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CoinMarketCap's Altcoin Season Index has dropped three points from yesterday to 26. The index determines whether it is an "altcoin season" by comparing the price performance of the top 100 coins by market capitalization, excluding stablecoins and wrapped tokens, against Bitcoin. An altcoin season is declared when 75% of these top coins outperform Bitcoin over the past 90 days. A score closer to 100 indicates a stronger altcoin season, while a lower score suggests a "Bitcoin season."

World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a DeFi project associated with the Trump family, has established a new subsidiary called World Liberty Trust, Bloomberg reported. The move follows WLFI's previous application for a U.S. banking license. If approved, World Liberty Trust will be able to function as a bank in specific areas, including asset custody. WLFI CEO Zach Witkoff, son of President Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, is set to chair the new company's board. The firm also plans to fill its currently vacant Chief Financial Officer (CFO) position soon.

According to data from crypto options exchange Deribit, Bitcoin options with a notional value of $2.4 billion are set to expire at 8:00 a.m. UTC on Jan. 16. The contracts have a put/call ratio of 1.25 and a max pain price of $92,000. Additionally, Ethereum options worth $430 million will expire at the same time, featuring a put/call ratio of 0.98 and a max pain price of $3,200.

The Crypto Fear & Greed Index has dropped 12 points from yesterday to 49, shifting market sentiment from a state of greed to neutral, according to data from Alternative. The index measures investor sentiment on a scale where 0 indicates extreme fear and 100 represents extreme optimism. The score is calculated based on volatility (25%), trading volume (25%), social media mentions (15%), surveys (15%), Bitcoin's market dominance (10%), and Google search volume (10%).

Democratic members of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee have sent a letter to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Paul Atkins, urging the agency to resume its lawsuit against Tron (TRX) founder Justin Sun. The lawmakers accused the SEC of lax oversight and selective application of securities laws to cryptocurrency firms, particularly urging a restart of the case against Sun, who they noted is presumed to have ties to China. According to Decrypt, the lawmakers suggested that the SEC's shift from a hardline stance to abandoning lawsuits against crypto firms appears to be based on political judgment rather than legal grounds. They emphasized that if the SEC is an institution for the American people, it must resume the case against Sun. The SEC initially sued Justin Sun and Tron in March 2023 on charges of fraud and selling unregistered securities. Following a change in leadership, the commission requested a temporary halt to the lawsuit in February 2025.

Layer 1 blockchain platform Sui (SUI) announced it has published a post-mortem analysis of a network outage that occurred on Jan. 14. According to the report, a discrepancy in the validator consensus process on the Sui mainnet led to a prolonged disruption. This issue prevented validators from certifying new checkpoints and caused transaction submission timeout errors. Sui emphasized that no forks occurred, meaning transactions were not recorded on separate chains, and no certified transactions were rolled back. The platform also confirmed that user funds were not exposed to any risk during the incident.

Cake Wallet, a privacy-focused cryptocurrency wallet, has added Zcash (ZEC) to its list of supported assets, The Block reported. While primarily known as a Monero (XMR) wallet, the company is expanding to become a comprehensive privacy platform. The integration defaults to Zcash's shielded transactions, which encrypt transfer addresses and amounts. The wallet also offers a privacy-preserving cross-chain swap feature called NEAR Intents.

Ethereum (ETH) could rally to $4,100, but it may first experience a short-term decline due to an overheated futures market, Cointelegraph reported, citing multiple experts. Crypto analyst Pelin Ay noted that ETH's current leverage ratio of 0.60 has historically preceded a brief drop to clear out over-leveraged long positions, followed by a strong rebound toward the $4,100 level. Meanwhile, Glassnode analyst Sean Rose observed that despite recent gains, ETH's realized losses still exceed profits, with its Spent Output Profit Ratio (SOPR) remaining below one. Rose suggested this indicates less conviction among ETH investors compared to those holding Bitcoin. The report also cited Hyblock data showing $500 million in long position liquidations clustered around the $3,100 price point, reinforcing the potential for a short-term drop. A stronger rally could follow such a liquidity sweep, the outlet added.

The three major U.S. stock indices closed higher. The S&P 500 rose 0.24%, the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.25%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.60%.

The U.S. Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has unveiled a roadmap to tokenize all 1.4 million securities it holds, CoinDesk reported. The project, which began following the DTCC's 2023 acquisition of blockchain technology startup Securrency, aims to optimize collateral, enable real-time settlement, and secure 24-hour liquidity. For security reasons, the initiative will adopt a burn-and-mint mechanism under its own controlled layer instead of using cross-chain bridges.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong anticipates that an amended version of a crypto market structure bill will be introduced within the coming weeks, Cointelegraph reported. In an interview with CNBC, Armstrong stated that the current bill has critical flaws if it proceeds to a vote as is, adding that he sees an opportunity to draft a new version. Armstrong also mentioned in the same interview that he is prepared to re-engage in discussions regarding the legislation.

Mysten Labs, the developer of Sui (SUI), has launched a pilot internship program called LAUNCH Career, the company announced on its official X account. The program is designed for junior developers starting their careers within the Sui ecosystem.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in an interview with CNBC that he is ready to return to discussions on the crypto market structure bill (CLARITY). Coinbase had previously withdrawn its support for the proposed legislation, citing several concerns. These included what it described as a de facto ban on tokenized stocks, provisions that could block DeFi and allow unrestricted access to financial information, a structure that would weaken the authority of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) by making it subordinate to the SEC, and the potential to block reward functions for stablecoins.

Coinbase announced on Jan. 15 the listing of the FUN1/USD spot trading pair. Trading is scheduled to commence once liquidity conditions are met.

Global electronic brokerage Interactive Brokers (IBKR) is set to become the first major traditional finance firm to utilize stablecoins by offering 24-hour account deposits via USDC, The Block reported. The service, which will operate 24/7, is built on infrastructure from stablecoin startup Zerohash. Interactive Brokers also plans to add support for Ripple's RLUSD and PayPal's PYUSD as early as next week.

Polygon (POL) Labs has recently laid off 30% of its total workforce, BeInCrypto reported. The move is said to be linked to the company's acquisitions of Coinme and Sequence, which were part of a strategic focus on its Open Money Stack, a modular framework for cross-border stablecoin payments. This follows a previous 20% staff reduction in 2024 that was also not formally announced. News of the latest departures has spread without an official statement from the company.

Goldman Sachs is accelerating its integration of asset tokenization and prediction markets, identifying them as key future growth areas, CoinDesk reported. CEO David Solomon stated that the bank is in direct contact with leaders of major prediction market platforms to explore potential collaborations. He also noted that Goldman Sachs has communicated its views on the proposed crypto market structure bill (CLARITY) to policymakers in Washington. The investment bank is currently building out related infrastructure, anticipating that institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies will begin in earnest this year, provided that clear regulations are established.

Members of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee are optimistic that a crypto market structure bill known as the CLARITY Act will ultimately pass, despite delays caused by opposition from Coinbase, The Block reported. Senators including Cynthia Lummis stated that discussions to reach a bipartisan agreement are ongoing. Coinbase previously withdrew its support for the legislation, citing several concerns. These include what it described as a de facto ban on tokenized securities, the potential to block DeFi while allowing unlimited access to financial information, a framework that would weaken the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) by subordinating it to the SEC, and the possibility of banning stablecoin reward features. As a result, a Senate markup session for the bill, which was scheduled for Jan. 15, has been postponed.

The White House has stated that U.S. President Donald Trump will decide on the next chair of the Federal Reserve within the next few weeks, according to Walter Bloomberg. The statement added that there are several individuals whom the president considers suitable for the position.

According to CoinNess market monitoring, BTC has fallen below $96,000. BTC is trading at $95,992.6 on the Binance USDT market.

A group of U.S. Democratic House members has accused the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of halting major cryptocurrency-related investigations due to political collusion, CoinDesk reported. In a letter to SEC Chairman Paul Atkins, Representatives Maxine Waters, Sean Casten, and Brad Sherman stated that the agency has dismissed or closed at least 12 cases since the beginning of last year. The lawmakers noted that these included actions against Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken, which they argued the SEC had a high probability of winning. They pointed out that the timing of the discontinued investigations coincides with a period when the cryptocurrency industry was actively making donations to the Trump administration.

Approximately 200 million addresses currently hold stablecoins, a figure that has doubled over the past four years, crypto newsletter Milk Road reported, citing data from Token Terminal.

Pudgy Penguins (PENGU) has partnered with the English Premier League's Manchester City to release premium merchandise, the project announced on its official X account. The merchandise will be available for purchase by adults aged 18 and over, with full details scheduled for release on Jan. 17.

Esports company NIP Group announced it mined $14 million worth of BTC between September and November of last year, its first three months of formal mining operations. The company stated its current mining capacity is 9.66 EH/s, a level that ranks it among the top 20 publicly listed mining firms in the U.S., according to Decrypt.

According to CoinNess market monitoring, BTC has risen above $97,000. BTC is trading at $97,034.91 on the Binance USDT market.