Market Report: Top 5 cryptocurrencies by decline on January 21, 2026, with Monero experiencing the largest drop.

Gate.io News Bot Message, January 21, 2026. According to CoinMarketCap market data, the overall cryptocurrency market is under pressure and adjusting, with several major coins experiencing significant corrections. Among them, privacy coins and derivatives tokens led the declines, and market risk sentiment has been somewhat released. The following are the top five performers in the past 24 hours:

1️⃣ XMR (Monero ) 📉 Current price: $504.62 | Change: -16.85% 📊 24H high/low: $622.26 / $486.03 | Market cap: $931 million ⚠️ After surging to around $800, Monero experienced profit-taking. Large on-chain short positions increased, with the “20 million wave hunter” continuously adding to XMR short positions to 8,383 coins, with an unrealized profit of $7.78 million. Market shorting pressure has significantly increased. Funds from the privacy coin sector partially flowed into small- and mid-cap targets like DUSK, causing the leader XMR to pull back under pressure.

2️⃣ HYPE (Hyperliquid ) 📉 Current price: $21.42 | Change: -9.20% 📊 24H high/low: $23.82 / $20.91 | Market cap: $647 million ⚠️ HYPE faces multiple pressures: firstly, a whale holding a 5x leveraged long position is currently at a loss of over $23.3 million, increasing liquidation risk; secondly, major on-chain long whales are generally deeply trapped, with the top holder at a loss of $21.3 million; thirdly, over 3.2 million HYPE tokens worth more than $75 million will be unlocked in the next five days, and the expected release of staked tokens is putting downward pressure on the price; fourthly, the Trove project has shifted from Hyperliquid to Solana, damaging ecosystem confidence.

3️⃣ MORPHO (Morpho ) 📉 Current price: $1.16 | Change: -8.46% 📊 24H high/low: $1.28 / $1.14 | Market cap: $44 million ⚠️ Morpho announced that its Discord server will switch to read-only mode starting February 1 due to security concerns. This change in official communication channels has raised market worries about project stability. Additionally, small-cap tokens tend to have weaker liquidity and are more susceptible to market risk sentiment.

4️⃣ IMX (Immutable ) 📉 Current price: $0.24 | Change: -8.14% 📊 24H high/low: $0.26 / $0.23 | Market cap: $488 million ⚠️ IMX will unlock approximately 9.62 million tokens (worth about $2.7 million) on January 24, which is expected to release selling pressure. Meanwhile, in the context of overall market correction, gaming tokens are under pressure, and market risk aversion has increased.

5️⃣ DASH (Dash ) 📉 Current price: $69.12 | Change: -7.49% 📊 24H high/low: $75.56 / $68.05 | Market cap: $868 million ⚠️ After a 141% surge over a week, DASH experienced concentrated profit-taking at high levels. Funds within the privacy coin sector are rotating rapidly, with some investors missing earlier gains and buying into small- and mid-cap privacy coins like DUSK, leading to a technical correction in DASH, the sector leader, with heavy overhead pressure from trapped positions.

📉 Market Summary and Risk Warning

The current market features the following characteristics: The privacy coin sector is showing divergence at high levels—XMR and DASH, as sector leaders, have corrected after strong rallies, indicating a shift of funds toward small-cap targets; Derivatives tokens like HYPE face multiple negative factors—staking releases, long position losses, and ecosystem changes are simultaneously suppressing prices; Large on-chain short positions have significantly increased—key trading addresses continue to add to short positions on major coins, intensifying market shorting sentiment; Overall market risk is intensifying—multiple tokens face unlocking, profit-taking, and technical pressure.

⚠️ Important Risk Warning: The market is currently highly volatile. Investors should pay close attention to: (1) Large token unlock pressures; (2) Liquidation risks for leveraged longs; (3) Policy uncertainties in the privacy coin sector; (4) Liquidity risks on derivatives platforms. It is recommended that investors operate cautiously, control risk exposure, avoid chasing highs, and closely monitor key support levels for defense.

This message is not investment advice. Investors should be aware of market volatility risks.