Here’s what happened in crypto today – ETF flows, BitGo IPO, Railgun & more

The crypto market is ending the week strong despite a four-day streak of U.S. spot ETF outflows and global tensions. Here’s a recap of what transpired in the space in the past 48 hours.

BTC hit with $1.68B ETF outflows 

Bitcoin [BTC] price held the $90k despite record weekly ETF outflows in 2026. The products saw four consecutive days of outflows, totalling $1.68 billion.  

This week’s risk-off mode was triggered by Japan’s bond crisis, as investors feared the rout could spill over into U.S. markets. Additionally, the global tensions between the E.U. and the U.S. over Greenland further spooked the markets. 

As of writing, these two risk factors were significantly neutralized. The E.U.-U.S. tensions, for example, had eased over a potential Greenland deal, prompting a relief rally in markets. 

At press time, the Asian markets surged, with Shanghai’s SSE Composite (SSE) and Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 posting a 33 and 29 basis points surge, respectively.

However, India’s Nifty 50 retreated nearly 1%. The improved sentiment followed Japan’s rate pause after its policy rate decision on the 22nd of January. 

Collectively, the shift in sentiment helped Bitcoin hover near $90k despite record ETF outflows earlier in the week. 

BitGo joins the crypto IPO mania

BitGo, a crypto custody and infrastructure firm, became the latest industry player to go public. The crypto IPO mania underscored the sector’s growth into the mainstream, but BitGo’s first day performance was volatile. 

The stock (NYSE: BITGO) opened at $22, slightly above its $18 per share in the initial public offering (IPO).

It hit a high of $24.5 in intraday trading, about a 36% jump. But it later erased the gains and closed the intraday session at $18.49, translating to a 2.7% rally.  

Several crypto infrastructure firms, including custody provider Anchorage Digital, Kraken, and crypto payments giant Bitpanda, are planning IPOs.

This follows a successful Circle IPO last year. That said, BitGo raised $212 million from the IPO, putting its value above $2 billion. 

Railgun to scale DeFi privacy

The key final update was from the privacy sector. Ethereum-based Railgun unveiled Railgun_connect, a ‘plug and play’ DeFi integration that allows users to interact with on-chain platforms for staking, swaps, lending, and others, with their private, shielded wallets. 

The project team said it successfully tested the feature on CowSwap on Polygon POS and plans to roll it out across the DeFi ecosystem. The team billed the new feature as, 

For the unfamiliar, the legacy privacy platforms like Zcash [ZEC] only allow shielded transfers (hiding the balance) and keep it, with no ability to deploy capital across DeFi at scale privately. Railgun’s new feature may change and disrupt the current privacy landscape. 

The markets will now shift to next week’s U.S Fed rate decision, scheduled for the 28th of January. With market pricing a rate pause despite the Trump-Powell conflict, it remains to be seen whether it will be hawkish or dovish. 

Final Thoughts 

• Bitcoin tried holding $90k despite a four-day streak of ETF outflows of over $1.6 billion 
• Railgun unveils plan to aggressively scale DeFi privacy as market shifts focus to next week’s Fed rate decision.