THE LATEST CRYPTO NEWS

Shiba Inu’s price action has been harsh lately. It plunged to about $0.0000063588 over a single weekend, wiping away months of gains and leaving many holders uneasy. Related Reading: Crypto Could Bounce Soon As Fundamentals Firm Up, Tom Lee Says Market moves like that are driven by big-picture forces — macro weakness, lower appetite for altcoins, and a general pullback across crypto. Yet inside the project’s camp, voices are still billing a comeback as likely. That contrast between numbers on a chart and upbeat messages from the team is where most of the current debate sits. Lucie Voices Confidence According to posts by the project’s marketing lead, Lucie, SHIB “will come back” in time. She argues that networks built and kept alive by active communities have a stronger chance of lasting than tokens pushed mainly by paid promoters. ????SHIB ????will come back, and strong communities will carry on, pushing back to gains. Weak projects built on paid KOLs will fade, and better ones will be born. NFTs may regain momentum. New standards across AI will emerge. Pay attention, there will be opportunities to make… pic.twitter.com/TNft72aXJD — ???????????????????? (@LucieSHIB) February 2, 2026 Reports say she also hinted at fresh activity coming from developer Kaal Dhairya, and the lead developer Shytoshi Kusama has been linked to moves toward artificial intelligence and NFT-related work for the broader lineup that includes SHIB, TREAT, BONE, and LEASH. Those plans are being positioned as part of a longer-term effort to give the ecosystem more purpose beyond speculation. Community And Developer Activity There is some actual work happening, though it is mostly in early stages. Updates were teased but details remain thin. Many community members keep watching the developers’ channels for concrete timelines and product launches. At the same time, Lucie has repeatedly told people to only risk money they can spare and reminded followers that her words are not financial advice. That caution was repeated after the token slid back from $0.00001265 in March 2025 to fresh lows more recently. Signals from developers are being noticed, but they have not yet translated into sustained buying pressure. SHIBA INU COIN HOLDERS. HONEST TRUTH. 1. ALTCOINS HAVE BEEN BEARISH FOR 4 YEARS 2. $SHIB HAS UNDERPERFORMED 3. CAN SHIBA INU EVER COME BACK? 4. WHAT HAVE I LEARNED SINCE 2021 5. HOW CAN YOU ADJUST YOUR STRATEGY? Please Share This If You Get Value pic.twitter.com/YPvSL7ibRy — Zach Humphries (@ZachHumphries) February 3, 2026 Analysts Call For Realism Analysts and some community figures pushed back. Zach Humphries, among others, warned that being hopeful is fine, but it should not replace hard thinking about risk. Related Reading: Russia’s Biggest Exchange To Launch XRP Indices And Futures He noted that altcoins have underperformed for a long stretch since 2021 and that relying solely on team statements is risky. Diversification was urged. Some critics said the marketing tone is upbeat and that it can boost morale, yet market fundamentals need stronger backing to flip sentiment. Opinions in the space were split: some see potential if new features land and adoption grows, while others say the token’s long slump shows that talk alone won’t lift price. Featured image from thewave, chart from TradingView

Blockchain analytics firm Glassnode released a new report on Wednesday highlighting a growing list of warning signals for Bitcoin (BTC), as the market’s leading cryptocurrency slid back to the $72,000 level during the latest market downturn.  The firm’s findings suggest that both structural and behavioral indicators are aligning around a more defensive market phase, raising concerns about near‑term stability. Shift Toward Deeper Bear Phase Glassnode pointed first to the breakdown of the True Market Mean, a metric that reflects the aggregate cost basis of actively circulating Bitcoin while excluding long‑inactive coins such as lost supply, early miner holdings, and Satoshi‑era coins.  Related Reading: Ripple Throws Weight Behind Hyperliquid, Fueling HYPE’s Rally Toward Crucial Levels Its recent failure, Glassnode said, confirms a deterioration that has been developing since late November of last year, with market conditions beginning to resemble the early‑2022 shift from prolonged consolidation into a deeper bear market.  Weak follow‑through from buyers, combined with persistent selling pressure, indicates the market is now operating in a far more fragile balance. From a medium‑term valuation standpoint, Bitcoin’s price is becoming increasingly confined within a wider corridor. The former support level at the True Market Mean, now sitting near $80,200, has flipped into overhead resistance. On the lower end, the Realized Price — currently around $55,800 — continues to define the zone where long‑term capital has historically re‑entered the market.  With this structural reset now in place, Glassnode said attention is turning toward identifying where downside stabilization could occur and where a more durable bottom might eventually form. Key Bitcoin Demand Zones While no single indicator can pinpoint a market low, several on‑chain metrics offer clues about where near‑term demand could emerge. One such tool is the UTXO Realized Price Distribution, which shows how much Bitcoin supply is held at various cost bases.  Current data reveals meaningful accumulation by newer market participants in the $70,000 to $80,000 range, suggesting that some buyers are willing to step in amid weakness.  Below that area, a dense concentration of supply between roughly $66,900 and $70,600 stands out as a high‑conviction zone. Historically, regions with heavy cost‑basis clustering have often acted as short‑term shock absorbers, where selling pressure is more easily met by responsive demand. In its conclusion, Glassnode said Bitcoin has moved deeper into a defensive regime, with on‑chain and off‑chain indicators pointing in the same bearish direction.  Profitability metrics show that unrealized gains have been heavily eroded, while realized losses continue to climb as investors reduce exposure into weakness. Thin spot liquidity is adding to the problem, as muted participation makes it difficult for rallies to gain traction. Related Reading: Bitwise CIO Warns Market Is Facing A ‘Full-Bore’ Crypto Winter, Not A Pullback For now, Glassnode emphasized that the key variable remains spot demand. Without a meaningful return of buyers and consistent inflows, Bitcoin remains exposed to further downside and unstable rebounds.  Until conviction rebuilds and participation improves, the firm asserts that the balance of risk continues to tilt lower, suggesting that any recovery is likely to require time, absorption, and renewed confidence from the market. At the time of writing, the leading cryptocurrency was trading at approximately $73,099, marking a significant 18% retracement over the course of the week.  Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

Russia’s Moscow Exchange (MOEX) is moving to broaden which digital assets it tracks and trades. Reports say the exchange plans to roll out new indices and futures tied to XRP, Solana, and Tron this year. That will give traders ways to follow price moves without owning the coins directly. Related Reading: Crypto Could Bounce Soon As Fundamentals Firm Up, Tom Lee Says New Crypto Indices Planned According to local coverage, Maria Silkina, who runs the derivative products group at the exchange, outlined the expansion on a recent radio broadcast. MOEX already lists benchmarks for Bitcoin and Ethereum. Now the exchange is preparing indices that mirror three more of the bigger, actively traded tokens, and it intends to offer futures contracts based on those indices. Trading interest in these coins has been high elsewhere. Here, such contracts will be cash-settled and follow the Bank of Russia’s rules. Settlements will happen monthly under the current regime. Perpetual Contracts And Options Under Review Reports note the exchange is also thinking about perpetual futures and options for Bitcoin and Ethereum down the line. Perpetuals do not expire. They use funding rates to stay close to the spot market and allow positions to be held for as long as a trader wishes. That differs from the monthly settled contracts MOEX already uses. Some of the new ideas remain under study and will be launched step by step. The approach looks designed to keep the products inside a tightly regulated frame while allowing more sophisticated trading strategies. Russia Pushes Toward Broader Access In 2025 the exchange added a set of crypto-linked futures, and it listed indices connected to Bitcoin and Ether alongside other structured products tied to overseas ETFs. Reports say that trend continued with some big Russian financial firms offering crypto-tied investment options. Sberbank has already rolled out a product that links to Bitcoin’s price. Market access is slowly widening, but access is still likely to be limited to qualified investors at first. That said, more instruments usually bring more liquidity and more ways to manage risk. Related Reading: Trump Says He Was Unaware Of Abu Dhabi Royal’s $500 Million WLFI Investment What This Means For Traders For investors, the shift offers both opportunity and restraint. Cash settlement removes the need for custody of the underlying token, which can reduce some operational hassles. At the same time, the Bank of Russia’s standards mean the products will be boxed in by clearing and reporting requirements. If adopted, these additions could help price discovery for XRP, Solana, and Tron inside Russia and might attract institutional flows that have been sitting on the sidelines. Featured image from The Moscow Times, chart from TradingView

Bitwise is laying out a bold scenario: Bitcoin could climb to a new record in 2026 and, if the stars align as the sages would say, may one day reach $1 million over the next 10 years. That view rests less on past rhythms and more on a shift in who buys and how they buy. Related Reading: Crypto Hacks Explode: $370 Million Stolen In January Alone: Researchers Institutional Demand Could Soar According to Ryan Rasmussen, Bitwise’s Director of Research, big money is moving from the sidelines onto the field. Spot Bitcoin ETFs and major brokerages have made buying easier for pension funds, endowments, and fund managers. Reports say these channels could funnel tens of billions into the market in 2026 alone. That scale of buying would change how supply shocks play out; a surge of steady inflows can soften the sharp drops that used to follow supply events. JUST IN: $15 billion Bitwise predicts Bitcoin will hit a new all-time high this year ???? “We believe Bitcoin will hit $1,000,000” pic.twitter.com/k4z9Yk8FEF — Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) February 3, 2026 Halving’s Role Is Changing For years, the four-year halving was treated like clockwork: lower miner rewards, tighter new supply, and big price moves. Bitwise now argues that effect is fading. Market access is broader, and more investor types hold stakes, so prices react to a more complex mix of demand signals. Interest rate shifts and the heavy liquidations seen in late 2025 also altered how margin and credit affect crypto moves. Price patterns are being shaped by more varied forces than before. Volatility Has Quieted Reports note a steady fall in Bitcoin’s wild swings over the past decade. In 2025, Bitcoin’s volatility was lower than some major tech stocks, a change that surprises many long-time observers. This makes the asset easier to hold for institutional managers who need predictable risk profiles. At the same time, ties to US equities appear to be loosening. A lower correlation would let Bitcoin serve as a distinct allocation in a diversified portfolio, rather than just another proxy for broader market mood. Related Reading: Trump Says He Was Unaware Of Abu Dhabi Royal’s $500 Million WLFI Investment Near-Term Pain, Longer-Term Case? Bitcoin hit lows under $80,000 recently, trading near $75,000 at one point. Those moves wiped about 10% off value in a week and left the coin roughly 35% below the October 6, 2025 peak of $126,085. Short-term stress is real. Some capital left the market in sharp selloffs, and sentiment cooled. Yet Bitwise thinks these shocks could be less defining going forward, because buying via ETFs and brokerages does not always behave like retail-driven swings. The vision of Bitcoin reaching $1 million may seem distant, but Rasmussen sees it as a realistic outcome if current trends continue. Rising institutional demand and broader market access could make 2026 a turning point, setting the stage for a decade where Bitcoin is no longer just a speculative asset, but a serious contender for long-term wealth growth. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Bitcoin’s latest slide has pushed prices into territory not seen so far this year, with the market briefly trading near the low $75,000 area. Related Reading: Crypto Could Bounce Soon As Fundamentals Firm Up, Tom Lee Says Losses have piled up over recent months, leaving the asset well below its record peak and stirring fresh debate about whether the broader uptrend has stalled. The drop did not happen in isolation, though, and the timing points to wider pressure across risk assets rather than a crypto-only shock. Bids Cluster Below $73k Order books show thicker buy interest clustered in a range that stretches from about $71,500 down toward $64,000. According to market feeds, that demand is visible but tentative. When many bids sit on exchange books they can slow a fall, but they can also disappear quickly if sellers accelerate. Liquidations have amplified the slide: forced closures of leveraged longs have been reported in the millions and such events can create short, violent drops even where fundamental demand remains. This model shows current bitcoin price action is still sitting within historical norms at $74,000. Bitcoin is down ~40% from its October high while U.S. equities remain near all time highs, with the S&P 500 down less than 10%. Under those conditions, a possible ~45% bitcoin… https://t.co/E8oiOKD3VE — Joe Burnett, MSBA (@IIICapital) February 3, 2026 Nothing Out Of The Ordinary According to Joe Burnett, vice president of Bitcoin strategy at Strive, the recent downturn still fits within patterns seen in prior market cycles. Burnett said Bitcoin hovering around the mid-$70,000 range reflects a drawdown size that has appeared before during periods of rapid adoption and price discovery. He added that swings of this scale tend to show up when an asset is still being priced by the market, rather than when it has settled into a stable trading range. Tech Stocks Drag On Risk Appetite The pullback in US tech names, particularly those tied to AI infrastructure, has been cited by several market watchers as a linked cause. NVIDIA and Microsoft were among the bigger drags on major indices, and reports note that weak sentiment around earnings and high-cost AI build-outs has left investors more cautious. When big growth stocks wobble, investors often trim other risky positions too, and crypto has been swept up in that flow. Related Reading: Trump Says He Was Unaware Of Abu Dhabi Royal’s $500 Million WLFI Investment Retail dip-buying was visible on some exchanges, and institutional spot purchases were reported as well. According to Burnett, a 45% drawdown is close to historical swings, which suggests volatility like this has precedents. That view does not remove pain for traders, but it does place the drop into a longer pattern rather than labeling it terminal. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has signaled a fundamental shift in the blockchain’s roadmap that declares the era of the “branded shard” effectively over. On Feb. 3, Buterin argued that the industry’s previous “rollup-centric” vision no longer makes sense, citing faster scaling on the main Ethereum layer and the sluggish pace of decentralization among major rollups. […]
The post Vitalik Buterin takes shot at Coinbase’s corporate control of Base which dominates 60% of layer 2 income appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Ripple has announced new support for Hyperliquid, one of the fastest‑growing decentralized exchanges (DEXs) in the crypto sector, a move that has added momentum to the platform’s native token, HYPE, even as the broader market remains under pressure. Ripple Expands Prime Brokerage Platform With Hyperliquid In a press release issued on Wednesday, Ripple confirmed that Ripple Prime, its institutional prime brokerage platform, has integrated support for Hyperliquid. Related Reading: Bitwise CIO Warns Market Is Facing A ‘Full-Bore’ Crypto Winter, Not A Pullback According to Ripple, the integration allows institutional clients to tap into on‑chain derivatives liquidity on Hyperliquid while cross‑margining their decentralized finance (DeFi) positions alongside other assets already supported by Ripple Prime.  These include digital assets, foreign exchange, fixed income products, over‑the‑counter swaps, and cleared derivatives. The structure is designed to give professional traders greater capital efficiency while operating across both decentralized and traditional markets. Michael Higgins, International CEO of Ripple Prime, said the move reflects the company’s broader strategy of bridging DeFi and traditional financial infrastructure. He noted that Ripple Prime aims to offer direct support for trading, yield generation, and an expanding range of digital assets.  Higgins added that extending the prime brokerage platform into decentralized finance is intended to improve client access to liquidity while delivering the efficiency and innovation institutional customers increasingly expect. HYPE Surges As XRP Slides The announcement comes at a time when market performance has sharply diverged between the largest cryptocurrencies and Hyperliquid’s ecosystem.  Ripple’s associated cryptocurrency, XRP, has fallen roughly 20% over the past week, broadly tracking the downturn across the wider crypto market. In contrast, Hyperliquid has surged by about 64% over the past two weeks, standing out as one of the strongest performers during a period of overall market weakness. That rally has pushed HYPE toward what traders see as a critical technical zone. At the time of writing, the token is trading just above $34, with the $35 level emerging as an important short‑term support area.  Related Reading: Bitcoin Price Crashes Below $73,000, Hitting Lowest Level Since 2024 Over the past week, Hyperliquid has struggled to hold above that threshold on a sustained basis, despite briefly breaking through it on Tuesday. During that move, the token climbed as high as $38, marking its highest price since November of last year. On the downside, Hyperliquid’s price action suggests that buyers have established a solid base around the $30 level. Daily chart data shows this area acting as a key support floor, repeatedly halting declines and helping to preserve the recent recovery in the weekly time frame.  Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

The move marks the platform’s first direct integration with a DeFi venue, a Ripple Prime spokesperson told The Block.

Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan has released a new analysis of the current state of the crypto market, arguing that the industry has been firmly entrenched in a bear market for over a year.  In a report shared on social media, Hougan stated that his research indicates the current downturn began as early as January 2025, despite widespread optimism fueled by institutional adoption, regulatory progress, and Bitcoin’s (BTC) rally to new all-time highs. Deep Bear Market Driving Crypto?  Posting on X, formerly Twitter, Hougan pushed back against the idea that recent price weakness represents a routine pullback or short‑term dip. Instead, he described the current environment as a full‑scale crypto winter comparable to past downturns in 2018 and 2022.  Interestingly, Hougan said the crypto market currently resembles a “2022‑like, Leonardo‑DiCaprio‑in‑The‑Revenant‑style” winter, driven by excessive leverage built up during the prior cycle and heavy profit‑taking by long‑time crypto holders. Related Reading: What’s Next For Bitcoin? Two Key Scenarios: Will It Crash To $60,000 Or Surge To $100,000? Hougan addressed a question many investors have been asking: why prices continue to fall despite a steady stream of positive developments.  He pointed to expanding institutional involvement, improving regulation, and broader adoption as clear long‑term positives, but said none of that typically matters during the deepest phase of a bear market.  According to Hougan, crypto winters are periods when good news is largely ignored, regardless of its significance. Even developments such as Wall Street firms hiring aggressively or major banks like Morgan Stanley increasing their crypto exposure are unlikely to spark a rally in the short term. He also cited market sentiment indicators to support his view. Hougan noted that the Crypto Fear and Greed Index remains near historically high levels of fear, even as the newly appointed Federal Reserve (Fed) chair is publicly supportive of Bitcoin.  To him, this disconnect underscores how deeply negative sentiment has become. Drawing on past cycles, Hougan said crypto winters rarely end with renewed excitement or optimism. Instead, they typically conclude when investors are exhausted and disengaged. ETF Support Propped Up Bitcoin?  Looking to history, Hougan observed that previous crypto winters have lasted roughly 13 months. Bitcoin reached its peak in December 2017 before bottoming a year later, and again peaked in October 2021 before hitting its low point in November 2022.  By that measure, the current cycle might suggest more pain ahead, particularly since Bitcoin peaked again in October 2025. However, Hougan argued that focusing solely on that date misses a critical detail. In his view, the current winter actually began in January 2025 but was partially hidden by extraordinary institutional inflows. He said strong demand from exchange‑traded funds (ETFs) and Digital Asset Treasuries (DATs) masked underlying weakness across much of the crypto market. Hougan emphasized the scale of institutional support for Bitcoin in particular, calling it unprecedented. During the period he analyzed, ETFs and DATs collectively purchased more than 744,000 BTC, representing roughly $75 billion in buying pressure. He suggested that without this support, BTC’s price could have fallen by as much as 60%.  Related Reading: Hyperliquid Unveils HIP‑4, Sending HYPE 14% Higher On Outcome Trading Plans Despite this, Bitwise CIO suggested several possible catalysts that could help lift sentiment and mark the beginning of a crypto recovery, including strong global economic growth that reignites risk appetite, progress on the CLARITY Act, early signs of sovereign adoption of Bitcoin, or simply the passage of time.  Reflecting on his experience through multiple crypto market cycles, he said the current mood of despair, fatigue, and malaise closely resembles the final stages of past crypto winters. Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com

Reports say a wealthy Abu Dhabi investor bought a near-half stake in a crypto company tied to the Trump family. The transaction, reported to be worth about $500 million, involved an entity linked to Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan. It has prompted questions in Washington and stirred activity in the markets where the company’s token trades. Related Reading: Mastercard Stresses Crypto Is An Enhancement, Not A Substitute Sheikh A Reported Buyer According to reporting by major outlets, Aryam Investment 1 — an investor connected to Sheikh Tahnoon — agreed to purchase roughly 49% of World Liberty Financial, known as WLFI. The payment was structured in phases, with about $250 million reported as an initial transfer. Reports note roughly $187 million moved to entities associated with the Trump family, while another $31 million reportedly went to companies tied to cofounders. JUST IN: ???????????????? President Trump says he did not know Abu Dhabi invested $500 million in his World Liberty crypto project. “I don’t know about it. My sons are handling that, I guess they get investments from people.” pic.twitter.com/AOBosetnpE — Bitcoin Black (@Bitcoinblacck) February 2, 2026 Timing And Deal Details The timing of the sale matters. It was completed shortly before an important political milestone for the buyer’s partner, and that has sharpened scrutiny. Some lawmakers and ethics experts raised alarms about a high-value foreign-backed investment in a business tied to a sitting US President. Others point out that private business dealings are common and that the legal thresholds for disclosure can be complex. Market participants reacted quickly; trading in WLFI-linked assets saw spikes in volume and price swings as news spread. Trump Responds When journalists pressed him about the report, US President Donald Trump denied having knowledge of the transaction. “I don’t know about it,” he said, adding that his sons run many family business matters. The remark was brief but clear: he insisted the family manages WLFI and that he was not personally involved in negotiating the sale. Some aides later reiterated that any operational decisions were handled by company executives and family members. Related Reading: Crypto Hacks Explode: $370 Million Stolen In January Alone: Researchers Reactions From Lawmakers And Regulators Reports say lawmakers from both parties want answers. A handful of senators have asked for briefings and documents, and a few regulators have been asked to look at whether any disclosure rules were followed. At the same time, legal experts caution that an investment by a foreign-backed firm is not automatically illegal or disqualifying. What matters, they say, are the exact terms, who signed which papers, and whether any statutory reporting obligations were met. Featured image from Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images, chart from TradingView

Tom Lee—long known for bullish takes—says crypto prices may be close to their floor. According to his comments on TV, he sees signs that buying pressure could return if the economic and on-chain backdrop holds. Related Reading: Gold Vs. XRP: One Asset Just Added 20x The Other’s Market Value During an interview on CNBC, Lee, Fundstrat’s head of research, said the current market setup could improve as fundamentals continue to firm up. That view sits alongside a big loss at his firm, which raises questions about how confident outside observers should be. Market Moves And Capital Flows Reports say capital moved sharply into precious metals as traders sought cover, and that flow drained money away from crypto. Gold and silver had run-ups that drew cash. At the same time, some market players were already light on borrowed positions. That mix left prices more exposed than many expected. “I think as long as crypto fundamentals are good, then crypto prices should follow,” says Tom Lee of @Fundstrat:https://t.co/pldeBkwChZ — Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) February 2, 2026 Big Sales And Liquidations About $2.56 billion in Bitcoin liquidations were recorded during the sharp swings this week, as traders closed out positions and risk appetite faded. Reports have disclosed that large sells pushed Bitcoin below key levels, and it dipped under $78,000 for a spell. BitMine, the firm tied to Lee, is reported to be sitting on roughly $6.95 billion in unrealized losses, a fact that complicates any narrative about neutral observers calling a bottom. Signals That Could Mark A Turn Reports note an uptick in Ethereum active accounts and growing work by big financial firms to build products on the network. Those are the kinds of measures that, over time, tend to reflect deeper demand than short-term speculation. A BitMine adviser has projected targets for Bitcoin and Ethereum—$77,000 and $2,400 respectively—and some say those levels could signal exhausted selling if reached. But the market has been jittery, and numbers on the screen can change fast. Policy Noise And Geopolitics Matter Policy moves in Washington have been flagged as a source of extra uncertainty. Some decisions by regulators and lawmakers are viewed as favoring certain firms or sectors, which adds to the uneven tone across risk assets. On top of that, tensions in the Middle East have pushed investors toward safe havens. When politics and geopolitics both push in the same direction, crypto tends to feel that pull. Related Reading: Bitcoin ETF Investors Pull Nearly $3 Billion, Pushing Average Buy Below Water Even if fundamentals look okay, timing is crucial. Liquidity conditions can tighten quickly if sentiment turns, and that can make any rebound short-lived or shallow. Reports say traders are watching for tapering in liquidations and clearer signs that flows into metals have paused before they will step back in with confidence. There is a case that the worst selling has happened. There is also a case that prices can fall further if a shock hits. Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView

Bitcoin slid to a year-to-date low of $74,500 on Monday, a move that wiped roughly 38% off its peak. Markets reacted sharply, and traders felt the pinch as flows out of big funds accelerated. Related Reading: Bitcoin Suppression? Analyst Claims Single Force Keeping Price Under $90K Fund Flows And Market Mood According to reports, global crypto exchange-traded products saw heavy withdrawals last week. Big US spot ETFs led the selling, and that pushed overall fund flows into deep negative territory. Based on Bitwise’s Weekly Crypto Market Compass report, Bitcoin’s recent drop pushed its two-year rolling MVRV z-score to a record low, a level tied to undervaluation and suggesting fire-sale conditions for the asset. Sentiment gauges fell hard. Reports note that a two-year rolling MVRV z-score — a measure comparing market price to the average cost basis of holders, adjusted for volatility — hit its lowest reading ever. That kind of number points to widespread selling and prices that many investors now view as distressed. Buying Interest On The Spot Market On shorter time frames, signs of buying have appeared. The daily RSI plunged into the low 20s. This is a level that has often been followed by quick rebounds. Spot volume data on major venues such as Binance and Coinbase showed net aggressive buying as Bitcoin bounced back toward about $79,420. Open interest did not spike. Funding rates stayed negative. In plain terms: people were buying on the spot market rather than piling into leveraged long bets, which reduces the chance of a cascade of forced liquidations that can make moves messier. Capitulation And Liquidations Reports say long positions were crushed last week, with close to 2 billion in BTC long liquidations recorded across derivatives markets. That pain can clear the field for fresh entrants. At the same time, there are multiple billions of dollars of short positions clustered near higher price levels, around $85,000, that could be hit if Bitcoin climbs. Short-covering could add fuel to a bounce. Market structure now offers a mix of strong selling behind prices and real buying in front of them. Where Support Might Hold Based on reports, buying interest combined with very low valuation metrics could create an asymmetric trade. That means the potential upside may be larger than the near-term downside, at least for traders willing to accept volatility. Historically, dips into the RSI zone seen last week have led to roughly 10% rebounds most of the time since August 2023, although outcomes vary and nothing is guaranteed. Related Reading: Bitcoin ETF Investors Pull Nearly $3 Billion, Pushing Average Buy Below Water A Quiet But Real Conclusion Institutional flows remain cautious. Major products such as the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust and the iShares Bitcoin Trust posted sizable outflows, signaling that some big holders stepped back. Yet, on-chain and spot-volume signals hint that bargain hunting has started. The near-term path will probably be bumpy. Traders who want exposure will need to weigh the low valuation readings and pockets of buying against the very real possibility of further weakness if sentiment deteriorates again. Featured image from Vecteezy, chart from TradingView

The market’s leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), slid to its lowest price level seen since November 2024 on Tuesday, falling below the $73,000 threshold. The asset dropped to around $72,900 as growing concerns about a prolonged bear market continued to weigh on investor sentiment. Data from CoinGecko shows that BTC is down roughly 4% over the past 24 hours and about 15% over the last seven days. Yet, the sell‑off has not been limited to Bitcoin. Other digital assets have also come under pressure, with Ethereum (ETH) losing 25% over the past week and XRP falling approximately 17% during the same period. Bitcoin May Drift Lower For Months Augustine Fan, a partner at Hong Kong‑based crypto options platform SignalPlus, said to Bloomberg that confidence among traders has sunk to extremely low levels, further contributing to the ongoing sell-off.  He noted that volatility, which had been trending lower for nearly a year, has finally picked up as traders rushed to hedge their positions. According to Fan, markets are now firmly operating in bear‑market conditions. Related Reading: What’s Next For Bitcoin? Two Key Scenarios: Will It Crash To $60,000 Or Surge To $100,000? Some analysts warn that Bitcoin’s weakness could persist. Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Digital, said recent price action suggests Bitcoin may continue to drift lower in the coming weeks or even months.  He pointed to the 200‑week moving average (MA), currently near $58,000, as a potential downside target. He added that there is a noticeable supply gap between the $70,000 and $80,000 range, which could add to near‑term volatility. Bearish Bets Build  Market analyst DarkFost observed that funding rates on the Binance platform have moved into what he described as an “extreme zone,” signaling a buildup of short positions and a growing bearish consensus among traders.  Related Reading: Hyperliquid Unveils HIP‑4, Sending HYPE 14% Higher On Outcome Trading Plans Nonetheless, as of this writing, Bitcoin has briefly recovered from Tuesday’s lows, currently trading just above $75,000. From a technical perspective, DarkFost identified two key price levels now in focus for the leading cryptocurrency: resistance around $74,000 and support near $69,000. Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com 

The meme coin segment has a habit of going quiet before it gets loud again. In early 2026, that silence is becoming noticeable. While Bitcoin and large-cap assets remain stuck in consolidation ranges, speculative energy across the market has not disappeared. It has shifted. And as investor behavior adapts to a slower, more selective environment, conversations around the best meme coins are quietly resurfacing. Unlike previous cycles, this renewed interest is not driven by sudden price spikes or viral hype alone. Instead, it is forming during a phase of patience. Trading volumes are lower, sentiment is cautious, and investors are no longer reacting impulsively to every market move. Historically, this combination has often created the conditions in which meme-driven assets begin attracting attention again. ???? Explore Maxi Doge as speculative interest starts to rebuild Meme coins tend to thrive between market cycles Meme coins rarely perform best at the peak of bull markets. Their strongest moments have often arrived during transitional phases, when traders are searching for engagement rather than certainty. These periods allow community-driven narratives to grow without competing directly against large-scale momentum trades. This dynamic explains why discussions around the best meme coins are reappearing in early 2026. The broader market is not collapsing, but it is also not accelerating. That middle ground has historically proven fertile for meme assets that can capture attention even when price action elsewhere feels uninspiring. Maxi Doge and the return of speculative curiosity Maxi Doge is beginning to reflect this familiar pattern. Interest around the project is building gradually, not explosively. Social engagement, early positioning, and speculative curiosity are increasing at a time when investors are otherwise hesitant to commit capital aggressively. What makes this notable is the timing. Maxi Doge is gaining visibility while risk appetite across the market remains restrained. That contrast suggests speculative capital is experimenting again, probing for opportunities that feel disconnected from the immediate performance of major assets. For investors tracking the best meme coins, this type of early-stage attention often acts as a signal rather than a conclusion. Psychology matters more than charts right now In the current environment, psychology plays a larger role than technical indicators. When markets move quickly, price dominates decision-making. When movement slows, narrative and sentiment become more influential. Research into digital asset flows consistently shows that low-volatility phases encourage experimentation rather than withdrawal. According to broader market analysis published by organizations such as CoinShares, periods of consolidation often coincide with renewed interest in higher-risk, narrative-driven assets. This context helps explain why meme coins, including Maxi Doge, are re-entering discussions despite the absence of dramatic market-wide catalysts. A market searching for engagement, not direction One of the defining features of early 2026 is that the market is not searching for direction as much as it is searching for engagement. Investors are still present, still watching, but less willing to chase conventional setups. Meme coins naturally fit into this gap. They offer participation without requiring a strong conviction on macro trends. Maxi Doge benefits from this dynamic by attracting attention during a phase when attention itself is limited. Coverage across NewsBTC continues to highlight this shift, as speculative capital begins to move selectively rather than broadly. What investors are watching next For those evaluating the best meme coins moving forward, the criteria are changing. Instead of short-term price surges, investors are watching engagement levels, consistency of interest, and how projects behave during prolonged periods of market indecision. Maxi Doge is currently being observed through that lens. Its growing visibility during a cautious market phase suggests it is resonating with traders who are positioning early rather than reacting late. ???? Take a closer look at Maxi Doge as speculative interest builds As the market continues to recalibrate, meme-driven assets may once again play a role in shaping the next wave of speculative momentum. Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency investments involve risk. Meme coins and early-stage assets can be highly volatile and may result in significant losses. Always conduct your own research before making investment decisions.

The crypto market is entering a phase that seasoned investors recognize immediately. Price action has slowed, volatility has cooled, and the constant stream of headline-driven moves has faded into something more subdued. Bitcoin continues to dominate sentiment, but without the urgency that defined earlier cycles. In moments like this, the question shifts. It is no longer about chasing momentum, but about positioning. That is why discussions around the best crypto to buy now are resurfacing in a quieter, more deliberate way. Rather than exiting the market, many investors are adjusting how they deploy capital. Liquidity is still present, but it is moving selectively. Projects that rely solely on short-term hype are losing visibility, while concepts that can operate independently of daily price swings are gaining renewed attention. This change in behavior sets the stage for assets like Bitcoin Hyper to enter the conversation. ???? Explore Bitcoin Hyper in the current market environment A market that is pausing, not retreating Despite the absence of strong upward trends, calling the current environment bearish would miss the point. What the market is experiencing looks more like a recalibration. Investors are waiting for clarity, but they are not disengaged. Trading volumes are lower, yet capital remains positioned within the ecosystem, ready to respond to new narratives. Historically, these periods often precede the emergence of alternative strategies. When Bitcoin trades within narrow ranges and macro uncertainty clouds short-term forecasts, attention naturally drifts toward projects that are less exposed to immediate price fluctuations. This shift explains why the debate around the best crypto to buy now is becoming more nuanced rather than louder. Why Bitcoin Hyper is entering the discussion Bitcoin Hyper is increasingly mentioned as investors look beyond conventional approaches. Positioned within the broader Bitcoin narrative, the project does not rely entirely on Bitcoin’s daily price movements to stay relevant. That distinction matters in a market where even modest volatility can distort short-term decision-making. For investors who still want exposure to the crypto space but are cautious about direct market swings, Bitcoin Hyper represents a different angle. It draws from the credibility and familiarity of Bitcoin while attempting to establish its own positioning during periods of consolidation. This balance is precisely what many investors are scanning for when reassessing what the best crypto to buy now might be under current conditions. Investor psychology is shifting Market psychology plays a critical role during transitional phases. When prices move aggressively, emotion dominates behavior. When movement slows, reflection takes over. Investors begin to question assumptions, reassess risk, and explore structures that might perform differently when momentum returns. Recent industry research shows that capital rotation during low-volatility environments often favors projects with clear narratives and independent positioning. According to broader digital asset market flow analysis from organizations such as CoinShares, quieter periods tend to encourage experimentation rather than full withdrawal from the market. This context helps explain why Bitcoin Hyper is being observed closely despite the lack of immediate price catalysts. Bitcoin Hyper in a transitional cycle What makes the current cycle particularly interesting is the absence of extremes. There is no widespread panic, but there is also little excitement. This middle ground creates space for projects that can remain visible without relying on aggressive price action. Bitcoin Hyper appears to be benefiting from this environment. It is not positioned as a quick speculative trade, but rather as a strategic option during a market that is reorganizing itself. That positioning aligns with how many investors are currently approaching the question of the best crypto to buy now – cautiously, selectively, and with an eye toward the next phase rather than the next headline. Additional coverage of shifting market behavior and investor sentiment can be found through ongoing reporting on NewsBTC, where transitional trends are becoming increasingly clear. What investors are watching next As 2026 unfolds, investors are paying close attention to signals rather than noise. Engagement levels, consistency of interest, and resilience during slow periods matter more than short-term gains. Bitcoin Hyper is being evaluated through that lens. Whether it ultimately emerges as a defining asset of the next cycle remains uncertain. What is clear, however, is that it has entered the broader discussion at a moment when investors are reassessing priorities. In a market defined by patience rather than urgency, that timing alone is noteworthy. ???? Take a closer look at Bitcoin Hyper’s positioning Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency investments involve risk. Market conditions can change rapidly, and losses may occur. Always conduct your own research before making investment decisions.

The crypto market has entered a familiar but often underestimated phase. Volatility has cooled, headline-driven price swings are less frequent, and many major assets are moving sideways. For investors watching from the sidelines, this kind of environment usually raises a specific question: where does the next opportunity come from when momentum fades? That question is one of the main reasons interest around best crypto presales is quietly building again in early 2026. Rather than chasing short-term price action, many market participants are reassessing how capital behaves during consolidation periods. History shows that when liquidity slows and attention shifts away from large-cap assets, early-stage projects often begin attracting renewed interest. Not because they are “safe,” but because they operate outside the daily noise of the broader market. ???? Explore Maxi Doge as an early-stage opportunity in the current market Why presales tend to resurface during quieter market phases Presales usually gain traction when the market lacks clear direction. In strong bull runs, investors gravitate toward assets with immediate momentum. In sharp downturns, risk appetite disappears almost entirely. But in between those extremes, capital often looks for asymmetric opportunities. This is exactly where presales fit in. They are not priced by open-market trading, they are less exposed to short-term volatility, and they rely more heavily on narrative, positioning, and community interest. As a result, presales frequently benefit from periods when investors are no longer reacting emotionally to charts but are instead scanning for projects that could define the next cycle. The renewed discussion around best crypto presales in 2026 reflects this shift. It is less about hype and more about timing. Maxi Doge and the return of meme-driven early-stage interest Within this broader presale narrative, Maxi Doge is drawing attention for reasons that go beyond simple branding. Meme-driven projects have historically shown a unique ability to capture liquidity during transitional market phases, especially when traders are looking for engagement rather than pure fundamentals. What stands out is that interest in Maxi Doge is emerging while the wider market remains cautious. Social activity, early community participation, and speculative positioning are increasing even as major assets struggle to establish clear trends. That contrast is important. It suggests that investor behavior is fragmenting, with different segments of the market responding to different signals. For those tracking best crypto presales, Maxi Doge represents a familiar pattern: a project gaining traction precisely because it operates outside conventional market expectations. Market psychology plays a bigger role than price action One of the most overlooked aspects of presales is psychology. When prices are moving aggressively, emotion dominates decision-making. When markets slow down, psychology shifts. Investors become more selective, more narrative-driven, and more willing to explore early-stage ideas that feel disconnected from macro pressure. Industry research regularly shows that capital rotation during low-volatility periods often precedes the emergence of new themes. According to broader digital asset flow analysis published by organizations such as CoinShares, quieter markets tend to encourage experimentation rather than outright risk avoidance. This context helps explain why projects like Maxi Doge can attract attention even when the overall market lacks excitement. A market in transition, not in decline It would be misleading to frame the current environment as bearish. What investors are experiencing instead is a transition phase. Momentum has slowed, but confidence has not disappeared. That distinction matters. In these moments, presales often serve as a testing ground for new narratives. Some will fail quickly. Others will quietly build momentum before broader market interest returns. Maxi Doge is currently positioned in that early exploration zone, where attention is forming but outcomes remain uncertain. Additional coverage and broader market context can be found through ongoing reporting on NewsBTC, where shifts in investor behavior are becoming increasingly visible. What investors are watching now For anyone evaluating best crypto presales in 2026, the focus is less on immediate returns and more on signals. Community engagement, consistency of interest, and the ability to stay relevant during slow market periods matter more than short-term price targets. Maxi Doge is being watched through that lens. Not as a guaranteed outcome, but as an indicator of how speculative capital behaves when traditional momentum strategies stop working. ???? Take a closer look at Maxi Doge’s early-stage positioning As the market continues to recalibrate, presales are once again becoming part of the conversation. Whether that attention turns into lasting momentum will depend on how these projects evolve as conditions change. Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency investments involve risk. Early-stage projects and presales can be highly volatile and may result in significant losses. Always conduct your own research before making investment decisions.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) sharp sell‑off has intensified pressure on Strategy, the company formerly known as MicroStrategy, even as it continues to expand its already massive cryptocurrency holdings. On Monday, the firm disclosed another BTC purchase at a time when prices were sliding to levels not seen in almost a year. Strategy Adds Bitcoin During Market Sell‑Off According to a securities filing released on Monday, Strategy acquired an additional 855 Bitcoin over the prior seven days, paying an average price of about $87,974 per token. The transaction amounted to roughly $75.3 million and further increased the company’s exposure to Bitcoin. The timing of the purchase, however, coincided with a steep downturn in the broader crypto market. Bitcoin fell below Strategy’s average acquisition cost toward $74,500, adding to investor unease.  Related Reading: What’s Next For Bitcoin? Two Key Scenarios: Will It Crash To $60,000 Or Surge To $100,000? That price sat slightly below Strategy’s reported average purchase price of $76,052 per Bitcoin, raising concerns that the company’s sizable holdings could move underwater if the decline deepens. Market reaction was swift. MSTR fell 8% on Monday as Bitcoin slid below that average cost level. When Bitcoin briefly sank to its lowest point since April 2024, the value of Strategy’s total Bitcoin holdings stood at approximately $53.1 billion.  A subsequent rebound toward around $79,000 lifted the valuation of the company’s Bitcoin position beyond $55 billion, offering some relief but little clarity on near‑term direction. Worst In The Nasdaq 100 So far, Strategy’s shares have suffered a steep decline. The stock is down 48% in 2025, making it the worst performer in the Nasdaq 100 index. For comparison, the second‑worst stock in the index, Charter Communications, has fallen 39% over the same period, underscoring the scale of Strategy’s underperformance. Amid these challenges, Strategy is also scheduled to release its fourth‑quarter 2025 results on Thursday. Wall Street expectations suggest modest top‑line pressure but a sharp improvement in profitability.  The Zacks Consensus Estimate calls for fourth‑quarter revenue of $119.6 million, representing a 0.91% decline from the same period a year earlier. Earnings, however, are projected at $46.02 per share, unchanged over the past month and a dramatic turnaround from a loss of $3.20 per share reported in the prior‑year quarter. Analysts expect the company’s fourth‑quarter performance to reflect continued financial momentum, driven largely by Bitcoin‑related gains and disciplined capital allocation.  Related Reading: Crypto Hacks Explode: $370 Million Stolen In January Alone: Researchers By the end of January 2026, the firm’s Bitcoin holdings had climbed to approximately 712,647 BTC, up from 640,808 as of Oct. 26, 2025, further increasing its sensitivity to price movements in the digital asset.  Still, recent share price performance highlights the risks tied to that strategy. Over the past three months, MSTR has fallen 43.4%, significantly underperforming the broader Finance sector, which gained 4.3% over the same period.  The stock has also lagged other Bitcoin‑exposed companies. During that timeframe, Riot Platforms, CleanSpark and Coinbase Global posted declines of 25.3%, 32.0% and 41.1%, respectively, pointing to widespread weakness among Bitcoin proxy stocks, though none have fallen as sharply as Strategy. Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com

Hyperliquid, the decentralized exchange (DEX) behind the HYPE token, surprised the market on Monday with a new product initiative that ran counter to the prevailing bearish sentiment across the crypto sector.  As several major cryptocurrencies slipped below important technical levels, Hyperliquid’s native token jumped roughly 14% following the announcement, signaling renewed investor interest despite broader market weakness. Hyperliquid’s HIP‑4 Proposal The rally was triggered after the Hyperliquid team revealed details of HIP‑4, a proposal that introduces outcome‑based trading to the platform.  Shared via the social media platform X (previously Twitter), the announcement explained that HyperCore — Hyperliquid’s Layer‑1 blockchain engine — will soon support so‑called “outcomes.”  These are fully collateralized contracts designed to settle within a predefined range. Unlike traditional leveraged derivatives, outcome contracts do not rely on leverage or liquidations, offering a different approach to derivatives trading.  Related Reading: Is The Bitcoin Bottom In? CMT Reveals What Investors Need To See Now According to the team, outcomes are intended as a general‑purpose building block that can power use cases such as prediction markets and bounded, options‑like instruments, areas where user demand has been growing. Following the news, HYPE managed to hold firmly above the psychologically important $30 level and was trading near $33.22 at the time of writing. Over the past week alone, the token has surged approximately 48%.  The move stands in stark contrast to the performance of the wider market. During the same period, Bitcoin (BTC) fell around 10%, Ethereum (ETH) dropped roughly 18%, and Binance Coin (BNB) slid about 11%. Challenging Polymarket And Kalshi Beyond price action, the Hyperliquid team emphasized the broader implications of the outcome primitive for its ecosystem. Outcomes introduce non‑linear payoff structures and fixed‑duration contracts, expanding the range of financial products that can be built on HyperCore.  These contracts are also designed to work alongside existing components such as portfolio margin and the HyperEVM, increasing the overall flexibility of the platform’s infrastructure. At this stage, outcomes remain under development and are currently being tested on Hyperliquid’s testnet. The team noted that standardized, or “canonical,” markets based on objective settlement sources will be launched once development is finalized.  Depending on community feedback, Hyperliquid plans to eventually open the system to permissionless deployment, allowing a wider range of users and builders to create their own markets. Market researcher DeFi Ignas described the proposal as an important innovation, highlighting how outcome contracts could be combined with perpetual futures to create more efficient hedging strategies.  As an example, he explained that a trader could hold a long ETH perpetual position while simultaneously purchasing an outcome contract that pays out if ETH falls below a certain price level, such as $2,000. According to Ignas, this type of composability is not currently possible on prediction platforms like Polymarket or Kalshi. Ignas also pointed to permissionless market creation as another potential differentiator.  HYPE Battles Major Resistance HYPE’s price behavior reflects the instability of the crypto market, despite the euphoria surrounding Hyperliquid’s HIP-4. From a technical sense, $28 served as a major support level during the weekend, preventing further losses.  Related Reading: Dogecoin Crash Sends It To Key Demand Zone, Here’s The Level To Watch On the upside, resistance near $34 has capped gains on multiple occasions, including two failed attempts to break higher on Wednesday and Thursday of last week.  Whether HYPE can decisively clear this resistance is likely to determine whether the recent rally extends further or gives way to another short‑term correction. Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

XRP sits at a crossroads. Trading around the $1.6 area after a steep run higher and a later pullback, the token now rests on a weekly support band that traders are watching closely. According to crypto analyst Scott Melker, this is one of the cleaner risk/reward setups in crypto right now — a small stop can limit losses while a bounce could offer meaningful gains. Related Reading: Crypto Funds Bleed $1.80 Billion As Metals Rally Heats Up Support Zone Holds The Key Based on reports, the zone around $1.55 to $1.60 is important. It lines up with the midpoint of the breakout that began in November 2024 and has acted as resistance before flipping to support. When price briefly dipped toward $1.50 and then closed January above the $1.60 mark, some traders read that as a liquidity sweep that cleared short orders. That kind of action can presage either a bounce or a deeper move, depending on whether fresh buying shows up. What History Shows XRP moved sideways in 2023 and much of 2024 before breaking out from roughly $0.50 to $0.60 in November 2024. A fast advance followed, carrying price toward the $2.00 area and then higher into the $3.66 peak in July 2025. $XRP Crazy chart. Trading exactly at the last meaningful support on the chart before a huge air pocket. For traders, this is about the best risk/reward you get on an asset. Easy to cut loose with a small loss if support fails. pic.twitter.com/wySapwsnT0 — The Wolf Of All Streets (@scottmelker) January 31, 2026 Those gains set a higher structure, but they also left large pockets of profit taking above current levels. Reports say that repeated failed attempts above $3.50 marked weakening demand, which helped trigger the current drop back to the $1.6 region. Tight Downside, Open Upside According to Scott Melker, a.k.a. “Wolf of All Streets”, traders can manage risk with a stop between $1.45 and $1.50. That makes the downside measured. On the flip side, a recovery would likely test $2.00 first, then run into supply around $2.50–$2.60, before facing heavier resistance near $3.00 and the old highs. That path is straightforward on paper, but market context changes outcomes. Volume confirmation is absent from many of the bullish takes; a support hold without visible buying on the tape is fragile. Broader liquidity in US markets and risk appetite for crypto will also play a major role in whether the bounce can sustain itself. Related Reading: Crypto Hacks Explode: $370 Million Stolen In January Alone: Researchers XRP’s Sweet Spot: Small Risk, Big Upside For Melker, setups like XRP’s current level are rare in crypto right now — a defined support, a tight stop, and clear upside targets create a scenario where the potential reward outweighs the risk. He emphasizes that traders don’t need to predict every twist in the market; instead, focusing on trades with controlled losses and meaningful gains can be the difference between surviving and thriving in volatile conditions. In XRP’s case, the near-term risk is small relative to the possible rebound, making it a setup many are watching closely. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Bitcoin slid hard over the weekend and stayed low into Monday, leaving traders on edge and pushing many to reduce risk. Prices slipped from roughly $84,000 to about $74,600 in a matter of days, a drop that erased a chunk of recent gains and forced quick reassessments across markets. Nervousness around Federal Reserve leadership, rising job worries, and fresh geopolitical flashpoints all piled up at once. Related Reading: Gold Vs. XRP: One Asset Just Added 20x The Other’s Market Value Average ETF Price Above Market According to Coinglass, the combined assets of US spot Bitcoin ETFs sit near $113 billion, while reports note they hold around 1.28 million BTC. Based on those figures, the typical ETF buying price works out to an average of roughly $87,830 per coin — well above current trading levels. That gap means many ETF positions are showing losses on paper right now. Some funds kept buying earlier and are holding positions that are underwater. BTC is trading below the U.S. ETFs avg cost basis after the 2nd & 3rd biggest outflow weeks ever (last week and week before) (and last week’s outflow will increase after IBIT reports friday’s numbers tomorrow) this means the average bitcoin ETF purchase is underwater pic.twitter.com/XowzrnBaSM — Alex Thorn (@intangiblecoins) February 2, 2026 Outflows Pick Up Over the last two weeks, investors pulled close to $3 billion from the 11 spot ETFs, with one week seeing $1.50 billion leave and the prior week $1.30 billion, according to CoinGlass. Those moves suggest some market participants are locking in gains or cutting exposure after the recent run-up. At the same time, cumulative ETF inflows remain materially lower than earlier peaks; buying has not fully come back even as some holders remain steady. Technical Signals And Bear Fears Reports note that spot BTC is down roughly 40% from its October peak while ETF AUM has fallen by about 31%. That divergence has analysts warning that sustained weak demand could push Bitcoin into a deeper downtrend. Technical charts show longer-term sell pressure building in certain measures. If demand fails to reappear, momentum could carry prices lower and extend selling across crypto markets. Policy, Politics, And Market Mood Market watchers point to extra uncertainty around monetary policy and geopolitics as fuel for the recent moves. Reports have disclosed that the proposed US Clarity Act stalled in Washington. At the same time, headlines about tensions in the Middle East and trade friction added to a rush for traditional safe havens like gold and the dollar. Even a hint of policy change matters: US President Donald Trump’s choice for the next Fed chair was discussed by investors as another factor shaping expectations. Related Reading: Crypto Funds Bleed $1.80 Billion As Metals Rally Heats Up Liquidity And The Road Ahead Institutional holders have not all capitulated. Many have been described as holding on, which can cushion sharp drops. But when the average cost basis for major ETF holders is above the current market price, confidence can be fragile. Liquidity has thinned in certain windows, and that makes price swings larger. A recovery requires renewed buying from both retail and big investors, otherwise sellers may dictate direction for longer. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Raoul Pal is pushing back on the idea that crypto’s current drawdown signals a broken market cycle, arguing instead that bitcoin and high-beta risk are being hit by a temporary US liquidity air pocket tied to Treasury cash management and government shutdown dynamics. In a weekend post on X framed as a takedown of “false narratives,” the Global Macro Investor founder said the prevailing story—“that BTC and crypto are broken. The cycle is over”—has become an “alluring narrative trap,” especially as “prices [are] puking each and every fucking day.” But Pal said a separate question from a GMI hedge fund client about beaten-down SaaS equities prompted him to re-check the data and rethink the driver. “What I found destroyed both the BTC narrative and the SaaS narrative,” Pal wrote. “SaaS and BTC are the EXACT same chart. Huh? That means there is another factor at play that we have all missed…” Crypto Slide Due To US Liquidity Drain? Pal’s answer is liquidity. He argues US liquidity has been “held back” by two shutdown episodes and “issues with US plumbing,” adding that the drain of the Fed’s reverse repo facility was “essentially completed in 2024.” Related Reading: White House To Host Crypto And Banking Leaders In Push To Break Regulatory Deadlock That, he said, left the Treasury General Account (TGA) rebuild in July and August without the kind of offset that would normally soften the impact, turning it into a net drain. In his telling, the same lack of liquidity helps explain why macro activity gauges have looked weak, writing that “lackluster liquidity is the reason why the ISM has been so low.” While Pal said he typically tracks global total liquidity because of its long-term correlation with bitcoin and US tech, he argued the US measure is dominating this phase of the cycle because the US remains the system’s key liquidity supplier. That matters, he said, because the assets most exposed to a withdrawal of liquidity are long-duration, high-volatility exposures—exactly where bitcoin and SaaS sit in many portfolios. “Those are both the longest duration assets that exist and both got discounted because liquidity was temporarily withdrawing,” Pal wrote, tying their drawdowns to the same macro impulse rather than project-specific failure or a broken crypto “cycle.” He also pointed to gold’s rally as an additional constraint on marginal flows. “The rally in gold essentially sucked all marginal liquidity out of the system that would have flowed into BTC and SaaS,” Pal said. “There was not enough liquidity to support all these assets, so the riskiest got hit.” Pal described the latest shutdown as a further headwind, claiming the Treasury “hedged” by not drawing down the TGA after the prior shutdown and instead “added more to it,” deepening the drain. That, he said, is the “current air pocket” behind the “brutal price action” across risk. But he also argued the squeeze is close to clearing. “However, the signs are that this shutdown will get resolved this week and that is the FINAL liquidity hurdle out of the way,” Pal wrote, adding that the next phase could bring a “liquidity flood” from factors he listed including changes around eSLR, partial TGA drawdowns, fiscal stimulus and rate cuts. Related Reading: Crypto Bears Beware: Global Liquidity Cycle May Be The Longest On Record He extended the “false narrative” theme to Fed expectations, rejecting the idea that Kevin Warsh would run policy as a hawk. “On the subject of rate cuts, there is another false narrative going around that Kevin Warsh is a hawk,” Pal wrote. “It is utter fucking nonsense. These were comments mainly from 18 years ago.” Pal argued Warsh’s mandate would align with what he called the “Greenspan era playbook”—cutting rates, letting the economy run hotter, and leaning on productivity gains to restrain core inflation—while avoiding balance-sheet moves that could collide with reserve constraints and destabilize lending. Pal included a mea culpa, acknowledging GMI “was not seeing the US liquidity as the current driving factor,” after years of emphasizing global measures. “There is no disconnect,” he wrote. “It’s just that the confluence of events Reverse Repo drained >TGA rebuild > Shutdown > Gold rally > Shutdown was not forecastable by us, or in any event we missed the impact.” His bottom line was less about calling the exact bottom and more about time-in-cycle. “Often in these full cycle trades, it is time that is more important than price,” he wrote, urging “PATIENCE!” and reiterating he remains “HUGE” bullish on 2026 if the policy and liquidity playbook he expects materializes. At press time, BTC traded at $77,510. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

New transaction standards aim to let AI systems access data, services & digital assets without relying on traditional checkout or login flows.

The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.

Bitcoin (BTC) came under heavy selling pressure over the weekend after failing to hold the $84,000 level, a move that culminated in a sharp decline on Monday.  The sell‑off pushed the cryptocurrency down to around $74,000, marking its lowest price in roughly 10 months and reigniting debate over where the market could be headed next. Bitcoin’s Make‑Or‑Break Level In a recent Monday post on the social media platform X (previously Twitter), analysts at Bull Theory outlined two potential paths forward for Bitcoin as volatility remains elevated.  They noted that after briefly rebounding toward $79,000, Bitcoin is now trading above the $75,000 area, a level they describe as a critical weekly support zone. This region has already been tested, and how price behaves here is expected to determine the next major trend. Related Reading: Dogecoin Crash Sends It To Key Demand Zone, Here’s The Level To Watch From a broader technical perspective, Bitcoin’s weekly chart has deteriorated. The price has slipped below both the 20‑week and 50‑week moving averages (MAs), levels that are commonly used to gauge medium‑ and long‑term market momentum.  While this development has raised concerns, Bull Theory argues that the situation is not yet decisive and hinges on whether key support levels continue to hold. In the first scenario outlined by the analysts, Bitcoin manages to defend the April 2025 low, with $75,000 ultimately marking the bottom of the current correction. For this outcome to unfold, Bitcoin would need to hold above that April low and begin forming a higher low on the chart.  If successful, the broader bullish structure would remain intact, defined by a pattern of higher highs and higher lows. In this case, the recent drop toward $75,000 would be viewed as a corrective pullback rather than a breakdown of the long‑term trend. Risk Of Deeper Correction The second scenario is more bearish and hinges on a failure to hold current support. If Bitcoin breaks below the April 2025 low, Bull Theory warns that the market structure would change meaningfully.  A breakdown would invalidate the higher‑low formation that has defined the broader uptrend and signal that the $75,000 support level has failed. Under this scenario, downside risk would increase, opening the door to a move into the $50,000 to $60,000 range.  Related Reading: How To Trade The XRP Price In The Short Term After The Massive Crash According to Bull Theory, the outcome ultimately depends on two clear factors: whether Bitcoin can hold above $75,000 on weekly closing prices, and whether the April 2025 low remains intact.  If both levels continue to hold, the first scenario — a corrective pullback within a broader uptrend — remains in play. If either level gives way, the second scenario becomes the more likely path, with significantly lower prices potentially ahead. Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

Arcium has launched its Mainnet Alpha on Solana, taking its encrypted computation network live as Umbra debuts a shielded finance layer.

Bitcoin’s slide below $80,000 has pushed a significant portion of US spot BTC exchange-traded fund (ETF) buyers into $7 billion in paper losses. According to CryptoSlate's data, the world’s largest digital asset fell to as low as $74,609 over the weekend amid liquidity concerns and a risk-off tone in global markets. BTC has recovered to approximately $77,649 as […]
The post Bitcoin triggers $7B loss for ETF holders as price could drop to $65,000 while Strategy (MSTR) sits on billion dollar cushion appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The start of this year brought a hard reminder: people remain the weakest link. Reports note that roughly $370 million in crypto were taken in January, a sharp climb from earlier months. Related Reading: Crypto Funds Bleed $1.80 Billion As Metals Rally Heats Up That surge was driven mostly by one massive social-engineering con that emptied a single victim of about $284 million. Simple lies and well-crafted messages beat code this time. Phishing Dominates Losses According to CertiK, phishing-style scams grabbed about $311 million of the January haul. That means most losses came from attackers tricking users and insiders rather than breaking cryptographic systems. Social pressure, fake links, and impersonation were used to push victims into moving funds. People clicked. Money moved. Accounts were drained. A Bigger Picture Of Monthly Swings Based on reports, January’s total is nearly four times the $98 million stolen in January 2025 and more than triple December’s close to $118 million. The month is the largest since February 2025, when roughly $1.5 billion was taken, most of that tied to the huge Bybit heist. Those big events show how a single breach or scam can tilt an entire month’s tally. Numbers can look calm one month and explosive the next. That unpredictability keeps wallets and treasuries on edge. #CertiKStatsAlert ???? Combining all the incidents in January we’ve confirmed ~$370.3M lost to exploits. ~$311.3M of the total is attributed to phishing with one victim losing ~$284M due to a social engineering scam. More details below ???? pic.twitter.com/uXhi0P6dl5 — CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) January 31, 2026 Major Technical Exploits Hit Treasuries PeckShield flagged several large protocol attacks. Step Finance lost nearly $29 million after treasury wallets were compromised and over 261,000 SOL vanished. Truebit suffered a $26.4 million hit when a smart contract flaw allowed near-free minting, which also crushed its token price. SwapNet and Saga were among other victims, with losses around $13.3 million and $7 million respectively. Those hacks were technical, aggressive, and fast. #PeckShieldAlert In Jan. 2026, the crypto space saw 16 hacks totaling $86.01M in losses, representing a slight 1.42% YoY decrease compared to Jan. 2025 ($87.25M) but a notable 13.25% MoM surge from Dec. 2025 ($75.95M). Meanwhile, #phishing remains staggering with losses… pic.twitter.com/pxugbsPcZ7 — PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) February 1, 2026 Why This Matters Now Reports say there were 40 exploit and scam incidents over January, though the bulk of value lost was concentrated in a few cases. That pattern means the raw count of incidents doesn’t tell the whole story; a single, well-executed con can dwarf many smaller breaches combined. Some months will show many small thefts. Other months will be defined by one enormous fraud. What Needs To Change Security teams and project treasuries must tighten both human and technical safeguards. More rigorous wallet controls, staged approvals, and stronger identity checks would blunt social-engineering strikes. At the same time, independent code audits and quicker response plans can limit damage from smart contract bugs. Education programs for staff and users are cheap compared with the cost of a single large loss. Related Reading: Gold Vs. XRP: One Asset Just Added 20x The Other’s Market Value The recent spike is a clear message: attackers are mixing social skill with technical know-how. The playbook now often starts with a message in a chat app or an email, then turns into code-level theft. Patching software helps. Teaching people how to spot scams will stop many attacks before they ever reach the code. Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView

Bitcoin’s price action has fallen into bearish territory after dropping below an important previous low that had supported the rally for months. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $78,560 after falling to as low as $77,082 in the past 24 hours, a move that crypto analyst XForceGlobal says represents a significant change in the technical structure.  According to his detailed Elliott Wave analysis shared on X, the price action has now invalidated the bullish framework many traders were relying on, and lower levels are becoming more likely in the coming weeks and months. Related Reading: Ethereum Boost: Vitalik Buterin Sets Aside $45M In ETH For Privacy And Open Tech Breakdown Below Previous Low Changes Primary Wave Count According to XForceGlobal, Bitcoin had been working through a complex sideways structure, specifically a WXY combination that was expected to resolve through distribution rather than outright breakdown.  Bulls managed to complete three of the five required components of this triangle-like structure, but the failure to defend the prior low was the signal that led to a structural shift. This prior low refers to the $82,000 low in November 2025. Bitcoin bulls failed to defend this low when the price action broke below $80,000 in the most recent 24 hours. Once that level gave way, the primary wave count could no longer be maintained. In terms of the Elliott Wave count, that lower low means that price action from the all-time high should now be treated as separated and corrective, not part of a healthy continuation. This restructuring gives the current decline more room to develop from a Fibonacci extension perspective and changes how minimum and maximum downside targets should be evaluated. Bitcoin Price Chart. Source: @XForceGlobal On X Two Bearish Scenarios Point To The Same Zone The resulting analysis shows two main scenarios of how Bitcoin’s price action can continue from here, both of which are converging on similar downside levels. The first is a flat correction, where Bitcoin is currently unfolding a C wave. Although XForceGlobal describes this as the least attractive option, it would still imply a full distribution range that invalidates a bullish structure and drags the Bitcoin price to as low as $60,000.  The second scenario is a macro ending diagonal structured as a WXY move to the downside. This scenario uses the October 2025 all-time high above $126,000 as a cut point to improve wave separation of the current price action. Interestingly, the price projection from this scenario also aligns with targets in the same $60,000 area. Despite different technical paths, both interpretations point to comparable downside risk over the medium timeframe. Related Reading: Crypto Funds Bleed $1.80 Billion As Metals Rally Heats Up Now that the larger structure is now compromised, XForceGlobal says it makes sense to adopt a shorter-timeframe bearish bias while reorganizing the next wave count. The outlook is that Bitcoin continues its decline to at least $60,000 before rebounding to stage a return above $100,000. Featured image from Pixabay, chart from TradingView

Markets have been loud this week. Precious metals punched through records, then gave back much of their gains, while major crypto tokens barely budged. That contrast is what has people talking. Related Reading: Ethereum Boost: Vitalik Buterin Sets Aside $45M In ETH For Privacy And Open Tech Gold’s Sudden Market Jump According to posts on X by market commentators, gold’s capitalization rose by roughly $2.2 trillion inside a single trading session. That move pushed the metal into an eye-catching valuation that dwarfs many crypto assets. That figure equals nearly 20 times the entire market cap of XRP, which sits close to $103 billion based on recent prices. Bitcoin, valued near $1.77 trillion at the same time, was also overtaken by gold’s one-day gain. The scale of the move stunned many, even those used to seeing large swings in commodities. The raw math is hard to ignore: a small percent move in an enormous market turns into huge dollar figures fast. Gold has added $2.2 trillion to its market cap just today$BTC its market cap is $1.78 trillion pic.twitter.com/WUBlUrzwpl — Quinten | 048.eth (@QuintenFrancois) January 28, 2026 Why The Numbers Can Mislead Several traders replied that the headline number is a quirk of scale. Because the gold market is so big, even modest percentage swings create massive nominal changes. This point was made repeatedly in replies to the initial posts. Market depth and the sheer size of holdings mean that price shifts are not always driven by fresh trillions of dollars flowing in or out. For smaller assets, a much smaller pile of capital can push price sharply. That’s the key difference when comparing bullion to crypto. Silver’s Rapid Reversal Reports have disclosed that silver’s run was especially volatile. After a blistering ascent, silver fell sharply, wiping away a large slice of its peak gains within days. Such whipsaws show how quickly sentiment can flip when traders rush to lock in profits or cut losses. The move illustrates how headline statistics — peak valuations and sudden drops — can create a distorted sense of permanent change when markets are actually very fluid. Related Reading: Crypto Funds Bleed $1.80 Billion As Metals Rally Heats Up Crypto’s Position And The Mirror Math XRP and Bitcoin did not match metals’ fireworks. Based on current figures, some commentators ran simple scenarios: if XRP matched silver’s percentage increase, its price would be several times higher than today; if Bitcoin mirrored gold’s surge, it would be far above current levels. Those calculations are described as purely illustrative. Reports say they are mathematical exercises rather than forecasts, since many factors — token supply, investor appetite, regulation, and liquidity — will determine real outcomes. Featured image from Pexels, chart from TradingView

The XRP price was caught in the latest crypto market-wide selloff, falling to an intraday low of $1.57 within the past 24 hours. The sudden drop brings into focus XRP’s higher-timeframe structure, which is teasing a break below the 33-month exponential moving average.  According to a technical assessment shared on X by crypto analyst Egrag Crypto, the recent drop below the 33-month exponential moving average does not automatically signal the end of XRP’s cycle, but XRP must close above an exact level to avoid a macro bearish confirmation. Related Reading: Ethereum Boost: Vitalik Buterin Sets Aside $45M In ETH For Privacy And Open Tech The 33 EMA Breakdown Signal At the time of writing, XRP is back to trading around $1.65, stabilizing after a volatile few hours that forced many traders to reassess the broader structure. However, according to technical analysis by Egrag Crypto, the most recent crash saw XRP breaking a bit below the 33 EMA on the monthly candlestick timeframe chart. Egrag based the recent price action around one critical condition: a confirmed monthly close below $1.60 and the 33 EMA. According to the analyst, such a close would mark a macro bearish confirmation based on historical structure, not sentiment or opinion.  The chart he shared highlights how XRP has respected the 33 EMA as a long-term trend reference across multiple cycles, with violations often preceding extended corrective phases. As shown in the chart below, the XRP price has been trading above the 33-EMA since early 2025, even during periods of corrections. However, XRP is now trading dangerously close to this EMA, and there is now a risk of a breakdown. XRP Price Chart. Source: @egragcrypto On X What This Means For XRP’s Price Structure There’s a risk that XRP can transition into a macro bear structure. At the same time, there’s enough reason to suggest an upside bounce for the cryptocurrency. A major point in Egrag’s analysis is historical performance that shows XRP’s strongest upside expansions did not require a clean bull-market environment. Therefore, there are two historical analogs of how XRP can play out from its current range around $1.60. The first is a repeat of the 2021-style move. This move, measured from similar structural conditions, would imply an upside expansion of roughly 340% with a price target around the $7 region. The second one is a repeat of the 2017 cycle. Comparison to the 2017 cycle projects a much larger structural expansion of about 1,600%, which would align with the $27 zone highlighted on the chart above. In both cases, the rallies originated from oversold conditions and compression ranges, not from a strong bullish macro confirmation like many would expect. Related Reading: Crypto Funds Bleed $1.80 Billion As Metals Rally Heats Up According to the analysis, a breakdown below $1.60 could still lead to panic selling and reinforce fear narratives of a macro bear market, yet those same conditions have previously been the zones where late sellers exit just before volatility expands upward. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView