On Jan. 30, a CNBC Crypto World ticker briefly displayed XRP at $126.01, far above its market level, while veteran trader Peter Brandt reiterated a theoretical Bitcoin retracement zone near $25,000. Separately, OKX moved 41,128,246,331 SHIB from a cold to a hot wallet as broader crypto liquidations reached $1.7 billion and an $8.8 billion options expiry approached.

On-chain whale wallet 0x9ee, once sitting on $61 million in unrealized gains, has seen its PnL swing to a loss of $13.46 million as XRP and ETH leveraged longs come under severe pressure. With an XRP entry at $2.29 and ETH bought at $3,190.28, both positions are now deep in the red, account collateral is fully consumed, and liquidation thresholds around $1.66 for XRP and $2,632 for ETH are looming. The wallet's leverage of 24.58x and ROE near -288% leave the trader facing a critical choice between adding margin or exiting before forced liquidation.

Early Wednesday, Bitcoin briefly climbed from $89,200 to $90,170, a move of just 0.88%, yet it unleashed one of 2026's most extreme liquidation skews. The $90,000 level saw $6.63 million in shorts wiped out against only $4,640 in longs, generating an hourly imbalance of 142,580% and putting bears at renewed risk if the threshold fails to hold as resistance.

According to market commentators, Bitcoin could climb toward $110,000 by Q2 2026 if miner capitulation and capital rotation from metals play out as before. XRP is testing a multi‑year resistance that underpins a speculative path to $27, while Ethereum has seen 2,218,771 ETH worth $6.52 billion locked into staking with little immediate price reaction. Key levels around $90,000 for BTC, $1.40 to $3.40 for XRP and support near $2,850 for ETH are in focus as January draws to a close.

According to Arkham, wallet 0x519Fe cycled 61.63 billion SHIB through Coinbase hot wallet within hours and then showed a zero balance shortly before February. SHIB traded at $0.00000773 near support at $0.0000075, while prior Februarys posted gains of 20.3%, 1.59%, and 41.3%, and CryptoRank reports the month has a +9.26% average return.

During Monday's early Asian session, XRP briefly dropped below $1.83 before sharply rebounding to around $1.896, triggering a 37,296% liquidation imbalance that heavily impacted short positions. More than $2.92 million in shorts were wiped out in 12 hours and over $3.44 million in short liquidations occurred within 24 hours, putting renewed focus on the psychological $2 zone.

On January 23, 2026, EasyA cofounder Dom Kwok said XRP should be worth at least $1,000 by 2030. The claim provoked heated discussion, with supporters citing token burns and institutional use, while skeptics point to Ripple v. SEC issues and centralization worries. At $1,000, XRP's implied market cap would exceed $100 trillion, five times global GDP.

Historical February returns for meme coins diverge sharply: Dogecoin averages -2.33% for the month, while Shiba Inu averages +9.26% since 2021, a 397% gap. In 2024, SHIB rose 41.3% as DOGE fell nearly 39%, with earlier years showing similar contrasts.

According to on-chain data, Binance shifted 17,527,443,126 Shiba Inu tokens from a hot wallet to an internal cold storage address on the Ethereum network, prompting debate among SHIB holders. The transfer involved no ETH and cost less than $0.01 in gas fees, while SHIB was trading around $0.00000788 with stable volumes and no visible spike in selling pressure. Analysts suggest the operation appears to be a storage and reserve management move rather than a signal of imminent liquidation, though any sharp volatility this week could hint at a broader strategic rebalance.