OSL Research Daily Brief | Jan 16, 2026

1. Overnight, BTC surged then retreated, stabilizing above $95,000; ETH followed, holding above $3,300 with narrowing volatility. Gold and silver traded at high levels; silver's market cap surpassed $5 trillion, overtaking Nvidia to become the world's second-largest asset. The US Dollar Index rose to a monthly high.

2. U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott announced a brief pause before moving the crypto market structure bill (CLARITY Act) into the markup phase.

3. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan warned that allowing stablecoins to pay interest could drain up to $6 trillion from the banking system into stablecoins, severely impacting banks' lending capacity.

4. Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev publicly urged the U.S. to take a leadership role in crypto policy by passing market structure legislation that protects consumers while unleashing innovation.

5. Societe Generale's SG-FORGE partnered with Swift to complete a pilot for tokenized bond transactions settled using fiat currency and the EURCV euro stablecoin.

6. On January 15, the South Korean National Assembly passed an amendment to formally institutionalize Security Tokens (STOs), allowing qualified issuers to issue STOs directly and incorporating them into the blockchain digital securities regulatory framework.

7. Interactive Brokers announced that it now supports traders funding their accounts 24/7 using Circle's USDC, enabling around-the-clock trading.

8. A report by crypto bank Sygnum predicts that by 2026, at least three G20 or equivalent economies will publicly include Bitcoin in their national reserves (initially not exceeding 1%), and up to 10% of new bond issuances by traditional institutions may be tokenized.

9. State Street announced the launch of a digital asset platform, planning to issue tokenized money market funds, ETFs, deposits, and stablecoins, collaborating with institutional clients to drive adoption.

10.Research by Artemis shows that monthly crypto card transaction volume has grown from $100 million to over $1.5 billion (approx. $18 billion annualized). Visa controls over 90% of on-chain transaction volume and is reshaping the payment stack.