On January 21, 2026, Ray Dalio argued that the fiat monetary system, domestic politics, and global geopolitics are breaking down. In posts shared over the past 24 hours, he said central banks are reassessing fiat currencies and U.S. dollar debt as stores of wealth, while the U.S.–foreign debt relationship is fraying and China has continued reducing its Treasury exposure.

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.

A new a16z crypto analysis argues that as generative AI concentrates power into closed chat interfaces and algorithmic feeds, blockchain networks may be the main tool for preserving an open, user-controlled internet. The report highlights 11 concrete intersections between crypto and AI, including persistent user-owned context, decentralized compute, proof-of-humanity, micropayments, IP registries, and user-controlled AI companions. It suggests the future web could either harden into paywalled platforms or evolve into an interoperable ecosystem built on decentralized infrastructure.

On January 20, 2026, SOL Strategies Inc. launched STKESOL, a liquid staking token on Solana. The company said the LST had 545K SOL (~$70M) in TVL at announcement and is integrating with Orca, Squads, Kamino, and Loopscale. STKESOL uses the SPL Stake Pool Program and allocates stake across multiple validators.

Trump Media has scheduled Feb. 2, 2026 as the record date for a non-tradable blockchain token airdrop to shareholders holding at least one DJT share. Each eligible share is initially tied to one token minted and custodied by Crypto.com, which may grant product-related rewards but no shareholder or cash rights, while the stock briefly jumped over 7% on the announcement day.

Gold's move beyond $4,800 has coincided with a surge in tokenized gold, with XAUT and PAXG drawing elevated activity. A CEX.io report says trading in these assets totaled $178 billion in 2025, including $126 billion in Q4, placing the segment behind only GLD by volume among U.S.-listed funds.

Ethereum recently processed nearly 2.9 million transactions in a single day, setting a new on-chain record while its price hovered around $3,170 with minimal movement. Onchain researcher Andrey Sergeenkov attributes most of this uptick to large-scale address-poisoning scams involving tiny stablecoin dust transfers, which inflate transaction and address counts without indicating genuine user demand. His analysis links roughly 80% of the abnormal growth in new addresses to low-value stablecoin activity, amplified by lower fees following the Fusaka upgrade.

According to SoSoValue, large institutional investors have funneled a net $1.2 billion into U.S.-listed Bitcoin spot ETFs this month while scaling back traditional cash-and-carry arbitrage trades. As CME Bitcoin futures open interest climbs and the basis shrinks, these inflows point to a stronger tilt toward long-term bullish exposure amid low implied volatility.

Axie Infinity's AXS token has extended a volatile upswing on the daily chart, with price now pressing into a tight resistance band between $2.287 and $2.338 while momentum indicators remain firmly bullish. Technical signals such as rising 9-day and 20-day EMAs, an overbought RSI, and a widening positive MACD histogram point to strong upside pressure, but nearby resistance and large order-book walls around $2.161 and $2.500 could decide whether the rally continues or retraces toward support near $1.546–$1.523. Traders monitoring AXS may see breakout or rejection behavior around these levels as key triggers for the next move.