SnapShot 242

Hello SnapShotters,

Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s new tariff threats, BTC plunged below US$90,000 this week, trading below its 50-day exponential moving average as markets fled to safety. 

Trump announced plans to impose 10% tariffs on eight European nations starting February 1, escalating to 25% by June unless negotiations succeed over the "complete and total purchase of Greenland." Despite the volatility, Michael Saylor’s Strategy was seen accumulating over $2 billion worth of BTC.

SOL bore the brunt of the selloff, dropping 8.6% in 24 hours, and ETH fell below $3,000, extending its underperformance relative to BTC. The selloff erased roughly $100 billion from the total crypto market capitalization, which touched the $3 trillion floor.

The tariff announcement also triggered a risk-off move across equities, driving safe haven assets like gold to highs of above $4,700 per ounce.

The European Union convened emergency meetings and signalled potential retaliatory measures, including up to €93 billion (US$108 billion) in previously delayed tariffs and deployment of its Anti-Coercion Instrument — colloquially dubbed the “trade bazooka.”

Later in the week, Trump softened his tariff stance at the World Economic Forum, sending BTC back to the $90,000 level.

As the debate over whether this is another macro shock or a deeper structural deterioration intensifies, U.S. spot BTC ETFs recorded $1.4 billion in net inflows last week, reversing the prior period's $681 million outflow, while ETH spot ETFs pulled in $479 million, compared to $69 million in outflows the week before.

Here are the week's top stories as crypto navigates renewed global trade tensions.

Market Spotlight

Note: Market prices captured in USD at the time of sending. Explore more on Crypto‌.com/Price. 

Want more? Get weekly Market and DeFi Updates from Crypto.‌com’s Research Team.

News Snaps

🔗 Chainlink Brings 24/5 On-Chain Data for U.S. Stocks and ETFs
Chainlink expanded its data streams to cover U.S. equities and ETFs beyond regular market hours. Decentralized apps can access price data after-hours and overnight sessions, lowering off-hours pricing gaps.

💎 Ethereum Activity Hits Record as Fees Sink
Ethereum’s daily transactions climbed to a new all-time high, with the seven-day average nearing 2.5 million as average gas fees fell to about $0.15 — the lowest on record — driven by cheaper execution after the Fusaka upgrade.

🍔 Steak ’n Shake Beefs Up BTC Treasury
Steak ’n Shake added $10 million in BTC to its balance sheet, its first disclosed BTC treasury move. It is also planning to offer hourly employees bonuses in BTC, which will vest over two years.

🐋 Large BTC Holders Accumulate at Fastest Pace Since 2022
Mid-to-large-sized BTC holders, known as the “fish-to-sharks” cohort, added roughly 110,000 BTC over the past 30 days — the strongest monthly accumulation since the FTX-driven market collapse, according to Glassnode.

🧾 Grayscale to Convert NEAR Trust Into ETF
Grayscale filed to convert its NEAR Protocol Trust into an ETF listed on NYSE Arca, extending its trust-to-ETF playbook despite weak altcoin performance. The NEAR Trust’s net asset value (NAV) is down about 45% since September. 

🧬 Injective Votes to Tighten INJ Supply
Injective’s community approved a tokenomics overhaul with 99.89% support, cutting issuance while keeping its buyback-and-burn program intact. About 6.85 million INJ have already been removed from circulation.

What’s Ahead

📅 CME Bitcoin Futures Expiry
CME’s January 2026 Bitcoin Futures (BTCF26) contract expires on January 30, a setup that may amplify positioning shifts and short-term volatility into the close.

Number of the Week

Source: CoinShares

Chart of the Week

Ethereum Active Addresses Hit a New High

Ethereum’s 30-day moving average of active addresses climbed sharply into January 2026, reaching a ten-year high of 785,000 on January 18 — a 39% increase from the previous month.

Here, “active addresses” refers to the number of unique Ethereum addresses that were active in a day (sending or receiving), averaged over 30 days. The longer history shows that activity tends to move in waves, with the latest upswing coinciding with the Fusaka upgrade and recent increase in blob target and limit.

As of January 18, 2026
Source: Etherscan, Crypto.com Research

Research & Insights

Crypto Market Sizing Report 2025

The number of global crypto owners rose to roughly 741 million, up about 12% year-on-year. Growth slowed compared to earlier cycles, yet remained steady despite bearish conditions in the final months of 2025.

BTC remained the dominant asset by reach, with an estimated 365 million owners — accounting for just under half of all crypto holders. The report also highlights that a meaningful number of investors now hold BTC indirectly via U.S. spot ETFs, adding exposure without necessarily increasing on-chain wallet counts.

ETH ownership grew faster than BTC’s, rising to around 175 million owners and driven by activity linked to staking, tokenization, and treasury use cases.

Overall, the data indicated that ownership grew in 2025, but capital intensity and usage patterns were the focal points rather than raw wallet counts.

🔎 For a closer look behind these figures, read the full Crypto Market Sizing 2025 report.

Crypto Trivia

As of today, which U.S. regulator takes the lead in scrutinizing and enforcing rules across much of the crypto market?

A) Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
B) Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)
C) Federal Reserve

Find the correct answer at the end of this newsletter.

NFT Spotlight

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This drop unites creative platform Santa Fe NFT, creator Pop Lazarus, and cultural institution Global Media Archives in a shared mission to grow the brand and disrupt the coffee industry.
Collectors can unlock unique utility tokens designed to help them progress through the ecosystem.

Be part of the revival and shop the drop today.

Product Updates

New Tokens

Fogo (FOGO)

Fogo is a high-performance Layer-1 blockchain designed for low-latency trading and DeFi applications. Built on Solana's architecture, it utilizes multi-local consensus to achieve minimal latency. The Firedancer-based Fogo client is fully compatible with the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM). FOGO is the network's native token.

Seeker (SKR)

Seeker is the utility and governance token for Solana Mobile’s Seeker Web3 smartphone, replacing centralized app stores with an open mobile platform. It rewards users, developers, and hardware partners for curation and participation in a token-powered mobile Web3 economy. Unique hardware-token integration via staking to Guardians ties real mobile activity to on-chain incentives.

Frax (FRAX)
Frax (previously known as FXS or Frax Share) is the native gas token of the Fraxtal blockchain, an  EVM-compatible modular Layer-2 built on the OP Stack by Frax Finance.

Immunefi (IMU)

Immunefi is a Web3 security platform that runs bug bounty programs and broader security operations for crypto protocols, connecting them with whitehat researchers to find and fix vulnerabilities before they are exploited. IMU is the native governance and utility token of the Immunefi security ecosystem, used to coordinate incentives, access platform features, and participate in decision-making around Web3 security.

This is informational content only and should not be considered as an investment recommendation. Some Crypto.com products may not be available in some jurisdictions.

Byte Sized

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Security Tips

$282 Million in Bitcoin and Litecoin Stolen in Hardware Wallet Scam
What looked like a secure way to store crypto turned into a $282 million loss after scammers exploited investor trust in hardware wallets to drain bitcoin and Litecoin holdings.

Scammers sold or distributed tampered hardware wallets that appeared legitimate and instructed victims to set them up using pre-generated seed phrases. This gave attackers full access once funds were deposited. In some cases, fake setup guides and customer support reinforced the illusion of security.

After deposits were made, wallets were drained, leaving victims with no way to recover their assets. The case highlights how scams now target crypto custody itself, not just fake investments or phishing.

How to Store Crypto Safely:

1. Only buy hardware wallets directly from official manufacturers or authorized sellers.
2. Never use a recovery phrase provided by someone else.
3. Verify wallet setup instructions through official documentation before depositing funds.

Crypto Trivia Answer

A) Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ✅

In the absence of a dedicated crypto law, the SEC has become the de facto watchdog, bringing enforcement actions against exchanges, token issuers, and platforms under existing securities rules.

That's it for this week's SnapShot. Want more? Find out what’s trending in the crypto world.