On January 18, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong denied reports that the White House might withdraw support for a U.S. crypto market structure bill, saying talks remain active. He flagged disputes over stablecoin yields and warned of regulatory capture by banks, while policymakers and industry voices weighed potential market impacts.

On January 14, Base led Ethereum layer-2 fee revenue with about $147,000 for the day, according to CryptoRank.io. Arbitrum and Starknet followed at roughly $39,000 and $9,000, while many other scaling networks generated under $5,000; a DefiLlama table cited by community analysts showed Polygon near $155,000 across its broader network, prompting debate over L2 classification.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong rejected claims that the White House is considering withdrawing support for the CLARITY crypto market structure bill and denied that the administration is upset with the exchange. He said the administration asked Coinbase to find a compromise with banks and noted that industry groups are developing proposals to address community bank concerns and stablecoin yield restrictions. Armstrong expects a revised bill markup in the coming weeks after the Senate Banking Committee delayed its vote to allow further negotiations.

FTX will run its next creditor distributions on March 31, 2026, and creditors must complete KYC, submit a W-8 BEN and choose a distribution agent by February 14, 2026, according to an update from Sunil Kavuri on X. The plan is overseen by John J. Ray III, and some jurisdictions identified by Kavuri remain ineligible.

Washington's bid to create a single regulatory framework for the US crypto market is losing traction as the White House reassesses whether to support a broad market structure bill. Tensions with Coinbase, including public criticism from CEO Brian Armstrong over issues such as stablecoin yields, tokenized equities, data access and SEC authority, have delayed a Senate Banking Committee vote and left the legislation stalled.

On January 17, 2026, major US banks including JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, Bank of America and Wells Fargo detailed new safeguards for Zelle transfers, according to NBC San Diego. Measures range from blocking payments tied to social media contacts to fraud attestations and pop‑up warnings. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau alleges more than $870 million was lost to Zelle scams over seven years.

Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich and Bitmine Immersion Technologies Chairman Thomas Lee are publicly backing their firms' Bitcoin and Ethereum holdings as core drivers of future income. In January 2026, Metaplanet bought $632.5 million in BTC under its "555 Million Plan," while Bitmine holds over 4.2 million ETH and targets owning 5% of the total supply. Both companies are building revenue strategies around BTC income tools and ETH staking amid strong ETF inflows and optimistic price projections for 2026.

Binance will remove USDⓈ-M perpetual futures contracts for BIDUSDT, DMCUSDT, ZRCUSDT and TANSSIUSDT on January 21, 2026 at 09:00 UTC, affecting open derivatives positions in these markets. The exchange states that spot trading for the underlying BID, DMC, ZRC and TANSSI tokens will not be directly impacted, while market reaction from major crypto voices has so far remained limited.