Bitcoin’s image as a steady store of value is being tested. What once was talked about as a hedge against uncertainty now moves more like a high-upside, high-risk bet. Related Reading: Jim Cramer Suggests US Government Could Buy Bitcoin Near $60K Signals Of A Growth Asset According to Grayscale, recent trading patterns show Bitcoin tracking closely with shares of software companies rather than with gold or silver. That change in behavior has been noticeable since early 2024, when institutional flows and exchange-traded products pushed crypto into more mainstream hands. Reports say investors who chase growth — many drawn by the AI story — have been selling software names hard, and Bitcoin has followed some of that pressure. Institutional Links And Market Forces Reports note that deeper ties to traditional markets explain part of this shift. Large firms, ETF mechanics and growing institutional holdings mean movements in stock markets can spill into crypto. There has also been active selling from US-based accounts that left Bitcoin trading at a discount on some platforms. That selling happened after a string of big liquidations late in the year and again in recent weeks, which amplified losses for traders who used leverage. Where Price Stands Now Bitcoin is changing hands around $66,900, with clear resistance near $69,900 and support levels slipping under $66,600. The swings are sharp and intraday moves can be wide, reflecting a mood that is cautious and reactive. From its peak above $126,000 in October, the market has pulled back by roughly 50% in several waves, which shows how quickly sentiment can turn against even the most talked-about crypto. Gold, Geopolitics And Risk Appetite Reports point out that bullion has climbed to fresh highs while Bitcoin has failed to mirror those safe-haven flows. Rising geopolitical friction has driven some money into metals and away from riskier bets, including tech shares and crypto. Traders who expected Bitcoin to act like a fortress against turmoil have found that, for now, it behaves more like an asset whose value rises on hope and falls when fear returns. A return of fresh capital would likely be needed to steady prices. ETF inflows could help, and a renewed wave of retail buyers would too. Research suggests that retail interest is currently focused on AI stories and growth narratives, which leaves crypto out of favor for many individual investors. That concentration of attention matters: capital flows are what lift or sink these markets. Related Reading: After Predicting XRP’s Drop, Analyst Says The Bottom May Be In Bitcoin Tracks Tech, But Long-Term Value Still Intact Grayscale says Bitcoin’s recent moves mirror tech stocks, not gold, but its long-term potential as a store of value remains. Short-term swings reflect market integration and investor activity, while future performance will depend on capital flows and broader economic trends. Featured image from ETF Trends, chart from TradingView
In this week’s Crypto Long & Short Newsletter, Haider Rafique of OKX shares a firm study on the generational perspectives of crypto investing. Then, Sky defies 2026 downturn in Chart of the Week.
The pilot programs explore wholesale settlement between institutions and real-world use cases, along with stablecoin development and tokenized bank deposits.
Uniswap’s governance token jumped after the decentralized exchange’s creators announced an integration with BlackRock's tokenized fund.
It's shades of 2022, when any number of crypto platforms were forced to suspend withdrawals as prices crumbled.
The FCA has escalated enforcement against HTX, launching legal action over alleged illegal crypto promotions to UK consumers.
Bitcoin price could still reach $150,000 by year-end, but several things must happen for BTC price to find its technical footing and spark a new bull run.
Also: Citadel Securities backs LayerZero chain, MegaETH mainnet debut and ENS scraps L2 plans
The Uniswap price chart just printed a sharp 15% intraday rise, and this time it’s not just retail noise. Infact, Whale transaction counts have spiked aggressively and the timing is hard to ignore. UNI recently tapped $2.35, a level closely aligned with late-2020 support zones. Now, heavy capital is stepping in post BlackRock news. Is …
BlockFills clients can still trade & manage positions, but deposits and withdrawals remain paused with no reopening timeline disclosed.
"The human brain is better at taking the imaginative leap to understand the unknown ... We should enjoy it for a couple more years."
Crypto Insight UK director Will Taylor argued in a new video that XRP is “trading different” this cycle and said he sees a credible path for it to challenge Ethereum’s long-held No. 2 position, with an outside chance of even pressuring bitcoin if the right mix of narrative and market structure lands. The “XRP Curveball” Theory Taylor anchored his thesis to a comment he highlighted from Mark Yusko, a well-known bitcoin-focused investor, who warned of a potential “curveball” tied to XRP and a future where policymakers clamp down on private stablecoins. Yusko, in Taylor’s telling, speculated that a “CBDC version” could emerge where authorities effectively steer users away from assets like USDT and USDC, a framing Taylor said resonated with what parts of the XRP community have anticipated for years. Mark Yusko says he’s watching for a potential policy curveball, including a future CBDC framework that could restrict private stablecoins like USDT and USDC, while noting $XRP activity may be happening more behind the scenes. ???? https://t.co/ba4aqu2dLN pic.twitter.com/bpWBw7lGX2 — Xaif Crypto????????|???????? (@Xaif_Crypto) February 9, 2026 “Now, what have I been saying about XRP this cycle? I’ve said that it looks different,” Taylor told viewers. “I’ve said that I think it will challenge ETH for spot number two. And I also think that there’s a potential that it challenges Bitcoin for the number one spot this cycle. And I know that a lot of people don’t agree… but that’s actually what I think.” Related Reading: Glassnode: XRP Is Back In Its 2021-2022 Playbook As SOPR Drops Sub 1 Taylor was careful to frame the idea as a non-base-case scenario while emphasizing why he believes XRP is uniquely positioned if US policy and institutional incentives shift in its favor. He pointed to Ripple’s US footprint, its endurance through regulatory “trials and tribulations,” and what he characterized as proximity to political power in Washington. In his view, those factors could matter if the next phase of crypto adoption is shaped as much by compliance architecture as by ideology. He also cited comments from Ray Dalio, referenced via an interview Taylor said aired “yesterday,” where Dalio discussed a future of reduced transactional privacy and the risk of being “shut off” if politically disfavored, a scenario Taylor linked to broader CBDC discourse. Taylor emphasized that his point was not whether such an outcome is desirable, but that traders should position for what they think is most likely to happen, not what they want to happen. “If I could change the way that I thought the world was going to be, I would put my capital somewhere else and I’d make the world a different place,” Taylor said. “But I’m not born in a world that I get to choose what happens in the future. But I am born into a world where I get to see what I think is going to happen and place my bets accordingly. It’s just like trading. You don’t trade or place an investment on something you want to happen. You place it on something that you think is going to happen.” XRP Vs. ETH Vs. BTC On the market-structure side, Taylor focused on bitcoin dominance, arguing it is “really, really tight” on Bollinger Bands, a condition he reads as a volatility setup. He revisited a historical example where an 11% bitcoin pullback preceded what he described as a 490% XRP surge, and argued that, historically, drops in bitcoin dominance have tended to coincide with sharp XRP outperformance. Taylor’s core claim is that the compression in dominance has persisted for roughly six months and is now at levels he compared to an earlier era, “before ETH and ICOs”, when dominance dynamics looked structurally different. He allowed for the opposite outcome, where dominance squeezes higher and bitcoin “sucks the liquidity in,” but said he increasingly favors a downside dominance break that would mechanically strengthen the case for altcoin beta, with XRP as a candidate beneficiary if narrative catalysts arrive alongside the move. Related Reading: XRP Price To $1 Or $10? Analyst Warns Investors Of Possible Crash Taylor also leaned on Binance volume comparisons across three-day candles, arguing XRP’s recovery volume looked more aggressive than the preceding selloff, while he said sellers appeared more dominant in ETH and BTC over the same framing. He tied that relative read to XRP cross charts versus ETH and BTC, describing repeated attempts at range resistance and suggesting a “positive price action” trigger could accelerate XRP’s relative breakout. He flagged near-term calendar items, including yesterday’s Clarity Act meeting and the XRP Community Day today, while cautioning against assuming a reflexive pump. Still, Taylor’s broader point was about positioning into a regime shift he believes could arrive quickly, pointing to visible liquidity concentrated above spot levels on his charts, extending from roughly $1.50 up toward $4.30, with comparatively less liquidity stacked below. “I think people are going to be shocked when we start to reverse and we reverse quickly,” Taylor said, arguing that a fast upside move could force traders out of short-term positioning. He then mapped his most bullish path: bitcoin returning to new highs – he floated 150K and “180-ishk plus” as targets – while bitcoin dominance “nukes,” setting up what he called “crazy price action” for XRP if it captures share of that dominance unwind. At press time, XRP traded at $1.3594. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
At 8:30 a.m. Eastern, the U.S. labor market handed traders a breaking story with two timelines, one for today, one for last year. Nonfarm payrolls grew by 130,000 in January, unemployment held at 4.3%, and wages kept climbing. The details came straight from the BLS, the monthly snapshot that tells markets how hiring and paychecks […]
The post Bitcoin price is sliding today because the government admitted nearly 1 million jobs from last year never existed appeared first on CryptoSlate.
With so many other asset markets in rally mode, investors for the moment appear to have moved on from crypto.
At the opening of XRP Community Day 2026, Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, delivered a strong message to the global community, describing XRP as the “north star” and “heartbeat” of Ripple’s long-term strategy. A celebration of the XRP community Garlinghouse began his speech by welcoming XRP holders, developers, and partners from around the world, calling …
The LayerZero price doesn’t usually move quietly. This time, it detonated. A 38% intraday spike and over 75% in seven days. And suddenly, ZRO is the token everyone’s pretending they were watching all along. What lit the match? Institutional gravity. An announcement confirming a Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood’s advisory board addition hit the tape, …
Bitcoin volatility spiked on the back of surprisingly strong US nonfarm payrolls numbers, but traders retained $50,000 BTC price targets. Will a Federal Reserve interest rate decision lead to a bullish outcome?
Bitget CEO Gracy Chen says AI trading apps are like interns for now; soon they will be full time employees.
Moving away from overhyped GPU marketplaces and large AI model alternatives towards purpose-built, full-stack solutions is the goal.
Ethereum ETF investors are sitting on a far uglier entry point than their bitcoin counterparts, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart, with spot ETH funds now absorbing a drawdown that has left many buyers deep underwater. “Ethereum ETF holders are sitting in a worse position than their Bitcoin ETF brethren,” Seyffart wrote on X late Tuesday. “The current ETH price of $2,000 is way below their average cost basis of ETF holders at about ~$3,500. It’s a painful proposition. But it’s one that Eth ETF holders have experienced already.” Seyffart added that the most recent ETH ETF trough pushed the drawdown “beyond 60%,” roughly matching the percentage decline ETH saw at its April 2025 low, framing the move as severe but not unprecedented for ether’s investor base. Related Reading: Ethereum Holders Shift To Self-Custody As Market Consolidates Near $2K Even so, he argued the investor response has been more stoic than the price action implies. “Still, the vast majority of buyers have stayed put,” he wrote, pointing to net inflows across the ETH ETF complex falling from roughly $15 billion to below $12 billion — a materially larger deterioration than bitcoin ETFs “on a relative basis,” but, in his words, “still fairly decent diamond hands in grand scheme (for now).” Fresh flow data suggests the bleeding has slowed, but not flipped decisively. SoSoValue data shows US spot ether ETFs took in about $13.82 million in net inflows on Feb. 10. That followed a week of net redemptions totaling roughly $166 million, extending a multi-week outflow streak. On a monthly basis, SoSoValue figures peg last month’s net flow at about $350 million in outflows. Cumulatively, total net assets are at $11.76 billion as of Feb.10. Goldman Sachs Is Bullish On Ethereum Against that backdrop, Goldman Sachs’ latest 13F disclosure added a different kind of signal: traditional finance’s exposure is increasingly visible, and not confined to bitcoin. On Tuesday, Goldman disclosed about $2.36 billion in crypto-related positions, including roughly $1.06 billion tied to spot bitcoin ETFs and about $1.0 billion to spot ether ETFs, alongside smaller exposures of about $153 million in XRP and $108 million in Solana — a roughly 0.33% allocation in the context of its broader holdings. Related Reading: Can Ethereum Price Still Hit $7,600 In 2026? Here Are The Odds The reactions on X leaned into the optics. Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao framed the filing as a positioning gap between crypto natives and banks: “Crypto is probably the only place you had an earlier start than the banks. But if you sold your crypto last quarter, while the banks are buying, then…” MoonRock Capital founder Simon Dedic focused on the ETH sizing itself: “Very interesting to see them holding almost as much ETH as Bitcoin. For a conservative investment bank that typically sticks to standard portfolio structures like market cap weighting, this speaks volumes on how they’re significantly more bullish on Ethereum than Bitcoin, which would normally be 4–6x larger in such portfolios. This is the institutional supercycle, and ETH is clearly the institutional darling.” At press time, ETH traded at $1,949. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
BlackRock is bringing its tokenized Treasury fund BUIDL to Uniswap through Securitize, marking its first direct DeFi trading integration.
BlackRock will make shares of its $2.2 billion tokenized U.S. Treasury fund tradable on the decentralized exchange Uniswap.
JPMorgan and Compass Point were among the sell-side teams trimming price targets on HOOD.
The EU plans to ban crypto transactions with Russia by shutting down all related channels, but analysts question whether the measure is fully enforceable.
Bank of America Securities expects the Bank of Japan (BoJ) to raise its policy rate from 0.75% to 1.0% at its April 27-28 meeting. Markets already price roughly 80% odds of that outcome, according to swap data cited in recent BoJ meeting minutes. The 25-basis-point move itself sounds modest, but the debate it has sparked […]
The post Odds Bank of Japan raises rates hits 80% with Bitcoin on the sideline – one hidden signal decides everything appeared first on CryptoSlate.
February 11, 2026 15:17:25 UTC Garlinghouse: OCC Banking Charter Strengthens RLUSD Compliance and Protection Brad Garlinghouse said the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) banking charter provides a stronger regulatory foundation for RLUSD, enabling more robust compliance standards and added bankruptcy protections. He said that Ripple’s strategy prioritizes becoming one of the most …
Bitcoin dropped to about $60,000 on February 5, falling more than 50% from its October highs. A new market commentary from Grayscale suggests the crash wasn’t caused by anything specific to crypto. Instead, it followed the same pattern as a broader sell-off in high-growth tech stocks. Grayscale’s data shows Bitcoin has been closely tracking U.S. …
Danske Bank said it is opening access to Bitcoin and Ether ETPs for self-directed clients after years of caution on crypto, citing rising customer demand and clearer EU rules.
Hyperliquid Strategies reported a $317.9 million net loss for the six months ended Dec. 31, driven by HYPE token declines.
Aptos (APT) dropped 4.1% and Binance Coin (BNB) fell 3.7%, leading the index lower.