Bitcoin Turns "Balakang in English" as 2026 Gains Evaporate

The cryptocurrency market is experiencing what traders might call a “balakang in english” moment—a sharp sentiment shift from optimism to pessimism that no amount of positive headlines seems able to reverse. Bitcoin has retreated to $88,090, erasing every gain accumulated since the start of 2026 and now trading in negative territory for the year. The largest cryptocurrency is down approximately 0.88% over the past 24 hours, reflecting a broader capitulation across digital assets despite recent attempts at recovery.

The immediate catalyst was President Trump’s address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he delivered remarks designed to calm investor nerves. Trump stated the U.S. had no intention of taking Greenland by force and expressed optimism about passage of a comprehensive crypto market structure bill—comments that temporarily lifted Bitcoin above $90,000. Yet the bounce proved short-lived, suggesting deeper structural forces are overriding positive policy signals.

Trump’s Dovish Signals Can’t Stop the Selling Pressure

While the Trump administration’s pro-crypto positioning would typically provide support, the market’s inability to sustain gains above $90,000 reveals investor concerns extend beyond U.S. geopolitical rhetoric. The failure of dovish remarks to reverse the selloff indicates that traders are pricing in more complex macro dynamics than simple policy reassurance can address. Bitcoin’s inability to hold Trump-driven gains underscores how fragile the current rally foundation remains.

Cross-Asset Divergence: Why Gold and Emerging Markets Win

Other major digital assets are experiencing similar pressure. Ethereum has declined to $2,950, XRP sits at $1.88, and Solana trades near $123.30—all continuing downward trajectories despite the broader narrative around crypto market structure improvements.

Notably, Bitcoin has failed to outperform during periods of dollar weakness, a traditional advantage for the cryptocurrency. Gold, by contrast, has surged to fresh records above $4,800 per ounce with an additional 1.5% gain Wednesday, while silver posted records on Tuesday. This divergence reveals a critical market insight: traditional investors fleeing risk are gravitating toward physical precious metals rather than digital alternatives, suggesting Bitcoin is currently trading as a liquidity-sensitive risk asset rather than a reliable store of value during uncertainty.

Macro Tremors: Japan Bond Crisis Echoes Through Risk Assets

The underlying cause of this week’s market turmoil traces to tremors emanating from Japan’s government bond market. A sharp selloff earlier in the week sent Japanese yields surging and sparked a broader risk-off cascade throughout global financial markets. While Japanese bonds and equities recovered modestly, the shocks continue reverberating through interconnected financial systems worldwide.

Well-followed macro analyst Arthur Hayes identified the sharp rise in Japanese government bond yields as “the match” that could ignite a broader global risk-off cycle. “Let’s see how big the fire gets,” he cautioned, capturing the mounting concern that Japan’s bond market dysfunction could trigger broader contagion. Traditional markets, represented by the Nasdaq and S&P 500, are holding modest gains but underperforming their typical resilience relative to crypto’s steeper declines.

Pudgy Penguins Shines as NFT Market Seeks Real Utility

Against this broader backdrop of uncertainty, one bright spot has emerged: Pudgy Penguins is establishing itself as the strongest NFT-native brand of this market cycle. Rather than remaining confined to speculative digital luxury positioning, the project has evolved into a multi-vertical consumer IP platform with genuine real-world traction. The strategy centers on acquiring mainstream users through toys and retail partnerships before onboarding them into Web3 through games, tokens, and NFT experiences.

The ecosystem now spans phygital products generating over $13 million in retail sales across more than 1 million units sold, games and experiences with Pudgy Party surpassing 500,000 downloads within two weeks, and a widely distributed token airdropped to over 6 million wallets. This approach addresses a critical gap: most crypto projects lack meaningful real-world utility, whereas Pudgy Penguins demonstrates genuine consumer demand outside speculative trading. While the market currently values Pudgy at a premium relative to traditional IP peers, sustained success depends on execution across retail expansion, gaming adoption, and meaningful token utility development.

Why Bitcoin Fails as Dollar Hedge When It Matters Most

JPMorgan strategists have provided crucial context for Bitcoin’s underperformance during dollar weakness. They assess that the current U.S. dollar decline is being driven by short-term flows and sentiment shifts rather than fundamental changes in growth expectations or monetary policy trajectories. The bank expects the dollar to stabilize as U.S. economic data strengthens, suggesting the current weakness is cyclical rather than structural.

This analysis has profound implications for Bitcoin’s narrative. Because major market participants view the current dollar decline as temporary rather than a lasting macro reset, Bitcoin is trading primarily on liquidity and risk sentiment rather than serving its intended role as a dollar diversifier. This dynamic leaves gold and emerging market equities as the preferred beneficiaries of capital flows seeking dollar diversification. Bitcoin’s failure to capture this diversification demand during its theoretically optimal window—dollar weakness—suggests the market questions whether BTC can deliver on its core value proposition when it matters most to institutional allocators.

The “balakang in english” sentiment pervading markets reflects a deeper realization: positive policy signals alone cannot overcome macro uncertainty, and Bitcoin’s utility as a hedge remains unproven during periods of genuine systemic concern. As investors navigate 2026, the challenge for BTC isn’t generating headline-friendly political statements—it’s demonstrating resilience when genuine macro stress emerges.