Strategy kicks off 2026 the only way it knows how.
The company just made its first Bitcoin purchase of the year, adding 1,283 BTC for roughly $116 million. No hesitation, no waiting for perfect conditions. Just continued execution of a long-term thesis.
This is consistent with everything we’ve seen so far. While sentiment shifts daily and price chops around, Strategy keeps doing the same thing: accumulating regardless of noise. No narratives, no timing the market, no reaction to short-term volatility.
What matters here isn’t the size of a single buy. It’s the pattern. Repeated purchases across years, cycles, drawdowns, and headlines.
That’s conviction capital at work.
Retail debates entries. Institutions debate allocations. Strategy just buys.
And history shows that this kind of behavior usually isn’t loud in the moment, but it tends to age very well.
BofA has begun recommending clients allocate up to 4% of their portfolios to Bitcoin and crypto. Not a headline-grabbing call, not hype, just a measured allocation from one of the largest financial institutions in the world.
This is how adoption actually happens. Not through max bullish narratives, but through slow normalization inside traditional portfolios. A few percent here, risk-managed, framed as asymmetric exposure rather than speculation.
It also matters where we are in the cycle. Sentiment is still fragile, price action is choppy, and crypto is far from euphoric. That’s usually when institutions start positioning, not when retail is screaming.
Crypto doesn’t need everyone all-in. It just needs steady, consistent capital acknowledging it belongs in the global asset mix.
This is another step in that direction. Quiet, but meaningful.
Price isn’t doing much yet, but structure is improving. Volatility has been compressed for days and liquidity is building on both sides. That usually doesn’t last long.
When things go quiet like this, it’s not because risk is gone. It’s because traders are positioning ahead of the next move.
Patience matters here. Let price show direction before forcing trades. The best moves often start when most people get bored and stop paying attention.
Stay sharp. The next expansion usually catches people off guard.
Visa crypto card spending just exploded, and this is one of the more underrated signals out there.
In 2025, net spend through Visa-linked crypto cards surged 525%, jumping from $14.6M to $91.3M, per Dune Analytics. That’s not speculation, not leverage, not narratives. That’s people actually spending crypto in the real world.
This matters more than most realize. Adoption doesn’t arrive with fireworks, it shows up quietly in payment rails, consumer behavior, and boring infrastructure metrics like this one. While prices chop and sentiment stays fragile, usage keeps climbing in the background.
It also highlights a shift. Crypto isn’t just being held or traded, it’s being integrated. Stablecoins, settlement layers, and card rails are doing what they were supposed to do.
Markets can stay irrational for a while, but utility compounds. Metrics like this don’t spike by accident. They build, slowly, then suddenly.
Over $657M in token unlocks are scheduled to hit the market this week, and this is one of those moments where context matters more than headlines.
Unlocks are often framed as automatic sell pressure, but that’s a lazy take. What they really do is introduce supply and force the market to show its hand. Strong projects with real demand tend to absorb unlocks quietly. Weaker ones don’t.
In periods like this, liquidity matters. If bids are thin and sentiment is fragile, unlocks can exaggerate downside moves. If positioning is light and fear is already priced in, they can pass with surprisingly little impact.
This is also where relative strength becomes obvious. Assets that hold structure during unlock weeks are usually the ones institutions and longer-term players are already positioned in.
Volatility will pick up regardless. The key isn’t predicting direction, it’s watching how price reacts after the supply actually hits.
Markets always reveal who’s prepared and who isn’t.
🚨 CARDANO USERS TARGETED IN FAKE WALLET PHISHING ATTACK
A sophisticated phishing campaign is circulating fake “Eternl Desktop” announcements, tricking Cardano users into downloading malware disguised as a wallet update.
This isn’t amateur stuff. It’s well packaged, convincing, and designed to catch people off guard.
Reminder that never gets old in this space: Only download wallet software from official sources. No shortcuts. No random links. No rushed decisions.
That’s a healthy sign. I still see 2026 as a strong year for the broader Web3 ecosystem. A catch up year more than anything. Fundamentals have kept improving in the background, while price has lagged behind for months.
That gap doesn’t stay open forever.
You can already see early signals across the board. $OP has erased most of last month’s losses and reclaimed structure. $TAO continues to show relative strength when many others are still hesitant.
Nothing euphoric yet. No mania. Just quiet progress and selective strength.
These are usually the conditions where trends begin forming, not where they end.
Overall, good signs for the market if this continues.
Bitcoin spot ETFs pulled in $471M, showing demand hasn’t slowed despite all the noise and hesitation in price. Ethereum followed with $174M in inflows, its largest single-day intake since mid December, which is notable given how cautious positioning has been around ETH.
Even Solana spot ETFs joined the party, recording $8.6M in net inflows.
This matters more than people think. While sentiment on social media is still fragile and price action looks choppy, capital continues to move quietly through regulated channels.
That’s usually how accumulation phases look. No euphoria, no headlines screaming moon, just steady inflows from players who don’t chase green candles.
$190M in liquidations over the last 24 hours, and $140M of that was shorts getting wiped as price pushed higher.
That’s what happens when positioning gets one sided. Crowd leans bearish, price barely moves down, then a small push up turns into forced buying.
Shorts didn’t get out, they got taken out.
These kinds of moves don’t mean we go straight up forever, but they do tell you something important: downside pressure is weakening, and the market is punishing late bears.
When shorts are the ones paying the bill, momentum usually isn’t done yet.
$PENGU is sitting in a very interesting spot right now.
This zone lines up perfectly with a strong volume profile area, and price is quietly grinding higher without attracting too much attention. That’s usually a sign of strength, not weakness. Relative to the rest of the market, PENGU is clearly one of the stronger alts.
It also checks multiple boxes that matter in this environment.
Memes are still the strongest performing sector. Like it or not, liquidity keeps flowing there first. It has clear $SOL beta, and we’ve seen how hard Solana-linked memes can run. Just look at BONK or even FARTCOIN. And unlike most meme projects, this one is tied to a real global brand. Pudgy just put itself on the Sphere, which says a lot about reach and execution.
Most importantly, Pudgy is actually generating revenue. That alone separates it from 99 percent of the space.
Fresh large holders are accumulating $BTC at the fastest pace we’ve ever recorded, absorbing supply while sentiment remains fragile. This isn’t late-cycle retail behavior. It’s patient capital positioning during uncertainty.
Historically, this kind of accumulation shows up near transition phases, when price goes nowhere, narratives feel exhausted, and most participants lose interest. That’s usually when ownership quietly shifts from weak hands to stronger ones.
What makes this cycle different is who the buyers are. Not hype-driven newcomers, but well-capitalized entities with longer time horizons and no urgency to chase green candles. They’re buying inactivity, boredom, and doubt.
Price can still move lower. That’s always possible.
But structurally, Bitcoin is being reallocated into fewer, stronger hands. And that rarely happens at cycle tops.
When momentum eventually returns, supply won’t be where most expect it to be.
Won the court case. Cleared the regulatory fog. Secured ETF approval.
And yet, price barely followed.
That disconnect matters.
Markets don’t move on headlines alone. They move on sustained demand, liquidity rotation, and capital conviction. While XRP achieved major structural wins, those wins didn’t translate into aggressive spot bidding the way many expected.
The result is a strange situation where fundamentals look stronger than ever, but price remains stuck in relative underperformance.
Looking into 2026, a $5 XRP is possible, but far from guaranteed. It will likely require broader risk-on conditions, real usage translating into volume, and capital rotating beyond Bitcoin and a few select large caps.
$XRP is no longer fighting survival.
Now it’s fighting relevance in a very competitive market.
ETFs just wrapped up a record year with $1.48 TRILLION in total inflows.
That number alone matters, but the real signal is underneath it.
BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF $IBIT finished 6th overall, competing directly with decades old traditional finance giants. Not in a “crypto category”. Not in a niche bucket. Sixth across all ETFs.
That tells you exactly where institutional attention is flowing.
This wasn’t retail chasing memes. This was pensions, advisors, family offices, and balance sheets allocating quietly, consistently, and at scale. The same capital that usually moves slow decided Bitcoin deserved a seat at the table.
And this happened during a year where crypto sentiment was still shaky and volatility scared most people away.
Let that sink in.
When confidence fully returns, when narratives flip from fear to inevitability, these flows don’t slow down. They accelerate.
Bitcoin isn’t knocking on TradFi’s door anymore.
It’s already inside.
$BTC
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