Ripple president Monica Long predicts that by the end of 2026, around half of Fortune 500 firms will have formal digital asset strategies and that balance sheets will collectively hold over $1 trillion in digital assets. She expects rapid growth in institutional use of tokenized assets, stablecoins and onchain instruments, along with broader integration of stablecoins into global payment systems.

Pendle plans to phase out its vePENDLE governance token and transition to a new liquid staking token, sPENDLE, with staking set to start on Tuesday and vePENDLE locks paused on Jan. 29. The protocol aims to simplify governance, reduce lock-up frictions with a 14-day withdrawal period or instant exit for a 5% fee, and expand interoperability so the token can be used across other DeFi platforms.

MegaETH, an Ethereum layer-2, recorded nearly 47,000 transactions per second in testing on Jan. 16, according to growthepie. The team said it will open mainnet access on Jan. 22 for several latency-sensitive apps during a week-long 'global stress test' targeting 11B transactions and sustained 15–35K TPS, with an official launch to follow.

Solana Mobile said its first Seeker (SKR) airdrop will allocate 1,819,755,000 tokens to 100,908 Seeker owners and 141,030,000 to 188 app developers. Claims open on January 21 at 2am UTC, and the distribution equals 20% of SKR's 10 billion supply, with staking available immediately afterward.

US Securities and Exchange Commission chair Paul Atkins said in a Monday interview that he is optimistic a bipartisan crypto market structure bill will reach President Donald Trump's desk for signature in 2026. He argued the measure, along with the GENIUS Act passed in 2025, would move digital asset trading out of a regulatory gray area and strengthen US ambitions to be a leading crypto hub.

Meta is reportedly planning to lay off about 10% of employees at its Reality Labs division this week as it reallocates resources from metaverse projects to artificial intelligence and wearables. The unit, which has around 15,000 staff working on VR hardware and metaverse platforms like Horizon Worlds and Horizon Workrooms, has accumulated more than $70 billion in losses since its launch in August 2020.

Early-2026 instability in Venezuela and Iran has underscored the dual use of USDT: a hedge for residents against inflation and banking risk, and a channel allegedly used by sanctioned actors. Dec. 5 data indicates Tether blacklisted about $3.3 billion from 2023 to late 2025, while since 2023 a network linked to Iran's IRGC moved over $1 billion in stablecoins.

Digital asset infrastructure provider Fireblocks has acquired crypto accounting and tax compliance platform TRES for $130 million to enhance its institutional product suite. The deal is aimed at helping clients manage audit-ready, tax-compliant records as stablecoin settlements reach hundreds of billions of dollars each month and more enterprises move treasury flows on-chain. TRES will continue operating as a standalone product while its infrastructure is integrated into Fireblocks' stack.

On Monday, Goldman Sachs upgraded Coinbase's COIN to buy and raised its 12‑month price target to $303, prompting an 8% gain and a $254.92 close. Analyst James Yaro cited selective optimism toward U.S. brokers and crypto infrastructure, highlighting tokenization and prediction markets, while Coinbase pursues its "everything exchange" strategy.