In January 2026 the market weakened, but Avalanche advanced in real‑world asset tokenization. By 3 February, AVAX ranked third in development activity, and in Q4 2025 tokenized assets on AVAX rose 68.6% with $1.3 billion TVL. VanEck's AVAX ETF launched on 27 January and recorded $1.24 million net inflows by 31 January.

On February 4, 2026, Tether scaled back plans for a $15–$20 billion equity raise after investors balked at a $500 billion valuation. Talks that began last year now focus on about $5 billion, with terms unresolved. CEO Paolo Ardoino said the figure was never a target and noted insiders are reluctant to sell.

On Tuesday, Aave founder and CEO Stani Kulechov said the Avara umbrella brand will be phased out and all present and future products, including the Aave App, Aave Pro and Aave Kit, will be consolidated under Aave Labs. The Apple iOS-based Family wallet will stop onboarding new users from April 1, with existing users supported until April 1, 2027 and their accounts maintained as core infrastructure within Aave Labs offerings.

Bitcoin has fallen from a peak of $126,000 to $78,000, while spot trading volume has dropped from about $200 billion in October to roughly $104 billion after the October 2025 crash. Despite five straight months of negative spot netflows and shrinking stablecoin and derivatives capital, spot buyers accumulated around $2.1 billion in BTC between 19 and 26 January, offering a fragile signal of a possible short‑term rebound.

As of February 4, 2026, Nvidia had not shipped any H200 AI chips to China, nearly two months after a December agreement with Donald Trump permitted sales. Licences from State, Defense, and Energy remain pending, and the State Department is pressing for stricter limits. The deal also includes a 25% government take and conditions on testing, reporting, and shipment allocations.

In February 2026, economist Nouriel Roubini, known as "Dr. Doom," predicted an impending "apocalypse" for the cryptocurrency sector and argued that a strongly pro-crypto administration has failed to rescue the market. He highlighted Bitcoin's 35% drop from its October high and its 6% decline during a period when gold prices jumped over 60%, claiming crypto offers little utility beyond crime and corruption and that stablecoins are its only notable application so far.

On February 3, 2026, Bitmine chairman Tom Lee defended the firm's Ethereum treasury after a social media post alleged a -$6.6 billion unrealized loss and future selling pressure. He said Bitmine is structured to track and potentially outperform ETH over full market cycles, meaning paper losses are expected during downturns as the company's 4.24M ETH position, reported as of January 25, magnifies market swings.

On Monday, Michael Burry warned that ongoing Bitcoin weakness could trigger as much as $1 billion in end‑of‑month liquidations in gold and silver. By Wednesday morning in Asia, Bitcoin was at $76,362 after a 3.17% daily drop and a 14.44% weekly decline, as his remarks emphasized pressure on risk assets and corporate holders.