US Oil (USOR), a new token on Solana, jumped more than 150% in 24 hours and briefly exceeded a $40 million market cap as traders latched onto a Venezuelan oil narrative. Despite claims of being an oil-backed on-chain reserve index tied to US interests, the project offers no verifiable proof of reserves or official links, and trades mainly on Solana DEXes. On-chain observers highlight concentrated holdings in a small cluster of wallets and suspicious trading patterns, warning that the structure could enable a potential rug pull.

Ripple president Monica Long forecasts that by the close of 2026, around half of all Fortune 500 firms will have formal digital asset and blockchain plans, with global balance sheets holding over $1 trillion in crypto. Her outlook includes rapid growth in stablecoin-based settlements, more financial institutions directly custodying cryptocurrencies, and increased integration of AI with blockchain for privacy-preserving risk assessment.

On January 20, 2026, Pierre Rochard, CEO of The Bitcoin Bond Company, submitted a comment letter asking the Federal Reserve to treat Bitcoin as an explicit variable in the 2026 supervisory stress tests. He cited BTC's 73.3% annualized volatility and deep drawdowns, and proposed calibrated price paths to reduce model divergence across banks.

Vietnam has started a five‑year pilot licensing framework for crypto asset trading platforms, introducing its first structured oversight of an industry that has grown for years without clear regulation. Under the program, exchanges must meet strict capital, ownership and operational standards, while both domestic and foreign investors will be required to trade through licensed providers using regulated VND accounts.

BitMine Immersion Technologies disclosed on January 20, 2026 that its Ethereum holdings have climbed to 4,203,036 ETH, worth about $13.5 billion after recent dip buying of roughly $110 million. The position now represents around 3.48% of Ethereum's estimated 120.7 million circulating supply, keeping the company on its path toward a self-imposed 5% ownership target.

On January 21, 2026, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said he intends to fully rejoin decentralized social networks in 2026. He stressed the need for mass communication tools that prioritize long-term value and user empowerment, noting he has been using firefly.social and plans to post more on Lens while encouraging activity on Farcaster.

On January 21, 2026, CoinGate released its 2025 data report, indicating a structural shift in business crypto usage. The processor handled 1.42 million payments, with Bitcoin at 22.1%, stablecoins at 29.8%, and USDC orders up 1264% year-over-year. Merchant settlements in stablecoins rose to 25.2%, while USDC captured 83.4% of payouts as automation via API became standard.

Blockchain security firm SlowMist warned that attackers re-registered expired domains tied to long-standing Snap Store publishers, enabling fake wallet updates to harvest recovery seed phrases. In a post on X, its CISO 23pds said the scheme impersonates Exodus, Ledger Live and Trust Wallet, and confirmed publisher domains storewise[.]tech and vagueentertainment[.]com were compromised.