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Ripple has received approval from the UK Financial Conduct Authority through its subsidiary Ripple Markets UK Ltd to expand its crypto-based payments operations in the country. The authorization covers cryptoasset registration and an electronic money institution licence, allowing UK companies to use Ripple’s platform for cross-border payments involving digital assets. The approval arrives shortly after the FCA outlined how crypto firms will be regulated under a new framework expected to begin in 2027, which will place the sector under full oversight similar to other financial services, including consumer protection and market conduct rules. Firms will need to reapply for authorization when applications open in September ahead of the new regime.
Ripple described the UK as central to its global strategy, noting that its London office is its largest outside the United States and that it has invested more than 6.6 million dollars in UK universities through its blockchain research program. Company executives said the decision reflects alignment between the FCA’s regulatory standards and Ripple’s compliance approach, and argued that regulatory clarity typically accelerates adoption of digital asset infrastructure. The approval continues a broader run of regulatory wins for Ripple following the end of its long-running case with US regulators in 2025, as XRP traded around 2.13 dollars after rising more than 11% over the past week. Source
Crypto venture capital firm Dragonfly says stablecoin-powered payment cards are set to become one of the dominant trends of 2026, driven by rapid growth from fintech startup Rain. The company recently raised 250 million dollars at a valuation close to 2 billion dollars after expanding its active card base 30 times and increasing annualized payment volume nearly 40-fold in 2025. Rain’s platform supports major stablecoins such as USDT and USDC across blockchains including Ethereum, Solana, Tron, and Stellar, aiming to deliver faster settlement, lower costs, and global reach while keeping the consumer experience similar to traditional card payments. Industry figures argue that users benefit from dollar-denominated payments that work worldwide without needing to understand the crypto infrastructure behind them, while Bloomberg Intelligence forecasts stablecoin payment flows could reach 56.6 trillion dollars by 2030, growing at an annual rate of 81%.
Sceptics caution that stablecoin cards may struggle to gain traction in developed markets due to limited merchant incentives and lack of exclusivity compared with existing card networks. Others counter that instant settlement, immediate merchant payouts, and built-in chargeback protection could allow stablecoin systems to replace large parts of the current fintech stack. Regulatory momentum is also building, with the US passing the GENIUS Act and Canada and the UK expected to advance stablecoin frameworks in 2026 or soon after. Institutional adoption is accelerating as well, with Western Union planning to launch a stablecoin settlement system on Solana and introduce a stablecoin card in the first half of 2026 to support consumer spending in emerging markets. Source
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin publicly supported Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm, arguing that privacy-preserving software is a fundamental human right and should not be criminalized simply because it can be misused. Buterin said he has personally used Storm’s software and believes individuals must be able to control who can access information about their finances, communications, and movements to avoid exploitation. Tornado Cash, a crypto mixing service designed to obscure transaction trails, was sanctioned by the US Treasury in 2022 after being linked to large-scale laundering activity, including funds tied to North Korea’s Lazarus Group and major bridge hacks. Authorities estimated that more than 1.5 billion dollars in illicit crypto passed through the platform, out of roughly 7 billion dollars in total volume, before sanctions were lifted in March 2025.
Storm was charged in 2023 with multiple offences related to money laundering, sanctions violations, and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, and was partially convicted in 2025 on the money transmission count after a jury deadlocked on the others. He has not yet been sentenced, faces up to five years in prison, and is seeking an acquittal despite opposition from prosecutors. The case has become a global test for how open-source developers are treated when their tools are used for crime, especially after US Justice Department officials later said developers would no longer be prosecuted under the same charge used against Storm. Buterin also criticized the idea that governments should have blanket access to personal data, warning that databases are often hacked or commercialized and can end up in hostile hands, and said protecting privacy is essential for society to function without coercion. Source
Andreessen Horowitz said it has raised more than 15 billion dollars to invest in technologies it считает critical to maintaining the United States’ long-term technological, economic, and military leadership, with crypto remaining a central focus alongside artificial intelligence. Co-founder Ben Horowitz said the US has lost ground to China and other competitors in recent decades and must secure future “key architectures” to avoid decline, arguing that failure to lead in areas such as AI and crypto would weaken the country economically, geopolitically, and culturally. He also stressed that closer alignment between government and the private sector is necessary to protect American interests and reverse early signs of technological slippage.
The new capital will be allocated mainly to growth-stage investments, applications and infrastructure, the firm’s American Dynamism strategy, and bio and healthcare, with an additional portion reserved for other venture approaches. Although the dedicated a16z Crypto fund did not receive fresh capital in this raise, the firm said many of its crypto portfolio companies are included in its broader Growth fund, allowing continued investment in the sector. Separately, a16z invested 15 million dollars into Bitcoin staking and lending protocol Babylon to support the development of decentralized finance on Bitcoin and expand its use beyond simple transactions and long-term holding. Source
BNY, the world’s largest custodian bank, will begin issuing tokenized versions of customer deposits using its own private, permissioned blockchain, aiming to move programmable on-chain cash across digital financial infrastructure. The tokens are digital book entries backed by traditional bank deposits and can be withdrawn through existing banking channels, with initial use cases focused on collateral and margin. The bank says the approach can reduce settlement friction and improve liquidity efficiency while keeping official account records on its conventional systems to meet compliance requirements.
The initiative reflects growing adoption of blockchain tools by major financial institutions, as competitors like JPMorgan expand similar deposit tokens to networks such as Canton. BNY positions the product as core to its digital strategy, which already includes a tokenized money-market fund with Goldman Sachs, crypto custody services launched after forming a digital assets unit in 2021, and partnerships with firms such as Anchorage Digital, Circle, Paxos, Securitize, and Ripple. With more than 57.8 trillion in client assets safeguarded and 2.1 trillion under management, the bank is using its scale and reputation to frame tokenized deposits as a bridge between traditional finance and crypto-native markets. Source
India’s Financial Intelligence Unit has introduced stricter know-your-customer rules for crypto platforms, requiring exchanges to verify users with live selfie checks, geolocation data, IP addresses, and timestamps at account creation. The selfie process must include eye and head movement tracking to prevent AI-generated deepfakes, while bank accounts must be verified through small test transactions to meet anti-money laundering standards. Users will also need to submit additional government-issued photo ID and verify both email addresses and mobile numbers before opening accounts on registered exchanges, reflecting India’s increasingly cautious regulatory approach toward digital assets despite its large potential market of over 1.4 billion people.
At the same time, officials from India’s Income Tax Department have told lawmakers that cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance platforms weaken tax enforcement due to anonymous wallets, decentralized exchanges, and cross-border transactions. Crypto gains in India are taxed at 30 percent, with only the original purchase cost deductible, and traders are not allowed to offset profits with losses from other crypto trades. Authorities argue that differing tax regimes across jurisdictions further complicate effective taxation, reinforcing the government’s view that tighter oversight is necessary to prevent evasion and improve compliance. Source
VanEck has outlined an extremely bullish long-term scenario in which Bitcoin reaches 53.4 million per coin by 2050, based on a projected compound annual growth rate of 29 percent over the next 25 years. This forecast assumes a period of “hyper-Bitcoinization,” where Bitcoin becomes a major medium for settling both international and domestic trade, capturing about 20 percent of global trade and 10 percent of domestic economic activity. Under this outlook, Bitcoin would rival or surpass gold as a global reserve asset and represent close to 30 percent of total world financial assets, fundamentally reshaping how value is stored and transferred worldwide.
The firm’s base case is far more conservative but still aggressive, projecting a price of 2.9 million by 2050 on a 15 percent annual growth rate, with Bitcoin accounting for 5 to 10 percent of global trade, 5 percent of domestic swaps, and small allocations from central banks of up to 2.5 percent of their balance sheets. Its bear case assumes just 2 percent annual growth, leading to a price of 130,000, slightly above Bitcoin’s previous peak of 126,080 set in October. With Bitcoin recently trading around 90,319, the asset would need to rise roughly 3,100 percent to reach the base case and more than 59,000 percent to reach the bull case, while being only modestly below the bear-case projection. Source
Markethive is presented as an all-in-one digital ecosystem that combines social networking, content creation, marketing automation, and large-scale content distribution into a single interconnected platform. It integrates global social reach with internal community networking, unlimited interconnected WordPress blogs, and extensive syndication through API-linked news outlets and its proprietary HivePress system, enabling content to be distributed across thousands of domains and media sites. The platform emphasizes seamless publishing, collaboration between user groups, and the ability to connect external social networks to expand reach into a massive, continuously growing content cloud that users can visualize and interact with through advanced 3D-style interfaces.
The platform also focuses heavily on analytics, blockchain integration, and income generation for users, offering detailed performance metrics across blogs, profiles, groups, capture pages, and external sites, alongside visual data tools designed to guide marketing and growth strategies. Built on blockchain principles, Markethive promotes user ownership of data and content, transparent operations, and direct monetization through its Hivecoin cryptocurrency, bounty rewards, and faucet system that compensates user activity. With a development history spanning about 25 years, it positions itself as a market network merged with social media, aimed at empowering entrepreneurs, creators, and communities with tools for privacy, fair monetization, and large-scale digital influence within a decentralized and collaborative environment. Source
Coinbase is pressuring US lawmakers over provisions in the CLARITY Act that could restrict stablecoin issuers from offering rewards through crypto exchanges and other platforms, signaling it may withdraw support for the bill if such limits are included. Banking groups argue that reward-bearing stablecoins and similar products could divert massive amounts of deposits from traditional banks, and anti-DeFi campaigners have been lobbying senators and running TV ads to curb these activities. Crypto advocacy groups, meanwhile, say tens of thousands of messages have been sent to lawmakers to defend the ability to offer stablecoin rewards.
The debate is unfolding as the Senate Banking Committee prepares to review the bill, alongside the earlier GENIUS Act, which already bans issuers from paying yield directly to token holders but leaves room for exchanges to distribute rewards, a loophole banks want closed. Stablecoins are a significant revenue source for Coinbase, generating nearly 247 million dollars in the fourth quarter, plus 154.8 million dollars from blockchain rewards, and products like USDC currently offer yields of about 3.5 percent. The Treasury Department estimates widespread stablecoin use could pull 6.6 trillion dollars from the banking system, raising the stakes for both industries. While some analysts expect political delays could push passage to 2027 with implementation in 2029, Senate leadership remains optimistic about faster progress. Source
Rep. Ritchie Torres and 30 other House members, including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, introduced the Public Integrity in Financial Prediction Markets Act of 2026 to bar federal officials and their staff from using prediction markets. The proposal would cover all elected officials, political appointees, and employees across Congress and executive agencies, arguing that people with access to material non-public information or the ability to influence outcomes should not be allowed to trade in markets tied to political or policy events. Prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket are currently regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the bill draws on concepts from securities law designed to prevent insider trading.
Momentum for the legislation followed controversy around a Polymarket user who won more than 400,000 dollars by betting on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s removal from office shortly before US special forces apprehended him, raising concerns about possible access to privileged information. Other lawmakers, including Senator Chris Murphy, have warned that even small, obscure markets can be manipulated by insiders who can affect outcomes for profit. Industry figures have pushed back, arguing that insider participation can improve the accuracy and speed of information in prediction markets and that these platforms should not be treated like casinos, even while acknowledging that misuse of non-public information is a real risk. Source
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has emphasized the need for stronger decentralized stablecoins to give users true independence from traditional financial systems. He highlighted three main challenges: overreliance on the US dollar, vulnerabilities in oracle systems that fetch real-world data, and the need to maintain sustainable staking returns without destabilizing collateral. Buterin warned that pegging stablecoins solely to a single fiat currency exposes them to the risks of that nation-state, suggesting an alternative index could improve long-term stability. He also proposed reducing staking yields to around 0.2% and implementing staking mechanisms that avoid slashing risks, while stressing that stablecoins must be resilient to both protocol errors and network attacks.
The stablecoin market has grown to 311.5 billion dollars in 2026, driven by usage in cross-border transfers, savings, and institutional liquidity management, yet decentralized options lag far behind centralized leaders USDT and USDC, which together dominate over 83% of the market. Innovation in decentralized stablecoins has slowed since the collapse of TerraClassicUSD in 2022, with projects like Ethena USDe and Dai seeing adoption in DeFi but failing to meaningfully challenge the dominance of centralized stablecoins. Buterin’s comments underline the need for robust, secure, and resilient decentralized alternatives to ensure long-term financial sovereignty for users. Source
X is developing a feature called Smart Cashtags that will allow users to tag specific stocks or cryptocurrencies in posts, linking symbols like $BTC or $NVDA to live prices, charts, and related posts. The tool is designed to clarify overlapping ticker symbols, particularly in crypto markets, by sometimes identifying assets through their smart contract addresses. Users tapping a Smart Cashtag will be taken to an in-app page with real-time financial information, aiming to make market discussions on the platform more precise and informative.
The feature is part of X’s broader effort to become a real-time financial information hub, reflecting Elon Musk’s vision of transforming the app into an “everything app” with potential support for payments and financial services. The company plans to gather user feedback before a public rollout expected next month, though it has not confirmed whether trading or monetization will be included. Leadership changes and prior announcements about in-app investing and trading indicate that X is gradually expanding its focus on integrating financial tools and data directly into its platform. Source
Monero surged to a fresh all-time high above 592 dollars, marking its highest price in eight years and highlighting renewed investor interest in privacy-focused cryptocurrencies. The coin has gained 24 percent on the day and 40 percent over the week, continuing a trend that began late last year when privacy-linked tokens demonstrated relative resilience compared with the broader crypto market. While Zcash attracted much of the spotlight, market participants note that investors have been rotating back into privacy-oriented assets, reflecting ongoing demand for tools that preserve transactional anonymity amid tightening government oversight of cash and nontraditional payments.
Despite the strong performance, analysts caution that Monero’s price signals may be amplified by thin liquidity and a concentration of trading on offshore exchanges, which can fragment price discovery and increase the potential for sharp swings or manipulation. These dynamics underscore that short-term movements may not fully reflect broader market sentiment. Supporters of privacy coins view the rally as part of a longer-term narrative driven by regulatory pressures and the desire for financial privacy, suggesting that interest in this segment could persist even as other parts of the crypto market struggle to establish clear trends. Source
BitMine Immersion Technologies has staked an additional 86,400 Ether, pushing its total holdings past the 1 million ETH mark. The recent staking move, carried out in four separate transactions, brings the company’s staked Ether to 1,080,512, valued at over $3.3 billion. Staking allows BitMine to earn a yield of roughly 2.81%, generating an estimated $94.4 million annually in ETH. This activity highlights the growing trend of corporate Ethereum treasuries seeking to earn returns on idle crypto assets, especially as staking provides a form of cash flow that traditional cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin cannot offer.
Despite this milestone, BitMine has faced a turbulent year, with its stock price falling over 80% from a peak of $161 per share in July 2025 to just over $30 at present. In early January 2026, BitMine’s chairman proposed increasing the company’s authorized shares from 50 million to 50 billion to allow for future stock splits and keep the share price around $25. While this increase does not mean new shares will immediately be issued, it provides flexibility for managing the company’s stock price in the future. Source
The Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over allegations that he misled Congress about a headquarters renovation, an unprecedented legal move raising concerns about the Fed’s independence. Powell dismissed the claims as a pretext for political pressure and framed the probe as an attempt to influence monetary policy decisions. The investigation, overseen by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, has sparked backlash from political figures including Senator Thom Tillis, who criticized the DOJ’s actions as an attack on central bank autonomy. Market reactions have been mixed, with gold and silver seeing sharp gains while Bitcoin rose modestly, highlighting its emerging narrative as a neutral asset capable of operating independently of legal or political conflicts.
Experts suggest that if the DOJ’s case succeeds, it could destabilize confidence in the dollar and the U.S. Treasury system, embedding political risk into financial markets. This scenario could strengthen Bitcoin’s appeal as a decentralized, non-sovereign hedge against compromised monetary institutions, attracting institutional interest. In the short term, volatility across risk assets may increase as markets reprice rate expectations, but over time, Bitcoin could evolve into a recognized institutional hedge with a permanent risk premium for political interference. While it remains tethered to the dollar for now, Bitcoin’s role as a potential refuge from central bank manipulation is gaining attention. Source
South Korea’s Financial Services Commission is set to update guidelines allowing listed companies and professional investors to allocate up to 5% of their equity capital into the top 20 cryptocurrencies, ending a nine-year ban on corporate crypto investment. The move, expected to be finalized by January or February, permits transactions only on the country’s five largest regulated exchanges, with stablecoin inclusion still under discussion. The policy reversal comes after authorities had restricted institutional participation since 2017 due to money laundering concerns, and it represents a significant step toward integrating digital assets into mainstream corporate finance.
The change could bring substantial capital into South Korea’s crypto markets, potentially accelerating the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs and national stablecoins. Large companies like Naver could theoretically acquire significant crypto holdings under the new rules, while domestic investment in blockchain startups and digital asset treasuries may expand. This initiative aligns with broader economic strategies, including executing a quarter of national treasury funds through a central bank digital currency by 2030 and introducing a licensing system for stablecoin issuers to ensure full reserve backing and redemption rights for users. Source
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