On January 22, 2026, a local TV report said more Las Vegas businesses have begun accepting Bitcoin payments. Owners cited lower costs—card processing fees can range from 2% to over 3% per transaction—plus faster settlement and fewer chargebacks, with Lightning or direct wallet transfers enabling near‑instant transactions.

Rick Rieder, BlackRock's CIO of Global Fixed Income, has emerged as a leading candidate to succeed Jerome Powell. According to Polymarket, his nomination odds rose from single digits earlier this month to 32% as of Thursday, trailing Kevin Warsh at roughly 44%, after Bloomberg reported a Thursday Oval Office meeting. Rieder's policy stance includes a 3% neutral rate and a more flexible view on deficits.

Bitcoin briefly dropped under $90,000 before recovering toward $89,582 in Thursday afternoon UTC trading, after touching an intraday low near $87,300 and a short-lived high around $90,295. Analysts argue that the delayed US CLARITY Act, shifting institutional use of BTC and a sharp liquidity shock in Japanese government bonds, which pushed long-dated JGB and US Treasury yields higher, are now key forces shaping Bitcoin's price and its role as a non-sovereign asset.

Bitwise Asset Management has introduced the Bitwise Proficio Currency Debasement ETF (NYSE: BPRO), an actively managed fund blending Bitcoin with gold, silver, and mining equities. The firm partnered with Proficio Capital Partners, which oversees $5 billion in AUM, to rotate exposures based on market cycles and valuation. Launch materials note the dollar's roughly 40% purchasing power loss since 2006 and U.S. debt nearing $40 trillion.

In Part Three of his “2026 Outlook” published on Jan. 21, veteran trader Nik Patel identified Bitcoin’s April 2025 swing low near $73,000 as the key higher-timeframe support that must hold to keep his bullish roadmap intact. He argued that a weekly or monthly close below this level could see BTC grinding in the mid-$50,000s for months with no new highs in 2026, while a defense of $73,000 supports his thesis for fresh all-time highs in the first half of 2026 and a “higher for longer” regime potentially extending into 2027. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading around $90,060.

On Jan. 20 and Jan. 21, exchanges received over 17,000 BTC, coinciding with a failed rally near $90,000. Netflow has since normalized to +296 BTC, but inflows leave a supply overhang as price retests the $89,000–$90,000 area. Spot metrics have improved, yet buying strength appears insufficient to clear resistance.

On January 22, 2026, CryptoQuant reported that Bitcoin holders have shifted into a net realized loss phase for the first time since October 2023. Since December 23, investors have booked roughly 69,000 BTC in losses, while annual realized profits have compressed to about 2.5 million BTC, down from around 4.4 million in October.

On Thursday, with Bitcoin trading just above $89,000 after sliding below $90,000 earlier in the week, Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor posted on X that he was "thinking about buying more bitcoin." The remark revived speculation about another near-term BTC purchase by Strategy, which recently increased its holdings to 709,715 BTC worth over $60 billion and has spent roughly $3.4 billion on additional coins in the past two weeks. Despite this, market reaction stayed subdued, with MSTR shares slipping 1.4% and BTC still struggling to reclaim the $90,000 level.