Published on January 17, 2026, this analysis explains how modern crypto scams operate within audited code and governance to redirect value without overt violations. Tactics include altering fees, rebalancing strategies, and rerouting execution after users commit capital. It warns that audits and documentation validate process, not economic fairness.

On January 17, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee opposed inserting parts of the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act into a new cryptocurrency market structure bill, interrupting planned debate in the Senate. Senior lawmakers argued the proposal could weaken unlicensed money transmission rules, while DeFi proponents warned that removing protections for software developers may reduce industry support and stall broader crypto regulation.

Goldman Sachs is evaluating how the Clarity in Digital Assets Markets Act could affect tokenization and stablecoins. CEO David Solomon highlighted regulatory implications during the company's Q4 2025 earnings call. On May 29, 2025, French Hill introduced H.R. 3633, and NASAA raised concerns about state anti-fraud protections.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said on X on Friday that 2026 should mark a shift back to self-sovereignty and trustlessness, arguing the network has diluted its values for mainstream adoption. He called for private payments, easier full-node operation and dapps without centralized servers, and cited the Kohaku release and Glamsterdam fork as steps expected to address these issues.

On January 3, Mark Zuckerberg said Threads reached 320 million active users. Forbes, citing Similarweb, reported around 320 million total actives and an average of 143 million mobile actives in January 2026, after more than 30 million signups in December 2025. X still leads US mobile daily use with 21.2 million versus Threads' 19.5 million.

U.S. District Judge Ann Marie McIff Allen sentenced Utah resident Brian Garry Sewell to three years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to wire fraud and operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business. Prosecutors said he defrauded investors of nearly $3 million and ran a cash-to-crypto service that moved more than $5 million; the court ordered more than $3.6 million in restitution.

A crypto holder on the Ethereum network lost a total of $514,000 in USDT after an address poisoning scam, with the incident detected around 14:01 UTC and publicly flagged at 14:34 UTC. The victim first sent 5,000 USDT as a test to a lookalike address before following up with 509,000 USDT to the same destination, while a separate attack in December 2025 saw another trader lose $50 million in USDT using a similar tactic. These scams exploit users' reliance on abbreviated wallet displays and transaction history when copying addresses, making fund recovery onchain highly unlikely once transfers are confirmed.

The China-led mBridge platform has processed about $55.5 billion in cross-border transactions from over 4,000 central bank payments, with volume increasing 2,500-fold since 2022. The digital yuan now accounts for 95% of activity on the project, while in the U.S. President Donald Trump has halted federal CBDC efforts and instead backed privately issued stablecoins under new national regulation.