Donald Trump said he will name his choice for the next Federal Reserve chair, and several outlets reported Kevin Warsh is expected to be the nominee. Prediction markets reflected the shift, with Polymarket moving from 30% to 95% odds for Warsh and Kalshi at 93%, while Rick Rieder fell to 3.4%. Warsh has voiced a more favorable view of Bitcoin, calling it potential market discipline.

During Q4 2025, Avalanche's tokenized real‑world assets climbed 68.6% to over $1.3 billion, aided by the November launch of BlackRock's $500 million BUIDL and a loan tokenization push by FIS and Intain. Despite this, AVAX fell 59% to $12.3 in Q4 and is down another 10.5% in 2026, with VanEck's Avalanche ETF debuting on Monday.

Gold jumped 4.4% on Wednesday, adding about $1.65 trillion to its market value and setting a record above $5,500 with a total cap of $38.77 trillion. The single-day gain nearly equaled Bitcoin's $1.75 trillion market cap, while over five years gold has risen 173% versus Bitcoin's 164%. Bitcoin traded down during the move.

On Jan. 13, Strive completed its acquisition of Semler Scientific and has now used proceeds from a preferred stock sale to retire $110 million, or 92%, of the debt it assumed. The firm also purchased about 334 Bitcoin, taking its holdings to 13,132 BTC valued at $1.17 billion, but its ASST share price still closed 2.23% lower at $0.80 on Wednesday. Public companies now collectively hold about 1.134 million BTC, roughly 5.4% of the total Bitcoin supply.

Nearly four in ten US merchants now accept cryptocurrency at checkout. A survey conducted in October among 619 payment decision-makers reported strong customer interest, with almost nine in ten receiving crypto payment inquiries and 84% expecting crypto payments to become mainstream within five years.

Morgan Stanley has appointed long-time executive Amy Oldenburg as head of digital asset strategy, following its early-2025 filings for spot Bitcoin and Solana ETFs and a staked Ether ETF. The $2 trillion bank is also hiring multiple digital asset roles and preparing a crypto wallet for cryptocurrencies and tokenized real-world assets, targeting its 19 million wealth management clients.

Santiment said on Monday that the top 12 stablecoins’ combined market cap fell by $2.24 billion over the last 10 days, signaling capital leaving crypto and moving toward gold and silver. Bitcoin dropped from about $121,500 to below $103,000 on Oct. 10, 2025 and has since fallen nearly 30%, while precious metals hit new highs.

In its Charting Crypto Q1 2026 report, Coinbase reported that 71% of 75 institutional investors surveyed between early December and early January viewed Bitcoin as undervalued in the $85,000 to $95,000 price band. During this period, Bitcoin mostly traded in that range before sliding more than 30% from its October all-time high, while gold and silver posted strong gains. Despite the drawdown and weak sentiment, a large majority of institutions indicated they would hold or buy more crypto if prices fell a further 10%.

About $100 billion was erased from crypto markets by Sunday 9:30 pm UTC as traders reacted to the prospect of a partial US government shutdown. Senate Democrats threatened to block a funding package if it includes DHS money, while prediction markets put shutdown odds near 80% by Jan. 31. Bitcoin fell 3.4% and Ether dropped 5.3%.