Cryptocurrency Fear and Greed Index Drops to 20, Further Exacerbating "Extreme Fear" State

Jan 2nd — CoinGecko data shows Upbit’s 24-hour trading volume rose 6.4% to $8.894 billion. The IP/KRW trading pair leads the KRW-based market with a 16.09% volume share, followed by four tokens: XRP, AERGO, BTC, and USDT.

On January 2, Coinglass data highlights two critical Bitcoin liquidation thresholds for major centralized exchanges (CEXs): - If Bitcoin breaks above $90,000, cumulative short liquidation intensity will hit $541 million. - Conversely, a drop below $87,000 will trigger $703 million in cumulative long liquidation intensity. BlockBeats Note: Liquidation charts do not show the exact number or value of contracts being liquidated. The bars instead reflect how significant each liquidation cluster is relative to nearby clusters—this is defined as "intensity." In short, the chart indicates how strongly a price level will impact the market: taller bars mean the price hitting that level will spark a more intense reaction due to a liquidity cascade.

Iran is weighing accepting cryptocurrency payments for advanced weapon exports—including ballistic missiles and warships—to evade Western sanctions, the Financial Times reported on January 2. Iran’s Ministry of Defense Export Center (Mindex) said it is open to negotiating payments via multiple methods, including digital currencies, barter, and the Iranian rial. The policy was first floated as early as 2025 and is among the first publicly known instances of a nation accepting crypto for weapon exports. A state-owned arms trading entity, Mindex says it has customer ties with 35 countries; its official website features products like missiles, rockets, ammunition, and hovercraft. Amid ongoing U.S., UK, and EU sanctions targeting Iran’s nuclear and missile programs, energy exports, and access to the global financial system, Iran is leaning more heavily on crypto and barter trade. Last year, the U.S. Treasury Department disclosed that two Iranian nationals helped process over $100 m

On January 2, 2026—marking the first trading day of the year—spot gold surged $40 intraday, breaking above $4,370 per ounce and climbing 1.18% on the day. (Source: Golden Ten)

On January 2nd, data from Coinbob’s Popular Address Tracker shows the "Meme Army Tank" whale has continued adding to its short position in Lighter (LIT) today. Its current position size is 38,131,960 LIT (roughly $10.17 million), with an average entry price of ~$2.7 and a liquidation price of ~$5. This is the largest LIT short position on the Hyperliquid exchange. Additionally, the address holds short positions in over a dozen other tokens—including HYPE, ASTER, UNI, and ETH—most of which are profitable. It’s also generating funding rate revenue simultaneously.

On January 2nd, per monitoring from HyperInsight (Telegram: @HyperInsight), the address 0xEa6…061EE deposited 8 million USDC as collateral to Hyperliquid over the past 5 hours. It subsequently opened long positions on IP, XPL, STBL, MON, PUMP, GRIFFAIN, VVV, AIXBT, HEMI, MAVIA, and STABLE. As of now, the total unrealized profit across this whale address’s long positions has topped $1.48 million: the IP long is the biggest gainer (nearly $640,000 in unrealized profit), while the VVV long is the largest loser (an unrealized loss of $30,000). Additionally, the address added a 20x-leveraged Bitcoin long position: its size is $8.06 million, entry price is $87,869.50, and it currently holds $6.5 million in unrealized profit.