Murad Mahmudov outlines a thesis that belief-driven "cult" coins like Shiba Inu provide the strongest asymmetric return potential for retail investors in a market shaped by high real inflation. He argues that revenue-generating crypto assets face valuation caps, while meme coins with no cash flow can scale on pure conviction, with SHIB highlighted as a multi-cycle survivor holding over 1.5 million addresses despite heavy token dilution. Mahmudov links this rotation into speculative assets to younger investors reacting to eroding purchasing power and abandoning traditional wealth-building paths.

As of January 22, Dogecoin trades between $0.12 and $0.13 after a drop of over 20% from recent highs near $0.15. On-chain liquidity shows gradual accumulation around $0.12–$0.127, with resistance observed at $0.13–$0.14. Separately, The House of Doge confirmed plans for the "Such" payment app in the first half of 2026, aiming to support wallets, purchases, and direct payments.

AI meme token RALPH, associated with the “Ralph Wiggum” prompting trend, plunged about 80% after on-chain data showed a wallet tied to developer Geoffrey Huntley sold roughly $300,000 of tokens in three trades. Huntley described the move as "de-risking" ahead of a vesting window, while the selloff sent the price down around 66% on the day and nearly 90% below its January 21 all-time high near $0.047.

Over the latest seven-day period, privacy-focused cryptocurrencies saw broad declines, with leading tokens like Monero, Dash, Decred and Zcash registering double-digit percentage losses. Larger coins underperformed Bitcoin and several major altcoins, while smaller privacy assets largely followed the same downward trend with only a few limiting their weekly drawdowns.

On January 22, 2026, Santiment reported XRP trader sentiment fell into "Extreme Fear" after a 19% decline from the January 5 highs. Analyst Ali Martinez highlighted support at $1.78 and resistance at $1.97 and $2, while XRP traded near $1.93 with +1.9% daily, -6.8% weekly and +2.4% monthly performance.

On Thursday, January 22, XRP's derivatives segment saw a sharp rise in options activity, with daily volume leaping 213% to $9.53 million and open interest edging up to $73.39 million. Over the same period, XRP futures volume reached $6.19 billion, while the spot price traded near $1.92 after briefly rallying 4% toward resistance around $1.97 and $2. Positioning remained tilted long on major platforms, but overall long-short ratios stayed close to neutral, leaving traders watching whether volatility leads to a breakout or continued consolidation.

On January 22, Cardano's ecosystem updates included a roadmap milestone, new delegation moves and progress on the Midnight privacy sidechain. The Cardano Foundation increased community DRep delegations to 360 million ADA, while Midnight advanced via a partnership with AlphaTON Capital and new exchange listings for the NIGHT token. ADA traded near $0.36 with analysts watching support around $0.33-$0.36 and whale purchases exceeding 200 million tokens.

A Shiba Inu whale wallet labeled "YFI Whale" on Arkham quietly transferred 15 billion SHIB worth $118,350 via WazirX-related addresses over a three-hour period while holding more than 608.6 billion SHIB in total. The activity, which is part of over $200,000 moved in a week toward WazirX deposit endpoints, coincides with SHIB trading around $0.00000790 in a tightening range between $0.00000899 and $0.00000659, prompting speculation about a strategic portfolio adjustment rather than panic selling.