The Weekly Wrap: Fed Pause, Kevin Warsh as Next Chair? And the Correction Continues

Listen to the Weekly Wrap on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. It is a summary with the help of AI-voices. 

      

This Week’s Top Stories

“The Fed leaves its interest rate unchanged at 3.75 percent and hints at a longer pause.” – Wednesday, 28 January 2026 

• The Federal Reserve on Wednesday kept interest rates unchanged as the central bank fights to maintain its ability to set interest rates without political interference.
• It’s a pause that may persist for some time, Chair Jerome Powell hinted in his post-meeting news conference.

“White House set to meet with banks and crypto companies to address the stalled crypto legislation.” – Wednesday, 28 January 2026 

• On Monday, the White House will meet with executives from the banking and cryptocurrency industries to discuss a path forward for landmark crypto legislation, which has stalled due to ​a clash between the two sectors.
• The meeting will focus on how the bill treats interest and other rewards crypto firms can dish out on customer holdings of stablecoins.

“Trump is expected to nominate Kevin Warsh as the next Fed Chair today.” – Friday, 30 January 2026 

• President Donald Trump is expected to announce today his intent to nominate Kevin Warsh to be the next Federal Reserve chair.
• Warsh has long been mentioned by Trump as one of his top candidates for the role and met with Trump in December for his formal interview. 
• Warsh served as a Fed governor for five years after being nominated by President George W. Bush. He was also considered by Trump in 2017 for the Fed chair role, which ultimately went to Jerome Powell.

A Quick Crypto Overview: $1.7B in Liquidations as BTC Traded Towards $80K

We mentioned during the past two weeks that the $90K level was of high importance and that losing it would likely open the door for a fast move to the downside. Bitcoin lost the $90’000 level last week and has continued to trade lower after a couple of days of sideways price action. At the time of writing, Bitcoin trades at $82’500, down almost 5 percent on the week. 

While the S&P 500 reached a new all-time high on Wednesday, it is currently down 1.5 percent from its high, as it traded lower alongside the crypto market. Interestingly, gold is also down from its Wednesday all-time high above $5’500, currently trading at $5’170, down almost 8 percent. Gold experienced one of its wildest trading days yesterday, with an intraday move of almost 10 percent. 

Chart of the Week: BTCUSD at the Same Price as in November

Bitcoin is trading around the same level as back in November; today’s lowest price is only 0.5 percent higher than the lowest price in November 2025. It remains to be seen whether this November low gets taken out over the coming hours or days, and many market participants are likely also eyeing a potential double bottom formation at current prices. A loss of $80’000 price acceptance below would likely open the path toward $74’000.

What’s Happening Onchain? Memes on Solana & Commodities on Hyperliquid 

Over the past two weeks, memecoins on Solana saw a quick comeback kick-started with the Nietzschean Penguin, a meme that has made the rounds on social media over the past weeks. The Penguin token went from below a $10 million market cap to almost $200 million in a matter of two days and brought back a relatively short-lived memecoin mania over the past week. 
While the memecoin trenches were hot on Solana, Hyperliquid was able to capture much of the recent increase in commodities trading, as gold and silver reached new all-time highs. The open interest under HIP-3 has risen to approximately $790 million, marking a new all-time high, up from about $260 million one month ago. HIP-3 was launched in October 2025 and supports the permissionless deployment of perpetual markets on HyperCore by developers who meet the required staking conditions. 

Digital Asset Fund Flows: $1.7B Outflows – Highest Since Mid-November 2025 

Last week, digital asset investment products saw the largest outflow since mid-November, with $1.73 billion leaving crypto products. Bitcoin and Ethereum led outflows at $1.1 billion and $630 million, respectively, signaling broad-based negative sentiment, although Solana saw inflows of $17.1 million, bucking the trend. Dwindling expectations for interest rate cuts, negative price momentum, and disappointment that digital assets have not participated in the debasement trade yet have likely fueled these outflows. 

The outflows are continuing this week, with the Bitcoin spot ETFs currently down almost $1 billion in flows, with more than $800 million leaving the products yesterday. The Ethereum spot ETFs are holding up slightly better, with roughly $200 million in net outflows so far this week. 

Market Sentiment: Crypto Sentiment Below 20 

The latest drop in the crypto market has led to a sharp decline in sentiment, as many market participants are losing their optimism and hope for the coming weeks and months. Interestingly, the CNN stock market Fear and Greed Index is in greedy territory (62), which makes sense, as the indices are still relatively close to their historical highs. The AAII members are still relatively bullish, with over 44 percent continuing to believe that the stock market will trade higher over the coming six months.

Other Relevant News 

• Strategy acquired 2’932 BTC for approximately $264.1 million at an average price of $90,061 per BTC. – Link 
• Tether has launched USA₮, a federally regulated, dollar-backed stablecoin designed for the U.S. market under the GENIUS Act framework. – Link 
• UBS Group plans to offer cryptocurrency investing to some of its private banking clients, marking an expansion into digital assets for the wealth manager. – Link 

Looking Ahead: Double Bottom Above $80K or Another Move Lower? 

As mentioned today, Bitcoin is currently trading at around the same level as back in November 2025. Today’s low is slightly higher, and it remains to be seen whether the low from November gets raided or not. A short-lived raid below $80’000 and a move back above the key level from November could set the stage for a (relief?) rally, while a sustained move below $80’000 would likely lead to a continued downward trend toward $74’000, where Bitcoin bottomed back in April 2025 amid the tariff stress situation. 

Below, you can find some of the key data releases and events to watch out for next week. 

Tuesday, 3 February 2026 

USA – JOLTS Job Openings 

Wednesday, 4 February 2026 

Eurozone – CPI, Core CPI 

Thursday, 5 February 2026 

Great Britain – BoE Interest Rate Decision 

Eurozone – ECB Interest Rate Decision 

USA – Initial Jobless Claims, Continuing Jobless Claims 

Friday, 6 February 2026 

Switzerland – Unemployment Rate 

USA – Unemployment Rate, Nonfarm Payrolls