By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless otherwise noted)
They said bitcoin has a dual appeal: first, as a gold-like digital token with a limited supply of 21 million, and second, as a decentralized technology that allows anyone to move money transparently without intermediaries.
Right now, it does not hold up as both a store of value and a payment infrastructure. Bitcoin’s underperformance relative to gold, silver and other precious metals is well documented.
Equally disappointing is the slowdown in onchain activity to levels last seen in mid-2025. For example, the 30-day average of daily confirmed payments processed on the Bitcoin blockchain has fallen to 748,368, the lowest since mid-July, according to data source Blockchain.com. The figure peaked at over 884,000 in September. A payment means that the recipient(s) receive money via an on-chain transaction.
The monthly average of the number of confirmed transactions shows a corresponding decrease in network usage. The mempool, or “memory pool,” where unconfirmed transactions wait for miners to confirm them, has also dried up. It’s stuck at just a few thousand unverified transactions per day, a trend that has dragged on since the end of 2025.
“On-chain signals point to a market in consolidation rather than accumulation. Network activity has softened. The reduced institutional and retail conviction can be seen in lower active addresses and muted transaction volumes,” Vikram Subburaj, chief executive of the India-based Giottus exchange, said in an email.
A token’s price is tied to the active user adoption of its parent network, and the recent drop in activity at least partially explains BTC’s lackluster price performance in recent months.
Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has fallen back to $87,500 after hitting highs above $90,000 ahead of Wednesday’s Fed meeting. The central bank kept interest rates unchanged as expected. The accompanying policy statement and Chairman Jerome Powell’s press conference suggested that policymakers could be more cautious about rate cuts in the coming months.
With BTC’s turn lower, prominent sectors from the beginning of this week are now deep in the red. For example, the CoinDesk Memecoin Index (CDMEME) has fallen by more than 9% over the past 24 hours. The Metaverse Select (MTVS) and Culture and Entertainment indexes are down over 5% each.
Meanwhile, gold tokens PAXG and XAUT traded higher, drawing strength from the continued rise in spot gold prices. Worldcoin’s WLD rose 5%.
In traditional markets, oil prices rose to four-month highs on both sides of the Atlantic, threatening to fuel inflation in the global economy. A renewed energy-driven inflationary impulse could make it even more difficult for the Fed to cut interest rates next time. Pay attention!
Read more: For analysis of today’s activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today
What to see
For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Crypto
- Macro
- 29 January at 8:30am: US trade balance for November (previous $331.4bn)
- 29 January at 8.30am: US initial jobless claims for week ending Jan 24 (previous 200,000)
- Earnings (Estimated based on FactSet data)
Token Events
For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Governance votes and calls
- Unlocks
- The token is launched
Conferences
For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
Market movements
- BTC is down 1.67% as of 16 ET Wednesday at $87,798.68 (24 hours: -2.39%)
- ETH is down 2.5% to $2,941.84 (24h: -3.59%)
- CoinDesk 20 is down 2.13% to 2,679.82 (24 hours: -2.9%)
- Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is up 1bp to 2.81%
- BTC funding rate is at 0.0073% (7.9628% annualized) on Binance
- DXY is unchanged at 96.44
- Gold futures are up 3.1% at $5,505.70
- Silver futures are up 2.46% at $116.32
- The Nikkei 225 closed unchanged at 53,375.60
- The Hang Seng closed up 0.51% at 27,968.09
- The FTSE is up 0.44% to 10,198.87
- The Euro Stoxx 50 rose 0.39% to 5,956.17
- The DJIA closed Wednesday unchanged at 49,015.60
- The S&P 500 closed unchanged at 6,978.03
- The Nasdaq Composite closed up 0.17% at 23,857.45
- The S&P/TSX Composite closed up 0.24% to 33,176.07
- The S&P 40 Latin America closed up 1.17% at 3,751.00
- The US 10-year Treasury note rose 0.4 bps to 4.255%
- E-mini S&P 500 futures are unchanged at 7,011.50
- E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are up 0.1% at 26,181.50
- E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are unchanged at 49,137.00
Bitcoin statistics
- BTC Dominance: 59.65% (0.1%)
- Ether to bitcoin ratio: 0.03335 (-1.07%)
- Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 872 EH/s
- Hash price (spot): $39.24
- Total Fees: 2.87 BTC / $256,633
- CME Futures open interest: 113,020 BTC
- BTC priced in gold: 15.9 oz.
- BTC vs Gold Market Cap: 5.88%
Technical Analysis
- The chart shows bitcoin’s daily price swings since November.
- The price has turned lower after facing rejection at the resistance of the bullish trend line, a technical analysis term for a steady upswing.
- It has shifted focus to support first at $86,000 followed and then, if it breaks through, at $84,445.
Crypto stocks
- Coinbase Global (COIN): closed Wednesday at $209.43 (-0.66%), -0.9% at $207.54 in premarket
- Circle Internet (CRCL): closed at $72.84 (+4.12%), -0.91% at $72.18
- Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $31.90 (-3.86%), -0.85% at $31.63
- Bullish (BLSH): closed at $34.33 (-1.35%), -0.17% at $34.27
- MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $10.37 (-1.43%), -1.16% at $10.25
- Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $17.55 (+0.00%), -0.4% at $17.48
- Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $19.49 (-2.26%), +0.15% at $19.52
- CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $13.45 (+1.36%), -1.49% at $13.25
- CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $51.37 (+0.92%)
- Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $14.33 (-7.43%)
Crypto Treasury Companies
- Strategy (MSTR): closed at $158.45 (-1.94%), -0.71% at $157.33
- Strive (ASST): closed at $0.80 (-2.20%), -0.51% at $0.80
- SharpLink Gaming (SBET): closed at $9.97 (-0.2%)
- Upexi (UPXI): closed at $1.96 (-1.01%)
- Lite Strategy (LITS): closed at $1.31 (-0.76%), +0.76% at $1.32
ETF Flows
Spot BTC ETFs
- Daily net flows: -$19.6 million
- Cumulative net flows: $56.32 billion
- Total BTC holdings ~1.29m
Spot ETH ETFs
- Daily Net Flows: $28.1M
- Cumulative net flows: $12.41 billion
- Total ETH holdings ~6.04 million
Source: Farside Investors
