Drofa Comms’ team stays on top of daily financial and fintech news. Crypto, as one of the most volatile and fastest-moving markets, evolves at high speed. For us, it’s a “miss one day and you’re out of the game” situation. To help our clients and readers stay on track, we prepared a monthly overview of what happened in the crypto world in January.

“That’s what we do at Drofa Comms — follow the news and turn the angles in our favour. The hardest part is knowing where to look. With Crypto Summary, we made it easier to follow market news and spot the tendencies throughout the year,” comments Masha Balanovich, PR Manager at Drofa Comms, London.

Everybody Wants A Piece Of NFTs

Non-fungible-tokens (NFTs) are spiraling in the world of art. Twitter allowed NFT avatars for Blue Subscribers. Facebook and Instagram are working on ways to let users display NFTs on their profiles, and on building a marketplace to let users buy and sell these digital art objects. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has suggested that the company is considering the possibility of YouTube’s NFTs offering. Rare NFTs were sold with 83% discount, after a hacker found a glitch on OpenSea. The most famous doll in the world Barbie partnered up with Balmain to release NFT. Never released photos of the grunge band Nirvana will be sold as NFT. And that was only for starters, we still have 11 months ahead.

CBDCs Olympics

China is still leading the medal table when the subject is CBDC. The US federal reserve published its research report on CBDCs and although the report gave hints that CBDC US is not in favor of the adoption of CBDC, they agree it is inevitable, in order to keep competitiveness. Switzerland has successfully completed a pilot test in which it integrated its wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) settlement with commercial banks. South Korea is on Phase Two of CBDC tests. Jamaica successfully completed the first pilot test in early January. It showed intentions to launch a pilot for its CBDC in the near future. Meanwhile, in the UK, they think the whole marathon for CBDC is just a waste of time, according to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee’s report.

Uncle Sam Said “I Want Crypto”

Better late than never. The United States is preparing to release a government-wide strategy to regulate cryptocurrencies in the coming weeks. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler made a declaration that he hopes this will be the year that the agency regulates cryptocurrency exchanges. Rather, he chose between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the White House is taking control for the moment.

Russia’s Central Bank Lost The Cryptobuzz

In one week Russian Central Bank proposes banning the use and mining of cryptocurrencies. On the other hand, a Finance Ministry official said the ministry has its own ideas about how to regulate the crypto market. A Russian lawmaker went one step further, reminding the central bank that the power to create legislation lies with parliament. The Russian Central Bank created a buzz and missed the cryptobuzz.

The Revolut Unicorn Is Growing Bigger Wings

Revolut, Britain’s second most valuable fintech company, unveiled share trading without commission in the US. The unicorn company already offered payment services, crypto trading, and savings accounts in the US. The zero-commission initiative was introduced in the UK and Europe in 2019. Revolut lands the new service in the US to compete with rival Robinhood.

Can’t Take My Google Out Of Crypto

After avoiding the crypto industry for a while, Google is eyeing cryptocurrencies and is planning to create a new business unit exclusively dedicated to technologies that make use of blockchain and other decentralized computing technologies such as DeFi. Aiming on that, the company has hired former PayPal Holdings Inc. executive Arnold Goldberg to run its payments division as part of a broader strategy to team up with a wider range of financial services, including cryptocurrencies, according to a bill Ready. Google’s president of commerce. Meanwhile, smaller, but smarter rival Opera announced a web browser that contains a built-in crypto wallet with easier access to cryptocurrency and NFT exchanges for decentralized apps.

The Crypto Fraud Crusade

While crypto regulations are not well defined around the world, some governments are taking steps toward the protection of consumers against frauds by banning some crypto companies’ advertisements. UK, Spain, Singapore, are some of the countries on the lead of the ban.

Money Blizzard

Activision Blizzard has been bought by Microsoft, for US$68.7 billion dollars, the largest sale in the history of the video game industry. With the Activision Blizzard acquisition, Microsoft is now the third-largest company in the industry, behind Tencent and Sony. This is part of Microsoft’s current video game business strategy to increase subscriptions to its Gamepass service.

Conclusion

January signaled how quickly crypto themes can converge: consumer-facing adoption, state-led digital money, and policy enforcement all moved at once. NFTs kept expanding beyond niche communities into major social platforms and brand campaigns. CBDC work accelerated globally, with pilots and settlement tests turning into a competitive race among jurisdictions. 

Regulation also tightened: U.S. agencies and lawmakers moved toward clearer oversight, while major tech players started rebuilding around blockchain as infrastructure. The takeaway is straightforward: the market is still volatile, yet the direction of travel is structural — more integration, more rules, and more mainstream surface area.

Stay tuned for our monthly news summaries and if you are hungry for more (just like we are) — follow us on LinkedIn for market tendencies, hot news, and PR tools.