#数字资产市场动态 January 21, 2026 | Crypto Market Watch

【Debate Escalates】Central Banks and Crypto Giants Clash at Davos

At the Davos Forum, the Governor of the French Central Bank and Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong went head-to-head, with a simple but sharp topic: should you trust the money in your hands—trust the state or trust technology?

The French Central Bank’s logic is this—trust in currency must come from regulated, democratically authorized public institutions. The independence of the central bank and its institutional design are guarantees. As for Bitcoin’s private issuance system? Not very trusting.

Armstrong responded: Trust shouldn’t be monopolized by any single institution; it should be a free choice by users. If users want to use Bitcoin, that’s essentially a vote.

On the surface, it sounds like a technical dispute, but in reality, it’s a power struggle—central banks seek order and control, while Bitcoin advocates for transparent rules and immutability. In today’s unstable global economy and fiscal pressures, such conflicts will become more frequent. To some extent, the story of Bitcoin as a “non-sovereign asset” is being continually reinforced.

【Institutions and Retail Investors Playing Different Roles】

The money flow is quite clear—institutions are fleeing.

Recent data on spot crypto ETFs look a bit grim: Bitcoin ETFs saw a net outflow of $480 million in one day, Ethereum ETFs outflowed $230 million, and XRP ETFs even broke the record for the largest single-day outflow. Only Solana ETFs are still seeing slight inflows.

The reasons are also quite clear. US-EU trade tensions, Japanese government bond sell-offs, rising yields, tightening global liquidity… the reaction from institutions is to huddle together. Crypto assets have always been risk assets, and they are the first to be affected.

But interestingly, on-chain data tells a different story.

Addresses holding 10 to 10,000 BTC have increased their holdings by about 36,300 BTC in the past nine days. Meanwhile, small investors are reducing their positions. Even more astonishing, new large investors (we call them “new whales”) have, for the first time, surpassed the old whales in realized market cap, beginning to control the marginal supply of the market.

What does this indicate? Not everyone is bearish. The market is diverging—institutions are becoming cautious through ETFs, but some big players are accumulating during volatility. The pricing power is shifting toward shorter cycles and more aggressive capital.

So you see, $BTC $ETH’s price is indeed weakening, but the overall long-term narrative has not been broken. This actually better explains the situation—those who truly believe are betting when institutions are fleeing.

$BTC $ETH