【Market Overview | January 12】

There are a few noteworthy developments in the crypto space: The viewership of crypto content on YouTube has fallen to its lowest point since January 2021; South Korea's government announced the lifting of a nine-year ban on corporate crypto investments, allowing institutions to allocate liquidity to purchase the top 20 crypto assets, with a single investment cap of 5% of equity; a16z released its 2026 AI outlook report, suggesting AI agents are expected to play a larger role in financial trading, market research, and other fields.

What’s more striking is the intense volatility in the precious metals and energy markets. Recently, the U.S. increased military deployments to Iran, and the Trump administration is evaluating various actions including military and economic sanctions; simultaneously, the U.S. is also applying pressure on Cuba to cut off its energy and funding channels. This geopolitical tension has directly impacted commodity markets—spot silver surged 4% in a single day to $83.14/oz, spot gold broke through $4,580/oz to hit a record high, and international gold futures first crossed the $4,600/oz mark; in oil, Brent crude futures rose to $64 per barrel, while WTI crude approached $60 per barrel.

These variables send complex signals to the Bitcoin market. On one hand, amid a broad sell-off of risk assets, the surge in traditional safe-haven assets like gold has attracted some investors, and such capital may also flow into Bitcoin, which is viewed as a digital safe haven, creating short-term rebound momentum. On the other hand, the sharp fluctuations in the dollar and oil prices will further influence Bitcoin’s relative valuation and market participants’ risk appetite, and the upcoming market trend may be shaped by these forces pulling in different directions.