Bitcoin abruptly surges back above $95,000, extends recovery to Ether, XRP, Solana

The S&P 500 hovered at the flatline, while the Nasdaq inched up 0.2%. The Dow fell 152 points, or 0.3%, weighed down by a sharp drop in JPMorgan after the bank revealed higher 2026 spending plans than expected.

Marianne Lake, JPMorgan’s consumer banking chief, said at a Goldman Sachs conference that 2026 expenses would hit $105 billion, well above the $101B analysts were forecasting and nearly 10% higher than this year’s $95.9B.

Her comments around 12:30 p.m. sparked an immediate slide in JPMorgan shares. Lake said the cost surge is tied to “growth-related investments,” but investors were clearly rattled by what they see as weakening expense discipline.

Meanwhile, fresh scrutiny is hitting Nvidia’s H200 AI chips, which are part of a China-bound shipment.

According to WSJ, the chips will first go from Taiwan to the U.S., where they’ll undergo a national-security review, before heading to China. It’s the first sign of a new pre-export screening system, likely aimed at controlling AI hardware access under tightened export rules.

With corporate treasury demand dried up, spot Bitcoin ETFs are now the only pillar keeping Bitcoin afloat, and even that’s looking shaky.

BlackRock’s IBIT, the biggest player in the space, saw $2.3 billion in outflows last month, marking its largest monthly redemption ever and only its second withdrawal this year.

The number’s just 3% of total assets, but it’s rattled nerves about whether long-term holders are losing faith after Bitcoin’s sharp correction.

So far, ETF outflows across all providers remain contained, just under 5% of total assets, according to Bernstein analysts Gautam Chhugani, Mahika Sapra, and Sanskar Chindalia.

They argue Bitcoin’s no longer a hype-driven asset, but now sits in a longer, more durable bull cycle, backed by institutional buying that’s increasingly replacing retail panic.

Retail investors still make up the bulk, around 75% of ETF ownership, Bernstein said in a recent breakdown. But institutions are creeping in fast, jumping from 20% to 28% ownership since the end of 2024. Bernstein still sees the big picture: $1 million per Bitcoin by 2033.

The mood on Wall Street is changing for Bitcoin. Even the biggest Bitcoin backers are starting to trim their short-term forecasts after the recent 30% drop from October’s $126,000 peak.

Standard Chartered, one of the loudest crypto bulls, just cut its 2026 target in half, from $300,000 to $150,000, and pushed its $500,000 call out to 2030 instead of 2028.

Bernstein analysts are holding the line at $150,000 by end-2025, but they’ve dropped their earlier $200,000 this year forecast. Still, they’re not bearish. They think Bitcoin’s broken out of its old four-year boom-and-bust cycle and is now on a more stable growth track. Just not as fast.

The shift comes as institutional flows dry up. Spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $60 million in outflows on Monday, and corporate treasuries that once loaded up on Bitcoin are backing away.

Geoffrey Kendrick at Standard Chartered says the so-called DATs (digital asset treasuries) just don’t have the balance sheets anymore to keep buying at scale.

Silver soared past $60 an ounce on Tuesday, hitting $60.535 before settling around $60.44 as traders piled into the metal ahead of the Fed’s expected rate cut tomorrow.

The spike follows months of tightness in the physical market, especially in London, where inventories were crushed in October due to massive buying from India and silver-backed ETFs.

While new shipments have eased the crunch, TD Securities puts free-floating silver in London at 202 million ounces, other hubs like China are still scraping decade lows.

Gold climbed 0.7%, extending its 2025 gains near 60%, as investors braced for Powell’s next move. Analysts at BMI, part of Fitch Solutions, warned that if the Fed pauses too soon, bullion could drop below $4,000.

Still, strong ETF flows and central bank stockpiles have helped keep gold elevated. PIMCO expects more upside as sovereigns keep favoring gold over Treasuries.

Bitcoin powered above $95,000 on Tuesday, pushing its daily gain to nearly 5%, but momentum is getting shaky. Traders are watching the Federal Reserve closely, with the market still expecting a 25-basis-point cut tomorrow.

But data from CME FedWatch and Polymarket show more investors are now betting the Fed pauses in January instead. What Jerome Powell says tomorrow could set the tone for the rest of the year.

Ether jumped 8.3% to $3,370, leading altcoins higher. XRP rose 4.5%, Solana climbed over 6%, and BNB moved up to $923. DOGE broke past $0.15 with a 6% gain, and ADA quietly popped 9.2%, its biggest move in weeks.

On the liquidation board, Bitcoin hit $137M, ETH reached $97M, and Solana, XRP, DOGE, and BNB all cleared multi-million marks. The only standout in red was HYPE, down 3.4% despite early week momentum.

Shares of Twenty One Capital crashed out the gate on Tuesday, plunging 24% in its first day of trading after merging with Cantor Equity Partners, a SPAC backed by Wall Street giant Howard Lutnick’s company.

The new crypto treasury firm, based in Austin, Texas, opened at $10.74, well below Cantor’s final SPAC price of $14.27. As of mid-morning in New York, it was hovering around $10.89, giving it a market cap of about $3.8 billion; which, awkwardly, is less than the $3.9 billion in Bitcoin it currently holds.

Jack Mallers, who runs Strike and is now the CEO of Twenty One, is steering the firm as it tries to join the big leagues of digital asset players like Michael Saylor’s Strategy.

Brandon Lutnick, son of Howard and chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald, is leading the SPAC side as CEO of Cantor Equity Partners. The backers are no joke; Tether, Bitfinex, and SoftBank all have major stakes in this thing.