Market Overview
Three red days in a row. That's the trend. The total crypto market cap shed another $25.01B overnight, landing us at roughly $3.22T. It’s not a crash — don’t panic sell your cold storage yet — but the momentum has clearly stalled. Why?
Politics, mostly. The White House confirmed the US Bitcoin Reserve is still a priority, but then dropped the hammer: "complex interagency regulations" are causing delays. Markets hate delays. They want a straight line up. Combine that with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong having to play defense against rumors that the Trump administration is pulling support for crypto bills, and you get a market that's suddenly risk-averse.
Also, Steak 'n Shake bought $10M in Bitcoin. Yes, the burger joint. It’s a funny headline, but let’s be real: $10M is dust in a $3T market. It doesn't move the needle when whales are dumping.
Bitcoin & Majors
Bitcoin ($BTC) dipped 0.68%. Price action is choppy. We saw a whale wallet identified as "Kityara" dump 500 BTC ($48M) after holding for 12 years. That's pure profit-taking. When OGs sell, it usually spooks the tourists. On the flip side, Vanguard is buying MSTR, indirectly longing BTC. Institutional interest is there, but spot demand is weak right now.
Ethereum ($ETH) is doing... nothing. Up a microscopic 0.03%. Vitalik is proposing a "garbage collection" mechanism to reduce blockchain bloat. Great for tech scalability, boring for price action. Network transactions hit an ATH recently, yet the price refuses to react. Frustrating.
Solana ($SOL) took a hit, down 2.93%. The good news: Solana's RWA ecosystem hit $1 billion. The bad news? Spot Solana ETFs have seen net outflows for four consecutive days. Wall Street is voting with its feet, and right now, they're walking away.
Outliers
Not much green on the screen today. Capital is hiding.
- MYX Finance ($MYX): +6.29%. Bucking the trend. Likely speculative rotation into lower caps while majors bleed.
- UNUS SED LEO ($LEO): +1.79%. Exchange tokens often act as defensive plays during uncertainty. LEO is doing its job.
- XRP ($XRP): -2.62%. Binance data showed "unusual buying activity," yet the price tanked. This is a classic liquidity trap. Someone filled their bags while retail provided the exit liquidity.
Sentiment
My read: We are in a "prove it" phase. The political euphoria is wearing off, and now we need actual policy implementation.
The elephant in the room is the January 30 options expiry. There's $8.27B in contracts expiring. That's massive. Market makers are going to pin prices to inflict maximum pain until then. Don't expect a moonshot this week. Expect chop, fake-outs, and a lot of noise until that open interest clears. Cash is a position.
