Recent developments in the cryptocurrency industry are facing multiple dynamic changes. The U.S. "Clarity Act" hearing originally scheduled has been postponed to January 27, with stablecoin interest rules becoming the focus. The banking sector has expressed concerns about deposit outflow risks, while the crypto industry points out that certain provisions of the bill could exacerbate compliance uncertainties. Meanwhile, South Korea has made a breakthrough—officially establishing a framework for the issuance and circulation of security tokens and lifting a nine-year ban on corporate crypto asset investments, allowing companies to invest up to 5% of their capital annually. In Belarus, the president has signed a decree to promote the construction of crypto banks, providing policy support for infrastructure upgrades in the industry.

On the technological innovation front, good news has also emerged. Babylon has just released the BABE protocol, reducing the verification cost of Bitcoin Groth16 zero-knowledge proofs by over a thousand times, which is significant for Bitcoin privacy and scalability applications. Polygon announced a major layoff affecting nearly 30% of its staff, but its strategic direction remains largely unchanged—shifting focus from DeFi to prioritizing payment scenarios. Bakkt is also accelerating its efforts by acquiring crypto payment infrastructure provider DTR to strengthen its payment layout.

In market applications, Argentine Lemon Exchange has launched an innovative product—a Bitcoin-backed VISA credit card. Users can pledge 0.01 BTC to get a credit limit of about 1 million pesos, opening new possibilities for users without bank accounts or credit histories. Overall, the total market capitalization of crypto assets is approximately $3.21 trillion, with a slight decrease of 0.04% in the past 24 hours. Bitcoin is priced at $95,189 (down 0.14%), but there are bright spots—AXS up 37.91%, BERA up 34.46%, leading the market.

Notably, HyperLiquid donated 10,000 HYPE tokens (approximately $254,000) to on-chain security analyst ZachXBT, marking his second-largest donation received.

On the security front, vigilance is required. ZachXBT recently disclosed a serious scam: on January 10, a user lost about $282 million due to social engineering fraud involving a hardware wallet, including 2.05 million LTC and 1,459 BTC. Some of the stolen assets have been transferred via cross-chain operations and even exchanged for Monero, making recovery extremely difficult.