The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) revised a previous staff letter to reflect the regulations in the GENIUS stablecoin framework.

The Bitcoin network's mining difficulty dropped by as much as 27% within a single adjustment period during China's 2021 crypto mining ban.

Stablecoins are set to reshape banking by offering a safer, more efficient alternative for deposits.

The post Mike Belshe: Stablecoins are a safer alternative to banks, BitGo’s operational controls are key for crypto market structure, and the future of finance is in asset tokenization | The Wolf Of All Streets appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

AI's rapid growth is reshaping job markets and raising concerns about economic stability.

The post Michael Casey: AI lacks true intent, the industry faces both a bubble and rapid advancements, and the emergence of “proof of control” technology | Unchained appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

In line with its bearish market structure, the Ethereum price struggled significantly in the first week of February. The cryptocurrency’s value fell by more than 30% over the week, crashing to as low as $1,850 on Friday, February 6. Amid the Ethereum market downturn, a significant development has emerged — one which could make or mar the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency.

Ethereum Breaches Realized Price Across All Investor Cohorts

In a recent post on Quicktake, on-chain analyst MorenoDV shared a shocking development within the Ethereum network. The analyst highlighted that the Ethereum price recently slipped below the cost basis of multiple investor groups. 

The revelation is based on the Realized Price by Balance Cohorts metric, which monitors the average on-chain cost basis of Ethereum holders. The metric groups these investors by wallet size, showing where these cohorts are holding profitably or running at losses. 

In the chart above, we see the Ethereum price break beneath multiple cost bases (represented with yellow, green, blue, and purple lines). The most striking, however, is the loss of the realized price of the largest holders (with 100k ETH and above stored), which stands at around $2,074. 

Historically, the realized price of this investor class (with more than 100k ETH in holdings) has taken on dual roles for the Ethereum price, depending on its trajectory. According to data from 2019, mid-2020, and late 2022 price actions, whale realized price typically takes on a role of formidably resisting price during downtrends; during uptrends, it interestingly acts as reliable support. 

Hence, at periods where the Ethereum price stabs through the whale realized price to the downside, MorenoDV explained that two potential paths typically emerge. In his words: “either a violent snap-back rally as the level flips to support (2020, 2022), or further capitulation into multi-year lows (2018-2019).”

Major ETH Price Levels To Watch

Because the Ethereum price went through all investor cohorts’ realized prices at the same time, there is something worth noting here. MorenoDV pointed out that smaller holders collectively have their realized prices between the $2,534 – $2,675 range.

Thus, should the Ethereum price attempt to recover previous legs, the $2,534–$2,675 price range will pose significant resistance to that effort. However, the aforementioned range is not the most critical one for the Ethereum price. 

The analyst highlighted the whale cohort’s realized price, which is approximately $2,074 — to be the most critical for the Ethereum price. Following previous extrapolations, a reclamation of this level would likely follow historical trends and push prices upwards, while failure to retake this level within a period of 30 – 45 days would precede significant drawdowns.

In the event that the latter scenario holds true, the Ethereum price could swiftly fall to $1,800, or even lower. If price breaks beneath $1,800 and is sustained below this level, MorenoDV hypothesizes that this could lead Ethereum to the $1,600–$1,300 levels.

As of this writing, Ethereum stands at a valuation of $2,030, reflecting an over 7% jump in the past 24 hours. 

Tether found itself at the center of two big stories this week, one legal and one market-driven, each showing a different side of how stablecoins shape crypto activity.

One story involves a law enforcement request that led to a large freeze of assets. The other shows fresh USDT supply hitting markets during a sharp Bitcoin selloff.

Gambling Ops Busted

According to reports, Turkish prosecutors asked for help after tracing crypto funds tied to what they say was an illegal online betting operation.

Tether responded by freezing wallets linked to that probe, blocking movement of roughly $544 million in suspected ill-gotten funds.

Paolo Ardoino, Tether’s CEO, has been quoted as saying the company cooperates with law enforcement and follows compliance procedures in these cases.

Reports say this action sits alongside Tether’s wider record of working with authorities in more than 1,800 cases across 62 countries and has resulted in the freezing of billions in USDT over time.

Tether’s Role In Law Enforcement Cooperation

The freeze adds another example of how stablecoin issuers can act on legal requests that target specific wallet addresses.

Reports note Turkish investigators also sought seizure orders for bank accounts and property connected to the alleged network.

While blockchain records are public, linking addresses to people still depends on data, subpoenas, and cooperation between exchanges and issuers. In this case, that cooperation halted transfers of the flagged tokens before they could move further.

At the same time, market watchers logged a separate development: Tether minted an additional $1 billion USDT as Bitcoin plunged.

Reports show this mint came while Bitcoin dropped by double digits over a short period and amid more than $2 billion in liquidations across crypto markets.

1,000,000,000 #USDT (999,707,500 USD) minted at Tether Treasuryhttps://t.co/xJD8CP4OGN

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) February 6, 2026

The newly created USDT appeared mostly on networks like Tron, where a large portion of USDT circulates, and it boosted overall stablecoin liquidity during the selloff.

Traders and desks often use freshly issued stablecoins to cover shorts, rebalance positions, or to provide exchange liquidity — and that helps explain why issuers sometimes increase supply in volatile stretches.

These two events together capture a tension in crypto: stablecoins can provide fast liquidity, but they can also be the subject of legal controls when authorities suspect misuse.

Reports note that while mints do not guarantee a market rebound, they make dollars available in crypto form, and that can change short-term flows. At the same time, freezes show that issuers can be pulled into cross-border probes and asset recovery efforts.

Observers are watching whether the extra USDT supply will steer traders back into Bitcoin or remain parked on exchanges as dry powder.

Meanwhile, the Turkish action raises fresh questions about how regulators, issuers, and analytics firms will coordinate to trace and immobilize suspect funds moving across networks.

The balance between providing market liquidity and meeting legal obligations is getting tested in real time.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

The crypto market that surged on Donald Trump’s campaign promise of a friendlier US posture is now back near where it started, after an 18-month round trip that added close to $2 trillion in value and then erased roughly the same amount.

Data compiled by CryptoSlate put the total crypto market value at about $2.4 trillion in October 2024, weeks before the US election.

By November 2024, the market had pushed toward $3.2 trillion as traders priced in a “policy premium,” the expectation that a pro-crypto White House would mean lighter enforcement pressure, clearer rules, and broader access for both retail and institutional investors.

By early October 2025, the market peaked at $4.379 trillion.

As of press time, CryptoSlate's market cap page showed the global market at about $2.37 trillion after a steep selloff.

Bitcoin, the sector’s bellwether, briefly fell to around $60,000 this week before recovering to about $65,894. Ethereum, the second-largest crypto asset, traded near $1,921 after sliding close to $1,752 earlier in the week.

A pro-crypto pivot in the office

After Trump took office, the administration moved quickly to signal a reset, but those steps proved to be a shift in tone, not an instant fix.

In late January 2025, Trump ordered the creation of a cryptocurrency working group to draft a regulatory framework for digital assets and to evaluate a potential national digital asset stockpile.

The order also targeted a US central bank digital currency, reflecting early emphasis on limiting federal involvement in retail digital money while expanding room for private-sector tokens.

Banking policy also moved. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rescinded Staff Accounting Bulletin 121, guidance that the crypto and banking industries had argued raised the cost of custodying customer crypto assets.

In March 2025, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued Interpretive Letter 1183, reaffirming that national banks may provide crypto-asset custody.

This allowed these institutions to participate in certain stablecoin activities and engage with distributed ledger networks, removing a prior requirement for supervisory nonobjection before proceeding.

At the same time, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) rescinded a 2022 notification requirement for FDIC-supervised institutions and clarified that banks may engage in permissible crypto-related activities without prior FDIC approval.

By April 2025, the Federal Reserve withdrew certain guidance on bank crypto-asset and dollar token activities, including rescinding a 2023 supervisory letter that established a nonobjection process for such activities.

Notably, the FDIC and the Fed also withdrew two joint statements on banking organizations’ crypto-asset-related activities.

Meanwhile, a central legislative milestone arrived with stablecoins, the dollar-pegged tokens used widely as settlement rails across crypto markets.

Congress passed, and Trump signed into law, the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act (the GENIUS Act) on July 18, 2025.

The law established a federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins, defined categories of permitted issuers, and set requirements and oversight for stablecoin issuance.

Interestingly, stablecoins were not the only target of the Trump administration.

The US House passed the industry-backed CLARITY Act in July 2025, a market-structure bill aimed at creating a clearer federal framework for digital assets and expanding the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) oversight.

All of these developments helped create an environment in which Bitcoin and the crypto industry thrive.

As a result, BTC's value reached a new all-time high of more than $126,000, and the broader crypto industry market cap peaked at over $4 trillion.

From peak to retracement, as leverage and flows turned

Since the crypto industry peaked, the market has shed about $2 trillion, with more than $1 trillion lost in the past month.

Market participants and analysts have largely described the latest leg down as a mechanical unwind rather than a repricing of a single headline.

Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at Bitwise, argued that the drawdown should be read as a pileup of forces, not a single culprit. According to him, markets are complex, and pullbacks are usually the result of multiple factors acting in concert.

Considering this, Hougan’s starting point was cyclical, not political. He said long-term investors have been selling to front-run what many expect from crypto’s four-year pattern, three big up years followed by a down year.

The dynamic can become self-fulfilling, he said, because investors who fear the cycle will repeat may decide to take gains early rather than hold through a potential pullback.

While he acknowledged that measurement is imperfect, Hougan estimated that those investors sold well over $100 billion in Bitcoin last year.

At the same time, he described a fading of retail-style “attention” flows that often prop up speculative corners of markets in good times.

Crypto, in his view, has faced stiffer competition for the spotlight, with AI stocks and, more recently, precious metals drawing capital that might otherwise have rotated into the most volatile digital assets.

While those investors can return, they are currently a source of demand that has partially stepped back from the industry.

Meanwhile, Hougan also pointed to how leverage turned this downshift into a cliff. He cited the Oct. 10 $20 billion liquidation episode, which is the largest leveraged blowout in crypto’s history.

According to him, this was caused by Trump's surprise announcement of a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods at 5:30 p.m. ET on a Friday, when many traditional markets were closed, and by traders using crypto to hedge risk.

This caused a marketwide sell-off that the crypto market has yet to recover from.

At the same time, Washington's broader policies and the macro backdrop have impacted Bitcoin.

Hougan cited Trump’s Jan. 30 nomination of Kevin Warsh to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve, a pick he said was viewed as hawkish.

He also flagged a separate source of hesitation within Bitcoin itself, with rising concern among some advocates that the community is not moving fast enough to address the future risk posed by quantum computing.

Hougan said quantum is a long-term risk and a solvable problem, but he argued that until the development community takes concrete steps, a portion of long-term capital will remain cautious.

Finally, he said the pullback has been reinforced by broad risk-off sentiment, pointing to a session in which BTC fell alongside sharp declines in gold and silver, with large technology stocks also down significantly.

In that environment, crypto still behaves like a high-beta proxy for risk appetite, becoming vulnerable when portfolios de-gross.

Who are the winners in the boom and casualties of the bust?

The boom phase rewarded the core plumbing of crypto, businesses that monetize activity when prices and trading volumes rise.

Exchanges and derivatives venues benefited as speculation returned. CoinGecko’s 2025 annual report estimated that centralized exchanges processed $86.2 trillion in perpetual futures volume in 2025, while decentralized perpetuals hit $6.7 trillion.

In a boom, that structure operates like a toll road, with greater volatility bringing higher fees and more liquidations.

Stablecoin issuers also emerged as winners, as they are expected to continue growing even when token prices decline. This is because traders and institutions still need dollar-denominated rails to move cash, settle trades, and park funds during volatility.

In fact, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent believes these assets will become a crucial buyer of US Treasuries in the coming years as they continue to rapidly expand.

Meanwhile, the bust phase has been harsher on businesses with embedded financial leverage and retail investors exposed to the industry.

Public companies that stockpiled BTC and other tokens as a strategy became a focal point as prices fell.

Shares of Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), the bellwether of the corporate Bitcoin trade, fell from $457 in July 2025 to as low as $111.27 on Thursday, the lowest since August 2024.

Strategy held 713,502 bitcoin at an average cost of $76,052 per coin and posted a $12.4 billion quarterly loss as bitcoin’s decline forced a repricing of its crypto-heavy balance sheet.

Other listed buyers also fell, including the UK’s Smarter Web Company, Nakamoto Inc., and Japan’s Metaplanet, alongside firms tied to Ethereum and Solana strategies and a company that said it would stockpile a Trump-family token.

That dynamic captures the core contradiction of the cycle.

Trump’s pro-crypto posture helped anchor the post-election bid and validated parts of the political thesis through early executive actions, shifts in banking guidance, and a stablecoin law.

But the market’s surge also accelerated the structures that made crypto more sensitive to macroeconomic conditions, ETF flows, and leverage-driven bubbles. So, when those forces turned, the same “policy premium” that lifted valuations proved easy to unprice.

The post Trump’s crypto “golden age” throws away $2 trillion in profits, leaving those holding dollars as winners appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin’s hard cap is easy to understand: there will only ever be 21 million coins.

What's hard to understand is that the marginal market is allowed to trade far more than 21 million coins worth of exposure, because most of that exposure is synthetic and cash-settled, and it can be created or reduced in seconds.

That distinction has become Bitcoin's core paradox in the past year or so.

Scarcity is a property of the asset, while price is a property of the market microstructure that dominates the next aggressive order. When derivatives volume and leveraged positioning become the dominant arena, Bitcoin can trade like an asset with a tight supply and, at the same time, like an asset with effectively elastic exposure.

21 million coins, but a much larger marginal market

Spot is the only venue where a trade necessarily moves actual BTC from one owner to another.

Perpetual and dated futures don't mint coins, but they do create a second market that can become larger, faster, and more reflexive than spot. Perps are designed to track spot through a funding mechanism and can be traded with leverage, which means a relatively small amount of collateral can control a much larger notional position. That combination tends to pull activity into derivatives when traders want speed, leverage, shorting ability, and capital efficiency.

Price discovery is simply where the next meaningful market order lands. If most urgency lives in perps, then the path of least resistance is set there, even if long-term holders never touch leverage and even if the underlying supply is fixed. In that regime, moves are frequently driven by changes in positioning: liquidations, forced de-risking, hedging flows, and the rapid repricing of leverage. Those flows can overwhelm the much slower process of spot accumulation, because the marginal actor isn't choosing whether to buy coins but whether to add or reduce exposure.

This is also why visible order book support is a weaker concept than it looks on a chart. Displayed bids can be real, but they're conditional. They can be pulled, layered, refreshed, or simply outpaced by the volume coming from the larger derivatives complex. Order books are records of resting intent, not execution guarantees.

What the data shows

The Binance BTC/USDT perpetual futures versus spot volume ratio is the cleanest starting point because it quantifies where activity is concentrated.

On Feb. 3, the perpetual-to-spot volume ratio read 7.87, with $23.51 billion in perpetual volume against $2.99 billion in spot while BTC traded around $75,770. On Feb. 5, the ratio was still 6.12, with $15.97 billion in perps volume against $2.61 billion in spot, and the price near $69,700.

The ratios matter because they're not a minor skew; they describe a market where the dominant source of turnover is a leveraged, shortable venue. In that setup, the next tick is more likely to be set by the repricing of exposure than by incremental spot buying.

The aggregated order book liquidity delta adds a second layer: not just where volume traded, but where liquidity accumulated near price. CoinGlass defines depth delta as the imbalance between bids and asks within a specified range, here ±1% around the current price, which is a way to summarize whether the visible book is bid-heavy or offer-heavy.

The biggest footprint appears on the derivatives side right as the market was entering the drawdown window. Futures liquidity delta printed +$297.75 million on Jan. 31 at 14:00 with BTC around $82,767. Spot later showed +$95.32 million at 18:00 around $78,893. Even by Feb. 5 at 14:00, spot delta still showed +$36.66 million with BTC near $69,486.

This data shows a market where spot bids existed and, in some moments, grew, but price still kept sliding. Once you accept the hierarchy where derivatives are the dominant class, this stops being a contradiction. Displayed liquidity near spot can improve while the larger derivatives venue continues to force repricing through leverage reduction, short pressure, or hedging. When perps dominate turnover, the marginal seller isn't a real person that's lost conviction, it's just a manager managing positions.

Now add the third channel that investors tend to treat as the definitive spot proxy: US spot Bitcoin ETFs. The flow sequence we've seen in last week looks like a tug-of-war rather than a steering wheel aimed at the cliff.

Heavy outflows hit on Jan. 21 at about -$708.7 million, then Jan. 29 at about -$817.8 million, then Jan. 30 at about -$509.7 million. Feb. 2 flipped sharply positive at about +$561.8 million, then reverted to -$272.0 million on Feb. 3 and -$544.9 million on Feb. 4.

Public flow tallies like these are widely tracked through aggregators such as Farside and are frequently referenced in market coverage, but they fail map one-for-one to intraday price when the derivatives venue is setting the marginal trade.

It's also worth being precise about what an ETF flow is and is not. Creations and redemptions are executed through authorized participants. Depending on the product and regulatory permissions, those processes can be cash-based or in-kind, which changes how directly ETF activity translates into spot market transactions in BTC.

In mid-2025, the SEC approved orders permitting in-kind creations and redemptions for crypto ETPs, which is specifically about allowing authorized participants to create or redeem shares using the underlying crypto rather than only cash, bringing the operational structure closer to other commodity ETPs. (SEC) Even with that structure, ETF flows still sit alongside derivatives positioning, dealer hedging, and exchange liquidity, which can dominate short-horizon price formation.

Finally, exchange reserve data anchors this abstract data into something more tangible: the amount of BTC sitting on exchanges, which is a proxy for immediately tradable inventory.

From Jan. 15 to Feb. 5, all-exchange BTC reserves rose by 29,048 BTC, a 1.067% increase, reaching just over 2.75 million BTC.

This matters because it separates two ideas that are often blended together.

Bitcoin can be scarce in total supply and still feel well supplied at the point of transaction if exchange inventory rises into a risk-off window. ETF inflows can be positive and yet the tradable float can expand via deposits, treasury moves, or repositioning by large holders. And even if the tradable float tightens, derivatives can still amplify volatility because exposure can be added or removed faster than coins can move.

A scarcity model that matches how Bitcoin trades

A useful way to reconcile all of this is to treat Bitcoin scarcity as a stack of time horizons rather than a single number.

At the slowest layer is protocol supply, which is fixed by design. That's the layer the 21 million cap describes.

At the middle layer is the tradable float, which is what can realistically hit the market without friction. Exchange reserves aren't the best proxy for this, but they're directionally useful because they measure coins that are already sitting on a platform built for rapid transaction.

At the fast layer is the synthetic exposure: perps, dated futures, and options. This layer can expand or contract extremely quickly because it's constrained by collateral and risk limits, not by coin movement. When activity concentrates here, a large share of the market is expressing views through leverage and hedges, not through coin acquisition.

At the final layer is the marginal trade itself: the next forced buy or sell that clears through the most active venue. The perpetual-to-spot volume ratios that have been sitting between roughly 6 and 8, combined with the larger liquidity delta prints on futures, show a market where that marginal trade was happening in derivatives, not in spot.

That framing tells us that scarcity is real, but it doesn't guarantee day-to-day tightness. The market can trade scarce assets through abundant exposure, and the venue with the most urgent flow tends to set the next price.

That's why we need to treat ETF flows, exchange reserves, and derivatives dominance as three separate lenses that can disagree in the short run. When they line up, moves tend to be cleaner. When they diverge, you can see exactly what the charts show: bids appear, narratives whip around, and price still bleeds because the marginal market is elsewhere.

The post Binance trading data reveals why Bitcoin prices are sliding even as spot buyers flood the market with bids appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Tether, the issuer of the world’s most widely traded stablecoin, has frozen more than $500 million in digital assets.

The funds are linked to a massive illegal gambling and money-laundering syndicate in Turkey.

Tether Marks One of Crypto’s Largest Crackdowns

The freeze targets assets reportedly owned by Veysel Sahin, an individual Turkish prosecutors accuse of orchestrating a sprawling illegal betting network.

Notably, this move marks one of the largest single-asset seizures in the cryptocurrency sector to date.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino confirmed the company’s role in the crackdown, emphasizing the firm’s increasing cooperation with international law enforcement.

“Law enforcement came to us, they provided some information, we looked at the information and we acted in respect of the laws of the country. And that’s what we do when we work with the DOJ, when we work with the FBI, you name it,” he reportedly said.

Meanwhile, the enforcement action highlights a significant pivot for the British Virgin Islands-incorporated firm. Once criticized by regulators for a perceived lack of transparency, Tether has repositioned itself as a proactive partner to global police agencies.

Earlier this year, the company froze more than $180 million worth of its USDT token. In total, Tether has now frozen more than $3 billion in assets since its inception.

With a circulating supply exceeding $187 billion, Tether’s USDT token serves as the primary source of liquidity for the global cryptocurrency market. BeInCrypto previously reported that this asset serves more than 534 million users globally.

Its widespread use allows traders to move funds quickly between exchanges without relying on traditional banking rails.

However, the speed and scale of recent interventions have dismantled the “censorship-resistant” reputation that once defined the digital asset sector.

Beyond enforcement, Tether has been aggressively diversifying its USDT reserves over the past year.

The company recently announced a $150 million investment in Gold.com, and a $100 million strategic investment in Anchorage Digital, America’s first federally regulated digital asset bank.

Meanwhile, these investment follows a record-breaking financial year for the stablecoin giant.

Buoyed by $10 billion in 2025 profits, Tether has expanded its reach beyond stablecoins. The firm is now deploying capital across a diverse portfolio of internal initiatives, ranging from sports to Bitcoin mining, decentralized communications, and artificial intelligence.

The post Tether Freezes $500 Million in Assets Linked to Turkish Gambling Ring appeared first on BeInCrypto.

Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek is steering the company into the artificial intelligence sector, unveiling a platform for personalized AI agents.

A $70 million acquisition of the “ai.com” domain supports the initiative, which debuts February 8 during a Super Bowl LX commercial.

Crypto.com CEO Takes on OpenAI and Google With Decentralized AI Push

The launch represents a significant strategic pivot for Marszalek. His firm previously made headlines—and drew skepticism—for spending $700 million on naming rights for the Los Angeles arena formerly known as the Staples Center.

Nonetheless, the move signals a high-stakes capital commitment to the convergence of blockchain technology and generative AI.

According to the company, the new platform allows retail users to deploy “agentic” AI tools in under 60 seconds without technical coding knowledge.

These agents are designed to execute autonomous tasks, such as organizing workflows, sending messages, and managing cross-application projects.

The interface targets mainstream consumers, though Marszalek described the long-term vision as a “decentralized network” where billions of agents self-improve and share capabilities.

“Ai.com is on a mission to accelerate the arrival of AGI by building a decentralized network of autonomous, self-improving AI agents that perform real-world tasks for the good of humanity,” he stated.

Notably, this structure mirrors the distributed ethos of the cryptocurrency industry.

The company said agents will operate in a “dedicated secure environment” where data is encrypted with user-specific keys. This architecture ostensibly limits the platform’s access to personal information.

The move underscores a broader trend of crypto executives seeking new growth narratives as the digital asset market matures.

By launching with a Super Bowl spot, Marszalek is betting that mainstream appetite for automated personal assistants will outpace fatigue around crypto-adjacent projects.

The platform plans to roll out financial services integration and an agent marketplace in future updates.

This trajectory points toward a hybrid business model that blends subscription tiers with transaction-based economics.

However, the venture faces a steep climb.

The venture must compete in an increasingly crowded market dominated by well-capitalized incumbents such as OpenAI and Google.

Simultaneously, it faces the challenge of convincing users to trust a crypto-native firm with their intimate personal data.

The post Crypto.com CEO Pivots to AI Agents, Launch Planned For Super Bowl appeared first on BeInCrypto.

Crypto expert Tony Severino has opined that Bitcoin isn’t just showing signs of a yearly top but also that the BTC price may have hit a 16-year cyclical peak. This comes amid the flagship crypto’s recent crash to $60,000, which sparked fears of a bear market.

Bitcoin May Be Showing Signs Of A Peak Amid BTC Price Crash To $60,000

In an X post, Severino alluded to the yearly Bitcoin chart, which he said looks like a 16-year cyclical peak rather than just a yearly top. The expert also outlined several reasons this appears to be a major cyclical top for the BTC price. First, he noted that the white candlesticks have been decreasing in size over time, while black candlesticks engulf more white candles with each appearance. 

Furthermore, Severino highlighted the Doji at the top of a rising wedge pattern while the Evening Star is in progress, which is a bearish reversal signal for the BTC price. Meanwhile, the Fischer Transform is crossing bearish with divergence, and the Stochastic is crossing bearish after being rejected from 80. He added that Bitcoin’s Relative Strength Index (RSI) is falling back below 70 after making it above this level on the highest timeframe chart. 

His analysis comes as the BTC price continues to decline, suggesting the crypto market may be in a bear market after topping last October. Bitcoin dropped to as low as $60,000 earlier this week, suffering its largest daily decline since the FTX collapse. Veteran trader Peter Brandt has also opined that Bitcoin is in a bear market, predicting that it could still drop to as low as $42,000 before it sees a bottom. 

Reason For The Recent BTC Crash

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes has commented on the reason for this recent Bitcoin crash, suggesting that it was due to external factors rather than part of an ongoing bear market. In an X post, he stated that the BTC price dump was probably due to a dealer hedging off the back of BlackRock’s BTC ETF structured products. Notably, BlackRock’s IBIT saw a record trading volume of $10 billion on the day of this crash to $60,000. 

Hayes’ comment comes on the back of Bitcoin’s rebound above $70,000, with the flagship crypto recording one of its largest ever daily gains yesterday following the crash to $60,000. Galaxy Digital’s Head of Research, Alex Thorn, suggested that the drop to $60,000 may mark the bottom for the BTC price. This came as he noted that the 200-week MA, which is around $60,000, has historically been a strong entry point for long-term investors. 

At the time of writing, the BTC price is trading at around $70,000, up over 6% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

The XRP price was on the verge of losing the $1 level merely two days ago, as the entire crypto market succumbed to an almost unprecedented level of volatility and bearish pressure. The altcoin fell to as low as $1.16, its lowest level since November 2024.

While the general cryptocurrency market appears to be showing some signs of recovery, the XRP price activity has been particularly impressive since bottoming out at around the $1.15 mark. According to a prominent crypto analytics firm, below are the reasons behind the altcoin’s latest resurgence.

Whale And Network Activity Throw XRP A Lifeline

On Friday, February 6, popular blockchain firm Santiment took to the social media platform X to discuss the recent correction and the subsequent recovery experienced by the XRP price going into this weekend. With the strong volatility witnessed in the market, XRP seemed to be bound for $1 in that downward movement. 

Santiment said on X:

Panic sellers should have stopped to notice the massive activity on the XRP Ledger as speculators were discussing whether the coin would fall below $1.00.

However, the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization briefly reclaimed the $1.5 level on Friday, signaling the return of fresh buying momentum to the market. According to Santiment, this XRP price jump might have been triggered by the group of large investors known as the whales.

The latest on-chain data shows that an “obvious” whale accumulation took place while the XRP price headed for the bottom. Santiment data shows that about 1,389 $100,000 whale transactions occurred during the dip, the highest volume seen over the past four months.

Meanwhile, activity on the XRP Ledger has been on the rise since the altcoin’s price fell to its lowest level in over a year. According to Santiment’s post on X, the amount of unique addresses on the blockchain saw a notable surge to 78,727 in just one 8-hour candle, its highest level in approximately six months.

The crypto analytics noted that these occurrences are both significant to the potential price resurgence of any asset. With an uptick in whale demand and network activity, the XRP price could build the foundation required to return to a bullish structure.

However, investors might want to approach the market with extreme caution, as a relief rally is not the strangest phenomenon in a bear market.

XRP Price At A Glance

As of this writing, the price of XRP stands at around $1.46, reflecting an almost 25% jump in the past 24 hours. However, this single-day action is not enough to erase the past week’s losses, which still sit roughly over 16%.