Vietnam Launches Cryptocurrency Exchange Licensing Pilot

January 21 — Cointelegraph reports that Fabio Panetta, Governor of the Bank of Italy, has stated commercial bank money and central bank money will continue to play a key role in the monetary system, while stablecoins will only serve a complementary function. He noted stablecoins’ stability ultimately hinges on their peg to fiat currency, which limits their ability to operate independently within the financial system. Panetta added payments have become a core area of strategic competition for banks; amid a global shift of economic power toward technology and a more fragmented geopolitical landscape, digital finance is putting pressure on banks. The Bank of Italy remains cautious about stablecoins. The bank’s Deputy Governor previously warned that stablecoins issued across multiple jurisdictions (dubbed "multi-collateral stablecoins") could pose legal, operational, and financial stability risks to the European Union. As such, they need to be restricted to regions with equivalent regul

At the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 21st, Donald Trump said the U.S. is seeing the fastest economic recovery ever, has curbed inflation (with a core inflation rate of 1.5%), and expects fourth-quarter GDP growth of 5.4%.

On January 21st, Celo announced that the Celo Foundation and cLabs have formally merged to create a unified core contribution organization, tentatively named Celo Core Co. The restructuring and integration aim to accelerate the development and delivery pace of the Celo platform by 2026, while better aligning with market demand. Separately, Celo officials noted that details on the CELO tokenomics upgrade—including a potential buyback and burn mechanism—will be released soon.

On January 29, European cryptocurrency exchange Bitpanda will launch stock and ETF trading, integrating more than 10,000 stocks and ETF products into its existing app, per The Block’s January 21 report. Bitpanda said the rollout represents "the first time Europe’s largest crypto, stock, and ETF product offering has been merged into a single app," creating what it describes as Europe’s most comprehensive regulated investment platform. Founded in 2014, Bitpanda has a pan-European presence under national and EU regulatory frameworks, holding licenses to operate in the European Economic Area (EEA) and the UK.

**Ripple CEO Urges Coordinated Action on Crypto Market Structure Bill** On January 21, Ripple chief executive Brad Garlinghouse again called for coordinated action on a crypto market structure bill in a post on X. He argued the quest for "perfect legislation" should not block achievable regulatory progress—adding no law in history has ever met everyone’s standards. "The top priority now is a clear regulatory framework to unlock innovation potential—and that’s exactly what this bill aims to do," he noted. Compared to confusion from regulatory uncertainty, "clarity over chaos"—even if not universally agreed upon—will support the industry’s long-term growth and create a stable environment for crypto innovation.

Jan. 21 — Per official sources, Binance Wallet is set to roll out an AI-powered feature update tomorrow. The update will offer users smarter, faster, trend-tracking tools. ### Notes on American English adaptation: 1. **Date formatting**: Used "Jan. 21" (common U.S. abbreviation) instead of "January 21st". 2. **Verb choice**: Swapped "release" for "roll out" (more natural for product updates in U.S. tech media). 3. **Terminology**: Replaced "AI-supported" with "AI-powered" (standard phrasing for AI-driven features). 4. **Conciseness**: Streamlined "provide users with" to "offer users" (snappier for news briefs). 5. **Punctuation**: Used an em dash (`—`) after the date (standard in U.S. news headlines/briefs). 6. **Flow**: Removed redundant closing tag from the original HTML and tightened sentence structure for readability.