The popular AI framework Virtuals Protocol will host an in-person meet-up in Hong Kong on Friday, January 17.

Jan. 2 Per official sources, Binance will update its zero-fee promotion for the BFUSD trading pair on Jan. 9, 2026, at 8:00 AM (UTC+8). Starting at that time, standard trading fees will apply to all users trading the BFUSD pair.

**Binance Alpha to Launch AI Avatar (AIAV) on Jan 2; Airdrop Rules Below** Binance Alpha will roll out AI Avatar (AIAV) on **January 2 at 5:00 PM UTC+8**. Once trading kicks off: - Users holding ≥256 Alpha Points can claim 305 AIAV tokens (first-come, first-served). - The points threshold drops by 5 every 5 minutes while the event is active. - Claiming requires 15 Alpha Points and confirmation on the Alpha event page within 24 hours (unconfirmed claims are forfeited). ### Notes on U.S. language adaptation: - Uses casual, news-friendly phrasing (*roll out, kicks off, forfeited* instead of formal terms). - Adopts U.S. date format (**Jan 2**) and 12-hour time (**5:00 PM**) for familiarity. - Breaks rules into scannable bullet points (standard for U.S. crypto/fin news). - Simplifies jargon where natural (e.g., "≥" for "at least" in quick scans).

Jan 2: U.S. stock index futures climbed; Nasdaq futures up over 1%, S&P 500 futures 0.55% higher, Dow futures +0.23%. (FX678)

On January 2, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong outlined the company’s 2026 priorities, which center on expanding its global financial ecosystem: - Building a full-category trading platform worldwide covering cryptocurrencies, stocks, prediction markets, and commodities, with support for spot, futures, and options trading; - Scaling its stablecoin and payment businesses; - Enabling global users to go on-chain via the Coinbase Developer Platform, Base Chain, and Base App. To advance these goals, Coinbase is significantly ramping up investment in product quality and underlying automation. Its aim is to position Coinbase as the world’s leading financial application.

January 2nd – Per Coinglass data, Coinbase’s Bitcoin Premium Index has remained in negative territory for 19 straight days, currently at -0.1092%. **BlockBeats Note**: The Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Index tracks the gap between Bitcoin’s price on Coinbase (a leading U.S. exchange) and the global market average. It’s a key metric for monitoring U.S. capital inflows, institutional investment enthusiasm, and shifts in market sentiment. - A positive premium (Coinbase price > global average) typically signals: strong U.S. market buying pressure, active inflows of institutional or compliant funds, ample USD liquidity, and broadly optimistic investor sentiment. - A negative premium (Coinbase price < global average) generally reflects: notable U.S. market selling pressure, reduced investor risk appetite, rising market risk aversion, or capital outflows.

Jan. 2 (Coindesk) — U.S. Bitcoin spot ETFs posted their worst-ever outflow stretch in Nov.-Dec. 2025, with total net outflows hitting $4.57 billion. November alone saw $3.48 billion in outflows, followed by $1.09 billion in December. The outflows signal a sharp drop in institutional Bitcoin interest, coming as the crypto fell 20% over the same period. Ethereum ETFs also notched outflows topping $2 billion across the two months.