On December 29, 2025, the company behind ticker MSTR disclosed buying 1,229 BTC at an average of $88,568. In the opening hours of 2026, Santiment flagged repeat whale purchases of 10 SOL or more, while CoinShares reported $7.5 million weekly and over $1.3 billion cumulative inflows into U.S.-listed Solana products since mid-October. Despite continued BTC accumulation, Santiment noted MSTR's stock fell nearly 50% in 2025, versus a 6% drop for Bitcoin.

Starting January 1, 2026, the People's Bank of China will require commercial banks to pay interest on eligible e-CNY wallet balances and record them as deposit liabilities. The framework brings the digital yuan onto bank balance sheets with deposit insurance and reserve requirements, while usage had reached 3.48 billion transactions and 16.7 trillion yuan by November 2025.

On 1 January 2026, attention shifted to Solana as large holders resumed accumulation across SOL and ecosystem tokens. According to Santiment, steady buying has coincided with robust liquidity and calmer sentiment, while SOL traded around $124.63 at the start of the year. The pattern suggests longer-horizon positioning amid reduced short-term volatility.

Data reviewed by Finbold from Arkham show a public wallet associated with Donald Trump's holdings dropped from $10.16 million on January 1, 2025 to $939,590 on December 31, 2025, a $9.22 million decline. The portfolio is down roughly 96% from mid-2024 highs near $24 million, with remaining assets led by TROG, USDC and WeFi.

XRP logged key milestones in 2025, including a May 8 SEC settlement and the November launch of U.S. spot ETFs, yet it only topped at $3.66 before sliding 50% to a $1.58 October low. With weak on-chain activity and technical levels breached, focus shifts to whether 2026 can finally deliver the long-sought $5 mark.

The U.S. Senate Banking Committee has scheduled a 15 January markup for the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, a bill intended to settle jurisdictional disputes between the SEC and CFTC and give the crypto sector clearer regulation. Lawmakers are still divided over DeFi oversight, token categorization and stablecoin rewards, while prediction markets price in a meaningful chance the proposal becomes law before May.

US spot Bitcoin ETFs reversed a seven-day outflow streak with $355 million in net inflows, led by IBIT at $143.75 million, ARKB at $109.56 million, and FBTC at $78.59 million. A December 30, 2025 post flagged a planned $8.165 billion Fed liquidity injection on January 6. Bitcoin trades near $87,800 in a tightening triangle, with $90,000 and $94,000 as upside levels and support around $86,400.

A veteran market analyst has identified a bullish divergence in the Bitcoin-to-gold ratio after the pair fell from 32 on October 5 to about 20, a decline of more than 37%. Daily and weekly RSI readings around recent lows, including a level near 31.85 last seen in November 2022, suggest selling pressure against gold may be cooling. With Bitcoin trading at $87,750 and down 4.8% year-to-date while gold has reportedly surged over 70% in 2025, investors are reassessing whether the BTC/GOLD ratio can rebound above key levels into 2026.