Ethereum

Ethereum is up 14% in 2026, with a major leg on 13 January after a softer U.S. inflation print and President Donald Trump's push for rate cuts. According to Garret Bullish, a self-described White House whale, ETH could target $5,413 in a base case or $7,155 in an aggressive scenario under an Elliott Wave framework. Standard Chartered and other analysts also outline a path for ETH to outperform BTC.

Bitcoin traded close to $96,000 on Thursday, while major Asian equity benchmarks moved in different directions following another tech-led decline on Wall Street. BTC open interest has dropped more than 31% from its 2025 high to around $10B, pointing to a broad deleveraging even as spot volumes approach $60B and total crypto market capitalization sits near $3.34 trillion.

OP led Layer 2 tokens with a gain of more than 13% as trading volume jumped over 140% to above $200 million. It ranked fifth among the top 100 coins by performance, while Optimism's network activity strengthened since 2025, with daily transactions surpassing 2.5 million and the cumulative count at 921.9 million.

Ethereum has moved out of a multi-week range, breaking above $3,330 and confirming a bullish breakout pattern on the daily chart. With price gains backed by higher volume and Binance futures open interest at a three-month peak of $8.6 billion, analysts are now watching resistance zones between $3,350 and $3,800 as potential waypoints toward the $4,000 level.

Arbitrum-based leverage trading protocol Futureswap has suffered another exploit within four days, with attackers draining about $74,000 through a newly exposed reentrancy vulnerability in an existing contract. The latest breach follows a separate $395,000 attack on the same contract and a December 2025 governance exploit of at least $830,000, bringing total losses on the platform to over $1 million across three incidents.

Standard Chartered has published a new Ethereum outlook, calling for ETH to reach $7,500 by end-2026 and $30,000 by 2029. The bank also expects Ethereum to outperform Bitcoin through 2026, with the $30,000 level implying about a 790% gain from $3,371 and a market cap near $3.6 trillion under minimal BTC growth.

Broad gains extended the cryptocurrency rally, lifting total market capitalization back above $3.2 trillion. According to market data, the value reached roughly $3.28 trillion with a daily increase of more than four percent as Bitcoin traded near $96,900 and Ethereum advanced toward $3,350. Bitcoin dominance stayed close to 59 percent, while altcoins showed participation without a full rotation.

On 14 January 2026, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said the network has finally reached the goals first set out in 2014, following its transition to proof-of-stake and the rise of ecosystem-led scaling. He argued that layer-two solutions, messaging networks like Waku, and storage tools such as IPFS have collectively completed the broader Web3 technology stack, while Ethereum itself moves toward long-term stability with fewer disruptive base-layer changes.

On January 14, 2026, Ethereum staking surpassed 30% of the total supply, with approximately 36 million ETH locked. The validator entry queue reached its highest level since 2023, with more than 2.34 million ETH awaiting activation and waits reported up to 48 days. Bitmine added 186,650 ETH in the past day and anticipates up to $500 million in annualized rewards.

Bitcoin recovered above $95,000 after a January 9 dip to $89,300, with analysts watching the $100,000 threshold. ETF inflows this week and corporate accumulation are supporting sentiment, while Ethereum attempts to clear $3,300 after a 5.1% daily gain. Interest in the Bitcoin Hyper presale persists amid anticipated regulatory developments.