Belarusian President Signs New Decree Allowing for Establishment of 'Crypto Banks' and Integration of Traditional Financial Services

Moldovan Finance Minister Andrian Gavrilita said on January 16 that the country plans to roll out its first comprehensive crypto regulation by the end of 2026, aligning its framework with the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) rulebook. The new rules will let citizens legally hold and trade crypto but will not recognize it as legal tender. Gavrilita noted the government is collaborating with the central bank, financial market regulators, and anti-money laundering (AML) agencies to build the framework and meet its EU alignment commitments. He emphasized crypto should be seen more as a high-volatility speculative space than a traditional investment, but citizens still have the right to participate in related activities if they follow compliance rules. Reports state this will be Moldova’s first formal crypto legal system. Previously, the Moldovan central bank had issued warnings about crypto’s price swings and money laundering risks. The EU’s MiCA fully took effect at

Jan 16 — Singapore-based crypto financial services platform Veera has closed a $10 million seed and seed extension funding round, per Techinasia. Investors in the round include Sigma Capital, CMCC Titan Fund, 6th Man Ventures, and Ayon Capital. Veera says the capital will go toward product development and expanding its on-chain financial services. The company launched its mobile-first platform in January 2025, claiming it has surpassed 2 million downloads and 220,000 monthly active users (MAUs). The platform supports self-custody wallets, and Veera recently rolled out a waitlist for its Veera Card — designed to let users spend on-chain assets globally.

Bloomberg reported on January 16 that Christopher Wood, Jefferies’ global head of equity strategy, has removed a 10% Bitcoin allocation from his model portfolio—citing quantum computing advancements as a potential threat to Bitcoin’s cryptographic security. Wood noted that sustained quantum computing progress could undermine Bitcoin’s value proposition as a long-term, quasi-digital gold. The risk is also beginning to be factored into mainstream asset allocation decisions.

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.

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).