Crypto traders usually view negative funding rates as a buy signal, but this week’s volatility US earnings outcome may cloud the value of the signal for ETH investors.

The enforcement action over wagers on sports event contracts followed Coinbase announcing the launch of prediction markets in all 50 US states.

Yearn Finance highlights the urgent need for better risk management as DeFi faces growing challenges.

The post Corn: DeFi faces critical customer support challenges, Yearn’s foresight on UST highlights governance risks, and the market is set for recovery in late 2023 | On The Brink with Castle Island appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

2025 is set to be a game-changing year for blockchain, with explosive growth in digital wallets and investments.

The post Matthew Le Merle: 2025 will be the year of crypto equity, hundreds of millions will adopt digital wallets, and US regulation is shifting positively | On The Brink with Castle Island appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

A surprise uptick in a key factory gauge has traders rethinking risk, while crypto watchers debate whether Bitcoin will ride a fresh wave higher or stay stuck in a drawdown.

The ISM Manufacturing PMI rose into expansion territory in January, and that single data point has set off a flurry of takes from market strategists and crypto analysts alike.

ISM Manufacturing Signals Shift

According to the Institute for Supply Management, the PMI clocked in at 52.6 for January. That number crosses the line that separates contraction from growth.

For investors who watch signals closely, a move like that can mean money starts flowing back into assets seen as higher risk.

“Past breakouts in 2013, 2016, and 2020 served as key catalysts for Bitcoin’s major bull runs,” Strive vice president of Bitcoin strategy, Joe Burnett, said.

The Fed will notice. A stronger manufacturing print changes the debate about inflation and rate policy. Traders price in the chance of tighter policy when growth looks solid.

At the same time, some economists point out manufacturing is only one piece of the puzzle. Services, employment, and consumer demand also matter. Reports note the index reading was the best since August 2022, which makes it notable on its own.

One of the longest ISM Manufacturing PMI contraction periods in U.S. history ended this morning with a breakout to 52.6, up 4.7 points from December.

Past breakouts in 2013, 2016, and 2020 served as key catalysts for Bitcoin’s major bull runs.

This ends 26 consecutive months of…

— Joe Burnett, MSBA (@IIICapital) February 2, 2026

Bitcoin Price Action And Market Mood

Bitcoin’s price has been choppy. After hitting a high above $125,000 late last year, it tumbled and then bounced into the $78,000 area. Reports say the drop followed a major liquidation event and a string of macro shocks that pushed investors toward safe assets.

Some buyers are taking the dip as an entry point. Others remain on the sidelines. Correlations with stock tech names have been strong, which means Bitcoin has behaved more like a risk asset than a digital gold in recent months.

A few traders argue rising PMI readings often precede “risk-on” periods, when speculative bets return. Still, this link is not ironclad. Bitcoin’s moves are shaped by liquidity flows, ETF money in and out, geopolitical flare-ups, and crypto-specific events. The market is being pushed from several directions at once.

Institutional voices are splintered. Based on reports from various firms, estimates range from cautious to wildly optimistic. One firm projects a post-crash rally that could send prices well above current levels by year-end.

Another research house warns of more retracement before any sustained upswing. A large institutional player declined to peg a number at all, calling the environment too chaotic to forecast with confidence.

That kind of range tells a clear story: uncertainty rules. Analysts who tie Bitcoin to macro cycles are gaining followers, while those who treat it as an independent asset argue for a different playbook.

Short-term traders will watch economic prints and liquidity data closely. Longer-term holders will weigh Bitcoin’s role relative to gold and equities. Reports say market structure—who’s buying, who’s selling, and where ETFs are seeing flows—will likely matter as much as any single economic release.

The ISM rise may be the start of a healthier risk tone for global markets, but it will not on its own guarantee a steady climb for Bitcoin. Risk is back on the table, in a manner of speaking, and the path forward will depend on how policy makers, big investors, and retail traders react in the next several weeks.

Featured image from unsplash, chart from TradingView

US Lawmakers have called for better anti-corruption measures over the $500 million deal between an Abu Dhabi-backed entity and World Liberty Financial Invest (WLFI), the main crypto venture of the Trump family.

Congressmen Question WLFI’s UAE-Backed Deal

On Monday, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy criticized the recently unveiled deal involving United Arab Emirates (UAE) investors and a US President Trump-linked crypto company, World Liberty Financial.

In an X post, the congressman expressed his concerns over the deal, warning that it had broken “decades of national security precedent” and constituted “brazen, open corruption” that Americans “shouldn’t pretend it’s normal.”

The concern follows a Wall Street Journal report alleging that Aryam Investment, a UAE-backed entity linked to Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, an Abu Dhabi royal tied to the emirate’s state investment machinery, purchased 49% stake of WLFI for $500 million just days before Trump’s inauguration.

As reported by Bitcoinist, the news media outlet claimed that the buyers paid half of the sum upfront, citing company documents and people familiar with the matter, with around $187 million paid to entities connected to the Trump family.

Meanwhile, at least $31 million was reportedly directed to entities affiliated with Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s envoy to the Middle East and one of WLFI’s co-founders, who was questioned by US senators last year.

Months after the WLFI-UAE deal, the Trump administration approved expanded access for the UAE to advanced US-made AI chips despite restrictions from the Biden administration over concerns about potential diversion to China.

“This is a case where they knew it was so outrageous, it was so wrong that they did it in private,” Murphy affirmed, noting that the payments could be considered “the elements of a bribe.”

What we are talking about here is stunning. It’s a secret payment (…), and then, soon after, a gift of national security secrets to the UAE, that up until those two secret payments, every American president had refused to give. This is corruption (…). This is potentially criminal conduct.

Moreover, the senator asserted that “the rule of law may be suspended today,” but declared that it “is coming back, and when it does, everyone who has greased their palms off government services, trading government favors for cash, and violating the laws of this nation are going to jail.”

Similarly, House of Representatives member Greg Landsman also deemed the World Liberty Financial deal “blatant corruption,” affirming that “Trump gets $500 million in cash then approves the deal sending advanced AI chips to the UAE (…). He gets richer every day. You get poorer. That’s his presidency.”

The congressman called for new leadership in his X post, urging “massive anti-corruption reforms” to avert future secret deals.

Trump Denies Conflict Of Interest Concerns

President Trump denied any involvement in the UAE-backed investment into WLFI during a press conference on Monday at the White House, asserting that he was unaware of the $500 million stake deal.

He explained that he is not involved in WLFI’s day-to-day operations, as his sons oversee the crypto firm. “Well, I don’t know about it. I know that crypto is a big thing, and they like it. A lot of people like it,” the US president said. “The people behind me like it. My sons are handling that. My family is handling it. And I guess they get investments from different people. But I’m not.”

Notably, President Trump and his administration have been repeatedly questioned about potential conflicts of interest and corruption concerns. Democrats have pressed multiple government officials, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s former acting chairman and the head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), about Trump’s crypto ventures.

In November, US senators expressed concerns about potential national security risks in a letter, demanding that the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Treasury Department investigate WLFI over token sales allegedly linked to illicit actors.

They argued that World Liberty Financial and its token “lack adequate safeguards to prevent bad actors from moving funds or gaining influence over its governance,” raising the alarm over a potential conflict of interest.

Bitcoin is a $1.5 trillion prize pool secured by nothing more than numbers, private keys, generated by math, that unlock wallets holding real money.

That’s the seductive idea behind Keys.lol: a site that spits out batches of Bitcoin private keys and their corresponding addresses, like an infinite roll of digital lottery tickets.

Refresh the page, and you get another set. Refresh again, and you get another.

Somewhere in that endless stream is a key that matches a wallet with a balance, maybe even one holding a life-changing amount.

This is the only lottery where the game is real, and the jackpot exists, yet the odds are so extreme that “never” is the practical outcome.

The keyspace is so vast that even checking billions of addresses at a time doesn’t meaningfully move the needle; the chance of landing on a funded wallet is so close to zero that it effectively disappears.

Keys.lol feels like a shortcut to fortune, but what it actually demonstrates is the opposite: why Bitcoin wallets are secure, and why brute-force “guessing” isn’t a threat model so much as a lesson in how big numbers can get.

How to play the free Bitcoin lottery

Open the website. Hit refresh. Watch it spit out a new batch of 90 Bitcoin private keys and addresses, like scratchcards scrolling past at high speed.

It feels like a loophole in reality: if you can generate enough keys, fast enough, surely you’ll eventually land on one that already controls real BTC.

That temptation is exactly what Keys.lol is built to dramatize. The homepage claims “every Bitcoin private key” is on the site and encourages you to “try your luck.”

But the punchline is mathematical: yes, you can play, and no, you can’t win, at least not in any practical sense.

I'm not trying to advertise how to “hack Bitcoin.” It’s the opposite: a fun, slightly mind-melting way to understand why Bitcoin wallets are secure.

The space of possible keys and addresses is so large that “randomly guessing” is effectively impossible.

An unintended side effect is that refreshing for long enough may well cure your gambling addiction, too. The fun goes from “but what if I hit one?” to “yeah, this is impossible” pretty quickly.

Keys.lol turns keyspace into a game

Keys.lol doesn’t store a literal database of keys (that would be physically impossible). It generates keys procedurally on the fly based on a page number.

That means it can display deterministic slices of the keyspace without ever saving them.

In other words: it’s not a vault of stolen secrets. It’s a number generator with a balance checker and a casino vibe.

And if you’re refreshing random batches, say 90 addresses at a time, you’re essentially buying free lottery tickets against the entire Bitcoin address universe.

The math behind the impossible odds

A Bitcoin private key is basically a number in an astronomically large range. Keys.lol itself describes it as between 1 and (2^256).

But for this “lottery,” the practical target is addresses with a non-zero balance.

As of February 2026, there are 58 million BTC addresses with a non-zero balance. Let’s use that as the “number of winning tickets.”

Now compare it to the size of the space you’re sampling from.

A standard way to think about Bitcoin addresses is that they’re derived via hashing to a 160-bit value.

• (2^160) possible address-hash outcomes
• That’s about 1.46 × 10^48 possible destinations for “where BTC could be,” in address-space terms

Even if tens of millions are funded, that’s still a rounding error against 10^48.

So what are the odds per refresh?

If you sample addresses uniformly at random from the full space, the probability a single random address is one of the 58,000,000 non-zero ones is:

• p = 58,000,000 / 2^160 ≈ 3.97 × 10^-41

If you check 90 addresses in one go, your chance of finding at least one non-zero balance becomes:

• P(≥ 1) ≈ 90p ≈ 3.57 × 10^-39

That’s roughly:

• 1 in (2.8 × 10^38)

Written out, that’s:

1 in 280,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (“280 undecillion.”)

A human way to feel “1 in 2.8×10^38”

Try this mental model:

Imagine you could do one billion refreshes per second (and each refresh checks 90 addresses).

The expected time to hit just one non-zero address would still be on the order of 10^12 years.

The age of the universe is ~10^10 years.

That’s about 10^12 times the age of the universe, or a trillion universe-lifetimes just to find a single funded address.

So you’re not “unlikely” to win. You’re functionally guaranteed not to on any timescale that matters.

How much harder than winning the lottery?

The EuroMillions jackpot odds are about 1 in 139,838,160; the US Powerball odds are 1 in 292,201,338.

Keys.lol's “90-address refresh finds a funded wallet” odds are about 1 in (2.8 × 10^38).

So EuroMillions is roughly:

• (2.8 × 10^38) / (1.398 × 10^8) ≈ 2 × 10^30

That’s about two nonillion times more likely than your refresh ever finding a non-zero address.

Put differently: you’d have a better chance of winning EuroMillions again and again and again than hitting a funded BTC address by random key generation.

This is why Bitcoin wallets are secure

The entire security model of Bitcoin ownership is built on one simple idea:

Even if everyone on Earth used every computer they could possibly build, guessing someone else’s private key is still computationally and probabilistically out of reach.

Keys.lol is compelling because it makes the impossible feel tangible. You’re looking at real-looking keys and real-looking addresses and hoping for a miracle.

But Bitcoin doesn’t rely on secrecy through obscurity. It relies on the sheer scale of the keyspace.

The “attack” you’re simulating, random guessing, isn’t a threat model. It’s a lesson in large numbers.

If you ever “hit” a funded key, it’s theft, not a free jackpot

There’s a reason this “free Bitcoin lottery” is such a useful teaching tool: it exposes the difference between possible in theory and permissible in real life.

If you were to generate a private key that corresponds to a wallet with funds, and then try to “sweep” those coins, you wouldn’t be claiming abandoned treasure.

You’d be taking assets you don’t own, without consent. In plain terms: it’s theft.

Even framing it as “luck” doesn’t change what’s happening. The private key is simply the credential that proves control.

Discovering someone else’s credentials doesn’t grant you ownership any more than finding a stranger’s bank card PIN would.

And there’s a second, subtler risk: trying to turn this into a get-rich scheme can expose you to legal consequences.

Whether it’s prosecuted as theft, fraud, unauthorized access, or another offense depends on the jurisdiction. But the core point is the same: “I guessed it” is not a defense, and “finders keepers” doesn’t apply to digital property.

So yes, Keys.lol is a fascinating window into Bitcoin’s security model. But the only “win condition” here is understanding the math, not trying to cash out someone else’s balance.

“Mathematically never” is still annoying for bots, so Keys.lol adds friction anyway

Even though the odds of finding a funded wallet are so tiny they round to zero for any practical human timeline, Keys.lol still throws up bot protection.

Click “Random page” too aggressively, and you can be redirected to an “Are you human?” captcha.

In other words: even the site itself assumes someone, somewhere, will try to automate refreshes at scale, and it actively tries to slow that down.

That doesn’t make Bitcoin “more secure” (the security comes from the size of the keyspace). But it does make this particular game harder to industrialize.

It’s a reminder that brute-force behavior is expected, and throttled, even when the underlying math already makes success effectively impossible.

The “expected reward” of a refresh (and why the fun math is misleading)

Let’s do some back-of-the-napkin maths anyway.

The average non-zero wallet holds about 0.126 BTC, and we can value that at roughly $9,852 today, then the arithmetic is:

• $9,852 ÷ 58,000,000 ≈ $0.0001362069
• That’s about $1 per 9,852 in this simplified framing.

But here’s the catch: that calculation quietly assumes each refresh is picking from the set of funded wallets.

In reality, you’re sampling from the full address universe. The microscopic part is the chance of landing on any of those 58 million non-zero addresses at all.

Once you include that probability, the true expected value collapses to essentially zero.

Using today’s BTC price (~$78,195), 0.126 BTC is about $9,852.

But the expected value per 90-address refresh is still only about:

• $3.5 × 10^-35 per refresh

That’s the kind of number where “expected $1” would require roughly 2.8 × 10^34 refreshes on average.

Bitcoin’s market cap is currently around $1.5T on major trackers (it fluctuates daily).

That headline number is what makes the “free lottery” feel so seductive: a giant pool of value, sitting behind “just a number.”

But the lock is better than anything physical, it is built on cold, hard math.

Play the lottery on the first page of Bitcoin private and public keys.

The post The trillion dollar Bitcoin lottery you can play now for free – but will never win appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin fell around 8% on Feb. 3, briefly losing the $73,000 level.

A quick rebound took prices to $74,500 as of press time, dampening the intraday correction to 5.8%. The decline marks the lowest price point in the President Donald Trump administration and the weakest level since the November 2024 Presidential Election.

The selloff pushed Bitcoin as low as its March 2024 all-time high of $73,500, a level that held through the early stages of the decline but ultimately gave way under sustained selling pressure.

The move revived a cluster of support zones that traders have monitored as critical technical thresholds for nearly a year.

Macro risk-off drives crypto lower

The crypto weakness is linked to broad risk-off sentiment across markets, sparked by Trump's nomination of Kevin Warsh as Federal Reserve chair.

Warsh's selection stoked concerns about a more hawkish policy mix and tighter financial conditions, pressures that historically weigh on high-beta assets, including cryptocurrencies. A stronger dollar, which typically accompanies such expectations, compounds the headwind for digital assets. The current dollar weakness, however, makes this decline even more painful.

Microsoft's Azure growth disappointment added to the selling pressure, souring broader risk sentiment and triggering cross-asset contagion.

The AI trade wobble demonstrated how crypto remains vulnerable to spillover effects from growth-sensitive technology sectors, particularly when positioning is stretched and liquidity is thin.

Leverage unwind amplifies decline

CoinGlass data shows over $2.5 billion in Bitcoin liquidations in recent days, turning what began as a macro-driven selloff into a cascade of forced selling.

Thin weekend liquidity exacerbated the selloff that began at $84,000 on Saturday, according to a Bitfinex note.

The combination of macro triggers and leverage unwinding created conditions in which relatively modest initial selling pressure could force far larger moves, as stop-losses and margin calls compounded the decline.

Additionally, institutional flows in 2026 have been uneven.

Exchange-traded fund (ETF) inflows, often followed by outflows during volatility episodes, suggest tactical rebalancing rather than aggressive dip-buying, leaving prices exposed as liquidation pressure accelerates.

The absence of consistent institutional demand meant there was no meaningful buffer when forced selling began.

Galaxy Digital research also noted that near-term catalysts appear scarce, with diminished odds of legislative progress on market structure acting as a narrative headwind.

Without clear positive drivers on the horizon, traders lack the conviction to step in aggressively during drawdowns.

Critical support and resistance levels

Bitcoin now trades within a tightly watched technical range.

The $73,500 level from 2024 and the Feb. 3 intraday low of $72,945 form the immediate support zone.

IG Markets identifies a broader support band between $73,581 and $76,703, an area associated with prior cycle highs and 2025 lows that has been tested multiple times over the past year.

CryptoSlate also identified several support and resistance levels for 2026 in Akiba's bear market analysis.

A daily close below this band would increase the probability of follow-through selling toward the next support cluster between $72,757 and $71,725. If that zone fails to hold, the July 2024 peak of around $70,041 becomes the next major downside waypoint.

On the resistance side, Bitcoin's reclamation of the 2024 all-time high of $73,500 indicates that buyers are willing to defend the recent breakdown level. The April 2025 trough zone around $74,508 now acts as resistance after previously serving as support.

Above that, minor resistance sits at $78,300, with the November 2025 low of $80,620 and the psychological $80,000 level forming the next meaningful barrier.

Distinguishing bounce from recovery

A single-day rebound does not constitute a durable bottom.

Historical patterns suggest that sustainable recoveries typically require at least two conditions: repeated daily closes above the $74,500 level, converting the April 2025 reference zone from resistance to support, and evidence that liquidation pressure has faded following the $2.56 billion forced-selling wave.

Without these confirmations, rallies risk becoming dead-cat bounces into overhead resistance as sellers use strength to exit positions.

ETF flows must stabilize beyond isolated green days, consistent with the tactical rather than aggressive institutional behavior.

Two near-term scenarios

If Bitcoin holds the $73,000 to $73,445 support zone and reclaims $74,500, the path of least resistance becomes a grind toward $78,300, then the $80,000 to $80,620 range.

This scenario requires both technical follow-through and the absence of new macroeconomic headwinds.

Alternatively, a daily close below the $73,581 lower band increases the odds of continuation selling into the $72,757 to $71,725 zone, with the $70,000 level as the next major psychological and technical waypoint.

This scenario becomes more likely if liquidation pressure remains elevated or if macro conditions deteriorate further.

Bitcoin's decline below its 2024 all-time high after nearly a year of holding that level as support constitutes a technical breakdown, shifting the burden of proof to buyers.

The combination of macro risk-off sentiment, leverage unwinding, and tactical institutional flows created conditions in which support levels that had held for months gave way within hours.

The post Bitcoin in freefall hitting lowest price since Trump took office as leverage turns a macro wobble into a brutal cascade appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Solana has remained under sustained pressure after a prolonged decline that began well before recent market weakness intensified. The price drop gradually eroded confidence, prompting influential investors to adjust their positioning. 

Historical patterns now point to elevated downside risk. While oversold signals are emerging, broader data still reflect a cautious outlook for SOL.

Solana Holders Begin Pulling Back

Solana’s HODLer Net Position Change has started to trend lower. Receding green bars indicate that long-term holders are slowing accumulation. This cohort typically plays a stabilizing role during corrections. A reduction in buying activity suggests weakening conviction rather than aggressive distribution at current price levels.

Although the data does not confirm active selling, it highlights fading demand from influential investors. Reduced accumulation often limits recovery attempts during oversold phases. Without renewed buying pressure, SOL may struggle to sustain rebounds, especially if broader market conditions remain fragile.

Want more token insights like this? Sign up for Editor Harsh Notariya’s Daily Crypto Newsletter here.

HODL Waves provide additional insight into investor behavior. Wallets that accumulated SOL one to three months ago declined by 5%. Meanwhile, the share of holders aged three to six months increased by 4.5%. This shift shows that underwater investors continue holding despite unrealized losses.

While resilience remains, patience may not be unlimited. Historically, prolonged drawdowns test a holder’s conviction. If Solana’s price weakens further, these cohorts may begin distributing. Such behavior would add downside pressure and reinforce the prevailing bearish macro trend.

SOL Price Could See Further Decline

Solana is trading near $103, holding above the critical $100 support. This level aligns with the 161.8% Fibonacci Extension. Maintaining this zone is important for short-term stability. However, the failed rally places downside risk toward $95, corresponding with the 178.6% Fibonacci level.

Momentum indicators reflect oversold conditions. The Money Flow Index is nearing the oversold threshold. Historically, each dip below this level triggered short-lived rebounds. These bounces often failed to reverse the broader trend, leading to renewed declines after brief recoveries.

In the near term, Solana may either defend $100 or rebound toward $107 resistance. A technical bounce remains possible due to oversold conditions. However, macro signals continue to favor downside risk. Without stronger demand, SOL appears vulnerable to another breakdown below $100.

The bearish outlook would be invalidated if Solana flips $107 into support. A sustained move higher could open the path toward $118. Securing that level requires consistent inflows and renewed investor confidence. Without capital returning to SOL, upside attempts are likely to remain limited.

The post Solana (SOL) Hovers Near $100 as Long-Term Holders Pull Back — Downside Risk Builds appeared first on BeInCrypto.

Owing to the volatility often seen in the Solana meme coin market, survival itself is rare. Yet The White Whale (WHITEWHALE), a token born on Pump.fun launchpad in late 2025, has defied the odds.

WHITEWHALE has endured a violent sell-off, accusations of a rug pull, and relentless scrutiny from traders and analysts alike.

WHITEWHALE’s Wild Price Swings and the Origins of Its Meme Narrative

As of this writing, WHITEWHALE is trading at $0.089, with CoinGecko data showing a market capitalization of $89.6 million.

While the broader crypto market is down, the White Whale token posted a 180% gain over the last two weeks. This reflects just how extreme its price swings have been.

The WHITEWHALE meme coin launched in October 2025, inspired by X (Twitter) persona @TheWhiteWhaleV2, a well-known perpetuals trader remembered for an infamous $80 million liquidation.

The token had no roadmap, no promised utility, and no known founder, just a meme narrative and a fixed supply of nearly 1 billion tokens, as outlined in early community posts on Medium.

Concerned that scams using his likeness could damage his reputation, @TheWhiteWhaleV2 stepped in. By December, he had bought tokens, added liquidity, and helped coordinate a community takeover (CTO).

Pump.fun fees were redirected back to holders, and treasury activity was made public, an unusual move in Solana’s meme-heavy trenches.

But who ultimately controls the WHITEWHALE treasury today?

“I do. That is entirely the point. The token that bears my name, I take ultimate responsibility for. DAOs and other structures often give this space the illusion of a democracy that rarely ever exists. You’re trusting Jeff to be a good steward of HyperLiquid. You’re trusting The White Whale to be a good steward of his namesake,” The White Whale told BeInCrypto.

Early participants were rewarded handsomely, with reports highlighting cases where traders turned a few hundred dollars into over $1 million.

However, the same trader, Remus on X, lost almost all those gains a week later after cashing out only $220,000.

“This trader is down $1 million on WHITEWHALE Last week. Remus was up $1.5 million on WHITEWHALE. Unfortunately, he had cashed out only $220K by the time the price crashed -80%. He is now up only $464,000. Will Remus make it back? Or is it time to move on to the next coin? Arkham reported.

How Retail Revenge Sent WHITEWHALE Vertical

Momentum exploded in early January 2026. From a December low of $0.0082, the WHITEWHALE price surged nearly 930% to briefly test $0.20, per CoinGecko.

Its market cap crossed $200 million, making it one of the most successful Pump.fun launches in months, according to Messari.

Listings on exchanges including Bybit, MEXC, KuCoin, and LBank fueled volume spikes of up to $48 million in 24 hours.

On X, traders framed WHITEWHALE as “retail revenge,” a cultural pushback against bots, snipers, and insider-driven meme launches.

Then came the collapse.

Rug or Liquidity Event? Inside WHITEWHALE’s January 20 Crash

On January 20, 2026, a top holder sold roughly $1.3 million worth of tokens, triggering a rapid 60% price drop.

Market cap estimates fell from around $200 million to $20–40 million, sparking a social media eruption with claims of a rug pull.

While headlines labeled the event a rug pull, on-chain analysts using Bubblemaps traced the sell-off to a single major wallet, separate from Remus.

The team pushed back, calling it a “liquidity event” rather than an exit scam, but confidence was already shaken.

“…our largest private holder exited the majority of their position…we didn’t participate in the selling, although we did do some buybacks… What has changed is distribution. A single oversized private position is no longer sitting above the market. Supply is now spread across a broader set of holders. This wasn’t a treasury-driven event. This wasn’t a deviation from our stated principles. It was a liquidity event,” wrote The White Whale.

BeInCrypto asked The White Whale why this level of concentration had persisted despite the project’s anti-whale narrative. He replied that the project follows the core ethos of crypto: permissionless finance. He emphasized that traders should be allowed to do what they want.

“It should be noted that I did not launch this token. If I had, I would not have used any launchpad, as I do not believe any existing launchpad had the proper token supply/liquidity structure to protect investors from things like this. Naturally, we attempt to talk to as many of our remaining larger holders as possible, offer OTC deals to lessen market impact, etc, but people are allowed to do whatever they want.”

Most importantly, The White Whale refuted claims that a single wallet’s sell-off caused the overall crash. According to him, it triggered a panic-selling cascade.

Recovery Fueled by Locks, Shadowed by Control

Against expectations, the WHITEWHALE price rebounded. Within days, it posted daily gains of 70%+ and climbed back toward an $80–90 million market cap.

The treasury locked 40 million tokens for a year, reducing the circulating supply and signaling long-term intent, a move confirmed publicly by community figures on X.

“This cuts circulating supply hard, removes treasury selling pressure, and screams commitment to longevity – no short-term dumps here. Credible projects do this to build real trust; it’s the kind of discipline that sparks positive sentiment fast,” one user observed.       

On-chain data cited by Rootsdata suggests that the treasury and associated wallets control a significant share of the supply, reaching over 50%.

That concentration cuts both ways as supporters see it as protection against predatory dumping, while critics warn it leaves the token vulnerable to another sudden collapse.

There is no denying the risks. The WHITEWHALE token has no utility beyond narrative, and price swings of 60% or more remain common. Most traders still expect downside, considering most Solana meme coins eventually fail. But The White Whale himself remains optimistic that the project can inspire good standards for all future tokens.

“I think the entire point of a meme is that it doesn’t try to dress up as something it’s not. Many projects fail because they try to pretend to be more than what they are. Instead, we are leaning into what we are, and we are proud of what we are. The prime directive, then, if you will, of the $WhiteWhale movement is to prove that something can be successful while maintaining integrity. My personal goal is to set the bar so high that meme coin investors begin to demand similar transparency, stewardship, dedication, and integrity from all devs.”

Yet survival matters. In an ecosystem where many tokens vanish overnight, WHITEWHALE’s ability to recover, paired with transparent treasury actions, sets it apart.

However, it is also deeply risky, driven by whales, narrative, and momentum rather than fundamentals.

Therefore, the WHITEWHALE token may not be a scam, a view supported by its trading on major exchanges. It also posts real volume and maintains an active, dedicated community, as noted in exchange support documentation.

As a closing remark, BeInCrypto asked The White Whale what might happen to the token if he decides to step away.

“Ironically, if I were to get hit by a bus, it would probably be really bullish for price action. The project bears my name, though, and it’s impossible to even think about stepping away.“

The post Solana’s White Whale: Rug Pull, Trap, or the Perfect Meme Coin? appeared first on BeInCrypto.

Crypto analyst and Elliott Wave expert Gert van Lagen has highlighted a critical level that could determine the next move in the Bitcoin price. In a recently shared 2-week chart, Lagen points to a broader market structure that suggests Bitcoin may be preparing for another strong upward leg, provided it continues to hold above $74,000. According to the analyst, this level now serves as a key support zone, marking the boundary between bull-market continuation and a potentially more concerning structural breakdown. 

Why $74,000 Matters For Bitcoin Price Bull Structure

In an X post, Lagen shared a detailed analysis of Bitcoin, predicting its next price move based on Elliott wave structures. His accompanying chart shows BTC completing an extended corrective phase following a multi-year rally. This correction, labeled Wave IV, has pulled the price back into a previous consolidation zone without disrupting the broader bullish structure. As long as Bitcoin remains above $74,400, the analyst views this move as a healthy reset rather than the beginning of an extended bear market.

Looking back at earlier phases of the cycle helps explain why the $74,400 support level is so critical. Lagen noted that during the build-up to Wave III, Bitcoin experienced a deep retracement that nearly revisited the low from the previous corrective wave before pushing higher. The cryptocurrency’s current price action appears to follow the same pattern, with the latest pullback approaching the bottom of Wave IV at mid-$70,000.

This type of pattern repetition is common in Elliott Wave structures and often signals that the market may be preparing for a stronger upward move. In line with this, Lagen highlighted that BTC’s recent price movements match the characteristics of a Wave II correction within a broader Wave V advance. He said that $74,000 remains in the invalidation area. Holding above it keeps Bitcoin’s bullish outlook intact, while a decisive break below it would force a reassessment of BTC’s entire market structure. In any case, the analyst has stated he does not expect Bitcoin to break this support zone. 

What The Chart Says About Bitcoin’s Next Move

If the $74,400 support level continues to hold, the projected path on Lagen’s chart suggests the start of a new impulsive rally that would mark the early phase of Wave V. The initial move higher is expected to push the Bitcoin price back above previous highs, signaling that the corrective phase has ended and momentum has flipped back in favor of the bulls. According to the analyst, if Bitcoin continues to mirror past patterns, a bearish outcome remains less likely.

Looking at his chart, Lagen has projected that Bitcoin could experience a bullish continuation toward the $260,000 to $320,000 region, which aligns with sub-wave 3, the strongest phase of a Wave V advance. Following this, the final extension of Wave V is expected to push Bitcoin toward $400,000, reflecting a final-cycle advance and representing a surge of more than 410% from current levels around $78,000.

Bitcoin slid to a year-to-date low of $74,500 on Monday, a move that wiped roughly 38% off its peak. Markets reacted sharply, and traders felt the pinch as flows out of big funds accelerated.

Fund Flows And Market Mood

According to reports, global crypto exchange-traded products saw heavy withdrawals last week. Big US spot ETFs led the selling, and that pushed overall fund flows into deep negative territory.

Based on Bitwise’s Weekly Crypto Market Compass report, Bitcoin’s recent drop pushed its two-year rolling MVRV z-score to a record low, a level tied to undervaluation and suggesting fire-sale conditions for the asset.

Sentiment gauges fell hard. Reports note that a two-year rolling MVRV z-score — a measure comparing market price to the average cost basis of holders, adjusted for volatility — hit its lowest reading ever. That kind of number points to widespread selling and prices that many investors now view as distressed.

Buying Interest On The Spot Market

On shorter time frames, signs of buying have appeared. The daily RSI plunged into the low 20s. This is a level that has often been followed by quick rebounds.

Spot volume data on major venues such as Binance and Coinbase showed net aggressive buying as Bitcoin bounced back toward about $79,420.

Open interest did not spike. Funding rates stayed negative. In plain terms: people were buying on the spot market rather than piling into leveraged long bets, which reduces the chance of a cascade of forced liquidations that can make moves messier.

Reports say long positions were crushed last week, with close to 2 billion in BTC long liquidations recorded across derivatives markets. That pain can clear the field for fresh entrants.

At the same time, there are multiple billions of dollars of short positions clustered near higher price levels, around $85,000, that could be hit if Bitcoin climbs. Short-covering could add fuel to a bounce. Market structure now offers a mix of strong selling behind prices and real buying in front of them.

Based on reports, buying interest combined with very low valuation metrics could create an asymmetric trade. That means the potential upside may be larger than the near-term downside, at least for traders willing to accept volatility.

Historically, dips into the RSI zone seen last week have led to roughly 10% rebounds most of the time since August 2023, although outcomes vary and nothing is guaranteed.

Institutional flows remain cautious. Major products such as the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust and the iShares Bitcoin Trust posted sizable outflows, signaling that some big holders stepped back.

Yet, on-chain and spot-volume signals hint that bargain hunting has started. The near-term path will probably be bumpy. Traders who want exposure will need to weigh the low valuation readings and pockets of buying against the very real possibility of further weakness if sentiment deteriorates again.

Featured image from Vecteezy, chart from TradingView