The altcoin market enters the second week of January with unclear alerts. Some tokens have reached new all-time highs. Others have recovered amid skepticism. Most altcoins proceed to battle to get better from the heavy sell-off that occurred in October final yr.
In that context, three altcoins face a excessive threat of huge liquidations as a result of merchants could also be misjudging actual market demand.
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1. Solana (SOL)
The early 2026 meme-coin wave is just not extraordinarily sturdy, however it signifies that merchants have gotten extra open to threat. The Solana ecosystem has posted a number of new data. Pump.enjoyable’s DEX quantity has hit a brand new all-time excessive. The variety of meme tokens deployed every day has additionally surged.
In consequence, many merchants proceed to count on SOL to rise throughout the remainder of January. This optimism seems in liquidation information, the place potential cumulative liquidations on lengthy positions far exceed these on brief positions.
SOL Change Liquidation Map. Supply: Coinglass
Nevertheless, merchants could also be overestimating this demand. Santiment information reveals that the variety of new wallets created every week reached 30.2 million in November 2024. That determine has now fallen to 7.3 million.
The chart reveals that SOL’s rally has been intently tied to weekly new-wallet development. The sharp decline on this metric weakens the basic foundation of the early-year rebound.
“Solana has jumped as high as $144 as it looks to break past its $145 resistance. This will largely depend on whether SOL network growth can begin to rise again,” Santiment reported.
A latest BeInCrypto report additionally famous that SOL has recovered, with institutional capital flowing into the ecosystem. Nevertheless, retail buyers stay largely absent. This group was a vital driver of SOL’s explosive rallies up to now.
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If lengthy merchants maintain chasing positions with out tight stop-loss plans, they might face practically $1 billion in liquidations. This is able to occur if SOL falls again to the $132 space this week.
2. Monero (XMR)
Discussions about Monero (XMR) within the crypto group have turned extra optimistic than ever. XMR has set a brand new all-time excessive right now. On the similar time, its rival Zcash (ZEC) has dropped sharply as confidence weakens.
The seven-day liquidation heatmap reveals that potential cumulative liquidations on lengthy positions dominate these on brief positions. XMR lengthy merchants ought to stay cautious this week for 2 principal causes.
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First, XMR has reached a brand new excessive whereas additionally touching a robust resistance trendline that has remained in place since 2018. This creates heavy promoting strain from holders who’re sitting on giant earnings.
Second, Coinglass information reveals that XMR open curiosity has surged by practically $180 million. This marks the best stage in historical past.
Merchants are due to this fact including capital and leverage proper as XMR hits a significant resistance zone. This habits carries a really excessive threat. If XMR pulls again to $454 this week, lengthy merchants may face greater than $20 million in liquidations.
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3. Render (RENDER)
Render (RENDER) has risen greater than 90% for the reason that begin of the yr. Knowledge from Artemis reveals that not solely RENDER, but additionally different AI cash, have posted sturdy positive factors. This has made the AI sector the best-performing section of the crypto market thus far this yr.
Traders seem like favoring AI cash in early 2026. This sentiment may enable RENDER and different AI tokens to proceed rising after they attain short-term stability.
“These AI coins are doing really well, and they barely show up on the timeline lately. FET and RENDER stand out. Buying spot and waiting seems reasonable, because the move does not look finished yet,” Altcoin Sherpa commented.
The seven-day liquidation map for RENDER reveals a comparatively balanced expectation between lengthy and brief positions.
If AI cash maintain attracting capital this week, RENDER brief merchants may resist $5.8 million in liquidations. This is able to happen if RENDER climbs to $2.93.
