Bitcoin largest holders are steadily increasing their exposure, even as prices weaken and global uncertainty intensifies. Key Points Wallets holding at least 1,000 BTC added 104,340 BTC in recent weeks.
Bloomberg Senior Commodity Strategist, Mike McGlone, has warned of a potential XRP price breakdown below a pivotal support level. This warning comes on the back of the ongoing corrective wave that has dominated the broader crypto market.
A combination of on-chain and market activity is supporting bullish sentiment for Shiba Inu despite the ongoing consolidation. Yesterday, millions of Shiba Inu disappeared from exchanges, hinting at renewed accumulation despite price uncertainties.
A prominent Cardano community member argues that ADA’s current ranking as the 10th biggest token reflects market misunderstanding rather than technological inferiority. Critics have widely interpreted Cardano’s position as the 10th biggest cryptocurrency as a sign of low adoption or innovation.
The recent retracement has brought Cardano to a key buying zone, suggesting that a possible recovery could be in the pipeline. Specifically, the current price level marks the support area in a broader descending channel, an area that could determine the near- and mid-term price development for Cardano.
Crypto markets entered the new week on the back foot as a wave of macro uncertainty sparked heavy liquidations across major digital assets.
Key Takeaways:
After trading in a tight range over the weekend, prices slid during early Asian hours, triggering more than $550 million in leveraged long liquidations, according to market data cited by QCP Asia.
Bitcoin briefly dipped to the $86,000 level before stabilizing, while Ethereum fell toward the $2,785 area.
The pullback stood in contrast to traditional safe havens, with gold and silver extending their recent rally as investors rotated into lower-risk assets.
Market participants point to a cluster of macro developments driving the move, according to QCP.
Chief among them were comments from President Donald Trump on the possibility of imposing 100% tariffs on Canadian imports, renewed concern over a looming partial shutdown of the US government, and ongoing uncertainty around potential US-Japan coordination to arrest further weakness in the yen.
Currency markets remain a key pressure point. A “rate check” on USD/JPY by the New York Fed late last week signaled growing sensitivity to yen depreciation, with the 160 level widely viewed as a threshold that could prompt intervention.
While the pair has since pulled back, it continues to trade near two-month highs around 154, prompting investors to unwind short-yen positions rather than risk sudden policy action.
QCP analysis notes that crypto assets traded in a narrow range over the weekend before coming under pressure in early Asian hours, triggering over $550 million in leveraged long liquidations. BTC briefly tested $86K before finding support, while Ethereum fell to the $2,785 area.…
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) January 26, 2026
US domestic politics are adding another layer of tension. Although broader risk sentiment found some relief after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Ottawa has no plans to pursue a free trade deal with China, fiscal negotiations in Washington remain unresolved.
House Republicans have advanced spending bills that include roughly $64.4 billion for border security and the Department of Homeland Security, while Senate Democrats have indicated they will block the measures.
With current government funding set to expire on January 30, failure to reach an agreement would result in a partial shutdown.
Markets appear to be taking that risk seriously. Polymarket odds currently imply roughly a 75% chance of a shutdown by January 31, a dynamic that echoes last autumn’s fiscal standoff, which coincided with a sharp drawdown in crypto prices.
Derivatives markets are already reflecting a more cautious stance. Put skews and implied volatility have risen across maturities, with traders rolling downside protection in bitcoin options from the 88,000 level toward 85,000, according to QCP.
Alongside ongoing geopolitical and fiscal headlines, markets face a busy week that includes major technology earnings and a Federal Reserve policy decision.
While the Fed is expected to hold rates steady, investors will be watching closely for any shift in Chair Jerome Powell’s guidance.
“With multiple macro risks unresolved, crypto prices are likely to chop around in the near term, pending greater clarity, particularly around the risk of a US government shutdown,” QCP said.
The post Macro Fears Trigger $550M Crypto Liquidations – What’s Really Going On? appeared first on Cryptonews.
Changpeng Zhao, co-founder of Binance, predicts Bitcoin could be on the verge of breaking free from the four-year market cycle that has historically defined its price movements. Zhao shared this view during an appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box.
Shiba Inu hints at a possible recovery after holding key support, potentially targeting the upper range of a price channel. Shiba Inu (SHIB) ended the week poorly with its 4% decline on Sunday.
While Ripple and its executives have sold over 58 billion worth of XRP since 2012, the XRP price has surged more than 31,000% within the same period. Notably, many believe this reality invalidates the consistent narrative that Ripple's XRP sales have contributed to XRP's underperformance during periods of stifled price growth.
Jake Claver, CEO of Digital Ascension Group, has resurfaced a long-running question in the XRP community: how much XRP do holders really need to own? Specifically, he has laid out a simple financial scenario centered on holding 20,000 XRP.
A long-inactive Ethereum whale has resurfaced after nearly a decade, moving a substantial amount of ETH. The renewed activity, uncovered through blockchain tracking, comes as cryptocurrency prices decline and liquidations accelerate.
Leading Cardano-based DeFi ecosystem, FluidTokens, has confirmed that the first-ever BTC-ADA bridge is launching soon. According to the announcement, the bridge has entered its final development phase.
XRP is approaching a decisive technical point, and analysts say it is now at a level that could define its next major move. This comes as XRP trades at $1.87, up 0.4% on the day, as it attempts to recover after dipping to $1.89 yesterday.
The XRP open interest (OI) has now collapsed to a 14-month low, hitting levels XRP last witnessed when it traded below $1. This comes as the XRP price continues to slide to new lows, having recently collapsed to a new yearly floor of $1.8 amid a broader market collapse that has seen Bitcoin (BTC) drop to $86,000.
The XRP Ledger now hosts over $150 million worth of tokenized U.S. Treasury Debt amid a rapid increase in RWA value over the past year.
The cryptocurrency market faced a sharp correction in the early hours of January 26, with BTC erasing its entire monthly progress. After peaking at $97,000 on January 14, Bitcoin slid approximately 10.9% to briefly dip below the $87,000 mark. This volatility has pushed the January return to -0.5%, reflecting a broader “risk-off” sentiment across the digital asset space. The pullback is being attributed largely to rising uncertainty around U.S. government shutdown, alongside broader risk-off sentiment across global markets.The GameFi sector bore the brunt of the sell-off, dropping nearly 5%, led by double-digit losses in Axie Infinity (AXS). While Ethereum fell below $2,900, some assets showed resilience; notably, River (RIVER) surged 30% and Beam (BEAM) rose 19%, suggesting that despite the macro-level decline, specific project catalysts continue to drive isolated pockets of growth.
But what else is happening in crypto news today? Follow our up-to-date live coverage below.
The post [LIVE] Crypto News Today: Latest Updates for Jan. 26, 2026 – BTC Slumps 11% From Monthly High Below $87K Amid Market Wide Slump appeared first on Cryptonews.
Crypto traders often assume that meaningful gains need long timelines to take place, and they often give up during the wait and silence. However, crypto has a habit of shattering that belief without warning. History shows that when conditions line up, altcoins do not grind higher over years. They release and erase multiple years of drawdowns in a matter of weeks.
That memory was highlighted by a crypto commentator known as Waterman on the social media platform X, who noted a familiar seasonal window between February and late April to early May for an altcoin explosion.
The most notable example of an altcoin rally season was in 2021, when the entire altcoin market went on a rally to new all-time highs, many of which are still unbroken for some cryptocurrencies.
The 2021 cycle delivered some of the clearest reminders of just how fast capital can rotate once momentum takes hold. Solana moved from roughly $20 to $200 in about 50 days, a clean tenfold run. Although Solana has since broken above this peak to register a new all-time high of $293 in January 2025, this was still Solana’s most explosive rally to date.
Dogecoin followed an even sharper trajectory, climbing from $0.07 to a peak of $0.73 in under a month due to speculative interest that flowed into other memecoins like Shiba Inu. Unlike Solana, Dogecoin is yet to reclaim or surpass this peak price.
Avalanche went further, rallying from around $3 to $60 in less than 40 days, a twentyfold expansion that unfolded faster than most long-term projections ever anticipate. None of these moves required years of development or prolonged accumulation.
Notably, February through late April or early May has more often than not been the period where altcoin performance increases the most. If that pattern repeats, the coming weeks may matter far more than the years that came before them.
At the time of writing, the notion of an altcoin season is still impeded by strong Bitcoin dominance. Much of that comes down to how the entire crypto industry ecosystem has changed massively since 2021, especially after the launch of crypto-based ETFs. That steady demand has kept capital inflows concentrated around Bitcoin and slowed the usual rotation into altcoins.
Meme coins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu have struggled to keep up in terms of price action, even with the launch of Dogecoin ETFs. Although the ETF has boosted visibility, it has not yet resulted into sustained upside.
At the same time, investors have become more selective, favoring cryptocurrencies tied to clearer utility. As a result, many crypto communities have been working to create utility for their meme coins.
Nonetheless, as noted by Waterman, you only need about four to six weeks for an altcoin to wipe out three to four years of suffering. You don’t need one to two years for altcoins to make massive gains.
Featured image from YouHodler, chart from TradingView
Technical analysis of XRP’s price action on the 3-week candlestick timeframe chart shows that the cryptocurrency is about to play out a road to the double-digit threshold based on its long-term structure.
The analysis, which was shared on the social media platform X alongside a multiyear chart, points to XRP trading in what is labeled Phase 4. At the center of this setup is a clear technical target of a break above the previous all-time high and a run to at least $21.5
Technical analysis of XRP price action shows that the cryptocurrency has been trading in a series of four phases for more than a decade. One full sequence of four phases unfolded between mid-2013 and mid-2017 as the foundation for XRP’s first rally to price peaks. Since then, a second set of four phases has been developing and following a similar pattern.
XRP transitioned into a new phase 1 and phase 2 sequence that led to a 2018 peak for phase 1 and then a pullback for phase 2 between 2018 and 2020. This was followed by an unusually long p3 that stretched from 2019 to mid-2024, visible on the chart as a broad, multi-year consolidation with converging trendlines of lower highs and higher lows. During this time, XRP’s price action was trapped inside the compression structure, just like the behavior seen during phase 3 of the first cycle.
XRP Price Chart. Source: @amonyx On X
According to the technical analysis, phase 4 began in 2025, when XRP finally broke above the compression range in mid-2024. This breakout was the same structural transition seen in mid-2017, when XRP exited consolidation and entered expansion.
Phase 4 has already been in progress for several months and includes the period when XRP rallied to new all-time highs in mid-2025, eventually topping out at $3.65 in July. Since that peak, however, XRP’s price action has been playing out a corrective downward trend and is down by roughly 48% at the time of writing.
Despite the ongoing correction, the projection is that XRP is still in phase 4 and is going to break into new all-time highs soon. This shows that phase 4 could unfold over an extended period and not with a single impulse move. The current all-time high of $3.65 is the first major technical hurdle, and a break above it will serve as confirmation that XRP is back into price discovery.
Based on this technical analysis, past expansion ratios from the previous cycle are applied and a 6.618 Fibonacci extension is measured from the phase 3 support low. This points to a projected price level near $21.5. At the time of writing, XRP is trading at $1.89, meaning a move to that level would represent an increase of roughly 1,040% from current prices.
Featured image from Pexels, chart from TradingView
XRP may be setting up for another major move if a familiar historical pattern continues to play out. A widely followed market watcher recently shared this bullish outlook, projecting a run into the double-digit range.
Dom Kwok, co-founder of EasyA, has reiterated his long-term XRP price outlook, insisting it will reach four-digit figures. In a recent tweet, he said the years of work building around the XRP ecosystem are aimed at something far bigger than today’s prices.
Login