Weekly Highlights | Meme Coin Leads the First Wave of the New Year Market, Venezuela's Bitcoin Holdings Remain a Mystery

PANews Editor's Note: PANews has selected the best content of the week to help you catch up on anything you might have missed over the weekend. Click on the title to read.

2025 Retrospective and 2026 Outlook

Waterdrop Capital: Bitcoin in one hand, AI computing power in the other – the gold and oil of the digital age.

Waterdrip Capital predicts that we are at a turning point similar to the eve of the oil industrial revolution, with companies controlling either "productivity" (AI computing power) or "assets" (BTC) defining the new era of wealth. Cloud service providers are at the intersection of these two consensuses. The era of "computing power as currency" is rapidly approaching.

Blockworks co-founders' 27 predictions for 2026: Ethereum's rise, Bitcoin's decline, Solana's "disappearance," and a major reshuffle in the crypto industry.

Blockworks co-founder Mike Ippolito and Bankless host David Hoffman discussed the current state and future trends of the crypto industry, based on Mike's 27 predictions for 2026.

Trend Research: Technology and AI companies will accelerate their deployment of stablecoins in 2026, with WLFI and USD1 expected to be the biggest beneficiaries.

Trend Research predicts that 2026 will be a pivotal year for large-scale institutional adoption of blockchain, with stablecoins, as the underlying infrastructure, experiencing explosive growth. The report specifically points out that WLFI (World Liberty Financial) and its USD1 stablecoin will be the biggest beneficiaries of this wave.

A panoramic view of blockchain financing in 2025: Where did the more than $20 billion flow into?

PANews statistics show that 839 financing events were disclosed in 2025, with a total scale of over US$23.7 billion. The number of transactions decreased by about 33.6% compared to 2024, but the scale of funds doubled, indicating a clear market recovery.

Fidelity's 2026 Crypto Market Outlook: We May Be Entering a Supercycle, with a Bull Market Lasting for Many Years

Fidelity Investments' 2026 Crypto Market Outlook indicates that cryptocurrencies are gaining mainstream acceptance, and the market may be entering a "supercycle" of reduced volatility, with the bull market potentially lasting for many years. Fidelity advises long-term investors to focus on Bitcoin's inflation-hedging value, but caution is advised in the short term as market cycle patterns should be carefully observed.

Dalio's ultimate reflection in 2025: "Purchasing power of money" will become the number one political issue in 2026, and AI is in the early stages of a bubble.

Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio offered a systematic reflection on the 2025 market, pointing out that the core story of the past year was not the seemingly strong US stock market, but rather the dramatic changes in currency value and the reallocation of global assets.

From its peak of $270 billion to its flash crash, DeFi has ventured into the deep waters of financial infrastructure.

PANews statistics indicate that the DeFi market experienced significant volatility in 2025. Total Value Added (TVL) surged from $182.3 billion at the beginning of the year to a record high of $277.6 billion mid-year, but fell back to $189.3 billion by the end of the year due to the October 11th crash, representing an annual growth of only 3.86%. The staking, lending, and RWA sectors underwent profound changes, Lido's dominance weakened, Aave experienced governance infighting, and Hyperliquid faced challenges from emerging players.

The trillion-dollar IPO myth is about to unfold in 2026, but the "little unicorns" have already collapsed.

The 2025 tech IPO market presented a stark contrast: over two-thirds of the 23 listed tech companies saw their share prices fall below their IPO price, with a median drop of 9%. For example, Gemini's stock price plummeted by 58%, and the market capitalization of companies like Klarna and Figma shrank significantly. In contrast, giants like SpaceX and OpenAI were preparing for trillion-dollar IPOs, attracting substantial capital investment.

Macro perspective

Are there inconsistent sentencing for similar cases involving virtual currency crimes? This summary of a seminar held by the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court provides the answer.

The Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court recently held a seminar to address legal challenges in cases involving virtual currency crimes, forming a preliminary consensus aimed at unifying judicial standards. One key point was that "if it is merely personal holding or trading of virtual currency, it is generally not considered a crime of illegal business operations."

"Even a coin falling from the sky belongs to him"—An exposé of the crimes and twilight of Cambodian "Prince" Tran Chee.

Chen Zhi, the owner of Cambodia's Prince Group, was recently arrested and extradited to China for investigation. This article introduces his background and rise to power. With Chen Zhi's arrest, his criminal syndicate has finally collapsed.

Trading Moments: Copper and nickel surge, gold pulls back, Bitcoin encounters resistance at 95,000 and may pull back before rising again.

On January 7th, gold prices retreated after rebounding to $4,500, while Nvidia's AI models boosted memory semiconductors, and LME copper hit a record high. Citigroup raised its Q1 price target to $14,000. Bridgewater Associates warned that geopolitical risks are prompting capital to shift towards non-US markets and physical assets such as gold.

A Century of Lessons from the US Stock Market: Why We Should Chase Beta and Forget Alpha

The article argues that for ordinary investors, overall market performance (Beta) is more important than pursuing excess returns (Alpha). Even with exceptional investment skills, good returns are difficult to achieve in unfavorable market conditions. The article suggests shifting focus to areas with greater long-term value and control, such as optimizing one's career, savings rate, health, and family relationships, rather than excessively pursuing a few percentage points of excess return on the portfolio.

Venezuela's on-chain spectral presence: USDT becoming hard currency, or a secret establishment of a billion-dollar Bitcoin "shadow reserve."

Venezuela's regime change has drawn global attention. Besides oil resources, rumors suggest the government has secretly amassed between $56 billion and $67 billion in crypto assets, with Bitcoin holdings potentially exceeding 660,000 coins. However, direct on-chain evidence is lacking, with publicly available data showing only 240 BTC.

A 2026 Survival Guide for Crypto and US Stock Market Enthusiasts

The article, through a Q&A session with nine researchers, reviews the integration trend of US stocks with the tokenization/Web3 field in 2025 and looks ahead to investment opportunities and strategies in 2026. The core consensus is that the market is shifting from "narrative-driven" to "value return" and "practical implementation".

AI and Meme

The 25 craziest ideas at CES 2026: Hairdressers, veterinarians, masseurs... AI is taking their jobs.

At CES 2026, artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly moving from the virtual world into the physical reality, reshaping daily life, work, and entertainment through various hardware devices. The exhibition clearly showcased four core trends in the deep integration of AI and hardware: robots and embodied intelligence moving towards practical applications, AI hardware "invisible" in everything, the deepening of smart mobility and the reshuffling of the landscape, and imaginative products expanding the boundaries of technology.

He Yiqi, community-driven coin creation, Alpha listing: The crypto world also has its own "Shandong-style" approach.

After Binance co-founder He Yi posted a tweet with the caption "I'm here on horseback" at the start of the new year, the community quickly launched a coin with the same name, Meme, which was soon listed on the Binance Alpha platform. This event was likened by netizens to "Shandong Studies in the Crypto World".

Interview with Gonka AI: With five giants monopolizing 80% of computing power, how can AI truly belong to everyone?

In an interview with PANews, the two co-founders of Gonka AI stated that current AI computing power is highly concentrated in the hands of giants like AWS and Google Cloud, with a few companies monopolizing 80% of global cloud computing power, which may limit AI innovation. Gonka AI plans to build a decentralized AI computing power network, drawing on Bitcoin's open financial incentive framework to attract more participants to contribute computing resources. Its model has already received $50 million in funding from Bitcoin mining giant Bitfury.

Behind the surge of 114,514: The collision between Japanese meme culture and the digital age

The Japanese Meme coin narrative experienced a surge and plunge this week, and the author believes that this surge is closely related to the macro narrative of Japan's "digital year 1926".

Jensen Huang announced eight new products in 1.5 hours, with Nvidia fully betting on AI inference and physical AI.

At CES 2026, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang unveiled Vera Rubin, a new AI supercomputing platform that includes six self-developed chips and several innovations such as NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD.

Unveiling why Meme Coin was the first major market driver in 2026: The underlying logic from extreme FUD to risk recovery.

After a slump in the fourth quarter of 2025, the cryptocurrency market showed signs of recovery in early 2026. Unexpectedly, this rally was not led by Bitcoin or Ethereum, but by meme coins (such as DOGE, SHIB, and PEPE) which spearheaded a strong rebound, driving a return of risk appetite to the market.

Focus on privacy and prediction markets

From Zcash to Arcium: 7 High-Potential Privacy Projects

Privacy is transitioning from an optional feature to a default infrastructure feature. The article introduces seven high-potential privacy projects, including Zcash, Aztec, and Railgun.

Deep Dive into 290,000 Market Data Points: Revealing 6 Truths About Polymarket Liquidity

PANews analyzed historical data from 295,000 prediction markets on Polymarket and revealed six key truths about their liquidity distribution: a lack of liquidity in the short-term market, large funds being attracted to the long-term market, polarization in the sports market, new categories facing a cold start dilemma, significant market differentiation, and the rise of geopolitical sectors.

A comprehensive explanation of Polymarket: Why must YES + NO equal 1?

The article aims to clarify common misunderstandings about the Polymarket mechanism, emphasize its core design logic, and point out that the "YES+NO<1" strategy promoted by some KOLs is impossible to implement under a shared order book.

a16z's 8 Major Crypto Industry Trends Predicted for 2026: The Rise of Privacy Blockchains, Transaction Platform Transformation, etc.

A16z, a well-known venture capital firm, has released its predictions for eight major trends in the crypto industry in 2026, covering key areas such as trading platform transformation, stablecoin innovation, AI proxies, and privacy moats.

In-depth analysis of 27,000 trades by Polymarket's top ten whales: The illusion of "smart money's" winning rate and the real rules of survival.

PANews conducted an in-depth analysis of the top ten most profitable "whale" accounts on the prediction platform Polymarket last December. The article found that many of these whales' historical win rates (such as 73%) were misleading, and also introduced various profit models.

Seize the opportunity

It's 2026 already, and with the market showing a "good start" to the year, who's still playing with NFTs?

PaNews discovered that in 2026, the long-dormant NFT market unexpectedly showed signs of a short-term recovery, with the overall market value increasing by over $220 million in a week, and the prices of some projects rebounding significantly. The article details the current state of NFTs and the NFT types that have attracted attention.

Crypto KOL DaYu's 2026 Investment List: Revenue-generating, Valid Cryptocurrencies, and Not Wasted.

Renowned crypto KOL DaYu released his 2026 investment list, with the core argument being that investors should refuse to buy "junk coins" lacking fundamentals and real revenue, and instead drive the industry towards healthy development through value investing. The article details his coin selection logic and provides specific sectors and targets he has chosen.

Following Lighter, these 23 high-volume Perp DEXs may be the "big winners" of 2026.

With Lighter's token generation event completed at the end of 2025, market focus has shifted to the next batch of potential token issuance projects in the perpetual contract decentralized exchange (DEX) space. Based on trading volume data from the past 30 days, this article identifies 23 Perp DEXs that have not yet issued tokens but possess high trading volume and user engagement.

A list of 9 Perp DEX projects expected to airdrop in 2026

A list of nine perpetual contract decentralized exchanges (Perp DEX) projects that may conduct token airdrops in 2026. These projects are all in the early stages and have not yet issued tokens.

69 potential airdrop projects in 2026 (including scoring, tracks, and interaction methods)

This article selects 69 high-potential projects and summarizes them according to five dimensions: project name, website, industry sector, airdrop method, and rating. It covers multiple popular sectors such as DeFi, AI, prediction markets, infrastructure, RWA, and SocialFi.

Web3 Matters

Sui's Aggressive Advances: Leveraging ETFs to Compete with Wall Street, but Resilience Remains a Key Test Behind Ecosystem Expansion.

In early 2026, the SUI token surged 30% in a week. Grayscale and Bitwise have submitted applications to the U.S. SEC for a SUI spot ETF, marking SUI's entry into the mainstream institutional spotlight and its potential for broader access to compliant funds.

Telegram's "Crypto Accounting": Net Losses Behind Soaring Revenue and the $450 Million Cryptocurrency Selling Scandal

According to PANews, Telegram has recently been in the spotlight again due to a financial report leaked to investors: its revenue curve is upward, but its net profit has turned downward. The key variable here is not the slowdown in user growth, but rather the decline in the price of TON, which has "penetrated" the asset-side volatility into the profit and loss statement.

The three most powerful figures in the history of crypto VC, even Dragonfly's partners are humbled by their abilities.

Dragonfly partner Haseeb ranked the top three crypto venture capitalists of all time: Dan Robinson of Paradigm ranked third for his deep involvement in projects such as Uniswap V3; Chris Dixon of a16z crypto ranked second for leading the funding rounds of Coinbase and Uniswap; and Kyle Samani of Multicoin ranked first for his investment in the L1 project Solana.

Arthur Hayes' latest article: Trump will unleash a crazy money-printing machine after "colonizing" Venezuela; PUMP suffered the biggest loss last year.

Arthur Hayes believes the Trump administration may try to control Venezuelan oil resources to lower oil prices, combined with printing money to stimulate the economy, in order to gain electoral support. He is optimistic about the privacy sector (such as ZEC) and plans to use some of his BTC and ETH to invest in potential tokens in search of excess returns.

Key Information

• Strategy's counterparties have turned bullish, with new positions totaling approximately $120 million.

• Changpeng Zhao: The Chinese version of my memoir may be titled "Binance Life," which has nothing to do with Meme coin.

• Polymarket's denial of a US invasion of Venezuela sparks strong dissatisfaction among users.

• The People's Bank of China: In 2026, it will strengthen the regulation of virtual currency transactions and steadily develop the digital yuan.

• Walmart launches Bitcoin and Ethereum trading service through its OnePay app

• Tom Lee: Predicts Ethereum's future price will reach $250,000

• The number of ETH leaving the Ethereum PoS network has almost reached zero, and the waiting period for re-entry has been extended to over 20 days.

• James Wynn added to his long positions in BTC and PEPE, with unrealized profits exceeding $340,000.

• The US arrest of the Venezuelan president has not affected Bitcoin prices, but experts warn that the market may experience volatility on Monday.

• Financial Times: PwC is actively expanding into the cryptocurrency sector.

• Venezuela holds 240 bitcoins, and analysts estimate that its "shadow reserve" of bitcoins may exceed 600,000.

• Goldman Sachs report recommends an overweight position in Chinese stocks, predicting annual gains of 15% to 20% for the Chinese stock market in 2026 and 2027.

• SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic plan to launch their IPOs in 2026, potentially marking one of the most significant IPO waves in history.