Stablecoin

Crypto ETFs saw a $1.7 billion weekly net outflow, the biggest since mid-November, with cumulative three-month outflows at $2.6 billion. Bitcoin products led with about $1.1 billion redeemed, followed by Ethereum at $630 million and XRP at $18 million. On 29 January and the next day, outflows reached $817 million and $510 million, marking four straight redemption days.

On January 11, South Korea announced the end of a nine‑year ban on corporate crypto investing, and, as of February 1, 2026, regulators were weighing a 10% equity cap for listed firms and professional investors, up from 5%. The Financial Services Commission also floated a 15–20% ownership ceiling for exchange shareholders, drawing pushback from industry groups and academics.

Hong Kong has implemented a licensing regime for fiat-denominated stablecoin issuers under a stablecoin ordinance that took effect in August, with regulators now processing applications. Officials have described digital assets as a new growth area and expect to publish the first list of approved stablecoin issuers in Q1 2026.

According to Paolo Ardoino on X, USDT expanded by $50 billion in 2025, underscoring demand outside traditional banking. Tether.io's Q4 2025 report showed $192.8 billion in assets against $186.5 billion in liabilities, a $6.3 billion surplus, with reserves anchored by U.S. Treasuries and a network built for low-friction settlement.

In 2025, TRM Labs reported that wallets it classifies as illicit received around $158 billion in crypto inflows, the highest level in five years, largely tied to Russia-linked sanctions designations and better attribution. The firm noted that the A7A5 token and the A7 wallet cluster together accounted for over $100 billion in incoming value connected to Russian actors, including Garantex and Grinex, while illicit activity still represented only 1.2% of total on-chain volume.

On January 31, 2026, a U.S. court sentenced Chinese national Jingliang Su to 46 months in federal prison and ordered $26,867,242 in restitution for laundering over $36.9 million from American victims. The scheme routed funds to Deltec Bank in the Bahamas, converted them to Tether (USDT), and moved them to a wallet in Cambodia.

On 30 January, HTX listed USDe and ENA fell to a new low at $0.1484, with a brief bounce to $0.157 that was quickly sold off. Glassnode indicators show ENA has traded below its realized price for over two months, and the share of supply in profit has stayed under 10% since mid‑November.

During a Binance Q&A, Changpeng Zhao rejected claims the exchange sparked the Oct. 10 liquidation wave that erased about $19 billion in leveraged positions. He said he spoke as a shareholder, not as an executive. USDe's brief drop to $0.65 on Binance was later tied to an internal oracle issue, and users were compensated around $283 million.

On 31 January 2026, Tether reported it ended 2025 with around $10 billion in profit, about 23% below 2024’s $13 billion. The company also began a fundraising process. Despite lower earnings, USDT remained the largest stablecoin with over $185 billion in circulation as demand for digital dollars outside traditional banking persisted.

During the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2026, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon confronted Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong over Armstrong's comments that banks are quietly working to derail a US crypto market structure bill. The clash, centered on whether stablecoin issuers should be allowed to offer yield or rewards, comes as the legislation has passed the House but stalled in the Senate amid political and industry pushback. Coinbase later sought to play down tensions with banks, even as the Senate Banking Committee postponed a markup following Armstrong's stance that the bill is unacceptable in its current form.