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U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Paul Atkins has stated that this week will be an important one for cryptocurrency.

Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) accounted for 77% of all fines levied by South Korea's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) over the past two years and four months, Digital Asset reported exclusively. While VASP-related sanctions represented only 4.2% of the 95 total cases during the period, they comprised the vast majority of the 54 billion won ($39.1 million) in total penalties. The single largest fine was imposed on Dunamu, amounting to 35.2 billion won ($25.5 million).

The Crypto Fear & Greed Index fell one point from yesterday to 26, remaining in the fear category, according to data from Alternative. The index measures market sentiment on a scale from zero, indicating extreme fear, to 100, representing extreme greed. It is calculated based on volatility (25%), trading volume (25%), social media mentions (15%), surveys (15%), Bitcoin's market cap dominance (10%), and Google search volume (10%).

An address presumed to belong to Bitmine has staked an additional 154,208 ETH, worth $480 million, Onchain Lens reported. The address is now staking a total of 1,344,424 ETH, valued at $4.15 billion.

Cardano (ADA) founder Charles Hoskinson has argued that the Trump administration's cryptocurrency policy has been more detrimental to the industry than the Biden administration's. In an interview with CoinDesk, he stated that while President Trump's election initially inspired optimism in the crypto sector, that hope was instantly shattered by the launch of memecoins by the president and first lady. Hoskinson asserted that the fallout from this event halted bipartisan regulatory reform efforts that were underway in early 2025, transforming crypto into a partisan issue. He claimed that without the memecoin launch, both the stablecoin bill (GENIUS Act) and the crypto market structure bill (CLARITY Act) would have already been passed.

The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee has postponed a planned markup of the crypto market structure bill, known as the CLARITY Act, from Jan. 15 to the last week of January, Eleanor Terrett of Crypto in America reported. Committee Chairman John Boozman said the delay is necessary to allow more time to build bipartisan support for the legislation.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Paul Atkins has taken a noncommittal stance on the possibility of the U.S. seizing Bitcoin allegedly held by Venezuela, Cointelegraph reported. Speaking to Fox Business, Atkins addressed claims that Venezuela may hold as much as $60 billion in BTC. He said he could not verify the authenticity of those reports and that it remains unclear what action the U.S. would take if such an opportunity arose. Speculation about a secret vault of BTC and USDT—allegedly used by Venezuela to evade international sanctions—intensified after the U.S. captured President Nicolás Maduro. While some estimates place the country’s holdings as high as $60 billion, officially confirmed on-chain reserves amount to only about 240 BTC.

Global credit rating agency Fitch Ratings has warned that securities backed by Bitcoin carry a level of risk comparable to speculative-grade investments, Cointelegraph reported. Fitch identified Bitcoin's inherent price volatility and counterparty risk—the possibility that a party in a financial transaction could default on its contractual obligations—as the main risk factors. The agency noted that a sudden drop in volatility could breach the collateral maintenance ratio, which is the value of Bitcoin collateral relative to the issued debt. This could cause the collateral's value to plummet and lead to investor losses. Fitch added that the bankruptcies of crypto lenders such as BlockFi and Celsius demonstrate how collateral-based models can quickly collapse during periods of market stress.

U.S. President Donald Trump has implemented an executive order imposing a 25% tariff on countries that trade with Iran, Walter Bloomberg reported.

According to CoinNess market monitoring, BTC has fallen below $91,000. BTC is trading at $90,971.4 on the Binance USDT market.

U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Cynthia Lummis have introduced a standalone bipartisan bill, the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA), according to reporter Eleanor Terrett. The bill's provisions were previously introduced in the House by the Republican Majority Leader and included in the CLARITY Act. The legislation aims to protect the rights of developers to write code and of individuals to self-custody their digital assets. The BRCA is currently being discussed for inclusion in the Senate's negotiations on a market structure bill, but its incorporation into the final version is uncertain.

The three major U.S. stock indices finished in positive territory. The S&P 500 rose 0.16%, the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.26%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.17%.

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a noted crypto critic, has argued that an executive order from the Trump administration could put investors at risk by allowing pension and retirement funds to hold cryptocurrency, according to CNBC. Warren has sent an official letter to SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins requesting more detailed information on the matter.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams publicly supported the NYC Token at a press conference in Times Square, according to Decrypt. Adams described the token as a commemorative asset and stated that proceeds will be used to combat antisemitism and anti-American sentiment, as well as to fund blockchain education. He explained that a significant portion of the funds raised will be allocated to non-profit organizations, historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), and scholarships for underprivileged groups. The NYC Token has not yet been officially launched, and Adams said he is not currently receiving any compensation for his involvement with the project.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has launched an Innovation Advisory Committee composed primarily of figures from the cryptocurrency industry, according to CoinDesk. CFTC Commissioner Mike Selig, who is reorganizing the innovation-focused advisory body, named several crypto company CEOs as its first members, including Tyler Winklevoss of Gemini, as well as leaders from Kraken, Crypto.com, Bitnomial, and Bullish. The committee also includes representatives from prediction market platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi, and traditional financial institutions such as Nasdaq, CME, ICE, and Cboe. Selig stated that the goal is to create fit-for-purpose market structure regulations that reflect technologies like AI and blockchain.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned President Donald Trump that an investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell could negatively affect financial markets, according to Axios. Bessent noted that such a probe could heighten market uncertainty and undermine confidence.

President Donald Trump has warned that the U.S. could be forced to refund hundreds of billions of dollars if the Supreme Court rules his administration's tariff policies are illegal. He stated that such an outcome would create immense chaos and be practically unaffordable for the country. CoinNess previously reported that the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling on the matter on Jan. 14.

The cryptocurrency market has entered a second phase of institutional adoption, undergoing a structural pivot from being retail-investor-focused to being led by institutional capital, according to an analysis by Binance Research. The report highlights Morgan Stanley's S-1 filings for Bitcoin and Solana ETFs, following the approval of U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs in 2024, as a prime example of this new phase. This development signifies a shift for Wall Street, moving from simply distributing digital asset products to actively planning and launching them. The analysis suggests that rival financial firms like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan could follow suit. Additionally, the report projects that easing concerns about digital asset trading firms being excluded from MSCI indexes, coupled with demand for portfolio diversification, could create a favorable environment for digital assets in 2026.

Data from U.S. prediction market platform Kalshi indicates a 60% probability that a bill banning stock trading by members of the U.S. Congress will pass this year.

Cryptocurrency trading and custody platform Bakkt Holdings has acquired stablecoin payments company Distributed Technologies Research (DTR), Crypto Briefing reported. The acquisition will be conducted as an all-stock transaction.

AlphaTON, a Nasdaq-listed firm with a digital asset treasury (DAT) of TON tokens, has signed a $46 million computing infrastructure agreement with Cocoon, a TON-based AI computing network, The Block reported. Under the deal, AlphaTON will supply Cocoon with 576 of Nvidia's B300 chips.

An address presumed to belong to World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a DeFi protocol led by the Trump family, sent 500 million WLFI ($83.12 million) to an address associated with crypto market maker Jump Trading, Onchain Lens reported.

According to CoinNess market monitoring, BTC has risen above $92,000. BTC is trading at $92,000 on the Binance USDT market.

U.S. investment bank Benchmark has identified this week as a crucial watershed moment for the cryptocurrency sector, CoinDesk reported. Benchmark noted that the U.S. Senate is preparing to vote on the crypto market structure bill, known as the CLARITY Act. The bank believes this legislation could be the starting point for fundamentally resolving the long-standing regulatory vacuum in the industry. Furthermore, Benchmark explained that the bill is particularly important because it could mitigate the risk of regulatory reversal, such as a future administration changing the current government's stance on crypto.

Whale Alert reported that 3,744 BTC has been transferred from Coinbase Institutional to an unknown new wallet. The transaction is valued at about $343 million.