On January 20, 2026, Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu said at the CfC St. Moritz conference that affluent crypto collectors who buy NFTs to hold, rather than trade, are helping sustain a market that still records about $300 million in monthly sales. He compared these collectors to traditional art buyers, revealed his own NFT portfolio is down roughly 80%, and linked the last-minute cancellation of NFT Paris 2026 to France's changing stance on crypto and growing security concerns.

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.

Memecoin launchpad Pump.fun has introduced Pump Fund, a new investment division that will allocate $3 million to 12 early-stage projects via a Build in Public Hackathon. Participants must issue a token and retain at least 10% of its supply, while Pump.fun will prioritize product traction, community presence and long-term viability when selecting winners. Following the announcement, the platform's native token PUMP traded around $0.00256 after a 3.04% daily gain, facing resistance near $0.00274.

MakinaFi has reportedly been hit by a security exploit that drained 1,299 ETH, valued at roughly $4.13 million, from the protocol. On-chain data shows the stolen funds were split between two Ethereum addresses, with part of the flow linked to an address tagged as an MEV builder, while the protocol has yet to publish a detailed post-mortem or mitigation plan.

On Monday, Magic Eden CEO and co-founder Jack Lu said the firm is preparing for a coming "speculation supercycle", as prediction markets posted a record $814.2 million in daily trading volume. Magic Eden will roll out its Dicey crypto casino and sportsbook this quarter and route 15% of platform revenue to ME tokenholders via USDC buybacks and staking rewards. This strategy comes after the NFT market cap dropped from $7.95 billion to $2.5 billion in 2025 but has climbed back above $3 billion in early 2026.

On January 20, 2026, the New York Stock Exchange announced plans to build a tokenized securities platform designed for 24/7 trading and instant settlement. The initiative also contemplates stablecoin-based funding, while immediate reactions from industry and regulators were not noted.

On January 20 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Bermuda said it will build a fully on-chain national economy with Circle and Coinbase. The initiative centers on USDC for payments and education, aiming to cut local processing costs, expand digital finance access, and support asset tokenization across merchants and banks.

At the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos on January 19, 2026, Bermuda outlined a plan with Coinbase and Circle to develop what it calls a fully on-chain national economy using USDC and Base. The initiative includes piloting stablecoin payments across government, financial institutions, and merchants, backed by digital literacy programs and earlier USDC airdrop experiments to encourage local adoption.