XRP plunges 17% in worst daily loss since 2025 but ETFs see $24M in weekly inflows and $1.2B total since launch in November.

The post XRP plunges 17% in sharpest one-day drop since 2025 as token crashes below $1.25 appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Strategy faces $7.5B paper loss as Bitcoin nears $65K while the stock tumbles 14% ahead of earnings with analysts expecting a Q4 loss.

The post Strategy faces $7.5B unrealized loss as Bitcoin sinks near $65K ahead of Q4 earnings appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Increased Bitcoin supply underwater heightens market volatility and investor anxiety, potentially leading to further financial instability.

The post Bitcoin supply underwater hits 2-year high as market stress grows appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

The acquisition enhances Aether's AI capabilities, potentially transforming investor strategies and boosting market intelligence efficiency.

The post Aether Holdings buys PublicView.ai to expand AI-driven equity research appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

BitMine faces $8B paper loss as Ethereum falls below $2,000 while the stock drops 88% from its peak amid mounting investor pressure.

The post BitMine’s ETH stack plunges into $8B loss as Ethereum drops below $2K appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Bitcoin Magazine

Strategy ($MSTR) Falls 15% as Investors Brace for Earnings Call

Shares of Strategy dropped sharply Thursday, tumbling more than 15 % in heavy trading as markets reacted to deepening weakness in Bitcoin and ahead of the company’s quarterly earnings report scheduled after the market close. 

Analysts are pricing in a sizable post-earnings move for Strategy, with options markets implying a potential swing of roughly ±8.3% to 8.7% following the report. 

The company’s Q4 2025 earnings call is set for later today at 5 p.m. ET, with a livestream available on Bitcoin Magazine’s YouTube channel.

It’s been a rough week for Strategy, tumbling from the $150 range to sub $110 per share.

The decline marked one of the largest single‑day moves for Bitcoin‑linked equity in recent months and reflected intensifying concerns among institutional and retail investors.

The slide came as Bitcoin’s price plunged toward new year-long lows, extending a broader crypto downturn that has erased significant gains since late 2024. 

Strategy’s dip corresponds with Bitcoin’s price crash

The Bitcoin sell‑off has imposed marked unrealized losses on Strategy’s balance sheet, where crypto holdings account for the vast majority of the company’s assets.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading near $66,000. 

Investors and traders have been vocal on the internet this week about heightened uncertainty surrounding Strategy’s earnings call, given that the company’s financial results will directly reflect Bitcoin’s price volatility under fair value accounting rules. 

Market watchers noted that the fair‑value marking of the company’s holdings could translate swings in BTC prices into sizeable swings in reported earnings for the quarter ending December 31, 2025.

The tension in MSTR’s trading comes after a series of negative moves in BTC and related assets. 

Bitcoin Magazine reported earlier this week that company shares had already sunk over 20 % in just five trading days as Bitcoin’s price headed toward $72,000 and broader crypto markets showed sustained weakness.

Now, bitcoin is fighting for the $65,000 level. Despite price dips, Chairman Michael Saylor has made it clear that Strategy won’t be selling its Bitcoin — and in fact is doubling down on purchases even as the market dips, signaling his intent to keep accumulating more.

In his messaging, he’s basically said he’s comfortable with holding and adding even on weakness, not cashing out when prices fall. 

This post Strategy ($MSTR) Falls 15% as Investors Brace for Earnings Call first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

JPMorgan: Bitcoin is Now a More Attractive Investment Than Gold Long Term

Bitcoin’s long-term investment case relative to gold has strengthened, according to JPMorgan, even as the cryptocurrency suffers one of the sharpest market pullbacks in its history.

In a new note, JPMorgan analysts reportedly said Bitcoin’s risk-adjusted profile versus gold has improved after gold’s strong outperformance over the past year and a notable rise in volatility for the traditional safe-haven asset.

The divergence between the two assets has been stark. Since October 2025, gold has climbed roughly a third, while BTC has fallen nearly 50% from its peak above $126,000. 

The downturn marks four consecutive months of declines — a stretch not seen since before the pandemic. Gold rose more than 60% in 2025, driven by central bank buying and renewed safe-haven demand, while BTC struggled to maintain momentum and underperformed many risk assets.

Still, JPMorgan global markets strategist Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou argued that gold’s rally has come with a key shift: rising volatility. 

That has narrowed the perceived risk gap between the metal and BTC.

The bank highlighted that Bitcoin’s volatility relative to gold has fallen to a record low, with the bitcoin-to-gold volatility ratio drifting toward 1.5. 

Panigirtzoglou suggested that, on a volatility-adjusted basis, Bitcoin’s market capitalization would need to rise dramatically — theoretically implying a price near $266,000 — to match private sector investment levels in gold.

While he acknowledged such targets are unrealistic in the near term, the comparison underscores what JPMorgan views as significant upside potential over the long run once negative sentiment fades.

Bitcoin is currently crashing

The note comes as Bitcoin’s price crashed sharply Thursday, dipping to $65,000 in volatile trading — marking what appears to be the largest absolute dollar drawdown on record. 

From its October highs, BTC has retraced roughly $62,000, eclipsing prior nominal declines seen in 2018 and 2022, according to Bitcoin Magazine Pro data.

JPMorgan also pointed out that BTC is now trading well below its estimated production cost of $87,000 — historically seen as a soft floor.

Analysts noted that sustained prices under production cost could force inefficient miners out, eventually lowering the network’s marginal cost base.

Despite the downturn, JPMorgan said liquidation activity has remained modest compared with past crashes, though U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs continue to see persistent outflows.

U.S. spot BTC ETFs saw more than $3 billion exit last month, following around $2 billion in December and $7 billion in November, the report added.

At the time of writing, BTC is trading near $66,000.

This post JPMorgan: Bitcoin is Now a More Attractive Investment Than Gold Long Term first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

The v2 Transport: Bitcoin P2P Traffic Goes Dark

For nearly 15 years, all communication between nodes on the Bitcoin network was transmitted completely in the clear, without any encryption. That changed in 2024 with the adoption of BIP 324, which introduced the “v2” transport protocol for communication between nodes. This new protocol features opportunistic encryption, making the traffic unreadable to passive adversaries capable of monitoring messages between nodes. Since adding support for it in Bitcoin Core 26.0, and enabling it by default in 27.0, it is now used for the majority of global Bitcoin P2P traffic.

Taking a step back, a Bitcoin node’s primary function is exchanging pieces of information that are fundamentally public: blocks in the blockchain, transactions in the mempool, and IP addresses of other Bitcoin nodes. Because this is not secret information, it is not immediately obvious why encrypting it along the way would be beneficial. But on closer inspection, there is plenty of metadata associated with Bitcoin traffic that is worth protecting. If a large-scale adversary can see which transaction is relayed when and by which IP address, they can infer which node was the likely originator – and thus creator – of a transaction. In addition to that, seeing the connections between nodes themselves may reveal who certain nodes belong to, allowing nodes of specific companies or miners to be targeted for attacks. And for some users running nodes in oppressive regimes, it may be undesirable to reveal they are running a Bitcoin node at all.

In the P2P protocol as designed by Satoshi, nodes connect to each other, and over those connections send messages like inv (“I have new blocks/transactions for you”), getdata (“give me that block/transaction”), addr (“here is an IP address of another node”), and many others. The set of messages and features they support has changed significantly over time, including support for early SPV clients with BIP 37, compact block relay with BIP 152, support for Tor v3 addresses with BIP 155, and dozens of others. But the way those messages are encoded into bytes that are sent over the wire – what we call the transport protocol – had essentially never changed since 2009. The only exception to this was the introduction of checksums to the protocol in May 2010. BIP 324 was the first change of this nature since then.

Note that despite being a rather fundamental change to what can be described as part of the “Bitcoin protocol”, it is entirely optional. It is not a consensus change, and did not need any coordination or activation mechanism. It is simply used between individual nodes that support it, but when a BIP 324 supporting node talks to another one that does not, they fall back to speaking the old (“v1”) transport protocol. This is how, without much fanfare not two years after the release of client software that enables it by default, the majority of communication between Bitcoin nodes wound up using the encrypted v2 transport protocol.

The idea of encrypting Bitcoin traffic was not new. Back in 2016, Bitcoin Core developer Jonas Schnelli proposed BIP 151, which would allow upgrading connections to switch them to an encrypted mode. The proposal did not make it far, and since that approach couldn’t hide the initial handshake between two nodes from prying eyes, BIP 324 was proposed in 2019 to instead revamp the transport protocol entirely. This more modern approach instead introduced an entirely new class of connections that are encrypted from the start. Progress on it accelerated when it was picked up by Dhruv Mehta in 2021, and together with Tim Ruffing and myself, turned into a full proposal that included a few new features like a fully pseudorandom bytestream, affordances for traffic shaping, and optional extensions. We announced it on the bitcoin-dev mailing list in 2022, and after receiving several comments, implemented it over the course of 2022 and 2023. The full feature was merged in Bitcoin Core in 2023. After further testing, it was enabled by default for all connections (with supporting peers) in 2024.

The fully pseudorandom bytestream feature offered by the new protocol means it exhibits no recognizable patterns in the bytes sent over the wire. For example TLS, used for communication with secure websites (“https://” URLs), encrypts the contents of websites, but not the fact that TLS is being used, or (until 2020 with Encrypted Client Hello, “ECH”) which hostname the site was being requested from. The v1 transport used before BIP 324 sent a very recognizable fixed first 16 bytes over every connection, making it easy for censoring firewalls to block any connection with that pattern. In contrast, the v2 transport has no such pattern at all; every byte is uniformly random from the perspective of a third party, and thus completely unpredictable. Any entity that intends to block Bitcoin traffic using it would need to block anything that looks random, which might be politically more difficult than just narrowly blocking Bitcoin-like traffic. The hardest part of making the entire protocol pseudorandom was the fact that during the handshake – before encryption is set up – the nodes need to exchange public keys, and public keys are not just random bytes. Only thanks to a fairly modern cryptographic technique called Elligator (2013), and specifically a variant called ElligatorSwift (2022) that allows encoding elliptic curve public keys in random-looking bytes, was it possible to avoid even this pattern.

It is worth pointing out that due to the public nature of the Bitcoin network, there are significant limitations to the privacy protections that an encrypted transport layer between nodes can offer. Bitcoin nodes do not place trust in their peers, and thus do not really care who they are talking to. Bitcoin nodes do not have known public keys, which is why the encryption offered by the v2 transport is opportunistic and non-authenticated; both sides just make up a new temporary key for each connection. This means it is possible for active adversaries (e.g., your ISP) to perform a man-in-the-middle attack: talk v2 to both sides of the connection, but decrypt and re-encrypt all communication flowing between them, still allowing spying, and possibly tampering or censoring while doing so. However, the point is that this is significantly more expensive to do at scale, compared to simply inspecting unencrypted individual messages like is possible in the v1 transport. And of course, since most Bitcoin connections are arbitrarily made to random untrusted nodes, an adversary who wants to spy at scale on other nodes always has the option of just spinning up a large amount of nodes themselves, and getting a large portion of the network to connect to them. Like man-in-the-middle attacks, this is more expensive to do at scale than simply inspecting v1 packets.

BIP 324 is thus best seen not as a privacy improvement in and of itself, but as part of a larger effort of raising costs for large-scale surveillance of the Bitcoin network, without relying on alternate networks like Tor or I2P, which have their own trade-offs like increased latency and denial-of-service risk that would not be acceptable for all nodes on the network. BIP 324 also offers a number of features that are as of yet unimplemented, like traffic shaping to avoid revealing information about transactions being relayed just through observing the sizes of encrypted packets. Hopefully, those will be taken advantage of further in the coming years.

Don’t miss your chance to own The Core Issue — featuring articles written by many Core Developers explaining the projects they work on themselves!

This piece is the Letter from the Editor featured in the latest Print edition of Bitcoin Magazine, The Core Issue. We’re sharing it here as an early look at the ideas explored throughout the full issue.

This post The v2 Transport: Bitcoin P2P Traffic Goes Dark first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Pieter Wuille.

Bitcoin Magazine

Senator Lummis to Work With Treasury on Bitcoin Tax Guidance, Hints At Potential Exemption 

Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) signaled that she would be open to meet with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s office to explore potential clarity on Bitcoin taxation, including a de minimis exemption for small transactions and guidance on calculating capital gains.

Lummis was one of the lawmakers who pressed Bessent today on digital assets and clear U.S. regulation. 

Bessent was speaking to the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee about the Financial Stability Oversight Council’s annual report — essentially a high‑profile Senate hearing on U.S. financial stability where he is being questioned on economic policy and oversight issues.

The hearings have been semi-heated at times, with Senator Mark Warner chiming in, saying that “I feel like I’m in crypto hell.” 

Senator Lummis’ crypto-focused questioning

Lummis began her time in the session by asking whether China is leveraging digital assets and blockchain to challenge American financial leadership. 

Bessent said it is unclear, noting that while there are rumors of Chinese digital assets potentially backed by gold or other mechanisms, the U.S. Treasury has not observed such instruments. 

He acknowledged China’s active exploration of digital asset frameworks, particularly through Hong Kong’s financial sandbox and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

The conversation quickly turned to U.S. regulation. Lummis emphasized the need for clear rules of the road, particularly legislation governing stablecoins and market structure. 

“It’s impossible to proceed without it,” Bessent said.

He expressed support for the proposed Clarity Act, which seeks to provide regulatory clarity for digital assets, urging industry participants who oppose regulation to consider relocating to countries with looser oversight.

“We have to get this Clarity Act across the finish line,” Bessent said. “Any market participants who don’t support it should move to El Salvador.”

Both officials highlighted the benefits of embedding the digital asset industry within the U.S. economy. 

Bessent stressed that the goal is a balance between fostering innovation and maintaining “safe, sound, and smart practices” under U.S. government oversight. He noted ongoing efforts to engage community and small banks in the digital asset ecosystem, acknowledging concerns that new legislation could trigger deposit outflows. 

“Deposit volatility is very undesirable because it is the stability of those deposits that allows them to lend into their communities,” Bessent said.

Will there be a Bitcoin tax exemption? 

Lummis also raised questions about digital asset taxation, particularly the treatment of small transactions — known as de minimis — and the calculation of capital gains for users with mixed portfolios of Bitcoin purchased at different prices over time. 

Bessent acknowledged the complexity of the issue and offered to have the Treasury’s Office of Tax Policy work with Lummis’ team to provide guidance. Nothing definitive was said on a bitcoin tax exemption, but the idea was floated between the two lawmakers.

Yesterday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told lawmakers that the U.S. government has no authority to bail out bitcoin or direct banks to hold crypto. 

During testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, Bessent emphasized that taxpayer funds cannot be deployed into BTC and that the government’s only exposure comes from law enforcement seizures. 

He noted that retained bitcoin has appreciated significantly, citing $500 million in seized BTC growing to over $15 billion, but stressed this does not involve active investment. 

Bessent also confirmed that the U.S. will stop selling seized bitcoin, adding it to the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve in line with Executive Order 14233.

This post Senator Lummis to Work With Treasury on Bitcoin Tax Guidance, Hints At Potential Exemption  first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Summer of Bitcoin 2026 Opens Applications for University Students Worldwide

Summer of Bitcoin (SoB), a global, remote program designed to train university students as contributors to Bitcoin open-source projects, has opened applications for its 2026 cohort. 

The program provides mentorship, real-world development experience, and a stipend paid in Bitcoin. 

Applications will remain open until February 15, 2026.

Summer of Bitcoin offers students a structured environment to contribute directly to Bitcoin and related open-source projects. 

Participants work with experienced mentors and project maintainers, develop technical and collaboration skills, and create verifiable proof of work in public repositories. 

Selected students receive a stipend of approximately $6,600, paid in BTC, with the exact amount depending on their location, the program shared with Bitcoin Magazine.

“Bitcoin’s long-term resilience depends on the health of its open-source contributor pipeline,” said Adi Shankara, Program Lead at Summer of Bitcoin. “Summer of Bitcoin 2026 is designed to accelerate real open-source adoption by turning high-potential students into capable, durable contributors.”

The 2026 program emphasizes the ability to validate, reason, and ship software, reflecting changes in AI-assisted software development. 

Shankara said candidates will be assessed on programming skills, security thinking, and understanding of Bitcoin’s technical foundations, along with responsible use of AI tools.

Bitcoin Developer or Designer Track

Applicants can choose between two tracks. The Developer Track is for students who want to contribute code to Bitcoin projects, including protocol-adjacent tooling and infrastructure. 

The Designer Track is for students focused on improving usability, product experience, and interface design for Bitcoin applications. Candidate selection prioritizes verifiable proof of work, such as meaningful open-source contributions, technical workshops, or shipped tools with users.

Summer of Bitcoin alumni have pursued roles across the Bitcoin industry and open-source ecosystem. 

About 35% of graduates now work in the industry, either at Bitcoin companies or as open-source contributors funded through grants, totaling roughly 69 alumni. 

Many alumni return as mentors, guiding new students on projects including Alby, bcoin, Galoy, libsecp256k1, Bitcoin Core, Zeus, Bitcoin Design, Fedimint, and Floresta.

Alumni also engage in education and advocacy, supporting student and developer networks such as Vinteum in Brazil and Bitshala in India. 

The program provides students a credible entry point into Bitcoin, producing graduates who carry technical knowledge and experience into their careers while often promoting Bitcoin within their universities and communities.

This post Summer of Bitcoin 2026 Opens Applications for University Students Worldwide first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP have all retreated to deep cycle lows, dragging the broader crypto market back to valuation levels not seen since late 2024, according to CryptoSlate's data.

While price action across the board appears uniformly grim, with BTC heading below $70,000 and XRP recently trading around $1.35, sentiment toward the Ripple-linked token is noticeably less pessimistic than that surrounding the two largest cryptocurrencies.

That relative optimism is not derived from immediate spot price performance, as XRP has reached its lowest price since November 2024, but rather from a cluster of near-term, adjacent ecosystems catalysts that traders can trade around.

Related Reading

Traders panic sell XRP even though a rare “buy signal” reveals Wall Street is buying up the distressed supply

As XRP exchanges reach new liquidity levels, on-chain undervaluation and institutional appetite could signal recovery.

Jan 26, 2026 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

With BTC and ETH behaving like high-beta macro assets tied to liquidity conditions, XRP is increasingly trading on idiosyncratic optionality linked to market structure upgrades and institutional access.

Institutional flows diverge as ETFs reprice risk

The most direct measure of this bifurcated market optimism is found in capital allocation, specifically through regulated exchange-traded funds.

Bitcoin has been losing institutional demand since early 2026 as macroeconomic stress intensifies.

Data from SoSo Value show that US spot BTC ETFs have recorded three consecutive months of outflows, with more than $1.6 billion in January, following outflows of around $5 billion in late December.

Notably, this streak has continued into this month, with the 12 products already recording outflows of around $255 million.

These outflows highlight a structural vulnerability for Bitcoin during liquidity crunches. As the premier macro hedge inside portfolios, it is often the first asset large allocators trim when tightening conditions force a retreat to cash.

Notably, the same outflow streaks are evident in Ethereum-focused products in the market. The ETF funds have seen net outflows of more than $2.4 billion since last November.

In sharp contrast, XRP is displaying the opposite pattern within the same investment vehicles.

XRP ETFs, which launched in November, have attracted approximately $1.3 billion in inflows and have recorded less than five days of net outflows since their debut.

During that same period, Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs experienced net selling.

This suggests that while Bitcoin is treated as a source of liquidity, XRP is behaving like an incremental allocation, with investors adding exposure precisely because the asset has become easier to buy, hold, and hedge through familiar, regulated wrappers.

Related Reading

XRP ETFs are devouring supply at a rate that exposes a glaring $1 billion institutional secret

XRP's price surge to $2.37 is fueled by massive investment inflows into spot ETFs, marking a shift in capital allocation patterns.

Jan 7, 2026 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

Ripple's ecosystem upgrades target institutional DeFi

Beyond flow dynamics, the optimism surrounding XRP is anchored in tangible infrastructure developments that aim to bridge traditional finance and on-chain liquidity.

On Feb. 4, Ripple announced that Ripple Prime now supports Hyperliquid, positioning the integration as a way for institutional clients to access on-chain derivatives liquidity through a prime-broker-style interface.

The release emphasizes consolidated access alongside margin and risk management, which are features that make decentralized finance venues legible to institutions accustomed to traditional prime workflows.

While this integration does not automatically create spot demand for the token, it reinforces a broader market perception that Ripple is aligning its institutional stack with on-chain venues just as market structure conversations push activity toward compliance-friendly rails.

This development coincides with the activation of “Permissioned Domains” on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) mainnet.

RippleXDev confirmed that these domains are now live, marking a major milestone for the network.

XRPL’s documentation defines Permissioned Domains as controlled environments that can restrict access to features such as Permissioned Decentralized Exchanges through credentialing.

This represents a direct attempt to reconcile on-chain trading with real-world compliance requirements, effectively creating a “KYC layer” that allows regulated entities to participate on-chain without assuming blind counterparty risk.

Derivatives markets signal leverage washout and defensive positioning

The internal mechanics of the derivatives market further explain why sentiment for Bitcoin and ETH remains “extremely bearish” while XRP traders position for upside.

For Ethereum, on-chain data reveals a significant shift in market sentiment.

The Ethereum Coinbase Premium Index (a 30-day moving average) has plunged to its lowest level since July 2022, according to CryptoQuant data.

This index measures the price gap between the ETH/USD pair on Coinbase Pro, often a proxy for US institutional demand, and the ETH/USDT pair on Binance.

Related Reading

Bitcoin ready to record fourth straight red month and the $81,000 floor is suddenly everything

Bitcoin is below its 2 year moving average again, and traders fear this signal could trigger a brutal capitulation.

Jan 30, 2026 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

A deeply negative premium indicates that selling pressure is coming primarily from U.S. entities aggressively de-risking their positions.

Simultaneously, the market has seen a massive BTC leverage flush. CoinGlass data show Bitcoin investors have been liquidated for more than $3 billion in recent days amid the price slump.

Conversely, XRP derivatives hint at a cleaner market structure and asymmetric expectations. Data from CryptoQuant show that Open Interest for XRP on Binance has dropped significantly to $405.9 million, marking the lowest level since November 2024.

This plunge in Open Interest acts as a market reset, indicating that speculative froth has evaporated, which often serves as a prerequisite for a sustainable trend reversal.

Furthermore, XRP options open interest is heavily skewed to calls, with calls representing 86.87% and puts 13.13%. This skew suggests that while spot prices remain weak, traders are using options to seek upside exposure without catching a falling knife in the spot market.

Regulatory clarity and future market structure

Meanwhile, the structural optimism for XRP is also buoyed by a repricing of regulatory risk, a factor that previously defined the asset’s discount.

In August 2025, the SEC announced a joint stipulation dismissing appeals and resolving the civil enforcement action against Ripple, noting that the district court’s judgment would remain in effect.

This resolution has allowed the narrative surrounding Ripple and XRP to shift from litigation to financial plumbing.

Since then, the products have gained access to the CME Group, and Ripple has embarked on an acquisition spree to further embed its products within the traditional financial system.

Additionally, the rollout of Ripple’s stablecoin, RLUSD, which is one of the fastest-growing stablecoins in the market, with a supply of over $1.4 billion, also supports the narrative of XRP serving as a settlement rail.

Moreover, the upcoming Permissioned DEX features on the XRPL are expected to provide the regulatory certainty needed for institutional adoption.

Related Reading

How Wall Street's Ripple bet gives XRP a big institutional role

Ripple attracts traditional finance heavyweights, marking XRP's evolution into a critical component of digital finance infrastructure.

Nov 6, 2025 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

What does the future hold for XRP?

Market analysts are now modeling three specific scenarios for how these divergent narratives will resolve over the coming months.

In the base case, risk assets stabilize, and XRP maintains a relative “catalyst premium” over the broader market.

Early adoption of XRPL's permissioned domains and DEX could help bridge liquidity between open and permissioned venues, sustaining the narrative even without a massive volume spike.

The bull case envisions the permissioned stack becoming the primary regulated on-chain venue for a subset of institutions, such as those dealing in tokenized real-world assets or cross-border settlement flows.

If Ripple Prime’s connectivity supports this migration, XRP could experience a market-structure re-rating where regulated on-chain order books command a higher valuation multiple than standard altcoin beta.

However, a bear case remains if macro conditions remain tight and ETF outflows continue to punish the complex. If permissioned infrastructure ships but adoption lags, liquidity could fragment, turning “compliance DeFi” into a second-half 2026 story rather than a first-quarter catalyst.

For now, the data indicates a clear split. Bitcoin and Ethereum are struggling under the weight of macro liquidity and defensive hedging, while XRP is being repriced by the possibility that the next phase of crypto market structure will be defined by permissioned, credentialed, and institution-ready rails.

The post XRP defiant amid Bitcoin collapse as a massive institutional migration quietly shifts billions into Ripple appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin is plummeting toward a dangerous $56,100 price floor as massive ETF outflows signal a demand crisis

At some point every cycle has the same moment, the one where the story stops being about charts and starts being about cash.

You can see it in the way traders talk, the jokes dry up, the group chats turn into screenshots of liquidation ladders, and everyone suddenly cares about the same thing, collateral, how much is left, how fast it can move, and what has to be sold to keep everything else alive.

This week that moment arrived across two markets that almost never share the same headline, Bitcoin and silver.

Since last week, Bitcoin has dropped by about 24%, from about $90,076 to as low as $66,700. Silver has fallen even harder, down around 34% over the same window. Gold is down over 6%. US equity futures are lower, down about 2%. The dollar has pushed higher, up about 2% on DXY. Oil has ticked up about 1.6%.

That mix matters, because it reads like stress, not rotation. When the dollar is rising, and the biggest risk assets are falling, the instinctive trade is to get smaller, raise cash, reduce leverage, and survive the next headline.

And headlines have been doing plenty of work.

Related Reading

Global markets crash as everything including Bitcoin sells off at once erasing trillions

Over $800 million in long positions were wiped out in minutes as the US open turned into a brutal liquidity bloodbath for unsuspecting traders.

Jan 29, 2026 · Liam 'Akiba' Wright

Silver’s crash had a trigger, leverage got more expensive

Silver moved like a trapdoor.

The immediate catalyst was mechanical. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange  margin requirements for precious metals, asking traders to put up more cash to hold positions, after a period of extreme volatility.

Silver futures fell sharply after the move, with gold sliding too, as the new rules squeezed leveraged players who had ridden the rally.

The details show why it hit so hard. CME Clearing lifted COMEX silver’s margin in late December, first raising the initial requirement from $20,000 to $25,000, then hiking it again to $32,500 just days later.

From there, the squeeze intensified: by late January, CME shifted to steeper percentage-based settings, and in early February, it raised the rate again (from 11% to 15%), forcing traders to post substantially more collateral per contract. The cash required now scales higher as prices rise, a compounding squeeze that forces leveraged longs to cut risk quickly when the market turns.

For anyone running high leverage, that’s effectively an abrupt reduction in position size, fuel for a fast, disorderly unwind when prices wobble.

Margin hikes force a decision. Add cash, cut size, or close the position. When enough people get the same message at the same time, selling becomes the only language the market understands.

Silver did not fall because the world suddenly stopped needing silver. It fell because the price had become a leveraged bet, and the cost of that bet just went up.

That is what makes this week feel bigger than a normal crypto drawdown. The stress is showing up in places that are supposed to be boring.

Related Reading

“Major US bank blows up from Silver trade” headlines hide the $675M margin shock currently hitting traders

That viral US Bank collapse rumor obscures a real silver trigger that is actively wiping out leveraged traders.

Dec 29, 2025 · Liam 'Akiba' Wright

Bitcoin is falling through floors, one level at a time

Bitcoin’s drop has been violent, yet it has been structured.

The chart since Jan 28 looks like a staircase lower, with brief pauses, then another break, then another fast flush. From the baseline, Bitcoin spent the first day slipping under the high $80,000s, then it lost the low $80,000s, then it broke into the $70,000s, and now it is fighting to hold the high $60,000s.

The key levels in my two-year channel map have been doing their job, and that is the problem for bulls.

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Bitcoin channel predictions align with market movements over 6 months

Analyzing Bitcoin's support at $49k and resistance at $61k using simple trading channels.

Aug 20, 2024 · Liam 'Akiba' Wright

On the 30-minute timeframe below:

• The first meaningful break came when Bitcoin lost the $83,500 region.
• The next breakdown was the $77,000 area, where the market tried to balance, then failed.
• The moment that changed the tone was $73,600, the 2024 high, the level that has been a memory anchor for months.

That $73,600 line is the one my longer-term chart below has been screaming about. Bitcoin is supposed to treat former highs as support in a strong trend. When it loses them, the market starts looking for the next shelf, and the next one down sits around $56,100, a level that was tested multiple times in 2024. Below that, we start looking to the $40,000s.

With price hovering around $70,000, the path to $56,100 is a risk map rather than a prdiction. It is roughly a 20% drop away, and it becomes more likely when the market is forced to sell instead of choosing to sell.

ETF flows helped build the rally, and they are now part of the sell pressure

The cleanest way to understand this Bitcoin move is to stop arguing about narratives and start watching the plumbing.

Spot Bitcoin ETF flows have been the most important marginal signal since these products went live. When flows are consistently positive, dips get bought faster. When flows flip and stay negative, the market loses its cushion.

Data from Farside shows the late January and early February tape has been defined by heavy outflows and failed rebounds.

In the days around the current breakdown:

• * Jan 29, net spot Bitcoin ETF flow was about -$817.8 million.
• Jan 30, net flow was about -$509.7 million.
• Feb 2, the market finally saw relief, about +$561.8 million in net inflows.
• Feb 3, the bid faded again, about -$272.0 million.
• Feb 4, the selling returned hard, about -$544.9 million.

That is a market that cannot keep good news. One strong inflow day lands, the bounce shows up, then it gets swallowed by the next wave of supply.

This does not mean ETFs are the only driver of price, yet they are the best daily read on whether there is real demand stepping in through the biggest, most regulated on ramp in the world.

The current pattern says demand is hesitant and supply is comfortable.

The October to February story is one long mood swing

If you want the longer arc, go back to October 2025, because it reads like the beginning of a finale.

In early October, the ETF bid was still showing real power. Farside data shows net inflows of roughly:

• +$675.8 million on Oct 1
• +$627.2 million on Oct 2
• +$985.1 million on Oct 3
• +$1.205 billion on Oct 6

That is the kind of flow that makes people feel smart for buying any dip, because the dips keep disappearing.

Then, later in October, the mood changed. On Oct 16, net flow flipped to about -$530 million. Farside shows more outflows followed, with other ugly days on Oct 29 and Oct 30 at around $-470 million and -$488.4 million, respectively.

November delivered the kind of outflow number that feels like a warning siren. Nov 20 alone showed around -$903.2 million in net outflows.

January was whiplash. Inflows returned, with Jan 5 showing around +$697 million. Then the selling came back, Jan 6 at about -$243 million, Jan 7 at about -$486 million, Jan 29 at about -$817 million.

The point is not to obsess over one day, the point is the character of the tape. When flows are large and choppy, the market becomes fragile, because positioning becomes fragile.

Since Jan 15, there have been only two days on which flows have been net positive.

Fragile positioning breaks on macro pressure.

Macro pressure is rising again, and inflation is the reason the market feels trapped

Bitcoin bulls can handle bad headlines when liquidity is expanding. They struggle when the central bank is sending a different message, even quietly.

On Jan 28, 2026, the Federal Reserve’s implementation note set the federal funds target range at 3.5% to 3.75%.

A 3 handle suggests cuts have already happened compared to the peak, yet the important part is the tone that sits behind it, inflation still matters, volatility still matters, and policy does not pivot just because markets want it to.

The inflation warning is getting louder, and it is coming from serious places.

An analysis from PIIE argues the risk of higher inflation in 2026 is being underpriced, pointing to tariffs, fiscal dynamics, labor market tightness, and shifting expectations as potential drivers.

Tariffs matter here, because they are the kind of policy that can hit growth and prices at the same time, and markets hate that combination.

The Fed itself has laid out the pathway in research. A note from FEDS shows higher trade costs, including tariffs and disruptions, can push CPI inflation higher, with measurable effects.

The political layer is messy, and the economic layer is slow. The market trades both, and it rarely does it gracefully.

Even the IMF’s tone has shifted toward caution around trade disruptions. In January, IMF wrote that the global economy has shown resilience after a tariff shock, while warning about rising risks and the negative effects of trade disruptions building over time.

Meanwhile, the trade policy world itself is being described as a roller coaster. CFR notes the return of tariff threats and the uncertainty that comes with a White House driven trade strategy.

Put all of that together and you get the feeling traders keep describing in private, the recovery trade looks like it wants to show up, then inflation risk pulls it back into the cage.

Bitcoin’s best moments happen when the market believes liquidity is coming, and when inflation is calm enough to allow it.

Right now, that calm is missing.

The cross asset signals look like a dollar squeeze, and Bitcoin is acting like high beta tech again

Bitcoin shows a clear relationship with the broader risk complex.

It has moved more closely with US equity futures than with gold, and it has tended to move the other way when the dollar firms. That is a fancy way of saying Bitcoin is still trading like a risk asset when stress rises, and this week stress has been rising.

That is also why the silver crash matters for crypto readers.

When silver is dropping double digits, and Bitcoin is dropping double digits, the common thread is leverage and forced selling. The first wave hits the most crowded trade, the next wave hits whatever can be sold fast.

Crypto is always sellable.

Oil is rising for the wrong reasons, and that adds to the unease

Oil has been up modestly in this same window, and the reasons are not comforting.

There has been the fresh geopolitical risk around Venezuelan supply. Price moves tied to the blockade announcement and broader supply risk headlines after the Maduro capture continue to strain markets.

At the same time, the medium term oil narrative has been about oversupply, with Trafigura warning about a 2026 “super glut” as supply growth runs ahead of demand.

Oil up on geopolitical risk while the market is already worried about inflation is a toxic ingredient. It adds noise to the inflation picture, it adds pressure to the Fed, and it adds anxiety to traders who are already staring at margin calls.

What to watch next, if you are trying to survive the next week

The temptation is to pick a bottom and build a story around it. The market has not earned that luxury yet.

Here is the cleaner way to view it.

Bitcoin has one job if it wants to stop bleeding, reclaim $73,600, and hold it. That is the 2024 high, and it is now the line between a bruising correction and a deeper reset toward the next major shelf around $56,100.

Read my piece from November, where I literally called out this exact scenario below:

Related Reading

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Nov 19, 2025 · Liam 'Akiba' Wright

ETF flows have one job too, stabilize. The table from Farside has been swinging from heavy outflows to brief inflows and back again, and that is what a fragile market looks like.

Macro has its own job, calm down. That means inflation expectations need to stop creeping higher, tariff headlines need to stop adding uncertainty, and the Fed needs room to breathe, because right now the market is trading like it is constantly bracing for the next upside inflation surprise.

Silver is the wild card, because silver has already shown you what happens when leverage meets a margin hike.

That is why this week feels like the moment margin calls went global.

Crypto traders have lived through forced selling for years, it usually starts inside the ecosystem, it usually ends inside the ecosystem.

This time the stress is showing up in the old world too, in metals, in rates anxiety, in trade disruption headlines, and in the dollar.

The story is still Bitcoin, yet the setting is broader, and it looks a lot less forgiving.

The post Markets plunge as Bitcoin and silver just triggered a global margin call after inflation warnings made a recovery look impossible appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Congress he has no authority to bail out Bitcoin. The exchange came during a Senate Banking Committee hearing, when Senator Brad Sherman asked whether the Treasury could intervene to support cryptocurrency prices.

Bessent's answer was direct: he cannot use taxpayer dollars to buy Bitcoin, and the question falls outside his mandate as chair of the Financial Stability Oversight Council.

Sherman's question was a challenge, not a policy proposal. Could the President Donald Trump administration use taxpayer money to prop up assets aligned with the president's interests?

Bitcoin, along with Trump-branded tokens, sat at the center of that concern.

The question itself reveals an irony that the Bitcoin community spent 15 years trying to avoid. Bitcoin launched in 2009 as a response to bank bailouts, a system designed to operate without a central authority and to be insulated from government intervention.

Now it sits close enough to political interests that members of Congress ask whether the government might step in.

The irony runs deeper than rhetoric. If the US ever “bails out crypto,” it won't happen by buying Bitcoin. It will happen by protecting the plumbing Bitcoin now relies on.

What a bailout actually means

The word “bailout” combines three distinct actions into a single term.

The first is direct price support: the government buys an asset to prevent its price from falling. This is what Sherman's question implied: whether the Treasury would step in as a buyer of last resort when Bitcoin drops.

The second is liquidity backstops for intermediaries. The government provides emergency funding or guarantees to institutions that facilitate trading, custody, or settlement. This protects market functioning rather than asset prices.

The Federal Reserve used this approach during the 2008 financial crisis, lending to banks and dealers to keep credit markets operational.

The third is stabilizing adjacent markets on which crypto depends. If a stablecoin run forces mass liquidation of Treasury bills, policymakers can intervene to protect short-term funding markets. Bitcoin benefits indirectly because the dollar rails it uses remain intact.

Bessent's “no authority” answer applies cleanly to the first case. There is no standing legal mechanism for the Treasury to spend taxpayer money to buy Bitcoin for price support.

The other two cases operate in a different legal and political universe.

What the US already does

The US already holds Bitcoin it seized during criminal investigations.

In March 2025, Trump signed an executive order establishing a US government Bitcoin reserve built from coins seized in criminal and civil forfeiture cases. The order frames the reserve as a “digital Fort Knox,” mandates that seized Bitcoin not be sold, and directs Treasury and Commerce to explore “budget-neutral” ways to acquire additional Bitcoin.

The distinction matters. The US accumulates Bitcoin as a byproduct of law enforcement, not as a policy tool to manage crypto prices. Holding forfeited assets is legally and politically different from deploying taxpayer funds to prop up a volatile market.

This creates a bright line: the government as a passive holder versus the government as an active buyer to prevent declines. Crossing that line requires explicit congressional authorization.

Why Bitcoin itself resists bailouts

Classic bailouts target entities with balance sheets, regulated liabilities, and failure modes that cascade through credit markets.

The government recapitalizes a bank by injecting equity, backstopping deposits, or guaranteeing short-term funding. Each of these actions addresses a contractual obligation that, if left unsatisfied, could trigger broader financial distress.

Bitcoin has no issuer, no balance sheet, and no contractual liabilities to backstop. It is a protocol, not an institution. For policymakers to “bail out crypto,” they would end up bailing out the institutions around it, such as banks, money market funds, payment processors, stablecoin issuers, clearing and settlement nodes, rather than the asset itself.

This is the core structural problem: you cannot recapitalize a protocol the way you recapitalize a bank.

Bessent's “no authority” answer is shorthand for the absence of a legal mechanism.

Changing that requires Congress to act. Senate Bill 954, the “BITCOIN Act of 2025,” offers a template for what explicit authorization would look like.

The bill proposes that the Treasury purchase one million Bitcoins over five years and hold them in trust. This is not current law, but a proposed law that would create the authority Bessent says he lacks.

The pathway from “no authority today” to “authority tomorrow” runs through an overt congressional vote. Lawmakers would have to go on record supporting taxpayer purchases of a volatile asset with no cash flows, no regulatory oversight, and no traditional valuation framework.

The implicit bailout that could actually happen

If the US ever bails out crypto, the most likely route is to protect infrastructure that has become system-linked.

The first pathway runs through stablecoins and Treasury markets. Stablecoin issuers hold enormous amounts of short-term US government debt. S&P Global Ratings estimates that dollar-pegged stablecoin issuers held roughly $155 billion in Treasury bills by the end of October 2025.

Tether alone circulates over $185 billion in USDT, according to data from Artemis. The Financial Stability Oversight Council's 2025 annual report explicitly flags the need to monitor how stablecoin regulation affects Treasury market structure, functioning, and demand.

If a major stablecoin faced a run and had to liquidate T-bills at scale, policymakers could step in to stabilize the Treasury market, which is within their mandate, rather than “save Bitcoin.”

Crypto would benefit because the dollar infrastructure it relies on would remain operational.

The intervention would target government securities and short-term funding markets, not cryptocurrency. However, the practical effect would be an implicit bailout of the crypto ecosystem's plumbing.

The second pathway involves emergency liquidity to systemically important intermediaries.

The Federal Reserve's emergency authority under Section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act allows it to provide liquidity during “unusual and exigent circumstances.”

The Congressional Research Service notes that the Fed has historically used this authority to support market functioning through broadly based facilities, often with Treasury credit protection backing the programs.

If crypto plumbing ever became entangled with core funding markets, through prime brokerage relationships, settlement networks, or collateralized lending, emergency liquidity could flow to eligible financial institutions.

The Fed would not lend to the Bitcoin network. It would lend to banks and market utilities that facilitate crypto trading and settlement.

The third pathway is regulatory rather than financial. Policymakers can reduce the probability of a crisis by adjusting rules rather than deploying cash.

This includes allowing banks to intermediate stablecoins more easily, clarifying reserve composition requirements, or easing settlement constraints so redemptions clear smoothly.

These actions don't involve taxpayer funds, but they function as a form of “bailout by regulation.”
The irony Bitcoin can't escape

Bitcoin was designed to eliminate the need for trusted intermediaries and insulate money from government control.

Satoshi Nakamoto's white paper cited the 2008 financial crisis as proof that the existing system required too much trust. The protocol was designed to operate without bailouts because it would not rely on banks.

Fifteen years later, Bitcoin trades on centralized exchanges, settles through regulated intermediaries, and increasingly relies on stablecoins backed by the same Treasury securities that anchored the financial system it was created to replace.

If a crisis ever forces the government to step in, it won't be to save Bitcoin. It will be to save the institutions and markets Bitcoin now depends on.

The bailout Bitcoin can't get is a direct taxpayer purchase. The bailout it might get is the one designed to protect everything else.

The post Bitcoin faces a brutal irony as the Treasury refuses to save BTC from its own political success appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin is back in that familiar place where the chart looks ugly, the timeline feels loud, and everyone is trying to guess whether the next move is the one that finally breaks the mood.

Today, Bitcoin fell below $70,000 for the first time in well over a year.

Historically, that price still looks strong, especially if you zoom out to any point before 2024. A Bitcoin investor in 2020 would have salivated at the sight of a $69,000 BTC price.

In context, it feels different because this part of the cycle is less about “price is high” and more about “who is actually under pressure.”

That is why long-term holder metrics matter, and why the potential for Bitcoin to fall back to around $40,000 is worth taking seriously.

Long-term holders are the people least likely to flinch. They sit through chop, they sit through headlines, and they sit through drawdowns that would wreck most traders.

When that cohort starts feeling real pain, the market is usually close to exhausting whatever bear energy it has left.

One clean way to explain that pain is the cost basis.

Most of the time, Bitcoin trades above the average price long-term holders paid. When it slides down toward that average, the market starts testing conviction in a way that is hard to fake.

A helpful reference line here is the long-term holder realized price, which is basically the average acquisition price of coins held by long-term holders, commonly defined as coins that have not moved for at least 155 days.

Realized price is a proxy for the cohort’s cost basis. BitBo also presents the same concept, framing it as a historically important support level during bear markets.

Why $40-$50k keeps showing up

The reason I keep coming back to the $40,000 – $50,000 range is that the long-term holder has realized that the price has been climbing over time. It is now in the rough neighborhood of that level. When you look at it through that lens, $40,000 stops being a random round number and starts being a stress test.

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Nov 24, 2025 · Liam 'Akiba' Wright

It is a place where the market can see what happens when the strongest hands stop feeling comfortable.

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That brings us to the two CryptoQuant charts below, which do a good job of showing what “bottom conditions” tend to look like on-chain without much guesswork.

First is the adjusted long-term holder MVRV versus realized price chart.

In plain English, MVRV compares market value to realized value.

When you adjust it for a specific cohort, you are asking a tighter question: Is this cohort sitting on profits or losses relative to its cost basis?

When that adjusted long-term holder MVRV drops below 1.0, it means the cohort is underwater on average.

On the chart, those periods appear as the deep-shaded blocks. They line up neatly with the big bear market lows across multiple cycles.

That is the strongest takeaway. The second takeaway is what it says about where we are today.

The chart shows the Bitcoin price still well above the long-term holder realized price line, and the adjusted LTH MVRV remains above 1.0.

That matters because it suggests the market has not yet reached the historical regime in which the long-term cohort is underwater in aggregate.

If we keep sliding and that ratio keeps compressing, the chart supports the idea that we are moving toward a zone that has historically mattered.

It does not confirm we are already there.

The second chart, long-term holder SOPR, adds a different kind of signal.

SOPR is about behavior at the moment coins are spent. It asks whether coins are being sold for a profit or for a loss.

CryptoQuant’s own guide is direct: values above 1 mean profit-taking, values below 1 mean the cohort is realizing losses.

On the chart, the LTH SOPR line remains above 1 and has been drifting lower. That reads like a thinning profit cushion.

Long-term holders are still mostly spending into profits, and the market is sliding toward a point where that stops being true for a growing share of the cohort.

Historically, the real capitulation moments tend to show up when LTH SOPR slips below 1 and stays there for a while.

That is when long-term holders are finally locking in losses, and that is a very different emotional environment from mild profit-taking.

What on-chain loss pressure says now

That is where the On Chain Mind “LTH Loss Risk Metric” fits neatly into the picture.

Their framing is simple: it tracks the percentage of long-term holder supply held at a loss and treats it as a kind of distress oscillator, a risk.

In their analysis, they highlight previous peaks during major lows and note that today’s reading is around 37%.

The message is that we are not yet in mass underwater territory. Historically, the faster “bottoming process” tends to accelerate when that percentage pushes above the mid-50s into the 60s.

The deepest capitulation zones in prior cycles have been higher still.

Put those three views together, and a consistent story appears.

Price is down, the crowd is nervous, and that feels like a bear market.

The long-term cohort is still mostly above water, which means demand has not yet forced the hardest kind of selling. The charts support that.

The adjusted long-term holder MVRV chart shows the clearest bottoms came when long-term holders were underwater on average.

The SOPR chart suggests the cohort is not yet broadly realizing losses.

The loss risk reads around 37%. It says the same thing in a different language.

So does history “support Bitcoin falling to $40k before a new bull run can begin” as a hard requirement?

I do not think the data earns that level of certainty. What the data does support is a more conditional version of the argument that is still powerful, and easier to defend.

If Bitcoin keeps dropping, and if the market needs a complete psychological reset, then a move toward the long-term holder cost basis zone becomes more plausible.

That is where long-term holders stop feeling safe, where MVRV compresses toward 1, where SOPR risks falling under 1, and where the loss share starts rising quickly.

If the market stabilizes above that zone and ETF flows begin to act as a steady bid, then the need for a deep washout diminishes.

The bottom can be built over time rather than through pain.

The ETF flow dashboards matter here because they show whether institutions are consistently absorbing supply or stepping away from it.

Macro still sits in the background like gravity.

The Federal Reserve held the target range at 3.50–3.75% in late January, and that keeps financial conditions relatively tight by recent standards.

The 10-year yield was around 4.26% at the end of January.

That is another way of saying cash has a decent alternative return right now, and that influences how much risk the market wants to carry.

Why the path matters as much as the level

Then you layer in positioning and market structure.

Glassnode’s Week On Chain notes that profit-taking pressure had eased into early 2026, and it also highlighted overhead supply levels that can make rallies feel heavy until they are absorbed.

It also pointed out that options open interest saw a major reset. That can change how violently the market moves when it reaches certain price zones, since dealer positioning and gamma can amplify momentum once a range breaks.

However, that relief did not last long as the start of February has seen heavy profit-taking with traders sending over $4 billion BTC to sell on Binance alone.

Today, Glassnode declared,

The BTC capitulation metric has printed its second-largest spike in two years, highlighting a sharp escalation in forced selling.

These stress events typically coincide with accelerated de-risking and elevated volatility as market participants reset positioning.

That matters because the road to $40,000 – $50,000 is not just a straight line down.

It is a sequence of failed rebounds, liquidity pockets, forced selling, and, eventually, indifference.

That is what bear markets do. They do not simply drop until the number looks low enough; they wear people down.

Long-term holders are usually the last group anyone expects to feel stressed.

The whole mythology of Bitcoin is built around conviction: holding through storms, buying dips, staying humble when it is euphoric, and staying patient when it is dark.

That myth is rooted in a real pattern.

The strongest cohort tends to capitulate late, and when it does, it often coincides with durable lows.

Historically, the moments when that cohort is underwater on average have lined up with major bottoms.

But we are not there yet.

The indicators that mark the harshest phase of that process, MVRV under 1, SOPR under 1, and a rising share of long-term supply held at a loss, are still ahead if the drawdown continues.

So yes, the charts support the broader idea that deeper pain is usually present near the cleanest bottoms.

They also add an essential element: a checklist that lets you track whether the market is actually reaching that phase or just talking about it.

If we're looking for a durable low that can support a new cycle, then $40,000 – $50,000 is best treated as a neighborhood where the conversation gets serious.

That is roughly where long-term holders start meeting their own cost basis.

The post Bitcoin in critical warning zone threatening a 42% drop before the new bull run can start appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin retreated below the closely watched $70,000 threshold, leading a broad selloff in digital assets that has erased over $1 billion in trading positions.

According to CryptoSlate's data, the world’s largest cryptocurrency fell to lows not seen since the November 2024 election, dragging the wider market into the red.

Ethereum slid 7% to around $2065, while XRP, a recent outperformer, dropped more than 14% to $1.35.

Other major tokens, including Cardano, BNB, Solana, and Dogecoin, posted similar losses, succumbing to a wave of selling pressure that has firmly gripped the asset class.

The slump marks the industry's weakest performance since the onset of the second Donald Trump administration, reflecting a rapid shift in sentiment from post-election euphoria to risk-off capitulation.

Unlike prior drawdowns driven by discrete shocks, traders say this move reflects a grinding erosion of confidence as capital rotates toward equities and commodities, leaving digital assets increasingly sensitive to negative headlines.

Samson Mow, founder of Bitcoin-focused firm Jan3, said the selloff felt especially painful because of its asymmetry.

In comments posted on social media, Mow argued that Bitcoin has struggled to benefit from risk-on narratives but remains exposed to broader risk-off moves. When fears around artificial intelligence valuations emerge, he said, crypto sells off, and when metals retreat, crypto falls alongside them.

Bitcoin price wobbles lead to liquidation cascade

On-chain data suggest the decline has been accompanied by a sharp increase in forced selling.

Glassnode reported that Bitcoin’s capitulation metric recorded its second-largest spike in the past two years, signaling a rapid escalation in liquidations and position unwinds. Such stress events typically coincide with accelerated de-risking and heightened volatility as traders reset exposure.

Indeed, the price drop triggered a wave of liquidations in derivatives markets.

Data from Coinglass indicate that more than $120 million in positions were liquidated within a single hour as prices fell through key technical levels.

Long positions accounted for the majority of the damage, with roughly $116 million liquidated, while short positions lost about $6 million.

Bitcoin-linked contracts bore the brunt of the losses, with liquidations totaling more than $86 million. Ethereum traders closed approximately $16 million in positions, while bets tied to Solana and the HYPE token were liquidated for approximately $3 million and $6 million, respectively.

Over a 24-hour period, total liquidations reached approximately $1.06 billion, underscoring the scale of leverage embedded in the market.

Long positions accounted for nearly $900 million of that total, highlighting how quickly bullish positioning can unwind when prices move sharply lower.

The post Bitcoin sinks below the $70,000 critical support but XRP is hit hardest appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Shares in publicly traded Ethereum treasury firm BitMine Immersion Technologies have fallen to a seven-month low as unrealized losses mount.

At a closed-door meeting in Princeton, leading researchers said agentic AI tools now handle up to 90% of their intellectual workload—forcing a reckoning over who, or what, drives scientific discovery.

Bitcoin has already tumbled far from its October high, but history suggests the rout could deepen before momentum shifts, according to Stifel.

Scott Bessent also appeared to empathize with the banking lobby’s concerns about the bill during Senate testimony on Thursday.

Publicly traded crypto exchange Gemini is exiting foreign markets and laying off around 25% of its staff to improve its path to profitability.

Crypto news digest: Shiba Inu skyrocketed 1,546% in spot flows; XRP futures volume on Bitmex surged 5,419%; CZ pushed back on BTC manipulation claims.

Legendary investor Bill Miller has identified $60,000 as the critical "line in the sand" where the bleeding is likely to stop.

Solana's Yakovenko reveals how 2023 events, with $8 SOL and FTX collapse, not only made him battle-hardened, but the blockchain too. Funnily, the argument is something you might have heard on "Game of Thrones.".

XRP was hit hard in the market sell-off, dropping 15% at one point.

Can traders expect Binance Coin (BNB) to test the $600 area soon?

Remittix is entering a pivotal phase as its PayFi platform prepares to go live on February 9th, just as a limited 300% bonus fuels renewed investor urgency. With capital raised nearing $30 million and real products already deployed, Remittix is shifting from early promise to execution.

For many watching the space closely, this window represents the final chance to enter before utility, exchange exposure and broader adoption converge.

Why Investors Are Rushing Into Remittix Before February 9

The surge of interest around Remittix is not happening in isolation. It is being driven by timing, delivery and a rare alignment between incentives and infrastructure.

At a token price of $0.123, Remittix has already attracted over 702 million token purchases, pushing total capital raised beyond $28.9 million. That figure continues to climb as investors position themselves ahead of the PayFi platform launch scheduled for February 9th. Unlike many early-stage projects, Remittix is not asking users to wait for years. The ecosystem is being rolled out in phases, with visible progress at each step.

The Remittix Wallet is already live on the Apple App Store, allowing users to store, send and manage assets today. Android support is underway. The upcoming February launch expands that foundation by activating the core crypto-to-fiat functionality, enabling users to send crypto and receive fiat directly into bank accounts worldwide.

This is why Remittix is increasingly mentioned as the best crypto to buy now among investors who prioritize real-world usage over speculation. The current 300% bonus amplifies that appeal, effectively compressing upside into a narrow timeframe. Once the bonus window closes, entry conditions will change permanently.

What Sets Remittix Apart In The PayFi Race

Remittix is designed around one clear objective: Making crypto usable in everyday finance. That simplicity has become its strongest advantage.

Instead of building another layer-one blockchain or complex DeFi product, Remittix focuses on solving a universal problem. This is the problem of moving money across borders quickly, transparently and affordably. Freelancers, charities, remote workers and small businesses stand to benefit from a system that bypasses traditional banking delays without exposing users to hidden fees.

Several concrete factors are reinforcing investor confidence as the platform nears launch:

• A fully audited ecosystem verified by CertiK, with Remittix ranked #1 among pre-launch tokens
• Confirmed centralized exchange listings, including BitMart, with LBank announced as an upcoming listing
• A live wallet product already downloaded by users ahead of full platform activation
• A referral program offering 15% USDT rewards per referral, claimable every 24 hours

These elements explain why Remittix is increasingly described as a best crypto presale rather than a speculative gamble. The project combines security, delivery and incentives in a way that reduces execution risk while increasing participation momentum.

The 300% bonus adds urgency to this setup. It is a temporary multiplier offered as Remittix transitions from fundraising to operational deployment. Once the platform goes live, bonus-driven accumulation will give way to utility-driven demand.

February 9 Marks The Shift From Speculation To Utility

The February 9th launch date represents more than a feature update. It marks a structural shift in how Remittix is valued.

At that point, the narrative moves away from potential and toward usage. Crypto-to-fiat transfers will no longer be a promise but a functioning service within the Remittix ecosystem. That shift matters, particularly in a market where many tokens struggle to justify their existence beyond trading cycles.

With a fixed supply and growing adoption, Remittix is increasingly being discussed as a next big altcoin 2026 candidate. Its appeal is not tied to hype cycles but to a payments market estimated at $19 trillion annually. That scale gives Remittix room to grow without needing to displace legacy financial giants overnight.

The current price level also places Remittix firmly in conversations around a top crypto under $1 with credible upside. As exchange listings expand access and the platform gains traction, price discovery will be driven by usage rather than incentives alone.

The referral program adds a final layer of acceleration. Investors are not only securing bonus allocations but also earning USDT rewards for introducing new participants during this final stretch. That dynamic is tightening supply faster as the launch date approaches.

For many, Remittix now sits in a rare position. It combines early-stage pricing with near-term execution, audited security and a clearly defined use case. That combination is why analysts increasingly describe it as a best new altcoin rather than another short-lived presale.

As February 9th approaches, the window defined by the 300% bonus is narrowing. What comes next is a market phase shaped by access, adoption and real transaction flow. Those entering now are doing so under conditions that will not exist once Remittix fully steps into its PayFi role.

Discover the future of PayFi with Remittix by checking out their project here:

Website: https://remittix.io/

Socials: https://linktr.ee/remittix

The post 300% Bonus For Early Remittix Investors As PayFi Platform Set To Go Live On 9th Feb appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• Tether commits $100 million strategic equity investment in federally regulated Anchorage Digital Bank 
• Partnership builds on existing relationship through USA₮ stablecoin issuance and custody services 
• Investment reflects shared focus on secure, transparent infrastructure within regulatory frameworks 
• Deal strengthens institutional-grade digital asset services including custody, staking, and settlement

Tether Investments has committed $100 million in strategic equity to Anchorage Digital, America’s first federally regulated digital asset bank.

The investment strengthens an existing partnership between the two entities. Both companies focus on secure, regulated infrastructure for mainstream digital asset adoption.

Anchorage Digital provides institutional-grade custody, staking, governance, settlement, and stablecoin services globally.

Regulated Infrastructure Drives Strategic Partnership

The investment extends beyond financial backing to represent strategic alignment between Tether and Anchorage Digital.

Both organizations prioritize building infrastructure that operates safely at scale within clear regulatory frameworks.

Tether has shifted focus toward ensuring digital asset technology functions within established legal environments.

This approach includes collaboration with regulated institutions committed to transparency and market integrity. Anchorage Digital operates at the intersection of regulation and security in the United States and internationally.

The platform enables institutions, enterprises, and public sector organizations to engage with digital assets compliantly.

Tether’s experience with Anchorage Digital Bank through USA₮ stablecoin issuance informed this equity decision. The firsthand exposure to Anchorage Digital’s banking, compliance, and custody systems built confidence in the platform. This operational insight proved crucial as Tether evaluated long-term infrastructure partners.

The strategic investment reflects Tether’s broader focus on regulatory alignment and partnerships with institutions shaping stablecoin operations.

These partnerships help define how digital assets integrate into established financial and legal structures. Regulatory clarity remains central to both companies’ growth strategies.

Building Financial Infrastructure for Digital Asset Adoption

According to Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, the company exists to challenge the status quo and build global infrastructure for freedom.

He stated that the investment reflects shared belief in the importance of secure, transparent, and resilient financial systems. Ardoino noted that Anchorage Digital has set a strong benchmark for institutional digital asset infrastructure.

Nathan McCauley, Co-Founder and CEO of Anchorage Digital, described the investment as strong validation of their infrastructure approach.

He explained that Anchorage Digital believed from day one that digital assets would scale only through secure, regulated foundations.

McCauley emphasized that the alliance reflects shared conviction in this approach and provides momentum for continued development.

McCauley specifically mentioned building critical financial infrastructure for stablecoin issuance and the next era of markets.

The partnership provides additional resources as Anchorage Digital expands its institutional services. Both executives highlighted alignment on fundamental principles governing digital asset development.

Tether and Anchorage Digital share conviction that finance’s future depends on open systems with strong governance.

The companies aim to enable broader digital asset participation through regulated, institutional-grade infrastructure.

This approach promotes stability, inclusion, and long-term ecosystem confidence while supporting sustainable growth.

The post Tether Invests $100M in Anchorage Digital to Strengthen Regulated Crypto Infrastructure appeared first on Blockonomi.

Crypto markets in February 2026 are no longer correcting; they are stress-testing conviction. Bitcoin is grinding near $76,000 after sustained macro headwinds. Ethereum’s drop to $2,320 erased a key technical buffer, opening downside scenarios toward $1,900. Solana now balances on a narrow ledge near $95, where a decisive weekly loss would undo its entire early-year recovery attempt.

Broader data paints a similar picture. Nearly 80% of altcoins are declining against both Bitcoin and the dollar, while sentiment indicators remain locked in Extreme Fear. This phase is uncomfortable, but it is also familiar.

Historically, accumulation of top altcoins happens when visibility is lowest, and patience is rare. What matters now is not momentum, but which projects possess capital depth, operational readiness, and clear upside once conditions normalize. The following top altcoins stand out under those criteria.

1. BlockDAG (BDAG): Secure a Fixed 200× Framework at $0.00025

BlockDAG’s appeal is rooted less in narrative and more in timing and structure. While most top altcoins are reacting to market pressure, BlockDAG is still in controlled distribution, offering a defined entry before public trading introduces volatility.

The scale of its funding sets it apart. With $450 million raised, BlockDAG enters launch capitalized beyond what many major Layer-1s had years into operation. In an environment where liquidity risk eliminates weaker projects, this treasury secures development, marketing, and ecosystem growth regardless of short-term price conditions.

At the current $0.00025 level, a $1,000 allocation converts into 4 million BDAG tokens, mapping directly to $200,000 at a $0.05 launch valuation. This upside is not dependent on speculative discovery, but on pre-established pricing mechanics.

Technically, BlockDAG combines Directed Acyclic Graph architecture with Proof-of-Work, delivering 1,400 TPS on its Awakening Testnet and scaling toward 15,000 TPS by design. Full EVM compatibility lowers developer friction, while early traction includes over 312,000 holders and 3.5 million daily X1 app miners before mainnet activation.

Among top altcoins available in February 2026, BlockDAG offers one of the clearest asymmetric setups, pairing low fixed pricing with outsized infrastructure and adoption readiness.

2. Hyperliquid (HYPE): Accumulate Perpetuals Infrastructure Near $38.50

Hyperliquid demonstrates how decentralized trading evolves when speed and scale are prioritized. Rather than operating atop Ethereum rollups, it runs as an independent Layer-1 capable of processing up to 100,000 orders per second with near-instant execution.

More than 400 million HYPE tokens are currently staked by validators, materially constraining the circulating supply. The launch of the Hyper-EV subnet extends functionality to algorithmic and high-frequency trading firms, reinforcing Hyperliquid’s role as a decentralized alternative to centralized derivatives venues.

After retracing from its late-2025 peak, analysts are monitoring accumulation between $32 and $35, with longer-term projections reaching $115 in 2026. Structural support remains near $29.50, where demand historically increases during market-wide sell pressure.

3. MYX Finance (MYX): Deploy Into Relative Strength Around $6.00

MYX Finance separated itself from most top altcoins by attracting bids while larger assets declined. This relative strength suggests positioning ahead of broader recovery rather than reactionary trading.

A recent system upgrade introduced Portfolio Margining, allowing traders to deploy total account equity across multiple positions. This enhancement improves capital efficiency and appeals to experienced traders transitioning from centralized platforms.

MYX’s Matching Pool Mechanism enables large orders to execute without slippage, addressing a persistent issue across DeFi markets. Cross-chain functionality between BNB Chain and Linea further broadens liquidity access without manual bridging overhead.

Price action shows resistance near $6.45, with a confirmed break opening upside toward $7.50. Downside protection remains defined near $5.40.

4. Bittensor (TAO): Position for AI Scarcity Between $187 and $230

Bittensor represents a longer-duration thesis among top altcoins, combining artificial intelligence demand with crypto-native supply constraints.

The rollout of Dynamic TAO restructured the network into specialized AI subnets, each capable of generating value while burning TAO at the base layer. This ties network growth directly to token scarcity.

TAO’s halving in December 2025 reduced issuance, placing the asset in a classic accumulation phase as sell pressure declines. Institutional attention continues to build, highlighted by Grayscale’s ETP filing targeting regulated exposure.

Smart contract functionality now allows DeFi protocols to lock TAO, expanding its role beyond AI compute markets. Strong technical support remains near $180, while long-term models point toward $512 by late 2026 if adoption accelerates.

Build a Recovery-Oriented Allocation Strategy

Identifying top altcoins is less about prediction and more about structure:

• Core Position (40%): BlockDAG — Fixed 200× framework with deep capitalization at $0.00025
• Growth Exposure (25%): Hyperliquid — Scalable perpetuals Layer-1 with institutional flow
• High-Conviction Beta (20%): MYX Finance — Relative strength play for recovery phases
• Macro Allocation (15%): Bittensor — AI infrastructure with post-halving dynamics

While much of the market remains directionless, these assets are differentiated by funding security, execution capability, and long-term positioning. Periods of uncertainty tend to define the next cycle’s leaders. The top altcoins are rarely obvious in moments like this, but history favors those accumulated before confidence returns.

Website: https://blockdag.network

Telegram: https://t.me/blockDAGnetworkOfficial

Discord: https://discord.gg/Q7BxghMVyu

The post BlockDAG at $0.00025 Joins Hyperliquid, MYX Finance, and Bittensor on the Shortlist of Top Altcoins appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• Bill 4.308/2024 bans unbacked stablecoins like Ethena’s USDe and Frax in Brazil. 
• Domestic stablecoins must maintain full reserves and report backing transparently. 
• Exchanges offering USDT and USDC must verify foreign issuers meet Brazilian standards. 
• Stablecoins now drive 90% of Brazil’s crypto volume, reaching $6–8B monthly flows.

Brazil stablecoin ban advances as Congress approves Bill 4.308/2024, mandating full reserve backing for stablecoins.

Foreign digital currencies like USDT and USDC must comply, while unbacked models face criminal penalties.

Brazil Approves Bill to Restrict Algorithmic Stablecoins

According to a report by CoinDesk, Brazil’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Committee has approved Bill 4.308/2024. The legislation targets the issuance and circulation of unbacked stablecoins such as Ethena’s USDe and Frax.

All stablecoins issued domestically must be fully backed by segregated reserve assets. Issuers are required to maintain transparency in reporting the reserves supporting these digital currencies, ensuring full traceability.

The bill classified it as a financial offense with penalties of up to eight years for issuing unbacked stablecoins. This measure establishes accountability and protects the integrity of Brazil’s financial system.

Domestic exchanges are tasked with monitoring compliance for all local stablecoin issuers. They must ensure that backing requirements are continuously met, preventing any uncollateralized tokens from entering circulation.

These rules are aligned with global concerns over the systemic risks posed by unbacked stablecoins, such as the Terra failure in 2022. Brazil aims to mitigate potential financial instability by enforcing strict regulatory oversight.

Compliance and Oversight for Foreign Stablecoins

Foreign stablecoins, including Tether’s USDT and USDC, must comply with Brazil’s regulatory framework. Exchanges offering these assets are required to verify issuers’ reserves and follow local compliance standards.

If foreign stablecoin providers fail to meet the requirements, exchanges assume responsibility for potential risks. 

Custody, auditing, and reporting obligations are imposed on platforms offering foreign digital currencies to Brazilian users.

The Receita Federal categorizes trades, swaps, large retail payments, and wallet transfers, providing comprehensive oversight for billions in monthly flows.

In the meantime, Stablecoins represent around 90% of Brazil’s crypto volume, with monthly transactions of $6–8 billion. Analysts have projected that the total could rise to $9 billion by 2030.

Foreign firms serving Brazilian clients must establish local entities, hold the required capital, and comply with operational standards. All these are aimed at strengthening overall market oversight.

The post Unbacked Stablecoins Face Ban in Brazil as New Bill Moves Forward appeared first on Blockonomi.

The UK House of Lords heard testimony this week that stablecoins are mostly just “on- and off-ramps into crypto,” not the transformative payments layer some had promised. Meanwhile, Brazil’s Mercado Bitcoin pushed above $20 million in tokenized private credit on Bitcoin sidechain Rootstock, targeting $100 million by April.

Traditional finance is stuck in the debate mud, and while that’s happening, DeepSnitch AI is shipping tools, proving its credibility as the next presale token with 100x, even 1000x, potential for early 2026.

And if you’re looking to stack tokens before a major launch, DeepSnitch AI bonus codes offer a way to amplify your position right now. The investor bonus structure is tiered: DSNTVIP30 adds 30% on purchases above $2,000, scaling all the way to DSNTVIP300 for 300% extra above $30,000. At $0.0383 per token with above $1.48M raised, these DSNT presale incentives will lead to substantially higher upside should the token make its predicted moonshot run in early 2026.

Stablecoins face skepticism while RWAs race ahead

Financial Times commentator Chris Giles told the House of Lords that stablecoins lack clear legal underpinning, making them risky for households. He described their current use as mostly crypto on-ramps for what he called “an intrinsically worthless asset.”

Then, US law professor Arthur Wilmarth piled on from there, calling the GENIUS Act a “disastrous mistake” for letting non-banks issue dollar-denominated stablecoins.

But builders aren’t hanging on for a green light, and Mercado Bitcoin has issued above $20 million in tokenized private credit and targets $100 million by April, which would mean major yield, proper assets, and all shipped fast.

What these contrasts speak to is that, while regulators are caught in the cobwebs of definitions, projects with genuine utility have all it takes to keep on keeping on. That’s exactly the energy behind DeepSnitch AI’s 1000x potential, and it’s also why the DeepSnitch AI bonus details are especially valuable right now. That’s especially true ahead of its launch, which is now days away.

LINK and HYPE grind sideways, while big upside sits with DeepSnitch AI

1. DeepSnitch AI

What makes DeepSnitch AI different is that the tools aren’t vaporware, smoke-and-mirrors, or any of the usual fluff that so many presale tokens are managing to woo early holders with. This is an audited platform with tools already shipping to those who bought in early, proving the credibility and power of its utility already.

Among its tools, a set of AI agents that will all be live come launch (just days away), SnitchFeed pulls global alerts in real time, as Token Explorer breaks down holder concentration, liquidity metrics, and risk scores in one view. AuditSnitch scans any contract address and returns a verdict (CLEAN, CAUTION, or SKETCHY) so you know what you’re getting into before you ape. And if you find dashboards to be the tricky territory they are for just about everyone, SnitchGPT lets you ask plain questions and get plain answers to simplify the process.

This is utility that’s never been seen before, and it’s the reason why DeepSnitch AI could not only hold its own but also plausibly see a 1000x run in early 2026, once it launches. Staking is live with uncapped dynamic APR. In other words, the more people participate, the higher the rewards climb for everyone.

And right now, there are the DeepSnitch AI bonus codes available, tiered to let you stack more tokens at presale prices. When launch hits and exchange listings follow, that extra allocation could mean the difference between solid gains and life-changing ones.

2. Chainlink

Chainlink’s been headed lower as of early February, without much relief. LINK slipped around 1.8% over 24 hours on 5 February, trading at about $9.36, a modest dip within a steep multi-week slide. Price sits below all key moving averages with RSI deep in oversold territory. Sellers appear to remain in control for now.

That said, forecasts target above $23 by end of 2026, which would be the equivalent of roughly 145% upside, if sentiment flips. The infrastructure thesis is intact, but no catalyst has materialized to turn the tide.

3. Hyperliquid

Hyperliquid pierced above $35.50 before sellers shoved it back down, leaving a long wick that reeks of resistance. The decentralized derivatives platform trades around $35.28, chopping sideways while bulls and bears fight it out.

If buyers hold ground, a push to $44 is possible, but a drop below the 20-day EMA ($28.79) keeps it rangebound for longer. With the chance of pushing above $70 by year-end, or an almost-100% gain, there’s a lot of Hyperliquid hope to be found in 2026, especially for those after a stable choice. But then, DeepSnitch AI’s investor bonus structure and presale pricing offer sharper asymmetry for anyone chasing 100x potential rather than 2x.

Last look

DeepSnitch AI keeps shipping and proving its token strength, all while regulators debate and mid-caps consolidate. More tools are incoming, and full launch is only days out.

Until then, there’s a brief chance to use the DeepSnitch AI bonus codes to amplify your entry (30% extra above $2,000, 50% above $5,000, 150% above $10,000, all the way to 300% above $30,000). Combined with dynamic staking rewards, these bonuses compound your position before the market prices in the imminent announcement. This is the way to position for millions without spending more than a few thousand ahead of a 1000x token’s launch.

Claim your bonus and visit the official DeepSnitch AI website for the presale.

You can also join the throng of followers on X and Telegram for real-time updates, DSNT presale incentives, and more.

FAQs

What are the DeepSnitch AI bonus codes for February 2026?

DeepSnitch AI’s bonus codes are tiered, allowing those who commit higher to slip in higher amounts of extra tokens before launch. To put this in perspective, at $0.0383 per token, a $5,000 entry gets you around 130,000 DSNT. But apply the 50% bonus code and that stack jumps to roughly 195,000 tokens without spending an extra cent. The possibility of millions after that is entirely within reach should the token make a 1000x run as predicted.

Are stablecoins the future of payments?

UK Lords heard skepticism that stablecoins are mainly crypto on-ramps rather than real money. DeepSnitch AI offers utility beyond speculation, with live AI tools that work without regard for stablecoin regulation outcomes.

How do DeepSnitch AI bonus codes compound returns?

DeepSnitch AI bonus details work like this: bonus tokens are added at purchase, growing your stack before launch. When DeepSnitch AI reaches exchanges, that extra allocation can compound your gains in no small way, especially combined with uncapped dynamic APR staking.

The post DeepSnitch AI Bonus Codes February 2026: LINK and HYPE Chop Sideways, $DSNT Presale Amplifies 1000x Rewards for Early Believers appeared first on Blockonomi.

Ethereum (ETH) broke below the crucial $2,100 price level after a fresh 8% decline amid a severe market correction. On-chain data now points to a major shift in sentiment among US investors.

In fact, those market participants are aggressively de-risking the world’s largest altcoin, even pushing the Coinbase Premium to its most negative reading since July 2022.

Institutional Exit

According to CryptoQuant, the Ethereum Coinbase Premium Index, measured on a 30-day moving average, has fallen to its lowest level since July 2022. The index tracks the price difference between the ETH/USD pair on Coinbase Pro, which is widely used as a proxy for US institutional trading activity, and the ETH/USDT pair on Binance, often viewed as a proxy for global retail participation.

CryptoQuant said that the deeply negative reading on the 30-day basis indicates that selling pressure is largely coming from US entities. While global retail traders may be holding positions or buying into the price decline, US institutions appear to be actively de-risking or exiting their Ethereum holdings.

The analytics platform revealed that the last time the Coinbase Premium Index reached similarly negative levels was during the depths of the 2022 bear market. Based on this comparison, it detailed two possible interpretations. One is that bearish momentum could continue, as US demand, described as an important driver of crypto market rallies, is currently absent, potentially limiting any near-term price recovery.

The alternative interpretation presented is that such extreme negative premiums have historically aligned with capitulation phases, which can sometimes coincide with local market bottoms once aggressive selling pressure is exhausted. CryptoQuant concluded that the $2,100 level represents an important psychological and technical zone, and added that a reversal would likely require the Coinbase Premium to normalize or turn positive.

“As long as US investors are selling at a discount compared to the global market, upside momentum will likely remain capped.”

Another Historical Warning Signal

A sharp increase in Ethereum network activity has further raised questions about potential market risks. Ethereum’s total transfer count surged to 1.17 million on January 29th, in one of the highest recorded levels for the metric, and represents a sudden, vertical rise in transaction activity across the network. Historical comparisons reveal that similar spikes have previously occurred around major turning points in ETH’s price cycle. In January 2018, for example, a comparable surge in transfer counts coincided with the market cycle top and was followed by a prolonged bear market.

A similar pattern appeared on May 19, 2021, when a sharp increase in transfers aligned with a major market crash and a steep price correction. While high network activity is often associated with growing usage, CryptoQuant stated that rapid and parabolic increases near price highs have historically reflected periods of market stress.

Such conditions can indicate high volatility, large-scale asset movements, or distribution by long-term holders moving funds, potentially to exchanges. Based on these historical precedents, the current spike places the crypto asset in a “high-risk” zone, where past patterns have been followed by notable price drawdowns.

The post Institutional Exit? US Investors Are Dumping ETH at a Record Rate appeared first on CryptoPotato.

It’s quite difficult to spot a popular cryptocurrency whose price hasn’t tumbled by 20% or even more in the last few weeks.

Hyperliquid (HYPE), though, is an evident exception, and its solid performance has caused analysts to envision further gains in the near future.

The Lone Survivor

Bitcoin (BTC) has crashed to a 14-month low of around $69,000, Ethereum (ETH) is struggling to keep the $2,000 level, while Ripple’s XRP and Solana (SOL) have plummeted by 27% in the past seven days. However, Hyperliquid (HYPE) has somehow defied the ongoing massacre and currently trades at around $32, representing a 50% increase on a two-week scale.

Its strong performance comes amid a string of positive developments surrounding the ecosystem. Earlier this week, Ripple announced that its institutional prime brokerage platform (called Ripple Prime) enabled support for Hyperliquid. Meanwhile, Grayscale recently revealed that it was encouraged by the rise in perpetual futures trading for non-crypto assets on the decentralized exchange.

Before that, on-chain data revealed growing interest in HIP-3 activity amid skyrocketing trading volume and open interest. These metrics continued to increase as the market tumbled in the past few days, reaching new peaks of $1B in OI and $4.8B in 24-hour volume.

HYPE has been the subject of numerous optimistic predictions, and many analysts believe there’s fuel left for additional gains. The analyst, using the X moniker Crypto General, expects volatility ahead and an eventual explosion above $100 later this year. Speaking on the matter was also Zach, who argued there are “so many reasons to buy and hold HYPE.”

There are so many reasons to buy and hold $HYPE.

The more it takes over market share and volume, the bigger the buybacks are, which is one of the reasons it’s so strong.

Really would love to get a spot entry around yearly open of $25 but who knows if it’ll come

— Zach (@CryptoZachLA) February 4, 2026

The popular analyst Crypto Tony chipped in, too, suggesting that HYPE could do “magical things when the market conditions are right.” Those interested in additional bullish forecasts for the token can read our dedicated article here.

Can It Follow the Pack?

It is important to note that the broader crypto market remains shaky, and sustained bearish conditions could eventually weigh in on HYPE as well.

Some analysts believe this is a likely outcome. The one using the X handle, Greeny, predicted that the native token of Hyperliquid could plummet to $20 later in 2026.

The post Hyperliquid (HYPE) Soars by 50% in 2 Weeks: Can It Pump Even More? appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Economist Nouriel Roubini, who is known for his anti-crypto rhetoric, predicted a looming “crypto apocalypse.” He explained that the future of money and payments will evolve gradually rather than undergo the revolutionary transformation promised by cryptocurrency advocates.

In a recent post, Roubini said Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies’ latest price plunge demonstrates the extreme volatility of what he calls a “pseudo-asset class,” and expressed hope that policymakers recognize the risks before further damage occurs.

He recalled that one year earlier, Donald Trump had returned to the US presidency after courting retail crypto investors and receiving significant backing from crypto industry figures. This led several evangelists to predict that Bitcoin would reach at least $200,000 by the end of 2025 and become “digital gold.”

Roubini: Bitcoin Isn’t a Hedge

According to Roubini, Trump followed through by dismantling most crypto regulations, signing the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stable Coins (GENIUS) Act, pushing the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, profiting from domestic and foreign crypto deals, promoting a meme coin bearing his name, pardoning crypto criminals allegedly linked to terrorist organizations, and hosting private White House dinners for crypto insiders.

Roubini noted that crypto was also expected to benefit from macroeconomic and geopolitical risks, including rising public debt, fiat currency debasement, trade wars, and increased tensions involving the US, Iran, and China, factors that coincided with gold rising more than 60% in 2025.

Bitcoin, however, fell 6% that year and, as of the time of writing, was down 42% from its October peak and below its level at Trump’s election, while the TRUMP and MELANIA meme coins had dropped 95%. Roubini said Bitcoin repeatedly declined during periods when gold rallied, and argued that it behaves as a leveraged risk asset correlated with speculative stocks rather than a hedge.

He reiterated his long-standing view that crypto does not function as a currency, as it is neither a unit of account, a scalable payment system, nor a stable store of value, while citing El Salvador’s experience, where Bitcoin accounts for less than 5% of transactions. He further argued that crypto is not a true asset because it lacks income streams or real-world utility.

On Stablecoins and Regulations

Roubini said the only widely adopted crypto application after 17 years is the stablecoin, which he described as a digital form of fiat money already replicated by traditional finance, and maintained that most blockchain-based systems are centralized, permissioned, and privately controlled. He asserted that fully decentralized finance will never scale because governments will not permit anonymous transactions, and that AML and KYC requirements undermine claims of lower costs.

While speaking about regulation, Roubini warned the GENIUS Act risks recreating the instability of 19th-century free banking, as stablecoins lack narrow bank regulation, lender-of-last-resort access, or deposit insurance, making them vulnerable to runs. He also criticized proposals allowing stablecoins to pay interest, and claimed that this could destabilize fractional reserve banking unless payments and credit creation are structurally separated.

Roubini’s comments come as Bitcoin continues its downward trajectory, falling a fresh 6% on Thursday and trading below $71,600 at the time of writing. The latest decline has added to broader market unease, and analysts are warning that continued weakness in BTC could have wider implications. Market experts have increasingly raised concerns that firms holding large BTC reserves may face massive balance-sheet stress and systemic risk if prices continue to slide.

The post Roubini Predicts a ‘Crypto Apocalypse’ Amidst Bitcoin’s Plunge Under Trump-Era Policies appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Bitcoin can’t catch a break in the past several days, marking consecutive multi-month lows, with the latest coming minutes ago at well under $67,000.

The last time the cryptocurrency traded at such low levels was in early November, just as the US presidential elections took place and the country elected the so-called ‘crypto president,’ Donald Trump.

The past few weeks have been brutal for BTC. It challenged $90,000 just eight days ago, last Wednesday, but the rejection at that level brought unimaginable pain for the market leader and most of the altcoin followers.

Bitcoin first dumped to $81,000 last Thursday, then continued south to under $75,000 during the weekend, but the bears kept the pressure on. The past several hours have been violent as well, with BTC plunging to $66,900 (as of press time). This means that the asset has lost well over $20,000 in just over a week.

The altcoins have not been spared. ETH continues with its massive decline, with another 9% daily decline to under $2,000 – its lowest level since last April. BNB has plunged by 10% to $660, while XRP is down by a whopping 15% in the past 24 hours alone to $1.32.

Further losses are evident from the likes of ZEC (-19%), MORPHO (-14%), NEXO (-14%), XMR (-12%), LEO (-12%), SUI (-11%), and many others. As such, it’s no wonder that over-leveraged traders have been harmed severely.

Data from CoinGlass shows that the 24-hour liquidations have rocketed to over $1.3 billion. In the past hour alone, the wrecked positions are up to $350 million. The number of wiped out traders is close to 300,000 daily, with the single-largest position taking place on Aster, which was worth over $11 million.

The post Liquidations Top $1.3 Billion as BTC Plummets Below $67K, ETH Loses $2K Support appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Ripple’s XRP remains under sustained bearish pressure, with the price continuing to print lower lows and failing to reclaim key supply zones. The broader structure still reflects a dominant downtrend, and the recent price action suggests sellers remain in control as the market approaches a critical demand area that could define the next directional move.

Ripple Price Analysis: The Daily Chart

On the daily timeframe, XRP is trading deep within a bearish market structure, having lost multiple former support levels that have now flipped into resistance. The price is currently pressing into a well-defined demand zone at the $1.3 range highlighted on the chart, an area that previously acted as a base before the last impulsive upside move. This zone represents the first meaningful area where buyers may attempt to slow the decline.

However, the broader daily trend remains decisively bearish. Each corrective bounce over the past months has been capped by lower supply zones, and the asset has consistently respected these areas before continuing lower. As long as XRP remains below the channel’s mid-trendline of $1.6, any bounce from the current demand should be treated as corrective rather than trend-reversing.

Nevertheless, a failure to hold this demand zone would significantly weaken the structure and open the door for a deeper continuation toward lower, untested liquidity levels. Conversely, a strong daily reaction from this area would be required to signal short-term relief, but not yet a confirmed trend shift.

XRP/USDT 4-Hour Chart

The 4-hour chart provides additional clarity on the internal structure of the downtrend. Recent price action shows a sharp rejection from successive supply zones, confirming that sellers are aggressively defending these levels.

Following the latest rejection, the asset accelerated lower and is now approaching the $1.3 critical support, which also aligns with the broader demand zone visible on the daily timeframe. This confluence increases the probability of at least a short-term reaction, as short sellers may begin to take profits and reactive buyers step in.

That said, the presence of multiple stacked supply zones above the current price at $1.6 and $2 significantly limits upside potential in the near term. Any rebound toward these levels would likely face renewed selling pressure, unless accompanied by a clear break in structure and acceptance above the channel. Until such confirmation appears, the 4-hour trend remains firmly bearish, with rallies best viewed as pullbacks within a broader downtrend.

The post Ripple Price Analysis: What Happens to XRP if the $1.30 Demand Zone Breaks? appeared first on CryptoPotato.