Morning Crypto Report: Ripple USD Stablecoin Deletes $21,804,950 From Circulation, $100,000 for Bitcoin in January Not Surreal, Bitwise Files for ETF on Zcash (ZEC)

The crypto market is ending 2025 with supply management headlines on the stablecoin side, a seasonal tailwind argument for Bitcoin bulls, and a fresh ETF filing wave that keeps expanding the trad-fi on-ramp narrative into corners like privacy coins.

None of these is a single “flip the market” switch on its own, but together they set the tone for early January: fewer tokens here, bigger targets there and another reminder that 2026 is being pitched as an ETF acceleration year.

TL;DR

• Ripple Treasury burned 21,804,950 RLUSD on Ethereum — the biggest burn in two weeks.
• Bitcoin trades $88,800, and $100,000 implies a 12.6% push from here, with January price history supporting the argument.
• ZEC trades $526.59 as Bitwise adds a ZEC Strategy ETF filing to a big list of 11 proposed strategy products.

Ripple retires $21,804,950 of its RLUSD stablecoin

Ripple USD just experienced its most significant supply reduction in weeks, and it occurred in the least dramatic way possible: the token’s Treasury sent coins to the burn address.

The Ripple Stablecoin Tracker flagged two burns tied to the RLUSD Treasury. The larger burn moved 21,654,950 RLUSD to Ethereum’s null address, “0x000.” Earlier that day, another transaction burned 150,000 RLUSD. Add them up, and the New Year’s Eve headline number is $21,804,950 worth of RLUSD removed from circulation — the biggest burn since Dec. 18.

The “null address” destination is important because it is not a transfer in the traditional sense. It is a classic burn pattern: coins leave the supply and do not reappear in another wallet.

The scale is meaningful, but it is not world-ending. RLUSD is designed to stick near $1 with the supply around 1.33 billion RLUSD, and the asset is 52 by market cap. Against this backdrop, the deletion of 21,804,950 units is a visible change, not a negligible amount hidden inside exchange flows.

Practically speaking, when a stablecoin treasury burns this much, it usually signals supply control, redemption activity or balance-sheet housekeeping. If RLUSD continues to expand its distribution while the Treasury continues to use burns as a release valve, it creates an on-chain narrative that can be tracked like a dashboard. This is especially true because the peg is doing what it is designed to do.

Bitcoin to $100,000 in January gains traction

Bitcoin ends the year trading at $88,800, with $80,600 standing out as a lower reference level. Meanwhile, $107,154.99 sits at the top as the bigger “if this comes back, it’s real” area to watch when it comes to reclaiming six figures.

The $100,000-in-January prediction is gaining traction because the math is not absurd. The move from $88,800 to $100,000 is only 12.6%. In crypto terms, that is a normal swing, not a miracle.

The price history of the cryptocurrency by CryptoRank gives that idea extra fuel. Across the years shown, January has an average return of 9.76% and a median of 9.54%. The year 2025 itself started with a 9.54% January. This does not guarantee anything for 2026, but it explains why this month is marketed as a “fresh start” opportunity, where buyers expect to see an increase in bids.

Add to that the narrative from Bitwise’s recent list of predictions. They argue that Bitcoin can break the old four-year cycle, pointing to the fading impact of halving each cycle, lower rate expectations in 2026, fewer “system shock” blowups after the October 2025 liquidation wave, improving regulation and broader institutional access. 

Additionally, the firm highlights the structural ETF bid, noting that, since January 2024, Bitcoin funds have purchased 710,777 BTC, while the network has issued only 363,047 BTC during the same period. This demand versus new supply imbalance has helped BTC rise 94% in that time frame.

Blend these factors together, and it is easy to see why people are talking about a price of $100,000 as a near target instead of a distant dream. The price is still below that line today, but the market has enough supporting storylines to continue promoting the idea until the chart invalidates it.

Zcash (ZEC) ETF filing by Bitwise stuns privacy coin market

The privacy coin sector has been pulled into the ETF conversation again, and this time, it is more than just chatter. Bitwise filed for a ZEC Strategy ETF as part of a group of 11 proposed ETFs, alongside names like AAVE, CC, ENA, HYPE, NEAR, STRK, SUI, TAO, TRX, UNI and ZEC.

For Zcash, the “ETF” headline matters because the market has historically viewed privacy coins as more difficult to sell in traditional financial settings, even when the technology is impressive. A strategy-style filing does not automatically mean spot exposure or guarantee approval. However, it signals to traders that an issuer believes there is a viable route, narrative and buyer base.

The price action of ZEC is already elevated. On the TradingView chart, ZEC is trading at $526.59 with a minor 0.57% decrease on daily candle. The chart visually marks nearby reference zones at $520.12 and $492.27. Higher areas, such as $560 and $680, sit above as the next “if it runs” regions.

The setup reads like this: ZEC is holding a high shelf after a major run into late 2025. An ETF filing headline gives that support a reason to remain defended, at least until the market gets bored or risk-off takes over.

Crypto market in 2026 prediction

2026 reads like the year crypto stops trading purely on vibes and starts trading on full-fledged adoption. 

If ETF access keeps widening beyond early adopters, $100,000 Bitcoin stops being a headline and turns into a reference line, with a new all-time high becoming the base case at some point in the year, even if the path includes at least one ugly reset.

Stablecoins get dragged into policy debates as their footprints grow, so treasury actions like RLUSD burns become a weekly scoreboard for supply control and redemptions, not a one-off curiosity.

The ETF menu expands from majors into strategies and niche assets, and the sleeper trade is a privacy coin based on “trad-fi wrapper” optics, with ZEC getting the kind of bid it rarely receives outside of risk-on waves.

The main risk is regulation plus a liquidity shock that turns early-year strength into a mid-year shakeout.