Liquidity worries creep into Fed minutes as repo usage jumps. Minutes from the 
Federal Reserve&#8217;s December policy meeting revealed concerns about potential 
liquidity shortages in the financial system, even as interest rates remain 
relatively stable, according to documents released Dec.…

Liquidity worries creep into Fed minutes as repo usage jumps

BNB Chain’s 2025 upgrades cut fees 98%, push blocks below 1s, lift BNB to new 
ATH as meme trading and gasless stablecoin payments drive record on-chain 
activity. BNB Chain&#8217;s performance improvements amid CZ pardon BNB Chain 
experienced significant performance improvements…

BNB Chain’s 2025 upgrades slash fees 98% as daily users hit 4.8m

With trading-hour extensions and digital finance upgrades underway, Korea 
Exchange is positioning for crypto ETFs while approvals remain stalled.

Bitcoin ETF momentum builds in South Korea as regulation lags behind

Ripple’s first 2026 escrow unlock released 1B XRP and a fake memo, exposing 
confusion over who controls unlocks and how Ripple’s escrow really works. 
Ripple (XRP) executed its first scheduled escrow unlock of 2026 on Jan. 1, 
releasing 1 billion…

Bitcoin price bulls shrug off XRP’s $1B escrow unlock memo scare

Altcoin Daily host Austin Arnold used a Jan. 1 video titled “Top 6 Crypto 
Altcoins To Invest In For 2026” to lay out what he framed as three “first- 
time” catalysts for crypto in 2026 and a corresponding list of six altcoins he 
says he’d “buy and hold” into that backdrop, spanning smart-contract 
platforms, AI infrastructure, and tokenization-focused plays. Arnold opened 
with the claim that crypto sits at the center of “two mega trends”: digital 
assets and the tokenization of financial assets and argued the combination of 
macro policy, US legislation, and SEC posture could drive “trillions of 
dollars” of new inflows. The 3 Bullisch Crypto Catalysts First, Arnold pointed 
to what he described as a monetary-policy regime shift, including the 
resumption of “reserve management purchases,” and framed it as supportive for 
risk assets broadly. “We’re starting to see significant stimulus,” he said, 
adding that markets were already seeing “quantitative easing light” as “the 
Fed is starting to buy its own bonds,” while suggesting demand for government 
debt could fall alongside lower rates. Related Reading: Scaramucci Picks His 
Top 3 Crypto Altcoins As Rate-Cut Tailwinds Build Second, he argued crypto- 
specific regulation could function like a green light for institutional 
capital. He singled out the market structure focused Clarity Act, saying its 
passage would be “like a starter gun for ETH and SOL to run into trillions of 
dollars of value,” and noted discussion of a US Senate markup date of Jan. 15 
with hopes of movement by late January or February. Third, Arnold highlighted 
what he called a tokenization push led by SEC chair Paul Atkins, describing 
“Project Crypto” as an effort to “bring all of traditional finance on the 
blockchain.” He paired that theme with a distribution angle around spot crypto 
ETFs, leaning on a quote he cited about how unusual the early ETF growth was: 
“These were the single best-selling product in the world and no one was 
allowed to make a phone call to sell it or advertise it,” he said. Top 6 
Crypto Altcoins To Invest In For 2026 Arnold’s first pick is Ethereum. He 
frames it as the primary beneficiary of stablecoin growth and added that 
stablecoins are “mostly on the Ethereum blockchain,” and tied the thesis to 
regulation via the Genius Act, citing a view that Treasury Secretary Scott 
Bessent expects the sector to grow “10x in the next few years.” Arnold also 
said Ethereum’s stablecoin share rose to 53% from the high-40s “just a few 
months” earlier, and argued the link to ETH value accrual runs through fees: 
“30% of all fees on Ethereum are actually stablecoin revenue,” he said. “So as 
this is 10x’es the amount of fees, the amount of Ethereum being burned should 
be 10x to match.” Arnold’s second pick was Solana, which he portrayed as a 
usage leader relative to its market value versus Ethereum. He argued Solana is 
“already one of or if not the most used chain in crypto,” and claimed that 
through 2025 it was “more used than the entire rest of the industry combined 
times 2 to three.” He also cited a real-world asset milestone, saying Solana 
“RWA holders…have surpassed 125,000 holders.” Cardano is next, which Arnold 
said had a weak 2025 but could benefit from founder Charles Hoskinson’s push 
around Midnight. Arnold played a longer excerpt in which Hoskinson argued 
privacy could be the wedge that changes user behavior: “They can go through 
Midnight to Cardano and they get privacy. They do something new and 
different,” Hoskinson said. “Midnight my view will be through hybrid 
applications… private prediction markets, private DEXes, private stable coins… 
maybe… those Bitcoin people are going to want to trade on a private DEX 
instead of a public DEX.” Related Reading: Crypto ETFs Defy The Pullback With 
$32 Billion In Fresh Investor Cash Arnold then shifted to AI infrastructure 
with Bittensor (TAO), calling it “decentralized AI” plumbing and noting it had 
a recent “halving” and a fixed supply model he compared to Bitcoin’s. He also 
pointed to early-2026 ETF momentum, saying Grayscale filed an S-1 for a TAO 
product and Bitwise followed with a Bittensor ETF filing. For tokenization 
exposure, Arnold highlighted Ondo Finance (ONDO) ahead of what he described as 
an Ondo Summit on Feb. 3, where “world leaders, investors, policy makers” 
would reconvene, and closed his list with Propy, a real-estate-focused project 
he said is “US licensed” for title and escrow closing and “backed by 
Coinbase,” positioning it as a bet on bringing home buying and selling “on- 
chain.” Arnold closed his list with Propy, explicitly flagging it as the most 
speculative end of the spectrum and pairing it with a warning that lower-cap 
exposure can mean “these altcoins go to zero.” The Altcoin Daily host 
described it as “essentially real estate on-chain.” He emphasized operational 
and regulatory positioning as part of the pitch, saying Propy is “US licensed 
title and escrow closing,” and also highlighted its backers: “They’re backed 
again by Coinbase.” The investment thesis, as Arnold presented it, is 
straightforward tokenization logic applied to housing: bringing parts of the 
buying and selling process onto rails that can be settled and recorded on- 
chain, with Propy positioned as a project already operating within the US 
compliance perimeter he expects to matter more in 2026. At press time, the 
total crypto market cap stood at $2.98 trillion. Featured image created with 
DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

Cryptocurrency price in VEF