Weekly Preview | Solana Ecosystem Crypto Derivatives Exchange Ranger Launches Public Offering; US Bureau of Labor Statistics Releases December Employment Data

Breaking News Preview:

• The Global Web3 Ecosystem Innovation and Application Summit will be held on January 5th at Cyberport, Hong Kong.
• Ethena (ENA) will unlock approximately 171 million tokens at 3 PM Beijing time on January 5th, representing 2.37% of the circulating supply, worth approximately $42 million.
• Binance Alpha will list Brevis (BREV) on January 6th;
• Hyperliquid (HYPE) will unlock approximately 12.46 million tokens at 8:00 AM Beijing time on January 6th, representing 3.61% of the circulating supply, with a value of approximately $313 million.
• The Solana ecosystem crypto derivatives exchange Ranger will launch its four-day ICO on the MetaDAO platform on January 7, 2026 at 00:00 (UTC+8).
• The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has confirmed that December employment data will be released on January 9.

January 5

Project Updates:

Huma Finance: Some users had their Vanguard badges revoked due to failure to meet continuous staking requirements; the grace period will be extended to January 5th.

PayFi protocol Huma Finance posted on the X platform that some users reported that their Vanguard badges were revoked after the launch of the second quarter airdrop event. In fact, holders need to continuously meet the relevant staking requirements to retain their badges, including holding 10,000 HUMA tokens or staking 100% of the airdrop tokens received. However, some users did not fully understand this continuous requirement. Huma Finance has temporarily restored the Vanguard badges and set a grace period, which ends on January 5, 2026 at 00:00 (UTC).

The ACDE meeting is scheduled to resume on January 5th, at which time Ethereum developers will finalize the scope of Glamsterdam.

Ethereum core developers have officially named the upgraded version of Glamsterdam "Hegota," a name that combines elements of Bogota and Heze. Developers stated that the main EIP for Hegota will be finalized in February, while development of Glamsterdam (Ethereum's first planned upgrade in 2026) continues. Ethereum developers also further clarified the network's development timeline for 2026, maintaining its twice-yearly release schedule. The ACDE meeting is scheduled to resume on January 5th, at which time developers will finalize the scope of Glamsterdam. Glamsterdam is likely to launch in the first half of 2026, while Hegota will launch later that year.

The x402 hackathon, supported by the Ethereum Foundation and Coinbase, has begun, with project submissions closing on January 5th.

EigenCloud tweeted that the x402 Hackathon has officially launched, with a submission deadline of January 5, 2026. This event, supported by EigenCloud, the Ethereum Foundation, Coinbase, Edge & Node, Merit Systems, Abstract Chain, Crossmint, Polygon, thirdweb, and Corbits, aims to build next-generation smart agents and web-native payment applications. This hackathon does not offer cash prizes; participants will receive marketing and distribution support from contributors, mentorship, invitations to major industry events, and potential grant opportunities.

Community activities:

The Global Web3 Ecosystem Innovation and Application Summit will be held on January 5, 2026 at Cyberport, Hong Kong.

The Global Web3 Ecosystem Innovation and Application Summit will be held on January 5, 2026 at Cyberport, Hong Kong. It is hosted by Mega Matrix Inc. (NASDAQ: MPU), a US-listed company, and CoinQ Exchange, and co-hosted by more than a dozen Web3 institutions such as Moore Labs, Vitaking, UniOne, and Polaris.

The conference, themed "Ecosystem Innovation × Practical Application," brought together over a dozen global regulatory agencies, traditional financial institutions, and more than 500 Web3 industry professionals to discuss blockchain compliance and industry applications. This summit aimed to provide new opportunities and ideas for the healthy and long-term development of the global Web3 industry, further promoting the practical application and traffic dissemination of blockchain technology and ecosystem innovation.

Token unlocking:

Ethena (ENA) will unlock approximately 171 million tokens at 3 PM Beijing time on January 5th, representing 2.37% of the circulating supply, worth approximately $42 million.

January 6

Exchange:

Binance Alpha will list Brevis (BREV) on January 6th.

Binance Alpha will list Brevis (BREV) on January 6th. Eligible users can claim the airdrop using Binance Alpha Points on the Alpha event page after trading opens on Alpha. Further details will be announced separately. Please follow Binance's official channels for the latest event updates.

Binance Leverage will remove leveraged trading pairs such as BCH/FDUSD on January 6th.

Binance Leverage will remove the following leveraged trading pairs on January 6th at 14:00:00: Cross Margin Leveraged Pairs: BCH/FDUSD, TAO/FDUSD, AVAX/FDUSD, LTC/FDUSD, SUI/FDUSD, ADA/FDUSD, LINK/FDUSD; Isolated Margin Leveraged Pairs: BCH/FDUSD, TAO/FDUSD, AVAX/FDUSD, LTC/FDUSD, SUI/FDUSD, ADA/FDUSD, LINK/FDUSD.

Community activities:

The "Tech Spring Festival" – the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) – will be held in Las Vegas from January 6-9.

Token unlocking:

Hyperliquid (HYPE) will unlock approximately 12.46 million tokens at 8:00 AM Beijing time on January 6th, representing 3.61% of the circulating supply, with a value of approximately $313 million.

January 7

Project Updates:

Ranger will launch its ICO on MetaDAO on January 7, with a minimum fundraising target of $6 million.

Ranger, a crypto derivatives exchange within the Solana ecosystem, will launch its four-day ICO on the MetaDAO platform on January 7, 2026 at 00:00 (UTC+8). The minimum fundraising target is $6 million USD, with a public offering pool of 10 million RNGR tokens, approximately 39.02% of the total supply. Tokens will be 100% unlocked during TGE. Ranger will employ an "oversubscription + project team-confirmed acceptance amount" mechanism and introduce "Ranger Points" to ensure priority allocation for early users. Furthermore, the project will implement a "buy-the-wall" mechanism within 90 days of the ICO to stabilize initial market liquidity.

ZKsync will discontinue Etherscan support on January 7th and fully transition to a native block explorer.

According to an announcement from the ZKsync development team, ZKsync Era will end its support for Etherscan (data indexing service) on January 7, 2026. In the future, it will focus on supporting its native browser to better serve the protocol features of interoperability trading, Gateway settlement, and EVM compilers such as Solx.

Based is launching a Christmas-themed Soul-Bound NFT; the deadline for claiming is January 7th.

Social app Based has announced the release of a Christmas-themed "Soulbound" NFT. This NFT is only available to users holding more than one gold coin, and the deadline for claiming is January 7, 2026. Users can currently claim it through the Based mobile app.

January 8

Project Updates:

XMAQUINA will be partnering with Virtuals for a final public offering of $DEUS on January 8th, with an initial price of $0.06.

According to an official announcement from Web3 robotics company XMAQUINA, XMAQUINA will partner with Virtuals Protocol to conduct a final public sale of $DEUS tokens. This sale will be a community-centric initial coin offering (ICO) aimed at promoting an open, decentralized, and composable ecosystem of humanoid robots and physical AI.

This sale accepts both $USDC and $VIRTUAL tokens. $VIRTUAL will be used to provide seed funding for the $DEUS/$VIRTUAL liquidity pool, expected to launch during the Token Generation Event (TGE), with an initial total locked value exceeding $1 million. The auction will begin at 20:00 Beijing time on January 8, 2026. The initial price of $DEUS is $0.06, with a total estimated value of $60 million. 33% of the tokens will be released during the TGE, and the remaining 67% will be linearly unlocked over 12 months.

CoinWarz: Bitcoin mining difficulty is expected to increase to 149 T on January 8th.

Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by 0.04% to 148.26 T in the final adjustment of the year on December 25. According to CoinWarz, the next Bitcoin mining difficulty adjustment is expected to take place on January 8, 2026, at block height 931,392, at which time the network mining difficulty is expected to rise to 149 T.

January 9

Macroeconomics:

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has confirmed that December employment data will be released on January 9.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) for December will be released as scheduled on January 13th next year; the December (non-farm) employment report will also be released as scheduled on January 9th next year, which is the first normal month's data to be collected since the end of the record-breaking shutdown of the U.S. government last year; and the December real income data will be released on January 13th next year.

At 0:00 on Friday, the US Federal Reserve Bank of New York will release its 1-year inflation forecast for December.

Policy and regulation:

Connecticut cannot yet take action against Kalshi; the state's Department of Consumer Protection must submit a response to the Kalshi motion by January 9.

The state of Connecticut issued a cease and desist order against prediction market platform Kalshi for allegedly engaging in unlicensed gambling activities; subsequently, a U.S. judge granted Kalshi a stay of the injunction. On December 2, the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) issued injunctions against Kalshi, Robinhood, and cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com, accusing them of “conducting unlicensed online gambling activities in Connecticut through online sports event contracts.” The following day, Kalshi filed a lawsuit against the Connecticut DCP. On Monday, Connecticut Federal Court Judge Vernon Oliver ruled that the Connecticut DCP must “avoid taking enforcement action against Kalshi” while the court considers the company’s request to temporarily block regulatory action.

The ruling also stated that the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection should submit a response to the company's motion by January 9, and Kalshi should submit further supporting materials for its motion by January 30. Oral arguments will be held in mid-February.

Exchange:

Binance will update the BFUSD trading pair to zero transaction fees on January 9th.

Binance will update its zero-fee promotion for the BFUSD trading pair at 08:00 (UTC+8) on January 9, 2026. Starting from 08:00 (UTC+8) on January 9, 2026, all users will be subject to standard fees when trading the BFUSD trading pair.

Token unlocking:

Movement (MOVE) will unlock approximately 164 million tokens at 8 PM Beijing time on January 9th, representing 5.77% of the circulating supply, worth approximately $6.1 million.

January 10

Token unlocking:

Linea (LINEA) will unlock approximately 1.38 billion tokens at 7 PM Beijing time on January 10th, representing 6.34% of the circulating supply, worth approximately $9.8 million.

January 11

Token unlocking:

Aptos (APT) will unlock approximately 11.31 million tokens at 10:00 AM Beijing time on January 11th, representing 0.70% of the circulating supply, with a value of approximately $21.6 million.