New Year Opens With a Whale-Sized Surprise

Bitcoin Insights For Professionals

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Onramp MENA
January 06, 2026

New Year Opens With a Whale-Sized Surprise

📈 Bitcoin has kicked off 2026 with a sharp reversal. After ending December below $90K, it has rebounded in the first days of January, currently consolidating above $93,000. The move followed a massive sentiment washout, with the Crypto Fear & Greed Index hitting “extreme fear” on December 30 before recovering.

At the center of this rebound? Institutions, sovereigns...and a secret.

Rumors of a previously undisclosed 600,000+ BTC hoard by Venezuela's former regime jolted the market. The stash, valued at ~$60B, may have been used to circumvent sanctions, triggering a flurry of speculation and policy debate. If true, the revelation could mark one of the largest single-entity Bitcoin holdings in history.

This Month’s Big Story: Venezuela’s $60B Bitcoin Cache Shocks the Market

🇻🇪 Venezuela's president Nicolás Maduro was reportedly captured on January 3, and shortly after his capture came a bombshell revelation: an alleged sovereign reserve of over 600,000 BTC. Intelligence sources say the stash was built through gold-for-Bitcoin swaps, USDT intermediaries, and state seizures of private mining operations.

💸 The goal? Evade U.S. sanctions and protect reserves in an unseizable digital asset. Venezuela’s BTC was allegedly stored via multisig structures across allied jurisdictions, from Iran to North Korea. The stash may equal 3% of circulating supply rivaling or exceeding the holdings of BlackRock, MicroStrategy, and the U.S. government.

⚖️ While still not officially confirmed, the news sent Bitcoin higher, as markets bet the coins will be politically locked for years, effectively tightening long-term supply.

Sovereign & Pension Funds Demand

🇳🇴 Norway’s Wealth Fund backs Bitcoin publicly: Norges Bank Investment Management disclosed indirect Bitcoin Exposure of More than $355M, through investments in Strategy, Metaplanet, Coinbase, and Mara Holdings, among others. It’s a small but symbolic signal from one of the world’s largest sovereign investors.

🇸🇻 El Salvador expands its Bitcoin strategy, revealing its national holdings now stand at 7,521 BTC, worth ~$660M. The government launched a “Bitcoin + AI” free zone powered by geothermal energy, offering tax breaks and citizenship fast-tracking for investors.

📉 Spot ETF flows reversed in early January. BlackRock’s IBIT led the charge with $287M in daily inflows on Jan 2, its biggest day since October. Total cumulative BTC held by U.S. spot ETFs now exceeds 820,000 BTC across issuers.

Corporate & Institutional Moves

📦 Strategy Inc. (formerly MicroStrategy) now holds 673,783 BTC, after buying 1287 in the past few days. It has also increased its USD reserve to $2.25B USD. CEO Phong Le reaffirmed the firm’s dual strategy: Hold BTC, hold USD reserves, and scale into strength.

🍔 Could Bitcoin Paychecks Come to Fast Food? Speculation swirled in December after Steak ‘n Shake’s official X account posted and reposted content about paying their employees in Bitcoin. While no formal announcement has been made, the activity sparked rumors that the chain may be exploring opt-in BTC wages for employees in 2026, potentially positioning it as one of the first major U.S. restaurant brands to integrate Bitcoin-native payroll infrastructure.

🏛️ Fidelity Digital Assets’ 2026 Outlook suggests more countries may adopt Bitcoin as a reserve asset, citing game theory and competitive pressure among nation-states. The firm believes the four-year cycle may still influence markets through investor emotion, though its predictive power is fading.

Market Snapshot

Key Bitcoin Metrics as of January 5, 2025:

🔶 Price: $93,250 USD
🔶 Market Cap: $1.86 Trillion USD
🔶 All-Time High: $126,200 USD (Oct 5, 2025)
🔶 Dominance: 58.8%
🔶 Satoshis per $1: ~1,072 sats
📈 Onramp Terminal Metrics

Onramp Terminal

Closing Thought: The New Cycle Has No Map

Bitcoin’s rebound above $90K comes amid one of the most revealing institutional shifts in its history. The Venezuela news, whether bearish or bullish in long-term implications, underscores a new geopolitical reality: Bitcoin is a sovereign-scale asset.

Add in consistent accumulation by corporates, renewed spot ETF demand, and nation-states like El Salvador and Norway stepping forward, and the four-year halving cycle may be giving way to a more structural era, one that is more and more institutional and sovereign.

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