Steak 'n Shake allocated $10 million to Bitcoin on Jan. 17, adding BTC to its balance sheet, BlockBeats reports. The U.S. chain has accepted Bitcoin payments since May 2025 via the Lightning Network to lower credit card fees and attract younger crypto users. The company disclosed Q2 2025 same-store sales rose over 10%, processing fees can drop about 50%, and the latest purchase equals about 105 BTC at current prices.

Bitcoin's climb toward $100,000 in early 2026 was disrupted on Jan. 17 as markets reacted to President Donald Trump's remarks on the next Federal Reserve chair, BlockBeats reports citing Reuters. Trump said at the White House he would "rather keep" economic adviser Kevin Hassett in his current role instead of replacing Jerome Powell, calling a move "a serious concern," which pushed prediction platform Polymarket's odds for rival Kevin Warsh to nearly 60%. Analysts noted Hassett is viewed as more dovish and supportive of 2026 rate cuts that could benefit Bitcoin and risk assets, while Warsh is seen as more hawkish, implying higher rates for longer and near-term pressure on crypto markets.

Ethereum long positions on major centralized exchanges face potential aggregate liquidation of $920M if ETH falls below $3,200, Coinglass data cited by BlockBeats show. The data indicate cumulative short liquidations on leading CEXs could reach $985M if Ethereum breaks above $3,400. Liquidation charts display the relative significance of each cluster rather than exact contract values, with higher bars representing stronger expected reactions at those price levels due to liquidity waves.

Stablecoins are gaining ground in cross-border payments, targeting the roughly $900 billion global remittance market, BlockBeats reports. World Bank data show average remittance fees remain above 6%, and industry participants say blockchain-based stablecoins can cut costs and time versus providers such as Western Union. In July, U.S. President Trump signed the GENIUS Act to establish a federal framework for stablecoins, prompting firms including Western Union and PayPal to explore related products. Analysts noted incumbents have compliance scale while crypto-native firms like Coinbase and Kraken are more agile; if regulatory details progress, penetration in remittances could increase this year, market participants said.

A planned US Senate Banking Committee hearing on a crypto market structure bill was postponed on January 17, Galaxy Digital Head of Research Alex Thorn said, highlighting sharp disagreements between Congress and the industry over stablecoin yield mechanisms and DeFi provisions. The delay came hours after Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong withdrew his support for the bill and publicly opposed language on tokenized securities, DeFi limits and stablecoin yields, followed by Committee Chair Tim Scott's decision to postpone without setting a new date. Crypto assets broadly declined after the postponement, with Bitcoin and Ethereum down about 2% on the day and US-listed crypto-related stocks under pressure, including Coinbase down 6.5%, Robinhood down 7.8% and Circle down 9.7%.

Centralized exchanges recorded a net outflow of 347.51 BTC over the past 24 hours, Coinglass data show. Kraken led outflows with 1,623.52 BTC, followed by Bitfinex at 182.60 BTC and KuCoin at 38.78 BTC. Binance saw an inflow of 573.18 BTC, topping the inflow rankings.

Tom Lee, chairman of BitMine and co-founder of Fundstrat, told a BitMine shareholder meeting on Jan. 17 that Ethereum is positioned at the core of a new wave of financial infrastructure, with 2026 potentially marking a breakout year as tokenization of real-world assets and broader institutional adoption accelerate. Standard Chartered projects ETH could reach $12,000 in 2026, under which Lee said BitMine's theoretical share price would be around $500 based on historical correlation. BitMine currently holds about 4.2 million ETH and roughly $1 billion in cash, projected to generate $402 million to $433 million in pre-tax income under current conditions, rising to an estimated $2 billion to $2.2 billion if ETH hits $12,000 and the company controls around 5% of total ETH supply.

Bitcoin long positions on major centralized exchanges face potential liquidation intensity of $442M if the price drops below $94,000, Coinglass data show. If Bitcoin rises above $96,000, short positions on leading CEX platforms could see $250M in liquidation intensity. The liquidation heatmap reflects relative intensity of liquidation clusters rather than exact contract numbers or values, with higher bars indicating stronger liquidity reactions at those price levels.

About 35,400 profitable BTC moved into centralized exchanges in the past 24 hours, the highest level in nearly two months, while only around 4,600 loss-making coins flowed out, putting the profit/loss outflow ratio at roughly 7.5:1, CryptoQuant analyst Axel wrote on Jan. 17. Axel noted this structure indicates market selling pressure is mainly driven by profit-taking rather than panic selling from losing positions, with investors who bought in the $85,000–$92,000 range using prices approaching their cost basis to lock in gains. Charts show losses compressed to very low levels at the same time profit-taking has become active, and while a reversal in the profit/loss ratio that puts loss-driven selling in control would intensify a bearish scenario, such a shift is not a foregone conclusion as Bitcoin currently tests its cost basis zone under heavy supply from winning positions, he added.