Weekly Highlights | Meme coins lead the first wave of the new year's market, Venezuela's Bitcoin holdings remain a mystery

PANews Editor’s Note: PANews has selected high-quality content from the past week to help everyone fill in gaps over the weekend. Click on the titles to read.

2025 Review and 2026 Outlook

Waterdrip Capital: Left hand BTC, right hand AI computing power—The gold and oil of the intelligent era

Waterdrip Capital predicts that we are at a turning point similar to the pre-oil industrial revolution. Companies that control “productivity” (AI computing power) or “assets” (BTC) will define the wealth pattern of the new era, while cloud service providers are at the intersection of these two consensus points. The era of “computing power as currency” is accelerating.

Blockworks’ 27 predictions for 2026: Ethereum rises, Bitcoin fades, Solana “disappears,” and the crypto industry will undergo a major reshuffle

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

Trend Research: Tech and AI companies will accelerate stablecoin deployment in 2026, WLFI and USD1 will be the biggest beneficiaries

Trend Research forecasts that 2026 will be a critical year for institutional adoption of blockchain at scale, with stablecoins as the underlying infrastructure experiencing “explosive growth.” The report specifically highlights WLFI (World Liberty Financial) and its USD1 stablecoin as the biggest beneficiaries of this wave.

2025 Blockchain Financing Panorama: Who received over $20.7 billion?

PANews statistics show that in 2025, 839 financing events were disclosed, totaling over $23.7 billion. While the number of transactions decreased by about 33.6% compared to 2024, the total funding doubled, indicating a market rebound.

Fidelity’s 2026 Crypto Market Outlook: We may be entering a super cycle, with a bull market lasting for years

Fidelity’s 2026 crypto market outlook states that cryptocurrencies are gaining mainstream recognition, and the market may enter a “super cycle” with reduced volatility, potentially lasting for years. Fidelity recommends long-term investors focus on Bitcoin’s anti-inflation value, but remain cautious of market cycles in the short term.

Dalio’s 2025 Final Reflection: “Currency Purchasing Power” will be the top political issue in 2026, AI is in the early bubble stage

Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio reflects systematically on the 2025 market, noting that the core story of the past year is not the seemingly strong US stocks, but the dramatic changes in currency value and global asset reallocation.

From a peak of $270 billion to a flash crash, DeFi enters the deep waters of financial infrastructure

PANews reports that in 2025, the DeFi market experienced intense volatility. TVL soared from $182.3 billion at the start of the year to a historical high of $277.6 billion mid-year, but due to the 10/11 flash crash, it fell back to $189.3 billion by year-end, a 3.86% increase for the year. Deep evolution in staking, lending, and RWA sectors, with Lido’s dominance loosening, Aave governance conflicts, and Hyperliquid facing new challengers.

The trillion-dollar IPO myth will unfold in 2026, but “small unicorns” have already collapsed

In 2025, the tech IPO market showed a “polarized” scene, with more than two-thirds of 23 listed tech companies trading below their IPO prices, median decline of 9%. Gemini’s stock plummeted 58%, and valuations of Klarna, Figma, and others shrank significantly. Meanwhile, giants like SpaceX and OpenAI are preparing for trillion-dollar IPOs, attracting capital.

Macroe Perspective

“Different verdicts for similar cases” in virtual currency crimes? A Shanghai Second Intermediate Court seminar memo provides the answer

Recently, Shanghai Second Intermediate Court held a seminar on legal application difficulties in virtual currency crime cases, forming a tendency to unify judgments. It states that “if it is merely personal holding or trading, it is generally not recognized as illegal business.”

“A steel coin falling from the sky is all his”—Uncovering the crimes and twilight of Cambodia’s “Prince” Chen Zhi

Cambodian Prince Group boss Chen Zhi was recently arrested and deported back to China for investigation. The article details his background and rise. With Chen Zhi’s arrest, his criminal group has finally disintegrated.

Trading moments: Copper and nickel soar, gold retraces, Bitcoin faces resistance at 95,000 and may retrace before rising again

On January 7, gold returned to $4,500 and then fell back. Nvidia’s AI models boosted storage semiconductors, and LME copper futures hit a record high. Citigroup raised its Q1 target price to $14,000. Bridgewater warns geopolitical risks are shifting capital to non-US markets and physical assets like gold.

US stock market’s century-old lesson: Why we should chase Beta, forget Alpha

The article argues that for ordinary investors, the overall market performance (Beta) is more important than pursuing excess returns (Alpha). Even with excellent skills, poor market conditions make good returns difficult. It suggests focusing on optimizing personal careers, savings rate, health, and family relationships—areas within control and with higher long-term value—rather than obsessing over a few percentage points of excess portfolio return.

Venezuelan on-chain phantom: USDT becomes hard currency, possibly secretly building a billion-dollar Bitcoin “shadow reserve”

Following regime change in Venezuela, global attention is on the country. Besides oil resources, rumors suggest the government has secretly accumulated $56-67 billion in crypto assets, with Bitcoin holdings possibly exceeding 660,000 BTC, though no direct on-chain evidence exists; public data shows only 240 BTC held.

2026 survival guide for “US stock and crypto enthusiasts”

Through Q&A with nine researchers, the article reviews the 2025 trend of US stocks and tokenization/Web3 integration, 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 “realization.”

AI and Memes

CES 2026’s 25 wildest ideas: barbers, vets, massage therapists… AI is taking their jobs

At CES 2026, AI is moving from virtual to physical reality on a large scale, reshaping daily life, work, and entertainment through various hardware terminals. The exhibition highlights four core trends of deep AI-hardware integration: robots and embodied intelligence becoming practical, AI hardware “disappearing” into everything, smart mobility deepening and reshuffling, and bizarre products expanding technological boundaries.

He Yiqi rides horses, community creates coins, Alpha launches: the crypto world also has “Shandong school”

Binance co-founder He Yiqi posted a “I’m riding a horse” tweet at the New Year, which quickly inspired the community to issue a meme coin with the same name, and it was soon listed on Binance Alpha. This event is likened by netizens to the “Shandong school” of crypto.

Gonka AI: How can AI belong to everyone when five giants monopolize 80% of the power?

Gonka AI’s two co-founders told PANews that currently, AI computing power is highly concentrated among giants like AWS and Google Cloud, with 80% of global cloud computing power monopolized by a few companies, which may limit AI innovation. Gonka AI plans to build a decentralized AI computing network, drawing on Bitcoin’s open financial incentive framework to attract more participants to contribute computing resources. Their model has received $50 million in funding from Bitcoin mining giant Bitfury.

Behind the surge of 114514: Japan’s Meme culture and the collision with the digital year

Japanese Meme coin narratives experienced wild swings this week. The author believes this surge is closely related to Japan’s 2026 “Digital Year” macro narrative.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announces 8 new products in 1.5 hours, Nvidia fully bets on AI inference and physical AI

At CES 2026, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang unveiled the new AI supercomputing platform Vera Rubin, including six self-developed chips and innovations like NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD.

Unveiling why the first wave of 2026 market is Meme coins—bottom logic from extreme FUD to risk reversion

After a sluggish Q4 2025, the crypto market shows signs of recovery in early 2026. Surprisingly, this rally is not led by Bitcoin or Ethereum but by Meme coins (like DOGE, SHIB, PEPE), which rebounded strongly first, driving market risk appetite back.

Focus on Privacy and Prediction Markets

Seven high-potential privacy projects from Zcash to Arcium

Privacy is shifting from optional feature to default infrastructure. The article introduces seven high-potential privacy projects, including Zcash, Aztec, Railgun, etc.

Deep dive into 290,000 market data points: revealing 6 truths about Polymarket liquidity

PANews analyzed the historical data of 295,000 prediction markets on Polymarket, revealing six key truths about its liquidity distribution: short-term market liquidity is scarce, long-term markets attract large funds, sports markets polarize, new categories face cold start issues, market segmentation is obvious, and geopolitical sectors are rising.

One article explains Polymarket: why must YES + NO equal 1?

The article aims to clarify common misunderstandings about Polymarket’s mechanism, emphasizing its core design logic, and points out that the “YES+NO<1” strategy promoted by some KOLs is impossible under shared order books.

a16z’s 2026 crypto industry 8 major trend predictions: rise of privacy chains, platform transformation, etc.

Renowned venture capital firm a16z released eight major trend predictions for 2026, covering platform transformation, stablecoin innovation, AI agents, privacy barriers, and more.

Deep analysis of 27,000 trades by the top 10 whales on Polymarket: the illusion of “smart money” success rate and survival rules

PANews conducted an in-depth analysis of the top 10 whale accounts by profit on Polymarket in December 2025. Many whales’ historical success rates (e.g., 73%) are misleading. The article also discusses various profit models.

Seize the Opportunity

Even in 2026, who is still playing NFTs during the “big bull” market?

PANews finds that in 2026, the long-dormant NFT market unexpectedly shows short-term signs of recovery, with total market cap increasing by over $220 million in a week, and some projects’ prices soaring. The article details the current NFT landscape and popular NFT types.

Crypto KOL Dayu’s 2026 investment list: revenue, useful tokens, no sh*tcoins

Renowned crypto KOL Dayu released his 2026 investment list, emphasizing that investors should refuse to buy “shitcoins” with no fundamentals or real income, and promote industry healthy development through value investing. The article elaborates on coin selection logic and specific sectors and targets he favors.

After Lighter, these 23 high-volume Perp DEXs may be the “big hair” stocks of 2026

Following Lighter’s token generation event at the end of 2025, market focus shifts to the next batch of perpetual contract DEX projects. Based on trading volume data over the past 30 days, 23 Perp DEXs without tokens yet but with high trading volume and user engagement are selected.

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

A list of 9 perpetual contract DEX projects that may conduct token airdrops in 2026. All are in early stages and have not issued tokens.

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

This article highlights 69 high-potential projects, summarized by project name, website, sector, airdrop method, and score, covering DeFi, AI, prediction markets, infrastructure, RWA, SocialFi, and other hot sectors.

Web3 News and Events

The rising Sui: challenging Wall Street with ETF, resilience test behind ecosystem expansion

In early 2026, SUI token surged 30% in a week. Grayscale and Bitwise have submitted Sui spot ETF applications to the SEC, marking SUI’s entry into mainstream institutional view and potential broader regulatory access.

Telegram’s “Crypto Accounting”: soaring revenue but net loss amid $450 million coin sale storm

According to PANews, Telegram recently drew attention again with a financial report sent to investors: revenue is rising, but net profit is falling. The key variable is not user growth slowdown but TON’s price decline, which “penetrates” asset volatility into the profit statement.

The three most powerful figures in crypto VC history, making Dragonfly partners look modest

Dragonfly partner Haseeb ranked the top three in crypto VC history: Dan Robinson of Paradigm for deep involvement in Uniswap V3 and other projects; Chris Dixon of a16z crypto for leading Coinbase and Uniswap funding; Kyle Samani of Multicoin for investing in L1 projects like Solana.

Arthur Hayes’ latest article: Trump’s “colonization” of Venezuela will trigger a crazy money-printing spree, with last year’s biggest loss being PUMP

Arthur Hayes believes Trump’s government may control Venezuela’s oil resources to suppress oil prices, combined with money printing to stimulate the economy, aiming for electoral support. He is optimistic about privacy projects (like ZEC) and plans to allocate some BTC and ETH to potential tokens for excess returns.

Key Information

• “Strategy counterparty” turns bullish, new positions total about $120 million
• CZ: the Chinese version of his memoir may be titled “Binance Life,” unrelated to Meme coins
• Polymarket denies US military invasion of Venezuela, causing strong user dissatisfaction
• People’s Bank of China: will strengthen regulation of virtual currency trading in 2026, and steadily develop digital RMB
• Walmart launches Bitcoin and Ethereum trading services via its OnePay app
• Tom Lee: predicts Ethereum’s future price will reach $250,000
• Ethereum PoS network’s ETH exit queue nearly zero, with entry waiting period extended to over 20 days
• James Wynn adds to BTC and PEPE longs again, with unrealized gains over $340,000
• US arrest of Venezuela’s president did not affect Bitcoin price, but experts warn of possible market turbulence on Monday
• Financial Times: PwC actively expanding into the crypto field
• Venezuela holds 240 BTC, analysts estimate its “shadow reserve” may exceed 600,000 BTC
• Goldman Sachs report: recommends overweight Chinese stocks, expecting China’s stock market to rise 15-20% annually in 2026 and 2027
• SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic plan IPOs in 2026, potentially becoming one of the most significant listing waves in history