Need to know what happened in crypto today? Here is the latest news on daily trends and events impacting Bitcoin price, blockchain, DeFi, NFTs, Web3 and crypto regulation.

One of Argentina's longest‑running exchanges, Ripio, is betting on local currency stablecoins and tokenized bonds to drive a decade‑long boom in tokenized money across Latin America.

Rapid AI integration may outpace societal adaptation, necessitating collaborative retraining efforts to mitigate job displacement and unrest.

The post JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon warns AI adoption is happening faster than society can keep up appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Binance's addition of RLUSD and XRP pairs could enhance Ripple's market presence, potentially boosting stablecoin adoption and crypto liquidity.

The post Binance to open trading for Ripple’s stablecoin and XRP pairs appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Strategy continues to dominate as the largest Bitcoin treasury company. This time, the company has expanded its holdings, crossing 700,0000 BTC in the process, and currently holds over 3% of the total Bitcoin supply. 

Strategy Now Holds 3.4% Of Bitcoin Supply As Holdings Top 700,000 BTC

Michael Saylor’s Strategy now holds approximately 3.4% of the total Bitcoin supply as the company increased its holdings to over 700,000. In a press release, the company revealed that it acquired 22,305 BTC for $2.13 billion at an average price of $95,284 per Bitcoin last week. It now holds 709,715 BTC, which it acquired for $53.92 billion at an average price of $75,979. 

This purchase was Strategy’s largest weekly announcement since November 2024 and its fifth-largest announcement ever. It also came just a week after the company announced it had acquired 13,627 BTC for $1.25 billion. Meanwhile, this latest purchase has come amid a decline in BTC’s price.  

Bitcoin dropped below $90,000 yesterday for the first time since the start of the year, dragging the Strategy stock with it. MSTR dropped as much as 8% yesterday, falling to around $160. The stock is still up over 3% year-to-date (YTD). However, it is worth noting that Saylor and his company continue to dilute MSTR shares to buy more Bitcoin. The company sold 10.4 million MSTR shares last week to fund most of this latest purchase. 

Reactions To The Latest BTC Purchase

Market analyst Rob noted that Strategy no longer highlights BTC yield as a flagship metric. He further stated that even after buying over 35,000 BTC in the first few weeks of this year, the BTC yield achieved is 0.4%, which amounts to an annualized rate of about 6% to 10%. The analyst also remarked that the law of diminishing Bitcoin yield means the ability to deliver a yield decreases as the BTC stack grows. 

With Strategy now holding over 700,000 BTC, Rob explained that it is harder to generate a return. According to him, this means that going forward, the play is more about squeezing the Bitcoin price itself higher rather than increasing the BTC per share. He added that this also explains why MSTR’s mNAV has collapsed to just over 1x. 

Crypto commentator Ran Neuner warned that a company like Strategy buying and holding such a large concentration of a reserve asset is not healthy. He added that right now, Saylor and his company are the only ones really buying Bitcoin. Meanwhile, market expert Bit Paine said it is a market failure that Saylor is allowed to buy this much BTC at prices below $100,000. 

At the time of writing, the BTC price is trading at around $90,000, down in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Ripple President Monica Long says 2026 will be the year institutional crypto usage shifts decisively from pilots to production, as regulated infrastructure and clearer rules pull banks, corporates, and market intermediaries deeper onchain. In a January 20 blog post, Long frames the next leg of adoption around four forces: stablecoins, tokenized assets, custody consolidation, and automation powered by AI.

#1 Stablecoins (Ripple USD) As The Settlement Layer

Long’s central prediction is that stablecoins will stop being treated as an “alternative rail” and become foundational to global settlement. “Within the next five years, stablecoins will become fully integrated into global payment systems—not as an alternative rail, but as the foundational one,” she wrote. “We’re seeing this shift not in theory, but in practice, as heavyweights like Visa and Stripe hard-wire these rails into incumbent flows.”

She ties that trajectory to US policy momentum, arguing the GENIUS Act “inaugurated the digital dollar era,” and positioning “highly compliant, US issued stablecoins, including Ripple USD (RLUSD)” as a standard for programmable, 24/7 payments and collateral use in markets. Long also points to “conditional approval from the OCC to charter the Ripple National Trust Bank” as part of Ripple’s compliance strategy.

The near-term demand driver, in her telling, is B2B, not retail. Long cites research claiming B2B payments became the largest real-world stablecoin use case last year, reaching an annualized $76 billion run-rate—up sharply from early 2023 levels. She argues stablecoins can unlock liquidity and reduce working-capital drag, citing “over $700 billion” of idle cash on S&P 1500 balance sheets and “more than €1.3 trillion across Europe.”

#2 Institutional Exposure And Tokenization

Long argues crypto is increasingly used as financial infrastructure rather than just a speculative asset. “Crypto has evolved from a speculative asset into the operating layer of modern finance,” she wrote. “By the end of 2026, balance sheets will hold over $1 trillion in digital assets, and roughly half of Fortune 500 companies will have formalized digital asset strategies.”

She points to a 2025 Coinbase survey she says found 60% of Fortune 500 companies are working on blockchain initiatives, and notes “more than 200 public companies” holding bitcoin in treasury. She also highlights the rise of “digital asset treasury” firms, claiming they grew from four in 2020 to more than 200 today, with nearly 100 formed in 2025 alone.

On market structure, Long forecasts “collateral mobility” as a key institutional use case, with custodians and clearing houses using tokenization to modernize settlement. Her stated expectation is that “5–10% of capital markets settlement” moves onchain in 2026, supported by regulatory momentum and stablecoin adoption by systemically important institutions.

Long frames digital asset custody as the institutional on-ramp and predicts consolidation as custody offerings commoditize. “M&A activity in this space is a signal of maturity, not just momentum,” she wrote, citing $8.6 billion in crypto M&A in 2025. She argues regulation will push banks toward multi-custodian setups and predicts “more than half of the world’s top 50 banks” will add at least one new custody relationship in 2026.

She also points to convergence between crypto and traditional finance through deals such as Kraken’s purchase of NinjaTrader and Ripple’s acquisitions of GTreasury and Hidden Road, positioning them as steps toward safer, more integrated institutional workflows.

Long’s final theme is automation: smart contracts paired with AI models running treasury and asset-management processes continuously. “Stablecoins and smart contracts will enable treasuries to manage liquidity, execute margin calls and optimize yield across onchain repo agreements, all in real-time without manual intervention,” she wrote.

She argues privacy tech is critical for regulated deployment, pointing to zero-knowledge proofs as a way for AI to assess risk or creditworthiness without exposing sensitive data.

Long’s overarching claim is that 2026 marks a transition from experimentation to infrastructure: stablecoins as settlement and collateral, tokenization in core market plumbing, custody as a trust anchor, and AI-driven automation as the efficiency layer.

At press time, XRP traded at $1.905.

Bitcoin price surrendered the psychological $90,000 stronghold during early Asian trading hours on Jan. 21, marking a decisive breakdown that has effectively erased the asset's gains for the start of 2026.

According to CryptoSlate's data, the world’s largest digital asset plummeted to a session low of $87,282 over the last 24 hours.

This downturn was not an isolated event but part of a broader, market-wide sell-off that inflicted heavy damage across the digital asset ecosystem. Major alternative cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum, XRP, Cardano, and Solana, all posted significant losses, mirroring the leader's descent.

Meanwhile, the sharp reversal marks the culmination of a brutal two-day slide that has pushed the emerging industry back toward price levels last observed in late 2025 and shattered the bullish momentum that had characterized the opening weeks of the new year.

Leverage flushes and aggressive selling

While price corrections are standard in crypto markets, the velocity of this decline points to a toxic combination of derivatives liquidations and genuine supply shocks.

The speed of the move was most evident in the futures markets, where “liquidation cascades” (a scenario in which falling prices trigger forced sell orders, which in turn drive prices lower) accelerated the drop.

Data from CoinGlass reveals the extent of the damage. Traders holding long positions (betting on price increases) suffered more than $1.5 billion in losses over the last 48 hours.

This figure represents the capitulation of bulls who had positioned themselves for a breakout above $100,000 only to be caught offside as Bitcoin failed to sustain support near the upper $90,000s.

However, this price decline was not purely a flush of over-leveraged speculation. Unlike “scam wicks” that are quickly bought up, this move was supported by aggressive selling in the spot market, the actual exchange of assets.

CryptoQuant’s “Net Taker Volume,” a critical metric that gauges market aggression by tracking whether traders are buying or selling, printed a negative reading of -$319 million on Jan. 20.

This deeply negative figure indicated that motivated sellers were aggressively bidding to exit their positions, overwhelming the available liquidity.

Notably, this marks the second time the indicator has plunged below minus $300 million in recent days. The prior occurrence was on Jan. 16, when Bitcoin was still trading above $95,000.

Further compounding the bearish outlook is the behavior of “whale” investors.

CryptoQuant’s Whale Screener, which tracks deposits from over 100 active high-net-worth wallets, detected a surge in supply moving onto exchanges.

Whales deposited more than $400 million worth of Bitcoin into spot exchanges on Jan. 20, following a similar $500 million spike on Jan. 15.

Historically, large deposits into spot exchanges have reliably preceded selling pressure, or at least create a wall of ask liquidity that dampens any potential price recovery.

Moreover, the negative market sentiment was confirmed by the performance of spot Bitcoin ETFs over the last two days.

According to SoSo Value data, the 12 funds have seen outflows of nearly $900 million over the last two trading sessions, further exacerbating the current market downtrend.

The macro headwind and “Japanic” phenomenon

Beyond the internal mechanics of the crypto market, a complex and increasingly hostile macroeconomic backdrop is exerting severe downward pressure.

Market headlines have been dominated by a phenomenon analysts are dubbing “Japanic,” a contagion effect originating from the Japanese bond market that is destabilizing global risk assets.

Presto Research argued that the true epicenter of current market stress is Tokyo, not the United States.

According to the firm, a chaotic selloff in Japanese government bonds (JGBs) has spilled over into broader international markets, triggering a “Sell America” trade. In this environment, correlations have converged, leading equities, US Treasuries, the dollar, and Bitcoin to fall in tandem as liquidity is withdrawn from the system.

The catalyst for this volatility was a surprisingly weak auction for 20-year Japanese government bonds. The bid-to-cover ratio (a primary measure of demand) fell to 3.19 at Tuesday's auction, down significantly from 4.1 previously.

This signals softening demand for Japanese debt at a time when the market is already jittery about Japan's fiscal health.

The Kobeissi Letter provided further context on this capital flight, noting that Japanese insurers sold $5.2 billion of bonds with maturities of 10 years or more in December.

This marked the largest monthly sale since data collection began in 2004 and the fifth consecutive month of net sales.

As Japanese institutions (historically among the largest foreign holders of global debt) retreat to domestic safety, global liquidity tightens, leaving risk assets like Bitcoin vulnerable.

Analysts at Bitunix highlighted the duality of this moment for digital assets in a statement shared with CryptoSlate.

According to the firm, the sharp dislocation in sovereign bond markets once again highlights the fragility of traditional safe-haven assets. They noted that in the short term, simultaneous pressure on bonds and risk assets may dampen risk appetite in crypto markets.

However, Bitunix analysts also pointed toward a potential long-term pivot inherent in this chaos. Over the medium term, if the politicization of bond markets and monetary intervention become persistent features, this dynamic could reinforce the allocation case for Bitcoin as a non-sovereign asset.

They concluded that over the longer horizon, sustained erosion in global interest rate and currency stability may ultimately lead to a repricing of crypto assets’ strategic weight within portfolio allocation.

This instability has fueled intense speculation regarding the Bank of Japan's next move ahead of the Feb. 8 snap election.

Presto Research outlines two binary outcomes: a “Liz Truss” moment, referencing the 2022 UK bond market revolt triggered by fiscal mismanagement, or a return to “fiscal dominance,” in which the central bank is forced to print money aggressively to cap yields.

Simultaneously, trade policy friction is adding another layer of uncertainty.

Matrixport notes that Bitcoin’s options market has seen a decisive shift in sentiment, with demand for “puts” (downside protection) outpacing “calls.”

The firm attributes this defensive positioning to President Donald Trump’s renewed threat of tariffs of 10% to 25% on European goods, which has prompted institutional investors to hedge against near-term macro volatility.

What's next for Bitcoin

Despite the pervasive gloom, not all indicators point to a prolonged bear market.

Glassnode’s weekly analysis characterizes the current setup as a “momentum slip,” a cooling of an overheated market that remains statistically “above neutral.”

However, the technical reality on the charts remains precarious.

CryptoQuant analyst Axel Adler Jr. has identified the $89,800-$90,000 range as the critical line of defense for bulls.

This price range is significant because it represents the “cost basis” (the average purchase price) for the freshest buyers in the market, specifically the Short-Term Holder cohorts who entered within the last day to the last month.

Adler warns that a sustained breakdown below this band pushes these cohorts underwater simultaneously. When short-term speculators hold unrealized losses, they become highly sensitive to price drops, raising the risk of panic selling that could accelerate the downtrend.

Meanwhile, the path upward is littered with resistance, even if Bitcoin manages to bounce. The 1-month to 3-month holder cohort has a cost basis of roughly $92,500.

Since these traders are currently nursing losses, they are likely to sell into any relief rallies to break even, creating natural sell pressure.

Furthermore, the aggregated realized price for all short-term holders stands at $99,300, essentially forming a formidable ceiling that must be breached to reignite bullish conviction.

For now, Bitcoin remains in a state of delicate balance. It is caught between aggressive liquidation flushes and a hostile macro environment, with the $90,000 level serving as the dividing line between consolidation and a deeper correction.

The post Bitcoin just erased all 2026 gains as a $1.5 billion liquidation trap catches every trader off guard appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bermuda wants to become the world's first “fully on-chain national economy.”

The announcement, delivered jointly by the island's government, Circle, and Coinbase on Jan. 19, frames the initiative as the deployment of digital asset infrastructure across government agencies, local banks, insurers, small businesses, and consumers, with USDC positioned as the primary payment rail.

The pitch: fast, low-cost, dollar-denominated settlement replacing expensive legacy systems.

However, strip away the marketing gloss, and what's actually on the table is something narrower and more instructive: a pilot-driven modernization of payment rails in a small, high-cost economy where traditional card networks extract hefty fees and where experimentation carries limited systemic risk.

Bermuda isn't mandating that every resident transact on a blockchain, but it is testing whether stablecoins can function as an everyday settlement infrastructure without forcing consumers to change how they pay.

That distinction matters because the real story here isn't Bermuda's crypto ambitions. It's the quiet, grinding work of making dollars-on-chain a practical financial layer, and the gap between what that requires and what most “on-chain economy” headlines imply.

What “fully on-chain” actually describes

The official releases outline three concrete near-term actions: government agencies piloting stablecoin-based payments, financial institutions integrating tokenization tools, and residents participating in digital literacy programs.

The government characterizes this as a continuation of a multi-year arc that began with the Digital Asset Business Act in 2018, included a USDC airdrop at the Bermuda Digital Finance Forum in 2025, and will scale further at the 2026 forum in May.

But “fully on-chain” functions as a spectrum, not a binary.

At the low end, it's marketing with an announcement with minimal change to actual payment flows. At the high end, it's an integrated national infrastructure where banks, insurers, and government agencies have built stablecoin settlement into core systems, consumer wallets arecommon, and measurable cost and time savings appear in the data.

Bermuda's current position sits somewhere between allowing on-chain payments and making them a default settlement rail for key flows.

The language supports Level 1 to early Level 2: pilots exist, “multiple live examples” are claimed, but no adoption statistics, timelines, or mandates have been disclosed.

The government hasn't published merchant counts, transaction volumes, cost comparisons, or wallet penetration rates, and these metrics distinguish experimentation from transformation.

The island as a laboratory

Bermuda's small scale makes it an ideal testing ground. With a population of roughly 64,600 and a GDP of $9.23 billion, the economy is highly open and services-oriented.

Consumer spending hit $841 million in the second quarter of 2025, providing a useful anchor for estimating potential savings.

Traditional card networks charge merchants a blended fee of 2.5% to 3.5%. Stablecoin rails, depending on the on-ramp and compliance infrastructure, can reduce that to 0.5% 1.5%.

If 10% of Bermuda's consumer spending shifted to stablecoins, annual merchant savings could range from $3.4 million to $10.1 million. At 30% penetration, that climbs to $10.1 million to $30.3 million.

Those numbers are illustrative models that assume functional cash-in/cash-out infrastructure, merchant tooling, and regulatory clarity.

But they show why even modest adoption could be meaningful for a small economy.

The island has been experimenting with digital payments for years. In 2019, Circle announced Bermuda would accept USDC for tax payments. In 2020, the government partnered with Stablehouse on a “digital stimulus token” pilot for in-person merchant transactions.

The current initiative builds on that history, but it's still unclear which government payment categories, such as taxes, licenses, customs, benefits, or payroll, will be included in the pilots, or when.

The Visa proof point

The cleaner signal that stablecoins are becoming a practical settlement infrastructure doesn't come from Bermuda. It comes from Visa.

On Dec. 16, Visa announced USDC settlement for US issuer and acquirer partners, with initial banks including Cross River and Lead Bank.

Settlement runs over Solana, and broader US availability is planned through 2026. By late November, Visa's stablecoin settlement program had reached $3.5 billion in annualized volume.

By mid-January 2026, that figure had grown to $4.5 billion.

Visa's pitch mirrors Bermuda's: modernize the rails without changing the consumer experience. Cardholders swipe the same way, and merchants receive dollars the same way.

The difference is in backend settlement speed and cost. Yet, Visa's own crypto head acknowledged in January that stablecoins still lack “merchant acceptance at scale” for direct spending.

The $4.5 billion annualized run rate is real traction, but it's a rounding error next to Visa's $14.2 trillion in total payment volume.

That contrast of growing institutional adoption alongside limited consumer-facing utility defines stablecoins as payment infrastructure. They're effective as settlement rails inside existing networks. They're not yet replacing cards at checkout.

What the numbers hide

Stablecoin transaction volume headlines are misled by design.

Bloomberg reported $33 trillion in total stablecoin transaction value for 2025, a 72% year-over-year increase.

Meanwhile, Visa's on-chain analytics paint a different picture: $47 trillion in gross stablecoin volume, but only $10.4 trillion when adjusted for high-frequency trading, arbitrage, and non-payment activity.

That gap matters. It's the difference between treating stablecoins as speculative instruments cycling through wash trades and treating them as genuine payment infrastructure.

Bermuda's bet assumes the latter use case will dominate, but the data shows the former still drives most volume.

Circulating stablecoin supply now exceeds $310 billion, with USDT accounting for roughly $187 billion. That's real liquidity, but it doesn't automatically translate into grocery store checkouts or payroll disbursements.

The connectors, such as on-ramps, off-ramps, merchant tooling, and compliance frameworks, remain the hard part.

What Bermuda's announcement doesn't establish

The official releases don't mandate that residents or merchants use stablecoins. They don't claim that all GDP will settle on public blockchains. They don't replace Bermuda's fiat system with a sovereign token.

More importantly, they don't solve the banking problem: stablecoins still need the same connectors that enable traditional payments.

Bermuda's Digital Asset Business Act, passed in 2018, established a licensing regime for private-sector digital asset businesses and explicitly states it “shall not apply to any entity owned by the Bermuda Government.”

That means the government's move on-chain doesn't automatically subject it to the same regulatory framework as Circle or Coinbase.

The announcement also leaves critical questions unanswered. Which agencies will pilot stablecoin payments, and for which services? Which banks and insurers have integrated tokenization tools? What percentage of merchants accept USDC today, and what's the average transaction size?

Officials claim “multiple live examples” but provide no metrics. That's the gap between rhetoric and reality.

The real stakes

The question isn't whether Bermuda will wake up tomorrow with every transaction on a blockchain. It won't.

The question is whether a small, high-cost economy can build enough on-chain infrastructure to make stablecoins a default option for a meaningful share of economic activity.

If it works, Bermuda becomes a reference case for other jurisdictions evaluating stablecoin adoption. If it doesn't, the island joins the long list of crypto-friendly jurisdictions that announced ambitious plans but struggled with execution.

The outcome depends less on blockchain technology than on operational discipline: onboarding merchants, training consumers, integrating compliance, and ensuring the cost savings are real and measurable.

The post One country is moving its economy “fully on-chain” with USDC, but the data reveals a massive hidden catch appeared first on CryptoSlate.

As the crypto derivatives market continues to expand, how platforms build user incentive systems that balance fairness with long-term value has become a core topic across the industry. Recently, Gate, one of the global leading digital asset exchanges, has continued to advance its industry-first Futures Points Airdrop System, integrating futures trading activity with airdrop rewards and ecosystem privileges through a points-based mechanism. The system offers a more sustainable model for user incentives in the derivatives market.

As the industry’s first airdrop mechanism built around “Futures Points”, the system converts user participation in futures trading into accumulable points, which serve as the basis for airdrop distribution. Unlike traditional incentive models that rely on short-term campaigns or fee rebates, Gate’s Futures Points system emphasizes long-term participation and the accumulation of user privileges. Points are not only a measure of trading activity, but are also becoming an important credential for users to engage with the platform’s broader ecosystem. This mechanism is widely regarded as Gate’s innovative exploration into user incentives and ecosystem development.

According to operational data, the system has already demonstrated clear scale and results. As of January 20, 2026, the Gate Futures Points Airdrop System has completed a total of 67 phases, with 264,000 participating users and cumulative airdrop rewards equivalent to approximately 3.7 million USDT. The highest cumulative reward earned by a single account has exceeded 2,600 USDT. By continuously disclosing transparent and quantifiable performance data, Gate provides the market with an objective reference for evaluating the system’s value, while also strengthening user confidence in the long-term viability of the points mechanism.

In terms of participation threshold and benefit design, Gate Futures Points follows a “low barrier, open to all” philosophy. Users naturally earn points while trading futures and are automatically included in subsequent airdrop distributions, without the need for complex operations. Meanwhile, Futures Points are linked with its platform token GT, project TGE opportunities, and multiple ecosystem airdrop privileges, extending points from a single incentive tool into a key bridge connecting trading with the broader platform ecosystem.

By continuously introducing new project resources and integrating them into the points-based airdrop framework, Gate demonstrates strong capabilities in ecosystem resource integration and execution, providing a solid foundation for the long-term sustainability of the system. With multiple airdrop rounds and multi-token rewards now underway, the Futures Points Airdrop System has evolved from a standalone product feature into a core component of Gate’s overall user incentive architecture.

As user incentive models shift toward long-term value and ecosystem collaboration, this system provides a new benchmark for crypto derivatives platforms seeking sustainable incentive structures. Looking ahead, as Futures Points become more integrated with platform-wide ecosystem privileges, the system could evolve from an incentive mechanism to a more infrastructure-like component, playing a long-term role in user retention, ecosystem participation, and value distribution.

About Gate

Gate, founded in 2013 by Dr. Han, is one of the world’s earliest cryptocurrency exchanges. The platform serves over 48 million users with 4,300+ digital assets and pioneered the industry’s first 100% proof-of-reserves. Beyond core trading services, Gate’s ecosystem includes Gate Wallet, Gate Ventures, and other innovative solutions.

For more information, please visit: Website | X | Telegram | LinkedIn| Instagram | YouTube

Disclaimer: This content does not constitute an offer, solicitation, or recommendation. You should always seek independent professional advice before making investment decisions. Gate may restrict or prohibit all or part of its services for users from restricted regions. For more information, please read the User Agreement.

The post Gate Futures Points System: Unlocking Long-Term Value, From Trading Incentives to Ecosystem Privileges appeared first on BeInCrypto.

Seeker’s SKR token had a volatile debut after Solana Mobile rolled out its airdrop. On January 21, Solana Mobile distributed 2 billion SKR tokens—worth roughly $26.6 million at launch—to Seeker phone users and developers.

The airdrop immediately put SKR on traders’ radar, triggering aggressive early price action. That said, once the initial pop faded, price discovery turned choppy, with sell pressure showing up quickly after the first wave of excitement.

Seeker Holders Are Selling Already

Short-term signals point to weakening momentum despite the strong open. On the 15-minute chart, the Money Flow Index has been trending lower since SKR topped out early. As a volume-weighted momentum indicator, MFI slipping below the neutral 50.0 line suggests sellers are taking control.

A sustained MFI drop usually signals fading demand rather than random volatility. In SKR’s case, it points to early airdrop recipients offloading tokens to secure profits. This behavior is typical for fresh launches, but it remains a bearish tell as long as momentum stays negative.

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

On-chain transaction data backs this up. Since launch, there have been around 22,130 buy transactions versus roughly 25,039 sell transactions. That imbalance shows distribution outweighing accumulation, reinforcing the short-term bearish bias.

This divergence highlights trader caution following the initial spike. While attention around SKR remains elevated, the dominant behavior is profit-taking rather than position building. Without a shift toward net buying, downside pressure is likely to persist.

SKR Price Faces Further Downside Risk

Seeker (SKR) is still up about 37% from its launch-hour price, trading near $0.01198 at the time of writing. However, after tagging a high of $0.01553, the price rolled over and entered a corrective phase, suggesting early euphoria has cooled as liquidity settled.

If sell pressure continues, SKR risks losing the $0.01098 support. A clean break below that level could accelerate downside momentum, with $0.00879 coming into focus. In a deeper pullback, price could slide toward $0.00754, wiping out much of the launch-day upside.

Near-term stabilization hinges on defending $0.01098. Holding that zone would improve the odds of basing. On the flip side, a reclaim of $0.01417 would shift momentum back to the upside and signal renewed buyer confidence.

The post Seeker’s SKR Token Slides After Airdrop as Early Holders Begin Selling appeared first on BeInCrypto.

Although the XRP price has remained in a downtrend and largely range-bound since falling below its 2025 peak, a crypto analyst believes it could still surge to $10 in 2026. The analyst has shared a detailed roadmap supporting this bullish outlook, outlining how XRP’s price could play out this year and the key factors that could influence its movements.  

A Roadmap To XRP $10 Price Surge

In a YouTube video released on January 20, crypto market analyst Zach Rector laid out his honest expectations for XRP’s outlook in 2026, offering insights into how it could get to $10 and the catalysts that could fuel this rally. According to the analyst, the XRP market is currently dominated by Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD), along with signs of capitulation, which have pushed the price down and negatively impacted the sentiment and confidence of newer investors. 

Rector revealed that long-term XRP holders are also becoming increasingly frustrated with the prolonged downtrend, with many wishing they had taken profits during last year’s rally, particularly when XRP rose to a peak around $3.6. He added that there has also been discontent and negative sentiment regarding XRP’s slow adoption, delay in industry regulation, and more. 

However, from both a technical and investment standpoint, the analyst said he remains excited and optimistic about XRP’s price prospects in 2026. He explained that the market is already entering a renewed liquidity cycle, a shift that typically leads to an expansion in the broader business cycle. According to him, this stage has always correlated with powerful bull runs during an altcoin season. 

Rector mentioned that although many investors and analysts expected an altcoin season in 2025, it never came. He believes that market conditions could still align for an altcoin season this year, with XRP positioned for significant gains during that period. He further acknowledged that he does not expect XRP to skyrocket to $50 or $100 in 2026, calling those price targets highly ambitious. 

For his more realistic projection, Rector said he believes XRP could rise to between $5 and $10 in 2026. He noted that a significant sell wall exists around this range, as many investors are likely to take profits amid potential price volatility. Despite this, the analyst said that XRP still brings a strong ROI opportunity for investors. He pointed to factors that could drive the market, including US interest rate cuts, the implementation of the CLARITY Act, and billions of dollars expected from the Fed’s QE programs. 

XRP Could Double ROI Faster Than Gold And Silver

In his video, Rector compared XRP’s long-term profitability potential to that of gold and silver. He noted that both precious metals performed exceptionally during this cycle, reaching new all-time highs. Silver, in particular, exceeded expectations, breaking past $95 in the last 24 hours after experiencing a years-long downtrend. 

Rector believes that the chances of silver doubling to $200 or gold reaching $9,000-$10,000 per ounce this year are low. However, he says XRP has much stronger upside potential, forecasting a surge to $4 and beyond. If this happens, long-term investors who bought at or below $2 could effectively double their ROI.  

Crypto analyst Dom has commented on the current XRP price action, revealing what the triple tap at $1.80 means for the altcoin. This comes as XRP sheds most of its gains from the start of the year amid the recent crypto market crash. 

XRP Price Reaches Major Support With Triple Tap At $1.80

In an X post, Dom stated that there is a triple tap in the $1.80 zone, which is the last possible expression of a bottoming structure for the XRP price. The analyst warned that any further moves to the downside are likely to trigger a breakdown for the altcoin. He added that regaining $2.05 is the goal for bulls to put the chart back in a “safe zone.”

This analyst comes amid the XRP price crash below the psychological $2 level. The altcoin has crashed alongside the broader crypto market, losing most of its yearly gains in the process. This comes on the back of the latest Trump tariffs on eight European nations, which have sparked bearish sentiment in the market. 

Commenting on the 30% rally for the XRP price earlier in the month, Dom reiterated that it was a weak move. He noted that the order flow analysis showed no strong buyer support and that the push was possible due to low liquidity. On-chain analytics platform Glassnode also recently commented on the current price action, noting that the current market structure for XRP closely resembles that of February 2022. 

Glassnode stated that investors active over the 1-week to 1-month window are now accumulating below the cost basis of the 6-month to 12-month cohort. They added that as this structure persists, psychological pressure on top buyers continues to build over time. 

XRP’s Structure Still Intact 

In an X post, crypto analyst Egrag Crypto stated that the XRP price structure remains intact, with the upper resistance at between $3.40 and $3.60. Meanwhile, the lower support is between $1.85 and $1.95, and the price is currently near the range lows. The analyst also noted that the 21 EMA is sloping down and acting as resistance, with the price still below it, suggesting weak short-term momentum. 

As for what could happen next, Egrag Crypto predicted a liquidity sweep rather than a confirmed breakdown in the XRP price. He explained that a wick below $1.85 is a normal liquidity behavior within a range. However, a weekly close below this level could signal structural failure and increase cycle risk. 

Until that happens, Egrag Crypto noted that the XRP price is still ranging, holding structure, not broken, and not in macro failure. He added that his stance remains unchanged as he is still bullish and holding as long as the structure remains valid. 

At the time of writing, the XRP price is trading at around $1.90, down over 3% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.