Hong Kong Financial Secretary: Stablecoin Development to Focus on Stability First and Then Progress, Gold Central Clearing System Expected to Be Operational This Year

January 16: U.S. authorities have proposed a major reform that would require sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) to pay taxes on their U.S. investments—a move impacting some of the largest players in the U.S. private equity industry. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) unveiled an amendment to the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) in December of last year, targeting revisions to tax exemption rules for SWFs and certain public pension funds. This marks the latest in a series of policy shifts under the Trump administration, which have already prompted SWFs to diversify their U.S. investment exposure. Under the proposal, the IRS will expand the definition of "business activities" to cover some actions previously categorized as investments. The changes will affect SWFs’ corporate lending and direct equity stakes in private firms. Activities triggering potential tax liabilities include direct corporate loans and participation in bond default restructurings. The revisions may also impact so-call

On January 16th, LookOnChain monitoring data reveals that trader S2XVoy (address: S2XVoy...5VT) invested just $394 to purchase 12.6 million GAS. They later sold 5.3 million GAS for $98,800, and currently hold 7.3 million GAS valued at $322,500. Total profit stands at $420,700, with a 535x return on investment.

On January 16, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko signed Decree No. 19 titled *On Several Issues of Regulating the Cryptobank and Digital Token Sector*, according to the Belarusian Telegraph Agency (BelTA). The decree aims to strengthen Belarus’s position as a leader in financial IT technology and create conditions for domestic "cryptobanks" to operate. Under the decree, a cryptobank is defined as a joint-stock company authorized to integrate cryptocurrency activities with banking, payment, and other relevant financial services. To enter the market, a cryptobank must be a resident of the High-Tech Park (HTP), be listed in the National Bank’s Cryptobank Register, and comply with legal requirements for non-bank credit and financial organizations as well as decisions from the HTP Supervisory Committee.

Jan 16 — In the Solana ecosystem, the leaderboard address for meme coin GAS has been accumulating holdings since Jan 13. It ultimately invested $3.5M when the token’s valuation hit $100k, and now boasts unrealized gains of over $740k. Earlier today, GAS’s market cap briefly spiked to $37.95M, hitting a new all-time high (ATH). The meme coin draws inspiration from Gas Town, a tool created by Steve Yegge (former senior engineer at Google and Amazon) for managing multiple AI coding agents. Yegge launched Gas Town on Jan 1, 2026: an open-source multi-agent workspace manager built to coordinate AI coding agents like Claude Code and Gemini. It lets developers run 20–30+ AI agents simultaneously on complex projects, avoiding context loss, frequent merge conflicts, or task confusion. BlockBeats notes that most meme coins lack practical utility and face extreme price volatility. Users are advised to prioritize asset protection and avoid FOMO (fear of missing out).

On January 16, Garrett Jin—dubbed the "BTC OG Whale"—stated that as artificial intelligence (AI) applications mature, the scale of AI-assisted trading will inevitably grow rapidly. Ethereum’s smart contracts and Layer 2 solutions provide AI agents with a programmable, transparent, and secure execution environment, enabling the automation of transactions, customer interactions, and marketing efforts. 1. **This ecosystem will likely be Ethereum-based.** It will be built primarily on smart contracts, DeFi protocols, and decentralized AI agents. The integration of Ethereum’s DeFi and AI ecosystems highlights ETH’s high-tech, growth-oriented traits. 2. **The convergence of these two ecosystems will undoubtedly boost stablecoin demand.** Rising stablecoin activity on Ethereum directly lifts ETH’s valuation—analogous to the link between oil and GDP growth. From a broader macro perspective, AI is likely to drive a long-term deflationary cycle, pushing global interest rates far below t

BlockBeats reported on January 16 that several scholars expressed caution at a January 16 seminar titled “Stablecoin Issuance Directions and Exchange Infrastructure Institutionalization” — this in response to South Korean financial authorities’ discussions of a proposal to cap major shareholders’ stakes in virtual asset exchanges at 15-20%. Sungkyunkwan University School of Business Professor Wen Zheyu noted that forcing major shareholders to reduce their stakes could raise concerns about property rights protection and carry the risk of being unconstitutional. He also pointed out founder-held stakes are often higher globally (citing Binance and Coinbase’s equity structures as examples) and that any such restrictive measures may go against the global trend emphasizing responsible governance. Incheon University Professor Kim Yoon-kyung argued directly intervening in equity structures via percentage caps is an overly aggressive move, which could undermine the industry’s innovation a