On Saturday, Ethereum, XRP and the wider crypto market saw a sharp pullback, wiping roughly $100 billion from total market value while Bitcoin declined more moderately. The move coincided with reports of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza and unfolded in thin weekend liquidity, with Ethereum leading liquidations and altcoins generally underperforming BTC. By 3:41 pm UTC on Jan. 31, 2026, Ethereum traded at $2,539.70, down 6.22% over 24 hours, as total crypto market capitalization hovered around $2.73 trillion.

On 31 January 2026, a Delaware judge declined to dismiss a shareholder suit against Coinbase, allowing the case to continue for now. Filed in 2023, the suit challenges insider stock sales around the 2021 direct listing, citing more than $2.9 billion sold, including nearly $292 million by Brian Armstrong and roughly $119 million by Marc Andreessen.

On January 31, 2026, Step Finance reported that several treasury and fee wallets on Solana had been compromised after around 261,854 SOL, valued at roughly $30 million, were unstaked and transferred. The team said the affected addresses are under investigation and indicated that only treasury-related wallets appear impacted so far, with no confirmed effect on user funds or core protocol operations. The incident is drawing wider attention to operational security standards for DeFi protocol treasuries.

U.Today said XRP fell more than 3.90%, extending a death cross and marking a 90-day low, with weekly losses at 11.33%. According to CoinMarketCap, the token traded at $1.69 after a $1.78 intraday high, while 24-hour volume slid 20.74% to $4.02 billion; the pattern was first observed on Jan. 19.

On January 31, Cardano (ADA) traded around $0.3099 after falling 4.76% in the last 24 hours, with the price moving toward local support levels. Short- and midterm charts indicate that a break below $0.3070 and $0.30 could open the way to deeper pullbacks toward $0.2756 and possibly the $0.20 range.

On 31 January 2026, the US Treasury announced sanctions against senior Iranian officials and financial networks said to be involved in violent protest crackdowns and domestic repression. The measures also target two UK-registered digital asset platforms, Zedcex Exchange and Zedxion Exchange, alleged to have processed funds tied to IRGC-linked wallets, with Zedcex handling more than $94 billion in transactions since 2022. These designations freeze assets under US jurisdiction, bar US persons from dealing with the listed parties, and warn foreign institutions of potential penalties for facilitating related transactions.

Analyst Maelius said in an X post that Bitcoin could still drop below $60,000 before a cyclical bottom, pointing to BTC dominance not having rolled over yet. He contrasted this with the 2017 and 2021 patterns. BTC traded around $83,900 at the time of writing.

In December 2025, the Producer Price Index rose 0.5% month-over-month and 3.0% year-over-year, with core PPI climbing to 3.3%, the highest since July 2025. Bitcoin slid under $82,400 as Fed funds futures shifted to just 52 basis points of expected cuts across 2026, with the first move seen in June. Persistent services inflation and elevated real yields around 1.90% now frame key scenarios for rates and Bitcoin ahead of the Feb. 20 PCE release.