The Senate Banking Committee delayed a planned markup of a U.S. crypto market structure bill after Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said on January 14 the company no longer backed the text. The Senate Agriculture Committee postponed its own session and set a new markup date for 27 January 2026.

In late December 2025, DZ Bank secured MiCAR approval from BaFin to operate the meinKrypto retail platform. The service connects 670 cooperative banks through the VR Banking App, enabling trading in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Cardano.

On 15 Jan 2026, Pakistan signed an MoU with SC Financial Technologies, an affiliate of Trump-linked World Liberty Financial, to pilot the USD1 dollar-pegged stablecoin in cross-border transfers. The State Bank of Pakistan will explore integrating USD1 into the country's regulated digital payment systems, alongside a new virtual assets law and an upcoming CBDC pilot. The initiative aims to experiment with supervised use of private stablecoins within Pakistan's evolving digital finance framework.

On 12 January 2026, the Dubai Financial Services Authority enforced a ban on privacy tokens within the Dubai International Financial Centre, covering trading, promotion, funds, and derivatives. The regulator also narrowed stablecoin rules to fiat-backed tokens only, excluding algorithmic designs such as Ethena's USDe from the stablecoin category.

On 8 January 2026, Grayscale registered Delaware statutory trusts linked to prospective BNB and Hyperliquid HYPE exchange-traded fund products. These entities form an initial legal step before any formal ETF registration with the U.S. SEC, while BNB traded near $892 and HYPE around $26 on that date.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority plans to open a crypto licensing gateway in September 2026. Under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, the regime for cryptoasset service providers will begin on 25 October 2027, requiring FSMA authorisation. Draft rules propose an application window of at least 28 days, closing at least 28 days before the start.

The European Union's DAC8 directive entered into force on January 1, 2026, obliging custodial crypto-asset service providers to submit user identity data, tax IDs, and transaction histories to national tax authorities. The regime applies to crypto-to-fiat trades, crypto-to-crypto swaps, and transfers from custodial platforms to external wallets, while non-custodial wallets remain outside the reporting scope. Estimates indicate DAC8 could add around €1.7 billion in annual tax revenue, alongside substantial one-off and recurring compliance costs for the industry.

On January 7, 2026, Barclays said it acquired an equity stake in Ubyx, a United States stablecoin settlement provider, marking its first direct investment in stablecoin infrastructure. The bank did not disclose deal size or valuation. Ubyx previously raised a $10 million seed round in June 2025 led by Galaxy Ventures with Coinbase Ventures participating.

Turkish crypto exchange BtcTurk reported a $48 million loss on 1 January 2026 after attackers drained funds from its hot wallets on Ethereum, Arbitrum and Polygon. The incident is the platform's third major hack since 2024, following earlier breaches in June 2024 and August 2025, and raises fresh questions about its custodial security and regulatory oversight.