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Janu-rally

Bitcoin rallies to 3-month high

One analyst said the near-term outlook over the next three to five months points to bitcoin advancing toward the $120,000 range.

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy

Bitcoin continues to rally following a better-than-expected CPI report on Tuesday, passing $96,000 Wednesday morning, its highest level in three months.

Bitcoin ETFs are also in the green, recording $753.7 million in inflows on Tuesday, the largest since October 7, according to SoSoValue. The Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund took the lion’s share, with $351.3 million in inflows, followed by the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF, with $159.4 million.

Reflecting the renewed optimism, CoinMarketCap’s Fear and Greed Index stands at 52 (neutral), its highest level since the crypto crash on October 10 that triggered $19.1 billion in crypto liquidations.

Concerns remain around the trajectory of the administration’s probe into Fed Chair Jerome Powell, which could affect bitcoin.

“For the crypto market, the core macro variables remain the duration of elevated interest rates and the credibility of policy institutions,” Dean Chen, an analyst at Bitunix, said.

Chen noted that in the short term, the $91,031 level is a key support to monitor, with $97,237 acting as the primary resistance zone.

“If concerns over central bank independence continue to widen — driving volatility in the dollar and real yields — crypto asset volatility is likely to increase,” he added.

On the other hand, if markets regain confidence that the policy path is not being politically distorted, bitcoin may reenter a bullish rhythm following a period of structural consolidation, he said.

“Crypto markets should remain highly attentive to how shifts in the macro narrative cascade into changes in overall risk appetite,” Chen said.

Bitget Wallet research analyst Lacie Zhang said that the recent stabilization in bitcoin suggests the market is rebuilding conviction rather than chasing short-term momentum.

Zhang said the near-term outlook over the next three to five months points to bitcoin advancing toward the $120,000 range as sentiment and inflows improve.

Over a longer horizon into year-end, bitcoin could move toward $180,000, reflecting a market increasingly driven by structural demand rather than episodic speculation, Zhang said. 

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$82B

Crypto money laundering activity totaled more than $82 billion in 2025, more than 8x higher than 2020’s figure of $10 billion, according to a Tuesday report published by crypto analytics firm Chainalysis. Chinese-language networks dominated the ecosystem, accounting for roughly 20% of the illicit activity, or $16.1 billion, last year:

“Compared to other laundering endpoints, since 2020, inflows to identified CMLNs [Chinese-langugage money laundering networks] grew 7,325 times faster than those to centralized exchanges, 1,810 times faster than those to decentralized finance (DeFi), and 2,190 times faster than intra-illicit on-chain flows.”

Tom Keatinge, director at the Centre for Finance & Security at security think tank Royal United Services Institute, told Chainalysis that the rapid development of Chinese-language networks is an “an unforeseen consequence” of China’s imposition of capital controls.

“Wealthy individuals seeking to move money out of China and evade these controls provide the impetus and liquidity pool needed to service organized crime groups based in the West,” he noted.

Keatinge told Chainalysis, “The professional enablers of this capital flight provide the services necessary to match these two independent yet mutually beneficial needs.” 

Chinese-language networks offer six primary money movement techniques to clean dirty money, which include recruiting individuals to rent out their financial identities, selling illicit cryptocurrency at a discounted rate, and obscuring fund origins through multiple transactions. 

Overall, this Chinese ecosystem processed nearly $44 million per day last year. 

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Avalanche joins class of cryptocurrencies with at least one ETF

Investment management company VanEck on Monday introduced the first exchange-traded fund offering spot exposure to AVAX, the native token for the Avalanche blockchain and the latest cryptocurrency with an ETF. 

The new investment vehicle also aims to provide staking rewards for holders, according to the press release. AVAX, which has seen over $354 million in trading volume in the last 24 hours, is up slightly today. The token is trading at $11.70 as of 1:20 p.m. ET, a far cry from its all-time high of $144.96 in 2021. 

The nascent VanEck fund joins a group of its crypto-specific ETFs, including the firm’s bitcoin ETF, with $1.4 billion in total assets; its ethereum ETF, which holds $147.5 million; and its solana ETF, with assets totaling $27.9 million.

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Ethereum treasury firm ETHZilla acquires two aircraft engines (!?!?) in tokenization push

ETHZilla, known for its ethereum treasury, formed a new subsidiary and purchased aerospace equipment in a bid to boost the company’s tokenization efforts. 

The treasury firm, through its nascent subsidiary ETHZilla Aerospace LLC, “acquired two CFM56-7B24 aircraft engines, together with all parts, engine records and engine stands” for $12.2 million from Avean Engine Solutions, according to an 8K filing on Friday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. 

The two aircraft engines are subject to lease agreements with a major airline, which were assigned to ETHZilla as part of the acquisition, the filing stated.

The firm’s top priority in 2026 is growing its real-world asset tokenization business and is keen on rolling out RWA tokens in the first quarter, an ETHZilla representative told Sherwood News at the beginning of the year. 

ETHZilla’s acquisition of two aircraft engines is part of this tokenization road map, which aims to bring real-world assets from high-value vertical markets, such as aerospace, maritime, and heavy equipment, on-chain. 

“In the heavy equipment market, we will initially focus on aerospace assets such as aircraft engines and airframes to tokenize,” ETHZilla Chairman and CEO McAndrew Rudisill said in his shareholder letter from December. “This represents a large, growing market with quality high-yielding assets, and we believe it is a very attractive space for tokenization.” 

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