Bitcoin dropped this week after it struggled to stay above its mid-January highs around $95,000 to $97,000. The price fell from about $95,000 on January 16 to around $89,000 to $90,000 by January 21 and 22, a decrease of about 6 to 7 percent. This shows the recent uptrend has cooled off, with several days of lower closes as buyers have decreased interest above $93,000 and sellers pushed the price back toward the high-80,000 support area. Still, Bitcoin is up by a high single-digit percentage for the month, so this pullback looks more like a normal correction in an ongoing uptrend, not a full reversal.
Ethereum had a similar week, but with a bit more volatility. After testing resistance near $3,300, ETH dropped back to the low $3,000s but stayed above its early January lows. This seven-day pullback followed a strong rally last week, with the price hitting resistance several times before falling along with Bitcoin. Even though ETH is weaker in the short term, the overall outlook is still positive. Traders are watching for ETF news, better on-chain metrics like MVRV, and more institutional interest. Because of this, many see the recent move as a test of support for a growing bullish trend, not a clear breakdown.
Beyond the main price moves, stablecoins and DeFi activity stayed steady. The total value locked in DeFi was about $129 billion, and weekly DEX volumes dropped by a small amount, which suggests a mild shift away from risk rather than any major problems. Meanwhile, comments from big payment networks like Visa have highlighted the growing use of stablecoins for global payments. Ongoing policy talks about financial access and more collateral moving into regulated USD-pegged assets are keeping stablecoins and core DeFi protocols in the spotlight as key parts of the current crypto market.
