Gate Research:XRD Jumps over 60% in 24 Hours | Citi Warns Ethereum Activity likely Driven by Scams

Crypto Market Overview

• BTC (0.29% | Current price: 89,781.7 USDT): After the previous sharp sell-off, BTC formed a clear short-term bottom near $87,256, followed by a swift rebound back above the $89,000 level. Price is currently consolidating within the $89,300–89,900 range. Overall, panic-driven selling pressure appears to have been largely released during the prior decline, and the market has now entered a post-drop repair and digestion phase, with short-term structure shifting from weak to neutral-stable. Technically, short-term moving averages are flattening, with MA5 and MA10 gradually converging toward price, while MA30 remains slightly downward-sloping and continues to exert overhead pressure, indicating that the market is still in a range-bound basing structure. The rebound from the $87,000 area was accompanied by a notable expansion in volume, suggesting strong dip-buying demand at that level; more recently, trading volume has contracted, reflecting a consolidation and buildup phase. The $90,000–90,300 zone now stands as a clear resistance area. A high-volume breakout and sustained hold above this range could allow price to extend toward a retest of the $91,000 area; conversely, repeated rejection could trigger a pullback toward $88,500 or even $87,800 to revalidate support. Overall, BTC remains in a post-decline consolidation and repair phase with a neutral-to-stable bias, but without a clear directional breakout yet, making range trading or breakout/pullback confirmation strategies more appropriate.
• ETH (0.28% | Current price: 2,961.38 USDT): After a series of declines, ETH formed a short-term bottom near $2,866.50 and staged a quick rebound back toward the $3,000 level, but was met with clear resistance and subsequently pulled back again. Price is now consolidating within the $2,930–2,980 range. The overall structure remains a technical rebound within a broader post-decline repair phase, with weaker rebound strength and stability compared to BTC. From a moving average perspective, MA5 and MA10 have flattened and are moving closer to price, while MA30 continues to slope downward, maintaining pressure on the medium- to short-term structure and indicating that ETH has not yet escaped its weak range-bound regime. The $2,860–2,900 zone previously saw some increase in volume, suggesting the presence of short-term support, but recent volume has clearly contracted, pointing to a consolidation phase. The $3,000–3,050 range now constitutes the key short-term resistance. If price fails to break above this zone with volume, ETH is likely to continue oscillating within the $2,900–3,000 range; a high-volume break and hold above $3,050 could open the door for a further rebound toward the $3,120 area. Overall, ETH remains in a relatively weak repair structure, with short-term price action still best viewed as range-bound.
• Altcoins: Most major altcoins are posting modest gains, with market sentiment leaning toward “neutral” or “buy.” The Fear & Greed Index stands at 24 today, still within the fear zone, indicating that overall market sentiment has yet to fully recover.
• Macro: On January 22, the S&P 500 rose 0.55% to 6,913.35, the Dow Jones gained 0.63% to 49,384.01, and the Nasdaq advanced 0.91% to 23,436.02. As of January 23 at 12:58 PM (UTC+8), spot gold is quoted at $4,956.85 per ounce, up 0.41% over the past 24 hours.

Trending Tokens

XRD – Radix (+60.19%, Circulating Market Cap: $8.81M)

According to Gate market data, XRD is currently priced at 0.003718 USDT, up 60.19% over the past 24 hours. Radix is a high-performance public blockchain focused on DeFi infrastructure, aiming to enhance asset security and smart contract composability through its unique technical architecture, while providing developers with the Scrypto smart contract language and a full-stack development toolchain.

Based on price action and capital flow, XRD’s surge appears to have been driven by several factors. First, recent market sentiment has shown signs of recovery in certain small- and mid-cap tokens, with capital rotating into high-beta assets; given its relatively small market cap, XRD has become a short-term target for speculative capital, leading to a rapid expansion in trading volume. Second, the breakout from its prior consolidation range triggered technical follow-through buying and the participation of quantitative and momentum-driven funds, further amplifying the upside move. Overall, this rally appears to be more of a capital-driven, technically reinforced short-term move rather than a fundamentally driven trend.

BXN – Blackfort (+39.82%, Circulating Market Cap: $29.02M)

According to Gate market data, BXN is currently priced at 0.0018468 USDT, up 39.82% over the past 24 hours. Blackfort is a blockchain ecosystem project focused on promoting real-world applications of crypto assets through its platform and toolset, providing users with a variety of on-chain services and infrastructure support.

From both price behavior and capital flow perspectives, BXN’s rally has been primarily driven by short-term rotation into small- and mid-cap tokens. With a noticeable increase in volume, BXN attracted speculative interest, significantly boosting trading activity. At the same time, the breakout from its prior consolidation range triggered follow-on buying, further magnifying the price increase. Overall, this move still appears to be largely fueled by capital and sentiment, and short-term volatility risk remains elevated.

FUN – Sport.Fun (+25.43%, Circulating Market Cap: $14.79M)

According to Gate market data, FUN is currently priced at 0.08149 USDT, up 25.43% over the past 24 hours. Sport.Fun is a blockchain project centered on sports and entertainment use cases, aiming to integrate blockchain technology with interactive entertainment, content consumption, and prediction-based applications to build a user-facing digital entertainment ecosystem.

From a structural and sector-rotation perspective, FUN’s rally has been driven mainly by a recovery in risk appetite within certain application-focused narratives. Capital has begun to flow back into small-cap, theme-driven tokens, and FUN has benefited from this rotation, resulting in a clear pickup in trading activity. Meanwhile, after forming a short-term base following its prior correction, the token broke out on rising volume, attracting both trend-following and short-term speculative funds, which further expanded the upside move.

Alpha Insights

Law Enforcement–Custodied Bitcoin Suspected to Be Lost in Phishing Attack, Approximately $47 Million Missing

The Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Office in South Korea recently discovered during a routine audit of seized crypto assets that approximately 70 billion KRW (around $47.7 million) worth of Bitcoin had gone missing. Preliminary investigations suggest that the incident may have been caused by an internal operator accidentally clicking on a phishing website, leading to the leakage of private keys or signing authority, and ultimately allowing attackers to drain the assets.

On-chain data shows that the stolen Bitcoin has since been transferred in batches to multiple new addresses and further split and mixed to obfuscate the fund flows. Authorities have launched an internal investigation and technical audit, and are attempting to trace the attack path using on-chain forensic methods. The incident once again highlights that even institutional-grade custody systems still face significant operational and key-management risks.

Citi Warns Surge in Ethereum On-Chain Activity May Be Driven by “Address Poisoning” Scams

Citibank recently published a research report warning that the recent record highs in both transaction volume and active addresses on the Ethereum network may not be the result of genuine user growth, but rather driven by large-scale “address poisoning” scam activity. Analysts noted that a significant portion of new transactions are for amounts below $1, a pattern highly consistent with address poisoning attacks rather than organic adoption.

On-chain research shows that attackers are taking advantage of Ethereum’s currently low transaction fees to send small amounts of USDT and USDC to a large number of addresses at minimal cost in order to “pollute” transaction histories. Some smart contracts have even distributed tiny amounts of stablecoins to hundreds of thousands of addresses in a single batch, with the funding source traced to contracts specifically designed for large-scale address poisoning. Citi noted that such activity artificially inflates network usage metrics in the short term without reflecting real demand. Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s on-chain activity continues to trend slightly lower, forming a sharp contrast with Ethereum and further reinforcing the view that Ethereum’s recent data spike is more likely driven by malicious activity.

World Liberty Financial Partners with Spacecoin to Launch USD1 Satellite DeFi Initiative

Crypto project World Liberty Financial, which is reportedly linked to the Trump family, has announced a partnership with satellite startup Spacecoin to explore the integration of DeFi with low-Earth-orbit satellite internet infrastructure. Spacecoin stated that the cooperation involves a token swap between the two projects, though specific terms have not yet been disclosed. The partnership aims to extend financial services to regions underserved by traditional banking systems and to provide infrastructure support for payments and settlements in constrained environments.

According to disclosures, Spacecoin is currently building a low-Earth-orbit satellite network and has successfully launched three satellites, positioning itself as an alternative to terrestrial broadband while also developing a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN). Meanwhile, World Liberty Financial continues to expand the use cases of its USD-pegged stablecoin, USD1, and has entered crypto lending and settlement markets via its platform. Data shows that the stablecoin’s current market capitalization is approximately $32.7 billion. Analysts believe this collaboration marks an early attempt to combine DeFi applications with satellite communications infrastructure, exploring on-chain financial coordination in extreme or traditionally hard-to-reach environments.


References

• Gate, https://www.gate.com/trade/BTC_USDT
• Farside Investors, https://farside.co.uk/btc/
• Gate, https://www.gate.com/trade/ETH_USDT
• Gate, https://www.gate.com/trade/GT_USDT
• Gate, https://www.gate.com/price
• Coindesk, https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/01/22/citi-sounds-the-alarm-on-address-poisoning-scams-flooding-the-ethereum-network
• The Block, https://www.theblock.co/post/383442/hilbert-group-bolsters-institutional-crypto-push-with-25-million-enigma-nordic-deal
• The Block, https://www.theblock.co/post/386806/world-liberty-financial-spacecoin

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Disclaimer
Investing in cryptocurrency markets involves high risk. Users are advised to conduct their own research and fully understand the nature of the assets and products before making any investment decisions. Gate is not responsible for any losses or damages arising from such decisions.