Welcome to today's edition of Osiris News. The legislative machinery in Washington just ground to a halt, courtesy of Coinbase. Brian Armstrong yanked support for the CLARITY Act over stablecoin yield bans, leaving the White House fuming about a political "rug pull." Meanwhile, Bitcoin took a hit from macro tariff threats, flushing over $800 million in borrowed positions while spot buyers quietly scooped the dip. The price action looks ugly on a minute chart, but the structural flows tell a story of institutional accumulation rather than retail panic. The market is currently digesting a massive transfer of inventory from speculators using borrowed funds to long-term holders.
🔍 Quick Overview
US Crypto Bill: Coinbase kills the bill over stablecoin yields, pushing federal rules deep into 2026.
Bitcoin Market: Over $800M in leverage flushed while spot ETFs quietly absorbed the supply.
Ethereum: Record transactions and low fees create a bullish divergence against a consolidating Bitcoin.
Crypto Miners: The hashprice squeeze is forcing a pivot; miners are now selling power to AI.
Stablecoin Politics: The bill died protecting a $1B revenue stream from a banking lobby attack.
Bitcoin is holding above $93,000 despite a minor 1.9% dip, setting the tone for a broadly negative 24 hours across the major cap board. The tape shows clear divergence in risk appetite, with Solana shedding 5.5% and Ethereum down 3.4%, while XRP demonstrated relative resilience, registering the shallowest pullback at 1.6%.
Trending News
While geopolitical tension sent Bitcoin to $92,618 and liquidated $824M in leverage, spot ETFs absorbed $1.42B in net inflows last week. BlackRock’s IBIT alone scooped $1.03B, signaling strong institutional conviction despite retail capitulation.
Brian Armstrong withdrew support for the CLARITY Act, stalling the Senate markup over a proposed ban on stablecoin interest. The White House slammed the move as a "rug pull," threatening over $1B in potential industry revenue.
Daily transaction volume has doubled to 2.5 million while average gas fees plummeted to just $0.15. The "blob" data upgrade has successfully decoupled network usage from costs, with stablecoins now driving 40% of traffic.
Riot Platforms signed a deal to host AMD’s AI hardware, securing at least $311M in revenue over ten years. Riot stock jumped 14% as the industry shifts toward high-performance computing to offset mining volatility.
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Beyond the Noise
The collapse of the CLARITY Act negotiations exposes the raw nerve of the current cycle: revenue protection. The banking lobby inserted language to ban non-banks from paying interest on stablecoins, viewing it as an existential threat to their deposit base. Coinbase, staring down a projected $1 billion revenue stream from stablecoin yields in 2025, refused to capitulate. This isn't about ideology; it is about balance sheets. Armstrong’s withdrawal of support forces a reset, likely pushing wide-ranging market structure legislation deep into 2026. The industry is now playing a game of chicken with the White House, betting that the administration needs a win more than crypto needs a flawed bill.
While the politicians argue, the market structure is shifting beneath our feet. Bitcoin’s drop to the $92,000 range was triggered by geopolitical tariff headlines, but the mechanics were purely internal. Over $824 million in long positions using borrowed funds were liquidated, cleansing the order book of weak hands. Yet, spot ETFs absorbed $1.42 billion in inflows during the same period. Wall Street veteran Jordy Visser calls this a "Silent IPO"—a phase where OGs and miners distribute supply to institutions like BlackRock without sparking a parabolic rally. The analyst pulse captures this digestion period well, showing Bitcoin in a neutral stance as it stabilizes, while Ethereum displays a surprisingly bullish consensus. That divergence matters; it suggests the market sees Ethereum’s record usage and deflationary mechanics as a stronger immediate narrative than Bitcoin's macro consolidation.
Ethereum’s internal metrics validate that stronger conviction. The network is processing a record 2.5 million transactions daily, yet gas fees have collapsed to around $0.15 thanks to the "blobs" upgrade. This is the scaling promise realized, but it comes with a centralization hangover. Vitalik Buterin is now pivoting the roadmap toward "trust-minimization" for 2026, specifically targeting the centralized RPCs that most wallets rely on. The goal is to make "light client" verification the default, ensuring that the network remains permissionless even as it scales.
In the mining sector, the "miner squeeze" is forcing a permanent change in business models. With hashprice hovering around the $40 break-even point, inefficient rigs are shutting down. Riot Platforms responded by signing a deal with AMD to host AI workloads, guaranteeing $311 million in revenue over ten years. This is the new reality: power capacity is more valuable than hashing power. Miners are becoming energy landlords for the AI boom because the volatility of mining revenue is no longer sustainable for public companies with quarterly earnings targets.
This Caught My Eye:
Here’s a breakdown:
Roughly $874M in derivatives positions were liquidated in 24 hours, with about 91% coming from overleveraged longs. BTC and ETH bore the brunt, with forced liquidations of around $232M and $156M as BTC briefly slipped to the low $92Ks.
The flush came amid escalating U.S.–EU trade tensions, showing how quickly macro headlines can unwind crowded bullish positioning even in an otherwise elevated price regime.
Looking Ahead
The immediate fallout from the CLARITY Act delay will be a renewed aggressive stance from state regulators, who now see a vacuum at the federal level. Tennessee’s attempt to ban prediction markets like Polymarket is the first skirmish, with a federal hearing set for January 26 that could determine if these platforms are treated as derivatives or gambling. On the market side, expect volatility to compress as the flush of borrowed positions settles. If the "Silent IPO" thesis holds, price will remain range-bound while ETF inflows continue to devour the supply cap. The divergence between Bitcoin’s neutral positioning and Ethereum’s bullish on-chain activity is the key trend to watch this week.
Until tomorrow,
- Dr.P
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