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Blockchain
Blockchain
Blockchain
Blockchain
Blockchain
Blockchain
While Cardano’s ADA token faces significant selling pressure, approaching its lowest level in a year, a deeper look reveals a contrasting narrative. On-chain data indicates that large-scale holders are actively buying the dip, even as public comments from the project’s founder inject short-term uncertainty into the market.
Beyond the daily price action, Cardano’s underlying ecosystem continues to develop. In a move to further decentralization, the Cardano Foundation has delegated 220 million ADA to elected community representatives, known as DReps. Institutional interest is also materializing: Google Cloud has initiated a stake pool on the testnet, and Coinbase has listed futures for Cardano’s partner chain, “Midnight.” Furthermore, Cardano’s inclusion in new ETF applications suggests the potential for attracting fresh capital from traditional finance sectors in the medium term.
Despite ADA’s price declining by nearly 16% over the past week, blockchain analytics reveal substantial accumulation by major holders. Since January 12, wallets holding between one and ten million ADA—often referred to as “whales”—have collectively added approximately 100 million ADA to their positions. This activity suggests that well-capitalized investors view current price levels as a buying opportunity rather than a reason for exit. Technically, a bullish divergence is forming on the daily chart, which analysts often interpret as a signal of waning selling momentum.
The immediate catalyst for recent volatility extends beyond broader market conditions. Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson recently issued sharp criticism of the proposed “CLARITY Act” in the U.S. and its support by Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse. The remarks divided the community; while Hoskinson received support from many followers, the ensuing uncertainty prompted a retreat among short-term traders. Following a brief recovery attempt, ADA has pulled back, currently trading around $0.35.
From a chart perspective, the near-term situation remains tense, with the price hovering just above a critical support zone. Market experts note that as long as the $0.31 level holds, the current phase could be interpreted as consolidation before a potential upward move. This view is bolstered by the significant accumulation observed from large investors, providing a counterbalance to the prevailing negative sentiment.
The cryptocurrency sector is experiencing significant pressure, with Solana’s SOL token feeling the impact acutely. Trading around $127, SOL has recently fallen below the psychologically important $130 threshold, marking a weekly decline of nearly 13%. As macroeconomic uncertainty dampens risk appetite, investors are scrutinizing the underlying resilience of the Solana network.
Despite the market-wide correction, institutional flows tell a nuanced story. While Bitcoin ETFs saw outflows of $483 million on Monday, Solana-focused ETFs attracted $3.08 million in new capital. Although a modest sum, this inflow is a notable signal that institutional players have not written off the asset. In a further sign of institutional validation, Morgan Stanley filed for a Solana Trust ETF with the SEC in early January, representing a major bank’s first step toward a retail SOL product.
SOL traded between $125.78 and $133.63 today, reflecting heightened market volatility. The current downtrend originated in mid-January when the token was valued near $146. Its steady decline has coincided with the broader crypto market shedding over $120 billion in total capitalization this week.
From a technical standpoint, the immediate support zone lies between $125 and $126. A decisive break below this level could pave the way for a test of $120. On the upside, resistance is forming around $132 to $135, near the 50-day moving average. While the Stochastic indicator suggests oversold conditions, the Supertrend indicator remains firmly in bearish territory.
Public companies holding SOL on their balance sheets are contending with substantial unrealized losses. Forward Industries, which holds over 6.91 million SOL, is facing a paper loss exceeding $700 million. Other firms like Upexi (down $47 million) and Galaxy Digital (down $52 million) are similarly affected. Notably, there have been no new corporate purchases of Solana for two months.
Contrasting the price action, on-chain data reveals robust network activity. According to analytics firm Nansen, Solana recently recorded 27.1 million weekly active addresses—a 56% week-over-week increase. Weekly transaction counts remain elevated at 515 million, with 8.6 million new addresses added on Monday alone.
The Total Value Locked (TVL) in Solana’s decentralized finance (DeFi) applications has also increased, rising from $8.8 billion to $9.2 billion over the past month. This suggests core confidence in the ecosystem’s utility persists despite falling prices. However, a net outflow of approximately $2.7 billion in stablecoins from the network, representing a 17% drop over 30 days, introduces a note of caution.
The coming days will be decisive for SOL’s near-term trajectory. A successful stabilization and recovery above the $132 level could set the stage for a move back toward $147. Failure to hold support around $125, however, risks a decline toward the $120 mark.
Longer-term, the planned Alpenglow upgrade announced for 2026, which aims to slash transaction finality times to 100-150 milliseconds, remains a key fundamental catalyst. Presently, about 70% of SOL’s circulating supply is staked, indicating a strong base of long-term-oriented holders.
XRP’s impressive surge at the opening of 2026 has largely evaporated. The cryptocurrency, which jumped 31% in the first week of January to reach $2.41, has relinquished most of those gains. It currently trades around $1.91, marking a decline of approximately 20% from its recent peak. This price weakness unfolds even as Ripple, the company closely associated with XRP, makes significant strides in building its institutional framework.
Ripple secured a pivotal provisional e-money institution approval from Luxembourg’s CSSF financial regulator on January 14. This follows another critical authorization obtained just a week prior, when the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) granted the firm both a payments license and a crypto asset registration.
With a portfolio now exceeding 75 licenses globally, Ripple is strategically positioning itself for cross-border payment settlement under Europe’s upcoming MiCA regulatory framework. Monica Long, President at Ripple, has labeled 2026 the “production era” for institutional crypto adoption. She offers concrete predictions: half of all Fortune 500 companies are expected to establish crypto exposure this year, while 5 to 10 percent of global settlement activity could migrate to blockchain networks.
In a separate but related development, the crypto exchange Binance revealed plans to list Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin. The token, initially launched on the Ethereum blockchain, has already achieved a market capitalization exceeding $1.3 billion. It is fully backed by a reserve of US dollar deposits, short-term government securities, and cash equivalents.
Binance will introduce trading pairs for RLUSD/USDT and, notably, XRP/RLUSD. This latter pairing will enable direct trading between XRP and the stablecoin for the first time. Integration onto one of the world’s largest trading platforms grants RLUSD immediate access to millions of users and could accelerate adoption of Ripple’s broader payment infrastructure.
Despite the subdued market performance, underlying data from the XRP Ledger tells a story of robust health. On January 13, the network processed 1.45 million transactions—its highest volume in 180 days. Concurrently, the amount of XRP held on centralized exchanges has dropped to 1.6 billion tokens, the lowest level seen since 2018. Analysts often interpret such a decline as a sign of investors moving assets into long-term cold storage or institutional custody solutions.
Furthermore, since the launch of XRP-focused Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) in late 2025, these products have attracted cumulative inflows of $1.37 billion. The combination of shrinking readily available supply and consistent ETF demand could amplify future price movements when broader market sentiment improves.
Historically, significant price rallies for XRP have frequently occurred after periods where strong network activity diverged from weak price performance, a pattern observed in 2017 and 2020. Geoffrey Kendrick, a strategist at Standard Chartered, maintains a long-term bullish outlook, forecasting a price target of $8 by the end of 2026 and $12.50 by 2028.
In the near term, however, macroeconomic headwinds are applying pressure. These include tempered expectations for interest rate cuts and emerging concerns over new tariffs. Whether Ripple’s infrastructure progress with RLUSD and its regulatory expansions will translate into higher prices for XRP depends heavily on the broader market environment and the continuation of institutional capital inflows.
The cryptocurrency market witnessed a significant sell-off as Bitcoin’s price tumbled below the psychologically critical $90,000 threshold. Trading near $89,300 on January 21, 2026, the asset recorded its sixth consecutive daily decline, signaling mounting anxiety among investors. This downturn triggered a liquidation event exceeding $1 billion for leveraged trades, catching numerous market participants off guard.
Data from CoinGlass reveals the scale of the shakeout: approximately 183,066 traders saw their positions liquidated within a 24-hour window, with the total value reaching $1.09 billion. A striking 92% of these liquidations involved long positions, indicating that a vast majority of affected traders had bet on continued price appreciation. The single largest liquidation order occurred on the Bitget exchange, a BTCUSDT trade valued at $13.52 million.
Bitcoin has been losing ground steadily since hitting a mid-January peak of $95,099. The decline saw the digital currency briefly touch a low near $87,800 before staging a modest recovery.
Bitcoin’s weakness is part of a broader “risk-off” shift in global markets, driven by several macroeconomic developments:
Despite the falling prices, prominent institutional buyers remain active. Michael Saylor’s Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) executed its largest single Bitcoin purchase in over nine months, acquiring 22,305 BTC for approximately $2.13 billion. The average purchase price was $95,284 per coin. With this addition, Strategy’s total holdings now stand at 709,715 BTC, worth an estimated $53.92 billion, with an average cost basis of $75,979 per Bitcoin.
The picture for U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs is more nuanced. While fund flows stabilized after experiencing outflows at the end of 2025, the most recent two-day period saw a return to net withdrawals, hinting at softening short-term demand from this investor cohort.
On-chain metrics from Glassnode indicate Bitcoin entered 2026 following a corrective phase. The Short-Term Holder MVRV Ratio has recovered from 0.79 to 0.95. This figure suggests that investors who purchased coins recently are, on average, still holding at a 5% loss. Market analysts note that the probability of further downward movement remains elevated as long as this ratio stays below the 1.0 level.
Key technical support zones are now identified between $88,000 and $93,000, with a stronger band between $80,000 and $83,000. Major resistance is expected in the $98,000 to $100,000 range, with the all-time high zone between $124,000 and $126,500 acting as the ultimate ceiling.
Market experts offer a tempered outlook. Analysts like Tom Lee of Fundstrat anticipate continued pressure from tariffs and political tensions but project a recovery later in 2026. Geoffrey Kendrick of Standard Chartered maintains a positive long-term view, contingent on the easing of current macro headwinds. Echoing this sentiment, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong characterized the correction as a temporary setback during discussions at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
While Ethereum’s market price has recently dipped below the psychologically significant $3,000 threshold, a closer examination of its underlying ecosystem reveals a starkly contrasting narrative of strength and accumulation. This growing chasm between short-term price action and long-term fundamental health is prompting analysts to question the sustainability of the current bearish sentiment.
Contrary to the actions of retail investors, major institutional players are treating the price decline as a buying opportunity. Bitmine Immersion Technologies has been a prominent accumulator, significantly expanding its holdings to now control nearly 3.5% of all Ethereum in circulation. In a notable move last week, the firm deployed over $100 million to secure additional Ether despite the ongoing market correction.
Further institutional support is evident in the continued inflows into U.S. spot ETFs. Products like the Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust have attracted fresh capital even on days characterized by negative price performance. A fundamental shift in supply dynamics is also providing a structural tailwind: approximately 30% of all circulating Ether is now locked in staking protocols, effectively removing it from immediate trading availability and creating a long-term supply constraint.
The broader cryptocurrency market is currently navigating a complex macroeconomic landscape. Rising anxieties, fueled by turbulence in the Japanese bond market and renewed trade tariff threats from the Trump administration, have pushed investor sentiment firmly into “risk-off” territory. This shift is quantified by the Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which has plummeted to a reading of 24, indicating extreme fear among participants.
This pervasive nervousness triggered a breakdown in Ethereum’s key technical support levels at $3,060 and $3,000. The asset is currently trading around $2,989. The heightened volatility proved punishing for leveraged traders, resulting in forced liquidations of Ethereum futures positions worth approximately $269 million within a single 24-hour period. Market technicians are now closely watching the $2,900 zone; a decisive breach below this level could open the door for a deeper technical correction toward $2,300.
In direct opposition to the price chart, Ethereum’s on-chain activity is flourishing. The successful implementation of the “Fusaka Upgrade” has been a key catalyst, driving average transaction fees down to under $0.20. This reduction in cost has spurred unprecedented usage, with the blockchain processing a record-breaking 2.8 million transactions on January 16.
However, this surge in activity carries a nuanced downside. The lower fees have also coincided with reports of an extensive “Address Poisoning” phishing campaign. Concerns that malicious actors are exploiting the affordable network costs to execute spam attacks have introduced a note of short-term caution amidst the otherwise bullish metrics.
The immediate market focus is fixed on the $2,900 support level. Should this floor hold, the potent combination of aggressive institutional buying and a significant portion of supply being staked could form a solid foundation for a price recovery. Conversely, a breakdown below this threshold would significantly deteriorate the technical outlook, potentially unlocking further downside risk and validating a move toward the $2,300 region. The current market phase underscores the tension between transient macroeconomic fears and Ethereum’s demonstrably growing utility and institutional adoption.