Sam Bankman-Fried turns up Trump support following Ellison’s release

The crypto market is facing a major sell-off today, with total market value dropping to $2.66 trillion, down more than 6% in the last 24 hours. Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP and other major cryptocurrencies have all fallen sharply, wiping out nearly $500 billion from the market in just a few days.

The biggest reason behind this fall is global uncertainty around interest rates. Investors turned bearish after news related to a new US Federal Reserve leadership appointment, which raised fears that future monetary policy could stay tighter for longer. When interest rates are expected to remain high, risky assets like crypto usually suffer, as investors move money into safer options.

This macro-driven fear pushed both stock markets and crypto lower at the same time. Over the past week, crypto prices have shown a strong link with US equities, showing how closely digital assets now react to traditional financial markets.

The decline was made much worse by massive liquidations. As prices started falling, leveraged traders were forced out of their positions. Over the last three days, nearly $5 billion worth of leveraged long and short positions were liquidated. When this happens, exchanges automatically sell assets to cover losses, which adds extra selling pressure and accelerates the crash.

Ethereum has been hit particularly hard. Reports of large unrealised losses held by institutional players increased fear around ETH, dragging down the wider altcoin market. As Ethereum weakened, confidence across the market dropped further.

Here’s how major cryptocurrencies were affected:

• Bitcoin fell around 13%, losing nearly $265 billion in market value.
• Ethereum dropped about 25%, erasing roughly $91 billion.
• XRP declined close to 22%, wiping out around $24 billion.
• Solana crashed more than 23%, losing about $16 billion.

Market sentiment has turned extremely bearish. The Fear and Greed Index has slipped to 18, a level classified as Extreme Fear. Many technical indicators now show the market is oversold, meaning prices may have fallen too fast in a short time.

Looking ahead, the short-term outlook depends on whether Bitcoin can hold the $77,000 support level. If that breaks, further downside is possible. Investors are also closely watching upcoming signals from the US Federal Reserve, which could determine whether markets stabilise or see another wave of selling.

February 1, 2026 06:14:23 UTC

India Budget 2026: India’s Crypto TDS Mismatch Leaves Traders Owed Crores in Refunds

India’s crypto ecosystem saw ₹511.83 crore collected as TDS in FY 2024–25, but new data highlights a growing mismatch between tax deducted and actual tax owed. KoinX users alone contributed ₹130.16 crore, or 25.43% of total collections, even though their final tax liability stood at only ₹91.64 crore. This resulted in an estimated ₹38.52 crore locked in excess TDS and potential refunds.

The imbalance appears widespread. Over 30% of TDS deductions exceeded traders’ final tax dues, while nearly half of all TDS-paying users ended the year with net capital losses. At the same time, trading activity remains highly concentrated, with less than 5% of traders accounting for 87% of total TDS collections.

February 1, 2026 05:31:02 UTC

India Budget 2026: New Data Fuels Calls to Reform India’s Crypto Tax Regime

As the Union Budget 2026 approaches, India’s crypto industry is calling for a more outcome-based tax framework, including rationalisation of the 30% capital gains tax, permission to offset losses, and a review of the 1% tax deducted at source (TDS) on crypto transactions. These demands are supported by India’s Crypto Tax Story 2025, a new report by KoinX, which analyses anonymised data from nearly 7 lakh Indian crypto users in FY 2024–25 and shows how current tax rules often diverge from actual investor outcomes.

February 1, 2026 05:09:14 UTC

India Budget 2026: Crypto Rules Must Shift Beyond Tax and Enforcement,

Manhar Garegrat, Country Head–India at Liminal Custody, said India’s crypto policy needs to move toward market structure and sustainability, warning that current tax frictions are pushing compliant trading activity offshore. He urged Budget 2026 to rethink transaction-level taxes and consider a VDA transaction tax model to keep crypto activity onshore, transparent, and economically viable.

February 1, 2026 05:09:14 UTC

India Budget 2026: Will Crypto Take Center Stage?

Crypto and Bitcoin taxes are in focus today, with expectations of rationalisation and clearer rules rather than any expansion of the 30% levy, even as the government has not yet signaled formal changes.

Venus is signaling a new DeFi initiative on BNB Chain, with a dated announcement for February 4, 2026, according to the project’s teaser on X (source). While details are not yet disclosed, such campaigns typically involve new products, integrations, or incentive programs that can increase protocol usage and total value locked. For XVS, higher activity on Venus can support demand for the governance/utility token (e.g., through collateral usage, governance relevance, and potential incentive distribution). Traders may position ahead of the reveal, but the actual price impact will depend on whether the announced features materially expand Venus’s user base and revenue.

Casper Network’s CTO/President Michael Steuer and CEO Matt Schaffnit will host a live X Space on February 5, 2026, to share updates and take community questions, as announced in the project’s X post (source). Mechanically, this is a communication event, not a protocol upgrade, but leadership AMAs often surface roadmap details, ecosystem plans, or partnership hints that can shift market expectations about network growth. Traders may speculate ahead of the call on the possibility of bullish disclosures. The actual price effect on CSPR will hinge on whether concrete, near-term catalysts are revealed versus high-level discussion without new actionable information.

BitTap will list Stable with a STABLE/USDT spot pair, with deposits opening February 1 and trading starting February 2, 2026, as outlined in the listing notice reshared by the project on X (source). The mechanism is straightforward: a new centralized exchange market adds an additional liquidity venue and fiat-on-ramp path via USDT, potentially broadening the holder base if BitTap’s user activity is meaningful. Listings often trigger short-term speculative flows and elevated volatility around the opening of trading, but the sustained price impact will depend on real trading volumes, order-book depth, and whether further exchange integrations follow.

Bitcoin bearish sentiments continue to dominate the market, after prices fell below the key $80,000 on January 31, resulting in a new wave of market liquidations. Interestingly, a pseudonymous analyst with the username CryptoMe has identified an “air pocket” in the present price structure, which potentially points to the downside target of this recent price drop.

Bitcoin Now Below $80K Support Zone – What Next?

In a QuickTake post on January 31, CryptoMe draws attention to an existing price vacuum between $73,000 – $80,000 as confirmed by three different market metrics. This observation is important in anticipating Bitcoin downside targets, considering the presently heightened market fears following the latest price decline. 

According to CryptoMe, liquidity levels on the Binance spot order book showed a concentration of limit buy orders between $73,000 – $80,000 that formed between late October and early November. Despite the price surge from $80,000 to around $100,000 seen in late Q4 2025, the liquidity cluster price zone remained untouched. Therefore, the zone is likely to act as a short-term price magnet should bearish momentum persist, as markets often gravitate toward areas of unfilled liquidity during periods of heightened volatility.

Another on-chain metric that supports the existence of an air pocket between $73,000 – $80,000 is the Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) price histogram. Each Bitcoin transaction consumes existing UTXOs and creates new ones; therefore, UTXOs are a good measure of on-chain transaction activity. As seen in the chart above, the sparse UTXO density between $73,000 and $80,000 suggests that a small number of transactions occurred within this price range. Thus, investors failed to establish a cost basis that would prevent further price decline, as prices have now slipped below $80,000.

The final metric highlighted by CryptoMe is the Spot ETF Investor Average Cost, which currently stands at $79,000. Following the launch of the Bitcoin Spot ETFs in January 2024, Bitcoin has failed to trade below its realized price until now. Considering all three metrics, it’s likely that Bitcoin is headed for the $73,000 price mark, which the market has not visited since April 2025. Moreover, such a decline would represent a 40% devaluation from the present market all-time high. 

Bitcoin Price Overview

At the time of writing, Bitcoin trades at $78,558, reflecting a 6.5% increase in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, total trading volume is up by 37.15% and valued at $74.67 billion.