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This Week’s Summary

• The crypto market ends the week at a total market capitalization of $3.22 trillion.
• Bitcoin rose to around $95,100.
• Ethereum rose nearly 7% to trade around $3,300.
• XRP is down 2%, Solana is up 4%, and Dogecoin is down 3%.
• Almost all altcoins are trading in the green, though there are some exceptions.
• The DeFi sector increased the total value locked in protocols (TVL) to about $129 billion.

Crypto 6 – 18 January 2026: Market Analysis and Performance

The crypto market is again bullish due to changing policies and intense political turmoil in the US. Most cryptocurrencies have increased in value over the past seven days. However, some are surprisingly on the losing side of an unexpected rally. Meanwhile, the overall market capitalization increased by over $100 billion, reaching $3.22 trillion.

Bitcoin had a successful trading period for most of the past seven days. The king of cryptocurrencies increased steadily, targeting the $95,000 resistance level. After a long and arduous run, BTC reached $97,600 on Wednesday. However, it was soon pushed back by the bears to its current trading value at around $95K.

Ethereum also increased in value this week, adding nearly 7% to its value. As a result, the second crypto in command has cemented its position above the $3K threshold. The current value of over $3,300 will revive its supporters’ optimism ahead of a difficult trading period.

Altcoins & DeFi

Most altcoins are trading in the green, though some notable exceptions remain. For example, XRP is down 2%, Solana is up 4%, Cardano is down 1%, Avalanche is down 2%, Sui is down 3%, Chainlink is up 4%, and TRON is up 6%. On the other hand, Hyperliquid is up 6%.

The memecoins also saw some interesting trajectories. For instance, Dogecoin is down 3%, Shiba Inu is down 5%, and Pepecoin is down 5%.

The Metaverse sector has also seen notable movements over the past week. For instance, Axie Infinity is up 94%, The Sandbox is up 22%, and Floki is down 7%. Meanwhile, Decentraland is up 11%, Render is down 12%, and ApeCoin is up 5%. Stacks dropped by 7% and Virtuals by 15%. Meanwhile, MultiversX increased by 3%.

The DeFi sector added nearly $5.6 billion to the total value locked in protocols (TVL), bringing the total to about $129.64 billion.

Crypto Market Analysis – What’s in the News?

• Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott announced the postponement of the highly anticipated crypto market structure bill. The announcement may have sparked the recent crypto bull run.

Next Week’s Crypto Market Forecast

The crypto market enjoys a good trading period for the first time this year. We’ve seen significant increases across the board. More importantly, Bitcoin came only $2,500 short of the daunting $100,000 level. Hopefully, the trend will continue and improve next week.

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