Events

Bitcoin (BTC) is testing a significant technical cap near the $93,500–$94,000 band, with abrupt, decisive price moves that point to a rekindling of market confidence. Yet the backdrop is uneven: underlying fundamentals lag as trading volumes thin and overall liquidity remains weak. The advance feels as disquieting as it is encouraging.

Jupiter has introduced JupUSD, a decentralized, over-collateralized stablecoin built on Ethena technology and primarily collateralized by BlackRock's tokenized USD fund alongside USDC. Jupiter will integrate JupUSD across its DeFi suite on Solana as part of a broader infrastructure upgrade.

Peer-reviewed studies and ESG analyst Daniel Batten challenge widespread claims that Bitcoin mining wastes energy, undermines grid reliability, or increases consumer costs. Instead, the evidence shows mining is increasingly powered by renewables, can bolster grid stability, and, through flexible demand, may help lower electricity prices for consumers.

More than $657 million of tokens are set to unlock Jan 5–12, 2026 across several projects, led by a major cliff release from Hyperliquid. Significant distributions for Ethena, Aptos, RAIN and Solana could influence altcoin price dynamics.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) surged in early 2026, reversing its downtrend to become a leading meme coin amid a sector revival. The token posted notable price gains, shows concentrated ownership among large holders, and has benefited from improving risk sentiment as geopolitical tensions eased.

Grayscale's Ethereum staking ETF has begun issuing on-chain staking rewards—$0.083178 per ETHE share for Q4—marking the first time a U.S. regulated exchange-traded crypto product directly passes staking yield through to investors.

Polymarket and Parcl are launching transparent, crypto-native prediction markets for real estate that rely on Parcl’s daily housing price indices. These markets let users place data-driven bets on home price movements across major U.S. cities, widening access to price exposure and potentially reshaping traditional real estate investment dynamics.

Nobel Prize laureate and Bitcoin supporter María Corina Machado has become a leading presidential hopeful in crisis‑hit Venezuela, proposing Bitcoin as a principal reserve asset that could transform the nation’s economy and serve as a template for other countries facing turmoil.

BitMine Immersion Technologies, led by Tom Lee, is pursuing a substantial increase in authorized shares to enable future stock splits, capital raises and acquisitions. The firm has also added roughly 33,000 ETH to its treasury, taking holdings above 4.14 million ETH — a move that has helped lift BMNR’s share price.

On January 5, Starknet — an Ethereum Layer‑2 ZK‑rollup — experienced a multi‑hour mainnet outage after block production slowed markedly. The slowdown halted transactions and reduced network capacity. Engineers are investigating unresolved technical issues; no root cause has been confirmed and leadership has not commented.

Michael Saylor’s firm Strategy has sharply increased its Bitcoin stash to 673,783 BTC (roughly $61B), partly financed by common stock sales, while simultaneously hoarding a $2.25B cash buffer—setting the company up for an assertive return and attracting renewed market attention.

Ledger's payment processor Global-e experienced a new data breach on Jan. 5, 2026, that revealed Ledger customers' names and contact information, underscoring persistent cybersecurity and phishing vulnerabilities nearly six years after the company's large 2020 data leak.

Bank of America has moved from passive, client-led crypto access to actively supporting digital assets, allowing its wealth advisers to recommend spot Bitcoin ETFs and advising clients to consider allocating up to 4% of their portfolios as Wall Street sees rising institutional adoption.

Memecoins have emerged as 2026's surprise market leaders, with the sector's value rising by over 30% and daily trading volumes jumping to roughly $8.8 billion. The surge has added about $11 billion to memecoin market cap, marking a sharp rebound after 2025's slump.

Crypto ETPs came close to matching 2024’s peak with $47.2 billion of inflows in 2025, even as Bitcoin products fell 35% to $26.9 billion while altcoin vehicles led by Ether, XRP and Solana attracted more than $20 billion. Strong year-end and early‑2026 flows point to resilient institutional demand despite market volatility.

In late 2025, Ethereum reinforced its role as the primary stablecoin and settlement layer, recording elevated developer activity and holding roughly 54% of global stablecoin supply. The network processed over $8 trillion in quarterly stablecoin transfers and saw about $960M in inflows, even as on‑chain flows to Binance jumped after earlier bearish price moves.

Japan is accelerating the integration of crypto into its regulated financial framework, reclassifying more than 100 tokens as financial products, pursuing crypto ETFs, and tightening securities-style rules, tax treatment, disclosure and market oversight to fold digital assets into stock and commodity exchanges.

Spending on Visa-linked crypto cards rose 525% in 2025, jumping from $14.6 million to $91.3 million. EtherFi and Cypher led the increase, underscoring rapid global adoption of crypto for everyday payments.

Bitcoin Core development made a strong comeback in 2025, rising about 60%: 135 developers added roughly 285,000 lines of code. Discussions on email and mailing lists increased, code changes and commits climbed, the network settled approximately $4.5 trillion in value, and it completed its first public security audit.

Cryptocurrency markets are advancing, with total market capitalization exceeding $3.1 trillion as Bitcoin trades above $91,000 and Ethereum sits over $3,000, extending an approximate 5% weekly rise and signaling broad investor optimism.