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Bitcoin’s price has finally steadied after a volatile week triggered by escalating geopolitical tensions between the US and the EU, but it remains under $90,000. Last weekend, BTC traded above $95,000, fueled by early 2026 optimism. However, when the US announced new potential tariffs if EU nations failed to reach an agreement over Greenland, the cryptocurrency came under pressure.

As the situation developed, BTC fell steadily after Monday’s Asian and futures market opens, dropping first to $92,000. Bears continued to dominate, pushing Bitcoin below $90,000 and eventually to a multi-week low of $87,200 by Wednesday, coinciding with Trump’s speech in Davos. Following his clarification that force would not be used to take control of Greenland and hints of ongoing negotiations with Denmark, Bitcoin bounced back above $90,000 briefly but then settled around $88,000. By Friday, it tested $91,000 yet could not maintain momentum and currently remains under $90,000. Its market capitalization sits below $1.8 trillion, and its dominance over altcoins stands at 57.5%.

Altcoins have been more dynamic, showing notable gains amid Bitcoin’s stagnation. Hyperliquid (HYPE), which had been in free-fall for about a week, rebounded strongly with an 11% increase, trading at $23. However, HYPE is still down over 7% for the week. RIVER was another standout, posting a massive 32% daily surge and entering the top 100 cryptocurrencies. MYX also made notable gains, rising 12% to $6.50 over the past 24 hours.

Other major altcoins showed mixed performance. Ethereum continues to struggle below the $3,000 mark despite a small 1% gain, XRP remains under $2, and BNB is trading beneath $900. Meanwhile, assets like XMR and CC have posted strong gains, and WLFI also saw notable upward movement. In contrast, TRX experienced daily losses, reflecting the uneven performance across the market.

Despite the swings, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization has held firm just above $3.1 trillion, showing resilience in the face of both geopolitical tension and recent volatility. Analysts note that HYPE and other altcoins could continue to see sharp moves as the market digests these fluctuations, while Bitcoin remains the anchor of the market, struggling to reclaim its previous highs.

Spot XRP exchange-traded funds ended their longest streak of daily net inflows this week, marking the first weekly outflow since the debut of Canary Capital’s XRPC in November. The shift comes as Ripple’s price slid below $2, wiping out much of its early 2026 gains.

After nearly two months of continuous inflows, the ETFs experienced a record daily outflow of $53.32 million earlier in the week. The shortened trading week, with Monday off for MLK Day, limited investor recovery, and net inflows for the remaining days were modest. Overall, the four-day trading period saw $40.64 million in outflows, reducing cumulative net inflows from $1.28 billion to $1.23 billion.

XRP itself struggled after jumping from under $1.90 to $2.40 at the start of 2026, only to retreat to around $1.90 amid broader market corrections and rising geopolitical tensions. Analysts note that the token is now trading within a consolidation pattern, suggesting a breakout could fuel the next upward move.

Despite bearish sentiment among traders, some data points indicate this pessimism might set the stage for a potential rebound in the near term.

Two months after selling his Bitcoin holdings to invest in other ventures, Robert Kiyosaki, the New York Times best-selling author, said on X that he will continue buying Bitcoin, Ethereum, gold, and silver. He emphasized that short-term price movements do not concern him.

When asked if he cares about the daily ups and downs of these assets, Kiyosaki replied, “No, I don’t care.” He pointed to larger issues like the rapidly rising U.S. national debt and the declining purchasing power of the dollar, which recently had its worst trading week against other currencies since June 2025. Kiyosaki argued that focusing on prices makes little sense when “highly educated PhDs” are running the Fed, Treasury, and government. His strategy is simple: keep accumulating gold, silver, Bitcoin, and Ethereum to grow wealth.

Kiyosaki’s statement comes after he liquidated over $2 million worth of Bitcoin to buy two surgery centers and invest in a billboard business, yet he plans to continue acquiring BTC using the proceeds from those cash-flow investments.

He also reiterated his long-standing support for silver, calling it “superior.” Silver has surged over 100 percent in recent months, surpassing $100 per ounce. Kiyosaki predicts the rally could continue, with $200 per ounce as a realistic target in 2026.

Farcaster co-founder Dan Romero confirmed on January 22 that the decentralized social protocol is not shutting down, countering rumors that surfaced after its recent acquisition by Neynar. He also stated that Farcaster’s parent company, Merkle, plans to return the full $180 million it raised to investors, calling it responsible capital management.

Romero highlighted that Farcaster had around 250,000 monthly active users in December 2025 and more than 100,000 funded wallets, emphasizing that the platform “works and will continue to work.” He said Neynar, which has been building Farcaster’s core infrastructure, intends to shift the network toward a more developer-focused approach. Ownership of protocol contracts, code, the app, and Clanker will transfer to Neynar in the coming weeks.

The move follows Farcaster’s December 2025 pivot from a social graph model to a wallet-driven approach, making in-app wallet functionality the central product. On returning capital, Romero said Merkle would refund the $180 million raised over five years and clarified that personal assets, like his home, came from prior Coinbase proceeds, not Farcaster funds. Early supporters, including Antonio García Martínez and Balaji Srinivasan, confirmed the refund and defended Romero, dismissing shutdown claims.

Critics remain skeptical, questioning leadership, governance, and the logic of selling to a smaller firm. Some accused Romero of cashing out amid stalled growth, though investors like Linda Xie rejected those claims as inaccurate. Others noted the inherent challenges of scaling social networks, citing the struggles of platforms like Threads and Mastodon.

The debate underscores a divided crypto community: some view the acquisition and investor refunds as a rare, orderly resolution, while others see it as a high-cost experiment that didn’t meet expectations.

The cryptocurrency market is undergoing a transformation few anticipated, as weaker projects fail under competition and regulatory pressure while leading platforms emerge as future industry standards.

Ryan Watkins, former senior research analyst at Messari, described this shift as the biggest crypto transition he has seen in eight years. In a post on X titled “The Twilight Zone: On the Cryptoeconomy in 2026 & Beyond,” he explained that valuations in the 2021 cycle had built in unrealistic expectations, which the market has spent the past four years correcting. This reset has left high-quality assets at more rational levels while altcoin sentiment remains depressed after a prolonged bear market.

Watkins noted that regulatory uncertainty in the United States has historically slowed institutional adoption. Combined with dual equity-token structures, weak disclosure standards, cyclical revenues, and a lack of shared valuation methods, these structural issues worsened post-2021 token underperformance. The result was significant price declines, psychological burnout among investors, and the exit of speculative capital that viewed crypto as a shortcut to wealth.

According to Watkins, this washout was necessary. The pre-2022 period allowed weak projects to produce outsized, unsustainable returns. Today, regulatory clarity, better alignment between insiders and token holders, improved disclosure practices, and third-party data services are helping the market mature.

He highlighted a range of crypto applications showing real growth independent of price cycles, including peer-to-peer financial networks, digital dollars, decentralized exchanges, derivatives markets, global collateral systems, on-chain fundraising, tokenized assets, and decentralized infrastructure networks. He stressed that while most crypto assets will need to generate cash flows, Bitcoin and Ethereum remain exceptional as stores of value, and that self-sovereign ownership of on-chain cash flows is a key innovation.

Leading blockchains such as Ethereum, Solana, and Hyperliquid are solidifying their positions as core platforms for startups and enterprises. Their permissionless design, capital efficiency, and global reach are helping them host some of the fastest-growing crypto businesses. Watkins also noted that Wall Street and Silicon Valley firms are increasingly launching production-grade blockchain products, especially in tokenization and stablecoins, as regulatory clarity allows focus on revenue growth and cost efficiency.

Despite this momentum, Watkins observed that many analysts underestimate potential growth, often projecting annual rates below 20%. This mispricing represents a multi-year opportunity for top projects. He added that crypto’s relevance is growing as trust in traditional institutions declines, sovereign debt rises, and fiat currencies weaken.

However, stronger competition and higher standards will likely push weaker projects out, leaving only a handful of native winners. Watkins concluded by noting that the cryptoeconomy is not a single market maturing uniformly but a collection of products and businesses on different adoption curves. Speculation does not disappear in a growth phase; it merely shifts with sentiment and innovation. Anyone claiming the speculative era is over is likely misinformed or overlooking history.

Precious metals are surging again while Bitcoin struggles to keep momentum. As global uncertainty and geopolitical tensions rise, investors appear to be rotating into traditional safe havens like gold and silver, putting cryptocurrencies on the back foot for now.

Earlier today, Bitcoin attempted to break higher but was rejected near $91,000, even as gold and silver posted fresh record highs. The contrast highlights where capital is flowing during the current risk off environment.

Bitcoin’s gains from early 2026 were wiped out this week following escalating rhetoric between Trump and the European Union, including tariff threats and aggressive language tied to Greenland. The market reaction was swift, with BTC sliding from above $95,000 to a multi week low around $87,200 before rebounding toward $90,000.

After hovering near that level for most of the day, Bitcoin made another push higher but sellers stepped in near $91,200 and stopped the move. The rejection triggered another drop of nearly $2,000. Most altcoins followed the decline, resulting in more than $300 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, with over half occurring in just the last four hours, according to Coinglass.

Meanwhile, precious metals continue to rally. Gold briefly hit $4,970 earlier in the day, pulled back slightly, then broke higher to a new all time high near $4,980. The metal is now within reach of $5,000 and is up more than 15 percent since the start of the year.

Silver is also extending its strong run. After posting triple digit gains in 2025, it has jumped another 42 percent in just the first few weeks of 2026, recently breaking above $100 for the first time.

Part of the strength in gold and silver is being driven by weakness in the US dollar. According to Bloomberg, the dollar is on track for its worst weekly performance against other currencies and asset classes since June.

Ethereum co founder Vitalik Buterin is calling on users to rethink how they use everyday software, arguing that digital privacy should be a default choice rather than a niche concern. He says people can significantly reduce data exposure by moving away from centralized platforms and adopting decentralized, privacy focused alternatives.

In a post shared on X on January 22, Buterin said 2026 should represent a turning point for computing self sovereignty, a goal he emphasized goes far beyond blockchain technology. Over the past year, he has gradually replaced many mainstream services with privacy first tools, including encrypted document storage through Fileverse and a shift from Telegram to messaging apps like Signal, SimpleX, and Session.

He also said he has stopped relying on Google Maps, opting instead for OpenStreetMap based apps such as Organic Maps to keep location data stored locally. For email, he moved from Gmail to Proton Mail, while noting that encrypted messaging remains the safer option for sensitive conversations.

Buterin addressed his work with local artificial intelligence models, saying progress has been fast but the overall experience is still fragmented. While capable local models are now available, they lack the smooth integration of mainstream services for tasks like translation, transcription, and document search. He added that running these models continuously still demands significant power and resources.

The Ethereum co founder also reiterated his plan to fully adopt decentralized social media by 2026. He said he already posts through Firefly, a multi client platform that connects to multiple social networks, and criticized major platforms for prioritizing engagement while limiting competition through closed data systems.

His push for privacy follows earlier warnings about data collection practices by large tech companies. In late 2025, he criticized location labeling features on social platforms, arguing that even limited geographic signals can put users at risk. During the same period, he donated 256 ETH to encrypted messaging projects Session and SimpleX to support efforts aimed at reducing metadata exposure and removing phone number requirements.

Overall, Buterin’s message is clear. Privacy focused tools already exist, and broader adoption depends less on regulation and more on usability, integration, and conscious changes in user behavior.

The return of the META narrative has lifted tokens like SAND, AXS, and MANA, yet underlying data suggests that network growth and liquidity remain weak.

Since January 9, market leadership appears to have shifted. While major cryptocurrencies are moving sideways, several small cap tokens have stepped into the spotlight, largely driven by renewed excitement around META related assets.

This month, three tokens have clearly stood out.

Altcoin Vector described the current move as a short lived rally rather than a sign of a healthier market. With network activity declining and liquidity thinning, the surge is being labeled a “pocket rally,” driven more by speculation than by long term structural growth. SAND, AXS, and MANA sit at the core of this trend.

According to the platform, Axie Infinity has taken the lead after making tokenomic changes aimed at lowering inflation, which has reignited speculative interest across gaming and metaverse projects. Altcoin Vector’s Altcoin Quadrant shows most altcoins still in an accumulation phase, while META related assets have jumped into scalp territory, making them clear outliers.

When comparing SAND and AXS, AXS showed stronger momentum. Its Impulse metric remained positive and continued to recover after a brief pullback, signaling that the market is responding to Axie Infinity’s efforts to build a more sustainable ecosystem.

Despite the strong price action, Altcoin Vector cautioned that rapid gains do not mean stability. Small caps are leading because fast moving capital is chasing short term returns, not because of solid foundational growth. For a lasting rally, adoption needs to increase and leadership must return to Bitcoin and Ethereum.

The platform summed it up by advising traders to take advantage of the META narrative but remain cautious. Long term growth needs to be driven by real infrastructure and adoption rather than hype. Without stronger support from core assets, the rally remains speculative.

At the time of writing, AXS is trading at $2.69, up 224.4 percent over the past month. MANA has climbed nearly 47 percent and is priced at $0.169, while SAND is trading around $0.157 after gaining more than 41 percent over the same period.

Peter Schiff has renewed his long-standing criticism of Bitcoin, claiming the cryptocurrency is one of Wall Street’s worst-performing assets. Schiff argued that while Bitcoin performed exceptionally well when few investors held it, its performance has lagged since institutional adoption and widespread buying.

Nate Geraci, president of NovaDius Wealth Management, pushed back against this view. He noted that since the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs, the cryptocurrency has gained roughly 90 percent, outperforming the S&P 500, which has risen less than 50 percent over the same period. Geraci highlighted the strong demand for ETFs and expressed frustration with Schiff’s repeated bearish commentary.

In recent months, Schiff has continued to praise traditional precious metals while questioning Bitcoin’s role as “digital gold.” Last December, he celebrated gold surpassing $4,400 and speculated whether it would reach $5,000 before Bitcoin hit $50,000. He has also suggested that Bitcoin could collapse before any major U.S. dollar crisis occurs.

Market dynamics appear to be shifting, however. A report from Santiment shows that rising global uncertainty has led investors to favor precious metals. Over the past year, silver has surged 214 percent, gold has risen 77 percent, and Bitcoin has declined 16 percent. Historically, Bitcoin and metals have alternated as market leaders, and some analysts view the recent divergence as a potential bullish sign for crypto.

Institutional interest in Bitcoin remains strong, with steady accumulation continuing since late November last year, indicating that long-term confidence in the digital asset persists despite short-term volatility.

Ripple (XRP) slipped to $1.91 on Friday, declining 2 percent, but the market has yet to show strong conviction in either direction. While XRP is not breaking down structurally, selling pressure remains, and a clear trend has not emerged.

Analysis from CryptoQuant indicates that XRP’s market on Binance maintains a 30-day price-to-Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD) correlation of approximately 0.61. This reflects a moderate to strong alignment between price movements and net volume flows, suggesting that recent price action is consistent with trading activity rather than detached from it. Such a correlation generally confirms the underlying trend, showing internal coherence rather than signaling a short-term reversal.

At the same time, the current CVD reading is still negative, meaning that accumulated selling has not yet shifted into sustained net buying. The combination of positive correlation and negative CVD serves as a “confirmation score,” highlighting the strength of the ongoing trend rather than providing explicit buy or sell signals. This setup also helps identify potential divergence, as rising prices with weakening correlation or persistent negative CVD could signal internal weakness. For now, XRP’s stable correlation despite soft price action may indicate a base-building phase rather than active distribution.

Social sentiment has turned cautious, with Santiment noting that XRP has entered “Extreme Fear” following a sharp drop from its January 5 high. Historically, heavy bearish commentary has often preceded rallies, and periods of intense negative sentiment can sometimes trigger upward moves.

Analyst Ali Martinez highlighted $1.78 as a key support level, with resistance levels around $1.97 and $2.00. Institutional interest in XRP remains modest but steady, as spot XRP ETFs recorded $2.09 million in net inflows on January 22, according to SoSoValue.

Overall, XRP’s structure appears intact despite ongoing selling, and the market may be consolidating while waiting for a decisive move.