On Wednesday, Lighter said users must stake LIT to deposit into its Lighter Liquidity Pool, with a 1:10 ratio allowing 1 LIT to unlock up to 10 USDC. The change takes effect immediately for new participants, while existing depositors have a two‑week grace period ending Jan. 28; fee waivers kick in at 100 LIT staked.

Litecoin's price recently retreated from a high of $84 to near $75 before rebounding around $78, while large on-chain transactions have climbed to their strongest level in five weeks. Data shows the number of LTC transfers above $100,000 surged to 503, the highest whale activity reading since December 10, a zone that previously aligned with local price tops. It is still unclear whether the latest spike will precede renewed selling pressure or signal a potential bottom for the altcoin.

XRP is compressing near the $2.30–$2.40 zone, with structure pointing to a possible expansion as volatility cools. Analysts note a 3‑day close above $2.40 could open a path toward $2.70 and potentially $3.13, while maintaining the broader uptrend as long as price holds above $2.00.

On 15 January 2026, Pakistan began testing World Liberty Financial's USD1 stablecoin as a regulated option for cross-border transactions, running in parallel with its planned digital rupee. The initiative comes as the country advances broader digital finance reforms, including a central bank digital currency pilot, draft crypto regulation and preliminary approvals for major exchanges. Officials and critics are debating whether rapid adoption of tokenized assets and stablecoins could heighten volatility and affect perceptions of Pakistan's sovereign risk.

On January 13, Polygon Labs said it signed an agreement to acquire Coinme and Sequence for over $250 million. The deal targets stablecoin payments and cross-border settlement, leveraging Coinme's 48-state licenses and 50,000 fiat-to-crypto locations plus Sequence's enterprise wallets and cross-chain tech. Meanwhile, POL fell from $0.18 to $0.15 before rebounding to $0.16.

A new draft of the U.S. Digital Asset Market Clarity Act could classify XRP, along with tokens like LTC, HBAR, DOGE, SOL, and LINK, as "non-ancillary" assets from January 1, putting them on similar regulatory footing to Bitcoin and Ethereum as ETF primary assets. While this change does not immediately move XRP's price, it adds institutional clarity as XRP trades around resistance at its 200-day EMA, with bulls eyeing a potential move toward $3.20 and bears watching support near $1.95.

Pi Network's PI token has hovered just above the $0.20 demand zone and has not revisited $1 since May 14, 2025. Despite softer CPI data boosting major caps and Pi-related initiatives like a hackathon and upcoming DEX launch, daily trading volumes remain low and continuous token unlocks plus a lack of top-tier listings are pressuring price performance.

OP led Layer 2 tokens with a gain of more than 13% as trading volume jumped over 140% to above $200 million. It ranked fifth among the top 100 coins by performance, while Optimism's network activity strengthened since 2025, with daily transactions surpassing 2.5 million and the cumulative count at 921.9 million.