On January 18, 2026, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson publicly criticized Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse for supporting the U.S. CLARITY Act, highlighting deep divisions within the crypto industry over the bill. Garlinghouse had praised the legislation in a January 14 post, while Hoskinson and other executives, including Coinbase's Brian Armstrong, warned it would expand SEC power and restrict tokenized assets and stablecoin rewards.

Bitcoin reversed late on Sunday, January 18, and was trading at $93,013 by Monday, January 19. Finbold's machine learning models run on January 19, after assessing six indicators, project a 1.6% rise to $94,500 by January 31, 2026, with individual outputs spanning $92,500 to $97,501.

Late on Sunday, January 18, the crypto market reversed sharply, erasing roughly $100 billion in about 12 hours by press time on January 19. Total capitalization fell from near $3.2 trillion to around $3.09 trillion, then partially rebounded to $3.1 trillion. Bitcoin dropped 3% to $92,762, while Ethereum fell 4.16% and XRP declined 4%.

On January 14, 2026, Stellar (XLM) gained 8.99% in 24 hours to trade at $0.244, while XRP slipped 0.71% to $2.15 after recently reaching a yearly peak above $2.41. XLM's move followed Bitcoin's rise above $95,000 and earlier January news of Visa integrating the Stellar network, though the token remains below its 2026 high of $0.28 and significantly lower on six- and twelve-month timeframes.

Silver hit a new all-time high at $84, and on January 11, 2026, Robert Kiyosaki wrote on X that he would buy the metal up to $100 before pausing to wait and see. He still views $80 as a buying level while urging caution at the $100 mark. Bloomberg's Mike McGlone likewise projects a move to $100 and then a retrace toward $50 during 2026.

At the very start of 2026, XRP surged about 30% before sliding 7.48% in 24 hours, prompting a fresh look at its short-term outlook. Based on this backdrop, ChatGPT outlined a base-case scenario with XRP at $2.15 on January 31, 2026, slightly above the current $2.08 level. Over a longer horizon for 2026, the model suggested the token could climb to roughly $5 if recent positive momentum and supportive factors persist.

A Polymarket profile labeled 0x8dxd launched a trading bot in December 2025 with $313 to place directional bets on major cryptocurrencies. By January 6, the bot had posted an approximately 98% win rate and about $437,600 in profit, lifting the bankroll to roughly $438,000, according to Polymarket's interface.

With BTC near $89,260 at press time, on-chain analyst Ali Martinez said on January 1 he spotted a "death cross" using the 10- and 50-day SMAs and, in a January 2, 2026 post, warned it has preceded 53%–67% drops. He sees a correction toward $38,000–$50,000. Bloomberg's Mike McGlone also expects a move toward $50,000 in 2026.

On January 1, 2026, Bloomberg Senior Commodity Strategist Mike McGlone outlined a base-case scenario of heightened market stress, comparing Donald Trump’s presidential timing to Herbert Hoover’s and calling for a third down year for U.S. stocks since 2008. He argued that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies likely topped out, seeing a move to $50,000 as more probable than a surge above $100,000, while also expecting gold’s 2025 outperformance to fade and U.S. T-bonds to take over as the main source of alpha.