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Crypto Daybook Americas: Retail Demand Provides Firm Underpinning to Weaker Markets
By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)
Bitcoin and most major cryptocurrencies are weaker after Chicago Mercantile Exchange, a proxy for institutional activity, denied reports of listing futures tied to XRP and SOL. Traditional markets are also holding their breath for the expected Bank of Japan interest-rate increase on Friday.
Despite BTC’s continued range play above $100,000, retail demand remains robust. Glassnode’s shrimp-Crab cohort, which includes addresses holding up to 10 BTC, have absorbed 1.9 times the newly mined supply last month, totaling over 25,600 BTC. Meanwhile, long-term holders have slowed their spending and profit-taking activities, indicating a cautious, but firm, commitment to their investments.
Still, dropping below $100,000 might prove costly. According to Wintermute’s OTC trader Jake Ostrovskis, that would «frame Monday’s inauguration as a sell-the-news event and the narrative could switch pretty quickly.»
Reports suggest the number of whale wallets holding between 1 million and 10 million XRP has surged to an all-time high of 2,083, signaling increased accumulation and confidence in its future performance.
In the world of innovation, chatter around Bitcoin Synths is gaining traction on X. These synthetic assets allow users to benefit from bitcoin’s price movements without actually owning the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin Synths can be traded or used as collateral in lending protocols, avoiding the complexities associated with wrapped tokens and specialized bridges.
Ethereum layer-2 protocols are also making headlines with record transaction volumes, even as concerns about their capacity nearing limits persist.
On the macroeconomic front, recent data from the Labor Department shows that the «all tenant rent» index, an indicator of shelter inflation in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), rose at a slower pace last quarter. The data suggest that recent worries about inflation may be overdone and the Fed could pivot away from its hawkish forecast, which would be a positive sign for risk assets. Stay alert!
What to Watch
Crypto
Jan. 23: First deadline for SEC decision on NYSE Arca’s proposal to list and trade shares of Grayscale Solana Trust (GSOL), a closed-end trust, as an ETF.
Jan. 25: First deadline for SEC decisions on proposals for four spot solana ETFs: Bitwise Solana ETF, Canary Solana ETF, 21Shares Core Solana ETF and VanEck Solana Trust, which are all sponsored by Cboe BZX Exchange.
Jan. 29: Ice Open Network (ION) mainnet launch.
Feb. 4: MicroStrategy Inc. (MSTR) reports Q4 2024 earnings.
Feb. 4: Pepecoin (PEPE) halving. At block 400,000, the reward will drop to 31,250 pepecoin.
Feb. 5, 3:00 p.m.: Boba Network’s Holocene hard fork network upgrade for its Ethereum-based L2 mainnet.
Macro
Jan. 23, 8:30 a.m.: The U.S. Department of Labor releases the Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report for the week ended Jan. 18.
Initial Jobless Claims Est. 215K vs. Prev. 217K.
Jan. 23, 10:00 a.m.: The National Association of Realtors releases December 2024 U.S. Existing Home Sales report.
Existing Home Sales Est. 4.16M vs. Prev. 4.15M.
Existing Home Sales MoM Prev. 4.8%.
Jan. 23, 4:30 p.m.: The Fed releases the H.4.1 report, the central bank balance sheet, for the week ended Jan. 22.
Total Reserves Prev. $6.83T.
Jan. 23, 6:30 p.m.: Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications releases December 2024’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) report.
Inflation Rate MoM Prev. 0.6%.
Core Inflation Rate YoY Est. 3% vs. Prev. 2.7%.
Inflation Rate YoY Prev. 2.9%.
Jan. 23, 10:00 p.m.: The Bank of Japan (BoJ) releases Statement on Monetary Policy.
Interest Rate Decision Est. 0.5% vs. Prev. 0.25%.
Token Events
Governance votes & calls
Morpho DAO is discussing reducing incentives by 30% across all networks and assets.
Yearn DAO is discussing funding and endorsing a subDAO called Bearn to focus on building and launching products on Berachain.
Frax DAO is discussing a $5 million investment in World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the crypto project backed by the family of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Jan. 23: Livepeer (LPT) is hosting a Core Dev call.
Jan. 24: Arbitrum BoLD’s activation vote deadline. BoLD allows anyone to participate in validation and defend against malicious claims to an Arbitrum chain’s state.
Jan. 24: Hedera (HBAR) is hosting a community call at 11 a.m.
Unlocks
Jan. 31: Optimism (OP) to unlock 2.32% of circulating supply worth $52.9 million.
Jan. 31: Jupiter (JUP) to unlock 41.5% of circulating supply worth $626 million.
Token Launches
Jan. 23: Sky (SKY) is being listed on Bitget.
Jan. 23: Animecoin (ANIME) is launching, with claims starting at 8 a.m. The token will be listed on multiple exchanges including Binance, OKX and KuCoin.
Conferences:
Day 11 of 12: Swiss WEB3FEST Winter Edition 2025 (Zug, Zurich, St. Moritz, Davos)
Day 4 of 5: World Economic Forum Annual Meeting (Davos-Klosters, Switzerland)
Jan. 24-25: Adopting Bitcoin (Cape Town, South Africa)
Jan. 25-26: Catstanbul 2025 (Istanbul). The first community conference for Jupiter, a decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator built on Solana.
Jan. 30, 12:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.: International DeFi Day 2025 (online)
Jan 30-31: Plan B Forum (San Salvador, El Salvador)
Jan. 30 to Feb. 4: The Satoshi Roundtable (Dubai)
Feb. 3: Digital Assets Forum (London)
Feb. 5-6: The 14th Global Blockchain Congress (Dubai)
Feb. 7: Solana APEX (Mexico City)
Feb. 13-14: The 4th Edition of NFT Paris.
Feb. 18-20: Consensus Hong Kong
Feb. 23 to March 2: ETHDenver 2025 (Denver, Colorado)
Token Talk
By Francisco Rodrigues
Azuki, a non-fungible token (NFT) collection, is introducing its Animecoin (ANIME) today on Ethereum and Arbitrum. The token was announced on Jan. 13.
An airdrop will encompass Azuki NFT holders, Hyperliquid HYPE stakes, some Arbitrum ecosystem participants and Kaito yappers.
It will also include certain anime communities and BNB token holders who, between Jan. 17 and Jan. 20, subscribed to Simple Earn with their tokens on Binance.
The debut builds on a growing trend of NFT collections launching their own tokens, a trend that started in 2021 when Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) launched ApeCoin.
Other examples include DeGods’ DUST and Pudgy Penguins’ PENGU tokens, which have a $1.6 billion market capitalization.
Other signs indicate the NFT market is heating up, with Nansen recently pointing out that a Crypto Punk was sold for 170 ETH (around $540,000) while an Azuki was sold for 165 ETH. The Azuki NFT had been bought a month before for 105 ETH.
Derivatives Positioning
The cumulative volume delta indicator reveals that major cryptocurrencies, with the exception of TON, have experienced net selling pressure in the perpetual futures markets over the past 24 hours.
Block flows on Deribit and Paradigm featured long positions in short-dated BTC puts at $100K, $95K and $70K. An entity bought ETH put at $2.9K.
Front-end BTC and ETH calls now traded at par with puts.
Market Movements:
BTC is down 4.1 % from 4 p.m. ET Wednesday to $102,020 (24hrs: -2.71%)
ETH is down 3.85% at $3,206.18 (24hrs: -2.83%)
CoinDesk 20 is down 3.61% to 3,799.21 (24hrs: -3.58%)
CESR Composite Ether Staking Rate is down 15 bps to 3.15%
BTC funding rate is at -0.0019% (-2.08% annualized) on OKX
DXY is unchanged at 108.25
Gold is down 0.35% at $2,761.10/oz
Silver is down 0.73% to $30.57/oz
Nikkei 225 closed up 0.79% at 39,958.87
Hang Seng closed down 0.4% at 19,700.56
FTSE is unchanged at 8,538.7
Euro Stoxx 50 is unchangedat 5203.6
DJIA closed +0.3% to 44,156.73
S&P 500 closed +0.61% at 6,086.37
Nasdaq closed +1.28% at 20,009.34
S&P/TSX Composite Index closed +0.12% at 25,311.5
S&P 40 Latin America closed +1.21% at 2,297.32
U.S. 10-year Treasury is up 3 bps at 4.59%
E-mini S&P 500 futures are down 0.19% to 6,109.00
E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are down 0.56% to 21,876.75
E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are unchaged at 44,384.00
Bitcoin Stats:
BTC Dominance: 58.59
Ethereum to bitcoin ratio: 0.031
Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 781 EH/s
Hashprice (spot): $58.9
Total Fees: 8.5 BTC/ $876,410
CME Futures Open Interest: 188,396 BTC
BTC priced in gold: 37.1 oz
BTC vs gold market cap: 10.56%
Technical Analysis
BTC’s retreat from Monday’s high is teasing a formation of a double top bearish reversal pattern.
A move below the horizontal line would confirm the pattern, potentially bringing more chart-led sellers to the market.
Crypto Equities
MicroStrategy (MSTR): closed on Wednesday at $377.31 (-3.03%), down 1.89% at $370.19 in pre-market.
Coinbase Global (COIN): closed at $295.85 (+0.56%), down 2.59% at $288.18 in pre-market.
Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY): closed at C$32.81 (+4.99%)
MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $19.69 (+0.66%), down 2.54% at $19.19 in pre-market.
Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $13.14 (+3.14%), down 1.75% at $12.91 in pre-market.
Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $15.97 (+4.58%%), down 1.63% at $15.71 in pre-market.
CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $11.14 (+1.64%), down 2.51% at $10.86 in pre-market.
CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $25.53 (+2.24%), up 2.58% at $28.27 in pre-market.
Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $62.11 (-4.36%), up 2% at $64.90 in pre-market.
Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $41.00 (+2.5%), down 2.07% at $40.15 in pre-market.
ETF Flows
Spot BTC ETFs:
Daily net flow: $248.7 million
Cumulative net flows: $39.23 billion
Total BTC holdings ~ 1.161 million.
Spot ETH ETFs
Daily net flow: $70.7 million
Cumulative net flows: $2.81 billion
Total ETH holdings ~ 3.648 million.
Source: Farside Investors
Overnight Flows
Chart of the Day
The chart shows a spike in the number of active addresses on Solana.
Addresses holding USDC led the growth as TRUMP token frenzy gripped the market over the weekend.
While You Were Sleeping
Bitcoin Is Like Coiled Spring Nearing Burst of Price Volatility, Key Indicator Suggests (CoinDesk): Bitcoin’s tight 60-day price range suggests impending volatility, according to Glassnode and bullish options activity signals market optimism.
Trump’s CFTC Pick Clears Top Ranks of Key US Crypto Regulator (CoinDesk): Newly appointed CFTC Chair Caroline Pham has overhauled the agency’s leadership. The changes could reshape the CFTC’s role in cryptocurrency oversight.
Bitwise Registers Delaware Entity for Potential Dogecoin ETF (Decrypt): Bitwise Asset Management has registered a statutory trust in Delaware named “Bitwise Dogecoin ETF,” a preparatory step toward potentially filing a Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Dollar Treads Water as Trump Tariff Clarity, Central Banks Awaited (Reuters): The dollar held steady as traders awaited clarity on Trump’s tariff plans. Focus is shifting to rate decisions from the Bank of Japan, Fed and ECB.
China Ramps Up Support for Its Stock Markets (The Wall Street Journal): Chinese regulators said state-owned insurers and mutual funds would invest at least 100 billion yuan ($13.7 billion) into the A-shares market. The central bank also pledged to support the stock market.
Davos Hits ‘Peak Pessimism’ on Europe as U.S. Exuberance Rises (Financial Times): U.S. executives at Davos expressed optimism over Donald Trump’s “America First” policies, while their European counterparts voiced pessimism about the potential harm to struggling EU economies from tariffs and regulatory changes.
In the Ether
Litecoin (LTC) tried to punch above $88 during Monday’s trading session, but met a wall of sell orders near that level.
The token has since retreated to $85.21, down 3.17% since the session’s peak and 1.5% in the last 24-hour period. That stumble erased the week’s slim gains and set a new line in the sand for bulls.
The drop came at a time in which bitcoin (BTC) has been its dominance increase, while its volatility dropped below the 40 mark in a potential sign of incoming action.
Technical Analysis Overview
Litecoin’s price swung significantly in the last 24-hour period, covering a $3.05 range, or roughly 3.5%. The token encountered stiff resistance between $88.00 and $88.42, where sellers stepped in heavily, particularly during late evening trading hours, according to CoinDesk Research’s technical analysis data model.
After peaking, LTC reversed lower and found new support at $85.37. The steepest drop was accompanied by the session’s highest trading volume of over 180,000 tokens, signaling strong bearish sentiment.
Short-term trading saw additional volatility. In the last few hours of trading, LTC spiked from $85.65 to $86.05, a 0.47% jump, on a burst of buying. But momentum quickly reversed, sending prices back down to $85.53 on another volume spike.
This cemented resistance near $86.05 and reinforced the new support level at $85.37, leaving Litecoin at $85.42 as the session ended. Traders are watching these levels closely for clues on whether the asset will stage a recovery or slip lower in the days ahead.
The crypto industry’s political-finance arm, the towering campaign-funding entity known as Fairshake, dropped another $1 million into the coffers of a special-election candidate hoping to replace a Virginia Democrat who died in office, Representative Gerald Connolly.
The candidate favored by the industry’s chief political action committee, James Walkinshaw, won the Democrats’ so-called firehouse primary over the weekend, in which the party conducted its own polling to determine its chosen candidate among a field of nine. The general election to formally select the Fairfax County region’s next member of Congress is set for Sept. 9, though the Democrat incumbent took about two thirds of the vote in the regular election last year, giving Walkinshaw a heavy advantage.
«We look forward to James joining the growing, bipartisan coalition in Congress that understands the importance of securing America’s leadership in the next generation of technology,» said Josh Vlasto, a Fairshake spokesman, in a statement. He argued that the race again demonstrated that the electorate isn’t moved by critics who attempt to tarnish candidates who show support for the sector and are backed by its campaign resources, as at least one of Walkinshaw’s opponents sought to do.
Fairshake (and its affiliate super PACs, Defend American Jobs and Protect Progress) rose into prominence in the 2024 congressional elections as it amassed a huge war chest from major digital assets businesses, including Coinbase, Ripple and a16z. It devoted its campaign spending in outsized chunks that in some cases dwarfed what was spent by the opponents of the group’s chosen candidates. As a result, Fairshake added a long list of winners to the ranks of Congress’ crypto supporters in those elections, but it has continued its strategy in special elections as one-off contests seek to fill vacated seats such as Connolly’s.
In the case of Walkinshaw, Connolly’s former chief of staff, the spending came from Protect Progress, which focuses on Democrat candidates. While his former boss had voted routinely against crypto issues, Walkinshaw’s campaign site says the candidate favors an «embrace of the next generation of technology,» including blockchain, which the campaign said «can reduce administrative costs for businesses and lower fees for consumers.»
«Congress should establish modern, risk-based regulatory frameworks that support responsible innovation and prevent abuse,» according to Walkinshaw’s website.
The super PAC still has about $116 million on hand as the 2026 congressional election cycle approaches next year, Vlasto said. Current members of Congress it supported in the past round are already at work on major crypto bills that have been advancing this year.
Fairshake makes massive «independent expenditures» in political races, meaning their outside money buys advertising without approval or communication from the candidate. Though it represents crypto interests, the advertising purchased by the group almost never mentions the topic of digital assets, instead focusing on whatever political points are most likely to garner a win.
Read More: Crypto’s Fairshake Notches Latest Wins in Florida Congressional Races
Ripple officially introduced the XRP Ledger’s Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) sidechain to the mainnet in an bid to improve the ecosystem’s interoperability and allow developers to deploy their Ethereum-based decentralized applications (dapps) with the XRPL.
The development adds EVM-compatible smart contracts while maintaining a connection to the XRPL, giving developers access to the ecosystem at a low cost, Ripple said in a blog post. It is designed to eliminate the trade-off between EVM compatibility and XRPL’s own advantages, opening the door for dapps to lean into XRP’s payments infrastructure.
“The XRPL EVM Sidechain introduces a flexible environment for developers to deploy EVM-based applications, while maintaining a connection to the XRPL’s efficiency,” David Schwartz, Ripple’s chief technology officer and a co-creater of XRPL, said in the post. “It extends the capabilities of the ecosystem without changing the fundamentals that make the XRPL reliable.”
The sidechain operates as a separate blockchain that is parallel and connected to the XRP Ledger over the Axelar bridge, an interoperability protocol. XRPL’s native token, XRP (XRP), will serve as the native gas token for the sidechain.
The chain is designed specifically for developers, as they can now build and deploy their EVM-based applications, while accessing XRPL’s network of over 6 million wallet holders, Ripple said. The sidechain is planned to eventually also integrate with Wormhole, another interoperability protocol, allowing even more developers to access the XRP ecosystem.
Read more: Ripple Integrates Wormhole With XRP Ledger to Power Institutional Multichain Moves
Litecoin Slips Below $86 as Resistance Holds; Traders Watch Bitcoin Dominance
Industry’s PAC Keeps Seeking to Add Allies as Congress Hashes Out Crypto Legislation
XRPL EVM Sidechain Goes Live, Unlocking Ethereum Dapps in XRP Ecosystem
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