On January 20, 2026, Chainlink introduced 24/5 U.S. Equities Streams to deliver stock and ETF market data across more than 40 blockchains. The feeds include bid/ask prices and volumes, mid and last trade, staleness checks, and status flags, enabling DeFi protocols to build equity perps, prediction markets, and other products beyond standard U.S. trading hours.

On January 20, 2026, an analysis argued that in 2025 and early 2026 most bridge losses stemmed from overwhelmed operators and validator coordination, not exotic exploits. Nine figure sums vanished within minutes as funds moved through privacy tools and DEXs before alarms fully registered. The piece stresses that design and operations, not just code, defined outcomes.

On 20 January 2026, Brian Armstrong argued that the global financial system structurally benefits existing capital owners while limiting broader access to top-performing markets. He highlighted how capital income has outpaced wages and pointed to tokenization of real-world assets on blockchain as a way to lower entry barriers and expand global market participation.

On January 20, 2026, Makina Finance suffered a flash-loan exploit that drained about $5 million from its DUSD/USDC Curve pool through oracle manipulation. According to CertiK and TenArmor, the attacker borrowed 280 million USDC at 03:40 UTC, used 170 million USDC to skew the oracle, then traded 110 million USDC and later moved 1,299 ETH. Makina said only DUSD LP positions on Curve were affected and urged withdrawals.

Portugal's gambling authority ordered Polymarket to halt domestic operations within 48 hours after heightened activity around the first-round presidential vote. The platform still lists markets for the February 8 runoff, with the winner market showing over $121M in trading volume, even as local access may be curtailed.

On January 20th, 2026 in Singapore, Pendle announced a major upgrade to its native token with the introduction of sPENDLE, designed to deepen liquidity, streamline governance, and refine its revenue model. In 2025 the protocol reported an average TVL of about $5.7B, a peak TVL near $13.4B, and roughly $44.6M in total fees, alongside growing activity from the Boros onchain funding rate venue. The new token mechanics include buybacks funded by protocol revenue, a 14-day withdrawal period or instant redemption fee, and an algorithmic emission system that reduces PENDLE emissions while enhancing allocation efficiency.

Solana-based platform Pump.fun introduced Pump Fund to finance startups and announced a $3 million Build in Public Hackathon. According to Pump.fun, 12 projects will each receive $250,000 at a $10 million valuation with mentorship, and applications opened on January 19, 2026. The first winner is slated to be selected and funded on February 18, 2026.

In a Tuesday submission, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Professionals Association urged regulators to retain the de minimis exemption that lets Type 9 asset managers allocate under 10% of a fund's gross assets to virtual assets without a separate licence. The group warned that abolishing this threshold and mandating SFC-licensed custodians could raise costs, constrain private equity and venture funds, and discourage traditional managers from experimenting with limited crypto exposure.