Gold and silver set new records in 2026, while Bitcoin’s October 2025 ATH above $126,000 was followed by weakness. According to analyst Mark Chadwick on X this week, the metals’ surge and Bitcoin’s lag form an unusually wide divergence that could precede rotation into crypto. His mapping outlines a 91.60% move toward $170,000 from the $82,000 area.

On January 31 2026, analysts at JPMorgan said Bitcoin futures are likely oversold, whereas gold and silver futures appear overbought. They observed that since mid-2025, investors have increasingly redirected funds from Bitcoin ETFs into gold and silver ETFs, with gold ETF inflows nearing $60 billion by year-end. Using futures positioning and liquidity metrics, the team sees scope for short-term profit-taking in precious metals but remains structurally positive on gold.

On January 31 2026, the European Commission announced that 12 EU member states will receive formal warning letters for not fully implementing new crypto tax reporting rules. The notices give Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, and Portugal two months to correct shortcomings or risk escalation. The Commission also sent a separate letter to Hungary over national rules affecting exchange validation services, citing possible non-compliance with the EU's MiCA framework.

On 10 October, leveraged crypto positions worth about $19 billion were liquidated in what was described as the industry's largest single-day wipeout, and former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has now dismissed accusations that the exchange triggered the crash. He said during a Q&A on Binance's social platform that the allegations are unrealistic, noting the firm paid around $600 million to users affected by system issues and operates under oversight in Abu Dhabi and the United States. Zhao also discussed organized online attacks targeting him, shifting views on a potential Bitcoin supercycle, and highlighted Binance's proof-of-reserves and past ability to process more than $15 billion in withdrawals without halting services.

The latest crypto market structure points to a transition phase, with XRP's multimonth sell-off showing signs of exhaustion while Shiba Inu remains stuck in a broader downtrend. XRP is compressing near a historically active zone and trading on lighter downside volume, whereas SHIB continues to face resistance from downward-sloping moving averages. Bitcoin is still seen as relatively stable as long as its price stays above the key $80,000 support region, framing the current move as a correction within a larger consolidation.

On January 30, 2026, GameStop rose 5% after CEO Ryan Cohen said the company is pursuing a much larger public consumer acquisition he described as transformational. His equity award vests only if valuation reaches $100 billion and total EBITDA hits $10 billion. GameStop holds over $9 billion in cash and marketable securities, some in bitcoin.

Sandisk guided third‑quarter earnings to $12–$14 per share, far above a $4.95 expectation, sending the stock up as much as 25% on Friday before easing. Since its February 2025 IPO, shares have surged more than 1,600%, with analysts lifting targets on AI‑driven NAND demand as the stock trades around 15x expected earnings.

Binance released a post-mortem on the 10 October 2025 crypto flash crash, asserting that macroeconomic shocks and market-wide risk controls, not exchange failures, drove the $19.25 billion liquidations. The exchange said 75% of industry liquidations occurred before its localized issues at 21:36 UTC, and CoinGlass data showed the peak at 01:00 UTC.