Bitcoin hits 2-month high! Altcoins up double-digits so far in 2026.

Bitcoin has climbed over 8% so far in 2026, now trading around its highest levels since November 16th.

Having broken above its 50-day simple moving average (SMA) - a widely followed technical indicator - since Jan 2nd, BTC has printed higher highs and higher lows.

Such price action suggests a nascent uptrend is in play.

Why is Bitcoin soaring?

Markets rose on the back of lower-than-expected core US inflation, as measured by the consumer price index (CPI), which was released yesterday (Tuesday, Jan 13 @ 1:30 PM UTC).

NOTE: Core CPI is a measure of inflation that excludes more volatile items like food and energy prices.

Cooling US inflation may pave the way for more Fed rate cuts in 2026, and major assets take delight in the idea of US interest rates moving lower. 

Hence, we've seen new record highs for the likes Gold, Silver, and even US stock indices such as the SP500 and DJ30 (Dow Jones Industrial Average), though the latter 2 have since pulled back away from their respective all-time highs. Cryptos are also rising in tandem.

Watch the moment BTC spiked upon the release of the latest US inflation data (CPI - consumer price index) during our Market Update livestream yesterday 

Watch Bybit Learn's livestreams here: https://www.youtube.com/@bybitlearnofficial/streams

• Short squeeze: About US$ 290 million worth of short positions on Bitcoin have been wiped out, according to Coinglass data.
• ETF inflows: Investors sent in US$ 754 million into US-listed Bitcoin ETFs (exchange-traded funds) yesterday (Tue, Jan 13), according to Bloomberg data. That $754 million figure is the highest since Oct 7th, 2025.

Altseason here?

Looking beyond BTC, other major cryptos are already boasting double-digit gains so far this year:

(listed by market cap)

• Ethereum (ETH/USDT): +12%

• Ripple (XRP/USDT): +17%

• Solana (SOL/USDT): +16.5%

• Dogecoin (DOGE/USDT): +26.5%

• Cardano (ADA/USDT): +27.7%

• Monero (XMRUSDT): +63%

• Chainlink (LINK/USDT): +14.5%

• Stellar (XLM/USDT): +22%

• Avalanche (AVAX/USDT): +19.5%

• Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR/USDT): +27.8%

• Shiba Inu (SHIB/USDT): +28%

These double-digit gains then beg the question ...

Is "altseason" finally here?

We addressed this very topic during our 2026 Crypto Outlook livestream on January 5th, 2026 (start from the 43:38 mark in the video).

Monero skyrockets!

Also, note that Monero was listed among our "3 Assets to Watch" this week (Jan 12-16).

In that article published Monday, Jan 12, we pondered the question: "Monero to print fresh ATHs above $600?"

Since that article, XMR has gone on to surge past $700!