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Jefferies' global equity strategy head, Christopher Wood, has removed a 10% allocation in Bitcoin from his model portfolio, citing concerns that advances in quantum computing could compromise the security of cryptocurrency and its viability as a long-term store of value for pension fund-type investors.

What happened: quantum concerns push for exit

Wood announced this decision in his newsletter "Greed & Fear."

The Trump administration is seeking substantial financial commitments from countries wishing to join a project for an international 'Council of Peace', a preliminary framework indicating that nations contributing at least 1 billion dollars would benefit from long-term membership.

According to a draft charter reviewed by Bloomberg, the initiative would place President Donald Trump at the center of the authority of the new body.

Trump would be the first president of the council, would retain final approval of membership decisions, and would have veto power over resolutions adopted by participating states.

The CEO of ARK Invest, Cathie Wood, stated that the American economy is ready for a powerful rebound after years of tensions related to public policies, arguing that technological deflation driven by artificial intelligence and digital assets could reshape growth, inflation, and capital markets over the next decade.

In a note addressed to investors on Saturday, Wood described the last three years not as a sign of economic resilience, but as a "rolling recession" that has quietly compressed housing, manufacturing, investment spending, and consumer sentiment following the rapid cycle of interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

Genius Terminal, the cross-chain trading platform backed by YZi Labs of Changpeng Zhao, founder of Binance, recorded over 1.57 billion dollars in weekly trading volume after its public launch in mid-January, according to data from the Dune Analytics dashboard.

The platform has attracted around 30,000 wallets since its launch, with a cumulative trading volume reaching 2.33 billion dollars, representing explosive growth compared to the 60 to 160 million dollars processed during the beta phases.

President Donald Trump announced his intention to file a complaint against JPMorgan Chase, accusing the bank of inappropriately cutting off his access to banking services after the January 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol.

What happened

Trump issued this threat in a statement released Saturday on his Truth Social platform, claiming that the bank had 'incorrectly and inappropriately DEBANKED' him and that he intended to take legal action within two weeks.

Bitcoin's network hashrate fell below one zettahash per second on Saturday for the first time since mid-September 2025, with current measurements indicating 988 exahash per second based on seven-day moving averages.

The decline ends a four-month period of computing power sustained above the symbolic threshold of 1 ZH/s, representing an erosion of about 15% compared to the peak on October 19 of 1,162 EH/s, according to Hashrate Index data.

Mining difficulty simultaneously retreated to 146.47 trillion after a downward adjustment of 1.2% on January 8, marking the first network recalibration in 2026 after reaching a historical high of 155.97 trillion in late October.

BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust made several large Bitcoin transfers between Coinbase accounts this week, with on-chain data showing that 6,647 BTC, worth approximately 638 million dollars, were moved from Coinbase Prime custody over a period of eight hours on January 15 and 16.

These movements occur as BlackRock's IBIT went against the market on Friday, recording 15 million dollars in net inflows while competing Bitcoin exchange-traded funds showed a total of 394 million dollars in outflows, according to SoSoValue data.

Ethereum's Proof-of-Stake deposit contract now holds 77.85 million ETH, valued at approximately 256 billion dollars, which represents 46.59% of the total supply of the cryptocurrency after a growth of 38.4% over the past year.

The deposit contract forms the basis of Ethereum's security model, holding the cryptocurrency that validators have staked to secure the network through the staking process.

The Santiment market analysis platform reported this important milestone on Saturday, noting that this concentration sometimes gives rise to misconceptions about a 'whale wallet' that may suddenly dump its holdings on exchanges.

Ethereum, co-founder Vitalik Buterin, stated on Friday that 2026 will mark the year when Ethereum will reverse a decade of 'regression' in terms of self-sovereignty and lack of trust, which has occurred while pursuing mainstream adoption.

'Every compromise of values that Ethereum has made so far – every moment where you might have said: is it really worth diluting ourselves so much in the name of mainstream adoption – we are no longer making that compromise,' wrote Buterin in a post on X.

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in cash on Bitcoin recorded approximately $1.7 billion in net inflows over three consecutive sessions last week, marking the strongest surge in institutional demand since the beginning of October.

The midweek buying frenzy peaked on Wednesday with $843.6 million in net inflows, the largest single-day collection in 2026, followed by $754 million on Tuesday, according to data from Farside Investors.

Monero has surged nearly 95% since the beginning of 2026, rising from about $410 to nearly $799, but the same retail trading signal that had preceded violent reversals on Zcash and Dash is now flashing for the privacy-focused cryptocurrency.

What happened: retail alert signal

This rally is one of the most notable movements in the crypto market this year.

A trading frequency signal, often associated with an overloaded retail participation and end-of-cycle buying, appeared for Monero around the level of $714 as the coin plunged into the heart of its parabolic rise.

The Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, and New York State Senator, Zellnor Myrie, proposed on Thursday a bill called the 'CRYPTO Act' that would make unlicensed cryptocurrency business operations a crime (felony) in the State of New York, with penalties of up to 15 years in state prison for transactions involving 1 million dollars or more per year.

What happened: criminal penalties for unauthorized crypto companies

The bill — officially titled 'Cryptocurrency Regulation Yields Protections, Trust, and Oversight' — would transform existing civil penalties for unlicensed virtual currency activity into criminal prosecutions.

Ethereum touched $3,400 this week before a sustained bearish positioning by professional traders and a weakening of the network's fundamentals triggered a 4% pullback that wiped out $65 million in leveraged long positions. Derivatives data indicate low expectations for a short-term bullish breakout towards $4,100.

What happened: pro traders remain bearish

Monthly ETH futures traded on Friday with an annualized premium of 4% over the spot market. Levels below 5% are considered bearish.

XRP is generating a lot of interest on social media, particularly on X, reaching levels comparable to those of Bitcoin and Ethereum. Since December 2025, the token has consistently ranked among the most sought-after cashtags on the platform, amidst waves of regulatory and institutional developments surrounding Ripple.

What happened: XRP dominates cashtag searches

Nikita Bier, product manager at X, shared a visualization graph showing recent search behaviors on the platform.

The founder of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, stated that Bitcoin reaching $200,000 is "the most obvious thing in the world," a view echoed a few days later by analyst Rekt Fencer, who predicts that the cryptocurrency could climb to $240,000 by the end of 2026.

What happened: CZ's $200,000 forecast

Zhao, better known as CZ, made this bullish prediction while Bitcoin is trading significantly below its all-time high. He acknowledges that, although the timing of such a rally remains uncertain, he sees this threshold as inevitable.

Anchorage Digital is considering a new fundraising round as the crypto custodian explores a potential IPO, a sign of growing confidence among regulated digital asset firms despite recent market volatility.

Based in New York, whose subsidiary operates the first federally chartered digital asset bank in the United States, the company plans to raise between 200 million and 400 million dollars before a possible IPO as early as next year, Bloomberg reported.

The U.S. Department of Justice confirmed on Friday that the Bitcoin (BTC) seized in the high-profile Samourai Wallet case has not been sold or liquidated and will instead remain listed on the federal government’s balance sheet as part of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (SBR) established under Presidential Decree 14233, officials said on Friday.

Patrick Witt, executive director of the Presidential Council of Advisors on Digital Assets, stated in a social media post that the Department of Justice reaffirmed that the digital assets "have not been liquidated and will not be liquidated, in accordance with Decree 14233" and that they will be held within the government’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.

A single victim lost over 282 million dollars in Bitcoin (BTC) and Litecoin (LTC) in what blockchain investigator ZachXBT described as a social engineering scam related to a hardware wallet, one of the largest individual thefts revealed to date in 2026.

The attacker quickly began to launder the proceeds of the theft by converting the stolen assets into Monero through several instant exchange platforms, an activity that ZachXBT noted coincided with a sharp rise in XMR.

Iran's cryptocurrency ecosystem reached nearly $7.8 billion in activity in 2025, according to a new report from Chainalysis, which shows that digital assets are increasingly integrated into the country's economic and political landscape amid sanctions, conflict, and domestic unrest.

The report finds that crypto activity in Iran closely follows major geopolitical and domestic events, with on-chain data showing marked spikes during military escalations, cyberattacks, and waves of national protests.

Newrez will begin accepting Bitcoin, [Ethereum]https://yellow.com/asset/eth and dollar-backed stablecoins for mortgage qualification in February, allowing borrowers to use their cryptocurrency holdings for asset verification and income estimation without liquidating their positions.

The Fort Washington, Pennsylvania-based lender, which has originated $44.5 billion in volume through September 2025, claims to be the first among the 25 largest mortgage lenders in the country to formally recognize cryptocurrencies in loan origination.