This week, the second-largest crypto exchange in Argentina launched the first bitcoin-backed Visa credit card in the country. Next, a New York State Senator and the Manhattan District Attorney jointly proposed a new Bill, the CRYPTO Act, which will criminalize running unlicensed virtual asset enterprises in the state. Finally, France found itself in the grip of escalating crypto kidnappings at the start of 2026.
To learn more, read on.
Argentina gets first bitcoin-pegged Visa credit card
Argentina’s second-largest crypto exchange, Lemon, launched the country’s first Visa credit card backed entirely by Bitcoin collateral on January 15, 2026. Users can access peso-denominated credit of up to ARS1M ($697) by locking in just 0.01 BTC as collateral, which Lemon asserts will remain untouched and serve only as security for the credit limit.
Additional planned features of the card will enable users to adjust collateral sizes and credit limits, and to make purchases with US dollar-denominated stablecoins such as USDC and USDT rather than Pesos. The launch echoes the rapid expansion of the crypto industry across Latin America as a whole, and Argentina’s particular and prolonged experience of currency depreciation has increasingly seen the population turn to BTC and other cryptocurrencies as both a store of value and for everyday use.
Since President Javier MiIei took office in December 2023, friendlier crypto policies have been adopted, and Congress is also putting forward frameworks that require all crypto service providers to be registered and to comply with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) rules. At the same time, the central bank is reportedly planning to allow banks to offer crypto services with approval mooted as early as April 2026.
Why this matters: This demonstrates how markets with unstable currencies are particularly open to crypto-backed financial products, which can bypass traditional banking altogether. Regulators will need to track how solely virtual asset-collaterized lending models create new money laundering vulnerabilities or regulatory gaps, and compliance professionals must
carefully assess how their organizations maintain regulatory legitimacy in the prevailing economic climate.
Read more on finance.yahoo.com.
Manhattan DA and NY State Senator targets unlicensed virtual asset businesses with CRYPTO Bill
The Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, and New York State Senator, Zellnor Myrie, announced the introduction of a new Bill, the ‘Cryptocurrency Regulation Yields Protections, Trust, and Oversight Act’ (CRYPTO Act), on January 15, 2026. The Bill seeks to establish criminal penalties for operating unlicensed virtual asset businesses in the state, as local laws currently only impose civil penalties.
The CRYPTO Act will bring New York State’s laws in line with the federal legislative system and the legal frameworks of 18 other US states, where such activities carry criminal charges and prosecutions that can lead to prison terms. The proposed legislation seeks graduated criminal penalties ranging from a Class A misdemeanor to a Class C felony for businesses that handle $1M or more in a single calendar year. The latter carries a sentence of five to fifteen years’ imprisonment.
District Attorney Bragg described crypto as “the go-to means for bad actors to move and hide the proceeds of crime,” enabling money laundering and other criminal activities, adding that it was “long past time” to prosecute unlicensed digital asset businesses that presently circumvent due diligence rules. He praised Senator Myrie for his leadership on the issue and expressed hope that the legislature would take decisive action on the Bill during its next session.
Why this matters: This represents an escalation in enforcement strategy in New York, the major US and global financial hub, and a move to close enforcement gaps that have enabled unlicensed operators to facilitate money laundering while risking only civil, rather than criminal, consequences. Law enforcement agencies and compliance professionals should both be aware that the proposed Bill carries legal backing and political will and respectively plan future investigation techniques and prepare for increased scrutiny of crypto businesses’ licensing compliance.
Read more on manhattanda.org and learn about emerging crypto crime trends in the US here.
France struck by a new wave of crypto kidnappings in January 2026
With four attempted kidnappings reported during the first half of January 2026, an atmosphere of fear among cryptocurrency professionals and owners has pervaded France. The latest attacks continue the trend of crypto-related kidnappings or attacks in France observed during 2025.
The incidents in 2026 so far included:
- January 6, Manosque, Southeastern France: In two separate incidents, attackers forced their way into two women’s homes and restrained them while attempting to obtain crypto wealth credentials the victims had access to. The latter incident was at gunpoint, and the intruders left with a device thought to hold access information for the victim’s virtual assets.
- January 9, Saint-Léger-sous-Cholet, Western France: An engineer was abducted from his home, assaulted, and later released in an attack suspected to be crypto-related.
- January 10, Verneuil-sur-Seine, North-Central France: A crypto investor and his family were terrorized at gunpoint during a nighttime home invasion suspected to be linked to organized crime and his professional role. The family escaped, and the three suspects fled towards a local train station.
The rise in attacks linked to the attempted theft of crypto has reportedly led to social media speculation that they may have contributed to the cancellation of NFT Paris 2026, a prominent European Web3/NFT conference. However, officials attributed the cancellation to market conditions rather than safety concerns.
Why this matters: Public-facing crypto industry role-players should heed the physical dangers posed by both organized and opportunistic crime groups, which often identify targets based on their social prominence and online presence. Potential victims should be cautious about sharing details of their virtual asset wealth online and take steps to secure their physical security. Meanwhile, law enforcement will have to adapt its real-world and on-chain investigation techniques to the rising phenomenon, and cybersecurity professionals can assess and improve data safety for virtual assets.
Read more on https://www.ccn.com and Le Parisien, and learn more about the rise in crypto kidnappings here.
