The US Federal Reserve is inviting comments on a proposed "payment account", sometimes called a "skinny master account", that could give fintech and crypto firms limited access to its systems. The accounts would not earn interest, have no Fed credit, and face balance caps. Feedback closes 45 days after Federal Register publication, with launch targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026.

Uniswap's UNIfication governance proposal, which introduces a protocol fee switch and large-scale UNI token burns, has cleared the required 40 million-vote threshold and is expected to activate later this week. The plan includes burning 100 million UNI from the Uniswap Foundation treasury and launching a Protocol Fee Discount Auctions mechanism, while UNI's price has rebounded from a seven-month low to trade at $6.08 alongside a roughly 25% gain since voting began on Dec. 20.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Bitcoin miner VBit and founder Danh Vo in Delaware federal court, alleging fraud and misappropriation of around $48 million from 2018 to 2022. The complaint asserts some hosted mining agreements can be securities under Howey, while Blockware Intelligence's Mitchell Askew argues standard hosting lacks pooled capital or profit-sharing.

David Sacks said the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act is set for a Senate markup in January before debate, amendments, and a floor vote. He added that Chairs Tim Scott and John Boozman confirmed the bipartisan bill's path to the chamber. The proposal aims to clarify oversight between the SEC, CFTC, and other regulators.

Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart expects more than 100 crypto ETPs and ETFs to debut in 2026, based on current SEC applications and industry forecasts. He cautions that a significant share of these products may be liquidated by late 2026 or by the end of 2027 due to weak demand, even as existing Bitcoin, Ether and Solana spot ETFs have already attracted tens of billions of dollars in inflows.

Ethereum’s transaction throughput is expected to rise in January as core developers are weighing a gas limit increase from 60 million to 80 million following the second blob parameter-only hard fork on Jan. 7. Meeting participants plan to reconfirm the timeline on Jan. 5, while client teams work on partial blob responses and a max blobs flag before implementing the new block gas target.

Two U.S. Senators introduced the SAFE Crypto Act on Monday to coordinate the U.S. Treasury, FinCEN, the Secret Service and law enforcement against crypto fraud. The FBI reported $9.3 billion in crypto-related investment scam losses in 2024, a 66% rise, with $2.84 billion affecting those over 60.

On Tuesday, Governor Tiff Macklem said the Bank of Canada will permit only fiat-linked, high-quality stablecoins, requiring a 1:1 peg and backing with high-quality liquid assets, under rules expected in 2026. A November 2025 budget report outlined reserve, redemption and risk-management obligations for issuers, while Canada advances real-time payments and open banking.