In the past ten days, the combined value of stablecoins has decreased by $2.24 billion. Analysts at Santiment believe this indicates a capital outflow from the digital asset market, potentially delaying its recovery.
📉 The combined marketcap of the top 12 stablecoins in crypto has declined by $2.24B in the past 10 days alone. This drop has coincided with a -8% drop in Bitcoin’s price. A few things to interpret from this:
🥇🥈 Capital is rotating into traditional safe havens like gold and… pic.twitter.com/jfk1NSGygA
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) January 26, 2026
“Typically, when traders sell Bitcoin or altcoins, these funds remain in the crypto market as stablecoins. The decline in stablecoin capitalisation shows that many investors are withdrawing funds into fiat rather than preparing to buy the dips,” they noted.
The sector’s capitalisation fell to $308.1 billion, accompanied by a correction in Bitcoin, which dropped 8% over the same period—from $95,000 to $88,000.
At the time of writing, the leading cryptocurrency is trading around $88,400.
According to experts, capital is currently flowing into traditional safe-haven assets, with investors opting for safety over risk. This is evidenced by the rally in the precious metals market: on January 26, gold surpassed the $5,000 per ounce mark for the first time, while silver rose above $110.
“In times of uncertainty, money often flows into assets perceived as stores of value during economic upheavals, rather than volatile markets like cryptocurrencies,” commented Santiment.
Recovery will require a rise in stablecoin capitalisation, indicating an influx of fresh capital into the ecosystem and renewed investor confidence.
Bear Market?
CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost additionally pointed to a decline in the capitalisation of ERC-20 standard stablecoins on the Ethereum network. Over the week, the figure plummeted by $7 billion—from $162 billion to $155 billion.
Stablecoin Market Cap is Dropping
“This is a very negative signal, explained by the fact that some investors are choosing to fully exit the crypto market, which continues to correct, while precious metals keep surging.” – By @Darkfost_Coc pic.twitter.com/IQlyXCvidf
— CryptoQuant.com (@cryptoquant_com) January 26, 2026
“This is a very negative signal, explained by the fact that some investors prefer to fully exit the market, which continues to fall, while precious metals show growth and stock markets maintain a steady upward trend,” the expert emphasised.
He noted that in 2021, a similar trend confirmed Bitcoin’s entry into a prolonged decline phase. However, at that time, the collapse of the Terra ecosystem also played a significant role.
At the end of January, following the drop of digital gold below $90,000, CryptoQuant specialists announced the onset of an early bear phase. This was indicated by profitability metrics for the leading cryptocurrency, which turned negative.
The realised loss of Bitcoin holders reached $4.5 billion—the highest in three years. Analyst Gaah described the situation as market capitulation.