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Investors are panicking over Bitcoin's recent slump and gold's surge to record highs, but Raoul Pal and Weiss Crypto have issued a joint reminder to the market: zoom out.

They argue that the reversal is statistically insignificant compared to the decade-long trend of Bitcoin dominance.

Gold's collapse

The chart shared by Pal shows a catastrophic, decade-long collapse. Because gold is the numerator and Bitcoin is the denominator, the falling line indicates that gold has lost nearly all of its value when measured against Bitcoin.

The chart marks a cycle low of 0.0265 in 2025. This represents the moment of maximum Bitcoin strength, where it took the smallest amount of Bitcoin in history to buy an ounce of gold.

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To the far right of the chart, there is a sharp vertical uptick. This represents the current market moment.

Visually, this "massive" current rally for Gold is barely a blip on the long-term chart. It appears as a minor corrective bounce in a massive secular downtrend.

"Gold will be left in the dust"

Weiss Crypto doubled down on Pal’s thesis, attributing Gold's recent "win" solely to Bitcoin's temporary weakness rather than Gold's inherent strength.

"The only reason gold outperformed $BTC is that it [Bitcoin] had its weakest bull market in history," Weiss Crypto stated.

Once the crypto market finds its footing , the firm predicts the long-term trend on the chart will resume, sending the ratio back to new lows and leaving gold "in the dust."

On Monday, crypto analyst Paul Barron took to social media to celebrate a major milestone, announcing that the XRPL had "smashed" $1 billion in on-chain tokenized assets.

However, Luke Judges, a Ripple team member, quickly stepped in to correct the record with a much bigger number.

December surge

According to Judges, the $1 billion figure is already outdated history.

"We’re past 2 FYI," Judges replied, revealing that the network had actually crossed the $2 billion milestone some time ago.

He attributed the discrepancy to data lag, noting that the team has been waiting for analytics provider @RWA_xyz to index the new assets with their partners.

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Most strikingly, Judges took note of the velocity of this adoption. "In December alone, we doubled [market cap] of RWA from 1BN to 2BN on the XRPL," he wrote.

Capital market coming On-chain

Despite the massive December inflow, Judges emphasized that the mission is far from complete. "Capital markets will come on-chain," he stated. "Jobs not done till there’s a fully fledged, deep & mature ecosystem around these assets."

Ripple has been aggressively executing a strategy to transform the XRP Ledger (XRPL) from a payment network into institutional financial infrastructure. Ripple invested $10 million directly into OpenEden’s TBILL tokens. This partnership brought short-term US Treasury bills onto the XRPL, offering investors a "risk-free" yield product that lives entirely on-chain.

The partnership with Archax, the UK’s first FCA-regulated digital securities exchange, is also critical. Archax has committed to bringing "hundreds of millions" in tokenized assets to XRPL, including tokenized access to funds from traditional giants like abrdn.

According to filings tracked by BitcoinTreasuries.NET, the Japanese banking conglomerate now holds 606,629 shares of Strategy. The stake is valued at approximately $96.6 million.

This investment effectively functions as a high-yield Bitcoin proxy. The conservative trust bank is capable of gaining exposure to the asset class without having to deal with the various hurdles of holding spot cryptocurrency in Japan.

Japanese regulations make it difficult for banks to hold spot Bitcoin directly on their balance sheets due to high capital requirements and unrealized gains taxation.

SMTG's crypto journey

SMTG is a traditional financial heavyweight that traces its roots back to 1924. However, it has managed to build one of the most progressive digital asset strategies in East Asia.

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SMTG began its journey by digitizing securities. In 2021, the bank issued Japan’s first security tokens with the help of the Securitize blockchain platform.

The Japanese behemoth then made a major pivot to infrastructure. In May 2022, they signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bitbank, one of Japan’s largest crypto exchanges, to establish the Japan Digital Asset Trust (JADAT).

The new entity is capable of offering institutional-grade custody for Bitcoin, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as well as public blockchain security tokens.

Bitcoin has continued to see its weak and negative trend extend across its ETF ecosystem as its price has continued to plunge deep over the past few days.

Amid ongoing volatility, Bitcoin ETFs have also seen increased withdrawals over the past week, as institutions appear to be trading with caution.

$1.46 billion out of Bitcoin funds

According to recent data provided by popular crypto analyst Ali Martinez, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have recorded a notable streak of outflows last week as investors pulled in over 16,300 BTC, worth about $1.46 billion, from the combined Bitcoin funds.

While the outflow has followed a brief period of mixed flows earlier in the month, where a mix of little outflows and decent inflows were seen in the past few weeks, the broad spot Bitcoin ETFs have just recorded their largest weekly outflow of 2026.

The massive pull back seen among the Bitcoin funds have come as modest inflows seen during the week were quickly overshadowed by growing withdrawals from investors.

With this massive withdrawal seen across the spot Bitcoin ETFs, it appears that the selling pressure intensified toward the end of the week when Bitcoin had plunged deeper into red territory, suggesting that institutions may be locking in profits or reducing exposure amid ongoing market uncertainty.

Institutions relent as Bitcoin hovers around $88,000

While the latest weekly outflow recorded by the Bitcoin ETFs marks the highest seen so far in 2026, it appears that institutional investors are beginning to move with caution as investors await stronger price signals and broader clarity.

The withdrawal from institutions has come after Bitcoin lost the $90,000 level, fading optimism surrounding its potential to reclaim $100,000 in January.

Neither bulls nor bears are controlling the situation on the market at the beginning of the week, according to CoinStats.

BTC/USD

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) has fallen by 0.19% since yesterday.

The rate of BTC is near the local resistance at $88,389. If the daily bar closes above that mark, the upward move is likely to continue to the $89,000 zone soon.

On the longer time frame, the price of the main crypto is going up after a bounce back from the support at $86,363.

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If the bar closes far from that mark, traders may witness an ongoing upward move to the $90,000 zone for the rest of the week.

From the midterm point of view, the situation is unclear as the rate of BTC is far from key support and resistance levels. Thus, the volume has dropped, confirming the absence of buyers and sellers' energy. In this case, sideways trading in the range of $86,000-$90,000 is the most likely scenario until the end of the month.

Bitcoin is trading at $88,184 at press time.

According to Cardano blockchain explorer Cexplorer, the largest Cardano address holds 1.93 billion ADA.

Cexplorer shares a screenshot of the top 10 addresses by ADA balance. Sitting in the first spot is an ADA wallet with a balance of 1.93 billion ADA.

The whale's first activity dates back to five years, five months ago on Aug. 18, 2020. This comes about three years after Cardano's launch, which was created in September 2017. The ADA price ranged between $0.0869 and $0.0184 around the time of the whale's first activity.

The largest Cardano address holds 1.93B $ADA. 🤯 🐳Below are the TOP 10 addresses by $ADA balance. pic.twitter.com/eWUMoyDwq0

— Cexplorer.io 🅰️ (@cexplorer_io) January 26, 2026

The Cardano price later rose the following year to reach an all-time high of $3.10 on Sept. 2, 2021.

The ADA price subsequently retreated with the whale's staying power put to test, albeit it remained resilient.

According to Cexplorer data, the Cardano top address was last active about 27 days ago, showing inactivity so far this year.

Cardano whales ("leviathans") account for 9.7% of supply

According to Cexplorer data, Cardano whales, which hold between one million and five million ADA hold 3.73 billion, about 9.7% of the circulating supply.

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"Humpbacks" which, according to Cexplorer's classification, hold between 5 million and 20 million ADA, control a total of 2.97 billion ADA or 7.7% of the supply.

"Leviathans" are the biggest Cardano holders and might consist of crypto exchanges owning 20 million ADA and above. The total ADA held by this category is 17.52 billion, or 45.6% of the circulating supply.

Cardano news

In recent news, Cyber Hornet has filed for an S&P Crypto 10 ETF, which could be the first S&P-linked spot basket and includes Cardano.

FluidTokens is entering the final phase for the Bitcoin Cardano bridge. In a tweet, FluidTokens revealed that its Bifrost GitHub documentation is being written and added to its repos. It highlighted that the final stretch of development has arrived, with Bitcoin liquidity about to be unlocked on Cardano.

ARK has filed for ARK CoinDesk 20 Crypto ETF. Cardano (ADA) is part of the application, along with BTC, XRP, ETH, SOL and others. The crypto ETF is expected to trade on NYSE, now pending regulatory approval.

Some coins are trying to return to the green zone, according to CoinStats.

ETH/USD

The price of Ethereum (ETH) has gone up by 0.36% over the past day.

On the hourly chart, the rate of ETH is testing the local resistance at the $2,934 level. If its breakout happens, the upward move may continue to the vital $3,000 zone.

On the longer time frame, the price of the main altcoin is rising after a false breakout of the support at $2,791. However, the volume remains low, which means traders are unlikely to see sharp moves soon. 

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All in all, consolidation in the area of $2,900-$3,000 is the most likely scenario over the next few days.

From the midterm point of view, the situation is similar as none of the sides is dominating. In this regard, traders are unlikely to witness sharp ups or down soon.

Ethereum is trading at $2,940 at press time.

A sudden transfer ofShiba Inu (SHIB) has stunned Coinbase’s on-chain activity just as the seasonal boost of February begins to take effect.Arkham revealed that a mystery wallet, 0x519Fe, executed a round trip of 61.63 billion SHIB through Coinbase’s hot wallet in a matter of hours before disappearing with a zero balance.

With SHIB quoted at $0.00000773 and barely defending key support near $0.0000075, the motive behind the maneuver remains unclear. The timing of a large-scale deposit and withdrawal to a centralized exchange sends a cryptic message — either a fake-out before redistribution or an early exit.

In February, SHIB has historically shown strong performance. Over the past three years,Shiba Inu coin has delivered gains of 20.3%, 1.59% and 41.3%, respectively, in this particular month. The most aggressive of these was the breakout in 2024.

According to CryptoRank's monthly data, February has the second-best average return for SHIB at +9.26%.

Wallet reshuffle or prelude to bullish setup?

The price chart of the meme coin signals more tension. After a failed mid-January breakout toward $0.000009,SHIB retraced.

However, with current daily candles printing higher lows and historical upside poised to kick in, any whale positioning now will have an outsized impact.

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Since billions of SHIB changed hands through Coinbase without triggering a clear sell or accumulation trend, attention will remain focused on this address.

If February follows its usual rhythm, SHIB could easily reach the $0.000009 zone again or surpass it and reach $0.000011 if meme coin liquidity increases.

A new week has begun with ongoing bears' control, according to CoinMarketCap.

XRP/USD

Unlike most of the other coins, the rate of XRP has risen by 1.59% over the last 24 hours.

On the hourly chart, the price of XRP has made a false breakout of the local resistance at $1.9168. However, if a bounce back does not happen and the daily bar closes near that mark or above it, one can expect a test of the $1.95 zone tomorrow.

On the longer time frame, the rate of XRP has once again bounced off the support at $1.8209. However, buyers have not accumulated enough energy for a continued upward move.

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In this case, sideways trading in the range of $1.85-$1.95 is the most likely scenario this week.

From the midterm point of view, traders should focus on the weekly candle's closure in terms of the nearest level of $1.8209. If it breaks out, one can expect a further dump to the $1.70-$1.80 zone.

XRP is trading at $1.9166 at press time.

Bitmine Immersion officiallycrossed the $12 billion mark in Ethereum holdings with its latest weekly top-up. On Jan. 26, the crypto-first treasury fund added 40,302 ETH, bringing its total holdings to 4,243,338 ETH — about 3.52% of the total supply in circulation.

This new milestone solidifies Bitmine’s position as the largest known institutional holder ofEthereum, surpassing the combined ETH reserves of several major ETFs.

At current prices near $2,909, the position is worth $12.33 billion. Over the past month, Bitmine acquired over 370,000 ETH through consistent weekly accumulation, with each batch ranging from 24,000 to 138,000 ETH, without triggering big price spikes. This suggests the use of over-the-counter execution or algo-managed slippage control.

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The pace and size of the accumulation have fueled speculation that Bitmine may be positioning itself ahead of a potentialETH supply shock. With the staking supply locked at nearly 30%, some are modeling a Q2 repricing scenario in which the resistance zone could be $3,800-$4,400, should institutional demand converge with Bitmine’s lead.

The firm currently holds nearly 100 times more ETH than BTC, with only 192 Bitcoin in its portfolio, and its treasury allocation is 99.86% Ethereum. The latest announcement notes that the firm has not sold a single coin since the beginning this accumulation phase in Q4 of 2025.

What’s driving this?

Chairman Tom Lee recently hinted at an Ethereum-centric AI convergence thesis in Davos, calling ETH "the infrastructure backbone of Web3-AI capital flows." Whether it is hyperbole or forward-thinking, Bitmine's position is one of the most aggressive institutional crypto positions in history, rivaled only by earlyMicroStrategy in Bitcoin.

The world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, has announced the listing of Elon Musk’s Tesla on its platform. In anupdate shared on X, Binance alerted the broader financial community to the launch of the TSLAUSDT perpetual futures contract that tracks the price of Tesla traded against Tether (USDT).

Binance brings leveraged Tesla exposure to futures market

As per the announcement, trading will commence within the next 48 hours on Jan. 28, 2026, at 2:30 p.m. UTC. The development will enable leveraged trading of Tesla stock prices under the TradFi category.

It is worth emphasizing that it is a derivative product and not an actual Tesla share. The TSLAUSDT perpetual contract is designed to track the market price of Tesla stocks. This implies that, unlike traditional futures, investors can hold their position as long as they desire, as there is no expiry date.

The position is subject to funding fees, and margin requirements, with profit, losses, margins and settlement all in USDT. This effectively eliminates the use of fiat.

New Listing Alert: TSLAUSDTBinance Futures will list TSLAUSDT Perpetual Contract on 01-28-2026, 14:30 UTC.Head over to Binance Futures > search symbol > [TradFi] tab to trade TradFi Perpetual Contracts.Learn more 👉 https://t.co/mAMf0Wmeuc pic.twitter.com/NWExVfkwLe

— Binance (@binance) January 26, 2026

The move has been applauded by users in the financial space as a significant win in the integration of crypto infrastructure with TradFi assets. It is crucial as it allows crypto users to speculate on the price outlook of stocks without the need to leave the Binance platform.

A user opined that this could be a signal that TradFi and the crypto market will be more intertwined going forward. While acknowledging that it is a smart move, another user expressed concerns that it could serve as undue leverage.

Tesla stock volatility and Binance listing

Binance’s listing comes amid Tesla’s recent stock volatility, which was triggered by Electric Vehicle (EV) market shifts. The positive sentiment could act as a catalyst to boost trading volume as traders increase their exposure to TSLA’s movement.

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In August 2025, Tesla’s competitor,Faraday Future, had unveiled a cryptocurrency strategy as part of its moves to hedge its position. Following its struggles with production delays and limited EV deliveries, Faraday Future looked to crypto assets.

Tesla’s approach appears more broad-based and allows investors to track stock prices on the futures market. Legendary trader Peter Brandt had, in one of his analyses, suggested thatTSLA could rise significantly given its technical setup on the charts.

It remains to be seen if Binance listing Tesla is the catalyst that might trigger this upsurge in the price of TSLA.

Major crypto exchange Binance has issued a notice of removal for selected spot trading pairs.

In the next 24 hours, on Jan. 27, 22 crypto trading pairs are set to be delisted from the Binance platform. The move affects the trading pairs of Bitcoin, Shiba Inu, Toncoin and meme coin Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT), among others.

The affected trading pairs include SHIB/DOGE, BTC/UAH, COMP/BTC, DASH/ETH, ETC/ETH, IO/BTC, LINEA/BNB, MINA/BTC, MMT/BNB, MOVE/BNB, OG/BTC, OGN/BTC, PLUME/BNB, PNUT/FDUSD, RUNE/ETH, SEI/FDUSD, STX/FDUSD, TIA/FDUSD, TON/BTC, VET/ETH and YB/BNB and will be delisted on Jan. 27 at 8:00 a.m. (UTC). Binance will also terminate Spot Trading Bots services for the 22 trading pairs on this date and time, where applicable.

The delisting action follows a periodic review undertaken by Binance with the aim of protecting users and sustaining a high-quality trading market. The reasons Binance might delist selected spot trading pairs include poor liquidity and trading volume, among others.

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The delisting of a spot trading pair does not affect the availability of the tokens on Binance Spot. For instance, Shiba Inu still remains listed on Binance, with the SHIB/DOGE pair only being removed.

In this light, users are urged to act accordingly before the delisting action to avoid potential losses.

Binance to list Tesla futures

In fresh listing news, Binance is set to launch a Tesla stock perpetual contract. In a recent announcement, the crypto exchange stated it would be listing the TSLAUSDT Equity Perpetual Contract with up to 5x leverage.

This listing date is set for Jan. 28 at 2:30 a.m. UTC. Binance gives the reason for the listing to be in line with the expansion of a list of trading choices offered on its futures platform and to improve users’ trading experience.

XRP just got hit with one of the worst bear traps of the month. After dipping below $1.83 in the early Asia hours, the coin made a comeback, taking short sellers by surprise with a 37,296% liquidation imbalance — wiping out $2.92 million in shorts in just 12 hours while leaving long positions almost untouched, as perCoinGlass.

At its peak, theXRP price spiked from $1.82 to $1.90 in a fast manner, triggering cascading stop-outs. The hourly liquidation footprint shows that over 99.7% of "rekt" volume came from short positions during the most volatile parts of the move.

Even during that 24-hour period, bears absorbed over $3.44 million in liquidations — more than 10 times the damage inflicted on longs in earlier sessions.

The one-minute candle chart shows a classic liquidation ladder: a clean five-wave pump, a brief consolidation, then a secondary spike above $1.8970 that forced late shorts to exit at a loss.

What actually happened?

Despite closing at around $1.896, the fact that the liquidation flow was so uneven suggests that there is a lot of mispositioning in the perpetual markets. This is probably due to a false sense of confidence in a short-term retracing after last week's +14% breakout.

This kind of imbalance usually does not go away on its own. If the structure holds, XRP's next leg could challenge the psychological $2 zone. That level has not been sustained for more than 72 hours since December 2025.

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The bulls should keep an eye on funding rates and open interest to spot any early signs of overheating, but derivatives positioning remains moderate, with leverage still below levels that usually come before things get overbought.

Shorts just got torched, and if things get more volatile in the middle of the week, the nextsqueeze might be coming for XRP.

Amid the broadercryptocurrency market volatility, institutional investors placed their bets on Solana (SOL) ahead of Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and XRP. Ashighlighted by CoinShares researcher James Butterfill, Solana registered $17.1 million in inflows over the last seven days.

Solana wins institutional investor bid

Notably, this signals that these institutional investors are confident of Solana’s price outlook and future trajectory compared to the other crypto products. The development indicates capital flow to SOL when compared to others on the top 20 list of crypto assets.

Solana’s seven-day inflow flipped the combined flow that Litecoin, Zcash, Chainlink and others managed to attract in the same period. These assets in total recorded $10.1 million in inflows as against SOL’s $17.1 million.

Bitcoin suffered the worst weekly outflow with a total of $1.08 billion withdrawn within seven days. It was followed by Ethereum, whose outflow stood at $630.3 million, while XRP bled by $18.2 million. Other outflows were by Multi-asset and Sui, with $15.5 million and $6 million, respectively.

The total outflows in digital asset investment products came in at $1.732 billion. This marks the highest volume of outflows in more than 10 weeks.

In terms of outflows by region, most were recorded in the United States, which logged $1.8 billion within one week. Institutional players like BlackRock contributed to this massive outflow as the investment giant has steadily offloaded Bitcoin and Ethereum since the start of January 2026.

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The latest, which occurred on Jan. 22, sawBlackRock dump $603 million worth of assets. It comprised $356.7 million worth of BTC and $247.1 million worth of Ethereum. Some market watchers consider that the outflow from BlackRock suggests little confidence in the price outlook of the asset on the part of the investment giant.

Price outlook signals continued volatility

Other regions that registered outflows were Sweden, the Netherlands, Hong Kong and Brazil, with $11.1 million, $4.4 million, $2.6 million and $1.7 million, respectively.

Conversely, Canada, Germany and Switzerland were countries that saw inflows of $33.5 million, $19.1 million and $32.5 million, in that order.

CoinMarketCap data shows that Solana has dropped by 3.45% in the last 24 hours and is trading at $122.37.Bitcoin has shed 1.2% and changing hands at $87,712, while Ethereum lost 1.24% and is trading for $2,898.43.

XRP remains below the $2 level and is changing hands at $1.89, which reflects a 0.03% decline.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong predicts a future where firms go public entirely on-chain. In a recent tweet, Armstrong unveiled a vision for an on-chain IPO, saying: "Eventually, you'll be able to go public entirely onchain, which will dramatically lower costs, reduce friction and increase access. Hopefully very soon."

The Coinbase CEO highlighted in his X post the need to make capital formation significantly easier for private companies. He observes a high demand for some of the large private companies, referring to this as "a good example" of the unintended consequences of higher regulation.

We need to make capital formation way easier for private companies.There's such high demand for some of the large private companies, it's actually a good example of the unintended consequences of higher regulation. Right now, companies are incentivized to stay public for too…

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) January 25, 2026

Armstrong further highlighted a trend whereby companies stay private for years, and all the money is made by private or credit investors, but when they go public, price performance often is not great. He noted the reason for this to be that there is no liquid market setting proper valuations early in the lifecycle.

Eventual outcome

The Coinbase CEO predicts an eventual outcome: companies going public entirely on-chain, a move he says might lower costs, reduce friction and increase access.

Coinbase continues in its push to build the infrastructure needed to bring every company, from the smallest startup to the largest bank, on-chain.

In a systems update in December, Coinbase rolled out a slew of new products with the intent of turning it into a one-stop financial app, expanding into stocks and tokenization, prediction markets, more advanced trading with futures and perpetual futures, and DEX trading.

Coinbase Business, an all-in-one financial platform designed for startups and small businesses, was introduced and made available to all eligible businesses in the U.S. and Singapore.

2026 to see IPO rush

The U.S. initial public offering market is bracing for a rush of deals with a lineup including some of the most closely watched private companies in technology, finance and crypto.

Investors are looking out for Kraken crypto exchange, which was valued in a November funding round at about $20 billion, and which has filed confidentially for a U.S. IPO. Others that could jump in include Grayscale and BitGo.

In comparison, Circle and Figure made their market debuts earlier in 2025, while Coinbase became a public company on Nasdaq in April 2021.

Traditional hard assets and cryptocurrency are starting to diverge sharply, and the markets are making this clear. Gold is getting close to the psychologically crucial $5,000 mark, silver has surged above $100 and Bitcoin is finding it difficult to maintain important technical levels due to significant institutional withdrawals.

Digital gold loses to real gold

Physical metals are currently winning, when the notion that Bitcoin functions as digital gold is put to the test. The price series of gold, silver and Bitcoin reveals a distinct change in capital preference.

Inflation hedging, concerns about currency depreciation and a desire for assets free of counterparty risk are all factors contributing to the acceleration of gold and silver prices in late-cycle macro stress. Silver’s move is especially aggressive, indicating expectations for industrial demand as well as speculative momentum and inflation hedging. In the past, strong cryptocurrency performance has rarely coincided with such movements.

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The price movement of Bitcoin supports this divergence, with frequent rejections close to declining resistance, as Bitcoin is still below the major moving averages on the daily chart. Rather than accumulation, the recent breakdown from an ascending structure suggests distribution.

Volume spikes during declines indicate that supply is still in control, and momentum indicators are still weak, which is not what leadership in a risk-taking environment looks like.

Bitcoin ETF confirms thesis

Flows verify the image. In just one week, $1.33 billion was taken out of U.S. Bitcoin ETFs, the most since February 2025. This is significant since ETFs serve as the main institutional capital bridge. Prolonged outflows indicate a purposeful decrease in exposure as well as profit-taking, and it suggests a move away from speculative growth narratives and toward capital preservation when institutions rotate out of Bitcoin while metals draw investment.

For cryptocurrency bulls, the wider implications are unsettling. Gold and silver's strength is typically a negative sign for riskier assets such as Bitcoin, as it reflects situations where liquidity declines, such as tightening financial conditions, rising real yields or geopolitical unpredictability. Excess liquidity is what makes cryptocurrencies thrive, and when that liquidity retreats, metals flourish.

San Francisco-based blockchain firm Ripple has continued to strengthen its foothold across the global space, especially the Middle Eastern region, amid efforts to foster blockchain adoption.

On Monday, Jan. 26, the senior executive and managing director for the Middle East and Africa at Ripple, Reece Merrick, announced that Ripple has signed a new partnership deal with a Saudi Arabian fintech firm, Jeel.

More big news from the Middle East! @Ripple is partnering with @Jeelmovement, the innovation arm of @RiyadBank, to advance Saudi Arabia’s financial future through blockchain innovation 🇸🇦The Kingdom’s visionary leadership has established Saudi Arabia as a forward-thinking… pic.twitter.com/KhQ7giluhE

— Reece Merrick (@reece_merrick) January 26, 2026

The partnership will see Ripple and Jeel, the innovation arm of Riyad Bank, work together to boost blockchain adoption within Saudi Arabia’s financial services.

Ripple expands cross-border payment services

While the move aligns with Ripple’s mission to continue expanding its cross-border payment services across multiple nations of the world, it has officially signed the new partnership via a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

According to Merrick, both firms will work together to explore use cases for cross-border payments, digital asset custody, tokenization and, generally, the integration of secure and efficient blockchain solutions into Saudi Arabia’s financial infrastructure.

Prior to the partnership deal, Saudi Arabia had established a Vision 2030 agenda, which involves building a globally competitive and technology-driven economy. Thus, the Ripple and Jeel partnership marks a step forward toward achieving the vision.

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By working with Ripple, Jeel aims to evaluate real-world blockchain use cases that support modernization efforts across payments and digital asset services.

XRP gains spotlight in Saudi Arabia

The partnership, which seeks to drive the use of cross border payments in the region, has sparked attention for the firm’s associated digital currency, XRP.

While the partnership aims to improve the speed, cost and transparency of cross-border transactions, it also positions XRP for further recognition as it tends to bolster its adoption as a suitable option for cross border payments within the Saudi Arabian region.

According to Merrick, Saudi Arabia has continued to play a major role in global fintech innovation, and Ripple’s enterprise-grade digital asset technology makes a perfect fit to help both companies enhance its financial infrastructure.

Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) has once again demonstrated its unwavering commitment to its Bitcoin standard, announcing the acquisition of an additional 2,932 BTC for approximately $264.1 million.

The purchase, executed at an average price of $90,061 per Bitcoin, signals that the company remains a dedicated buyer even as the asset struggles to reclaim the $100,000 level.

This latest acquisition shows Strategy’s willingness to "average up" to acquire more coins. The purchase price of $90,061 is significantly higher than their aggregate cost basis of $76,037, indicating that the firm views the current consolidation around $90k not as a peak, but as a discount relative to their long-term outlook.

With 712,647 BTC now in custody, Strategy effectively controls nearly 3.4% of the entire circulating supply of Bitcoin (21 million max supply).

Bitcoin is currently trading close to the $88,000 level, failing to regain momentum.

A recent report published by the CoinShares asset management fund reveals that over the past week, crypto has absorbed a harsh blow, with nearly $2 billion in investments.

Bitcoin, including spot BTC ETFs, was the leading loser last week, according to the report, as it lost $1.089 billion. XRP came in third on the list of the cryptos that faced the hardest blow. However, the document.

Close to $2 billion withdrawn from crypto in one week

CoinShares reported that last week, crypto asset investment products registered the largest outflow since mid-November last year. In total, the withdrawals came to approximately $1.73 billion. Bitcoin outflows were the largest, of course, at $1.09 billion. That was a single-day outflow.

Ethereum came second on this list, with $630 million outflows. It was followed by XRP. Investment products based on this cryptocurrency lost $18.2 million. In total, the outflows constituted $1.732 billion.

However, unlike BTC, ETH or XRP, Solana welcomed inflows of around $17.1 million. Litecoin and Chainlink absorbed $0.5 million and $3.8 million, respectively.

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Peter Brandt spots another sell signal for Bitcoin

Skilled commodity trader Peter Brandt has spotted another sell signal on a Bitcoin chart. He pointed out that it emerged as a bear channel completed. Brandt believes that the BTC price has to get back above the $93,000 level in order to negate the losses it has faced so far.

Bitcoin lost almost 5.3% since Friday, falling from $91,150 to the $86,400 zone. Since Monday, Jan. 19, the decline has comprised approximately 7.37% as BTC declined from $93,265.

By now, the leading cryptocurrency has recovered a little and is trading at $87,736 per coin.

Yet another sell signal in Bitcoin as a bear channel has been completed. Remember that charts can always morph. Price needs to reclaim $93k to negate $BTC pic.twitter.com/cD5PrUIkTr

— Peter Brandt (@PeterLBrandt) January 25, 2026

Bitcoin Omegacycle coming: Samson Mow

Bitcoin bull and JAN3 CEO Samson Mow, took to X yesterday to share his thoughts on the direction he expects Bitcoin to take in the near future. Mow stated that last year, “two popular myths were shattered.”

The first myth was about Bitcoin's four-year cycle. Samson referred to it as an illusion, saying that “An Omegacycle is in the cards.” The second myth dispelled by Mow was that “Bitcoin is too big to see a 10x” price surge.

The most bullish things for #Bitcoin happened in the last year: two popular myths were shattered.1️⃣ The 4-year cycle. The illusion is over. An Omegacycle is in the cards.2️⃣ Bitcoin is too big to see a 10x. Gold saw almost 2x. Silver 3.4x.Now we just wait patiently. 🚀

— Samson Mow (@Excellion) January 25, 2026

What is necessary to do now, he said, is “just wait patiently.”

As the new week begins on the crypto market, Bitcoin is struggling to stay above $87,000 after another weekend of declines, while investors are looking at red numbers and considering their exit strategies. However, behind the panic, key data points suggest misreadings, especially regarding XRP’s -$18.2 million headline.

Elsewhere, Samson Mow, the advocate of "$1 million BTC," trashes the halving narrative, and the original creator of Dogecoin offers a one-word summary of the market.

TL;DR

XRP’s outflow of $18.2 million comes almost entirely from a U.S. ETF product as global flows show unusual strength.Bitcoin saw $1.09 billion in outflows this week, but Samson Mow argues that the four-year cycle is dead and that a 10x increase is real.Dogecoin creator responded to the Bitcoin price crash with just one word, and it signals exhaustion.XRP records $18.2 million outflow, but there's a bullish catch

CoinShares data showed XRP losing $18.2 million last week across digital asset investment products. That put it right behind Bitcoin's -$1.09 billion and Ethereum's -$630.3 million, which were the worst weekly performers. But when you break it down, it is not as shocking as it seems: almost all of it — about $40.64 million — was invested in a single U.S. spot ETF. Apart from that redemption event, XRP products in other regions saw inflows.

The largest buyers were from Europe and Canada. Switzerland added $32.5 million across crypto ETPs, Germany added $19.1 million and Canada took in $33.5 million. This is in contrast to the $1.8 billion that left the U.S. All of this happened during a flat-to-declining price week, which hints at strategic accumulation or arbitrage between spot and derivative exposure.

This drop in the ETF also happened at a weird time, since the outflow was recorded just as the market expected redemptions from weaker ETP issuers. Thus, it is not reallya vote against XRP but more like a rebalancing or a move specific to a provider.

XRP's month-to-date flow is still positive at $89.9 million, which is one of the best among altcoins. Solana is the only one that has beaten it, with $92.9 million for January. XRP's AUM is at $3.54 billion, slightly above Solana's $3.37 billion and far ahead of Litecoin, Sui and Chainlink combined.

The headlines might make it look like there is panic-selling going on, but it is actually just a structural rotation. If anything, the way non-U.S. investors are adding to weakness suggests that they are looking ahead to Q1 catalysts. These are probably going to be centered on regulatory developments or resumed ETF approval momentum abroad.

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Samson Mow says forget about halving: 10x is still on the menu

Samson Mow is still optimistic about Bitcoin's long-term potential, but he is not relying on the usual halving cycle theory. According to Mow, the two main assumptions — thatBitcoin's price follows a four-year halving schedule and that its market cap is too big for major multiples — are both out of date.

In his words, what happened in 2025 broke the cycle model. The inflows from institutional investors, the cross-border monetary rotation and the scale of post-ETF exposure disrupted historical patterns. Instead of going for a typical surge post-halving, the market is entering a new macro-anchored expansion phase.

He calls it an "Omegacycle," meaning Bitcoin is no longer governed by past fractals but instead tracks monetary compression, liquidity spillovers and sovereign accumulation. That also means we cannot tie hard targets to dates like "2026 = $250,000 BTC."

The most bullish things for #Bitcoin happened in the last year: two popular myths were shattered.1️⃣ The 4-year cycle. The illusion is over. An Omegacycle is in the cards.2️⃣ Bitcoin is too big to see a 10x. Gold saw almost 2x. Silver 3.4x.Now we just wait patiently. 🚀

— Samson Mow (@Excellion) January 25, 2026

Bitcoin can still do 10x, and it is not just hype. Capital allocators now treat it like a reserve layer. Gold almost doubled during its last major cycle. Silver tripled. Bitcoin, with a market cap of around $870 billion, is still pretty small in the grand scheme of things.

This view really stands out when you compare it to the brutal flows we saw this week. Bitcoin experienced $1.09 billion in weekly outflows, the largest single-week drain since the November crash. But this volume did not translate to full risk-off behavior. Short-Bitcoin products gained a mere $0.5 million — minimal compared to past bear moves. The sell-off was not driven by conviction; it looked more like a positioning shakeout.

Mow is reiterating long-term upside on a week like this, signaling that big wallets are not done. They are just not doing it publicly anymore.

Bitcoin drops, and Dogecoin co-creator responds with one word

Bitcoin's Saturday night slump made headlines for how fast it happened, not how big the drop was. All of a sudden, the cryptocurrency dropped from $89,300 to under $87,100. The move got its most viral reaction fromBilly Markus, cofounder of Dogecoin, who replied with a single word, and it was a "sigh."

That reaction, along with his follow-up comment that "crypto is and always will be boring to anyone not making money," shows how people are feeling right now in the space. Engagement is low, meme coins are no longer a hot topic and the novelty factor has disappeared. Even major downside volatility does not excite anyone unless it leads to big profits.

This kind of emotional flatline is usually a late-stage capitulation marker — not for price, but for interest. Markus's tone is in line with what most metrics are showing: Telegram's activity is slow, Google Trends are down and NFT and meme coin volumes are close to reaching multiquarter lows. No one's talking, no one's watching and no one's hyping it.

This is usually whenDOGE consolidates, and when Bitcoin's price suddenly starts moving up and down a lot. Yes, the fatigue is real, but it rarely lasts.

Crypto market outlook

For now, nobody on the crypto market wants to buy big. But nobody is exiting entirely either. That puts us in a holding pattern, where boredom builds pressure and structure sets the stage.

Bitcoin (BTC): $89,400 resistance with $86,500 soft support.XRP: $1.87 needs to hold to maintain ETF bid confidence.Ethereum (ETH): $2,950 is still the ceiling.Dogecoin (DOGE): Sub-$0.080 zone has historically reversed on zero sentiment.

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