Gate Research Institute: Mainstream assets strengthen, driving a broad rally | Gate expands TradFi functionalities

Cryptocurrency Market Overview

• BTC (+4.66% | Current price 95,448.6 USDT): BTC has shown strong upward momentum over the past 24 hours, currently experiencing a slight pullback above $95,000. The short-term trend remains bullish but is entering a high-level consolidation phase. MA5/MA10/MA30 are arranged in a bullish alignment and trending upward, indicating a positive trend but with increasing divergence, suggesting a need for a correction to digest gains; after reaching approximately $96,600, it pulled back and formed an upper shadow, indicating significant profit-taking pressure above $96,000 and growing divergence. With marginal improvement in regulatory expectations, geopolitical uncertainties, and inflation hedging demand, BTC may switch between bullish consolidation and high-level pullback confirmation before moving higher in the future.
• ETH (+7.62% | Current price 3,329.9 USDT): ETH has followed BTC’s upward trend over the past 24 hours, rising from about $3,100 to above $3,400 before pulling back to around $3,300 for consolidation. The short-term bullish momentum continues but with slowing energy. Geopolitical and inflation hedging demands, combined with active L2 and staking inflows, support a fundamentally bullish outlook without signs of overheating. If it holds above $3,300 and increases volume on an upward attack, it may test the $3,400–$3,500 range again, but caution is advised regarding potential correlated pullbacks from BTC’s high levels.
• Altcoins: The Fear & Greed Index quickly rebounded from 26 yesterday to 48, indicating market sentiment has recovered from “fear” to “neutral,” with funds spreading into high-beta assets as macro sentiment improves. Overall, the market remains bullish, but after rapid gains, divergence at high levels has increased, and the short-term trend is more likely to oscillate bullishly and digest gains before choosing a direction.
• Macro: On January 13, the S&P 500 fell 0.19% to 6,963.74 points; the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.8% to 49,191.99 points; the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.1% to 23,709.87 points. As of 11:20 AM UTC+8 on January 14, spot gold is temporarily quoted at $4,621.26 per ounce, with a 24H increase of 0.77%.

Hot Tokens in the Market

( BOT Hyperbot (+126%, Market Cap $1.84 million)

According to Gate data, the current price of BOT token is $0.005655, up over 120% in 24 hours. Hyperbot (BOT) is an AI-powered on-chain contract trading terminal that integrates data and trading execution across multiple chains and DEXs, helping users track smart money and whale activity, identify market signals, and execute intelligent copy trading with higher speed and precision.

BOT’s rise is mainly driven by market dynamics and speculation. As an AI-enhanced trading tool, BOT benefits from broader AI narratives and on-chain trading trends. Recently, AI-driven projects in the crypto market have attracted capital inflows. However, caution is needed regarding the volatility risks of small-cap tokens, which may face rapid corrections.

MFER mfercoin (+24%, Market Cap $5.79 million)

According to Gate data, MFER token is currently priced at $0.003, up 24% in 24 hours. Mfercoin (MFER) is a memecoin based on the Base chain, inspired by the sartoshi_mfer NFT series, aiming to embody a relaxed, independent “mfer” crypto culture, emphasizing community-driven and VC-free decentralized spirit.

MFER’s rise is not driven by specific events but more by speculation and memecoin revival. Recently, undervalued meme projects in the crypto market have attracted capital inflows, especially when mainstream assets like BTC are stable, with speculators seeking alpha in high-beta assets. Additionally, short-term indicators for MFER show positive signs, such as increased open interest and rising volatility, attracting short-term traders.

ARRR Pirate Chain (+27%, Market Cap $110 million)

According to Gate data, ARRR token is currently priced at $0.53, up 27% in 24 hours. Pirate Chain (ARRR) is a privacy-focused, decentralized privacy coin, an important asset in the zero-coin and Komodo ecosystems, utilizing zk-SNARKs technology to enable mandatory private transactions, aiming to provide stronger anonymity and security than Monero while addressing potential issues of other privacy coins.

As a privacy coin, ARRR’s rise benefits from a resurgence in privacy narratives. Recently, privacy assets like Monero and Zcash have increased, driving funds into undervalued alternatives like ARRR. Community discussions also show positive momentum, with narratives around zk-SNARKs privacy tech, fair launches without VC dilution, and resistance to financial surveillance attracting investors.

Alpha Insights

Gate expands TradFi contracts, providing one-stop access to diverse traditional asset CFDs

Gate continues to expand its TradFi features, offering users access to CFDs on traditional financial assets including gold, forex, indices, commodities, and some popular stocks, integrated into the Gate App. This extends beyond crypto trading into traditional asset price trading. The service uses USDx (pegged 1:1 with USDT and fully backed by USDT) as the margin and account display unit. Users transferring USDT to a TradFi account will see their balance in USDx without manual conversion or additional fees, reducing operational barriers and cost uncertainties across markets.

In terms of trading mechanisms and risk control, Gate TradFi contracts are closer to traditional financial market rules: fixed trading sessions and market close arrangements, fixed leverage without user adjustment, full-margin mode for collateral, and hedging of long and short positions within the same trading pair. P&L is settled at counterparty prices, with overnight fees during market close. The system provides trading via MT5, with account data and records synchronized between Gate App and MT5 client, and a margin ratio-based forced liquidation mechanism (triggered when margin ratio drops to 50% or below) to control risk exposure. Additionally, clearer cost structures are offered (single transaction fees as low as $0.018, forex/indices up to 500x leverage, stocks up to 5x), combined with experience rewards, enabling users to perform multi-asset price judgment, hedging, and trading decisions on a single platform with lower friction.

Wintermute’s Three Potential Catalysts for a Major Altcoin Rebound

Market maker Wintermute states in its latest report that 2025 is likely to mark the watershed between the “narrative-driven retail bull market” and the new era of “highly constrained structure + institutional-led execution” in crypto markets. To break the current situation where liquidity is highly concentrated in top assets (BTC/ETH and a few blue chips) and to recreate broader altcoin participation and large-scale rebounds seen in the past, at least one or more of the following three conditions need to be met simultaneously in 2026:

First, the expansion of ETF and DAT product lines. Regulatory and product innovation must further loosen, breaking the current limitation to BTC/ETH, and include more mid-to-large cap assets within institutional compliance, serving as the most direct and powerful liquidity spillover engine. Second, BTC and/or ETH must experience a super-strong rally. The leading assets need to show sufficiently strong and sustained upward momentum, creating a significant “wealth effect” that stimulates re-entry of off-exchange funds, traditional financial players, and retail investors on the sidelines. Third, a large-scale return of retail investor mentality. Social media hype, FOMO sentiment, viral new narratives, and memecoin booms must reignite. Without retail enthusiasm, relying solely on slow and rational institutional allocations makes it difficult to sustain market rotation and widespread rallies.

Polygon Labs acquires Coinme and Sequence for over $250 million, continuing to advance compliant stablecoin payments

Polygon Labs has acquired crypto payment companies Coinme and Sequence for over $250 million, aiming to build an “Open Money Stack” open payment infrastructure that seamlessly integrates fiat on/off ramps, wallet management, cross-chain routing, compliance enforcement, and on-chain settlement, accelerating the process of stablecoins becoming a global instant, low-cost, programmable payment settlement layer.

Polygon’s strategy directly aligns with Stripe’s approach to crypto payments. Stripe first acquires stablecoin and wallet companies and then builds its own payment chain, while Polygon already has a mature Ethereum L2 network and is acquiring licenses, wallets, and fiat on/off ramp capabilities. By filling gaps in fiat bridging and reducing user friction, Polygon is transforming from a simple L2 chain into a full-stack compliant stablecoin payment infrastructure, seizing the trillion-dollar payment track under regulatory advantages.
References:

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• Farside Investors, [https://farside.co.uk/btc/])https://farside.co.uk/btc/(
• Gate, [https://www.gate.com/trade/ETH_USDT])https://www.gate.com/trade/ETH_USDT(
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• Gate, [https://www.gate.com/announcements/article/49240])https://www.gate.com/announcements/article/49240(
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• Fortune, [https://fortune.com/2026/01/13/polygon-labs-acquisition-coinme-sequence-stablecoin-strategy/])https://fortune.com/2026/01/13/polygon-labs-acquisition-coinme-sequence-stablecoin-strategy/(

Disclaimer Investing in cryptocurrencies involves high risks. Users are advised to conduct independent research and fully understand the nature of the assets and products before making any investment decisions. )[Gate]https://www.gate.com/( is not responsible for any losses or damages resulting from such investment decisions.