hodler

21 Jan 2026, 13:04

XRP Upside Scenarios if Ripple Becomes Threat to Major Banks

Ripple's expansion through acquisitions and regulatory progress has changed how most XRP community members see the company. Instead of seeing Ripple as only a blockchain payments firm, several commentators now call it an emerging competitor to traditional banks, especially in treasury services, cross-border payments, and custody. Visit Website

21 Jan 2026, 13:00

Bitcoin’s $60K crash incoming? One KEY indicator says – Not so fast!

Trade tensions and yields: A key Bitcoin signal.

21 Jan 2026, 13:00

Pundit Clarifies XRP Roadmap To $10: How Price Will Play Out In 2026

Although the XRP price has remained in a downtrend and largely range-bound since falling below its 2025 peak, a crypto analyst believes it could still surge to $10 in 2026. The analyst has shared a detailed roadmap supporting this bullish outlook, outlining how XRP’s price could play out this year and the key factors that could influence its movements. A Roadmap To XRP $10 Price Surge In a YouTube video released on January 20, crypto market analyst Zach Rector laid out his honest expectations for XRP’s outlook in 2026, offering insights into how it could get to $10 and the catalysts that could fuel this rally. According to the analyst, the XRP market is currently dominated by Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD), along with signs of capitulation, which have pushed the price down and negatively impacted the sentiment and confidence of newer investors. Related Reading: Is Dogecoin About To Repeat NVIDIA’s Run? Here’s What The Chart Says Rector revealed that long-term XRP holders are also becoming increasingly frustrated with the prolonged downtrend, with many wishing they had taken profits during last year’s rally, particularly when XRP rose to a peak around $3.6. He added that there has also been discontent and negative sentiment regarding XRP’s slow adoption, delay in industry regulation, and more. However, from both a technical and investment standpoint, the analyst said he remains excited and optimistic about XRP’s price prospects in 2026. He explained that the market is already entering a renewed liquidity cycle, a shift that typically leads to an expansion in the broader business cycle. According to him, this stage has always correlated with powerful bull runs during an altcoin season. Rector mentioned that although many investors and analysts expected an altcoin season in 2025, it never came. He believes that market conditions could still align for an altcoin season this year, with XRP positioned for significant gains during that period. He further acknowledged that he does not expect XRP to skyrocket to $50 or $100 in 2026, calling those price targets highly ambitious. For his more realistic projection, Rector said he believes XRP could rise to between $5 and $10 in 2026. He noted that a significant sell wall exists around this range, as many investors are likely to take profits amid potential price volatility. Despite this, the analyst said that XRP still brings a strong ROI opportunity for investors. He pointed to factors that could drive the market, including US interest rate cuts, the implementation of the CLARITY Act, and billions of dollars expected from the Fed’s QE programs. XRP Could Double ROI Faster Than Gold And Silver In his video, Rector compared XRP’s long-term profitability potential to that of gold and silver. He noted that both precious metals performed exceptionally during this cycle, reaching new all-time highs. Silver, in particular, exceeded expectations, breaking past $95 in the last 24 hours after experiencing a years-long downtrend. Related Reading: Shiba Inu Whales Are On The Move Again, 361 Billion SHIB Stuns Community Rector believes that the chances of silver doubling to $200 or gold reaching $9,000-$10,000 per ounce this year are low. However, he says XRP has much stronger upside potential, forecasting a surge to $4 and beyond. If this happens, long-term investors who bought at or below $2 could effectively double their ROI. Featured image created with Dall.E, chart from Tradingview.com

21 Jan 2026, 12:56

MEXC and Ether.Fi Unveil Crypto Card With 4% Cashback and Launch Perks

MEXC , a leading cryptocurrency exchange, has recently announced the launch of a crypto card that combines digital asset rewards with everyday spending. The card is a joint effort between MEXC and a staking service Ether.Fi. The new crypto card is rolling out amid stricter regulations, such as Europe’s MiCA, which have increased scrutiny of crypto transactions and taxes. The limited-time campaign runs from January 15 to February 15, 2026, offering incentives such as 4% cashback on purchases and a $15 airdrop for early adopters. This Ether.Fi card comes at a pivotal moment, providing a privacy-conscious yet compliant way for users to spend crypto in daily life. Post-MiCA Boom: Crypto Cards Gain Momentum In the wake of the MiCA crypto regulations in Europe and other regions tightening crypto oversight, users are looking for tools that let them spend crypto directly while staying compliant. New tax reporting rules mean many crypto holders now seek alternatives that provide more control and discretion. A crypto cashback card fits this niche by bridging on-chain assets with real-world commerce. Users can pay for goods and services with crypto-backed funds without liquidating their holdings first, which is especially appealing under stricter tax regimes. This approach empowers people to use their crypto earnings for everyday expenses in a regulated yet privacy-respecting manner. Key Card Incentives The co-branded MEXC × Ether.Fi card comes with several enticing benefits. Foremost is the 4% instant cashback on every purchase, allowing cardholders to earn crypto rewards on routine spending. Additionally, new users who join during the launch period can claim a $15 USDT airdrop after completing a qualifying deposit and card application. Beyond these upfront perks, the card integrates with Ether.Fi’s platform to offer up to 10% APY on certain digital assets held in the connected account. As an added promotion, throughout January, the card provides elevated 10%-15% cashback on food and dining purchases. Visit MEXC Campaign Details: Unlocking Rewards New users can unlock the crypto credit card rewards by completing a few steps during the campaign. First, register on MEXC and pass KYC verification. Next, make a net deposit of at least 100 USDT into the account. After depositing $100+ and applying for the MEXC crypto card, users qualify for a 15 USDT airdrop bonus. The campaign runs from January 15 to February 15, 2026, with rewards credited shortly after it ends. Referral Program Incentives MEXC’s card launch includes crypto card referral rewards to encourage community growth. For each friend a user invites who meets the deposit requirement and gets the card, the referrer earns 10 USDT as a reward. There is no cap on how many referral bonuses one can collect, so avid community members can earn $10 repeatedly for every new user they bring in. On top of that, referrers also get an extra 1% cashback on all purchases their referees make with the card. This means if you refer someone and they start spending with the card, you receive 1% of their spending as a passive bonus. The referral mechanics scale without limit, making it attractive for influencers and affiliates to promote the MEXC crypto card and earn ongoing crypto card referral rewards. Travel, Luxury, and Everyday Spending A major selling point of the MEXC × Ether.Fi card is its real-world usability across travel, luxury, and everyday spending. Powered by the Visa network, the card is accepted at over 100 million merchants and ATMs worldwide wherever Visa is supported. It also integrates seamlessly with mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay, allowing users to tap and pay with ease. Travel-focused users will benefit from perks such as discounts of up to 65% on luxury hotels, along with a consistent 5% cashback on hotel bookings made through affiliated programs. Beyond travel, everyday purchases like dining, ride-hailing, groceries, and online shopping earn the standard 4% crypto cashback. These rewards effectively turn routine expenses into opportunities to accumulate crypto. Privacy, Compliance, and Where It’s Available While the card emphasizes convenience and privacy, it also operates within regulatory frameworks. Users must complete identity verification through MEXC and Ether.Fi’s onboarding process, ensuring compliance with anti-fraud and regulatory requirements. Availability depends on regional regulations. The card is accessible in many countries across Europe, Asia, Latin America, and select parts of North America, but certain jurisdictions remain excluded. Residents of restricted regions, including China, India, and some U.S. states, are not eligible to apply. Who Benefits From This Card? The card is designed for several types of crypto users. Active traders can access their crypto liquidity for everyday spending without fully cashing out or interrupting their broader trading strategies. Assets can remain invested or staked while still being usable for payments. Yield-focused users benefit from the card’s integration with staking and interest-bearing accounts, effectively combining spending functionality with portfolio growth. Meanwhile, privacy-conscious users navigating tighter tax and reporting rules may appreciate the card’s structure, which allows crypto-backed spending within a compliant framework rather than relying on frequent bank withdrawals. MEXC Broadens Crypto Utility Beyond Trading This co-branded card launch signals MEXC’s strategic move to expand beyond just being a trading exchange and into a broader crypto lifestyle arena. By collaborating with Ether.Fi and leveraging DeFi yields and on-chain custody, MEXC is positioning itself at the forefront of crypto’s push into everyday payments. As mainstream regulations like MiCA reshape the crypto environment, MEXC’s initiative shows a forward-looking commitment to making crypto as intuitive to spend as it is to hodl or trade. In summary, the MEXC crypto card is a step toward normalizing crypto in daily life, giving users a secure, rewarding, and practical way to use their digital assets under real-world conditions. Visit MEXC The post MEXC and Ether.Fi Unveil Crypto Card With 4% Cashback and Launch Perks appeared first on Cryptonews .

21 Jan 2026, 12:56

Hut 8 Corp.: A Great Crypto And Tech Blend

Summary Hut 8 Corp. is a buy, offering diversified exposure across Bitcoin mining, energy assets, and AI-ready digital infrastructure. HUT’s Bitcoin holdings reached 13,696 BTC ($1.6B), with a strategic focus on accumulation over liquidation, enhancing balance sheet strength and crypto leverage. The company’s pivot into power and digital infrastructure, including a $7B, 15-year Anthropic deal, positions HUT for substantial future AI-driven revenue. Despite a high price-to-sales ratio, HUT’s forward valuation is justified by long-term contracts and reduced correlation to Bitcoin volatility. Hut 8 Corp. ( HUT ) is a technology and energy infrastructure company that has rapidly transformed from one of North America’s largest Bitcoin miners into a diversified digital infrastructure platform. Originally focused on deploying specialized hardware to secure the Bitcoin blockchain and generate cryptocurrency rewards, Hut 8 has since expanded its operations to include energy asset development, large-scale data center hosting, and compute services for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence ((AI)) workloads. At its core, HUT operates a vertically integrated model that combines power generation, digital infrastructure, and compute solutions. Its energy segment acquires and develops high-capacity power assets capable of supporting energy-intensive operations such as crypto mining and AI data centers. The digital infrastructure arm offers colocation and cloud services, while the compute segment continues to include Bitcoin mining and GPU-as-a-Service for machine learning and AI applications. HUT was originally a pure-play bitcoin mining investment and has strategically shifted with a focus on the broader technology and crypto worlds. I think that this shift has slowly resulted in greater investor confidence in the company, and I have HUT as a buy. The stock is up 116% in the last year but is still off of its high in the fall of 2021. HUT has rallied even higher on the largest part of its business in bitcoin holdings while making strong improvements in its AI and power-related segments as well. Recent long-term agreements and a fair valuation will lead this stock higher moving forward. Bitcoin Value As one of the larger bitcoin miners, this used to be almost the entirety of their business. Still a very crucial role for HUT, the mining has ramped up with a reported 13,696 BTC worth roughly $1.6 billion at the end of Q3 2025. This was up over 50% from last year as the company continues to accumulate coins through mining and selective holding rather than selling down inventory. A lot of miners would utilize BTC for shorter-term liquidity, whereas HUT does the opposite, retaining its holdings with hopes of continued price appreciation over time. They prefer to use this as an asset on the balance sheet and even a hedge on inflation. Seeking Alpha TradingView I think investors are realizing the long-term outlook HUT has taken, seeing the stock as leveraged exposure to crypto along with its growing tech segments as well. HUT began trading in 2019, and through the first several years, saw drastic price changes as BTC price moved. A few examples include HUT dropping 65% in early 2021, while BTC fell less than 50%. Later that year, BTC rallied up 2x in a few months span, while HUT gained 4x in the same period. You can see the more extensive highs and lows early in the charts above. Looking ahead to the last few years, you can see the correlation between the two is still there, but clearly not linked as tightly. This happened as HUT has gained its footing in its other segments of business outside of just mining. The recent 32% drop in BTC in Q4 2025 was followed by a 38% fall from HUT, a much narrower gap than history tells. What’s most interesting is that if you look at any steep price gains for HUT over time, they all come from periods where BTC is also gaining. The last month tells a different story, as for the first time BTC is up a meager 3% YTD, while HUT has risen 29% in 2026. Their current and forward-looking growth in their other segments is emerging as a future driver of success. Power & Digital Infrastructure These two segments really weren’t a significant part of the business for HUT until 2023. Since then, revenue for each has fluctuated but has still seen phenomenal growth with even greater expectations. Q3 2025 ended with $8.4 million in revenue from their Power segment and $5.1 million from their Digital Infrastructure segment. Power was down $19.7 million YoY due to the termination of an agreement with Ionic Digital. Digital Infrastructure was up $1.2 million YoY, mainly from a new agreement with BITMAIN. These results have been volatile, but they were basically at no revenue here just three years ago. Their power segment provides end-to-end development and operational services. The $19.7 million drop wasn’t operational, as their four key natural gas-fired power plants in Ontario all saw higher output and demand again last quarter, gaining $1.9 million in sales YoY. While they lost a large agreement, they gained a big one with American Bitcoin of 325 MW, now seeing a total of 1,255 MW of Energy Capacity Under Exclusivity. That’s 85% of energy capacity backed by agreements, which leaves me less concerned about the YoY sales drop in this growing segment. To cap off 2025, HUT signed a 15-year, $7 billion contract with Anthropic to supply 245 MW of data center capacity to a campus in Louisiana. Under certain contingencies, the deal can lead to 2.3 GW of power and $17.7 billion in value. This is the first huge AI infrastructure deal for HUT and can be a pivotal stepping stone moving forward to gain attention from other AI infrastructure entities. Revenue from the deal is not expected to hit the books until early 2027 and will be kept under their Digital Infrastructure segment. These two segments were almost nothing just three years ago. HUT has made several important decisions and additions to this side of their portfolio that will bolster sales allocation for the foreseeable future. Valuation WSJ HUT has a trailing P/E ratio of 31.84, right in line with the sector median. This is on the slightly upper side of the last two years, but not terrible. A price-to-sales ratio of 39x is extremely elevated. Forward P/E is also much higher for HUT, but I think this premium is due to the expected revenue from long-term and large AI data center deals, like the recently finalized Anthropic deal, that won’t materialize for another year or so. The risk here is if Bitcoin profits take a nosedive, which they always could in the volatile crypto industry. For me. I wouldn’t worry about a large BTC drop, as we’ve already seen that has affected HUT less and less over time. I think the stock is close to fairly valued, being slightly raised from the recent large appreciation. Conclusion Hut 8 stands at a unique intersection of cryptocurrency, energy, and next-generation AI infrastructure, offering investors exposure to multiple high-growth markets in a single stock. Its Bitcoin mining operations continue to generate substantial revenue and gross margins, providing both cash flow and optionality from appreciating digital assets. At the same time, the company’s strategic pivot into AI-ready data infrastructures is highlighted by its multi-billion-dollar partnership with Anthropic. This company has adapted well to evolving times in the tech space. Buy this stock, as the already seen appreciation is going to continue for HUT.

21 Jan 2026, 12:55

Bitcoin Teeters at $88K as Bulls and Bears Lock Horns in a Volatile Showdown

Bitcoin, the digital darling of financial disruption, clocked in at a price of $88,199 on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. The crypto asset’s market cap stood at a formidable $1.77 trillion, backed by a 24-hour trading volume of $58.07 billion. With an intraday range stretching from $87,777 to a high-flying $91,201, bitcoin flirted with both danger