Bitcoin | Crypto

Bitcoin opened the year trading like it usually does when macro uncertainty rises: it moved with the tide of rates, the dollar, and risk appetite, even as investors tried to pin a more specific narrative on top. However, this week the narrative shifted from “what will the central bank do?” to “can the central bank […] The post Bitcoin traders are bracing for a Fed “credibility shock” that hinges on one critical date this month appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin’s non-sovereign narrative is gaining attention as reports of a probe into US Fed Chair Jerome Powell raise concerns over political pressure and markets. Bitcoin’s role as a non-sovereign risk asset may benefit from renewed investor focus amid a criminal investigation into US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Federal prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into Powell over testimony he gave to a Senate committee about renovations to the Fed’s buildings. In a Sunday statement, Powell said the investigation is “a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President.” President Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked Powell and the Fed for refusing to grant his demands to cut interest rates. Read more

Bitcoin’s four-year cycle used to be a comfort blanket. Even people who claimed they didn’t believe in it still traded as they did. The halving would cut new supply, the market would spend months pretending nothing happened, then liquidity would show up, leverage would follow, retail would rediscover its password, and the chart would start […] The post Bitcoin is being hijacked by three “boring” institutional dials that are overpowering the halving’s supply shock appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin injected volatility as legal action against the Federal Reserve combined with market nerves over geopolitics at the start of a key week for inflation data. Bitcoin (BTC) bounces into a new week as volatility catalysts multiply worldwide. Bitcoin sees a trip above $92,000 after the weekly open, but traders are preparing for short opportunities.  Liquidity hunts are the name of the game when it comes to short-term BTC price action. Read more

Bitcoin power law analysis concluded that price may face a new battle around $65,000 if BTC spends 2026 as a year of consolidation. Bitcoin (BTC) faces a “do-or-die” price point if 2026 becomes a classic bear market year. Key points: Bitcoin four-year price cycles and bear markets remain relevant, the latest power law analysis says. Read more

Two years ago, Bitcoin gained something it had chased for a long time: a place in the tradfi default menu. Plenty of people could get exposure to Bitcoin in 2023, as anyone with an exchange account and a tolerance for operational risk could click “buy.” Yet most capital in the US moves through brokerages, retirement […] The post Bitcoin’s $25 billion legacy exodus secretly cemented Wall Street’s grip on liquidity within 2 years appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Jan3 founder Samson Mow’s predictions are among the more bullish outlooks compared with most recent forecasts from other crypto market participants. Jan3 founder Samson Mow anticipates billionaire investor and Tesla CEO Elon Musk will aggressively move into Bitcoin in 2026. It was one of five bold Bitcoin (BTC) predictions from Mow for 2026, coming off a year where several Bitcoin forecasts from prominent crypto executives missed the mark. “@elonmusk goes hard into BTC,” Mow said in an X post on Saturday. Read more

US President Donald Trump’s stance on Sam Bankman-Fried pardon, BitMine’s purchase in Ethereum shows continued confidence: Hodler’s Digest Nasdaq, CME Group join forces to launch Nasdaq-CME Crypto Index The Nasdaq Stock Exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group joined forces to unify their crypto indexes, rebranding the Nasdaq Crypto Index (NCI) as the Nasdaq CME Crypto Index. The NCI benchmark index includes Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, Solana, Chainlink, Cardano, and Avalanche, spokespersons for Nasdaq confirmed to Cointelegraph. Read more

The Bitcoin mining difficulty continued to push through to new all-time highs in 2025 amid a turbulent year for the mining industry. The Bitcoin (BTC) network mining difficulty, the relative computing challenge of adding a new block to the decentralized blockchain ledger, fell slightly to 146.4 trillion on Thursday, in the first difficulty adjustment of 2026.  “The next Bitcoin difficulty adjustment is estimated to take place on Jan 22, 2026, 04:08:12 AM UTC, increasing the Bitcoin mining difficulty from 146.47 T to 148.20 T,” according to CoinWarz.  Average block times are 9.88 minutes at the time of this writing, slightly below the 10-minute target, which means the next difficulty adjustment will increase slightly to align better with the target block time. Read more

Many in the Bitcoin community continue to speculate that cryptographer Hal Finney was Bitcoin's pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. The Bitcoin (BTC) community is celebrating the anniversary of cypherpunk and Bitcoin pioneer Hal Finney’s post on January 10, 2009, telling the world that he was running the Bitcoin node software “Running Bitcoin,” Finney said on X, formerly known as Twitter. Finney was the recipient of the first Bitcoin transaction on the network. He was born on May 4, 1956, and pursued a career in computer science and cryptography, and was one of the first people to respond to Satoshi Nakamoto’s publication of the Bitcoin whitepaper.  Read more

BlackRock is telling clients to stop looking at artificial intelligence as software and start treating it as energy. In its 2026 Global Outlook, the BlackRock Investment Institute argued that the AI buildout is pushing against physical limits and highlighted electricity as the constraint investors are underpricing. The report’s headline-grabber is its warning that AI-driven data […] The post BlackRock warns crypto’s love affair with AI is over as an energy war with Bitcoin miners begins appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin whales began repeating a classic bull signal as they took BTC long positions off the table after a year of declining overall market exposure. Bitcoin (BTC) whales are “aggressively” reducing long exposure as a classic bull signal reappears. Key points: Bitfinex whales are rotating out of BTC long positions — something that preceded major price gains in the past. Read more

A few years ago, the easiest way to explain Bitcoin to a newcomer was to keep it simple, slow, and sturdy. Ten-minute blocks. Limited space. Everyone checks everything. Nobody gets special treatment. That design is a feature. It is what makes Bitcoin feel like bedrock. It is also why every bull market ends up replaying […] The post Ethereum just solved a critical problem Bitcoin doesn’t want to fix on its own network – but why? appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin traders’ risk sentiment turned bullish, with the proof being in this week’s futures-led advance to $95,000. Will bulls make another attempt after retesting a key underlying support level? The start of 2026 saw Bitcoin and select altcoins rally back toward their weekly range highs, and the current situation across markets highlights improving investor sentiment and trading volumes. Since Jan. 1, Bitcoin continued to show improvement with tightening range consolidation clearly seen in its daily higher lows and higher highs, leading to the weekly high at $94,800. 7-day liquidation heatmap data from Hyblock shows long liquidation clusters between $89,000 to $87,000 and short positions sitting at the weekly range high near $95,000.  From a technical trader’s point of view, the start of year rally pulled the price above the 20-day moving average, which is currently converging with the 50-day moving average. After BTC failed to hold $95,000 and liquidate the short positions in that zone, it appears that some...

The first thing you learn when you spend too long around Bitcoin is that everyone has a chart that “always works”, and everyone has a scar from the last time it didn’t. This week’s chart is making the rounds again, it’s the one that tracks Bitfinex margin longs, and it’s flashing a familiar change in […] The post This Bitfinex whale “buy signal” is everywhere, but the real Bitcoin data suggests a much messier six weeks appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin steadied near $90,000 as ETF flows turned negative, altcoins continued a valuation reset and DeFi markets showed pockets of renewed activity. Cryptocurrency markets experienced a limited recovery this week as investor liquidity gradually returned after the holidays. Bitcoin (BTC) topped a weekly high of $94,458 on Monday, before declining to about $90,937 at the time of writing on Friday. US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) demand saw a sharp reversal after $1.1 billion in inflows on the first two trading days of the new year. The ETFs have since logged three consecutive days of outflows, with a cumulative $398 million sold on Thursday, according to Farside Investors data. Read more

The crypto market is flashing early signals of a first-quarter recovery as the dust finally settles on December’s sharp sell-off. According to a new analysis from Coinbase, four structural indicators suggest the correction was a temporary setback rather than a regime shift. Fresh inflows into spot ETFs, a drastic reduction in systemic leverage, improved order […] The post Shortest bear market ever? Key metrics imply Bitcoin price could surge past $125,000 before April appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Long-term Bitcoin holders sold nearly $300 billion worth of BTC in 2025, but as this sell pressure declines, a bullish outlook for 2026 has emerged. Bitcoin’s long-term holders (LTHs) went through one of the most aggressive distribution phases on record in 2025. While the scale of selling rattled the market, onchain data analysis suggests that this pressure may be fading, possibly outlining the next bullish period for BTC price. Key takeaways: Long-term holders distributed about $300 billion in BTC in 2025, marking a historic supply reset. Read more

Bitcoin traders avoided taking positions amid sideways BTC price action, while markets waited for a decision on US trade tariffs by the Supreme Court. Bitcoin (BTC) hovered at $90,000 around Friday’s Wall Street open as markets braced for US trade tariff news. Key points: Risk-asset traders await news over US trade tariffs, as bets see the Supreme Court striking down the measures. Read more

Bitcoin RSI flipped bullish on several timeframes, leading one trader to a $105,000 BTC price target within "three to four weeks." Bitcoin (BTC) can hit $105,000 within weeks as a classic leading indicator stays bullish, says the latest market analysis. Key points: Bitcoin is enjoying bullish RSI signals on multiple timeframes as price action consolidates. Read more