Step Finance has disclosed that its treasury and fee wallets were compromised, leading to the unstaking and transfer of 261,854 SOL tokens valued at about $30 million. The protocol says it has begun an investigation, alerted authorities, and engaged cybersecurity firms, while stressing that user funds were not impacted. Following the incident, the STEP token price plunged sharply and Solana’s market performance weakened over the past day and week.

On February 6, Hyperliquid will unlock about 9.92 million HYPE tokens, equal to 2.79% of its supply and valued near $305 million, while Berachain will release 41.7% of its circulating tokens. These large unlock events could influence market liquidity, price volatility, and investor sentiment around both projects.

Norway's sovereign wealth fund lifted its indirect exposure to Bitcoin by 149%, reaching 9,573 BTC by 2025 through positions in publicly traded companies. The fund does not hold Bitcoin directly, relying instead on stakes in firms such as MicroStrategy, Coinbase, MARA, and Block. A rise of this scale likely reflects portfolio construction choices rather than a direct bet on BTC.

Unverified rumors claim Binance will list an INXUSDT perpetual futures contract with up to 50x leverage on January 31, 2026, using Infinex (INX) as the underlying asset. INX is currently only listed for spot trading on KuCoin, with a fully diluted market cap of $172,005.84 and a 172.53% price rise over the last 60 days but zero daily trading volume. Market participants remain cautious and say they are waiting for formal confirmation before acting on the speculative futures claims.

On January 29, 2026, President Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer met in Washington to head off a U.S. government shutdown before the January 31 deadline. According to Polymarket, bettors now assign a 40% chance of a shutdown. Discussions reportedly center on separating Department of Homeland Security funding and considering short‑term appropriations to maintain operations.

Binance plans to automatically liquidate and delist the 42USDT, COMMONUSDT, CUDISUSDT, and EPTUSDT USDT-margined perpetual futures contracts on January 30, 2026. The change targets low-liquidity products and affects only derivatives trading, while spot markets for the underlying tokens remain available to users.

On January 30, Hong Kong's Legislative Council Finance Committee will brief lawmakers on proposals for a Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework. Public comments remain open until February 6, 2026, and the plan targets an automatic exchange of crypto tax information by 2028 to align with OECD standards and strengthen cross-border transparency.

Binance plans to hold its fifth Pre-TGE Prime Sale for Zama (ZAMA) on January 29, 2026, between 08:00 and 10:00 UTC, with participation gated by Binance Alpha Points. Zama, which has raised more than $130 million from notable investors and saw its pre-market futures start at $0.0675, is expected to distribute tokens via "Keys" after its TGE around February 2, 2026. As of January 27, 2026, ZAMA trades near $0.05 with a roughly $106 million market cap and approximately $530 million fully diluted valuation, after a 30-day drawdown of almost 70%.

For Q4 2025, the Ethereum Foundation has allocated $7,385,528.84 in ecosystem grants to projects working on Ethereum's core protocol, developer tooling, cryptography and community initiatives. The funding is intended to reinforce the network's technological infrastructure, while Ethereum's market price and broader crypto markets have shown no notable immediate reaction to the announcement.