Из жизни альткоинов

Bitcoin has managed to claw its way back to $78.5K, a psychological level that has bulls calling for a run to six figures. But pop the champagne just yet? Probably not.

A closer look at the order books reveals a troubling divergence: price is rising, but conviction is thinning.

The bounce looks driven largely by derivatives leverage rather than spot demand. Order block analysis suggests a massive liquidity gap between $72,000 and the current price. Meaning? Any sudden selling pressure could cascade rapidly without structural support to catch the falling knife. It’s a fragile setup where volatility is the only guarantee.

While price action remains choppy, the underlying ecosystem is shifting gears. Smart money is looking past the daily candles—often noise anyway, and focusing on the structural limitations plaguing the network. Every time Bitcoin rallies, fees spike and confirmation times drag.

That bottleneck has catalyzed a rotation of capital into infrastructure plays designed to solve these exact friction points. Investors are increasingly hedging their spot exposure by moving into high-performance Layer 2 protocols. The logic is sound: if Bitcoin succeeds, the network needs scaling; if it stalls, innovation happens on the layers above.

Leading this charge is Bitcoin Hyper, a project that’s becoming a focal point for institutional-grade interest by integrating Solana’s speed directly onto Bitcoin’s security layer.

Buy $HYPER today.

Bitcoin Hyper Merges SVM Speed With Bitcoin Security

The market has long debated whether Bitcoin should remain a store of value or evolve into a programmable platform. Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) renders that debate moot by offering both. As the first Bitcoin Layer 2 to integrate the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM), it delivers technical prowess that legacy sidechains just haven’t achieved.

That matters. Ethereum’s dominance in DeFi stemmed largely from Bitcoin’s inability to handle complex smart contracts. By using the SVM, Bitcoin Hyper introduces low-latency execution to the Bitcoin ecosystem. The architecture is modular: it uses Bitcoin L1 for final settlement and a real-time SVM L2 for execution. The result? Sub-second finality, a stark contrast to the main chain’s 10-minute crawl.

Developers (usually the first to spot technical breakouts) are eyeing the ‘Decentralized Canonical Bridge.’ This infrastructure unlocks high-speed payments in wrapped BTC and enables sophisticated DeFi applications, from lending protocols to NFT platforms, all built with Rust-based SDKs. It solves the “trilemma” by keeping the base layer secure while outsourcing the heavy lifting to a hyper-efficient execution layer.

Check out the Bitcoin Hyper ecosystem.

Smart Money Rotates Into $31M Presale Event

While the broader market stays tentative about short-term price action, capital allocators are aggressively positioning themselves in the $HYPER presale. The project has raised over $31.2M, a figure that underscores the demand for scalable Bitcoin infrastructure.

On-chain metrics back this up. According to Etherscan records, two whale wallets have accumulated over $1M in $HYPER tokens.

The largest single transaction ($500K) hit the chain on Jan 15, 2026, signaling that high-net-worth individuals are securing positions well before public trading starts. With tokens currently priced at $0.013675, these early entries suggest a belief that the asset is undervalued relative to its utility.

The tokenomics look designed to incentivize long-term holding. The protocol offers high APY staking immediately after the Token Generation Event (TGE), with a modest 7-day vesting period for presale stakers. That structure mitigates the risk of immediate post-launch dumping while rewarding governance participants. For investors weary of Bitcoin’s current chop at $78.5K, the $HYPER presale represents a calculated bet on the future of scalability.

Visit the official presale site.

Disclaimer This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments carry high risks, including the potential for total loss. Always verify presale details independently.

Генеральный прокурор штата Нью-Йорк Летиция Джеймс (Letitia James) и окружной прокурор Манхэттена Элвин Брэгг (Alvin Bragg) направили письмо в Конгресс, заявив, что закон о регулировании выпуска и оборота стейблкоинов в США GENIUS позволяет эмитентам токенов получать прибыль от украденных криптовалют.

Сооснователь Fundstrat Global Advisors и председатель BitMine Immersion Technologies Том Ли (Tom Lee) связал падение курса эфира с резким ростом цен на драгметаллы, назвав этот эффект «золотым вихрем».

Bitcoin entered the weekend under heavy selling pressure, decisively losing the $80,000 support and sliding to the $74,000 area for the first time since April 2025. The move has intensified concerns that the market is no longer in a corrective pause but is instead transitioning into a broader bearish phase. Price weakness has coincided with fading demand signals, particularly from US-based investors, a dynamic now standing out clearly in on-chain data.

A recent CryptoQuant report highlights a structural shift when comparing the February–April 2025 period with market conditions from November 2025 to today. During the first half of 2025, the Coinbase Premium Index frequently dipped into negative territory, but only briefly. Discounts appeared, were absorbed relatively quickly, and did not persist. That behavior was consistent with tactical selling into strength, rather than a sustained absence of buyers.

The current environment looks materially different. Negative Coinbase Premium readings have become deeper and more persistent, suggesting that US spot demand is no longer stepping in to absorb downside moves. Even after significant price adjustments, discounts remain unresolved, pointing to buyers staying on the sidelines. As Bitcoin trades at levels not seen in nearly a year, this weakening spot demand raises the risk that further downside could unfold before a durable base is formed.

US Spot Demand Remains Absent

The report explains that the current behavior of the Coinbase Premium marks a clear departure from earlier phases of this cycle. Negative prints are no longer brief or episodic. Instead, they are deeper and persist for extended periods, with only short-lived and shallow recoveries. This pattern goes beyond simple selling pressure. It reflects a sustained absence of US spot demand, even as prices move lower.

Short-term discounts can emerge for many reasons, including macro shocks, liquidation events, or temporary risk aversion. However, when the premium remains negative after the price has already adjusted, it typically signals that buyers are not stepping in. In other words, the market is not finding support from US-based spot participants who have historically played a stabilizing role during drawdowns.

In practice, this shift is visible in several ways. Downside moves are not being absorbed by spot inflows on US venues. Rebounds occur, but they lack confirmation from spot demand and fade quickly. As a result, price action becomes increasingly driven by derivatives, leverage, and short-term positioning rather than sustained capital allocation.

Compared with spring 2025, US spot demand is now weaker both in magnitude and persistence. Until the Coinbase Premium turns positive and holds for a sustained period, upside momentum remains structurally fragile, leaving Bitcoin vulnerable to further downside pressure.

Weekly Structure Weakens as Bitcoin Breaks Key Support

Bitcoin’s weekly chart shows a clear structural deterioration following the loss of the $80,000 support zone. After topping above $120,000 in mid-2025, price has formed a sequence of lower highs and lower lows, signaling a transition from expansion to distribution. The recent breakdown toward the $74,000–$77,000 area marks the first visit to these levels since April 2025, confirming that prior demand has failed to hold.

From a trend perspective, Bitcoin is now trading below its 50-week moving average, which has started to roll over. This level previously acted as dynamic support throughout the bull phase, but the failure to reclaim it suggests weakening medium-term momentum. The 100-week moving average, currently near the mid-$80,000s, has also flipped into resistance, reinforcing the bearish structure. Meanwhile, the 200-week moving average remains well below price, near the low-$60,000 region, defining a potential downside magnet if selling pressure persists.

Volume dynamics add to the caution. Selling waves during the breakdown are accompanied by elevated volume compared to recent consolidation phases, indicating distribution rather than passive drift. Although the latest candle shows a modest rebound, it lacks follow-through and remains corrective in nature.

The chart suggests Bitcoin is in a transition phase toward a broader bearish regime. Unless price can decisively reclaim the $85,000–$90,000 zone, rallies are likely to be sold, with risk skewed toward a deeper test of long-term demand levels.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com 

Генеральный прокурор штата Аризона Крис Мэйес (Kris Mayes) объявил о новой форме подачи жалоб для жертв мошенничества, потерявших деньги в криптоматах. О краже и потере средств нужно успеть сообщить в течение 30 дней, чтобы повысить шансы на возврат средств.

Bitcoin’s price crash over the weekend pushed some big holders into the red for a short while, but a handful of major players signaled they were still buying into the dip.

Strategy’s executive chairman Michael Saylor posted on X “More Orange” after the slide, hinting at fresh accumulation for a company that has been steadily adding to its stash for years.

Reports show Strategy’s holdings remain large, at roughly 712,647 BTC, which underlines why its moves draw so much attention from traders and investors.

Average ETF Cost Still Above Trading Levels

Reports say US spot Bitcoin ETFs manage about $113 billion and hold roughly 1.28 million BTC, putting an implied average buy price above current market rates.

This gap explains why many ETF positions are showing losses on paper even though some institutions keep buying.

The fact that passive products can be underwater at the same time a corporate buyer adds to its balance sheet creates an odd mix of market signals.

More Orange. pic.twitter.com/b5iYIMARJX

— Michael Saylor (@saylor) February 1, 2026

Exchange Balances Continue To Fall

One sign the sell-off may not be pure panic is the steady flow of coins off exchanges into private wallets. Reports note exchange reserves have slid to levels not seen in years, a trend that often points to long-term hoarding rather than immediate selling.

Lower exchange balances usually mean there are fewer coins ready to be sold quickly, which can make price swings more extreme when demand dries up.

Transaction Costs Remain Low

On the network side, average transaction fees stayed relatively modest during the crash, so ordinary activity did not choke the chain.

Data show the typical fee hovered around $0.7 per transfer in late January, which keeps small transfers practical and means the network was not under strain even as prices moved sharply. Low fees can encourage more on-chain movement without creating bottlenecks.

Network Security Saw A Brief Drop

Reports have highlighted a recent pullback in hashrate, as miners in some regions faced weather and operational disruptions, causing a near-term drop of roughly 12% from prior highs.

Strategy has acquired 22,305 BTC for ~$2.13 billion at ~$95,284 per bitcoin. As of 1/19/2026, we hodl 709,715 $BTC acquired for ~$53.92 billion at ~$75,979 per bitcoin. $MSTR $STRC $STRK $STRF $STRD $STRE https://t.co/6hpAeOxp2I

— Strategy (@Strategy) January 20, 2026

Optimism Is High

Strategy has ramped up its Bitcoin buying after a slower period in 2025, completing its largest purchase since February last year. The firm added 13,627 BTC worth about $1.3 billion, signaling a renewed push to grow its holdings.

Saylor’s latest post fits a familiar pattern that markets have learned to watch closely. Each time Bitcoin stumbles into fear-heavy territory, his brief messages tend to surface, often read as quiet confidence rather than noise.

While prices remain fragile and sentiment uneven, Strategy’s continued signaling suggests conviction has not faded at the corporate level.

Featured image from Alexander Spatari/Getty Images, chart from TradingView

Ripple and Stellar were pulled into a fresh round of social-media speculation this weekend after newly surfaced emails from the Epstein document release appeared to reference the two projects in a 2014 investor dispute. Former Ripple CTO David Schwartz pushed back publicly, saying he knows of no direct links between Epstein and either network, and framed the episode as another example of tribal politics bleeding into crypto.

Schwartz Reacts After Epstein Docs Mention Ripple, Stellar

The spark came from a screenshot circulating on X that shows an email chain in which Austin Hill (co-founder of Blockstream) complained to a group of high-profile recipients, including Epstein, about investors allocating capital across competing projects. According to Schwartz, the document “is an email from Austin Hill to Jeffrey Epstein explaining that Hill felt that support for Ripple or Stellar made someone an enemy/opponent,” adding that Hill likely shared similar views “to many other people.”

As the image spread, some posts characterized the mere inclusion of Ripple and Stellar in the email as evidence of deeper involvement. Schwartz responded with a message that tried to separate inflammatory framing from what the document actually shows.

“I don’t know of any connections between Jeffrey Epstein and Ripple, XRP, or Stellar. [I don’t know of] any evidence anyone at Ripple or Stellar ever met with Epstein or anyone closely connected to him,” he wrote. “There are some indirect ties between Epstein and people connected to Bitcoin in various ways, but that’s probably true of most very wealthy people.”

Schwartz’s first post on the thread captured the mood of the day, both suspicion and a reluctance to feed it. “I hate to be a conspiracy theorist, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this is just the tip of a giant iceberg,” he wrote while linking to the DOJ-hosted file. He later argued the more corrosive issue was the “enemy/opponent” mindset, writing that “we really are all in this together and this kind of attitude hurts everyone in the space.”

In the underlying 2014 email described in the source material, Hill is portrayed as objecting to backers funding multiple “horses” at once, treating support for Ripple or Stellar as hostile to the bitcoin-centric “ecosystem” he was building at Blockstream. Reports summarizing the chain say it was sent to Joichi Ito, Epstein, and Reid Hoffman, and included language that investors in both camps were “backing two horses in the same race.”

The resurfaced email also revived an older fault line in how early projects structured themselves. In response to a user asking about Ripple versus Stellar’s nonprofit posture, Schwartz said the idea was debated early on and that he opposed it.

“We discussed it in the early days. I was strongly against it because it seemed dishonest and borderline illegal to have a non-profit whose success was so tied to the gains of private parties,” he wrote. “It felt, at least to me, like Walmart creating a non-profit to help educate people about how much money they could save by shopping at Walmart.”

At press time, XRP traded at $1.64.

On-chain data shows the Bitcoin spot price is now below the cost basis of nearly two-thirds of inflows into exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

62% Of US Bitcoin Spot ETF Inflows Now In Loss

In a new X post, on-chain analyst Checkmate has shared a chart discussing the latest situation related to the Bitcoin spot ETFs. Spot ETFs are investment vehicles that allow investors to gain indirect exposure to an underlying asset. Such funds are available for Bitcoin and other digital assets in many parts of the world, but the ones of interest here are those based in the United States. First approved back in January 2024, US BTC spot ETFs have been in operation for more than two years now, and in that time, they have witnessed significant growth.

Lately, however, the trend related to these funds has been one of net outflows as the wider cryptocurrency sector has gone through a bearish shift. Outflows in the last two weeks, in particular, have been quite intense.

Below is the chart posted by the analyst that shows the trend in the weekly netflow related to the Bitcoin spot ETFs, among other metrics:

From the graph, it’s visible that the Bitcoin spot ETFs have witnessed net outflow spikes of $1.33 billion and $1.49 billion during the last two weeks, representing the third and second largest outflow sprees in the history of these funds. Alongside the negative netflows, Bitcoin has plunged under the $80,000 level. The asset is now trading under the average cost basis of the spot ETFs (marked in the chart using the dashed line), meaning that the majority of capital stored in these funds is now being held at a loss.

In the netflow graph, Checkmate has highlighted which of the weekly inflow spikes are part of this loss of supply. It would appear that the last green inflows are now sitting all the way back in late 2024, with all spikes since then underwater. “If you assume a cost basis of inflows on the day they occurred, 62% of ETF inflows are now underwater,” noted the analyst.

So far in the history of BTC spot ETFs, holders haven’t been underwater to a significant degree as BTC has generally gone up since their launch. During a phase in mid-2024, the cryptocurrency did dip below the cost basis of these traders, but even then, it never went too far below the line.

Given this, the latest breach of the Bitcoin spot ETF break-even level could end up being the first time that these investors would have to deal with the pain of a bear phase. It now remains to be seen how the netflow related to these investment vehicles will develop in the coming weeks.

BTC Price

Bitcoin fell to $75,000 on Sunday, but the asset has rebounded a bit to start the new week as its price is now floating around $77,800.

Igor Runets, the entrepreneur behind one of Russia’s biggest Bitcoin farms, was taken into custody Friday as tax investigators moved in on his company.

The move shocked many in the mining world because BitRiver runs huge data halls in Siberia and has been a visible player since the early 2020s.

Runets Held As Tax Case Advances

Based on reports, Igor Runets was detained on January 30, 2026, and charged the next day with several counts tied to hiding income and assets from tax authorities.

A Moscow court later set conditions that would place him under house arrest starting February 4 unless his legal team overturns that order. The limits on his freedom are now expected to complicate how BitRiver manages day-to-day decisions.

BitRiver Under Strain

BitRiver contracts out space, power, and cooling to big mining clients. Those deals matter because mining runs on tight margins and steady power.

Reports note the firm has already dealt with sanctions from the US Treasury back in 2022 and lost some international partners after that.

In the past, partners in Asia pulled back. That exit, combined with legal pressure now, could make it harder for BitRiver to keep operations humming where margins are thin.

How This Could Ripple Through Mining

The arrest puts new legal risk squarely on a company that hosts a lot of third-party miners. If leadership is distracted or restricted, boards and clients may rethink contracts.

Industry Reaction And Financial Signals

Crypto markets tend to react to big headlines. But mining is also local and practical: refrigeration, power lines, and worker shifts.

BitRiver’s founder was estimated to hold roughly $230 million in wealth tied to the business as of 2024. That figure helps explain why the case drew attention.

Analysts are watching whether creditors, partners, or insurers change their stance. Some lenders may tighten terms. Suppliers might demand new assurances.

Legal Next Steps For Runets And BitRiver

Reports say Runets’ lawyers will file appeals and seek to limit restrictions. The court’s steps in late January and early February will set the tone for how much control he keeps.

Investigators are focusing on alleged tax concealment and transfers designed to mask assets. If the case widens, executives and board members elsewhere in the sector could see increased scrutiny.

A Moment Of Uncertainty For A Key Player

BitRiver has been one of the more visible mining hosts in Russia. Its future now depends on legal rulings, partner confidence, and how the company steadies operations while facing new constraints.

For miners that used BitRiver’s sites, the immediate concern is continuity—keeping rigs online and power contracts intact.

For the market, the story is a reminder that mining ventures don’t operate in a legal vacuum and that regulatory pressure can change business math fast.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Russia’s biggest crypto mining company is under renewed scrutiny after authorities detained BitRiver founder and CEO Igor Runets on multiple tax evasion charges, deepening the legal and financial pressure on a firm already constrained by sanctions and operational setbacks.

Related Reading: With Bitcoin Below $80K, ARK Reframes The Narrative Around Gold

The case, which is being handled by a Moscow court, has drawn attention to the risks facing large-scale crypto miners operating at the intersection of energy, regulation, and geopolitics.

According to reports from Russian outlets RBK and Kommersant, Runets was detained late last week and formally charged with three counts of alleged tax evasion.

Court filings indicate that the Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow ordered him placed under house arrest, a measure that restricts his movement while investigators proceed. His legal team has a limited window to appeal the ruling before it becomes fully enforceable.

Court Case Adds Pressure On Bitriver

Founded in 2017, BitRiver grew rapidly into Russia’s leading Bitcoin mining operator by building large data centers across Siberia.

The company used the region’s cold climate and relatively low electricity costs to support its mining operations and to provide infrastructure services to corporate clients. At its peak, BitRiver operated thousands of mining rigs across multiple sites and accounted for a significant share of Russia’s legal crypto-mining capacity.

Runets’ detention comes amid mounting challenges for BitRiver. The company was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department in mid-2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, limiting its access to Western partners and financial systems.

In 2023, Japanese financial group SBI exited its mining arrangement with BitRiver following its withdrawal from Russia, dealing a blow to the firm’s international business.

Financial Strain And Legal Disputes

Reports suggest that BitRiver began cutting costs and scaling back parts of its operations toward the end of 2024, leading to salary payment delays affecting employees.

The pressure continued into early 2025, when regional electricity provider Infrastructure of Siberia filed two lawsuits, alleging that it had paid BitRiver for equipment that was never delivered.

Despite these issues, Russia’s industrial mining sector continued to generate significant revenue in 2024, with BitRiver remaining the market leader. Bloomberg estimated Runets’ net worth at around $230 million in late 2024, largely tied to his role in the crypto mining industry.

Wider Implications for The Crypto Sector

The case against Runets highlights the growing legal and regulatory risks facing crypto executives, both in Russia and abroad. While authorities investigate the alleged tax violations, BitRiver must also manage ongoing litigation, strained partnerships, and scrutiny linked to sanctions.

Related Reading: With Bitcoin Below $80K, ARK Reframes The Narrative Around Gold

As the market awaits the verdict, the case’s outcome could shape how Russian crypto mining firms approach compliance, financing, and governance in an increasingly restrictive environment.

Cover image from ChatGPT, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview

A viral post on the social media platform X recently claimed that Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, just sold 10,000 BTC. An attached screenshot purported to show on-chain data supporting the claim, and the rumor quickly garnered attention on the social media platform. 

The ramifications of such a sale are huge because Nakamoto’s stash is untouched going back to the earliest days of Bitcoin mining. However, a closer look into blockchain records tells a very different story.

Investigating The Rumor Of Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin Sale

According to a post on X by a crypto account with the username Discover, Satoshi Nakamoto recently moved 10,000 BTC from its long-dormant wallet. The report suggests that over $760 million worth of Bitcoin had been sold by its creator, a move that could cause further harm to its price action, which is already fragile and trading with prevailing bearish momentum.

The image shared with the rumor appears to be taken from Arkham Intelligence, a popular on-chain analytics platform. The screenshot, which is shown below, highlights the outflow of 10,000 BTC into account ‘bc1qcj,’ with the last transfer being 12 years ago.

However, the records in this screenshot do not align with the real ledger of Bitcoin transactions. Closer inspection of on-chain transactions on Arkham Intelligence shows there is no evidence of a single transfer of 10,000 BTC attributed to at least one known address linked to Nakamoto. 

The real data shows no outflow from Nakamoto’s wallets for over 12 years. Instead, small fractions of Bitcoin, almost negligible in the context of Satoshi’s holdings, have been flowing in. These tiny movements are likely dust or micro-transactions occurring as part of normal blockchain activity, with the last being an inflow of 0.0000329 six days ago.

Why The Rumor?

The identity and actions of Satoshi Nakamoto have always been a source of speculation among crypto investors. Nakamoto is the largest holder of Bitcoin, believed to have mined somewhere around 1 million Bitcoin in the early years of the network, but he has been quiet since April 2011. 

Therefore, any suggestion that those coins have suddenly started moving is enough to grab headlines and cause reactions. That context likely contributed to why this post attracted enough views quickly, even though the data was inaccurate. Data from Arkham Intelligence shows Nakamoto’s BTC wallets currently hold 1.096 million BTC, which are worth $84.3 billion.

Notably, Bitcoin’s price itself has been trending through significant volatility. Over the past few days, Bitcoin has dipped to levels near this cycle’s lows, trading around the mid-$70,000 range, close to the lowest levels since April 2025. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $76,872, having recently reached an intraday low of $74,591, according to data from CoinGecko.

Несмотря на продолжающийся спад, медвежий цикл не продлится долго и крипторынок начнет восстанавливаться уже в этом году, ожидают эксперты инвестиционной компании Bernstein.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) drop below $77,000 over the weekend did more than extend a sell-off, it stripped away lingering assumptions about stability in a market still driven by sentiment, leverage, and macro forces.

After briefly holding above $80,000, the world’s largest cryptocurrency slid as low as the mid-$74,000 range, marking its weakest level in around ten months and deepening a correction that has been unfolding since mid-January.

The move came amid broad risk-off conditions across global markets. Precious metals posted some of their sharpest declines in decades, equities opened lower across Asia, and the U.S. dollar strengthened following renewed focus on Federal Reserve policy and leadership.

$80,000 Bitcoin (BTC) Break Projects Fragile Support

The loss of the $80,000 level marked a psychological turning point.

CNBC host Jim Cramer, a longtime Bitcoin holder, described the breakdown as evidence of fragile support and narrative-driven price defense. He questioned why large holders and vocal advocates failed to step in around what he called a “line in the sand” between $80,000 and $82,000.

Bitcoin’s weekend volatility also revived doubts about its short-term reliability as a store of value. Prices swung sharply during thin trading hours, underscoring how quickly sentiment can shift when leveraged positions unwind.

Exchange margin hikes, particularly in futures markets, accelerated forced liquidations, creating a cascade that pushed prices lower across crypto assets.

Macro Pressure and Technical Weakness

Macroeconomic factors played a central role. Renewed concerns over a potential U.S. government shutdown, combined with the Federal Reserve’s pause on rate cuts and the nomination of Kevin Warsh as Fed chair, backed expectations of tighter financial conditions.

Technically, Bitcoin remains under pressure. Indicators on daily and four-hour charts continue to favor bearish momentum, even as some oscillators suggest oversold conditions that could allow for short-lived rebounds.

The $76,000 area has emerged as near-term support, with a sustained break opening the door to deeper losses toward $74,000 or lower. On the upside, $80,000 remains the key resistance level that would need to be reclaimed to shift the short-term trend.

Bitcoin Still Sets the Market’s Direction

Despite years of talk about diversification within crypto, recent price action shows little has changed. Altcoins largely tracked Bitcoin’s decline, including tokens tied to revenue-generating protocols.

Data across multiple crypto indices show broad losses in line with BTC’s year-to-date drop, highlighting the market’s continued dependence on Bitcoin’s direction. Bitcoin’s slide below $77,000 serves as a reminder that the crypto market remains tightly linked to macro conditions, liquidity, and Bitcoin itself.

Cover image from ChatGPT, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview

White House officials met on Monday with leaders from the crypto industry and major banking trade groups in an effort to ease a key regulatory dispute that has slowed progress on the long‑anticipated crypto market structure legislation, known as the CLARITY Act. 

The meeting focused on one of the most contentious issues holding up the bill: whether stablecoin issuers and related third parties should be allowed to offer yield or rewards on stablecoin holdings.

Stablecoin Rewards Debate

The discussion comes against the backdrop of intense lobbying from the banking sector. Banks have been pushing lawmakers to insert language into the CLARITY Act that would prohibit not only issuers, but also third parties, from providing rewards tied to stablecoins. 

The cryptocurrency industry, however, argues that such restrictions would tilt the playing field in favor of traditional financial institutions, which they say are increasingly concerned about competition from digital asset firms.

Additional details about the meeting were shared by Eleanor Terrett of Crypto In America, who cited sources familiar with the discussion. According to Terrett, the session lasted two hours and was described as constructive, with a balanced exchange around both the risks and potential benefits of stablecoin yield.

The meeting brought together a broad range of stakeholders. Representatives from major banking organizations, including the American Bankers Association, Bank Policy Institute, Financial Services Forum, Consumer Bankers Association, and the Independent Community Bankers of America.

Attendees also included Fidelity, PayPal, Paradigm, SoFi, Coinbase, Paxos, Crypto.com, Kraken, Ripple, and Tether, as well as advocacy groups like the Blockchain Association, Digital Chamber, and Crypto Council. Additional participants included Stripe, Galaxy Digital, Multicoin, Circle, and Cantor. 

Crypto And Banking Leaders Signal Progress 

Following the meeting, Cody Carbone, who heads the Digital Chamber and leads its crypto policy efforts, described the talks as a meaningful step forward. 

Carbone said the meeting represented “exactly the kind of progress needed to find a resolution to one of the biggest issues blocking next steps in market structure legislative progress.” 

The White House’s Crypto Council Executive Director, Patrick Witt, echoed that sentiment, thanking participants from both the crypto and banking industries for engaging in what he described as a fact‑based and solutions‑oriented conversation. 

Witt noted that policymakers and industry leaders have made progress in recent months on several policy challenges once thought to be unsolvable, and expressed confidence that the stablecoin rewards issue could also be resolved through continued dialogue.

The banking groups involved in the meeting also released a joint statement reinforcing their position. They stressed that any final legislation should continue to support local lending to families and small businesses, safeguard the stability of the financial system, and promote sustainable economic growth. 

Despite the apparent progress, the legislative path forward remains uncertain. It is still unclear whether the Senate Banking Committee will follow the lead of the Senate Agriculture Committee, which cleared a significant procedural hurdle last Thursday by approving its portion of the CLARITY Act during a scheduled markup.

Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

The debate regarding XRP and Bitcoin across the space has intensified after recent findings that disclose that the altcoin could rival BTC and its impact on the crypto and financial sector. Bitcoin may be the leading digital asset, but with the findings and analysts choosing XRP over BTC, the token might be set to surpass the flagship asset.

A Call For A Bitcoin To XRP Swap

A bold and controversial claim is making the headlines across the crypto community concerning XRP and Bitcoin, the largest digital asset. This new debate between the two leading assets stemmed from Crypto Dyl News after unveiling a compelling document about XRP rivaling BTC on the X platform.

The document contains emails from Jeffrey Epstein, one of the early founders of Bitcoin, confirming that the altcoin is a threat to BTC and its market reach. Due to the content of this document, the pundit has declared that this may be the “last chance” for investors to sell all of their Bitcoin while it’s worth anything and rotate into XRP. 

Even though these demands are far from unanimous and frequently provoke intense discussion, they typically emerge during periods of market transition, when uncertainty is high, and narratives fight for supremacy. Meanwhile, this bold has rekindled discussion about relative value, cycle timing, and potential future capital flows, regardless of whether it turns out to be prescient.

According to the pundit, Epstein’s emails confirmed that Jeffery Epstein felt threatened by the competition level from Ripple XRP and Stellar XLM. Ripple and Stellar, based on the document, are bad for the ecosystem they are building, and did their company (Bitcoin) damage to have investors who are backing two horses in the same race.

In the email, Epstein acknowledges that he is aware that Stellar and Ripple are fundamentally superior to BTC. “Bitcoin will never truly recover from this,” Crypto Dyl News stated. 

The company also went on to throw shade at Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the biggest BTC holder in the crypto space. Epstein literally called Saylor “a zombie on drugs with no personality.” This makes Stellar and Ripple look absolutely amazing compared to Bitcoin. Thus, Crypto Dyl News expresses pleasure in investing in the altcoin and believes BTC is not good.

Furthermore, Crypto Dyl News stressed that all of the Bitcoin maxis are spreading false information about the asset in the crypto community, as they were uneducated and followed speculations. The pundit has reiterated his warnings to investors, highlighted that BTC is not what XRP is, and this is their last chance to position themselves for the future shift.

More Gains Than BTC

On Sunday, XRP and Bitcoin saw a brief bounce, but the altcoin recorded higher gains than BTC. In a period of 24 hours, the altcoin’s price moved up by over 3.49%, while BTC witnessed a mere +33% rise.

Crypto Dyl News stated that players are starting to wake up and realize BTC was a fraud all along. As a result, the XRP is becoming the leader in providing the most real-world utility value.

According to a crypto analyst, the XRP price is currently trading at a critical support level that could determine its next move if it fails to hold it. The analyst has forecasted that XRP could extend its decline to new lows after its recent crash below $1.60. This prediction comes amid a widespread market downturn, with XRP and other major cryptocurrencies showing signs of weakness as prices continue to decline.

XRP Price Faces Another Crash If Key Support Breaks

Crypto market expert Scott Melker, also known as ‘The Wolf Of All Streets’ on X, has shared a bearish outlook for XRP’s price. The analyst stated that XRP is currently trading at a critical inflection point after an extended selloff that erased a large portion of its previous gains. He said this point was the last meaningful support on XRP’s weekly chart before a much deeper drop becomes likely. 

Melker called XRP’s current chart setup “crazy,” noting that the cryptocurrency is hovering right above a major air pocket around the $1.60 support area. According to him, a failure to hold this level could lead to an aggressive move lower as demand thins out below current prices.

The chart shows XRP losing momentum after rolling over from its post-breakout highs earlier in 2025, with the price slipping back below levels that had previously acted as dynamic support. Volume has also cooled compared to the explosive rally phase, suggesting that buyers are becoming more cautious as uncertainty grows and prices plummet. 

For traders, Melker noted that the support level offers one of the cleanest risk-to-reward setups currently available for XRP. If support holds, he believes that a bounce could develop quickly. However, if XRP breaks below $1.60, the downside could open up fast, making it easy for traders to cut losses and step aside. In essence, unless bulls can defend this key support level convincingly, the XRP price crash may not be over yet. 

Analyst Predicts XRP Price Top And Bottom

Pseudonymous crypto analyst ‘BRUH’ has also shared a bold prediction for XRP on X. According to his technical analysis, XRP could reach a price bottom between $1 and $1.20, signaling a prolonged period of subdued price action. With the cryptocurrency currently trading above $1.50, a drop to these levels would represent a decline of approximately 20%-35%. 

The analyst further noted that XRP is unlikely to experience a significant rally until 2028, the year of the next Bitcoin halving. When that upward momentum arrives, BRUH predicts that XRP could reach a price top between $8 and $10, offering substantial potential gains for long-term holders. Given recent price declines, this projected price top suggests investors may need to be patient and take a long-term approach to capitalize on XRP. 

XRP’s price action in recent days has been characterized by sustained downside pressure. At the time of writing, XRP is dangerously close to losing $1.5, after falling from higher levels in early January and failing to hold $1.6 as support. 

This poor price action coincides with discussions inside the XRP community. One of those discussions is a comment from crypto expert Jake Claver, who outlined why understanding what is happening beneath the surface could offer a meaningful advantage in XRP.

Most Are Still Missing The Bigger Picture

In a recent statement, Jake Claver noted that much of the traditional financial world is still unaware of the structural shift that’s quietly taking place among banks and financial institutions. According to him, Ripple’s technology should not be viewed as just another blockchain project. Instead, Ripple’s technology is an infrastructure that is being positioned to unlock trillions of dollars in assets that are currently frozen or operationally constrained. 

His view is that this disconnect between perception and reality is exactly where early advantage tends to form, especially before price fully reflects long-term utility. Claver went further by pointing directly to the adoption of XRP and XRPL by major banks and financial institutions. Systems are already being implemented around the XRP Ledger, which will eventually support the movement of real-world value at scale. 

The change will be massive when those assets begin flowing through these rails. This goes back to the prevailing sentiment among XRP enthusiasts that real-world adoption will send the cryptocurrency’s price trading above double and triple digits. As noted by Claver, everything will change permanently when these assets start flowing, and those who understand this now have an advantage for better gains.

XRP’s Bear Phase Is Nearing Its End

XRP is currently trading at $1.58, having recently reached an intraday low of $1.54. The outlook is now looking bearish. However, in a recent post on X, Bird, a DropCoin developer and prominent XRP community figure, noted that the XRP bear market is approaching its final stages. According to him, the next pump is close and will finally send the XRP price up and right.

Bird pointed to a cluster of macro and sentiment indicators that he believes offer an advantage to those paying attention early. He highlighted the Russell 2000 pushing into all-time-high territory, Bitcoin dominance showing signs of topping out, and precious metals like gold and silver losing upside momentum. 

XRP Price Chart. Source: @Bird_XRPL on X

On the sentiment side, he also referenced optimism from Ripple leadership (Chris Larsen and David Schwartz) on social media. These subtle shifts are lining up beneath the surface to create conditions where XRP could stabilize around $1.60 before attempting a larger recovery move. If that rotation materializes as expected, then a broader rally could eventually carry XRP back above the $3 level once momentum fully flips.

Московская биржа планирует в этом году запустить три новых криптоиндекса — для Solana, Ripple и Tron, — а также продавать фьючерсы на эти цифровые валюты, заявила в эфире радио РБК главный менеджер по группе продуктов срочного рынка площадки Мария Силкина.

With Bitcoin losing the $80,000 price mark, the broader cryptocurrency market has shifted heavily into a bearish phase, raising speculation about the beginning of a bear market. While BTC’s price was showing weak signals, selling pressure heightened, which seems to have led to the sudden pullback during the weekend.

No New Money, More Bitcoin Sellers

Bitcoin’s recent pullback has sent a shockwave across the crypto space, with other major assets following the downward trend. Currently, the flagship asset is coming under serious pressure with investors’ sentiment beginning to shift, several metrics turning bearish, and the market structure weakening.

Following the pullback, Ki Young Ju, a popular market expert and founder of the CryptoQuant platform, has shed light on the current BTC’s downside move and the market dynamics. In the analysis, the founder found that persistent selling continues to outweigh demand, with little sign of fresh capital stepping in to stabilize the market.

While new purchasers are mostly on the sidelines, on-chain and market flow statistics indicate that current holders are driving the decline. Thus, the price is now fragile since each wave of selling encounters narrow bid support rather than significant accumulation.

Ki Young Ju has drawn attention to the Bitcoin Realized Cap, which appears to have flatlined, suggesting that no new capital is flowing into BTC. It is worth noting that when the market cap falls in that environment, it is not a bull market. 

Currently, the founder highlighted that early holders are sitting on big realized gains, which is attributed to the Bitcoin Spot Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) and MicroStrategy (MSTR) buying. While they have been taking profits since the beginning of last year, strong inflows kept BTC near the $100,000 level. However, those inflows have now dried up.

Within the period, MSTR was one of the major drivers of this rally. Nonetheless, the market won’t have a -70% collapse like in previous cycles unless Saylor drastically reduces his holdings. In the meantime, the bottom is still unclear because selling pressure is still present, but this bear market is probably going to create a broad sideways consolidation.

Reduced Selling Volume Meets Sharp Decline

As Bitcoin’s price wanes, selling continues to seem to be shrinking, with each day smaller than the last. In a post on X, CW, a market expert and data analyst, revealed that BTC net selling volume on January 31 was half of that on the 30th. However, the decline was even bigger than the previous day.

The decline was larger, but the cumulative selling volume was much smaller when compared to the drop. In addition, on-chain data shows that large holders or whales are heavily buying BTC. Interestingly, while these deep-pocket players are buying, retail investors are choosing to dump their holdings.

Until a bullish rally begins, whales will encourage selling and liquidate high-leverage retail future investors. For now, Bitcoin’s short-term price trajectory remains constrained by the current volatile market conditions.

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