Crypto News Daily Squeeze

Another country wants spot BTC ETFs - here's why it matters

Written by Gode S.,

Web3 Market Analyst

Last Updated: January 09, 2026

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GM. Crypto updates grow faster than wild berries, and we've filtered out the thorns.

Grab a spoon, here's the jam for today:

🍍 ETF outflows, macro updates;

🇰🇷 South Korea's allowing spot Bitcoin ETFs;

🍋 Florida considers a Bitcoin reserve, global crypto scam arrests + more

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🍍 Market flavor today

Find out more about the Fear & Greed Index here.

Name		Price	24H	7D
Crypto Market Cap: $3.11T 0.6% (24H)
	Bitcoin BTC	$91,611.44	0.90%	1.46%
	Ethereum ETH	$3,132.02	0.51%	0.16%
	XRP XRP	$2.13	-0.50%	8.52%
	BNB BNB	$900.27	1.05%	1.70%
	Solana SOL	$139.80	1.54%	7.03%

Prices as of 12:00 PM EST. Click here to see live data.

Crypto today feels like that moment on a treadmill when your foot lands weird.

You didn't fall. Nobody noticed. But you're suddenly very focused on your balance and a lot less interested in jogging.

Bitcoin spent the day hovering around $90K, basically unchanged since yesterday.

But the numbers everyone was watching weren't on the price chart - they were in the ETF flow data.

Another $398.8M left US spot Bitcoin ETFs yesterday, pushing the three-day total to ~$1.1B.

And that's a combo that matters. Flat price + continued outflows creates a specific kind of market mood - not fear, not confidence, just restraint.

Buyers didn't feel urgency. Sellers didn't feel pressure. The market didn't argue with the information; it just absorbed it.

BTC ETF flows table, 01-09

Source: Farside Investors

And macro wasn't exactly holding crypto's hand either.

US jobs data beat expectations:

👉 Payroll growth came in stronger than expected;

👉 And unemployment's holding near recent lows.

Translation: the economy isn't cooling fast enough to force near-term rate cuts.

As a result, the US dollar stayed supported, and Treasury yields held their ground.

For crypto, such conditions make the upside harder 🥲

Moving forward, analysts are focusing on:

👉 Whether ETF outflows slow or at least stabilize;

👉 The state of yields and the dollar - since rate expectations are still steering risk behavior;

👉 And the US Supreme Court tariff ruling, because of its potential impact on inflation expectations and liquidity.

Overall, the price didn't move, but the message did.

And right now, the message is: prove it.

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🥝 Memecoin harvest

Top of the charts, bottom of my due diligence 💩

Data as of 09:34 AM EST.

Check out these memecoins and plenty more here.

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🇰🇷 South Korea's allowing spot Bitcoin ETFs

Imagine you decide you want to own gold...

But you don't wanna worry about theft, insurance, a safe, or explaining to your roommate why there's a pirate chest in the closet.

Pirates of the Carribbean meme: Jack Sparrow holding a chest

So instead, you buy a "gold" fund in your normal investing app. It behaves like gold without you having to babysit the gold.

That's basically what South Korea is lining up for Bitcoin.

Policymakers in South Korea made it clear they're planning to allow spot Bitcoin ETFs this year.

In plain English: they're gonna let people buy Bitcoin exposure through the same kinds of investment accounts they already use for stocks and funds.

Tweet about South Korea crypto ETFs

Source: @LarkDavis

Now, the interesting part here is how Bitcoin is being made easier to live with.

Right now, buying crypto directly is... unforgiving. You're in charge of everything from security to storage.

That responsibility is a feature for some people - and a deal-breaker for many others.

An ETF flips that equation.

Instead of saying, "You are your own bank," it says, "We'll handle the messy parts - you just hold the exposure."

That's comforting. Familiar. And very TradFi.

Which leads to the next layer: who this really unlocks access for.

👉 For everyday investors, ETFs remove friction. No new apps. No new jargon. No fear of fat-finger mistakes.

👉 For institutions, it's even bigger. Large funds, pensions, and banks tend to avoid crypto because it doesn't fit into their compliance boxes. ETFs are the box.

Institutions are coming meme

Source: @0xPolygon

Now, of course, there's a tradeoff.

Buying Bitcoin through an ETF is not the same as owning Bitcoin directly. You're choosing convenience over control and trusting institutions instead of managing custody yourself. You get exposure, not independence.

But that tradeoff is also how technologies spread.

Most people didn't adopt the internet because they cared about decentralization or protocols. They adopted it because it made everyday tasks easier.

The same pattern is playing out here.

So yeah: it seems like crypto isn't being hyped into the mainstream - it's being absorbed into how people already invest.

... Exactly what makes adoption possible at scale 👀

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🍋 News drops you can't miss

⏱️ Trying to send money to Singapore fast, but not sure which route to take? We compared the popular options so you can see what actually works best.

🏛️ Florida lawmakers filed Senate Bill 1038 to set up a state reserve holding only Bitcoin. You can find it listed on the state's official site.

🚔 Chen Zhi got arrested in Cambodia for allegedly running a global crypto scam, then got sent to China. He's also facing US charges, so the legal drama's just getting started.

🌱 By January 9, 56.7% of Bitcoin mining was using clean energy, says Daniel Batten. Miners are actually helping out green projects, taking power from sources that could've been stuck in grid limbo for up to 15 years.

🔮 New York brought back the ORACLE Act to crack down on prediction markets. You won't be able to bet on specific match results if it passes.

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