Interactive Brokers has expanded its digital asset services by enabling clients to fund brokerage accounts with USDC stablecoins on Ethereum, Solana and Base, with deposits automatically converted into U.S. dollars. The firm plans to add support for RLUSD and PYUSD next week and says stablecoin funding can ease cross-border capital access by cutting costs and settlement times. The move follows its earlier rollout of USDC funding for retail brokerage accounts in December and comes amid a stablecoin market cap that recently exceeded $310 billion.

In 2025, Binance reported that core crypto infrastructure and regulation improved, even as market prices remained volatile. Bitcoin traded between $76,000 in April and over $126,000 in October, while ETFs, corporate balance sheet allocations and bank pilots of Bitcoin-backed credit products broadened institutional and user access to digital assets.

In 2025, on-chain data provider Chainalysis reported that Iran’s crypto ecosystem expanded to $7.78 billion as nationwide protests and a collapsing rial drove higher Bitcoin withdrawals. During the unrest that began around Dec. 28, Iranians increasingly moved funds from local exchanges to personal wallets, while activity linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps accounted for about half of the market in the fourth quarter.

Global Settlement Network announced a pilot to tokenize eight government-contracted water treatment sites in Jakarta, according to a Wednesday statement. The plan aims to raise up to $35 million for upgrades and to test rupiah‑stablecoin settlement rails, with a target to scale to $200 million in tokenized assets across Southeast Asia over the next 12 months.

On Thursday, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index registered a 61 "greed" reading, one day after moving to 48 neutral and the first such signal since October. Bitcoin's seven‑day rally took it from $89,799 to a two‑month high of $97,704 on Wednesday. The index had sunk to low double digits in November and December after Oct. 11's $19 billion liquidation.

Paradigm vice president Justin Slaughter warned in an X post that implementing the crypto market structure bill could span nearly two presidential terms due to 45 required rulemakings. The measure heads to a Senate Banking Committee markup on Thursday, while the Senate Agriculture Committee postponed its hearing to Jan.27.

On Monday, Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan called efforts to keep Bitcoin out of 401(k) menus "ridiculous," arguing BTC was less volatile than Nvidia over the past year. Senator Elizabeth Warren published an open letter pressing the SEC for safeguards and set a Jan. 27 deadline. In August last year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order opening the door to crypto in 401(k)s.

U.S. Senators Cynthia Lummis and Ron Wyden introduced the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act on Monday, seeking to confirm that software authors and network maintainers who do not handle user funds are not money transmitters. Similar protections appear in the market-structure bill set for a Senate Banking Committee markup on Thursday.

Iran's government cut internet access as protests over economic conditions spread, constraining routine on‑chain activity. Statista estimates about 7 million of 92 million residents use crypto, and TRM Labs tracked roughly $3.7 billion in flows between January and July 2025; satellite and mesh tools could offer temporary workarounds until connectivity returns.