‘Worse Than Status Quo’: Coinbase CEO Rejects Senate Bill

Standard Chartered has pushed its base-case price target for Ethereum to $7,500 by the end of the year, a big jump from an earlier $4,000 projection.

According to the bank’s digital assets team, growing demand from corporate treasury buyers and spot ETH products has driven the change in outlook.

Bank Raises Ethereum Target

The bank’s lead analyst expects fee growth on the Ethereum network and stronger institutional adoption to be key drivers for the move higher.

The bank also revised its longer-term numbers, lifting its 2028 target to $25,000 and laying out scenarios that push toward $40,000 by 2030. These wider targets reflect models where stablecoins and tokenized assets expand on Ethereum’s chain.

Institutional Buying Drives Demand

Data cited by market researchers points to heavy accumulation since June, with spot ETF flows and treasury firms together taking close to 4% of Ether’s circulating supply over that period.

Treasury firms alone reportedly bought about 2.3 million ETH in just over two months, a pace that Standard Chartered says outstrips some previous accumulation phases seen in Bitcoin. Ethereum Vs. Bitcoin

Standard Chartered’s note also argues that Ether could outperform Bitcoin, raising the possibility of the ETH/BTC ratio returning toward levels last seen during 2021’s run-up.

Based on the bank’s scenarios, weaker Bitcoin momentum combined with stronger real-world use of Ethereum might lift Ether’s price faster than Bitcoin’s in the months ahead. Long-Term Upside Scenarios

Some headlines have pointed to even bigger long-range targets produced by the same models, including forecasts of $30,000 by 2029 and $40,000 by 2030 under more bullish assumptions.

These outcomes rely on a substantial expansion of stablecoin use, tokenized real-world assets, and continued staking demand that would remove supply from the market.

Independent forecasters remain split, and other banks have offered lower year-end projections, offering a reminder that expert views differ.

Meanwhile, market watchers caution, though, that relative moves depend heavily on ETF flows and corporate balance-sheet decisions.Network Fundamentals And Risks

According to the bank, Ethereum’s large share of stablecoin activity and its role in decentralized finance make fee income and on-chain demand a meaningful part of valuation models.

That said, the bank notes that scale improvements and Layer 1 throughput will matter a lot if big, traditional finance transactions migrate onchain.

The research also warns that shifts in macro conditions, outflows from major ETFs, or regulatory setbacks could change the math quickly.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

The positive reaction around the bipartisan crypto market structure bill put forward by US lawmakers appears to have faded, as Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the country, has pulled its support. Brian Armstrong, Coinbase’s CEO, even stated that “we’d rather have no bill than a bad bill.”

Coinbase’s Pushback on the Crypto Draft Bill

Armstrong highlighted several issues in the draft bill, including what he described as a “de facto ban on tokenised equities.” This appears to be linked to commercial interests, as Coinbase and other crypto platforms plan to introduce tokenised stocks and assets.

He also said the draft bill would remove rewards on stablecoins, which he argued would allow “banks to block their competition.” Earlier, banking lobbyists warned that stablecoins offering around 5 per cent risk-free returns could trigger a “deposit flight” from low-interest bank accounts.

Read more: Coinbase to Use Cyprus License to Offer Crypto Perps and Futures, Closes BUX's CFD Accounts

The DeFi provisions in the draft bill were another concern raised by Armstrong. He said these measures would give “the government unlimited access to your financial records and remove your right to privacy.”

The Coinbase CEO also criticised the draft bill for weakening the authority of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over cryptocurrencies.

“We appreciate all the hard work by members of the Senate to reach a bipartisan outcome, but this version would be materially worse than the current status quo,” Armstrong added.

A Bipartisan Crypto Bill in the US

US lawmakers introduced the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act earlier this week, renewing a long-running effort to create clear federal rules for classifying digital asset tokens and regulating their issuers.

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The draft legislation would establish a formal framework for categorising tokens, whether they fall under securities law, commodities oversight, or another category. This issue has driven years of legal uncertainty and enforcement disputes.

However, the crypto industry now appears divided over the proposed bill.

“It’s not perfect, and changes are needed before it becomes law,” said Chris Dixon, managing partner at a16z Crypto. “But now is the time to move the CLARITY Act forward if we want the US to remain the best place in the world to build the future of crypto.”

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has thrown his weight behind Senator Tim Scott’s market structure proposal. 

He has called it a "massive step forward" for the industry. 

Garlinghouse’s support is rooted in Ripple’s own scars from years of regulatory ambiguity.

“Ripple (and I) know firsthand that clarity beats chaos, and this bill’s success is crypto’s success,” he said. 

As reported by U.Today, the bill recently saw a total of 137 amendments, and there are intense debates happening behind closed doors. The Ripple boss has indicated that the company remains "at the table" instead of simply walking away. 

The Ripple boss is “optimistic that issues can be resolved through the mark-up process.” 

Garlinghouse praised the bill for finally providing "workable frameworks for crypto, while continuing to protect consumers."

Markup officially scrapped 

The Senate Banking Committee has officially pulled the market structure markup scheduled for tomorrow. 

The decision to scrap the session follows a public revolt by Coinbase, whose CEO Brian Armstrong. 

The lawmakers were unwilling to proceed with a bill that had turned toxic in the eleventh hour.

The flurry of amendments failed to bridge the gap between the anti-stablecoin banking lobby and the crypto lobby. 

Senate staffers will likely retreat to closed-door negotiations. 

Bitcoin will likely reach new all-time highs despite poor performance against gold and tech stocks last year, according to BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes, citing the potential expansion of monetary conditions.

“If gold and the Nasdaq have the juice, how is Bitcoin going to get its groove back? Dollar liquidity must expand for that to happen,” Hayes said in a post on Wednesday. “Obviously, I believe it will in 2026,” Hayes said.

Hayes pointed to several catalysts that would support a “drastic increase” in dollar liquidity in 2026, such as the expansion of the US Federal Reserve’s balance sheet through “money printing,” mortgage rates falling as liquidity continues to loosen, and commercial banks becoming more willing to lend to US government-backed strategic industries. 

US will continue to “flex its military muscle,” says Hayes

“The US will continue to flex its military muscle, and to do so requires the production of weapons of mass destruction financed by the commercial banking system,” Hayes said.

Monetary expansion is generally bullish for Bitcoin, as investors are drawn to riskier assets like cryptocurrencies in anticipation of the US dollar losing value to inflation.

PANAMA CITY, Jan. 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The cryptocurrency market remains range-bound amidst the interplay of macro uncertainty and gradually recovering sentiment at the start of 2026. Against a backdrop of relatively modest market-wide gains, several sector-specific assets listed on HTX posted notable weekly advances between January 5 and January 11, led by the BSC-based Chinese memecoin project Binance Life and the privacy-focused protocol ZKP. Global leading exchange HTX once again demonstrated its explosive potential for listing assets in their early stages by identifying strong narratives early.

DeFi and Privacy Take the Lead: FXS Rebounds Strongly as ZKP Drives Narrative Expansion

This week, privacy and DeFi infrastructure emerged as the strongest-performing sectors. Privacy tokens ZKP and XMR advanced in tandem, as the narrative around financial privacy continued to gain momentum, making it one of the few segments showing a clear directional trend.

• FXS (Frax Finance): +110%, topping the weekly leaderboard. Frax Finance is a DeFi protocol offering three core products, FRAX, FPI, and frxETH, designed for yield generation, liquidity provision, and staking within the DeFi ecosystem.
• ZKP (zkPass): +90%. As a leading project in the privacy computing space, zkPass leverages the zero-knowledge proof technology to address identity verification challenges in Web3. HTX's early listing enabled users to fully capture the inflection point as the privacy narrative shifted from stagnation to renewed growth.
• XMR (Monero): +36%. As a long-established privacy asset, XMP's steady appreciation reinforces the market's renewed focus on financial privacy. Capital flows are shifting from isolated speculation toward sector-wide revaluation.

BSC-Based Chinese Memecoins: Binance Life Breaks Out and Early Positioning Pays Off

Within the memecoin segment, Binance Life emerged as the clear standout this week. As activity on the BSC ecosystem recovered and Chinese-language meme narratives gained traction, capital increasingly flowed toward assets with early community recognition and strong cultural resonance.

Notably, HTX was among the first platforms to list and support Binance Life, identifying its viral potential and providing liquidity at an early stage.

• Binance Life: +63%. Unlike traditional animal-themed memecoins, Binance Life, deeply rooted in the Chinese crypto community culture, originated from shared experiences around life in the crypto industry. The token has a strong community cohesion in the BSC ecosystem.

Building on this momentum, HTX has initially launched several popular Chinese memecoins on BSC, including "我踏马来了（(Wo Ta Ma Lai Le)）", "人生K线（Ren Sheng K Xian）", and "老子（Lao Zi）". The platform has also introduced isolated-margin trading for select pairs, 我踏马来了/USDT (10X) and 老子/USDT (10X), further strengthening support for the narratives in the BSC ecosystem.

To reward community participation, HTX has simultaneously rolled out a Chinese Asset campaign, running through January 19, with a total prize pool of up to $200,000. 

Moreover, B (BUILDon) gained 28%, further confirming structural opportunities within the BSC memecoin sector. Meanwhile, Solana-based memecoins remained active, with CHILLGUY (Just a Chill Guy) rising 33%. These assets offer HTX users diversified exposure across ecosystems.

AI Sector: Narrative Persists as Capital Becomes More Selective

The AI sector could remain one of the defining long-term narratives for 2026. This week, AI-related assets continued a consolidation-driven recovery, with speculative fervor cooling and capital increasingly favoring projects featuring clearer positioning and real-world applicability.

• ARC (AI Rig Complex): +42%. Positioned as an "AI + Memecoin" hybrid within the Solana ecosystem, ARC attracted attention through its cross-narrative appeal. The project is a basic AI infrastructure built on RIG, a Rust-based LLM framework designed for AI agent development.
• AIC (AI Companions): +53%. AI Companions aims to integrate AI, VR/AR, and blockchain technologies to create personalized digital companions, offering immersive virtual interaction experiences.
• RENDER (Render Token): +23%. Render is a relatively mature AI infrastructure project, with its token demonstrating more stable price movement. The protocol operates as a decentralized GPU rendering network built on Ethereum.

Initial Listings Become a Source of Return "Certainty" in Volatile Markets

Looking ahead, HTX will continue to rely on forward-looking, multi-sector trend analysis to identify and support high-potential assets. As market structure evolves, the value of early positioning is once again being validated.

About HTX

Founded in 2013, HTX (formerly Huobi) has evolved from a virtual asset exchange into a comprehensive ecosystem of blockchain businesses that span digital asset trading, financial derivatives, research, investments, incubation, and other businesses.

As a world-leading gateway to Web3, HTX harbors global capabilities that enable it to provide users with safe and reliable services. Adhering to the growth strategy of "Global Expansion, Thriving Ecosystem, Wealth Effect, Security & Compliance," HTX is dedicated to providing quality services and values to virtual asset enthusiasts worldwide.

To learn more about HTX, please visit https://www.htx.com/ or HTX Square, and follow HTX on X, Telegram, and Discord. 

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As the broader crypto market pauses to digest recent gains, Internet Computer is showing standout strength. This is often a sign that liquidity is rotating from mega-caps into higher-beta altcoins. Bitcoin briefly pushed above $97,000 before easing back near $96,200 as momentum cooled. ICP, however, has moved in the opposite direction.

Over the last 24 hours, the ICP price has surged more than 25%, extending its advance for a second straight session. The rally has been backed by a sharp pickup in participation, with trading volume jumping nearly 10X. With ICP now printing higher highs and higher lows, the next question is: can this momentum carry the token into double digits ($10+) this month?

Why Is the ICP Price Rising Today?

ICP is trading near .5 after rebounding from local lows around $3, translating into an almost 50% jump in just a few days. The move hasn’t been quiet either—trading volume has exploded from roughly $70 million to about $700 million, pointing to a sharp surge in participation and a clear shift in short-term sentiment.

This rally appears to be catalyst-driven rather than random, with a few key triggers lighting the fuse, outlined below.

• The Mission 70 tokenomics whitepaper was released on Jan 13, 2026: DFINITY proposes changes designed to reduce ICP inflation by at least 70% by end-2026 via supply-side adjustments and demand/burn acceleration. 
• “Lower future supply” narrative = instant bid: Traders typically front-run credible emission-cut frameworks, even before full implementation details are voted in. 
• Trading volume exploded: ICP’s 24-hour volume has jumped into the ~$600M–$700M zone on major price trackers, which often boosts trend continuation in the short term. 
• Media coverage linking the pump to the catalyst: Multiple outlets are explicitly attributing the rally to Mission 70 anticipation/release and volume expansion. 

Internet Protocol Price Analysis for January 2026

Internet Computer has remained in a broader downtrend since 2024, and the intermittent bullish bursts along the way have largely failed to shift the higher-timeframe structure. That said, bulls recently stepped in at a critical support area just below $3—a level that effectively acted as the last major line of defence—sparking a sharp rebound.

Now, ICP is consolidating beneath a key supply zone between .8 and $5.9, an area that capped price action for much of 2025. A clean breakout above this band would be meaningful: with volume and volatility already elevated, a move through resistance could open the door for a continuation rally toward higher targets.