Over the latest week in crypto, U.S. XRP spot ETFs have absorbed $1.52 billion in XRP, equal to 1.20% of the asset’s market capitalization, while the token’s price remains range-bound. In the same 24-hour window, Shiba Inu’s burn rate dropped 86.14% to 749,126 SHIB, and TRON founder Justin Sun stated he would pay $30 million for a one-hour conversation with Elon Musk. Market watchers are also monitoring weekday volatility patterns as traders weigh key levels in XRP, SHIB and Bitcoin.

Chinese EV manufacturers such as BYD and Geely are gaining limited access to Canada after Prime Minister Mark Carney removed the additional 100% tariff and introduced a yearly import ceiling of 49,000 vehicles. A 6.1% duty still applies in Canada, while Europe has moved from steep tariffs to pricing arrangements, even as China's exports hit 2.6 million EVs and BYD's European deliveries jumped sharply in 2025. Analysts say Canada's partial reopening, after imports were driven to nearly zero in 2024, could become an important first step for Chinese brands in the broader North American market.

On 18 January 2026, analysis attributed to the Atlantic Council indicated that the China-backed mBridge cross-border payment platform has processed more than $55 billion in cumulative transactions and over 4,000 international payments. The pilot system links central banks from China, Hong Kong, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, with the digital yuan accounting for nearly all of the activity.

Hong Kong will sign a memorandum of understanding with the Shanghai Gold Exchange at the Asian Financial Forum to develop a central gold clearing system. Paul Chan said a trial is planned within the year to cut costs, speed settlement and boost liquidity, alongside trade digitization projects connecting 2,300 firms and using AI and blockchain.

Blockchain security firm PeckShield reported that crypto hacks and scams collectively drained more than $4.04 billion in 2025, with $2.67 billion attributed to hacks and $1.37 billion to scams. Fraud-related losses increased about 64% year over year, driven by highly targeted phishing and impersonation campaigns aimed at high-value users, while major incidents such as Bybit's $1.51 billion breach underscored growing pressure on centralized platforms.

On 10 January 2026, an investor lost more than $282 million in Bitcoin and Litecoin in a social engineering scam tied to a fake Trezor support channel. The attackers allegedly obtained the victim's recovery seed phrase, drained 1,459 BTC and 2.05 million LTC, and then laundered funds via instant exchanges, Thorchain and Monero, while Monero's price jumped 36% in seven days.

On Sunday, a South Korean presidential spokesperson said the government will seek direct discussions with the United States to secure favorable terms under Donald Trump's new 25% tariff on imported artificial intelligence chips. Officials aim to ensure Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix remain outside the initial scope of the measure, which currently targets advanced AI chips from Nvidia and AMD rather than South Korean memory chips.

China exported 6,745 tons of rare-earth products in December, down from 6,958 tons in November, according to customs data released Sunday. Beijing has introduced tighter controls on shipments with potential military use that mainly affect Japan, while the U.S., G7 finance ministers and partners met in Washington to discuss reducing dependence on Chinese rare earths and supporting alternative supply chains.