U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick stated at the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 21, 2026, that the U.S. economy is robust and could expand by more than 5% at the start of 2026, with potential to top 6% if interest rates fall. He argued that currently high borrowing costs are constraining business and household spending and urged the European Union to avoid retaliatory measures if the United States proceeds with tariffs linked to Greenland, warning this could reignite a damaging tariff spiral.

By mid-January 2026, daily cryptocurrency payment-card transactions neared 60,000, marking a 22x rise from December 2024. The cards processed close to $4 million in spending each day, while cumulative activity surpassed 7.3 million transactions and $804 million in volume, supported by about 150,000 active users.

Galaxy Group plans to launch a $100 million crypto hedge fund in Q1 2026, allocating up to 30% to tokens and the balance to financial services stocks. The strategy is designed to harness volatility and separate "winners and losers" as digital asset infrastructure evolves, with leadership by Joe Armao and outreach to family offices and institutions.

U.S. Oil Reserve (USOR), a Solana-based crypto token, has surged more than 660% in a week, driven by oil-themed narratives and speculative momentum. While USOR is a real, actively traded token, claims that it is oil-backed or government-verified remain unproven, positioning it as a high-risk, narrative-driven asset rather than a fundamentals-based investment.

After the October 10, 2025 crypto crash, Hyperliquid (HYPE), one of the largest decentralized exchanges, saw sharp drops in trading volume and open interest as it moved into 2026. A recent study by GLC shows volume falling from $10.17 billion to $5.66 billion and open interest declining from $14.75 billion to $9.48 billion, even as year-to-date data and new features such as portfolio margin point to a gradual recovery. The HYPE token is now trading around $21.84, about 63% below its all-time high of $59.30.

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.

Bitcoin fell around 4% to roughly $88,000 on Wednesday amid a sharp crypto leverage shakeout that erased over $1.07B in positions. At the same time, gold climbed above $4,800 an ounce for the first time and silver also hit records as investors rotated into havens during a broader risk-off move that hit Asian, European and US equities.

Bitcoin and Ether revisited more-than-two-week lows as markets reacted to US President Donald Trump's new tariff threats. On Tuesday, the S&P 500 fell 1.9%, gold hit a record, and total crypto capitalization slipped to $2.71 trillion, down from nearly $3 trillion the prior Wednesday.