Crypto Markets See Uptick as Bitcoin Reclaims $90K, NFT Project Moonbirds Debuts Token, and Optimism Voters Approve Buyback Plan

The cryptocurrency market experienced a significant upswing on Wednesday, January 28, with Bitcoin briefly climbing back above the $90,000 level. According to CoinGecko data, Bitcoin was trading around $89,500 at press time, up nearly 2% over the past 24 hours. Ethereum saw a slightly stronger rally, up 2.6% on the day, back above the $3,000 level. This price bounce comes as traders positioned themselves ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy decision later in the day. The U.S. Dollar Index (DYX) dropped yesterday, after U.S. President Donald Trump commented that he's not concerned about the dollar's recent weakening. The value of the dollar, per DYX, is down 10.4% over the past year since Trump took office. In other news, Optimism tokenholders have approved a proposal to launch a 12-month OP buyback program, authorizing the allocation of 50% of Superchain sequencer revenue toward monthly OP purchases. The proposal aims to tie the OP token more closely to activity on Optimism's Superchain, an ecosystem of Layer 2 chains for Ethereum. The vote, which reached a quorum on January 28, saw more than 84% of participating voters in favor of the proposal. If the final step is secured, the Optimism Foundation would begin converting ETH revenue into OP starting in February, holding the repurchased tokens in the Collective treasury. Meanwhile, NFT project Moonbirds debuted its native token BIRB on Solana, with the price rallying from around $0.20 to above $0.35 within the first few hours of trading. At the time of writing, BIRB was trading near $0.30, up nearly 70% since its launch. The token has a fully diluted value of about $303.5 million and a market capitalization of $86.5 million. The launch of BIRB follows the team's release of the tokenomics, which revealed that 65% of the token's 1 billion supply was allocated to the broader community. Of that share, 27% is allocated for holder rewards, 12% for ecosystem partners, 10% for value chain incentives, 8% for liquidity, and 8% for "innovation," a strategic reserve dedicated to future-proofing the project. In the world of tokenized assets, Theo launched thGOLD, a tokenized gold product that not only provides exposure to spot gold prices but also generates yield. This differs from most other tokenized gold products, which typically only track spot prices. The launch comes as gold prices reached a new all-time high this week, rising above $5,100 per ounce amid strong demand for safe-haven assets. Theo said thGOLD is expected to be available across decentralized finance (DeFi) venues, including Hyperliquid, Uniswap, Morpho, and Pendle. The growth of tokenized gold has been significant, with tokenized gold surpassing $4 billion in market value last week. Tether Gold (XAUT) and Paxos Gold (PAXG) accounted for most of this growth, according to DeFiLlama data. As investors continue to look for ways to make idle assets like gold more productive within the DeFi landscape, the launch of thGOLD is likely to be welcomed. The tokenized gold market continues to grow, with investors seeking exposure to safe-haven assets in a time of economic uncertainty. In a separate and unrelated development, a collector who bought "Remove Before Flight" tags on eBay in 2010 discovered that they were actually from the Challenger space shuttle. The tags are a rare piece of space memorabilia and serve as a poignant reminder of the Challenger disaster. Overall, the cryptocurrency market has seen a significant upswing, with Bitcoin reclaiming the $90,000 level and Optimism tokenholders approving a buyback plan. The launch of BIRB and thGOLD also highlights the growing interest in tokenized assets and the potential for yield-bearing products in the DeFi landscape.