January 3rd, Fidelity stated in its "2026 Crypto Market Outlook" that investors considering entering the market for short-term gains may need to exercise caution, but it may not be too late for investors with a long-term view.Chris Kuiper, Vice President of Digital Assets Research at Fidelity, stated: "Fidelity's Digital Assets division believes that based on game theory principles, more countries may buy Bitcoin in the future. If more countries incorporate Bitcoin into their foreign exchange reserves, other countries may face increased follow-up pressure as they may feel competitive pressures. From a simple supply and demand economic perspective, any additional demand for Bitcoin could potentially drive up prices. However, the key is the scale of incremental demand and whether other investors are selling or holding."Corporate purchases of crypto assets have increased market demand, helping to boost asset prices. However, investors also need to be aware of related risks. Kuiper cautioned: "If these companies choose or are forced to sell some digital assets, such as when a bear market arrives, this could certainly put downward pressure on the price of Bitcoin or other digital assets."Kuiper believes that the four-year cycle has not completely disappeared because the fear and greed emotions that drive the cycle have not dissipated. The current price drop may be the starting point of a new bear market or it may just be a pullback in the bull market. Whether predictions about the cycle will come true remains to be seen, perhaps not until later in 2026.Kuiper stated that although cryptocurrency still faces many uncertainties, one thing has become increasingly clear: the crypto market is entering a new paradigm. "We continue to see a whole new type and level of investors entering the scene, and I believe this trend will continue in 2026. Traditional fund managers and investors have started buying digital assets such as Bitcoin, but I believe the scale of capital they may bring to this space, we are just scratching the surface at the moment."

January 2nd, Coinbase Investment Research Director David Duong stated in Coinbase's "2026 Market Outlook Report":The US economy continues to show resilience, with rising labor productivity helping to cushion the impact of slowing economic growth. Therefore, Coinbase believes that the crypto market landscape in the first half of 2026 is more akin to "1996" rather than "1999" (meaning, they are optimistic about the coming year), but they also acknowledge significant market uncertainty.A clearer global framework will continue to change institutions' approaches to strategy, risk, and compliance in 2026. DeFi expanded its buyer base in 2025 but has recently seen valuation-driven consolidation. A "DeFi 2.0" model is expected in 2026, with future iterations focusing not just on simple asset accumulation but on professional trading, storage, and acquisition in the sovereign block space, considering the block space as a key digital economy commodity.As regulations clarify, token holders' economic interests will be tied to platform usage, and protocols are evolving toward value capture mechanisms, including fee sharing, buybacks, and mechanisms like "buy-and-burn." Coinbase sees this as a sign of an emerging shift from purely narrative-driven test modes to durable, revenue-coupled models.It is expected that technologies like Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP) and Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) will continue to evolve, and with the widespread application of crypto infrastructure, the use of on-chain privacy will also significantly increase.The projected market trading volume for 2026 is expected to further expand as changes in US tax policy may drive users toward these derivatives-based markets. While market fragmentation may pose risks, Coinbase believes that predictive market aggregators are likely to become a dominant interface layer, with weekly trading volumes potentially reaching into the billions of dollars.By the end of 2028, the total market capitalization of stablecoins is expected to reach around $1.2 trillion. More new application scenarios are expected to emerge in areas such as cross-border transaction settlement, remittances, and payroll platforms.

January 2nd, BlackRock pointed out in its "2026 Global Market Outlook" that stablecoins will challenge national governments' control over fiat currency. With the increasing adoption of stablecoins, there is a risk of shrinking the use of emerging market national currencies. Shortly before this forecast was released, Standard Chartered Bank in the UK warned in October that the widespread adoption of stablecoins could lead to the loss of over $1 trillion in deposits from emerging market bank accounts.Similar challenges also exist in the US banking industry. The milestone stablecoin law known as the "Innovation Act," which took effect in July of this year, allows crypto companies to offer banking services that traditional banks are prohibited from providing, posing a threat to traditional financial institutions. Samara Cohen, BlackRock's Global Head of Market Development, stated: "Stablecoins are no longer a niche product; they are becoming a bridge between traditional finance and digital liquidity."

January 2nd, according to a report jointly released on Friday by Coingecko and Tiger Research, due to local regulatory restrictions in South Korea, the scale of funds transferred by the country's investors from domestic cryptocurrency exchanges to overseas platforms exceeded 160 trillion Korean won (approximately $110 billion) last year. South Korea, as one of the most active digital asset markets in Asia, has a relatively lagging regulatory framework.Last December, the much-anticipated "Digital Assets Basic Law" (DABA) was postponed due to regulatory agency disagreements on stablecoin issuance issues. This foundational law aimed at comprehensively regulating cryptocurrency trading and issuance has not yet been enacted. The "Virtual Asset User Protection Law," set to take effect in 2024, does not address market structural issues such as leverage trading or derivatives trading.Regulatory gaps have raised concerns among market participants, who worry that South Korea's centralized cryptocurrency exchanges are increasingly struggling to compete with overseas platforms offering more sophisticated trading products. South Korean news agency Aju Press noted in a report in November: "The number of South Korean investors holding large accounts on overseas cryptocurrency exchanges has more than doubled in a year, reflecting both the global market's recovery and highlighting investors' growing dissatisfaction with South Korea's restrictive trading environment."The research found that cryptocurrency has become a major investment asset in South Korea, with the number of investors reaching 10 million, and the revenue of exchanges such as Upbit and Bithumb reaching tens of trillions of Korean won. However, the report shows that despite South Korean investors actively trading cryptocurrency and increasingly turning to overseas platforms like Binance and Bybit, the growth of domestic exchanges has stagnated.

January 2nd, according to Coinglass data, if Bitcoin breaks through $91,000, the mainstream CEX's total short liquidation intensity will reach $806 million.Conversely, if Bitcoin falls below $88,000, the mainstream CEX's total long liquidation intensity will also reach $806 million.BlockBeats Note: The liquidation chart does not show the exact number of contracts to be liquidated or the exact value of liquidated contracts. The bars on the liquidation chart actually show the importance of each liquidation cluster relative to neighboring liquidation clusters, i.e., intensity.Therefore, the liquidation chart shows to what extent reaching a certain price level will be impacted. A higher "liquidation bar" indicates that the price, when reached, will experience a more intense reaction due to a liquidity cascade.

January 2, according to HTX market data, Ethereum rose by about 2.9% after the U.S. stock market opened, breaking through $3,100 at one point, reaching a high of $3,109, and is now trading at $3,085.

January 2nd, according to HTX market data, the Bitcoin price saw a significant increase in volatility after the US stock market opened. After dipping to $88,459 and rising over 1.8%, breaking through $90,000, the current price is $90,054.

January 2nd, according to market data, the spot silver price fell by over $1 in the short term, now trading at $73.24 per ounce, with an intraday gain narrowed to 2.4%. The spot gold price fell by over $20 in the short term, now trading at $4348.42 per ounce, with a daily gain narrowed to 0.7%. (IG)

January 2nd, Trust Wallet posted on social media that the browser extension is now back on the Chrome Web Store. In addition, version 2.71.0 is now released, which includes customer service CAPTCHA support to assist with the claims process.

January 2nd, according to market data, on the first trading day of 2026, the U.S. stock market opened with the Dow rising by 0.18%, the S&P 500 rising by 0.54%, and the Nasdaq rising by over 1%. Cryptocurrency-related stocks saw a general increase, including:Coinbase (COIN) up 1.65%Circle (CRCL) up 1.88%MicroStrategy (MSTR) up 1.22%Bullish (BLSH) up 1.43%Gemini (GEMI) up 1.81%Bitmine (BMNR) up 3.35%SharpLink Gaming (SBET) up 2.13%Bit Digital (BTBT) up 2.91%ETHZilla (ETHZ) up 2.86%ALT5 Sigma (ALTS) up 2.73%American Bitcoin (ABTC) up 2.65%

January 2nd, according to community information, ElizaOS founder Shaw recently returned, causing the related token elizaos to see its market cap rise to around $40 million.Meanwhile, Shaw's personally issued token $FARM2 has also attracted market attention. The FARM2 community has officially announced via their Twitter account the development of the FARM2 metaverse, integrating social, gaming, office, entertainment, and virtual reality experiences into one metaverse world.After the original team announced the project's reboot, $FARM2's market cap rose to around $100,000. Shaw has publicly stated his intention to assist in the development work of the FARM2 project in subsequent stages.

January 2nd, according to HTX market data, possibly influenced by the strong rebound of PEPE, the veteran Meme coins saw a general rise, including:· PEPE rose by 37% in the past 24 hours, now priced at $0.00000569· NEIRO rose by 23.69% in the past 24 hours, now priced at $0.00013· FLOKI rose by 18.77% in the past 24 hours, now priced at $0.000047· PENGU rose by 16.41% in the past 24 hours, now priced at $0.01· BONK rose by 15.9% in the past 24 hours, now priced at $0.00000883· PNUT rose by 14% in the past 24 hours, now priced at $0.08· BOME rose by 12.64% in the past 24 hours, now priced at $0.000623

January 2nd, according to on-chain analyst Ai Auntie (@ai_9684xtpa), a certain whale address has been continuously increasing its ETH short position, which has grown 10 times to 21,820.69 ETH, worth $66.51 million. The entry price is $3,016, and the current unrealized loss is $719,000.

January 2nd, according to Hyperinsight monitoring, the hot whale redistribution trends from 10:00 to 20:00 today are as follows:Long Position Camp:A whale/institution that previously bought high and sold low in November, losing $13.73 million in ETH in a week, spent $9.95 million today to buy 2,251 XAUt (Gold Token) at an average price of $4,420.「Brother Whale」 Huang Licheng reduced his 25x leveraged ETH long position to 8,000 coins to take profit, and added a 10x leveraged long position for 11,888.88 HYPE.Short Position Camp:A whale who borrowed 5,000 ETH for short selling a month ago closed his position after ETH reached $3,000, making a profit of about $390,000 from this short sale.A whale (0x218) increased their ETH short position to 18,875.18 coins, worth $57.32 million.「Meme Short Army Leader」 LIT increased their short position to 3,813,196 coins, now the largest on-chain LIT short position.

January 2nd, according to Coinglass data, today, after some altcoins saw a price increase, the current mainstream CEX and DEX funding rates show a recovery in the altcoin market. Some platform altcoin trading pairs have returned to neutral rates. However, as Bitcoin approaches the $90,000 resistance again, the market is starting to turn bearish. Currently, it has not entered into negative funding rate territory. This is in contrast to the situation during the previous market slump (BTC and ETH neutral rates, altcoins universally negative rates). The specific mainstream coin funding rates are shown in the attached image.BlockBeats Note: Funding rates are rates set by cryptocurrency trading platforms to maintain the balance between the contract price and the underlying asset price, usually applicable to perpetual contracts. It is a mechanism for fund exchanges between long and short traders. The trading platform does not charge this fee but uses it to adjust the cost or profit of traders holding contracts to keep the contract price close to the underlying asset price.When the funding rate is 0.01%, it represents the baseline rate. When the funding rate is above 0.01%, it indicates a generally bullish market. When the funding rate is below 0.005%, it indicates a generally bearish market.