Bitcoin Pulls Back, Strategy Buys $2.13B BTC, and NYSE Announces Plan To Launch Tokenized Stocks

Takeaways

• Bitcoin fell under $90,000 this week as a global risk-off wave hit equities and bonds: The market rout produced roughly $1.07 billion in liquidations and also caused spot bitcoin and ether ETF to record a combined $713 million in single-day net outflows on Tuesday. Analysts attributed the sell-off to increasing macro volatility and the unwinding of leveraged long bitcoin positions, leading to a series of liquidation events.
• CLARITY Act delayed at least a few more weeks: The Senate Banking Committee plans to take a multi-week pause on the long-awaited crypto market structure bill, according to multiple reports. The setback comes after Coinbase reportedly withdrew support for the legislation–dubbed the CLARITY Act–amid unresolved disagreements over the ability for customers to earn yield from holding stablecoins and other issues.
• Strategy purchased 22,305 BTC for roughly $2.13 billion at an average price of $95,284: The purchase was funded by at-the-market sales of common stock, and lifts the firm’s total disclosed holdings to 709,715 BTC. The company’s cumulative average purchase price now sits at $75,979 with a total book cost of $53.9 billion. The acquisitions mark one of Strategy’s largest weekly runs since November 2024.
• The New York Stock Exchange announced it is creating a platform for tokenized US stocks and ETFs: The system aims for 24/7 trading, fractional shares, and near-instant settlement, but is still awaiting the required regulatory approval. The move is part of the NYSE's parent company’s broader digital strategy. The firm is preparing its clearing infrastructure for continuous trading through collaborations with banks including BNY and Citi to enable tokenized deposits.
• Ethereum activity is surging in January after a late-2025 dip, hitting a record 2.9 million daily transactions on Friday: Despite the uptick, average transaction fees remain near recent lows, suggesting layer-2 rollups and protocol upgrades are helping network scaling.

Bitcoin Drops as Concerns Ripple Through Markets

Bitcoin fell about 4.2% in 24 hours on Tuesday while ether slumped near 7.8% over the same period. US indexes recorded their worst session since October, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both off more than 2% and the Dow down about 1.8% on Tuesday. Bitcoin managed to slip below $89,000 during the selloff.

Some analysts have attributed the pullback to an unwinding of leverage, which manifested as approximately $1.07 billion in aggregated crypto liquidations over 24 hours. Long positions made up nearly $1 billion of the total liquidations. More fundamental causes for the selloff include escalating concerns surrounding a US-EU trade war, and weakness in Japan’s bond market.

US spot bitcoin and ether funds reported combined net outflows of $713 million, with US spot bitcoin ETFs alone recording $483.4 million in net outflows across eight funds. The outflows were led by Grayscale's GBTC bitcoin fund with $160.8 million in exits.

CLARITY Act Stalls as Congress Turns to Housing Fix

The setback comes after Coinbase withdrew support for the legislation–dubbed the CLARITY Act–amid unresolved disagreements over the ability for customers to earn yield from holding stablecoins and other issues.

Congress will now reportedly turn its attention to President Donald Trump’s housing agenda after he recently proposed banning institutional investors from purchasing single-family homes. Lawmakers could still pick back up work on the CLARITY Act sometime in the coming weeks. The Senate Agricultural Committee released its own markup of the CLARITY Act on Wednesday and have a planned markup scheduled for January 27. That would need to be reconciled with the Senate Banking Committee's version before the Senate could vote on a bill.

Strategy Buys 22,305 BTC For $2.13 Billion, Holdings Reach 709,715 BTC

Acquired at an average of around $95,284 per coin the purchase has raised their total treasury to 709,715 BTC. The firm’s cumulative average purchase price now sits at $75,979 with a total book cost of $53.9 billion.

The acquisitions mark one of the largest weekly runs since November 2024, and were primarily financed through equity and preferred stock. Strategy’s at-the-market equity offerings saw 10,399,650 MSTR shares sold to raise $1.83 billion, alongside preferred-stock programs. Strategy currently retains a substantial $8.43 billion of MSTR still available to be issued.

Some analysts have debated the soundness of Strategy’s plan of combining equity and preferred instruments to support ongoing share purchases. Some have said that it could increase the risk of dilution, while its proponents have argued that it supports the firm's operational flexibility. Strategy’s shares saw a slight increase with the announcement.

NYSE Announces Plans for Tokenized Stock Trading Platform

Subject to regulatory approval, the system will reportedly aim to offer continuous trading, fractional ownership, dollar-denominated orders, and immediate settlement using blockchain infrastructure and stablecoin funding. It will also support both tokenized traditional securities and natively issued onchain assets.

The move is part of the NYSE's parent company’s broader digital strategy. The firm is preparing its clearing infrastructure for continuous trading through collaborations with banks including BNY and Citi to enable tokenized deposits. ICE’s approach is indicative of increasing demand for tokenized assets, which is creating a more globally interconnected equity market.

Ethereum Activity Surges in January, Breaks Daily Transaction Record

This surge in activity seen this month, in part driven by increased rollup usage, has been managed successfully without the typically associated fee spikes. Low and stable transaction costs suggest that layer-2 rollups and recent protocol improvements are delivering substantial capacity gains and allow the network to scale effectively.

New network resilience is also being shown by balanced staking flows. The validator exit queue is reportedly zero while entries are steady, indicating healthy, sustained demand for network processing power. The combination of record volume, stable low fees, and balanced staking supports the narrative that Ethereum's modular, rollup-centric scaling is working as intended, which could help safeguard the future of the network.

-Team Gemini