Newly unsealed US Justice Department emails indicate Jeffrey Epstein met then NYDFS superintendent Ben Lawsky in 2014 as New York drafted the BitLicense, finalized in 2015. The records mention Epstein floated a pro Bitcoin tax idea but show no evidence he shaped the final rule. The disclosures arrive as part of the wider Epstein Files release in late 2025 and early 2026.

On February 2, 2026, debate around XRP intensified after May 2018 messages mentioning Gary Gensler and a July 31, 2014 Blockstream email resurfaced. Posts tagged "EpsteinFiles" make influence claims, but no evidence links Epstein to SEC actions. XRP fell almost 15% to $1.62 at press time.

On-chain data shows large Cardano wallets holding between 100,000 and 100 million ADA accumulated about 454.7 million ADA, valued near $161 million, over the last two months while smaller addresses holding 100 ADA or less reduced positions. During this period, ADA’s 30-day MVRV hovered around -7.9%, the price fell about 19% in 60 days but remained up 6% year-to-date and traded close to $0.35, far below its $3.10 all-time high from September 2021. At the same time, Cardano has faced political and regulatory uncertainty in the United States as CME Group prepares to launch ADA futures contracts with position sizes between 10,000 and 100,000 ADA, pending approval.

Bitcoin ETFs saw about $104 million in withdrawals on Thursday while Ether funds registered a $41.74 million net outflow, extending losing streaks. The total crypto market value stayed just above $3.02 trillion as 24‑hour volumes slipped 19% to roughly $80.5 billion. On Jan. 23, Solana and XRP ETFs drew $1.87 million and $3.43 million in inflows, respectively.

According to a joint filing on Friday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission and Gemini Trust asked a federal court to dismiss the Gemini Earn lawsuit with prejudice, ending a case pending since January 2023. The regulator cited 100 percent in-kind repayments to customers and prior settlements, while saying the move does not signal broader policy changes. The Earn program freeze in 2022 at Genesis locked about $900M across roughly 340,000 users.

As of January 22, 2026, U.S. lawmakers moved closer to a committee markup on a crypto market structure bill, though partisan divisions remain. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong withdrew support while a16z backed the text, and the Senate's schedule may slide toward late February. The House Agriculture Committee advanced its version 47 to 6, and the Senate draft includes protections for noncustodial developers and a definition for meme coins.

In a January 22 2026 interview, Maelstrom CIO and BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes argued that the easy-money phase in crypto has ended and that revenue now determines which tokens, stablecoins and venues will endure. He said Bitcoin still dominates while many altcoins are "zombie" projects, outlined why only a few stablecoin models such as Tether, Ethena and large banks have durable moats, and predicted that decentralized exchanges could steadily take market share from centralized platforms. Hayes also discussed his focus on cash-flowing businesses, risks in policy-driven macro shocks, and how memecoins reflect pockets of crypto market sentiment.

In a 2026 interview, Maelstrom CIO Arthur Hayes argued that global liquidity conditions, rather than politics or regulation, were the key forces behind crypto's rally and subsequent turbulence in 2025. He attributed much of that year's momentum to DAT-driven demand and linked Bitcoin's April bottom to market reactions after a Trump administration tariff shock. Hayes keeps an aggressive 2026 base case of $250,000 for BTC and $5,000 for ETH, tied to US deficits, stealth QE, and potential banking rule changes, while warning that most altcoins could trend toward zero as capital rotates into revenue-generating protocols.

On January 16, 2026, Atomic Wallet reported online that it could not verify a user’s allegation of losing 633 Monero (around $479,000) through its platform. The company said no support ticket had been filed, screenshots were insufficient proof given Monero’s privacy, and noted unusual activity on the complainant’s X account. The user, posting as Nicolas van Saberhagen, blamed reliance on closed-source wallet software after claiming his XMR balance dropped to zero as the Monero network processed valid transactions.