On January 20, 2026, Pierre Rochard, CEO of The Bitcoin Bond Company, submitted a comment letter asking the Federal Reserve to treat Bitcoin as an explicit variable in the 2026 supervisory stress tests. He cited BTC's 73.3% annualized volatility and deep drawdowns, and proposed calibrated price paths to reduce model divergence across banks.

Late Monday, a leverage flush sent Bitcoin down 9% to $87,000 and erased $360 million in longs. On Tuesday, crypto market value fell by $150 billion as BTC slipped below $88,000, while gold reached a record $4,874.21, up 2.3%. CoinGlass flagged $998.33 million in long liquidations over 24 hours.

Bitcoin fell below $90,000 as gold traded above $4,755/oz, with Michaël van de Poppe saying on January 19, 2026 that the BTC–gold RSI touched 30, a level last seen at the 2015, 2018 and 2022 lows. Charts highlight support at $88K–$90K and resistance at $100K–$101K, with daily RSI hovering in the mid-40s.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong unveiled a policy blueprint to expand tokenized access to capital markets, aiming at roughly 4 billion adults excluded from equities and bonds. On January 16, 2026, Coinbase began rolling out stock trading to select users, aligning with his "everything exchange" vision.

Bitcoin slipped below $95,000 after a pullback from near $98,000, while U.S. spot ETFs flipped from $1.3 billion in outflows to $1.7 billion in inflows. BlackRock's IBIT collected $1.035 billion during the January 12–16 trading week. Glassnode data indicates easing sell pressure and renewed accumulation despite price consolidation.

Wintermute's year-end 2025 analysis argues that crypto's historical four-year bull cycle has broken down, with ETF and digital asset treasury flows concentrating liquidity in Bitcoin and Ethereum instead of rotating into altcoins. The firm's trading and derivatives data shows shorter altcoin rallies, deepening institutional engagement, and a major October 10 deleveraging, while it highlights three potential catalysts that could broaden market participation in 2026.

Over the weekend, the report notes nearly $900 million in crypto liquidations as XRP dipped to fill a $1.97 CME 4H gap and retest its daily trend. On January 19, 2026, on-chain analyst KryptoMessi said this setup could fuel a decoupling move toward $3. Matt Hughes added that XRP/ETH rose above the two‑week Ichimoku Cloud for the first time since 2021.

Privacy-focused cryptocurrencies climbed 13% over the past week while broader crypto markets suffered nearly $1 billion in liquidations and major coins declined. Monero, Dash and DUSK led the move, with DUSK up 110.5% on the day and more than 354% over the week, pushing the sector’s market cap to $21.7 billion. Investors are rotating into censorship-resistant assets amid tightening KYC and AML rules, large-scale Tether wallet freezes and regulatory actions such as Dubai’s recent ban on privacy token trading.

Senate Judiciary leaders Chuck Grassley and Dick Durbin have warned that a developer exemption in Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott's crypto market structure bill could limit prosecutions for money laundering and other illicit finance tied to decentralized platforms. They argue the provision, modeled on the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, might have blocked charges in cases like Tornado Cash, while Republican backers and industry groups say protections are vital for thousands of open-source blockchain developers. The markup has been postponed after Coinbase withdrew support, as lawmakers and crypto firms continue to debate how to balance innovation with law enforcement authority.