Из жизни альткоинов
Ethereum Holds $3,000 as Whales Accumulate: Key Resistance and Support Levels to Watch
Ethereum (ETH) has stabilized above the $3,000 mark after a sharp sell-off earlier this week, as large holders increased their exposure during the dip. The recovery follows a volatile period in which ETH briefly fell below key technical levels, triggering liquidations and renewed caution across the broader crypto market.
On January 22, Ethereum was trading around $3,003, up roughly 1.3% over 24 hours. The rebound came after ETH dropped nearly 13% between January 19 and 21, touching the $2,900 area for the first time in four weeks.
That decline coincided with heightened macro uncertainty, ETF outflows, and the liquidation of over $480 million in bullish leveraged positions.
Ethereum Accumulation Contrasts With Cautious PositioningOn-chain data shows that large Ethereum holders accumulated aggressively during the recent downturn. Whale balances increased by roughly 290,000 ETH over a two-day period, representing purchases worth close to $360 million at current prices.
This behavior suggests that some long-term investors view the recent pullback as a buying opportunity. However, other indicators point to a more cautious stance among experienced traders.
The smart money index remains below its signal line, a level that has historically been crossed ahead of stronger upside moves. In previous instances, such confirmations preceded double-digit gains, but no such signal has emerged so far.
Derivatives data support this wait-and-see approach. ETH perpetual futures funding rates briefly turned negative, indicating reduced confidence among leveraged traders. Options markets have also shown increased demand for downside protection after repeated rejections near the $3,400 level over the past two months.
Technical Structure Highlights Tight Trading RangeFrom a technical perspective, Ethereum is trading within a symmetrical triangle on the daily chart.
Momentum indicators show a bullish divergence, the relative strength index has formed higher lows while the price made lower lows between November and mid-January. This pattern suggests that selling pressure may be weakening, though confirmation is still lacking.
The immediate level to watch on the upside is $3,050, a former support zone that ETH lost during the recent sell-off. A sustained daily close above this level would indicate short-term stabilization.
Above that, the $3,146–$3,164 range represents a dense supply zone, where approximately 3.4 million ETH have been accumulated. This area is expected to act as a strong resistance.
Related Reading: Bitcoin Took Top Spot In 2025 Crypto Payments, Litecoin Third-Most Used: CoinGate
On the downside, failure to hold the triangle’s lower boundary near $2,910 could open the door to a deeper move toward the $2,610 support area.
Cover image from ChatGPT, ETHUSD chart on Tradingview
Volatility Expands, But Bitcoin Whales And Sharks Aren’t Selling — They’re Buying More
Bitcoin briefly reclaimed the pivotal $90,000 price mark once again after a brief bounce, but volatility still lingers around the largest cryptocurrency asset. During the ongoing volatile landscape, investors appear to have found a new niche, and that is buying BTC at a significant and fast rate.
Large Bitcoin Holders Are Buying In The NoiseThe ongoing market volatility may have significantly impacted the Bitcoin price direction, but this is not the same for investors’ sentiment and activity. In the current bearish state, BTC investors are now sending a clear bullish signal, especially as indicated in the activity of the largest holders.
Sentiment observed among BTC large holders has shifted toward buying once again. According to research shared by Santiment, a leading on-chain data analytics platform, whales and sharks continue to accumulate more BTC even as market volatility intensifies.
During the ongoing bearish market, BTC’s price fell back to the $89,400 level, and assets like Silver and Gold experienced a steady spike. Instead of being shaken out by the pullback, these high-net-worth investors are persistently building positions, indicating a great level of confidence beneath the surface.
When these key investors start to buy BTC at a rapid rate again while the broader market signals caution, it is often viewed as a strategic move or repositioning ahead of a potential price spike. This kind of behavior is typically seen during transitional phases.
Data shows that wallet addresses holding between 10 and 10,000 BTC have purchased an additional +36,322 BTC, representing an over 0.27% rise in the past 9 days. Should this renewed buying pressure from big investors continue, it is likely to play a role in determining BTC’s next major move as it reshapes its supply and price dynamics.
While whale investors steadily add to their positions, wallet addresses holding 0.01 BTC have been dumping to the noise. This group, regarded as shrimp holders, has offloaded over 132 BTC within the same timeframe, indicating a -0.28% drop.
Santiment highlighted that it is considered an optimal condition for a crypto breakout when smart money accumulates, and retailers dump. In the absence of a geopolitical issue, this pattern continues to demonstrate a long-term bullish divergence.
Risk Around BTC Is Becoming HighFollowing the bearish reaction on Wednesday, the Bitcoin Risk Index metric experienced a surge, reaching the 21 level and hovering just below the High Risk zone at level 25. This uptick suggests that the continuation of the consolidation phase is highly likely and will be bolstered by the massive high-risk environment seen over the past few months.
Despite the surge, the market is still technically in a low-risk environment, and buyers are struggling to hold the pivotal support level at $89,200. At this level, the market is presented with two different scenarios.
The first, which is the bullish scenario, tells that BTC could undergo a clear push toward $94,800 and possibly $99,000 if $89,200 support holds in the short term. Meanwhile, in the bearish scenario, a continued consolidation below the support level driven by sellers would cause a drop to $84,500, marking the next line of defense for buyers.
Глава Coinbase поспорил с главой Банка Франции о доходе от стейблкоинов
Россиянам могут изменить лимит на покупку криптовалюты — Минфин
Ripple’s RLUSD Is Not A Threat To XRP’s Future, Here’s Why
Rumors about XRP suddenly becoming useless and less relevant appear to be spreading across the crypto market following the introduction of Ripple’s stablecoin, RLUSD. Crypto market analyst XFinanceBull recently took to X to debunk these claims, stating that, rather than being a potential threat, RLUSD was created to complement XRP’s functionality and use cases on the ledger.
Why Ripple’s RLUSD Poses No Danger To XRPIn his post, XFinanceBull revealed that many in the crypto community now see XRP as less useful because of RLUSD. These concerns carry weight given the growing dissatisfaction over XRP’s price struggles. Furthermore, with a stablecoin in place, the perception is that XRP’s use cases could deteriorate, especially given RLUSD’s greater stability.
Addressing these growing concerns, XFinanceBull emphasized that XRP and RLUSD serve different purposes within the ecosystem. His commentary aims to correct the misconception that RLUSD was introduced to replace XRP. The analyst referenced statements from Ripple’s former Chief Technology Officer (CTO), David Schwartz, who, in a video, clearly explained the distinct roles of XRP and RLUSD, highlighting how the stablecoin benefits the altcoin rather than threatens it.
According to XFinanceBull, Schwartz stated that RLUSD attracts large, credible flows to the XRP Ledger (XRPL), and this capital provides structural benefits to XRP. The analyst declared that RLUSD does not replace XRP, but instead amplifies its functionality. He added that as liquidity grows through the stablecoin, more payment routes are created, leading to increased XRP burns.
XFinanceBull also noted that every stablecoin trade within the Ripple ecosystem indirectly drives demand for XRP as a bridge asset. He concluded that the world will eventually realize that utility is not defined by a whitepaper alone, but by real transaction flows. He added that although the XRP price may be declining, its rails are still being built.
How RLUSD Benefits XRPIn the video shared by XFinanceBull, Schwartz stated that RLUSD is designed to benefit XRP. He explained that RLUSD strengthens XRP by introducing more credible assets onto the XRP Ledger, thereby expanding the network’s use cases and creating more opportunities for developers.
The former Ripple CTO also revealed that adding trusted assets, such as RLUSD, increases trading activity on XRPL’s DEX. According to him, higher trading volume generates both direct and indirect benefits for the decentralized network and its native token, XRP.
A key advantage of the XRPL DEX is its auto-bridging feature, which uses XRP to facilitate trades between different assets. Schwartz said that this mechanism allows XRP to act as an intermediary, helping users find the most efficient trading routes. He added that RLUSD and XRP are designed to complement each other, given their different roles within the ecosystem. While the stablecoin offers price stability, the altcoin functions as a bridge currency within Ripple’s payment products. This means that as RLUSD usage grows, demand for XRP is reinforced.
Люк Громен: Компании-инвесторы — неподходящее топливо для биткоина
Pantera Capital: Крипторынок вошел в «фазу остывания»
Сооснователь Binance заявил о переговорах с «дюжиной стран» о токенизации активов
Кэти Вуд: Биткоин выходит из слабой фазы четырехлетнего цикла
Is It Ethereum? BlackRock CEO Wants ‘One Blockchain’ For Tokenization
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink used the World Economic Forum stage to argue that tokenization needs to move from pilot programs to market plumbing and suggested that a shared blockchain standard could cut costs and even “reduce corruption,” a framing that immediately reignited the “which chain?” debate across crypto and specifically inside the Ethereum community.
Fink didn’t name a network. But the combination of BlackRock’s onchain product footprint and its own research positioning makes Ethereum the most natural candidate for the “one common blockchain” he alluded to, even if he kept it implicit.
Fink’s remarks, delivered in the language of infrastructure rather than crypto evangelism, leaned heavily on the operational case for digitized assets and interoperable settlement rails.
“I think the movement towards tokenization, decimalization is necessary. It’s ironic that we see two emerging countries leading the world in the tokenization and digitization of their currency, that’s Brazil and India. I think we need to move very rapidly to doing that.”
He then pushed the argument beyond payments and into capital markets: “We would be reducing fees, we would do more democratization by reducing more fees if we had all investments on a tokenized platform that can move from a tokenized money market fund to equities and bonds and back and forth.”
The most provocative line was his call for standardization and the trade-off he implied comes with it. “[If] we have one common blockchain, we could reduce corruption. So I would argue that, yes, we have more dependencies on maybe one blockchain, which we could all talk about, but that being said, the activities are probably processed and more secure than ever before.”
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink told the World Economic Forum he thinks the movement toward tokenization and digitization is necessary. We need to move very rapidly to doing that. With one common blockchain, we can reduce corruption.
The “one common blockchain” Larry Fink referenced… https://t.co/sMMcg4oyN1 pic.twitter.com/VhRvuwCx00
— Ethereum Daily (@ETH_Daily) January 22, 2026
Why Ethereum Is Coming UpIn the abstract, “one common blockchain” could be read as a generic appeal for shared rails. In practice, BlackRock’s public-market crypto lineup and its tokenization work have concentrated around Bitcoin and Ethereum.
On the ETF side, BlackRock’s flagship US spot products track bitcoin and ether — iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) — with ETHA launching in 2024 and now sitting in the center of the firm’s public-facing Ethereum exposure.
On the tokenization side, BlackRock’s first tokenized fund, the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), debuted on Ethereum via Securitize in March 2024, making Ethereum the original issuance network for what has become one of the market’s most closely watched institutional RWAs.
While BUIDL has expanded across multiple networks over time, the key point for Fink’s “common blockchain” framing is that Ethereum has been BlackRock’s default starting point for public-chain issuance, a meaningful signal in a market where “standards” tend to follow whoever already has the deepest liquidity, the broadest integration surface, and the most conservative counterparties.
The stronger tell came this week from BlackRock research rather than Davos soundbites. In its 2026 thematic outlook, BlackRock explicitly floats the idea of Ethereum as the infrastructure layer that collects the “toll” as tokenization scales. One slide asks: “Could Ethereum represent the ‘toll road’ to tokenization?” and adds that stablecoin adoption may be an early proxy for tokenization “in action,” with “blockchains like Ethereum” positioned to benefit.
In the same section, BlackRock cites RWA data “as of 1/5/2026” and notes that “of tokenized assets 65%+ are on Ethereum,” underscoring the network’s lead in today’s tokenized-asset stack.
At press time, ETH traded at $3,005.
«Яндекс» назвал долю поисковых запросов о криптовалютах
Неизвестные взломали блокчейн Saga и вывели $7 млн
Аналитики Glassnode оценили перспективы биткоина на ближайшие месяцы
BlackRock Powers Bitcoin Investment For US Insurance Company, Here’s How
BlackRock is enhancing Bitcoin investment by creating new avenues for institutional capital to access the asset within the US financial system. Instead of relying on traditional crypto markets, the firm channels Bitcoin-linked returns through the insurance sector. Through its partnership with Delaware Life Insurance Company, this approach integrates BTC exposure into a fixed index annuity framework, allowing insurers and policyholders to benefit from Bitcoin-linked returns without direct ownership of the asset.
How BlackRock Is Powering Bitcoin Exposure In InsuranceBlackRock is enabling Bitcoin exposure for a US insurance company by translating the volatile asset into a structure that fits the strict risk requirements of insurance products. In a statement on Tuesday, Delaware Life confirmed it has added the BlackRock US Equity Balanced Risk 12% Index to its fixed index annuity portfolio, formalizing the integration. This index connects digital assets with traditional insurance frameworks in a controlled way, making Bitcoin participation feasible within a risk-managed product.
Instead of holding BTC directly, the index combines US equity exposure through the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF with Bitcoin exposure delivered via the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT). IBIT, BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF launched in January 2024, has grown to nearly $76 billion in assets under management, establishing it as the primary institutional gateway for BTC exposure in the US.
Risk management is central to the index’s design. A 12% volatility target dynamically adjusts allocations to limit downside risk rather than pursue aggressive upside. This feature is essential for fixed index annuities, which are structured around principal protection.
As a result, policyholders are insulated from direct losses on their initial investment while still participating in index-linked returns influenced by both equity and BTC performance. BlackRock’s role extends beyond access, supplying the ETF infrastructure and volatility-controlled framework that allows Bitcoin exposure to function within an insurance balance sheet.
Why This Matters For Insurance And BTC AdoptionFor Delaware Life, a subsidiary of Group 1001 Insurance Holdings, the partnership marks the first instance of a US insurer embedding Bitcoin exposure within a fixed index annuity. With Group 1001 overseeing approximately $76.4 billion in assets, the move reflects a strategic product expansion by a major insurance platform rather than an experimental initiative. Company leadership has positioned the offering as a response to growing demand from financial professionals seeking modern portfolio tools that remain compatible with retirement product risk constraints.
From BlackRock’s standpoint, the structure expands Bitcoin’s presence in long-term savings and insurance markets without altering the conservative expectations of those products. By framing BTC as a return component within a tightly governed risk framework, BlackRock enables institutional adoption that aligns with regulatory standards, insurer capital requirements, and retirement planning logic. In effect, Bitcoin exposure is being packaged in a form insurers already understand and can distribute, quietly extending its reach into one of the most risk-controlled areas of finance.
What Ripple CEO Garlinghouse Said At WEF Davos 2026
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse used a Davos stage at the World Economic Forum’s 2026 annual meeting to make a pragmatic case for tokenization: stablecoins are already the lead use case, momentum has shifted sharply in the US, and the industry’s job now is to deliver measurable benefits rather than tokenize assets for novelty.
Why Ripple Is Building Bridges Between TradFi and DeFiGarlinghouse’s remarks came on a panel titled “Is Tokenization the Future?” after the moderator cited Ripple-linked traction: tokenized assets on the XRP Ledger surged more than 2,200% last year. From there, Garlinghouse largely aligned with the panel’s theme that tokenization is moving from pilots toward mainstream financial plumbing, while drawing a clear boundary around monetary sovereignty.
“I do think the first poster child of tokenization is really stablecoins,” Garlinghouse said, arguing that usage growth has been decisive. He cited stablecoin transaction volumes rising from “$19 trillion of transactions on stablecoins in 2024” to “33 trillion in 2025,” describing that as “about 75% growth” and adding that “many in our industry would say that’s going to continue.”
Where the discussion turned to a “Bitcoin standard” framing, Garlinghouse emphasized the political reality of state money. “Sovereignty of fiat currencies, I believe, is for many countries sacrosanct,” he said, before invoking a line he attributed to Ben Bernanke from a prior Ripple event: “Governments will roll tanks into the street before giving up monetary supply, giving up the control of monetary supply, which stuck with me as yeah, that makes sense.”
That worldview shaped how Garlinghouse positioned Ripple’s strategy. “At Ripple, we very much focused on building the bridges between traditional finance and decentralized finance,” he said, describing work “with a lot of the banks around the world” as the practical path to scale rather than attempting to displace existing monetary regimes.
Garlinghouse also framed 2026 as a momentum year, not just a technology year. He argued that the political climate in the US has turned materially more constructive after a period he described as open hostility. “The US, the largest economy in the world, has been pretty openly hostile towards facets of crypto and blockchain technologies,” he said. “And that has shifted dramatically, you know, starting with the White House… [and] helped elect a much more pro-crypto pro-innovation Congress, and you’re seeing that play out.”
But the Ripple CEO repeatedly cautioned that narrative tailwinds are not enough. “Part of the tokenization topic […] is like we shouldn’t tokenize everything just to tokenize something,” Garlinghouse said. “There has to be a positive outcome of efficiency or transparency […] otherwise it’s just like okay it’s a nice science experiment.”
On regulation, Garlinghouse reiterated his pragmatic tone, arguing that the push for US crypto legislation should prioritize workable clarity over theoretical perfection. “What’s going on in the US right now is a classic dynamic of when you create new law, it’s never going to be perfect,” he said. “I subscribe to the idea that perfection is the enemy of good.”
He pointed to Ripple’s own history: “a five-year battle with the US government being sued because of the lack of clarity” to underline the stakes, adding: “We are very much an advocate of clarity is better than chaos.”
When pressed on whether stablecoins should pay rewards, one of the live fault lines in US policy debate, Garlinghouse positioned Ripple as less directly exposed than some peers, while still endorsing competitive symmetry. “Ripple doesn’t have as much of a dog in that fight as others in the industry,” he said, but added that a “level playing field goes two ways,” arguing that crypto firms and banks should face comparable standards when competing for the same activity.
Garlinghouse also addressed energy concerns around blockchain-based infrastructure, pushing back on a one-size-fits-all critique. “Not all layer 1 blockchains are created equal,” he said, contrasting proof-of-work systems with proof of stake and other consensus models, and arguing that stablecoin activity is already skewing toward “more power efficient blockchains.”
Spirited dialogue during today’s WEF session (to say the least), but one important point of agreement across the panelists was that innovation and regulation aren’t on opposite sides.
I firmly believe this is THE moment to use crypto and blockchain technology to enable economic… https://t.co/4d3jNeNC4h
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) January 21, 2026
On tokenization’s social and market impact, Garlinghouse reframed a question about speculation as a question about access. He said he sees the opportunity in “the democratization of access to investment less so on the speculation side,” pointing to the idea that smaller investors could gain exposure to assets that are effectively inaccessible at modest ticket sizes today.
At press time, XRP traded at $1.9554.
Самсон Моу назвал причины изменения спроса на биткоин
Стала известна причина покупки Банком Ирана 507 млн USDT
Российские ломбарды подсчитали выгоду от приема в залог криптовалюты
Bitcoin Took Top Spot In 2025 Crypto Payments, Litecoin Third-Most Used: CoinGate
A new report from CoinGate shows Bitcoin took back the crown in cryptocurrency payments during 2025. Here’s how the rest of the rankings looked.
Bitcoin Was The Most Used Cryptocurrency On CoinGate In 2025In a new thread on X, digital asset payments processor CoinGate has shared insights from its latest report about transactions that occurred on the platform in 2025. In total, CoinGate processed 1.42 million cryptocurrency payments during the year, bringing its total lifetime payments beyond 7 million.
As the below pie chart shows, Bitcoin accounted for the largest share of these payments.
Back in 2024, Tether’s USDT ranked the highest in payments on the platform, beating Bitcoin. With a share of 22.10% in 2025, however, the original cryptocurrency managed to reclaim the top spot over the stablecoin, which ended the year with a payments dominance of 16.60%.
The third position was occupied by Litecoin, which was involved in 14.40% of CoinGate payments. In Summer 2025, LTC even briefly became the second-best coin in the metric. Litecoin being preferred over some other popular assets could be due to the fact that its blockchain offers cheap and fast transactions as core features.
Ethereum and Tron, the fifth and sixth most used coins, both observed growth in payments dominance during 2025. “TRX payment share grew from 9.1% to 11.5% and ETH from 8.9% to 10.6%,” noted CoinGate.
In terms of networks, the Bitcoin blockchain, including the Lightning Network, was the most widely used on the platform in 2025, symmetrical with the token’s payments share itself.
As displayed above, the second and third largest networks on CoinGate were Tron and Ethereum, occupying shares of 19.6% and 15.1%, respectively. These blockchains being above Litecoin despite their native tokens accounting for lower payment shares is because they also facilitate stablecoin transactions.
The United States led in country rankings on the platform, with 24.37% of payments on the platform taking place in the nation. Germany and Netherlands rounded out the top three with shares of 6.83% and 5.16%, respectively.
Cryptocurrencies saw significant usage on the platform in terms of being a payment mode, but that’s not all they were used for. According to the report, merchants also increasingly chose to settle in digital assets.
More specifically, cryptocurrency settlements rose from 27% in 2024 to 37.5% in 2025. Stablecoins were the preferred option for merchants, being involved in 25.2% of all settlements, while Bitcoin occupied a smaller, but still notable, 9.7% share.
Merchants also used cryptocurrencies to pay vendors, affiliates, partners, and contractors. “The most popular payouts were in USDC, Bitcoin, and Ethereum,” said CoinGate. Stablecoins once again dominated here, occupying a payouts share of 87.8%.
BTC PriceAt the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $88,300, down more than 9% over the last week.
Специалист Coinbase предложил способ борьбы с квантовыми компьютерами
Страницы
