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Bitcoin Tumbles From Multi-Month High on DOJ Worry, Hawkish Fed
Earlier Wednesday the crypto had touched its highest point since before the FTX collapse.
Updated Jan 18, 2023, 5:45 p.m. Published Jan 18, 2023, 4:39 p.m.
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Just two hours after surging to a four-month high of about $21,550, the price of bitcoin (BTC) has tumbled nearly $1,000, now down 2.6% to $20,600.
More than $107 million was liquidated across crypto derivatives markets during the quick plunge, according to Coinglass.
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Helping to spur the slump was the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) teasing the announcement of a major international crypto enforcement action coming at noon ET. There were also some hawkish comments from St. Louis Federal Reserve President Jim Bullard, who suggested the central bank should hike interest rates by 50 basis points at its next meeting in February versus market expectations for a 25 basis point move.
All three major U.S. stock market indices are also in the red, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average leading the downside with a 1% decline.
Ether (ETH) is off 4% to $1,511.
Among crypto-related stocks pulling back are Coinbase (COIN) down 4%, Marathon Digital (MARA) down 17%, and MicroStrategy (MSTR) down 11%.
UPDATE (Jan. 18, 17:40 UTC): The government has charged little-known crypto platform Bitzlato with laundering funds tied to illicit Russian finance and its founder has been arrested. With the "major" perhaps somewhat overhyped, bitcoin has bounced a bit, now trading just below $21,000.
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KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
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Bitcoin stuck near $88,000 as gold's and silver's record-breaking rallies show exhaustion signs
"Gold and silver casually adding an entire bitcoin market cap in a single day," wrote one crypto analyst.
What to know:
- Bitcoin is off its worst levels of the weekend, but still near the year's low at $87,700.
- Facing the same news cycle as crypto, precious metals continued to surge higher, but a quick retreat from their highs on Monday suggested a bit of exhaustion was setting in.
- Analysts remain dour on the outlook for crypto prices given the looming government shutdown as well as delays in passage of the Clarity Act.
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