPT, XRP's base-case range by February 1, 2026 is $2.25–$2.60, with upside to $2.60–$3.10 if broader market momentum and regulatory tailwinds improve. A weaker backdrop could push prices toward $1.90–$2.20. At press time, XRP traded near $2.06, up less than 0.1% in 24 hours and down about 1.5% on the week.

On January 16, 2026, a Bitmine wallet moved 20,000 ETH worth $65.4 million off Kraken. The firm also added 24,068 ETH this week and now holds 4.07 million ETH valued around $13.37 billion, equal to 3.36% of supply. At publication, ETH was $3,293, down 0.64% after rising over 6% in the past week.

On January 17, 2026, former Ripple CTO David Schwartz cautioned that copy trading can mislead followers by elevating luck as skill. He warned that choosing leaders based on past wins makes it hard to avoid luck-driven records and urged caution when assessing track records.

Canary Capital CEO Steven McClurg said during a podcast with Paul Barron that XRP and Hedera could follow a different performance path than Bitcoin this year, supported by enterprise adoption and tokenization use cases. He expects only modest, low double-digit gains for these networks, while warning that Bitcoin, which he believes topped at $126,200 on October 6, 2025, could decline another 20–30% over the next six to nine months.