Apparently, altcoins are now responsible for 50% of crypto trading volume, leaving Bitcoin and Ethereum in the dust at 27% and 23%, respectively. Traders are flocking to these higher-beta assets like moths to a flame, hoping for quicker returns. But let’s be honest, this isn’t exactly the hallmark of sound decision-making. 🚀
Through mid-December, the market cap waltzed downward with the grace of a deflating balloon animal, pirouetting from above $42 billion to a damp $36 billion. A tragedy in B-flat minor, surely. But lo! In early January, sentiment performed a 180-degree somersault worthy of a Soviet ice-dancing defector. Capital, freshly divorced from prudence, rushed back in like a teenager returning to TikTok after a 30-minute “digital detox.” The cap ballooned-again, the imagery is unavoidable-from $38 billion to a giddy peak near $48 billion, then, with a polite cough, settled at $44.69 billion. A modest nap, perhaps, but not a collapse. Progress!
The system, we are informed with the utmost gravity, operates upon a private and permissioned blockchain-because nothing says “revolution” like making innovation exclusive to the already wealthy and well-connected. 🙄 The bank’s conventional ledgers shall, of course, continue their dutiful march, recording all as they ever have, like a faithful governess who knows her place. Security? Assured. Flexibility? Promised. Excitement? Well… we shall see.
A regulatory breakthrough highlights growing confidence in compliant digital asset infrastructure as Ripple expands its U.K. strategy. Financial technology company Ripple announced on Jan. 9, 2026, that it has secured approval of its Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licence and Cryptoasset Registration from the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), enabling a significant expansion of Ripple Payments. 🚀
Tether, the issuer of USDT, completed its first major stablecoin issuance of the year, minting 1 billion USDT on the Tron network on Friday. The transaction was first flagged by on-chain tracking accounts, like Onchain Lens.
This shift is technically important because miners, those noble heroes of the blockchain, are essentially the market’s largest group of people who sell stuff for a living. If their margins don’t feel like a damp towel squeezed by a sadist, maybe the price won’t collapse into a black hole of despair. Coincidence? Probably not. Sarcasm? Absolutely.
Bitcoin shot up like a rocket, climbing more than $2,000 in under an hour and briefly flirting with $92,000. Ethereum followed with tidy gains near $3,120, while XRP wagged its tail above $2.10, keeping up its bragging rights among the big tokens. 🚀💰
In a recent chat with CNBC (because where else would you discuss the fate of the financial world?), Jeffrey reminded us that Bitcoin is still in its terrible twos. 🍼 Sure, it’s got a market cap of over $1.9 trillion, but let’s not forget that a third of it is hoarded by a tiny clique of wallets-roughly 2 million, give or take a few. 🤑 This, he explains, is why Bitcoin throws tantrums during market stress, like a toddler in a toy store when the sugar crash hits. 🍭💥
Ethereum ETFs are also joining the exodus, extending a two-day saga of net outflows, while some plucky altcoin ETFs seem to have found a silver lining amid the cloud of fleeing capital on January 8. What a drama! 🎭
