U.S. CFTC Acting Chairman: Enforcement Division Restructured, Refocused on Combating Fraud

Binance now allows users to withdraw U.S. dollars (USD) directly via SWIFT bank transfers, per platform information on January 17. The service is powered by BPay, with transfers taking 0–5 business days to complete. BPay Global is a Binance entity based in Bahrain—founded in April 2025, it’s a payment service subsidiary of Binance that holds a Payment Service Provider (PSP) license from the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB). In an official January 15 announcement, Bahrain’s leading retail and corporate bank, Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait (BBK), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Binance Bahrain. This makes BBK the first bank to join the Binance Link program in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The partnership will leverage Binance’s crypto-to-fiat technology solution to deliver customers an unprecedented innovative experience.

On January 17, Vivek Raman—CEO of Etherealize, an Ethereum ecosystem and institutional analytics firm—told Coindesk in an interview: “Ethereum’s market value could reprice from the hundreds of billions of dollars range to the trillion-dollar level. At its core, Ethereum is infrastructure—what we call ‘civilizational-grade infrastructure.’ The value of this kind of infrastructure is in the tens of trillions of dollars, which is why I think a $15,000 price tag is reasonable. And I believe this shift will happen fairly quickly.”

**January 17** Senate Judiciary Committee Republican Chair Chuck Grassley and top Democrat Dick Durbin are urging the Senate Banking Committee to exclude the "Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act" from cryptocurrency market structure legislation, arguing its provisions would weaken federal fund transfer rules. In a letter, the pair flagged Section 604 of the Banking Committee’s market structure bill—intended to shield software developers from criminal liability for third-party misuse of their products—as a threat to federal unlicensed money transmission laws. Notably, the Judiciary Committee (which oversees Title 18 of the U.S. Code) was neither consulted nor given advance substantive review of the proposed changes. The letter cites the Justice Department’s prosecution of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm, noting the case underscores that existing regulations already enable holding parties accountable for unlicensed money transmission. The latest pushback complicates the Ban

On January 17, data from Farside Investors showed U.S. Solana spot ETFs posted a net outflow of $2.2 million the previous day (January 16). Breakdown by fund: - Fidelity FSOL: $400,000 net inflow - 21Shares TSOL: $700,000 net outflow - Grayscale GSOL: $1.9 million net outflow This rewrite aligns with U.S. English news brevity, clear date framing (linking the 17th report to the 16th’s flows), and straightforward breakdown of fund-level data—standard for financial quick updates.

Jan. 17 — Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon told the company’s Q4 2025 earnings conference call that many of its employees are closely tracking issues including the U.S. Congress’s “Clarity in Digital Assets Markets Act,” as these could have a major impact on the tokenization and stablecoin sectors. “While news over the past 24 hours suggests the bill still has a long road ahead to advance, I do believe this innovation is critical.”

Jan. 17 — Bloomberg reports that Hong Kong fintech firm WeLab has closed a $220 million Series D funding round, with participation from HSBC, Prudential Hong Kong, Fubon Bank (Hong Kong), the Hong Kong Growth Portfolio, Allianz X, TOM Group (CK Hutchison Holdings), and other investors. Proceeds from the round will be used to expand into Southeast Asia and pursue mergers and acquisitions (M&A). WeLab is a member of the Hong Kong Web3 Association. Its subsidiary, WeLab Bank, received a virtual banking license from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in 2019 (now rebranded as a digital bank) and is also a member of the Hong Kong Institute of Bankers (HKIB).