On 18 January 2026, GameFi project Axie Infinity saw its AXS token more than double in a week and jump 43.58% in 24 hours to about $1.86, with daily trading volume near $971.2 million against a market cap of roughly $313.7 million. The rally coincides with heavy spot and futures activity and upcoming structural changes such as a reputation-based Axie Score system and the bonded AXS (bAXS) token, which are drawing renewed attention to GameFi tokens.

On January 18, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong denied reports that the White House might withdraw support for a U.S. crypto market structure bill, saying talks remain active. He flagged disputes over stablecoin yields and warned of regulatory capture by banks, while policymakers and industry voices weighed potential market impacts.

Ethereum is holding above the 21-period EMA on the three-week chart, which several technical analysts view as a sign of ongoing strength rather than a major top. They interpret the current sideways action as reaccumulation within a broader uptrend, with a higher-probability scenario of further upside as long as this key support does not break.

Ethereum is maintaining a constructive structure, with price holding above the 1D Bull Market Support Band and the key 0.618 Fibonacci level around $3,100 while facing resistance near the $3,400 area. Analysts note that this sustained support, alongside ETH’s position above the Daily 200MA versus Bitcoin, indicates buyers remain in control despite recent rejections at the 0.5 Fibonacci zone. As long as these technical levels hold, the broader bullish outlook for ETH and the potential for a stronger altcoin market response remain in place.

As the broader crypto market recovers, Immutable's IMX token climbed 9.50% to $0.293, with trading volume jumping 65% to $35.48 million. The price is testing a key $0.30 resistance level that aligns with a bullish cup-and-handle pattern, while derivatives data shows traders favoring leveraged long positions despite trend strength remaining relatively weak.

On January 17, 2026, an analysis explained why public blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum deliver much lower throughput in practice than their theoretical benchmarks suggest. Because networks must balance security, decentralization, and scalability, real-world performance is constrained by consensus design, propagation delays, mempool congestion, and conservative block size choices, though users can partially mitigate these limits with Layer-2 solutions and fee strategies.

Over the past week, Zcash has fallen from about $528 to $400 amid leadership-related uncertainty and persistent selling pressure, with the token recently trading around $402. During this downturn, a newly created whale wallet accumulated 76,661 ZEC valued at $31.65 million, while on-chain data show negative spot netflows and technical indicators warning that ZEC could break below the $400 support if bearish momentum continues.

XRP is currently trading just above $2, while an Elliott Wave-based technical outlook suggests a final Wave C advance toward the $2.26–$2.28 resistance area before a deeper correction. Analyst CasiTrades, using the 1-hour chart, expects the recent pullback to around $2.03 as a completed B wave that could lead into a five-wave C structure. If price is rejected near this upper band, the scenario anticipates a larger downside phase that may drag XRP back toward the macro support region around $1.65.