Weekly Highlights | South Korea lifts crypto ban, X to support on-chain market data, BNB chain market data continues to rise.

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

PANews officially released its four major lists of influential columns for 2025.

Looking back at the phenomenal bull market of 2025, who were the best navigators in the crypto market? PANews' annual list reveals the most noteworthy authors and must-read articles of the past year.

Musk's first interview in 2026: Exploring the impact of AI, robotics, energy, and the US-China competition on the near future.

Musk discussed with futurist Peter Diamandis and others how technological change will reshape the near future. He predicts that artificial general intelligence (AGI) will be achieved by 2026, and by 2030, AI's intelligence will surpass that of all humanity combined. Furthermore, he believes that attending medical school will be pointless for Viagra, that China's computing power will far surpass other regions, and that in 10-20 years, money may no longer be important, and jobs will become optional...

Cathie Wood's 2026 Macro & Technology Investment Roadmap

ARK founder Cathie Wood released her 2026 macro and technology investment outlook, arguing that technological innovation will drive productivity growth, curb inflation, and create a favorable environment for economic growth and investment.

VanEck Q1 Global Market Outlook: Cryptocurrencies Bullish in the Long Term, Gold Demand Remains Strong

The market environment will become clearer in 2026, and a pullback in gold prices would be a good opportunity to increase holdings. Cryptocurrencies are bullish in the long term, but their short-term trend is unclear.

Fidelity's 2026 Outlook: Gold Leads in 2025, Bitcoin Takes the Lead in 2026

Fidelity Digital Assets' "Outlook 2026" report reveals that the digital asset market is accelerating its institutionalization, Bitcoin is deepening its integration with the capital market, token holder rights are becoming a core trend, AI competition may affect the mining landscape, and Bitcoin is showing resilience amid macroeconomic uncertainties.

Primitive Ventures: Who's paying for the bull market?

In 2025, AI and US stocks drained the liquidity of the crypto world. Cryptocurrencies need to evolve into new tools of civilization with real utility, rather than just assets that rely on price narratives.

Macro perspective

Cost 1500, valuation 10 million: Three post-95s leveraged "Are you dead?" to create a "small but beautiful" business.

At the start of 2026, the minimalist app "Is It Dead?" surged to the top of the paid app charts. Users simply need to check in daily; if they miss two consecutive days, the system automatically sends a reminder email to their emergency contacts, alleviating the anxiety of people living alone who feel lost. With a development cost of only 1500 yuan, it has already become profitable, and the number of paying users has increased more than 200 times.

The biggest trade theme in 2026: Trump's "can't-lose" mentality and the end of the international order.

Senior analyst David Woo points out that the core trading theme in the global macro market in 2026 will revolve around the Trump administration's "whatever it takes" strategy under pressure from the US midterm elections. This marks a major shift in the international order and will have a profound impact on various assets.

A viral Twitter post with millions of views: If you have broad interests, don't waste your time in the next 2-3 years.

The article explores the advantages of having a wide range of interests in contemporary society, points out that generalist thinking is key to personal success, and provides practical pathways to turning multiple interests into profitable careers, emphasizing the importance of self-education, brand building, and content creation.

Twitter founder's "weekend experiment": Bitchat encryption software becomes a "communication Noah's Ark"

Bitchat's rapid development is not only due to Jack Dorsey's personal influence or its free model, but also because it has become a "communication Noah's Ark" in the eyes of millions of people around the world.

The financial industry is all about paid knowledge services.

Financial tycoons are collectively "going into business": instead of shorting Nvidia, they're selling courses and online communities.

Focus on privacy and RWA

RWA in Hong Kong (Part 1): From Fanaticism to Restructuring, An Analysis of the Nine Major Factions

Platforms such as HashKey, OSL, and Ant Financial are leading the market and promoting the development of RWA through a compliant ecosystem and technical support. Cash management RWA has significant growth potential.

RWA Power Map: A Comprehensive Guide to How Five Major Agreements "Divide" Trillions of Institutional Capital

Rayls, Ondo, Centrifuge, Canton, and Polymesh are each driving the on-chain migration of trillions of dollars in assets to meet the needs of different institutions.

Tiger Research: Monero, Zcash, and Canton Network – Who is the King of Privacy?

Privacy has become crucial in connecting blockchain with real-world commerce. This article analyzes three privacy models—Monero, Zcash, and Canton—and points out that financial institutions prefer selective privacy.

The more it's banned, the higher the prices rise? Unveiling the truth behind the XMR price surge.

XMR (Monero), one of the leading players in the privacy coin market, hit a new all-time high on January 13, with its spot price exceeding $690, once again sparking discussions about privacy coins in the market.

Seize the opportunity

Encryption "fat protocols": Key players in 10 core profit-generating areas

Value is shifting from underlying protocols to middleware and applications that control user access, liquidity, asset issuance, and critical infrastructure.

Genius Terminal Evaluation Report: With the backing of CZ and YZi Labs, is it a windfall or a marketing trap?

The article comprehensively analyzes the project's advantages and potential risks from aspects such as core competitiveness and differentiation, technology and security audit, on-chain data and user growth, community evaluation and public opinion, and token and airdrop expectations.

MegaETH loses another key player! Noise shifts focus to Base after receiving funding from Paradigm.

Noise secured $7.1 million in funding led by Paradigm, but surprisingly chose to move to Base instead of remaining on MegaETH. This defection of a core project adds further uncertainty to the development of the MegaETH ecosystem.

It's time to start making profits again: A breakout of the Russell 2000 index may be the clarion call for a crypto rally.

"The Russell index breaking its historical high is no accident. When it happens, it is inevitably accompanied by the easing of liquidity, the return of risk tolerance, and the renewed movement of capital."

Web3 Matters

Gamers who enjoy casual gaming are devastated! Twitter bans InfoFi, forcing its ecosystem projects to drastically cut their losses.

Platform X (formerly Twitter) announced a revision to its API policy, cutting off API access to InfoFi (an application that allows users to mine cryptocurrency by tweeting), leading to a dramatic change in the ecosystem of this sector.

Interview with Aster CEO: When CZ knocks on our door with a massive influx of traffic, how are we going to respond?

Aster founder and CEO Leonard will delve into the story behind Aster's success, how it copes with massive traffic and retains users, and how it builds a complete business blueprint for trustless asset management.

A "thank you gift" of 2,000 Ethereum: CCTV exposes the double life of Yao Qian, former director of the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

A CCTV documentary exposed that Yao Qian, the former director of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), accepted bribes using virtual currencies, involving tens of millions of yuan. He concealed his corruption through hardware wallets and shell accounts, but the case was eventually uncovered by a special investigation team using blockchain technology.

IOSG In-Depth Analysis (Part 1): A Strategic Guide to the South Korean Crypto Market – From Macro Opportunities to Success Principles

This report on South Korean exchanges, media, institutions, research firms, and blockchain activities aims to provide valuable reference resources for investors, startups, community builders, and stakeholders.

Key Information

• Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a net inflow of $100 million yesterday, marking the fourth consecutive day of net inflows.

• The MilkyWay protocol will be phased out and permanently shut down.

• Kaito will gradually phase out Yaps and its incentivized leaderboards, and launch Kaito Studio.

• X cancels post rewards and prohibits "InfoFi" type apps from attracting users by rewarding posting.

• MetaMask has officially integrated the Tron network, supporting native TRX and USDT operations.

• CME Group will launch ADA, LINK and XLM futures on February 9.

• Infinex: Public offering subscriptions exceeded $7.2 million; TGE to be held on January 30.

• Solana Mobile: SKR airdrop distribution tracking is now live; claiming and staking will begin on January 21st.

• The DFINITY Foundation released a new white paper, "Mission 70," and ICP shares surged over 30% in the past 24 hours.

• CCTV revealed details of Yao Qian's corruption: he accepted bribes using cryptocurrency to purchase a 20 million yuan villa in Beijing and received 2,000 ETH as a thank-you fee.

• CoinGecko: Nearly 11.6 million tokens failed by 2025, accounting for 86.3% of all failures over the past five years.

• Grayscale is considering including 36 tokens in the asset list of its future investment products.

• Former New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced the launch of "NYC Token".

• South Korea lifts nine-year ban on corporate cryptocurrencies, allowing listed companies to invest in cryptocurrencies.

• Product Manager X: The API currently being used by the X platform will support real-time on-chain market data display.