Gold Keeps Ripping
Meanwhile, BTC struggles below $90K
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:
- Crypto markets struggle
- Ethereum L1 activity exceeds L2s
- Regulators treat DeFi like TradFi: PwC
- 5 crypto lending platforms & loans for fast capital access [SPONSORED]
The Defiant’s 2025 in review:
- How Digital Asset Treasuries Went Mainstream in 2025
- RWAs Became Wall Street’s Gateway to Crypto in 2025
- Prediction Markets Expand from DeFi Niche to Global News Sources
- Stablecoins Became Crypto’s First Mainstream Use Case in 2025
- Looking Ahead: The Biggest Names in Crypto Predict New Bitcoin Highs and a Tokenization Boom in 2026
Read more below! But first, please give our sponsors some love; they make this newsletter possible.
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📈 Markets in the Past 24 Hours
| TICKER | VALUE | 24H | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Bitcoin | $87,554 | -0.86 % |
 | Ethereum | $2,899.85 | -0.73 % |
 | BNB | $871.39 | -0.55 % |
 | XRP | $1.92 | 1.93 % |
 | Solana | $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.
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.
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.
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.
Trending on The Defiant
- Regulators Are Applying Traditional Market Rules to DeFi: PwC
- Bitcoin Hovers Around $90,000 As Dollar Drops, Gold Surges
- Tokenized Gold Capitalization Tops $4 Billion as Spot Approaches $5,000
- Ethereum L1 Activity Exceeds L2s, But Researchers Point to ‘Address Poisoning’
- Kansas Lawmakers Propose State-Run Bitcoin and Digital Assets Reserve Fund
- RIVER Soars 40% After Justin Sun Backs DeFi Project
That’s it for today — if you enjoyed this newsletter, tell your friends! https://thedefiant.io/subscribe
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