The first full week of 2026 was quite eventful, but BTC and crypto have remained rather unfazed.
It was just a week ago when the overall landscape in the cryptocurrency market seemed rather dull, perhaps due to the Holiday season. However, that all started to change as early as Saturday morning when the US carried out successful attacks against Venezuela and captured its president and his wife before they transported them to New York to face local justice.
BTC had reclaimed the $90,000 level at the time, but the uncertainty about the attacks pushed it south to $89,300. Once the US confirmed the strikes and Trump made some controversial comments about Venezuela’s future, bitcoin actually rebounded and surged above $90,000.
Its gains continued in the first couple of days of the business week. In fact, it peaked at just under $95,000 on Tuesday morning, which became its highest price tag in almost two months. However, the bears intercepted the move and didn’t allow another run-up.
Just the opposite; BTC started to lose value in the following days. It dipped below $89,500 yesterday, but managed to rebound by two grand almost immediately. It now trades just inches above $90,000, but more volatility is anticipated later today when the US Supreme Court is expected to announce its decision on Trump’s tariffs.
For now, bitcoin trades with a minor 1.2% weekly increase, but its dominance over the alts has slipped below 57% as several of them have performed better within the same timeframe. Ripple’s XRP is among those, charting an 11% surge even though it was stopped at $2.40 earlier this week. The other notable gainers include SOL, ADA, XMR, XLM, DOGE, and BCH from the larger caps.
Market Data
Market Cap: $3.180T | 24H Vol: $108B | BTC Dominance: 56.8%
BTC: $90,400 (+1.2%) | ETH: $3,090 (+1.4%) | XRP: $2.10 (+10.8%)
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This Week’s Crypto Headlines You Can’t Miss
Truebit Suffers $26.5M Loss in First Major DeFi Hack of 2026. Hackers have quickly returned after the Holiday season, and Truebit Protocol is the first major victim of the new year. Recent reports indicated that the platform was drained for well over $26 million in ETH.
Spot XRP ETFs’ Record Green Streak Snapped as Ripple Price Plunges 13% in Days. After almost two months of green-only days, the five spot XRP ETFs saw their streak end, with more than $40 million leaving the funds on Wednesday. Nevertheless, Thursday was back in the green, albeit in a modest $8 million manner.
Why Bitcoin’s Recent Recovery Is Being Called ‘Structurally Healthy’. Although it lost a significant chunk of its recently regained value, BTC still trades above $90,000 despite the overall global tension. As such, analysts claimed that this recovery to over $90,000 is “structurally healthy.”
Arthur Hayes: Low Oil Prices Could Trigger a Bitcoin Bull Run. Given Trump’s promises to put Venezuela’s vast oil reserves for global sale, expectations arose that the commodity’s price would decline significantly in the following months. Arthur Hayes explained that this could be very beneficial for BTC.
Institutional Adoption: Morgan Stanley Submits SEC Filings for BTC and SOL Funds. Perhaps the most notable piece of news in terms of global institutional adoption this week came from the multi-trillion-dollar US bank Morgan Stanley, which submitted filings with the SEC to launch BTC and SOL ETFs. A day later, it filed to ETH ETFs as well.
Bitcoin (BTC) Mining Isn’t the Climate Villain Many Think: ESG Expert Says. Bitcoin critics have long claimed that the mining process harms the planet. However, an ESG expert claimed that this might not be the case, adding that BTC mining is a lot cleaner than people believe it to be.
Charts
This week, we have a chart analysis of Ethereum, Ripple, Cardano, Binance Coin, and Hyperliquid – click here for the complete price analysis.
