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Crypto Talkies January 13th 2026

Monero stole the spotlight today, and it didn’t do it quietly. The longtime privacy veteran (XMR) ripped through major resistance to set a fresh all-time high near $610, climbing more than 20% and muscling its way into the top 15 coins by market cap. Traders aren’t just cheering the price action; they’re dusting off some classic chart history. Veteran trader Peter Brandt compared Monero’s long-term chart to silver’s famous inverse head‑and‑shoulders breakout, the one that preceded a monster rally. That analogy, plus Monero’s decoupling from the broader market, has turned it into the unexpected “serious asset” of the day, not just another privacy token. The move also comes in the shadow of fresh regulatory pressure. The UAE recently banned privacy coins, and Zcash has largely faded, yet Monero has rallied right through the noise and re‑cemented its status as the category leader. It’s a reminder that every time regulators draw a line around privacy, a chunk of the crypto crowd runs str...

Crypto Talkies January 12th 2026

Crypto’s Sundown story today is all about power: who controls the money, who writes the rules, and who gets left holding the bag. Let’s start in Washington, where Coinbase is suddenly not feeling so cooperative. The exchange is threatening to withdraw its support for the CLARITY Act and related market structure bill if lawmakers move ahead with restrictions on DeFi and bans on stablecoin rewards programs. Translation: if Congress turns staking and yield into a bank-only game, Coinbase is ready to walk. Between CLARITY, rising enforcement, and political posturing, it’s increasingly clear that U.S. crypto policy is now being negotiated in public, and the big platforms are no longer pretending to be neutral. That battle over control is showing up in the stablecoin world too, and no one sits closer to the fire than Tether (USDT). In Venezuela, USDT has quietly become a backbone of the economy: it’s used in oil trade despite U.S. sanctions and on the street by citizens trying to outrun in...

Crypto Talkies January 9th 2026

If you stepped away from the screens today, you missed one of those quietly pivotal days in crypto – the kind where prices don’t necessarily explode, but the scaffolding of the future market gets rearranged. Let’s start with the drama. Zcash (ZEC) had what can only be described as a governance earthquake. The entire core team at Electric Coin Company, the original Zcash developer, resigned in one shot. They’re spinning up a new company and a cypherpunk-focused wallet called CashZ, after a long-simmering fight over nonprofit funding rules, worries about “privatizing” the project, and frustration with price volatility driven by whale accumulation. ZEC dumped about 20% on the headlines before recovering part of the move. The Zcash Foundation, for its part, rushed to reassure everyone that the chain is still decentralized, open source, and fully operational. Translation: the tech is fine, but the social layer is under real stress. It’s a reminder that in crypto, code may be law, but peop...

Crypto Talkies January 9th 2026

If you stepped away from the screens today, you missed one of those quietly pivotal days in crypto – the kind where prices don’t necessarily explode, but the scaffolding of the future market gets rearranged. Let’s start with the drama. Zcash (ZEC) had what can only be described as a governance earthquake. The entire core team at Electric Coin Company, the original Zcash developer, resigned in one shot. They’re spinning up a new company and a cypherpunk-focused wallet called CashZ, after a long-simmering fight over nonprofit funding rules, worries about “privatizing” the project, and frustration with price volatility driven by whale accumulation. ZEC dumped about 20% on the headlines before recovering part of the move. The Zcash Foundation, for its part, rushed to reassure everyone that the chain is still decentralized, open source, and fully operational. Translation: the tech is fine, but the social layer is under real stress. It’s a reminder that in crypto, code may be law, but peop...

Crypto Talkies January 9th 2026

If you stepped away from the screens today, you missed one of those quietly pivotal days in crypto – the kind where prices don’t necessarily explode, but the scaffolding of the future market gets rearranged. Let’s start with the drama. Zcash (ZEC) had what can only be described as a governance earthquake. The entire core team at Electric Coin Company, the original Zcash developer, resigned in one shot. They’re spinning up a new company and a cypherpunk-focused wallet called CashZ, after a long-simmering fight over nonprofit funding rules, worries about “privatizing” the project, and frustration with price volatility driven by whale accumulation. ZEC dumped about 20% on the headlines before recovering part of the move. The Zcash Foundation, for its part, rushed to reassure everyone that the chain is still decentralized, open source, and fully operational. Translation: the tech is fine, but the social layer is under real stress. It’s a reminder that in crypto, code may be law, but peop...

Crypto Talkies January 8th 2026

Crypto is closing out the day with a little bit of everything: governance drama, whale games, memecoin mayhem, and regulators trying to keep up. Let’s walk through what mattered before you log off. The biggest shock came from the privacy corner. The entire core development team at Electric Coin Company, the group behind Zcash (ZEC), resigned in one shot. Leadership and engineers walked over what they describe as deep governance and mission-alignment disputes with the nonprofit that oversees the project. The departing crew plans to form a new company, but markets don’t like uncertainty: ZEC sold off quickly as traders tried to price in the risk of a major brain drain on a still‑fragile privacy ecosystem. That drama hit as the broader market was already wobbling. Bitcoin (BTC) failed to hold a push above about $94,500 and slid back toward $90,000, dragging most majors with it. The January 8 move was classic post‑rally cleanup: profit‑taking, rising liquidations, and traders stepping ba...

Crypto Talkies January 7th 2026

Regulators, banks, and meme coins all decided to make moves at once today, and the result was one of those evenings where crypto looks both more grown‑up and more chaotic at the same time. Let’s start with the regulators tightening the screws. India is stepping up its oversight, with 49 crypto exchanges now formally registered under the country’s financial intelligence unit. They’re being pulled into a strict anti‑money laundering regime, complete with heavy penalties for violations. It’s another clear signal that in a major market like India, operating “off the grid” is no longer an option for exchanges. In Washington, the Senate Banking Committee is inching toward real legislation. Senators are preparing a January markup on the CLARITY Act, a crypto market structure bill that’s supposed to sort out who regulates what between the SEC and CFTC. The politics are still messy, but a concrete vote on market rules is finally on the calendar. Alongside that, the broader Senate is lining u...