On Monday, Jan. 12, XRP was up 10.8% for early 2026, marking its strongest first-quarter start since 2023 and trading between $2.04 and $2.35. A separate Bitcoin wallet holding 26,916 BTC, valued at over $2.44 billion, fueled speculation around the 17th anniversary of Satoshi Nakamoto's first 10 BTC transaction to Hal Finney, while Cardano showed an unusual $0 in short liquidations over key intraday windows as longs booked hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses.

Silver hit a new all-time high at $84, and on January 11, 2026, Robert Kiyosaki wrote on X that he would buy the metal up to $100 before pausing to wait and see. He still views $80 as a buying level while urging caution at the $100 mark. Bloomberg's Mike McGlone likewise projects a move to $100 and then a retrace toward $50 during 2026.

On Sunday, a user known as Captain Bunny said OKX froze around $40,000 in USDG stablecoins across four accounts that had been bought and were verified under other people's identities, funds he claimed were needed for his father's medical care. On Monday, OKX founder and CEO Star Xu defended the decision, citing strict KYC and AML duties and outlining conditions under which the platform might still assist the user in withdrawing the assets.

As of January 12, XRP, Ethereum and Shiba Inu are highlighted as leading cryptocurrency picks, with market data showing XRP around $2.03, ETH near $3,104.79 and SHIB at $0.0000083. These assets are trading with modest daily losses or slight gains, while Bitcoin holds close to $90,347.51 and broader market moves remain mixed.

Crypto exchange MEXC has introduced a promotional campaign centered on its peer-to-peer marketplace, allocating a $200,000 airdrop pool for users making their first-ever deposit on the platform via P2P. The event runs from Jan. 4, 2026, at 11:00 UTC until Jan. 31 at 16:59 UTC, with a fixed 10 USDT reward available to eligible participants on a first-come, first-served basis. Users must register on the event page, complete a net P2P deposit above $100 within seven days, and comply with withdrawal and eligibility restrictions to receive rewards.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has pushed back its decisions on the Canary Pudgy Penguins (PENGU) ETF and the T. Rowe Price Active Crypto ETF through extended 19b-4 review periods. At the same time, the regulator opened a public comment window on a proposal to list standardized options on the Grayscale CoinDesk Crypto 5 ETF, which tracks five large-cap digital assets.

CoinGecko reported 11.6 million cryptocurrency tokens failed in 2025, representing 86.3% of all failures since 2021. Q4 2025 alone saw 7.7 million collapses after the October 10 deleveraging wiped out $19 billion in leveraged positions. Overall, 53.2% of GeckoTerminal listings have gone defunct across the period, with meme coins bearing most of the damage.

On January 12, crypto markets advanced, with Bitcoin at $92,300 (+1.3%) and Ethereum at $3,150 (over 1%). Solana rose 2.5% to a $144 high, while Monero briefly reached an all-time high of $596 before easing to $563. FET and Render showed technical breakouts, and Bitcoin Hyper's ICO raised over $30.3 million.