Financial Secretary Paul Chan said Hong Kong plans to issue its first licences for fiat-referenced stablecoin issuers in Q1, describing the regulatory stance as "responsible and sustainable." The regime, passed in 2025, imposes strict reserve and redemption standards, while 11 trading platforms are already licensed under SFC oversight.

On Tuesday, U.S. XRP-focused ETFs posted their largest single-day net redemptions, with $53.32 million withdrawn, according to SoSoValue. Cumulative net inflows fell from $1.28 billion to $1.22 billion as XRP, which climbed to just over $2.40 on January 6, slipped under $2.00, hit $1.84 on some venues, and hovered near $1.90.

On 21 January 2026, Delaware Life Insurance Company introduced a fixed index annuity option that adds the BlackRock U.S. Equity Bitcoin Balanced Risk 12% Index to its lineup. The product blends U.S. equities with Bitcoin exposure via the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF while targeting a 12% volatility level and preserving principal. The index is offered within the Momentum Growth, Momentum Growth Plus, and DualTrack Income annuities, extending Bitcoin-linked growth features to retirement planning products.

Ripple President Monica Long forecasts that by the end of 2026, corporate balance sheets will collectively hold over $1 trillion in digital assets and that half of Fortune 500 companies will have formal digital asset strategies. She links this outlook to the rise of regulated stablecoins like RLUSD, new U.S. legislation, and growing institutional activity in B2B payments, custody, and capital markets.

Bitcoin traded around $89,400–$89,500, down 1.6% on the day and nearly 6% for the week, remaining below the $90,000 threshold. Total crypto market value slipped to roughly $3.02 trillion, while major altcoins such as Ethereum and Solana posted deeper weekly losses, reinforcing risk‑off sentiment.

On January 20, 2026, Etherfi introduced its U.S.-focused Liquid Reserve Vault to extend access to its DeFi-native vault infrastructure. The Midas-powered product allocates USDC and USDT deposits across protocols such as Morpho and Sentora PYUSD, targeting higher USD-denominated returns with automatic rebalancing and compounding. The new vault complements Etherfi’s broader suite of liquid yield products for USD, ETH, BTC, and HYPE holders.

U.S. Oil (USOR) surged more than 40% in 24 hours amid heightened oil-geopolitics headlines, pushing trading volume above $43 million and placing the Solana-based token among the day’s most active assets. Despite the rally, analysts caution that USOR remains a high-risk, narrative-driven token with no verified oil backing, making it vulnerable to sharp reversals as speculation cools.

Bitcoin is currently trading around $89K, directly on the $89.8K–$90K cost basis zone of short-term holder cohorts 0D–1D and 1W–1M, making this area a key on-chain support. If this band holds, it could enable market stabilization, while a break below would push both fresh cohorts underwater and increase short-term selling pressure. At the same time, STH MVRV is at 0.897 and moving toward the 0.875 lower bound of its 155-day range, a zone that has often aligned with local bottoms.