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23 Jan 2026, 09:00

Russia’s A7A5 Stablecoin Moved $100 Billion Before Global Crackdown: Elliptic

A little token that few people had heard of a year ago has become a big mover of money. Reports say the A7A5 stablecoin, launched as a rouble-linked coin, has processed the equivalent of $100 billion in transfers since it began moving at scale. Elliptic Finds Rapid Growth And Large Volumes According to analysis by Elliptic , A7A5 grew quickly after its launch and was used heavily for settlement between firms that could not rely on regular banks. The firm traced huge daily flows, with transaction totals rising into the billions and aggregate transfers passing major milestones. Origins And Backing A7A5 was set up in a way that tied it to rouble deposits and to a handful of private entities connected to Russia’s financial network. Reports say the project was linked to a payments group and to banking partners that have been under western scrutiny. Some of the people and firms behind the token were later sanctioned by authorities in the US and the UK. How The Money Moved Transactions were concentrated on a small number of exchanges and on on-chain routes that made cross-border transfers possible without the usual banking rails. In practice, the coin served as a bridge into other stablecoins and crypto markets. That routing let trade keep moving even when formal channels were closed to certain actors. A7A5 Stablecoin Role In Sanctions Evasion Claims Reports note that regulators and analysts view those flows as a tool that could help avoid sanctions. Regulators in several countries have taken action against linked platforms and individuals after patterns of transfers were uncovered. Some of the design choices around the token made monitoring harder for a time, and in a few cases tokens were reissued in new wallets to muddy traces. Market Reaction And The Wider Impact Markets noticed. The token’s market cap surged, and exchanges that handled it saw sharply higher volumes. Ordinary traders were not the main users; activity was often timed with business hours and weekdays, which suggested corporate or institutional flows rather than retail swaps. This type of pattern changed how people outside the region looked at crypto as a payments tool. Authorities responded by blacklisting some addresses and platforms and by stepping up enforcement against those named in the network. The moves show that a token can move a lot of value, but it can also draw regulatory heat and prompt countermeasures that affect every participant in the chain. Featured image from Pixabay, chart from TradingView

23 Jan 2026, 08:30

Gold Bugs Remain Bullish as Central Banks Hedge Against Uncertainty

Gold has become one of the hottest commodities this year, soaring in response to economic and geopolitical uncertainty. Predictions indicate its price could exceed $7,000 by the end of the year, as central banks continue to signal strong demand. Analyst: Gold to $7,150 in 2026, Central Banks Continue to Provide Strong Demand The precious metals’

23 Jan 2026, 07:42

Will Markets React When $1.8B Bitcoin Options Expire Today?

Around 21,700 Bitcoin options contracts will expire on Friday, Jan. 23, with a notional value of roughly $1.8 billion. This event is slightly smaller than last week’s, as derivatives trading remains sluggish. Crypto markets have lost around $200 billion since the start of the week, amid escalating trade wars, Japanese bond turmoil, and delays in US crypto legislation . Bitcoin Options Expiry This week’s batch of Bitcoin options contracts has a put/call ratio of 0.75, meaning that there are more expiring calls (longs) than puts (shorts). Max pain is around $92,000, according to Coinglass, which is above current spot prices, so many will be out of the money on expiry. Open interest (OI), or the value or number of Bitcoin options contracts yet to expire, remains highest at $100,000, which has $2 billion at this strike price on Deribit. There remains around $1.1 billion in OI at $85,000 and $90,000, as bearish bets mount. Total BTC options OI across all exchanges has been climbing since the beginning of the year and is at $36 billion. “Expiry positioning is tightly clustered around key strikes, keeping spot sensitive into the cut,” stated Deribit before adding : “Geopolitics and trade policy uncertainty remain the macro backdrop, supporting hedging demand and keeping volume reactive.” In addition to today’s batch of Bitcoin options, around 118,000 Ethereum contracts are also expiring, with a notional value of $346 million, max pain at $3,250, and a put/call ratio of 0.86. Total ETH options OI across all exchanges is around $8 billion. This brings the total notional value of crypto options expiries to around $2.1 billion. Spot Market Outlook Total market capitalization is down 1% on the day, as all gains made so far this year were wiped out in this red week. Bitcoin fell to an intraday low of $88,560 before recovering to reclaim $89,500 at the time of writing, but it failed to reach $90,000 over the past 24 hours, suggesting the sellers are strengthening. Ether prices are also bearish, with a fall below $3,000 and no attempts to reclaim the psychological level over the past 12 hours. It currently trades at $2,950. Altcoins were mostly in the red, shedding a further 2% to 3% on the day as fear and uncertainty persist. The post Will Markets React When $1.8B Bitcoin Options Expire Today? appeared first on CryptoPotato .

23 Jan 2026, 07:10

Binance’s CZ Says Buy Crypto And Retire in Few Years, as AI Would Make You Jobless

Amid rising fears that AI will trigger widespread job losses, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has positioned crypto as a long-term alternative to traditional work. The former Binance CEO stated that while AI will cut jobs, crypto ownership could remove the need for salaried work. Visit Website

23 Jan 2026, 06:54

Bitcoin and yen hold steady as Japan's inflation eases and BOJ keeps interest rates unchanged

The Bank of Japan held rates steady while revising inflation and growth projections higher.

23 Jan 2026, 06:00

Bitwise Says Crypto Has Likely Bottomed, Echoing Q1 2023 Setup

Bitwise Asset Management is arguing that crypto’s current drawdown has the fingerprints of a cyclical low: weak prices alongside strengthening on-chain and business fundamentals, a pattern the firm says last appeared in Q1 2023 before a multi-year rally. In its Q4 2025 “Crypto Market Review,” Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan frames the quarter as an unusually important inflection point precisely because the signals are not all moving in the same direction. “But sometimes—every once in a while—the charts are mixed,” Hougan wrote. “The last one I remember was Q1 2023. At the time, we were starting to rebound post-FTX, and the data was topsy-turvy; some up, some down, some sideways. In the two years that followed, crypto prices soared.” Bitwise’s core claim rests on a divergence between market performance and usage metrics in Q4. The firm notes that Ethereum fell 29% over the quarter, even as Ethereum and Layer 2 transactions “soared to new all-time highs (up 24.5%).” Crypto equities also sold off, down 20% in Q4 by Bitwise’s measure while the underlying companies’ revenues were “on pace to grow 3x faster than any other sector of the stock market,” according to the report. Related Reading: Crypto Boom Ahead? Pantera Capital Pinpoints Major Catalysts For 2026 Success The price tape was undeniably heavy. The Bitwise 10 Large Cap Crypto Index fell 26.29% in Q4 and finished 2025 down 10.64% year-to-date; Bitcoin was down 23.48% in Q4 (down 6.26% in 2025), while Ethereum fell 28.59% in Q4 (down 11.03% in 2025). Yet the report also shows the market retaining scale: total crypto market capitalization stood at roughly $2.78 trillion as of Dec. 31, with bitcoin representing 63.6% and ether about 12.9%. Where Bitwise sees “green shoots” is in rails and revenue. The executive summary argues that “both stablecoin AUM and stablecoin transaction activity soared to new all-time highs,” presenting that as evidence a durable adoption wave is underway. Four Crypto Catalysts Bitwise Is Watching In 2026 Bitwise argues the market’s next leg will be shaped less by narrative rotation and more by identifiable catalysts, starting with US market-structure legislation. “All eyes are on the CLARITY Act,” the report says, describing it as a Senate-moving bill that could provide a “strong regulatory foundation” but also carries the risk of a weaker outcome or no bill at all. Related Reading: Trump Media Set to Issue Non-Transferable Crypto Tokens, Cutoff Date February 2 The second catalyst is what the firm calls a “stablecoin supercycle,” positioning stablecoins as payment infrastructure that is increasingly decoupled from directional crypto beta. Bitwise writes that 2025 annual stablecoin transaction volume topped $32 trillion, up 73% year-over-year, “more than doubling Visa’s volume through the first nine months of the year,” and says that data “confirm[s] their arrival in the mainstream.” The third is macro, specifically the coming change at the Federal Reserve. Bitwise notes Chair Jerome Powell’s “looming departure in May,” giving President Trump an opportunity to appoint new leadership. Between named candidates Kevin Warsh and Kevin Hassett, Bitwise says Hassett is viewed as the more dovish on rates and fiscal policy, adding that a dovish appointment would increase the likelihood of rate cuts and “should drive crypto assets higher.” The fourth is plumbing: distribution at major US wealth platforms. Bitwise points to “initial wirehouse ETF flows” following Q4 approvals, writing that financial advisors at three of the four major wirehouses gained access to crypto ETFs in Q4 after previously being barred from recommending exposure. Those advisors “control ~$16 trillion in assets,” and Bitwise expects early flows to start slowly in Q1 before accelerating. Hougan stops short of calling any single variable decisive, but ties the bottom thesis to whether the underlying data keeps improving. He wrote he was drafting the memo on Jan. 16 after crypto had already begun posting strong early-year returns and added: “If the fundamental data in this report stays steady, I think that trend could continue.” At press time, the total crypto market cap stood at $3.00 trillion. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com