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Investment bank B. Riley has stated that digital assets will reach a significant turning point in 2026, transitioning from speculative instruments to substantive financial infrastructure as regulations mature and traditional financial institutions increasingly adopt blockchain technology. According to CoinDesk, the bank explained that a combination of factors is changing not only how digital assets are traded but also how they are used. These factors include clearer stablecoin regulations, a rise in the tokenization of real-world assets, enhanced governance frameworks, and improved interoperability between bank ledgers and public blockchains. B. Riley added that due to these shifts, digital asset treasury companies (DATCOs) are moving beyond simply acquiring tokens to adopt operations-focused business models capable of generating sustainable revenue.

Bank of America (BofA) has upgraded its investment rating on Coinbase from Neutral to Buy, Walter Bloomberg reported. The bank also set a price target of $340 for the company. BofA stated that key drivers for the upgrade include Coinbase's entry into ETFs and prediction markets, along with the infrastructure growth of its proprietary Layer 2 network, Base. The bank added that Coinbase Tokenize, its real-world asset tokenization platform, will likely act as a medium- to long-term growth catalyst.

Whale Alert reported that 1,000,000,000 USDT has been transferred from Aave to HTX. The transaction is valued at about $999 million.

U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said the Federal Reserve should further lower its benchmark interest rate.

Bitcoin's decline below $90,000 could lead to a move to fill a gap in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) futures market, according to market analysis. Paul Howard, a senior director at Wincent, stated that while early-month ETF inflows and Bitmain's ETH purchases drove an initial rally, the current drop below $90,000 makes a gap-fill scenario more likely, The Block reported. He described the current market as volatile and directionless, creating a favorable environment for short-term trading, and noted that January has historically been a relatively flat period for cryptocurrency prices. Vetle Lunde, head of research at K33, suggested that the ETF inflows seen earlier this month were likely the result of portfolio rebalancing rather than a recovery in market confidence. He explained that funds with fixed allocations to Bitcoin adjusted their positions after the asset underperformed stocks and other assets at the end of last year. Meanwhile, Kevin de Patoul, CEO of crypto liquidity provider Keyrock, views the recent price drop as part of a structural change rather than a trend reversal, asserting that Bitcoin's fundamentals are unchanged. He argued that rising global debt levels continue to highlight Bitcoin's value as a strategic asset, a trend that short-term volatility will not alter. De Patoul added that larger institutions are now integrating BTC into their portfolios with more capital and sophisticated risk management strategies.

The volume of cryptocurrency-related crime reached $154 billion last year, a 162% increase from 2024, The Block reported, citing data from Chainalysis. According to Chainalysis, the $154 billion figure is a highly conservative estimate that could be larger if more transactions are included. The analysis also found that stablecoins accounted for 84% of all illicit transactions. Chainalysis suggested that criminals are exploiting stablecoins due to their low volatility and the ease with which they can be transferred across borders.

Florida state lawmakers are reintroducing a proposal to hold cryptocurrency in state reserves, Cointelegraph reported. Republican Representative John Snyder has filed Bill 1039 for the 2026 legislative session, which would create a cryptocurrency reserve fund. The bill proposes allowing the state's Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to invest and manage cryptocurrencies under a risk management framework. It includes a provision that would permit up to 10% of state funds to be invested in Bitcoin, though it does not specify a minimum investment ratio. The decision on whether and when to invest would be left to the CFO's discretion. The legislation also calls for the establishment of an independent audit and an advisory committee.

21Shares plans to distribute ETH staking rewards to TETH holders on Jan. 9, Solid Intel reported.

Cross-chain bridge Owlto Finance has released the tokenomics for its native OWL token, revealing that 16.5% of the total supply will be in circulation at launch. The token's total supply will be allocated as follows: 22% to the community, 15.67% to investors, 15% to the team, 15% for airdrops, 10.33% to the ecosystem, 7.5% for liquidity provision, 7% for exchange airdrops, 5% to advisors, and 2.5% for marketing. Tokens allocated to the team, investors, and advisors will be subject to a 12-month lock-up period.

An arbitrage strategy that capitalizes on the price difference between spot crypto assets and perpetual futures is no longer an attractive means of generating profit, according to an annual report from BitMEX. The report noted that the strategy, which involves buying spot while simultaneously selling perpetual futures to earn the funding rate differential, was once popular as a risk-free way to secure returns while avoiding price volatility. However, BitMEX explained that as the entire market, beginning with projects like Ethena (ENA), adopted the same strategy, funding yields plummeted. A flood of billions of dollars in automated hedge orders saturated the market, causing the volume of short positions to overwhelm demand from long positions and collapsing the funding rate. The report pointed out that by the middle of last year, yields from this strategy had fallen below 4%—a level lower than U.S. Treasury yields and a stark contrast to the 25% returns seen in past bull markets. The firm concluded that as the industry universally adopted the strategy, the arbitrage opportunity effectively eliminated itself.

Amid the ongoing debate over the validity of Bitcoin's four-year cycle, this month could serve as a crucial inflection point, according to an analysis by Coindesk. The report highlighted that January has historically marked significant turning points, such as a short-term high in January 2023 and the yearly low in January 2024 following the approval of spot ETFs. The analysis also pointed to cycle lows forming around Nov. 21 in both 2022 and 2021. A U.S. hearing on a proposed crypto market structure bill, scheduled for Jan. 15, is now being watched as a key event that could determine the market's future direction.

BlackRock has deposited 2,164 BTC, worth approximately $195.12 million, and 22,902 ETH, valued at $71.43 million, to Coinbase Prime, according to Onchain-Lenz. Coinbase Prime is a prime brokerage platform that facilitates large-scale trading and asset custody for institutional investors.

An analysis suggests that on-chain indicators point to an increasing likelihood of market consolidation for Bitcoin. In a contribution to CryptoQuant, analyst CrypZeno explained that Bitcoin's Market Value to Realized Value (MVRV) ratio has turned downward after facing resistance in an overvalued zone. According to the analyst, this indicates that the growth of unrealized profits is slowing and suggests an increased likelihood of selling by long-term holders. CrypZeno concluded that market momentum is showing signs of slowing, raising the possibility of a correction or a period of sideways movement.

Bitcoin has reached a critical inflection point that will determine whether its current correction is ending or will deepen, according to an analysis by Negentropic, the X account of Glassnode co-founders Jan Happel and Yann Allemann. The analysis focuses on a Risk Index that measures profit-taking pressure in the market, where a high reading indicates strong selling pressure and a low reading suggests seller exhaustion. Historically, major BTC corrections have often concluded after this index falls below 25 and approaches zero. The analysts noted that the index is currently nearing this critical threshold. They stated that price action at the current level will be a key determinant, deciding if this is a mid-cycle correction similar to that of April-May 2025 or the start of a more significant downturn. A daily close above $94,700 would signal a potential short-term bullish reversal and could support a scenario of a new all-time high within the next four to eight weeks.

An analysis suggests that selling pressure on XRP is gradually easing as inflows from large-scale investors, or whales, to Binance decrease. CryptoQuant contributor Arab Chain noted that in Binance's XRP inflow data, whales account for 60.3% of the total, while retail investors make up 39.7%. This proportion has been trending downward after peaking at over 70% in November and early December of last year. The contributor explained that whale movements coincide with XRP's price correction. The asset rose to $3.20 late last year but has since fallen to its current level of around $2.26. An increase in whale inflows to exchanges typically signals stronger selling, whereas a decrease indicates that selling pressure is subsiding. While the share of inflows from whales remains high, its gradual decline is considered a positive sign that lowers the risk of a sudden, large-scale sell-off. However, the analyst cautioned that a renewed increase in whale inflows could signal a market reversal and warrants close attention.

South Korea's ruling Democratic Party is pursuing a two-track approach to stablecoin legislation by preparing two separate bills, Dailyan reported. The first bill will align with the government's plan, reflecting the Financial Services Commission's proposal to permit issuance primarily through bank-led consortiums. Concurrently, the party's Digital Asset Task Force is drafting a separate, innovation-focused bill. This second proposal is a response to internal concerns that a bank-centric model is too restrictive and aims to allow a wider range of entities, such as fintech and blockchain companies, to issue stablecoins.

Indian financial authorities have highlighted the difficulty of tracking cryptocurrency transactions for tax evasion purposes, the Times of India reported. India's Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) stated that offshore exchanges, private wallets, and DeFi complicate tax enforcement. The agency explained that the nature of cryptocurrency allows funds to move without passing through regulated financial institutions, limiting the ability to trace transactions. The CBDT added that identifying taxpayers is virtually impossible in transaction structures involving multiple countries. Currently, India applies a 30% tax rate on profits from crypto transactions and imposes a 1% tax deducted at source (TDS) on all trades, regardless of profit or loss.

Bitcoin's mining difficulty fell 1.20% to 146.47 T in its latest adjustment at approximately 8:05 a.m. UTC on Jan. 8, according to data from Cloverpool, formerly BTC.com. The network's seven-day average hashrate at the time of the adjustment was 1.04 ZH/s, and its current hashrate is 1.06 ZH/s. The next difficulty adjustment is expected in about 14 days.

Crypto AI startup Fraction AI announced on X the launch of its Base-based Signature Agents. The company said users can create and share their own agents, each reflecting its creator's philosophy on how to use stablecoins. As trillions of dollars in stablecoins move on-chain, the agents are designed to help utilize this capital efficiently in real-time. According to the announcement, users have already deployed more than 160,000 agents on the Base mainnet through the platform in recent months. Access to Signature Agents will initially be available to FOXX NFT holders and the Legendary Group before gradually expanding. Agents created by crypto analysts such as Miles Deutscher and Daan Crypto Trades are currently available. Fraction AI added that the agents are fast, accessible, and capable of managing assets across the entire on-chain environment, stating that this year will see stablecoins evolve from infrastructure into tools that power an agent-based economy. Fraction AI previously raised $6 million in a pre-seed funding round in December 2024. The round was co-led by Spartan Group and Symbolic Capital, with participation from Borderless Capital, Anagram, Foresight Ventures, and Karatage.

Binance has announced the launch of traditional finance (TradFi) perpetual futures contracts, starting with gold (XAU) and silver (XAG). The new products are collateralized with USDT and share the same structure as existing crypto perpetual futures, allowing for leveraged trading without an expiration date. Users can trade these contracts via the TradFi tab on the futures trading page on the Binance website or app.

Ethereum (ETH) is exhibiting several bearish signals, according to an analysis by crypto analyst CryptoOnchain. The analyst noted on X that the Coinbase Premium for ETH has dropped to its lowest level in 10 months, indicating weakened demand from U.S.-based investors and stronger selling pressure on Coinbase compared to Binance. ETH has been in a downtrend since peaking at $4,700 and has been unable to break through the key resistance level of $3,300. Sluggish demand for spot ETH ETFs was also cited as a bearish factor. CryptoOnchain concluded that a breakout above $3,300 is unlikely until the Coinbase Premium turns positive.

Binance Alpha has announced the addition of 我踏马来了. The platform is an on-chain trading service within the Binance Wallet that focuses on listing early-stage coins.

U.S. spot XRP ETFs recorded their first net outflow in 36 trading days since their launch, The Block reported. On Jan. 7, the five funds saw a combined net outflow of $40.8 million. The outflow was driven by 21Shares' TOXR, which lost $47.25 million, while ETFs from Canary, Bitwise, and Grayscale saw combined net inflows of around $2 million. Rachael Lucas, an analyst at BTC Markets, noted that while the first net outflow is a notable change, its scale is equivalent to only 3% of the cumulative net inflows since the products' inception. She suggested the outflow was likely due to profit-taking after XRP's price surged from $1.8 to $2.4 in one week, coinciding with a broader market correction. Lucas added that XRP holdings on exchanges are at an all-time low while trading volume remains high, and various on-chain indicators point to potential bullish signals. She concluded that if capital inflows into the ETFs resume, XRP could retest the $3 price level.

Binance Alpha has announced the addition of DeepNode (DN). The platform is an on-chain trading service within the Binance Wallet that focuses on listing early-stage coins.

Major exchanges have seen $102 million worth of futures liquidated in the past hour. In the past 24 hours, $418 million worth of futures have been liquidated.