On January 8, 2026, the ETH Coinbase premium retreated to levels last seen in February 2025, and ETH traded around $3,110.57. Weaker U.S. spot demand and cautious derivatives activity left price capped below $3,300, with open interest at $17.78B and the fear-and-greed index at 49. A stronger bid may be needed for a breakout.

According to Santiment, XRP whale activity reached a three-month high on January 7, with nearly 2,802 transfers exceeding $100,000, pointing to rising volatility. On-chain data also showed Ripple moved 300 million XRP on January 6, while a CryptoQuant analyst flagged heavier exchange flows amid a near 25% slide to $2.11 over the past three months, per CoinGecko.

According to Santiment, Shiba Inu recorded a 111% rise in transactions above $100,000, signaling renewed whale participation over the recent week. On January 4, SHIB advanced 13% alongside increased activity from larger private holders and institutional desks. The token’s multibillion-dollar market cap was cited as enabling sizable orders with limited slippage.

BNB Smart Chain is scheduled to implement the Fermi hard fork on January 14, 2026, targeting shorter block times and higher throughput. The upgrade follows the Fourier hard fork on Op BNB Chain on January 7, which reduced its block interval from 500 to 250 milliseconds. Despite these network improvements, BNB has dropped below $900 amid a broader market decline, with price volatility driven by long liquidations.

BitMine Immersion Technologies began 2026 with a $105 million Ether purchase and reports $915 million in cash reserves. The company holds 4.07 million ETH valued at $12.6 billion, equal to 3.36% of supply, and has staked over $2.87 billion while pursuing a 5% supply target.

Santiment said on January 8 that $100K+ XRP transfers rose from 2,170 on Monday to 2,802 Tuesday, the highest daily total since October. CryptoQuant contributor CryptoOnchain reported Binance reserves near 2.6 billion, the lowest since January 2024, after dropping from roughly 3.25 billion since late 2025. CoinGecko showed XRP around $2.13 after a 6% 24‑hour decline.

On January 7, 2026, Zcash’s entire core development team resigned from Electric Coin Company after weeks of conflict with a majority of the Bootstrap board over what they alleged was malicious governance. The departing group, led by CEO Josh Swihart, plans to launch a new independent company to keep working on privacy-preserving digital money, while the ZEC price briefly fell about 7% and traded near $455 on heavy volume.

On January 8, 2026, Bitmine staked 109,504 ETH valued at $344.44 million, according to Onchain Lens. The move followed an earlier 19,200 ETH stake and brought the firm's total to 908,192 ETH worth $2.95 billion. Bitmine began staking on Dec. 26 and says it aims to acquire 5% of circulating ETH.