Wintermute founder Evgeny Gaevoy offered a blunt assessment of crypto’s 
current condition on Wednesday, arguing that the industry has stalled on 
substance even as speculation continues to dominate attention. Gaevoy 
Criticizes Stablecoins, Perp Exchanges, and Token Design In a thread published 
on X on Feb. 4, 2026, Gaevoy, CEO of market-making firm Wintermute, dismissed 
ongoing […]

Wintermute Founder Casts a Cold Eye on Crypto’s Direction

XRP has entered what Korean Certified Elliott Wave Analyst XForceGlobal 
(@XForceGlobal) calls a “washout” phase inside a broader Elliott Wave 
corrective structure, a zone he argues can set the stage for a renewed macro 
advance, with eventual cycle targets stretching into the $20–$30 region. In a 
Feb. 3 video breakdown, XForceGlobal said the recent pullback does not change 
his larger framework, but rather pushes XRP deeper into what he described as 
the “alternative” macro scenario: an expanded flat correction where a prior 
push to new highs becomes a “fake out” before a final leg lower attempts to 
flush late buyers. “Nothing new here, we’ve been talking about this for quite 
some time where we have 2 extreme points of interest,” he said. “The B Wave 
here creating a fake out point at the all time high, and then the current C 
Wave that we are also in that creates a fake out point below the market 
structure of this previous low here, that Wave A.” XRP May Needs A Final Dump 
Before $30 The core of his argument rests on a measured target for Wave C 
derived from the pivot points of Waves A and B, specifically the 1.618 
Fibonacci extension, which he framed less as a mystical level and more as a 
behavioral marker where corrections turn emotional. In his telling, Wave A is 
the initial counter-trend move, Wave B is the “overconfidence phase,” and Wave 
C becomes the forced exit: stop losses, broken conviction, and liquidation 
pressure. Related Reading: Where’s XRP Price Headed As Exchange Reserves 
Plunge To 1.7 Billion? “Basically, it’s a trap and kind of a liquidation 
structure where Wave A is the first counter trend of the larger trend that we 
were expecting,” XForceGlobal said. “And then the B Wave is the overconfidence 
phase and then the C Wave becomes the reality check where everyone who bought 
the B Wave at the top is now wrong and exiting at the local bottoms because of 
their stop losses or they just lose confidence in the overall structure of the 
XRP.” He argued that because Wave C is driven by “emotion and not balance,” it 
tends to resolve as a five-wave decline rather than a three-wave correction, 
often terminating around the 161.8% extension as selling pressure exhausts. 
The key, he said, is not that the asset becomes “cheap,” but that sellers run 
out of ammunition and divergences begin to appear. “The markets will not 
reverse there because prices are really cheap,” he said. “It reverses because 
the sellers are exhausted at those levels and usually you’ll see sellers being 
really exhausted. You’ll start to see some bullish divergences occurring.” 
From a levels perspective, XForceGlobal described a volatile “free for all” 
zone where bulls and bears battle for a base, pointing to a range he labeled 
between roughly $1.50 down toward $1.08–$1.09. He suggested that, if the 
expanded flat thesis holds, that area could evolve into a buy zone, but only 
after the five-wave move down completes and a reversal sequence provides 
confirmation. Related Reading: XRP Market Structure “Very Similar” To April 
2022, Glassnode Says Macro context remains central to his conviction. 
XForceGlobal pointed to XRP breaking out of a prior multi-year triangle and 
then rallying roughly 500% as evidence of an objective five-wave advance, 
followed by corrective structures consistent with an expanded flat setup: a 
non-impulsive pullback, a B-wave push to an extreme, then a new downside 
extreme below prior market structure. $XRP One of the most important #XRP 
videos to date! A complete 10-minute breakdown covering targets and 
invalidation levels. More importantly, I cover how to properly manage 
expectations in the midst of chaos using the macro structure, and why the 
overall trend remains bullish. pic.twitter.com/E2g9ga52N9 — XForceGlobal 
(@XForceGlobal) February 3, 2026 If XRP does complete the corrective leg and 
transitions into what he frames as a new impulsive cycle, with the classic 
wave three, wave four, wave five sequence, his roadmap opens higher targets 
over time. “We got a wave three in the making here, a wave four, and then a 
wave five that’s pending that could bring us up into that $20 to $25, $30 
region that we’re looking for at a later stage,” he said. He also flagged $6 
as a major level where he expects profit-taking and a reassessment, framing it 
as part of a broader risk-management approach rather than a single-shot price 
call. At press time, XRP traded at $1.5887. Featured image created with 
DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

XRP Enters ‘Washout Zone,’ Then Targets $30, Crypto Analyst Says

Google beat Q4 earnings and hit record revenue, but shares fell after hours as 
investors focused on rising AI spending plans.
The post Google beats Q4 earnings, shares edge lower on AI spending plans 
appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Google beats Q4 earnings, shares edge lower on AI spending plans

Coinmarketcap’s latest Proof of Reserves report shows Binance holding an 
overwhelming lead in exchange reserves, showcasing sharp differences in scale, 
liquidity, and asset strategies across major crypto platforms. Proof of 
Reserves Highlights Binance’s Liquidity Advantage Coinmarketcap (CMC) has 
published its January 2026 Major Crypto Exchange Reserves Ranking, offering a 
detailed snapshot of how liquidity is […]

Binance Dominates Crypto Reserves With $155 Billion Lead

Bitcoin’s latest slide has pushed prices into territory not seen so far this 
year, with the market briefly trading near the low $75,000 area. Related 
Reading: Crypto Could Bounce Soon As Fundamentals Firm Up, Tom Lee Says Losses 
have piled up over recent months, leaving the asset well below its record peak 
and stirring fresh debate about whether the broader uptrend has stalled. The 
drop did not happen in isolation, though, and the timing points to wider 
pressure across risk assets rather than a crypto-only shock. Bids Cluster 
Below $73k Order books show thicker buy interest clustered in a range that 
stretches from about $71,500 down toward $64,000. According to market feeds, 
that demand is visible but tentative. When many bids sit on exchange books 
they can slow a fall, but they can also disappear quickly if sellers 
accelerate. Liquidations have amplified the slide: forced closures of 
leveraged longs have been reported in the millions and such events can create 
short, violent drops even where fundamental demand remains. This model shows 
current bitcoin price action is still sitting within historical norms at 
$74,000. Bitcoin is down ~40% from its October high while U.S. equities remain 
near all time highs, with the S&amp;P 500 down less than 10%. Under those 
conditions, a possible ~45% bitcoin… https://t.co/E8oiOKD3VE — Joe Burnett, 
MSBA (@IIICapital) February 3, 2026 Nothing Out Of The Ordinary According to 
Joe Burnett, vice president of Bitcoin strategy at Strive, the recent downturn 
still fits within patterns seen in prior market cycles. Burnett said Bitcoin 
hovering around the mid-$70,000 range reflects a drawdown size that has 
appeared before during periods of rapid adoption and price discovery. He added 
that swings of this scale tend to show up when an asset is still being priced 
by the market, rather than when it has settled into a stable trading range. 
Tech Stocks Drag On Risk Appetite The pullback in US tech names, particularly 
those tied to AI infrastructure, has been cited by several market watchers as 
a linked cause. NVIDIA and Microsoft were among the bigger drags on major 
indices, and reports note that weak sentiment around earnings and high-cost AI 
build-outs has left investors more cautious. When big growth stocks wobble, 
investors often trim other risky positions too, and crypto has been swept up 
in that flow. Related Reading: Trump Says He Was Unaware Of Abu Dhabi Royal’s 
$500 Million WLFI Investment Retail dip-buying was visible on some exchanges, 
and institutional spot purchases were reported as well. According to Burnett, 
a 45% drawdown is close to historical swings, which suggests volatility like 
this has precedents. That view does not remove pain for traders, but it does 
place the drop into a longer pattern rather than labeling it terminal. 
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Cryptocurrency price in KRW