The CoinMarketCap Crypto Fear and Greed Index moved back to a neutral score of 40 on Sunday, its first such reading since October 2025, after months spent in fear and extreme fear. Bitcoin recently recovered to around $91,000 following a historic flash crash that saw it fall from an all-time high above $125,000 to roughly $80,000, while altcoins suffered even steeper one-day losses.

According to analyst Michaël van de Poppe, the altcoin market, valued at over $879 billion, is holding critical support and could move back toward its previous peak near $1.2 trillion. Total3 has maintained support around $784 billion and is edging toward its 365-day moving average, even after a sharp 33% drop from its October high. While investors waited in 2025 for an altseason that never materialized, analysts cite changing market dynamics, ETF-driven liquidity siloes, and an oversupply of tokens as key factors.

Analyst and crypto treasury investor Adam Livingston argues that Metaplanet’s Bitcoin strategy is advantaged by Japan’s high debt and weakening yen, which reduce the real cost of its yen-denominated liabilities. He notes that since 2020, Bitcoin has gained 1,704% against the Japanese yen compared with 1,159% against the US dollar, while Metaplanet has grown its holdings to 35,102 BTC even as crypto treasury stocks have sharply declined. Livingston contrasts Metaplanet’s 4.9% coupon in yen with Strategy’s 10% dollar coupon, saying the yen weakness makes Metaplanet’s financing effectively cheaper in BTC terms.

Bitcoin held near $90,000 on Saturday after a brief dip below that mark, despite US President Donald Trump announcing airstrikes on Caracas and the capture of Nicolas Maduro. Analysts Michaël van de Poppe and Lennaert Snyder pointed to the 21-day moving average and potential post-weekend market activity as near-term factors for volatility.

On January 3, 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto mined Bitcoin's Genesis Block, a date now celebrated by Bitcoin users as Genesis Day. As this year's anniversary passed, United States national debt climbed above $38.5 trillion, with the US National Debt Clock showing around $38,561,900,451,378 outstanding. Bitcoin advocates contrast the growing debt and expanding M2 money supply with Bitcoin's fixed 21 million coin cap and predictable issuance.

In 2025, Bitcoin miner Hut 8 grew its $200 million credit facility with Coinbase and advanced a $7 billion, 15-year AI infrastructure deal with Fluidstack. The firm's stock rose over 134% to about $51.27 as it diversified into AI, high-performance computing, and increased Bitcoin holdings despite a difficult year for miners following the April 2024 halving.

BitMine chairman Tom Lee asked shareholders to approve lifting the firm's authorized shares to 50 billion from 50 million, citing potential future stock splits if ETH-driven valuations surge. He modeled scenarios where ETH hits $250,000 with BTC at $1 million, implying $5,000 per share and a 100:1 split to target $25. BitMine pivoted to an ETH treasury in 2025.

Blockchain security firm PeckShield reported around $76 million in crypto losses from hacks and exploits in December, a 60% drop from November's $194.2 million. The month included 26 major incidents, with one user losing $50 million to an address-poisoning scam and another losing $27.3 million due to a multisig private key leak.

Early Bitcoin investors anticipate a tough 2026, with a potential price low around $60,000 in Q4 and only a 20% chance of new highs before the cycle low. Despite that, they expect payment utility to improve, citing Square's BTC integration, Bitcoin-backed stablecoins, and Lightning, which could capture 5% of stablecoin flows by 2028.