The crypto market experienced a significant correction, Ethereum announced the relaunch of TheDAO, Trump proposed a replacement for the Fed chair, and other events from the past week.
Significant Decline
The first half of the week was calm, with Bitcoin even encouraging investors by rising to $90,000. However, the latter part brought several major corrections.
On Thursday, following the opening of the trading session in the U.S., Bitcoin plummeted from $88,000 to $83,000.
Shortly before the crypto market's decline, gold reached a historic high of $5,600 per ounce, then retreated to $5,100. This trend of following the corrections in precious metals continued until the end of the week.
In the early hours of January 30, Bitcoin continued its decline, dropping to $81,000. This triggered a wave of liquidations totaling $1.7 billion.
The following day, after a recovery to $85,000, another crash occurred, this time more severe—below $80,000. The coin briefly tested the $75,000 level for the first time since April 2025.
The volume of forced liquidations over 24 hours exceeded $2.5 billion.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $78,000, having lost 12% over the week.
Market participants have differing opinions on the future price movement. Trader Kit Alan suggested the formation of a double bottom around $74,000, which aligns with the support line from last April.
MN Trading founder Michael van de Poppe noted that the RSI on Bitcoin's weekly chart against gold has dropped below 30.
"[…] this is a signal that has triggered during the lows of bear markets in 2015, 2018, and 2022. And it is triggering again," the expert added.
The rest of the crypto market turned "red" alongside Bitcoin, with some coins experiencing even greater declines than the flagship.
Ethereum fell to $2,300 (-19% over seven days), BNB to $750 (-13%), and Solana (-17%) to $100.
The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies dropped to $2.7 trillion. Bitcoin's dominance stands at 57.5%, while Ethereum's is at 10.6%.
The Crypto Fear and Greed Index fell to 14 points, the lowest since mid-December 2025.
Resurrection from the Dead
On December 29, the Ethereum team announced its decision to relaunch TheDAO, which was hacked in 2016. The initiative took effect the same day.
As part of the program, the organization became a fund to support blockchain security, financed by a portion of the unclaimed ~75,000 ETH since the attack.
The curators of TheDAO, including Vitalik Buterin, have already announced plans to allocate $13.5 million in grants for third-party developers. Distribution will occur through DAO mechanisms.
Other coins worth around $200 million will be directed to staking.
"The goal of TheDAO fund is to make Ethereum so secure that it is more profitable to store your savings in a DeFi protocol than in a bank," representatives of the organization summarized.
The attack on TheDAO was one of the most notorious hacks in crypto history, with the hacker draining ~3.6 million ETH—about 3.5% of the coin's supply at the time. The incident later led to a controversial hard fork of the Ethereum mainnet.
What to Discuss with Friends?
- Vitalik Buterin will spend $43 million on Ethereum development.
- A major Chrome update: Gemini sidebar, Nano Banana, and "Personal Intelligence".
- The number of Solana validators dropped to levels seen in 2021.
- The U.S. imposed sanctions for the first time against Bitcoin exchanges for ties to Iran.
Fed Rate and Possible Replacement for Powell
Another significant event of the week, which had little impact on the crypto market, was the Fed's decision on the key interest rate. On January 28, the regulator kept it in the range of 3.5-3.75%.
This outcome was not unexpected, as analysts had predicted it with nearly 100% certainty. The Fed had also hinted at such a decision earlier, indicating a slowdown in easing policy.
"Current indicators suggest that economic activity is growing at a steady pace. Job growth remains low, and the unemployment rate shows some signs of stabilization. Inflation remains somewhat elevated," the Fed's press release stated.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell stated that the current state of monetary policy remains stable, but inflation is still high, and labor market indicators are not very positive.
Likely, the Fed's pause prompted President Donald Trump to "go on the offensive." On January 30, he announced the nomination of Kevin Warsh as the next head of the regulator. Powell's term expires in May.
Trump stated that he has known his candidate for a long time and "has no doubt" that Warsh will go down in history as "one of the greatest Fed chairs."
Warsh is an American financier and banking executive who previously served as a member of the Fed's Board of Governors from 2006 to 2011. More about his achievements was discussed in our article.
"Markets generally see Warsh's potential return as a bearish signal for Bitcoin. His focus on monetary discipline, high real rates, and reduced liquidity paints a picture of cryptocurrency not as a hedge against fiat devaluation but as a speculative excess that disappears with the end of the era of cheap money," said 10x Research founder Marcus Thielen.
Exclusive for the U.S.
This week, Tether announced the full launch of USAT—a federally regulated stablecoin for the U.S. market.
The asset was created in accordance with the Genius Act. The issuance is managed by Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A., which was the first in the country to receive the necessary license. The token's reserves will be held by Cantor Fitzgerald as the designated custodian and primary dealer.
The "stablecoin" is available on exchanges such as Bybit, Crypto.com, Kraken, OKX, and through the payment service Moonpay.
"USAT provides institutions with an additional option: a stablecoin made in America. USDT has proven for over ten years that digital dollars can provide trust, transparency, and utility on a global scale," said Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino.
The company also reported its results for 2025. Tether International posted a net profit of over $10 billion, with excess reserves reaching $6.3 billion.
During the reporting period, nearly 50 billion USDT were issued, marking the second-largest issuance volume in the company's history.
The company's direct investments in U.S. Treasury bonds exceeded $122 billion.
By the end of the year, the stablecoin issuer held precious metals worth ~$17.5 billion and Bitcoin worth $8.4 billion. By the end of January, the value of the company's reserves in 140 tons of gold reached $23 billion, and Tether utilized a former nuclear bunker in Switzerland for storage.
Additionally, Tether reported that XAUT accounted for over half of the entire market of stablecoins backed by physical gold. The total value of this segment is estimated at $5 billion, with over $2 billion attributed to the asset from the USDT issuer.
Also on ForkLog:
- Benchmark: the quantum threat to Bitcoin is exaggerated.
- Bit Digital will abandon Bitcoin mining in favor of AI and Ethereum.
- SEC equated tokenized assets with traditional securities.
- Experts considered the potential collapse of Bitcoin as "digital gold."
Frozen Miners
By the end of January, Bitcoin's hashrate fell to 970 EH/s—the lowest level since September 2025. This was due to winter storms in the U.S. that caused disruptions for miners.
On January 24, the hashrate hit a low of 690 EH/s after the shutdown of most equipment at Foundry USA.
The largest American mining pool reduced its capacity by 60% due to the storm "Fern." The extreme weather affected the Southeast, Northeast, and parts of the Midwest U.S.
The storm stretched nearly 3,000 km. Due to icing and snowfall, over 1 million residents were left without power. Miners had to reduce consumption to relieve pressure on city grids. Other pools were also affected.
Although this event drew attention to the issue, analysts at Glassnode noted that Bitcoin's hashrate has been declining for the past four months.
According to experts, mining revenues have sharply decreased amid falling prices and operational disruptions. Daily earnings from cryptocurrency mining dropped from $45 million to an annual low of $28 million in a short period, after which it partially recovered to ~$34 million.
"The situation indicates extremely low profitability for mining companies under current price and difficulty conditions, even after numerous adjustments to the difficulty downward," Glassnode added.
What Else to Read?
In the January digest, we sought to understand whether Bitcoin maintained its status as a safe-haven asset, analyzed market movements, and gathered the most interesting long positions of the month.
We attempt to clarify the purpose of the Hanoi Convention on Cybercrime: is it for real combat against online villains or for tightening controls in the digital space?
On the inevitable merging of two financial worlds, the tokenization of commodities, royalties on oil extraction, and futures on GPU computing.