Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul announced a crackdown on "grey money" after a Finance Ministry meeting on Friday, directing tighter controls on gold trading and digital assets. Measures include lowering the 2M baht reporting threshold for gold bar purchases and stricter Travel Rule enforcement for crypto providers. A data bureau will link agency datasets to detect suspicious flows.

South Korea's Financial Services Commission has proposed capping major shareholders' ownership in cryptocurrency exchanges at 20%. On Tuesday, DAXA, representing the five largest platforms, opposed the measure, warning of market disruption and possible forced stake reductions for figures such as Song Chi-hyung and Cha Myung-hun. The plan could also affect Naver's 20 trillion KRW agreement with Dunamu.

Meta is reportedly planning to lay off about 10% of employees at its Reality Labs division this week as it reallocates resources from metaverse projects to artificial intelligence and wearables. The unit, which has around 15,000 staff working on VR hardware and metaverse platforms like Horizon Worlds and Horizon Workrooms, has accumulated more than $70 billion in losses since its launch in August 2020.

U.S. Senators Cynthia Lummis and Ron Wyden introduced the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act on Monday, seeking to confirm that software authors and network maintainers who do not handle user funds are not money transmitters. Similar protections appear in the market-structure bill set for a Senate Banking Committee markup on Thursday.

As of January 13, 2026, U.S. Senators Cynthia Lummis and Ron Wyden introduced the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act to clarify that crypto software developers who do not custody user funds should not be treated as money transmitters. The bipartisan measure sits within broader congressional work on crypto policy, including debates on stablecoins and decentralized finance.

On Monday, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced a new Innovation Advisory Committee to guide oversight of blockchain and AI. Chair Mike Selig plans to nominate 12 CEO Innovation Council participants as charter members. Additional nominations are open until Jan. 31, 2026.

Senators Ron Wyden and Cynthia Lummis introduced a bipartisan, standalone version of the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act on Monday evening. The bill seeks to clarify that developers and infrastructure providers who do not control user funds should not be treated as money transmitters, aiming to provide federal clarity for blockchain software and network operations.

On January 12, 2026, Ukrainian authorities ordered communication providers to block access to prediction market platform Polymarket, citing unlicensed gambling activities. The decision, issued under Resolution No. 695 by the National Commission for State Regulation of Communications and Informatization, has led to uneven access across the country while more than $410 million in Ukraine-related bets and $270 million in completed wagers are tied to the platform. Polymarket’s dependence on USDC and Polygon leaves it navigating recurring geo-blocks in multiple jurisdictions.