European regulators are tightening crypto tax reporting through the EU’s DAC8 framework, aligning with the OECD’s Crypto Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) and focusing enforcement on identifiable intermediaries like exchanges and custodians. For now, decentralized finance (DeFi) largely sits outside these reporting rules because protocols often lack a clear reporting entity, but that exclusion is fragile as authorities explore AML-style accountability.

Gold has surged sharply, breaking above $5,000 and briefly topping $5,100 as investors rushed into a classic safe-haven asset amid rising geopolitical risk, policy uncertainty, and fiscal credibility concerns. The move follows a 64% gain in 2025 and is being reinforced by durable institutional demand, including ongoing central-bank buying and strong gold ETF inflows, alongside a weaker U.S. dollar.

Makina, a DeFi protocol, reported a $4.2 million exploit on 20 January 2026 tied to liquidity providers in its DUSD/USDC Curve pool, adding to rising DeFi attacks in early 2026 with over $34 million in losses already recorded.

Washington is preparing a January markup for the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY Act) of 2025, a major U.S. crypto regulation proposal designed to reduce the long-running SEC vs CFTC jurisdiction fight and create clearer rules for digital assets trading.

The CLARITY Act, which already passed the House alongside the GENIUS stablecoin bill, is now parked in the Senate Banking Committee. There, two separate Senate drafts (Banking and Agriculture) must be merged before any formal markup can even occur.

Over just 18 months, tokenized US Treasuries and money-market funds have grown from about $2 billion to roughly $9 billion across 60 products and 57,000 addresses, offering average seven-day yields near 3.8%. As part of a broader $19 billion real-world asset (RWA) stack on public blockchains, these tokenized T-bills now function as the de facto base collateral layer—similar to their role in the $5 trillion U.S. repo market.

A new SEC no-action letter is paving the way to kill the traditional three-day stock trade settlement window by enabling tokenized securities on existing Wall Street infrastructure. The Depository Trust Company (DTC), part of DTCC, has received informal SEC approval to launch DTCC Tokenization Services for assets it already holds in custody, targeting a rollout in the second half of 2026.

Upbit’s recent $36 million Solana hot wallet hack underscores the evolving role of hot wallet insurance in crypto exchange security. After detecting unauthorized withdrawals, Upbit’s CEO pledged that all losses would be covered from the company’s own holdings, mirroring its response to a $50 million Ethereum hack in 2019.

Strategy Inc. (formerly MicroStrategy) has built a massive $56 billion Bitcoin treasury, holding over 641,000 BTC — nearly 3% of Bitcoin’s total supply — but this aggressive Bitcoin accumulation strategy is now blocking its path into the S&P 500 index. Fueled by $21 billion in equity, preferred stock, and convertible debt issued in 2025, the company transformed from a traditional software and analytics firm into a de facto leveraged Bitcoin investment vehicle.

Stablecoins are rapidly emerging as a serious competitor to traditional payment networks like Visa. Over the past month, the 30-day average stablecoin transaction volume has quietly surpassed Visa’s, signaling growing adoption of crypto payments and on-chain dollars.