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Gold Keeps Ripping

Olivia Capozzalo & Denis Omelchenko
January 26, 2026

Happy Monday, Defiers!

Today’s big story:

  • The final weeks of January have been anything but calm, showing a widening gap between traditional safe haven assets and crypto

In other news:

The Defiant’s 2025 in review:

Read more below! But first, please give our sponsors some love; they make this newsletter possible.

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Stellar: The Proving Ground for Real-World Privacy

The latest Stellar upgrade, X-Ray, delivers zero-knowledge cryptography that lets developers build privacy into their apps—protecting what matters while keeping Stellar radically open, trusted, and ready for real-world finance.

We’re back! Here’s what you need to know in web3 today

📈 Markets in the Past 24 Hours

TICKERVALUE24H
BitcoinBitcoin$87,554
-0.86 %
EthereumEthereum$2,899.85
-0.73 %
BNBBNB$871.39
-0.55 %
XRPXRP$1.92
1.93 %
SolanaSolana$123.36
-1.77 %

Today’s Big Story

Metals Continue to Break News Highs as ‘Digital Gold’ Slumps amid Macro Uncertainty

The final weeks of January have been anything but calm, showing a widening gap between traditional safe haven assets and crypto. Gold, silver and other precious metals have pushed to fresh all-time highs, while cryptocurrencies have failed to keep up, with BTC slumping back below $90,000. Meanwhile the U.S. Dollar Index (DYX) dropped over the weekend to the lowest level since September.

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BTC 1-month price chart. Source: CoinGecko

The gap reflects a broader turn toward risk-off assets as political uncertainty in the U.S. and abroad continues to intensify. In Minnesota and across the U.S., outrage and ongoing protests have followed multiple fatal shootings of U.S. citizens in Minneapolis by federal U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents this month.

ICE agents shot and killed Alex Pretti on Saturday morning, less than three weeks after killing fellow Minneapolis resident, Renee Good.

Those worries are rippling to Washington, where the House has passed a roughly $1.2 trillion funding package that Senate Democrats are actively opposing, as it includes funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), under which ICE operates. Disagreement over the bill spiked chances of a partial government shutdown, making investors more cautious.

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The odds on of the U.S. government shutting down by Jan. 31. Source: Polymarket

Polymarket shows chances of a shutdown by Jan. 31 shot up over the weekend, reflecting fading confidence in lawmakers’ ability to agree.

Against this backdrop, gold climbed above $5,100 an ounce, reaching yet another all-time high, while silver also pushed to new highs, rallying past $115, per data from Bloomberg.

Crypto markets, by contrast, have shown clear signs of fatigue. Total market capitalization has drifted toward $3 trillion, with Bitcoin briefly slipping below $87,000 and Ethereum retreating to below $2,800 over the past 24 hours.

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Bitcoin’s price vs 21-week moving average. Source: Matrixport

Analysts at Matrixport noted in an X post today that Bitcoin remains “in a corrective phase” after getting rejected at its 21-week moving average, a key level that they use to gauge bull and bear markets. The analysts added that short-term rebounds are possible, but the market won’t truly shift until it climbs back above that level.

Denis, staff reporter at The Defiant

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🎬WATCH

How Stablecoins Are Rewiring Global Payments | Borderless CPO Alex Garn

In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, Chris Storaker sits down with Alex Garn, chief product officer at Borderless, to unpack how stablecoins are quietly transforming cross-border payments — and what it actually takes to move money at scale across jurisdictions.

We explore why stablecoins are moving beyond trading and DeFi collateral into real-world enterprise payments, where they already outperform legacy rails on settlement speed, transparency, and custody — especially across emerging market corridors like Latin America and Southeast Asia.

Top News Since Friday

  • Bitcoin Trades Near $88,000 as ETF Outflows Deepen and Gold Continues to Rally Crypto markets continued to slump at the start of the week, with Bitcoin sliding further below the closely watched $90,000 level since Sunday, as heavy ETF outflows and rising geopolitical uncertainty put pressure on market sentiment. Why it matters: Gold surged to a fresh all-time high above $5,100 an ounce on Monday, extending its record-breaking rally.
  • Ethereum L1 Activity Exceeds L2s, But Researchers Point to ‘Address Poisoning’ Researchers caution that the spike in Ethereum active addresses and transaction count is being distorted by dust attacks and so-called “address-poisoning” campaigns and doesn’t represent organic activity on the network. Why it matters: As of last week, over $740,000 in crypto had been stolen from Ethereum users in address-poisoning scams.
  • Regulators Are Applying Traditional Market Rules to DeFi: PwC In its Global Crypto Regulation Report 2026, PwC said regulators are no longer treating crypto as a special case. Instead, they are starting to apply the same kinds of rules used in traditional markets, like making trading fairer, protecting everyday users, and setting clearer standards for how platforms should operate. Why it matters: The findings come at a time when experts are greatly divided on the future of DeFi, with many concerned that the push toward TradFi-style rules could pull the sector away from its original vision.

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