On July 12, 2019, Donald Trump wrote that Bitcoin was "based on thin air." By January 27, 2026, the article calculates that a $1,000 purchase made then would be worth $7,730 with BTC at $87,888, a 673% rise and $6,730 profit. It also cites a $4,660 profit by 2021 and notes a recent decline reportedly removed around 25,000 Bitcoin millionaires.

Since early 2026, Bitcoin has traded with sharp swings and a downward tilt, dropping 3% to $86,226 in the last 24 hours before rebounding to $87,882 for a daily loss of 0.32%. According to an analysis based on OpenAI's ChatGPT, BTC is about 30% below its late-2025 high near $125,000 and could retreat further to $50,000 by May 12, 2026. The AI tool links this potential decline to Bitcoin's historical post-halving cycles and its increasing correlation with broader risk assets.

According to blockchain data from Solscan cited by Finbold, a cryptocurrency trader turned roughly $4,000 into more than $1 million in a span of about three hours on January 22, 2026, by trading DisclaimerCoin (DONT), a new token from DeFi Development Corp (NASDAQ: DFDV). The wallet bought over 29 billion DONT on Solana and began selling within an hour, with later transactions and the account’s prior inactivity raising questions about whether the windfall results from extraordinary luck or possible insider knowledge. The position appears to have been fully closed by early January 23, after which most activity shifted back to SOL and Wrapped Solana.

XRP surged 543% in late 2024 and 60% in summer 2025, then pulled back; on January 6, 2026 it hit $2.35 and was at $1.95 on January 22, up 4.09% year-to-date but down 16.81% from that high. Near-term levels cluster at $1.97 and $2 for resistance and $1.78 for support, while a January 21 release from Evernorth and t54 outlined a $1 billion plan for an XRP treasury and AI on the XRP Ledger.

On January 20, GJL Research analyst Gordon Johnson used X to answer why Bitcoin’s price has been falling while gold has been climbing, arguing that BTC and other cryptocurrencies have "ZERO value." He pointed to Bitcoin’s lack of clear utility, its inability to function as a real currency due to fixed supply, the view that most cryptocurrencies are unregistered securities under the CLARITY Act, and the historical failures of private money. Over the same period, Bitcoin dropped from about $95,000 to roughly $89,000, while gold advanced from around $4,550 to near $4,860, which Johnson contrasted with gold’s long-standing role as a store of value.

On January 18, 2026, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson publicly criticized Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse for supporting the U.S. CLARITY Act, highlighting deep divisions within the crypto industry over the bill. Garlinghouse had praised the legislation in a January 14 post, while Hoskinson and other executives, including Coinbase's Brian Armstrong, warned it would expand SEC power and restrict tokenized assets and stablecoin rewards.

Bitcoin reversed late on Sunday, January 18, and was trading at $93,013 by Monday, January 19. Finbold's machine learning models run on January 19, after assessing six indicators, project a 1.6% rise to $94,500 by January 31, 2026, with individual outputs spanning $92,500 to $97,501.

Late on Sunday, January 18, the crypto market reversed sharply, erasing roughly $100 billion in about 12 hours by press time on January 19. Total capitalization fell from near $3.2 trillion to around $3.09 trillion, then partially rebounded to $3.1 trillion. Bitcoin dropped 3% to $92,762, while Ethereum fell 4.16% and XRP declined 4%.

On January 14, 2026, Stellar (XLM) gained 8.99% in 24 hours to trade at $0.244, while XRP slipped 0.71% to $2.15 after recently reaching a yearly peak above $2.41. XLM's move followed Bitcoin's rise above $95,000 and earlier January news of Visa integrating the Stellar network, though the token remains below its 2026 high of $0.28 and significantly lower on six- and twelve-month timeframes.