Sei Network has set a mid-2026 deadline to complete its SIP-3 transition from a dual Cosmos–EVM design to an EVM-only blockchain, following community approval in May. The three-phase "Sei Giga" upgrade, running from January to March, will impact holders of Cosmos-native assets on Sei, including about $1.4 million in USDC.n that must be migrated before late March 2026 to avoid potential loss of access. The overhaul also introduces EVM-based staking, disables inbound IBC transfers, and replaces Sei's native oracle with external providers.

On January 3, Mark Zuckerberg said Threads reached 320 million active users. Forbes, citing Similarweb, reported around 320 million total actives and an average of 143 million mobile actives in January 2026, after more than 30 million signups in December 2025. X still leads US mobile daily use with 21.2 million versus Threads' 19.5 million.

On January 16, 2026, the Trump White House confirmed that 57.55 BTC forfeited by Samourai Wallet developers remains on the U.S. government balance sheet and has not been sold. Officials stated the Bitcoin is being held in the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve in line with Executive Order 14233, after on-chain movements to Coinbase had raised concerns about a possible violation. The report also notes ongoing tensions over crypto policy, including SDNY prosecutions and debates around the CLARITY Act's treatment of stablecoins and DeFi.

A crypto holder on the Ethereum network lost a total of $514,000 in USDT after an address poisoning scam, with the incident detected around 14:01 UTC and publicly flagged at 14:34 UTC. The victim first sent 5,000 USDT as a test to a lookalike address before following up with 509,000 USDT to the same destination, while a separate attack in December 2025 saw another trader lose $50 million in USDT using a similar tactic. These scams exploit users' reliance on abbreviated wallet displays and transaction history when copying addresses, making fund recovery onchain highly unlikely once transfers are confirmed.

South Korean business academics pushed back against a proposal to limit major shareholders' stakes in crypto exchanges to 15–20%. At a January 16 session in Seoul, they warned of property-rights and constitutional issues, while regulators say the aim is to curb governance risks. Separately, FSC guidelines would allow listed firms and professional investors to allocate up to 5% of equity capital to digital assets.

On January 15, 2026, State Street Corporation announced a Digital Asset Platform built to support tokenized products such as ETFs, money market funds and regulated stablecoins. The infrastructure aims to offer institutional clients wallet management, custody and cross‑jurisdiction access on both public permissioned and private blockchains. The bank is also backing a tokenized private liquidity fund with Galaxy Asset Management that will use PYUSD and initially launch on Solana before expanding to other networks.

On January 15 2026, Swift reported that it had completed a major pilot on digital asset interoperability with BNP Paribas Securities Services, Intesa Sanpaolo and Société Générale's blockchain unit FORGE. The trial showed tokenized bonds could be issued, settled and serviced across traditional infrastructure and blockchain networks using both fiat payments and digital currencies, including stablecoins, and Swift now plans to integrate a blockchain-based ledger to support real-time cross-border transactions.

On January 14 2026, Chinese authorities ordered domestic firms to stop using cybersecurity software from more than 12 companies based in the United States and Israel, citing national security risks and potential data exposure. The decision affects major vendors such as Broadcom's VMware, Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike, Fortinet and Check Point Software Technologies, and is part of Beijing's broader push for technological self-reliance and a shift to local providers.

DeFi Education Fund has raised concerns over eight CLARITY Act amendments submitted by several U.S. senators, arguing they would undermine DeFi technology, software developers, and self-custody. The group is urging lawmakers to reject proposals from Senators Reed, Kim, Cortez Masto, and Warren that would expand Treasury and FinCEN authority, as the Senate Banking and Agriculture Committees prepare January 15, 2026 hearings on the bill.