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Crypto market drowns in red as bitcoin falls to $68,000, XRP, ETH slide over 5%

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Crypto market drowns in red as bitcoin falls to $68,000, XRP, ETH slide over 5%

Crypto markets are deep red on Monday, with industry leader bitcoin sliding lower before a packed week of economic data.

At press time, bitcoin traded near $68,200, down nearly 3% over 24 hours, with XRP , ether , registering much bigger losses. Losses hit 85 of the top 100 tokens by market cap, with privacy coins like monero and zcash down 10% and 8%, respectively.

Smart contract tokens bled too, with the CoinDesk Smart Contract Platform Select Capped Index down nearly 6%, pushing its year-to-date drop to 28%.

The market weakness looks particularly disappointing against the backdrop of the weak U.S. consumer price index data released last week that kept hopes of Fed rate cuts alive.

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The CPI growth slowed to 2.4% year-on-year in January from 2.7% in December, the official data showed, reinforcing expectations for at least two 25 basis point rate cuts by the Fed this year. This resulted in the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield falling to 4.05%, the lowest since early December. Bitcoin rallied, rising from nearly $66,800 on friday to over $70,000 over the weekend, but failed to establish a foothold there.

Vikram Subburaj, CEO of the India-based regulated Giottus exchange, said selective demand is the reason why rallies struggle to hold.

“Risk appetite stayed selective and macro cross-currents kept traders defensive. In derivatives, the market continues to behave as if it is ‘de-leveraging first, asking questions later.’ Rallies have struggled to hold and dips are being bought only selectively near obvious levels,” he said in an email to CoinDesk.

Macro heavy weak

A packed week of macro data lies ahead, with traders eyeing the minutes of the January Fed meeting and the release of the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the core personal consumption expenditures price index (PCE), for fresh positioning signals.

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“PCE inflation, the Fed’s preferred measure, will be closely monitored for confirmation that price pressures are moderating, particularly after CPI showed only gradual disinflation and inflation remains above the 2% target,” Dessislava Laneva, Nexo dispatch analyst, said in an email.

“Markets will assess both the monthly momentum and year-on-year trend for implications for the policy path.” Laneva added.

In traditional markets, Mark Nash of Jupiter Asset Management, a high-profile yen bear has flipped bullish, forecasting 8–9% yen appreciation, particularly against the Swiss franc.

The yen and bitcoin have hit a record positive correlation in recent months, which makes any yen strength a key catalyst for bitcoin bulls.

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Crypto World

Telegram Has Been Downloaded Over 50M Times in Iran, Despite Ban: Durov

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Decentralization, Privacy, Liberty, Telegram, Cypherpunks, Pavel Durov

The Iranian government’s attempt to block the Telegram messaging application in the country has backfired, as users find ways to circumvent national firewalls and online controls, according to Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov.

“Iran banned Telegram years ago,” Durov said on Friday; however, tens of millions of users in the country have managed to access the application via virtual private networks (VPNs) and other similar tools, he added.

VPNs route web traffic through servers distributed around the globe to mask the true Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of users and obscure their locations. This allows individuals with VPN access to bypass national online restrictions. Durov said:

“The government hoped for mass adoption of its surveillance messaging apps, but got mass adoption of VPNs instead. Now, 50 million members of the digital resistance in Iran are joined by over 50 million more in Russia.”

Decentralization, Privacy, Liberty, Telegram, Cypherpunks, Pavel Durov
Source: Pavel Durov

Decentralized technologies like blockchain, crypto and encrypted messaging applications can mitigate or neutralize state-imposed online restrictions and surveillance infrastructure, promoting individual liberty, proponents of decentralized technology say.

Related: Global turmoil pushes uptake of decentralized messengers, social media

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Users turn to decentralized alternatives amid online blackouts

The government of Iran imposed a nationwide internet blackout in January 2026, amid growing protests and civil unrest, which is still in effect due to the ongoing war between Israel, the United States and Iran.

Residents in the country can still access the internet through Starlink, a satellite-based network, or communicate via BitChat, a messaging application that uses Bluetooth radio waves to form a mesh network between devices.

BitChat’s mesh network transforms each device into a relay node that transfers data to other devices running the application within range, bypassing online and satellite-based systems entirely.

Decentralization, Privacy, Liberty, Telegram, Cypherpunks, Pavel Durov
The components of the BitChat messaging application tech stack. Source: GitHub

The government of Nepal imposed a social media ban in September 2025 amid growing protests, causing a spike in BitChat downloads.

Bitchat was downloaded over 48,000 times in Nepal the week of the social media ban, and the government of Nepal was toppled by protestors that same month.

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The application recorded a similar download spike in Madagascar amid protests, which also occurred around the same time as the political revolution in Nepal.

Magazine: Did Telegram’s Pavel Durov commit a crime? Crypto lawyers weigh in