Crypto Risk Appetite Report 28th January 2026

This week's edition of our Market Sentiment Report.

US equities extended gains to new highs, with the S&P 500 up 0.41% to 6,978.60 and the Nasdaq-100 up 0.88%, even as US consumer confidence slumped in January to 84.5 and the Expectations Index fell to 65.1, well below the typical recession-warning threshold. Gold surged to fresh highs above $5,200/oz as the dollar slid toward a four-year low, a move President Trump publicly welcomed, while Japan signalled it is ready to coordinate with the US if FX moves become disorderly. In crypto, BTC continued to lag risk assets, briefly dipping to $86k before recovering toward $89k, while ETH reclaimed $3,000 as spot ETF flows flipped negative again with $147.4m of BTC and $63.6m of ETH net sold. Meanwhile, the regulatory and product backdrop stayed constructive, with Laser Digital seeking a US trust bank charter, OKX launching a European stablecoin-spend debit card, and Ethereum developers confirming ERC-8004 is heading to mainnet to enable trustless on-chain coordination between AI agents.

Crypto and US equities edged higher ahead of the Fed’s first FOMC meeting of the year, with BTC holding just under $88K and ETH above $2,900 on continued buying from digital asset treasury firms. Strategy added 2,932 BTC while BitMine bought 40,302 ETH and increased staking, as spot Ethereum ETFs snapped a four-day outflow streak with a $117M net inflow. In macro and policy, the S&P 500 rose 0.5% even as small caps lagged, the dollar fell to its weakest level since September 2025, and Trump said tariffs on South Korean goods would rise to 25%. Meanwhile, the Senate delayed a key crypto legislation session to January 29, BlackRock filed for a covered-call bitcoin income ETF, and product momentum continued with VanEck’s US-listed AVAX ETF and Bitwise’s new onchain USDC yield vault.