According to CryptoPotato, Bitcoin steadied around $90,500 on Friday with minimal movement over the past 12 hours after expectations for heightened volatility did not materialize. Altcoins were mixed: POL rose 17% toward $0.17, while ZEC fell 12% to $380; ETH hovered below $3,100 and XRP near $2.10. The total crypto market cap added roughly $20 billion to reach about $3.180 trillion.

On January 10 2026, crypto exchange BingX announced BingX TradFi, a new trading feature offering futures tied to more than 50 traditional underlying assets with leverage reportedly up to 500x. The move places BingX alongside Bitget and Binance in expanding beyond pure digital assets into multi-asset trading, including commodities, forex, metals, indices, and stock-linked contracts. These exchanges are using their existing crypto infrastructure to provide broader market access while operating under varying regulatory frameworks.

Crypto analyst Plan C argues that Bitcoin’s surge to $126,000 last year did not mark the cycle peak because the broader business cycle has not yet moved above the 50 level. Drawing on ISM PMI readings around 47.9 and historical patterns where BTC tops aligned with business cycle levels between 55 and 65, he suggests further upside is possible even as the price struggles around $90,000. On-chain data firms add that Bitcoin must reclaim the Short-Term Holder Cost Basis near $99,100 to confirm a sustainable recovery, while large investors are reportedly not aggressively buying the dip.

Morgan Stanley investment analysts project that the Chinese yuan could firm to 6.85 against the US dollar by the first quarter of 2026, supported by China's evolving global investment approach. The forecast comes as outbound investment from Chinese firms now exceeds inbound foreign capital and the country pivots from fast, investment-heavy expansion toward higher-quality growth. The bank also anticipates that a narrowing interest-rate gap between the US and China, alongside domestic policy measures, could further underpin the currency.

In projections for 2026, an AI model consulted by Finbold assigns an 18% chance that XRP touches $10 at any point, while its base scenario keeps the token in a $2 to $4 range with a 55% probability. The framework also gives a 27% likelihood to a stronger bull case in which XRP trades between $5 and $7. Around the time of the analysis, XRP was priced at $2.09, trading slightly above its 50-day SMA but below its 200-day SMA, with a neutral 14-day RSI of 54.14.

On January 8, 2026, Nasdaq and CME Group unified their crypto benchmarks by reintroducing the Nasdaq Crypto Index as the Nasdaq-CME Crypto Index. The multi-asset gauge includes Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, Solana, Chainlink, Cardano, and Avalanche, and is calculated by CF Benchmarks with quarterly rebalancing to support regulated products exceeding $1 billion in assets.

On 10 January 2026, Pump.fun announced a major redesign of its Solana-based platform fee structure, shifting rewards away from automatic creator payouts toward trader-driven distribution. The PUMP token rose close to 11% to around $0.0024 following the news, as the project signaled that future fees will be optionally allocated by creators and administrators through the app rather than shared with the core team. The update aims to prioritize liquidity and market participation after the team acknowledged that the previous creator-focused model had weakened sustained trading and price discovery.

On January 7, spot XRP ETFs recorded $40.80 million in net outflows, breaking their longest daily inflow streak. Despite Wednesday's setback, weekly net inflows totaled $38.07 million, with positive days on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. XRP rallied nearly 30% after January 2, hit $2.41 on Tuesday, and hovers near $2.10, with supports at $2.00 and $1.90.