Elliptic said the ruble-backed A7A5 token functioned as a bridge into USDT markets before sanctions and exchange controls curbed its growth.

Bitcoin long-term holders of two years or more broke records during 2024 and 2025, says a new analysis of the latest bull market.

BlackRock's asset transfer to Coinbase Prime may indicate strategic shifts in crypto market engagement amid ETF outflows and market volatility.

The post BlackRock moves $357M in BTC and $247M in ETH to Coinbase Prime appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Nomura's move into tokenized Bitcoin funds highlights growing institutional interest in crypto yield strategies, potentially reshaping asset management.

The post Nomura’s crypto arm debuts tokenized Bitcoin fund targeting excess returns appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Rumors about XRP suddenly becoming useless and less relevant appear to be spreading across the crypto market following the introduction of Ripple’s stablecoin, RLUSD. Crypto market analyst XFinanceBull recently took to X to debunk these claims, stating that, rather than being a potential threat, RLUSD was created to complement XRP’s functionality and use cases on the ledger.

Why Ripple’s RLUSD Poses No Danger To XRP 

In his post, XFinanceBull revealed that many in the crypto community now see XRP as less useful because of RLUSD. These concerns carry weight given the growing dissatisfaction over XRP’s price struggles. Furthermore, with a stablecoin in place, the perception is that XRP’s use cases could deteriorate, especially given RLUSD’s greater stability. 

Addressing these growing concerns, XFinanceBull emphasized that XRP and RLUSD serve different purposes within the ecosystem. His commentary aims to correct the misconception that RLUSD was introduced to replace XRP. The analyst referenced statements from Ripple’s former Chief Technology Officer (CTO), David Schwartz, who, in a video, clearly explained the distinct roles of XRP and RLUSD, highlighting how the stablecoin benefits the altcoin rather than threatens it. 

According to XFinanceBull, Schwartz stated that RLUSD attracts large, credible flows to the XRP Ledger (XRPL), and this capital provides structural benefits to XRP. The analyst declared that RLUSD does not replace XRP, but instead amplifies its functionality. He added that as liquidity grows through the stablecoin, more payment routes are created, leading to increased XRP burns. 

XFinanceBull also noted that every stablecoin trade within the Ripple ecosystem indirectly drives demand for XRP as a bridge asset. He concluded that the world will eventually realize that utility is not defined by a whitepaper alone, but by real transaction flows. He added that although the XRP price may be declining, its rails are still being built.  

How RLUSD Benefits XRP

In the video shared by XFinanceBull, Schwartz stated that RLUSD is designed to benefit XRP. He explained that RLUSD strengthens XRP by introducing more credible assets onto the XRP Ledger, thereby expanding the network’s use cases and creating more opportunities for developers. 

The former Ripple CTO also revealed that adding trusted assets, such as RLUSD, increases trading activity on XRPL’s DEX. According to him, higher trading volume generates both direct and indirect benefits for the decentralized network and its native token, XRP. 

A key advantage of the XRPL DEX is its auto-bridging feature, which uses XRP to facilitate trades between different assets. Schwartz said that this mechanism allows XRP to act as an intermediary, helping users find the most efficient trading routes. He added that RLUSD and XRP are designed to complement each other, given their different roles within the ecosystem. While the stablecoin offers price stability, the altcoin functions as a bridge currency within Ripple’s payment products. This means that as RLUSD usage grows, demand for XRP is reinforced.

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink used the World Economic Forum stage to argue that tokenization needs to move from pilot programs to market plumbing and suggested that a shared blockchain standard could cut costs and even “reduce corruption,” a framing that immediately reignited the “which chain?” debate across crypto and specifically inside the Ethereum community.

Fink didn’t name a network. But the combination of BlackRock’s onchain product footprint and its own research positioning makes Ethereum the most natural candidate for the “one common blockchain” he alluded to, even if he kept it implicit.

Fink’s remarks, delivered in the language of infrastructure rather than crypto evangelism, leaned heavily on the operational case for digitized assets and interoperable settlement rails.

“I think the movement towards tokenization, decimalization is necessary. It’s ironic that we see two emerging countries leading the world in the tokenization and digitization of their currency, that’s Brazil and India. I think we need to move very rapidly to doing that.”

He then pushed the argument beyond payments and into capital markets: “We would be reducing fees, we would do more democratization by reducing more fees if we had all investments on a tokenized platform that can move from a tokenized money market fund to equities and bonds and back and forth.”

The most provocative line was his call for standardization and the trade-off he implied comes with it. “[If] we have one common blockchain, we could reduce corruption. So I would argue that, yes, we have more dependencies on maybe one blockchain, which we could all talk about, but that being said, the activities are probably processed and more secure than ever before.”

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink told the World Economic Forum he thinks the movement toward tokenization and digitization is necessary. We need to move very rapidly to doing that. With one common blockchain, we can reduce corruption.

The “one common blockchain” Larry Fink referenced… https://t.co/sMMcg4oyN1 pic.twitter.com/VhRvuwCx00

— Ethereum Daily (@ETH_Daily) January 22, 2026

Why Ethereum Is Coming Up

In the abstract, “one common blockchain” could be read as a generic appeal for shared rails. In practice, BlackRock’s public-market crypto lineup and its tokenization work have concentrated around Bitcoin and Ethereum.

On the ETF side, BlackRock’s flagship US spot products track bitcoin and ether — iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) — with ETHA launching in 2024 and now sitting in the center of the firm’s public-facing Ethereum exposure.

On the tokenization side, BlackRock’s first tokenized fund, the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), debuted on Ethereum via Securitize in March 2024, making Ethereum the original issuance network for what has become one of the market’s most closely watched institutional RWAs.

While BUIDL has expanded across multiple networks over time, the key point for Fink’s “common blockchain” framing is that Ethereum has been BlackRock’s default starting point for public-chain issuance, a meaningful signal in a market where “standards” tend to follow whoever already has the deepest liquidity, the broadest integration surface, and the most conservative counterparties.

The stronger tell came this week from BlackRock research rather than Davos soundbites. In its 2026 thematic outlook, BlackRock explicitly floats the idea of Ethereum as the infrastructure layer that collects the “toll” as tokenization scales. One slide asks: “Could Ethereum represent the ‘toll road’ to tokenization?” and adds that stablecoin adoption may be an early proxy for tokenization “in action,” with “blockchains like Ethereum” positioned to benefit.

In the same section, BlackRock cites RWA data “as of 1/5/2026” and notes that “of tokenized assets 65%+ are on Ethereum,” underscoring the network’s lead in today’s tokenized-asset stack.

At press time, ETH traded at $3,005.

President Donald Trump's announcement that he would not impose tariffs scheduled for Feb. 1 triggered a sharp reversal in risk assets, with Bitcoin rebounding above $90,000 after testing $87,300 earlier in the session.

The move erased most of a two-day selloff driven by trade-war fears tied to Trump's Greenland push, confirming Bitcoin's status as a high-beta macro asset that amplifies directional swings when geopolitical headlines shift quickly.

Gold and silver tumbled following the announcement, suggesting the return of risk-on sentiment. Gold fell from around $4,850 to $4,777 per ounce, while silver dropped from roughly $93 to $90.60 per ounce. Both metals, however, recovered around 1% overnight, while Bitcoin remained flat near $90,000.

The flight-to-safety bid that had supported precious metals during the tariff scare unwound as traders rotated back into risk assets.

As of press time, Bitcoin traded at $90,213.45, up 2.1% in one hour and 2% on the day. CoinGlass data shows that the rebound forced $160 million in short liquidations in just one hour, pushing total liquidations on Jan. 21 above $1 billion across long and short positions.

How Greenland became a tariff threat

Over the weekend and into early week, Trump's campaign to acquire Greenland morphed into a trade-war-style threat. He announced extra tariffs on goods from several European countries starting Feb. 1, with escalation language tied to securing a Greenland deal.

That framing turned a geopolitical oddity into a tangible risk-off trigger. Equities sold off, the dollar strengthened, and Bitcoin slid under $92,000 as traders repriced tail risk around a renewed trade conflict.

Between Jan. 19 and 20, the tariff fears had spread beyond crypto. A broad selloff across risk assets sent Bitcoin down as much as 7% amid the shock. Crypto-specific pressure intensified because leveraged positioning amplified the move.

CoinGlass liquidation data showed ongoing long liquidations following a larger burst earlier in the week, suggesting the tape was fragile heading into the announcement.

$87,000 to $90,000 in hours

Bitcoin's intraday range today stretched from a low of $87,304 to a high of $90,379, a 3.5% swing that illustrates how quickly sentiment can flip when macro headlines reverse.

The low came as European markets opened, amid elevated tariff fears. The rebound began after Trump posted on Truth Social that he had formed “the framework of a future deal” with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte regarding Greenland and the Arctic region, and that he would not impose the tariffs scheduled for Feb. 1.

The bounce timing was clean. Within an hour of the post, Bitcoin had reclaimed $90,000, and short positions began getting liquidated. The move wasn't isolated to crypto, equity futures rallied, Treasury yields stabilized, and gold and silver reversed their safe-haven bid.

The past few days read less like a Bitcoin-only story and more like Bitcoin trading as a high-beta risk asset during a macro shock. Tariffs and geopolitical uncertainty hit equities, currencies, and rates, and Bitcoin followed.

Derivatives positioning amplified the downside when technical levels broke, creating a feedback loop between spot price moves and forced liquidations.

The sharp bounce after the “no tariffs” post fits the same pattern in reverse. The macro headline removed tail risk, risk assets snapped back, and Bitcoin led the rebound.

That dynamic confirms what institutional observers have noted for months: Bitcoin increasingly behaves like a levered play on risk sentiment, particularly during periods when macro uncertainty dominates.

The scale of liquidations stresses the extent of leverage embedded in the system. Over $1 billion in total liquidations on Jan. 21 alone, split between longs caught in the morning selloff and shorts forced to cover during the afternoon rally, suggests traders were positioned for continuation in both directions and got whipsawed when the narrative flipped.

Risk-off unwind

Gold's drop from $4,850 to $4,777 per ounce and silver's fall from $93 to $90.60 per ounce marked a clear rotation out of safe-haven assets.

During the initial tariff scare, both metals had rallied as investors hedged geopolitical risk and potential dollar weakness. When Trump announced the tariffs were on hold, that bid evaporated.

The speed of the reversal highlights how sensitive precious metals markets are to geopolitical headlines, but also how quickly sentiment can shift when tail risks get removed.

The divergence between Bitcoin's rebound and gold's selloff reinforces the narrative that Bitcoin trades more like a risk asset than a digital safe haven during macro shocks.

When uncertainty spiked, Bitcoin sold off alongside equities. When the uncertainty was resolved, Bitcoin rallied with equities while gold sold off. That correlation structure matters for portfolio construction and for understanding how Bitcoin fits into broader macro flows.

What comes next

The resolution of the Feb. 1 tariff threat removes one near-term overhang, but the underlying Greenland negotiations remain unresolved.

Trump's post indicated that discussions are ongoing, suggesting the tariff threat could resurface if those talks stall. That leaves a degree of headline risk, particularly if the administration uses trade policy as leverage in future negotiations.

For Bitcoin, the key takeaway is that macro headlines drive volatility more than crypto-specific fundamentals during periods of geopolitical uncertainty.

The Jan. 21 whipsaw demonstrates how quickly sentiment can reverse. Still, it also shows how much leverage remains embedded in derivatives markets and how willing traders are to position aggressively in both directions despite that risk.

The post Bitcoin prices are recovering as gold retreats because a surprise “framework deal” just killed the tariff threat appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Senate Agriculture Chair John Boozman has now released updated crypto market structure text, posting a full bill PDF last night.

The release locks in a near-term Senate Agriculture path to markup next week, but it also hardens a political split that could determine whether Senate Banking gets a negotiated bridge or a rival marker for later talks.

Politico's Jasper Goodman reported the draft “has not yet been shared with [Democrat] Sen. Cory Booker,” while independent crypto reporter Eleanor Terrett said the markup “is shaping up to be partisan,” with Senate Banking having been “hoping for a bipartisan deal to smooth its own markup.”

Boozman’s Jan. 21 rollout now reframes that dynamic: the committee has text in public view, but Boozman is also signaling the Boozman–Booker effort did not land as a unified bipartisan package.

Senate Agriculture sets the near-term calendar

Procedurally, Boozman set a firm Senate Agriculture calendar that markets can anchor to even before any text was posted. In a Jan. 13 press release, Boozman said legislative text was scheduled for release by close of business Wednesday, Jan. 21, and that deadline has now been met with a posted bill PDF.

He also said the committee markup is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 27, at 3 p.m. Boozman previously said the committee needed more time “to finalize the remaining details and ensure the broad support this legislation requires” when he postponed an earlier markup and pointed to action during the last week of January, an arc that now ends in a published text heading into next week’s vote.

The last full text: Boozman-Booker discussion draft

What the Agriculture Committee is aiming to ship is now captured by two documents: the earlier bipartisan discussion draft released Nov. 10 by Boozman and Booker, and the newly posted Jan. 21 bill text.

That package described a framework for new CFTC authority over “digital commodities” in spot markets, plus consumer protections and a funding stream.

The Jan. 21 update keeps the CFTC-centered architecture but adds more politically sensitive definitional and operational hooks, including an explicit inclusion of “meme coins” within the “digital commodity” definition unless excluded by rule.

The text lays out definitions, rulemaking, and registration requirements for “digital commodity intermediaries” at the CFTC.

That includes registration sections for exchanges and for brokers and dealers, and the updated text adds a concrete on-ramp: expedited registration and a provisional-status operating regime that would compress the gap between enactment and functional compliance planning.

The same draft includes explicit headings for decentralized finance and anti-money laundering.

In the updated Jan. 21 text, those standalone TOC items are no longer carried in the same way; instead, DeFi concepts are pushed into hardened definitions and a new “software developer protections” section that aims to keep certain builders, interfaces, and non-custodial tooling from being treated as regulated intermediaries solely because of development, publication, or maintenance activities.

Booker’s office framed the Nov. 10 document as a discussion draft after months of negotiation. That posture now reads less like a glide path and more like a dividing line: Boozman’s rollout acknowledges Booker’s participation while still landing on text that appears positioned to move through Senate Agriculture even without a jointly branded agreement.

The emerging political split matters for markets less as a whip count and more as a parameter for timelines.

With text now posted, the next inflection is whether the Jan. 27 markup produces a committee-approved vehicle that can be reconciled with Senate Banking’s delayed H.R. 3633 track, or whether it forces Banking to wait for a cross-committee bargain that may now be harder to reach.

Scott had originally aimed to move that process via a Jan. 15 markup before it was postponed. If Agriculture moves ahead on Jan. 27 without Booker’s sign-off in the manner described on X, the committee vote can still produce a negotiating vehicle, but it would likely do so as a sharper partisan marker rather than a pre-negotiated bridge.

That outcome would also increase the odds that Banking stays staggered until a cross-committee compromise emerges. In the provided materials, Banking’s only recorded update is the “POSTPONED” status for its executive session.

Compliance timelines and market sensitivity

A staggered approach keeps compliance planning focused on what firms can prepare for without final statutory boundaries.

That is especially true for registration mechanics and operational controls that resemble existing CFTC market intermediaries, and the updated text attempts to narrow uncertainty by specifying an expedited registration pathway and interim operating conditions rather than leaving the entire ramp to later rulemaking.

The Agriculture discussion draft’s emphasis on definitions, rulemaking, and registration implies that even after enactment, the first binding constraints would be the pace of CFTC rulemakings and supervisory throughput for new registrants.

The updated text adds more explicit timing mechanics: it directs the CFTC to stand up an expedited registration process within 180 days, then ties continued operations to registration within a 90-day window once that expedited process is in place, with provisional status persisting until later effective dates land.

That capacity question sits against a baseline where the CFTC reported more than $17.1 billion in monetary relief and 58 new enforcement actions in FY2024.

Those figures show enforcement scale that is not the same thing as standing up routine spot-market examinations and ongoing supervision for a larger set of registered entities, and the new build-out of expedited registration raises the stakes on whether resourcing and throughput can match the bill’s compressed ramp.

In parallel, the SEC de-emphasized high-profile “registration/status” fights with major crypto venues (often dismissing legacy cases) while continuing to pursue retail-harm / fraud matters. In 2024, the SEC brought 33 crypto-related enforcement actions, down 30% from 2023. Last year (2025), that number fell even further, with only a handful of SEC releases related to crypto.

That keeps an enforcement backdrop for tokens that remain in dispute over whether they fall under securities laws, even as the Agriculture text pushes toward a commodity-like spot framework that now explicitly sweeps in meme coins unless later excluded.

Market positioning has also shown sensitivity to policy and macro repricing, which can amplify the impact of committee calendar risk even before statutory language is finalized.

CoinShares reported $454 million in weekly outflows in its Jan. 12 report, tying the shift mainly to fading expectations of a March Federal Reserve rate cut after macro data.

One week later, CoinShares reported $2.17 billion in weekly inflows, its largest since October 2025. It noted sentiment weakened late in the week amid geopolitical tensions, tariff threats, and policy uncertainty, with $1.55 billion into bitcoin products and $496 million into ether products.

Stablecoins, AML, and the next marker

For lawmakers, stablecoin-linked liquidity and AML integrity remain pressure points that can influence where trading, custody, and settlement concentrate once federal rules move from draft text to compliance programs.

The Agriculture effort’s earlier discussion-draft approach included explicit DeFi and AML headings, but the updated text’s higher-signal additions are elsewhere, most notably the expanded definitional architecture (including meme coins) and software developer protections, leaving AML pressure to be fought over through other supervisory and statutory levers.

Those outcomes depend on whether obligations are written directly into statute or delegated to later rulemaking. International policy framing continues to push in the direction of tighter guardrails.

The Bank for International Settlements has argued stablecoins “fall short” as sound money and can pose risks without regulation. It has also promoted a “tokenised unified ledger” concept for settlement and tokenization, implying more formal integration with regulated financial infrastructure over time.

With Senate Agriculture’s text release deadline now passed and its markup scheduled for Jan. 27, the next formal marker for US crypto market structure is whether the posted bill can clear committee and reopen a workable bipartisan lane, or whether the break with Booker’s earlier bipartisan posture leaves the software developer protections and interim registration mechanics as bargaining chips in a longer cross-committee negotiation.

The market’s next read-through will also depend on how any released text is positioned relative to Booker’s earlier bipartisan draft release.

The post Bipartisan Senate crypto alliance just imploded, leaving these high-stakes software developer protections in limbo appeared first on CryptoSlate.

One of the global leading crypto asset exchanges Gate has released its Q4 2025 report, highlighting continued progress across its core trading business, Web3 ecosystem development, and global compliance strategy. During the quarter, Gate delivered solid gains in spot and derivatives trading volume, product ecosystem expansion, and on-chain integration, further reinforcing its position as a leading global crypto platform.

In Q4 2025, Gate sustained the strong growth momentum seen throughout the year, with both spot and derivatives businesses operating at high levels. Trading depth, liquidity, and user activity remained among the top in the industry.

According to the latest data from CoinDesk, Gate ranked among the top three exchanges globally in terms of spot market share growth, while its derivatives market share rose to 11%, the highest increase among major platforms during the same period, demonstrating strong system stability and operational resilience amid complex market conditions.

By the end of the quarter, Gate’s registered user base had grown to nearly 50 million, supporting more than 4,300 crypto assets. In December, Gate also completed the rollout of App version 8.0, introducing upgrades to internationalized design, interaction efficiency and system performance, to further enhance trading and asset management experiences in multiple scenarios.

On the product and ecosystem front, Gate continued to operate and expand its core incentive and launch mechanisms, including Launchpool, Launchpad, HODLer Airdrop, and CandyDrop.

During the quarter, Launchpool listed 28 projects with total airdrops exceeding $4.8 million; Launchpad recorded an oversubscription rate of more than 2,500%, with cumulative oversubscription reaching $149 million; HODLer Airdrop launched 23 free airdrop projects with total rewards exceeding $590,000; and CandyDrop saw cumulative futures trading volume surpass $51 billion.

On the on-chain trading side, Gate Perp DEX officially entered its scaled trading phase, achieving over $10 billion in cumulative trading volume in its first full quarter and supporting hundreds of perpetual contract pairs.

In asset management, Gate’s Simple Earn subscription volume exceeded $11 billion for the quarter, with daily active users surpassing 430,000. On-chain Earn assets under management continued to grow steadily, with GUSD minting once again exceeding $200 million in December.

The ETF business recorded quarterly trading volume of more than 13.9 billion USDT, supporting over 310 ETF trading pairs. Meanwhile, Gate’s quantitative fund products saw simultaneous growth in user base and trading volume, with new users increasing 98% quarter-on-quarter.

In terms of security and transparency, as of October 28, 2025, Gate’s total reserves reached $11.676 billion, with a total reserve ratio of 124%, covering nearly 500 user assets. GateToken (GT) continued its on-chain burn mechanism, with the cumulative burn ratio rising to 61.61%.

On the compliance front, Gate Group’s Malta-based entity, Gate Technology Ltd, obtained the MiCA license issued by the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) and initiated the EU passporting process. Gate Australia officially launched operations, marking another milestone in Gate Group’s expanding global compliance footprint.

To date, multiple Gate entities have obtained or completed regulatory registrations, license applications, authorizations, or approvals across jurisdictions, including Malta, the Bahamas, Japan, Australia, and Dubai.

Alongside ongoing investments in trading infrastructure and Web3 development, Gate further strengthened its community ecosystem and brand-building efforts. The number of certified creators on Gate Square surpassed 1,000, continuing to foster a Web3 community centered on user participation.

On the branding front, Gate served as the title sponsor of the Token of Love Music Festival in Singapore and hosted a series of high-profile brand events and VVIP dinners during major global moments such as TOKEN2049 and the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix, bringing together global partners, institutional clients, and industry leaders to further elevate Gate’s international brand recognition and ecosystem influence.

Overall, in Q4 2025, Gate demonstrated strong operational resilience across trading scale, product innovation, on-chain ecosystem development, and global expansion. By strengthening its core spot and derivatives trading foundation, accelerating the Web3 ecosystem and on-chain application integration, and advancing security, compliance, and brand development in parallel, Gate is steadily executing its strategic upgrade from a traditional exchange into an integrated Web3 infrastructure platform.

Looking ahead, as its product ecosystem continues to mature and ecosystem synergies are further unlocked, Gate is well positioned to reinforce its comprehensive competitiveness in the global digital asset market and inject sustainable growth momentum into the industry’s long-term development.

Details can be found here.

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. Note that Gate may restrict or prohibit certain services in specific jurisdictions. For more information, please read the User Agreement.

The post Gate Releases Q4 2025 Report: Steady Growth in Trading Business, Accelerated On-Chain and Compliance Expansion appeared first on BeInCrypto.

As crypto markets mature, more traders are confronting a practical question. How do you trade actively in a market that never stops without being mentally present all the time? Increasingly, the answer is not better prediction or faster reactions, but strategy trading, where execution follows predefined rules rather than moment-to-moment judgment. On many platforms, that shift is expressed through trading bots, which translate strategy into consistent execution.

In a recent conversation with BeInCrypto, Federico Variola, CEO of Phemex, discusses how those dynamics are influencing the way traders approach execution, and why strategy-driven tools, including trading bots, are increasingly used to bring structure to continuous markets.

BeInCrypto: Crypto markets never switch off. What structural reality do traders tend to ignore, and how does that shape their behavior over time?

Federico Variola: What many traders underestimate is how unforgiving a 24/7 market is for human decision-making. There’s no open or close, no reset in crypto. People, on the other hand, get tired, distracted, and emotionally invested and that gap matters.

Most traders respond by trying harder: watching longer, reacting faster, believing discipline is just effort. Over time, that breaks down: fatigue sets in, emotions creep in, and trading becomes reactive. This isn’t about experience necessarily, it’s structural. Humans are trying to manually operate in a market that never stops.

That’s why separating judgment from execution matters. You define the rules once and let execution follow consistently, rather than asking for perfect decisions every minute. This is the logic behind structured tools like trading bots: reducing emotional interference.

Traders who accept this shift stop chasing every move and start focusing on process and repeatability. That alone makes it possible to stay engaged without burning out.

BeInCrypto: At what point did it become clear to you that the limits of manual trading in crypto were structural, not just about individual skill?

Federico Variola: Spending time observing how users actually behave revealed clear patterns. Over time, the same issues show up across experience levels: beginners struggle, experienced traders burn out, and while the symptoms differ, the outcomes are often similar.

From a user-first perspective, that’s a strong signal. When many users face the same challenges despite understanding the risks and mechanics, the limitation isn’t individual skill.

What we saw repeatedly was that traders didn’t fail due to a lack of ideas, but because execution broke down under stress. They knew what to do, but couldn’t do it consistently. That gap between intention and execution is where frustration sets in.

That’s why we focus on tools that support consistency over time. Sustainable participation means supporting different stages of a trader’s journey, from stepping away from manual trading to systematizing execution at scale. Strategy trading, at its core, is about adding structure where humans struggle most, and giving users frameworks they can grow into

BeInCrypto: Crypto trading still places a lot of weight on prediction and timing. Where do traders misunderstand the difference between predicting the market and executing a strategy, and how does that misunderstanding play out over time?

Federico Variola: Most traders mistake having a view for having a strategy. If they can call the next move, they assume the rest will take care of itself. In practice, it rarely does.

The issue surfaces when the market moves against them. Stops are adjusted, positions are added impulsively, or the original plan is dropped altogether. The problem is mostly the absence of structure.

A strategy defines what happens after a view is taken. With bot-based strategies, that structure is embedded. A grid bot doesn’t predict direction; it follows predefined rules as price moves. DCA or Martingale bots apply similar logic to entries and position building. In these cases, the strategy isn’t an opinion, it’s the system being run.

Traders who rely on prediction often experience emotional whiplash. Strategy-based execution makes results easier to evaluate, you can judge the system, rather than question whether emotion got in the way.

That’s why exchanges offering bots matter from a user-first perspective. They don’t replace thinking, but they do help traders stick to a plan when markets move fast.

BeInCrypto: When you look at how traders evolve over time, where do structured tools like bots actually help, and where do they fail to replace judgment?

Bots help most with consistency, especially early in a trader’s lifecycle. Many newer traders struggle with execution. Copy trading is often their first step into strategy, letting them participate without making every decision and see what disciplined execution looks like.

As traders gain experience, tools like grid bots become more relevant. A grid strategy doesn’t predict direction; it works a defined range and systematically buys and sells as price moves, a valuable strategy in a ranging market. On Phemex, traders use grid bots on both spot and futures to avoid reacting to every tick and instead rely on rules that run continuously.

Strategies like DCA or Martingale bots bring structure to more advanced position building. Across all of these, the benefit is the same: execution stays stable even when markets aren’t.

Education and ease of setup are critical. We’ve intentionally put ourselves in the shoes of traders at different levels and built guides and articles that explain how these strategies work. We’ve also focused on making setup easier: things like one-click bot creation and AI parameters help lower the barrier without taking control away from the user. 

BeInCrypto: You’ve positioned bots as a first station for strategy trading rather than an advanced tool. What assumptions about trader behavior does that challenge?

Federico Variola: “It challenges the idea that traders need to suffer through chaos before they’re ‘ready’ for structure. There’s a belief that you have to trade manually for a long time, make mistakes, build intuition, and only then move to more systematic tools. What we’ve seen is that this often does more harm than good.

Early on, traders are dealing with the hardest parts of the market all at once, including volatility, uncertainty, and their own emotional reactions. Without any structure, they tend to overtrade, react to noise, or change direction too quickly. Those habits form early, and they’re hard to undo later.

Treating bots as a starting point flips that around. It lets people experience what disciplined execution looks like from the beginning. Whether that’s following a copied strategy, running a simple grid, or using a basic DCA setup, the key is that execution follows rules instead of impulse. 

At Phemex, we’ve tried to design strategy tools with that in mind. Some users will start with copy trading to understand how a strategy behaves. Others will jump straight into setting up a bot with predefined parameters. More experienced traders will customize and layer on complexity. The important part is that structure comes early, and complexity comes as users grow into it.

When you do it that way, people don’t feel like strategy trading is something reserved for experts. It becomes a natural part of how they learn. And over time, that tends to produce traders who are calmer and more consistent.

BeInCrypto: Phemex’s Trading Bot Carnival centers on using trading bots as a practical entry point into strategy trading. What trader behaviors or pain points were you trying to correct when you decided to launch this campaign?

Federico Variola: “From the user side, that usually leads to fatigue rather than improvement. People trade more frequently, but without a clear sense of why. They put in time and attention, but don’t necessarily feel more confident or consistent as a result.  Over time, that creates frustration. At Phemex, we see this across very different users. Some are newer and feel overwhelmed by futures markets. Others are experienced but find themselves over-engaged, constantly tweaking positions without a clear framework. 

And as an exchange that defines itself as user-first, we feel the responsibility to equip traders with the tools they need to operate more deliberately. 

Strategy-driven trading gives both groups a way to slow things down, define their rules, and step out of constant decision-making.

It’s really not about telling people what to do. Contrarily, it’s about helping them trade in a way they can actually sustain when the market is pushing them to react all the time.”

BeInCrypto: Futures trading is often associated with high churn. From your perspective, what role does structured execution play in keeping traders engaged across multiple market cycles?

Federico Variola: “Much of the churn in futures comes from trying to react to every move. Markets move fast, and constantly guessing direction leads to over-trading and exhaustion.

Structured execution offers an alternative. Grid trading, for example, replaces constant prediction with a defined range and predefined buy-sell levels, allowing traders to capture smaller moves automatically rather than chase direction. In futures, this can be neutral or tilted long or short, while still following the same rules.

That structure helps traders stay engaged across market cycles, even in choppy conditions. Instead of reacting to every tick, they manage a plan. At Phemex, we see traders participate longer when they have a clear execution framework rather than relying on constant judgment.”

Phemex is currently running a Trading Bot Carnival aimed at encouraging broader adoption of trading bots, with a total reward pool of up to USDT 260,000. New users can receive up to USDT 100 for participating. Full campaign details are available here.

The post From Reaction to Structure: How Traders Are Adapting to 24/7 Markets – An interview with Phemex CEO Federico Variola appeared first on BeInCrypto.

XRP is increasingly being positioned as the core infrastructure for moving massive amounts of value across global financial networks. As trillions of dollars move daily across borders, platforms, and asset classes, the limitations of legacy systems are becoming impossible to ignore. Its core value lies in its ability to function as a neutral, high-speed bridge between disparate financial systems.

Is XRP Becoming A Standard Layer For Value Transfer?

XRP is building the rails for trillions, and the shift is already happening. Crypto analyst Xfinancebull reported a video on X where Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse revealed at Davos 2026 that the payment firm has been working directly with banks around the world to connect tokenization and DeFi through the XRP Ledger, thereby turning it into a bridge between traditional finance and on-chain markets.

The number alone shows how fast the tokenized asset is moving. In just one year, the volume has grown from $19 trillion to $33 trillion, which is a 75% increase. According to Xfinancebull, most people still have no idea how big this will get. 

This is the shift; the rails are being laid right now, and XRP Ledger is one of the few networks that are ready to handle it. When institutional money starts moving at scale, it won’t care about the narratives or favorite altcoins. Instead, it will flow to where the infrastructure already exists, which is bullish for XRP.

Why Respecting Channel Levels Signals A Healthy Market Structure

The XRP market capitalization structure still looks constructive. An analyst known as Bird has highlighted that on the higher-time frame chart, XRP has been moving inside a clear descending accumulation channel for the past six months, and price has respected the top, mid-range, and bottom of that channel almost perfectly, which is exactly what should play out during a healthy accumulation phase.

Related Reading: XRP Maintains Bullish Bias Above $1.30 Despite Recent Rejection

Recently, the price pushed into the upper half of the channel, and then pulled back this week to retest the mid-range support. If this level continues to hold, the structure suggests that the altcoin is set up for another push higher, in Bird’s opinion. However, what makes this setup more interesting is how well it lines up with what’s happening across the broader market. 

The Russel 2000 is sitting at all-time highs, metals are starting to look like they are topping, Bitcoin dominance is beginning to feel heavy, Brad Garlinghouse speaks at Davos today, and the recent wave of community riddles has dropped this week. Bird concluded that when multiple signals start lining up like this, it usually means the market is preparing for a larger move. From the chart perspective, Bird remains bullish on the XRP setup.

With the market still weak and uncertainty lingering, concerns of another XRP price crash are growing. This comes as selling pressure increases and market dynamics show no clear indications of an upcoming bullish reversal. Notably, XRP’s ongoing downtrend also coincides with a decline in both retail and institutional activity, underscoring weakened confidence across the broader market. 

XRP Price Stays Weak Amid Retail And Institutional Decline 

After jumping above $2 earlier this year, the XRP price stayed stuck around that level for weeks, repeatedly attempting to break to the upside but failing. Following last week’s unexpected price increase, the cryptocurrency crashed down toward $1.95, where it has since stabilized and continued to consolidate for several days. This unexpected downturn suggests that XRP remains just as weak as it was last year despite the brief rally. 

This weakness and price volatility appear to be driven by a slowdown in institutional participation. As selling pressure continues to mount, Spot XRP ETFs have recently recorded their second outflow since launching in November 2025. This latest outflow marks the largest ever recorded by XRP ETFs. 

According to SoSoValue, the first XRP ETF outflow occurred earlier this year, on January 7, when $40,80 million exited the investment products. The most recent data shows that XRP ETFs recorded another outflow of approximately $53.32 million on Tuesday, January 20. 

Grayscale was the only issuer to post outflows that day, with more than $55.39 million leaving its GXRP ETF, while products issued by Canary, Bitwise, and 21 Shares saw zero flows. Meanwhile, Franklin Templeton’s XRPZ recorded inflows of $2.07 million, which only slightly offset the losses, bringing the net daily outflow to $53.32 million. 

If more outflows occur, the continued drop in institutional activity, combined with XRP’s weakened price, could push the cryptocurrency lower. At present, XRP is trying to recover from recent losses, with its price rising approximately 1.62% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap. 

XRP Open Interest Crash Adds To Weakness

In addition to the decline in ETF inflows, XRP’s Open Interest (OI) has reportedly crashed to new lows, signaling a sharp reduction in trading activity and retail market participation. Data from Coinglass shows that XRP’s derivatives market saw its futures Open Interest fall to $3.35 billion this Wednesday. This marks the lowest level recorded since January 1, 2026, when OI declined to $3.33 billion. 

A drop in Open Interest often indicates that traders may be losing interest in XRP’s upside potential. This waning optimism and confidence may be further fueled by growing geopolitical and regulatory uncertainty. Investors appear to be adopting a more risk-off approach, reflected in the crypto Fear and Greed Index, which has entered extreme fear territory.