Bitcoin falls to $81K, triggering $1.7B in liquidations

Solana failed to settle above $125 and extended losses. SOL price is now consolidating losses below $120 and might struggle to start a recovery wave.

• SOL price started a fresh decline below $120 and $115 against the US Dollar.
• The price is now trading below $120 and the 100-hourly simple moving average.
• There is a key bearish trend line forming with resistance at $116 on the hourly chart of the SOL/USD pair (data source from Kraken).
• The price could start a recovery wave if the bulls defend $112 or $105.

Solana Price Dips Again

Solana price failed to remain stable above $125 and started a fresh decline, like Bitcoin and Ethereum. SOL declined below the $125 and $122 support levels.

The price gained bearish momentum below $120. A low was formed at $112, and the price is now consolidating losses. The price recovered a few points and climbed toward the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the downward move from the $128 swing high to the $112 low.

Solana is now trading below $120 and the 100-hourly simple moving average. On the upside, immediate resistance is near the $116 level. There is also a key bearish trend line forming with resistance at $116 on the hourly chart of the SOL/USD pair.

The next major resistance is near the $120 level or the 50% Fib retracement level of the downward move from the $128 swing high to the $112 low. The main resistance could be $122. A successful close above the $122 resistance zone could set the pace for another steady increase. The next key resistance is $125. Any more gains might send the price toward the $132 level.

Another Drop In SOL?

If SOL fails to rise above the $116 resistance, it could continue to move down. Initial support on the downside is near the $114 zone. The first major support is near the $112 level.

A break below the $112 level might send the price toward the $105 support zone. If there is a close below the $105 support, the price could decline toward the $102 support in the near term.

Technical Indicators

Hourly MACD – The MACD for SOL/USD is losing pace in the bearish zone.

Hourly Hours RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for SOL/USD is below the 50 level.

Major Support Levels – $112 and $105.

Major Resistance Levels – $116 and $120.

Roughly $8.8 billion worth of Bitcoin and Ethereum options expire today, January 30, 2026, marking the first monthly options expiry of the year.

It places renewed focus on Bitcoin’s struggle to reclaim the $90,000 level, as the pioneer crypto continues to drift further away from it.

Options Market Signals Caution as Bitcoin Drifts Further Below $90,000

The bulk of today’s exposure sits in Bitcoin options, which account for $7.54 billion in notional value, while Ethereum options make up a further $1.2 billion.

Bitcoin is currently trading at $82,761, well below its $90,000 max pain level. Despite the pullback, positioning remains structurally bullish.

Call open interest stands at 61,437 contracts, compared to 29,648 puts, pushing the put-to-call ratio (PCR) down to 0.48. Total open interest across Bitcoin options stands at 91,085 contracts, highlighting the scale of leverage and positioning ahead of expiry.

However, beneath the surface, trader behavior is becoming increasingly defensive. Analysts at Deribit noted that while Bitcoin remains range-bound, demand for downside protection has risen sharply heading into expiry.

They added that the options expiry could amplify moves around key levels, especially around the pain zones. This assumption holds because prices tend to gravitate toward the max pain levels as options near expiry.

Ethereum reflects a similar, though slightly more balanced, setup. ETH is trading at $2,751, below its $3,000 max pain level. Total open interest in Ethereum options stands at 439,192 contracts, with call open interest at 257,721 and put open interest at 181,471. The resulting put-to-call ratio of 0.70 suggests more two-sided positioning compared to Bitcoin, but still points to caution rather than outright bearishness.

Fading Volatility and Growing Liquidity Risks Set the Stage for January Options Expiry

At the macro level, volatility expectations continue to fade. According to analysts at Greeks.live, implied volatility (IV) has been grinding lower, reinforcing a broader consolidation across crypto markets.

As expected, the Federal Reserve did not cut interest rates, and with no major events on the horizon, the market remains remarkably stable, with implied volatility (IV) continuing its downward trend. Bitcoin’s price action reflects that stability.

Greeks.live noted that Bitcoin has “retreated back into its consolidation range in the latter half of the month,” with $90,000 acting as firm resistance.

Still, risks are building beneath the calm surface. Greeks.live highlighted recent large-scale institutional outflows into exchanges, which have increased liquidity pressures across the crypto market.

Crypto-related US equities have also weakened, contributing to a sentiment shift that is gradually turning pessimistic. Amid broader geopolitical tensions and rising fear, uncertainty, and doubt, negative sentiment has continued to intensify.

Ahead of the Federal Reserve’s rate decision, some traders had already moved to hedge short-term volatility by purchasing downside protection, a trend that has persisted even after the central bank opted to hold rates steady.

With no clear macro catalyst on the immediate horizon, traders now appear braced for potential short-term dislocations around the options expiry, hedging against downside risk while waiting for a decisive break from Bitcoin’s $80,000 to $90,000 range.

DUBAI, UAE, Jan. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Bybit, the world's second-largest crypto exchange by trading volume, today announced its 2026 transformation into "The New Financial Platform," a global financial ecosystem designed to expand access to modern banking, investment, and payments infrastructure for the world's underserved populations. The vision, unveiled by co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou during the biannual keynote session, positions the company beyond its origins as a cryptocurrency exchange and into a unified financial platform connecting crypto, traditional markets, and real-world financial services.

At the center of the strategy is a long-term mission: empowering the 1.4 billion underbanked people globally by reducing barriers to participation in modern finance.

Millions remain excluded from reliable banking access due to geography, infrastructure limitations, or restrictive financial systems. Bybit's platform architecture leverages blockchain technology to deliver always-on, borderless financial services that integrate seamlessly with regulated fiat infrastructure.

MyBank: Retail Banking Without Borders

A cornerstone of this initiative is MyBank, Bybit's new retail banking layer targeting to launch in February 2026. MyBank provides dedicated accounts that simplify large-value fiat on- and off-ramps while enabling everyday financial transactions across borders under the compliance framework.

The service is designed to address real-world problems faced by users in emerging markets: slow transfers, limited access, high fees, and limited products. By integrating crypto liquidity with banking rails, MyBank enables faster and more cost-efficient capital utilization for individuals and businesses with bank-grade experience.

ByCustody: Institutional-Grade Asset Protection

Financial inclusion requires trust. Bybit's institutional custody framework, ByCustody, underpins over $5 billion in assets managed by over 30 professional asset managers on the platform. The custody architecture supports secure segregation of client assets, enabling institutions and private wealth clients to operate with traditional financial safeguards while accessing digital markets.

More than 2,000 institutions now use Bybit's infrastructure — a 100% year-over-year increase — reflecting growing demand for hybrid financial platforms that bridge traditional and digital asset ecosystems.

A Unified Financial Infrastructure

Bybit now serves over 82 million users across 181 countries and regions, supported by:

• Connectivity to nearly 2,000 local banks and 58+ fiat gateways
• Over 200,000 P2P merchants worldwide
• Over 2.7 million Bybit Cards issued globally
• Local fiat payment support in 10+ countries via Bybit Pay
• $7.1 billion in Bybit Earn AUM, generating $110 million in yield for users in 2025
• As of January 29, 2026, Bybit led XAUT (Tether Gold) spot trading worldwide with 16% market share

Evolved from the world's first TradFi product from a crypto exchange in 2022, Bybit TradFi now integrates more than 200 TradFi instruments, with plans to launch 500 trading pairs in Q1, including stocks CFDs, forex, commodities, and indices, alongside crypto markets — creating a single environment where users can manage diversified financial activity.

Compliance-Driven Global Expansion

Bybit's platform evolution is being built in alignment with evolving global regulatory frameworks and in collaboration with licensed banking and custodial partners. Institutional onboarding standards, custody architecture, and transaction monitoring systems are being strengthened to meet expectations of regulators and traditional financial participants.

The company maintains active collaborations with more than 10 global banks and custodians, enabling unified collateral systems where fiat, traditional assets, and crypto holdings can coexist securely.

AI as Financial Infrastructure

Artificial intelligence is being deployed as core infrastructure across Bybit's operations — not as an add-on feature, but as a system-wide efficiency engine.

AI adoption has already improved engineering productivity by 30%. In 2026, Bybit will roll out:

• AI4SE, targeting 50% efficiency gains across the software lifecycle
• A company-wide AI agent network supporting risk control, compliance monitoring, customer service, and analytics
• Upgraded TradeGPT, a personalized AI assistant simplifying access to financial markets

This AI framework is designed to lower operational costs, improve risk management, and scale financial services to underserved populations.

"This transformation is about mainstream finance," Zhou added. "We are moving beyond niche crypto services to build a new financial platform where crypto becomes a core part of real-world financial activity - empowering users across both traditional and crypto markets to unlock more efficient capital utilization."

#Bybit / #CryptoArk

About Bybit

Bybit is the world's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, serving a global community of over 80 million users. Founded in 2018, Bybit is redefining openness in the decentralized world by creating a simpler, open and equal ecosystem for everyone. With a strong focus on Web3, Bybit partners strategically with leading blockchain protocols to provide robust infrastructure and drive on-chain innovation. Renowned for its secure custody, diverse marketplaces, intuitive user experience, and advanced blockchain tools, Bybit bridges the gap between TradFi and DeFi, empowering builders, creators, and enthusiasts to unlock the full potential of Web3. Discover the future of decentralized finance at Bybit.com.

For more details about Bybit, please visit Bybit Press

For media inquiries, please contact: media@bybit.com

For updates, please follow: Bybit's Communities and Social Media

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Ethereum (ETH) has retested its crucial $2,800 support level for the second time this week, as the broader crypto market erases all its intraweek gains. Some market observers have weighed in on whether investors should worry about King of Altcoin’s performance.

Ethereum Plunges Amid Broader Market Crash

On Thursday, global markets experienced a sharp decline, with stocks, cryptocurrencies, and even precious metals erasing over $3 trillion in market value in just a few hours.

Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, followed the market-wide correction, retracing 6.9% in the daily timeframe. The cryptocurrency has been hovering between $2,800 and $3,300 since the start of the year and attempted to reclaim the upper zone of this range this month.

Nonetheless, the recent geopolitical tensions and macroeconomic uncertainty have weakened the appetite for risk assets and halted the crypto market’s early January momentum.

According to Binance market data, Ethereum fell below $2,800 on Thursday morning, briefly bouncing before reaching a one-month low of $2,773. Meanwhile, the leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Bitcoin (BTC), saw a sharp 6.2% decline, reaching a two-month low of $83,934.

Data from CoinGlass shows that crypto liquidations over the past 24 hours surged to nearly $1 billion, with $917.17 million in leveraged positions forcibly closed at the time of writing. During this period, 223,915 traders were liquidated, and the largest single liquidation order happened on Hyperliquid, valued at $31.64 million.

Notably, more than half of the liquidations occurred in the past four hours, wiping out over $620 million since the morning. Around $422 million came from Bitcoin positions, while $160 million came from Ethereum positions.

ETH Price In ‘Endless Range’

Amid the market correction, some analysts shared their perspective on ETH’s price action. Sjuul from AltCryptoGems highlighted Ethereum’s price range in the daily chart, where the altcoin has hovered over the past two months.

According to the analyst, there isn’t a clear trend as Ethereum continues to trade within its “seemingly endless range” between $2,600 and $3,350. He suggested that investors should wait for a proper breakout above the upper boundary or a breakdown from the range lows before celebrating or worrying.

Similarly, trader EliZ affirmed that ETH’s macro perspective doesn’t show either real strength or weakness, but “an enormous, forced equilibrium” on the longer timeframes.

He pointed out that ETH “continues to move within well-defined boxes, above and below the same levels for months/years, without ever building a directionality that can be described as structural.”

Based on this, the trader asserted that without a successful move and confirmation from its key range, short-term efforts don’t signal a “change of regime. Only liquidity rotation.”

“We are not in a bullish phase, nor are we in a bearish phase. We are in a macro stalemate, where the market decides not to decide. Until we see a clean and sustained breakout of the indicated boxes …or a net loss of the same …any strong narrative is just storytelling,” he concluded.

As of this writing, Ethereum is trading at $2,798, a 5.3% decline on the weekly timeframe.

Tokenization platform Securitize has said its revenues are up over 840% to September 2025 in a new filing to go public that moves ahead with its plan to merge with a black check company backed by Cantor Fitzgerald.

Securitize Holdings said in a public registration statement filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday that its total revenues for the nine months ended September 2025 reached f $55.6 million, an 841% increase from the same period in 2024.

For all of 2024, Securitize reported total revenue of $18.8 million, representing a 129% increase compared to $8.2 million for 2023. 

The company projected revenues of $110 million for 2026 with $32 million adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA). 

The filing moves forward with its announcement in October that it would merge with Cantor Equity Partners II, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) backed by Cantor Fitzgerald.

Traditional finance firms are increasingly exploring tokenization, having been given the confidence to try the technology under a crypto-friendly SEC.

Securitize valued at $1.24 billion 

Securitize has said the deal would value the company at $1.24 billion in pre-transaction enterprise value and includes a $225 million Private Investment in Public Equity (PIPE), a financing method where institutional investors buy shares in a private placement. 

The deal, expected to close in the first half of this year, still requires shareholder approval and SEC clearance before completion.

Related: SEC gives guidance on issuer vs third-party tokenized securities

“Securitize is well-positioned to capitalize on the potential tokenization market due to its products, connectivity to the crypto ecosystem, and ability to attract customers, partners, and investors,” it said in the filing. 

The tokenization platform has $4 billion in assets under management and blue-chip institutional partnerships, including BlackRock, Apollo, Hamilton Lane, and VanEck, and has seen revenues soar on the real-world asset tokenization boom over the past year. 

Tokenized value on-chain surges

The on-chain value of tokenized assets has surged 310% over the past 12 months, according to RWA.xyz.

It is currently at an all-time high of $24.2 billion, excluding stablecoins, with 40% of that total in tokenized US Treasuries, 20% in tokenized commodities, 11% in tokenized private credit, and the rest in tokenized alternative funds, corporate bonds, non-US government debt, and private and public equity. 

Ethereum is the industry-leading blockchain for asset tokenization, with a 65% market share when layer-2 networks are included. 

Bitcoin’s (BTC) price dropped by nearly $10,000 on Thursday, triggering nearly $1.7 billion in liquidations across the crypto market.

Bitcoin’s price was trading at around $82,100 at the time of writing, recuperating from an intra-day low of $81,000 after starting the day around at around $89,000. This is the lowest price BTC has seen since late-November last year, when it dipped to around $80,500. 

The massive drop in Bitcoin’s price led to $1.68 billion in liquidations over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGlass data, marking the largest liquidation event so far this year. Most of the forced unwinds came from long positions, amounting to around $1.57 billion with Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP) and Solana (SOL) leading losses.

The overall cryptocurrency market fell 6% in the last 24 hours, dipping below $3 trillion. Other crypto majors were also in the red, with Solana leading losses among the top 10 by market capitalization.

What Are Retail Users Saying?

On Stocktwits, BTC was the top trending ticker at the time of writing. Chatter around the apex cryptocurrency rose to ‘high’ from ‘normal’ levels even as retail sentiment remained in ‘extremely bearish’ territory. 

One user on Stocktwits forecast that Bitcoin hasn’t bottomed out and is likely to keep dipping till it hits at least $30,000.

https://www.stocktwits.com/Wallstreetbman/message/643392914

Another said that Bitcoin is on track to be the worst performing asset over the past five years. 

https://www.stocktwits.com/wttrader/message/643392846

Why Is Bitcoin’s Price Falling?

Analyst Castillo Trading pegged the blame on Binance, stating every time Bitcoin’s price dipped today, most of the selling came from Binance’s spot market. He said that Bitcoin will only rebound when selling pressure from Binance eases, making Binance a key driver of today’s price action.