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The "Build and Scale in 2026" themed forum, jointly organized by ChainCatcher, RootData, and Alibaba Cloud, is now in the final 5 days of countdown. This forum has received joint support from partners such as Sei Labs, Tron, Brevis, Kite AI, Jarsy, Spark Protocol, Billions Network, Ju.com, SunPump, Vana, Photon Pay, Psy Protocol, UXLINK, Perle Labs, Phoenix, and Huazhi Education RWA, and is scheduled to be held on February 10th from 13:30 to 18:00 (GMT+8) in Hong Kong.As one of the important peripheral events of "Consensus HongKong," this forum will gather multiple high-quality global project parties, investment institutions, and developers, focusing on the trends of industry integration, growth paths, and market opportunities in the new cycle, with in-depth discussions around key tracks such as RWA, stablecoins, AI, payments, and DeFi.Event registration: https://luma.com/md5v6b5z

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently stated that the initial idea of using L2 as the main scaling engine for Ethereum is no longer reasonable, and he called for second-layer networks to evolve towards stronger specialization. This statement quickly prompted responses from mainstream L2 teams such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base.Vitalik pointed out that many L2s still rely on multi-signature bridges and have not fully inherited Ethereum's security; at the same time, with the increase in gas limits and the advancement of native Rollup solutions, the throughput capacity of the Ethereum mainnet itself is strengthening. Against this backdrop, the positioning of L2 needs to be rethought.Karl Floersch, co-founder of the Optimism Foundation, stated that he supports building a modular L2 that covers the entire decentralized spectrum, but also admitted that there are still real challenges such as long withdrawal periods, immature Stage 2 proof mechanisms, and insufficient cross-chain tools.Steven Goldfeder, co-founder of Offchain Labs, the developer of Arbitrum, emphasized that scaling remains the core value of L2. He believes that even if the Ethereum mainnet's capabilities improve, it will be difficult to replace L2's role in handling thousands of TPS during peak times, and warned that if Ethereum is unfriendly to Rollups, institutions may choose independent Layer 1s instead.Jesse Pollak, head of Base, stated that scaling Ethereum L1 is beneficial for the entire ecosystem, while agreeing that L2 cannot just be a cheaper version of Ethereum. He pointed out that Base is forming its own characteristics through application layer differentiation, account abstraction, and privacy features.Additionally, StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson hinted on social media that ZK-native L2s (such as Starknet) have, to some extent, aligned with the specialization direction proposed by Vitalik. Overall, L2 builders generally accept the trend of de-homogenization and repositioning, but there are still divergences on whether scaling remains a core mission.

According to Cointelegraph, after Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin commented that "the original vision of Layer 2 as the primary scaling engine is no longer applicable," several L2 builders responded, generally agreeing that Rollup needs to move beyond the positioning of "a cheaper Ethereum," but there are disagreements on whether scaling should still be its core role.Optimism co-founder Karl Floersch welcomed the challenge of building a modular L2 stack that supports "full-spectrum decentralization," while acknowledging that there are still major obstacles such as long withdrawal periods, second-stage proofs not being production-ready, and insufficient cross-chain application tools. He supports the native Rollup precompiled solutions emphasized by Buterin.Steven Goldfeder, co-founder of Arbitrum developer Offchain Labs, took a firmer stance, arguing that although the Rollup model has evolved, scaling remains the core value of L2. He pointed out that Arbitrum was not built as "a service of Ethereum," but because Ethereum provides a highly secure and low-cost settlement layer, making large-scale Rollups possible. He warned that if Ethereum is seen as hostile to Rollups, institutions might choose to launch independent Layer 1 chains instead of deploying on Ethereum.Base head Jesse Pollak stated that scaling Ethereum L1 is "a victory for the entire ecosystem," agreeing that L2 cannot just be "a cheaper Ethereum." He mentioned that Base is differentiating itself through applications, account abstraction, and privacy features, and is working towards decentralization in the second stage.StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson hinted that some ZK-native L2s (like Starknet) believe they already fit the specialized role described by Buterin. The entire Ethereum ecosystem is facing a roadmap adjustment: the base layer aims to enhance its capabilities, while L2 is repositioning itself as a dedicated environment serving different technical needs.

Matrixport's RWA platform Matrixdock has officially released the “Matrixdock Outlook 2026: Building the Reserve Layer for the On-Chain Economy”, which outlines its judgment framework for the evolution of on-chain financial infrastructure in the next phase and reveals its strategic path towards 2026.The report points out that tokenization has moved from the "asset on-chain" phase to the second phase, where the core focus is no longer on technical feasibility, but rather on whether the assets can be included in institutional balance sheets, support regulated capital, and operate stably across different market cycles. Based on this judgment, Matrixdock further elaborates on the development logic and implementation path of the "on-chain financial reserve layer" in the report, believing that a foundational asset layer composed of high-quality, transparent, and verifiable tokenized assets will be key to supporting the scalable development of on-chain finance.Matrixdock states that its focus for 2026 is not on the rapid expansion of asset quantity, but on promoting the scalable implementation of reserve-grade assets in the on-chain financial system through a prudent, transparent, and long-term approach.

Vitalik Buterin posted on the X platform, stating that there has been an increasing discussion about the ongoing role of L2 in the Ethereum ecosystem. Due to the slow progress of L2 entering phase 2, and the expansion of L1 itself, it is expected that the Gas limit will significantly increase by 2026. This means that the original vision of L2 as Ethereum's "branded sharding" is no longer applicable, and new paths are needed.Vitalik Buterin pointed out that L1 no longer needs L2 as branded sharding, and that L2 cannot or is unwilling to meet the attributes required for true branded sharding. He suggested that L2 should identify value points beyond "scalability," such as privacy, efficiency for specific applications, extreme levels of scalability, non-financial application design, ultra-low latency, and built-in oracles. When handling ETH or other Ethereum assets, L2 should at least reach phase 1 and support maximum interoperability with Ethereum. Additionally, Vitalik Buterin stated that he has become more convinced of the value of native Rollup precompiles in recent months, especially after having the ZK-EVM proof needed for scaling L1. This precompile would make EVM verification without a security committee feasible. He believes that research should be conducted on how to design this precompile so that it can verify the EVM portion when L2 includes "EVM and other content." This would make achieving secure, robust, and trustless interoperability with Ethereum easier and enable synchronous composability.

The ANT.FUN team won first place in the ICM (Internet Capital Market) track at the hackathon competition co-hosted by the Solana Foundation and Trends.fun. The team's entry generates interactive and entertaining videos by combining AI multimodal video generation technology with real-time trading information.In addition, ANT.FUN announced that it will launch a group chat AI assistant for placing trades this week. The official statement indicated that future product forms will further incorporate AI, aiming to create AI trading products that offer an interactive experience similar to "Doubao" or "Yuanbao" for the general public.

ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood recently stated on the podcast "The Rundown" that the current price of gold relative to the M2 money supply has reached an all-time high, even surpassing the high inflation period of the 1970s or the Great Depression of the 1930s (when it corresponded to extreme currency collapse or hyperinflation).However, the macro environment is the opposite now: monetary supply expansion, the economy not collapsing, and ample liquidity → gold has "priced in the worst-case scenario/fear," is in a phase of "irrational exuberance," and is likely to pull back. But Bitcoin is different; it is still in its emerging stage, and "if I were an aggressive investor, I would choose to shift from gold to Bitcoin now."Additionally, Cathie Wood reiterated that the optimistic target price for Bitcoin by 2030 is $1.5 million.

ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood stated that, according to Truflation data, the year-on-year consumer price inflation in the United States has dropped to 0.86%, significantly lower than the 2%-3% range maintained over the past two years. She believes there is a possibility for further declines in inflation, or even a shift to negative values, which differs from the predictions of BlackRock and PIMCO.Cathie Wood also pointed out that although the US Dollar Index (DXY) has recently pulled back, it has not experienced a collapse. If the current government's policies enhance the return on invested capital (ROIC) in the US compared to other regions globally, the dollar may experience a strong upward trend reminiscent of the "Reaganomics" era of the 1980s.

According to Jinshi reports, the CICC research report states that in the short term, Walsh's nomination has limited impact on the interest rate cut path, but it may lead to a revision of expectations for dollar liquidity, and the pressure for dollar depreciation may temporarily ease.In the medium term, Walsh's claims face constraints from within the Federal Reserve, capital markets, and fiscal policies, and it is still difficult to conclude whether he will ultimately succeed. Investors should prepare in advance and be ready.

ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood responded to investors' concerns about "confusion in investment direction after the gold pullback," stating, "Contrary to the current mainstream view, I believe that Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and HYPE may serve as good diversification options. Since the beginning of 2020, the correlation between Bitcoin and gold prices has been very low, at only 0.14. In the last two Bitcoin bull markets, gold has led the rise of Bitcoin."

Jamieson O'Reilly, who is introduced as a "hacker" on X, posted that he has attempted to contact Moltbook in the past few hours, as the platform has publicly exposed its complete database without any protective measures. The leaked information includes secret API keys, allowing anyone to post content on behalf of any agent.Jamieson O'Reilly pointed out that the affected parties include Karpathy, a well-known figure in the AI field with 1.9 million followers on the X platform, as well as all agents currently visible on the platform. At present, anyone could exploit this vulnerability to post false AI safety statements, promote cryptocurrency scams, or incite political statements in the name of others. Jamieson O'Reilly is calling for relevant individuals to assist in contacting the founder to resolve this exposure issue.

ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood stated on the X platform that, contrary to the current mainstream view, BTC, ETH, Solana, and hyperliquid may be good options for diversified investments.Since the beginning of 2020, the correlation between Bitcoin prices and gold prices has been low, at only 0.14. Gold has led Bitcoin in the last two Bitcoin bull markets.

Dragonfly managing partner Haseeb Qureshi recently published a post regarding the viewpoint that "the market crash on 10/11 was triggered by Binance and Ethena." He stated that this narrative is difficult to establish in terms of timeline, market dissemination path, and evidence. He pointed out that the price of Bitcoin had already bottomed out about 30 minutes before the anomaly in USDe appeared on Binance, indicating that the causal relationship is clearly inverted. Additionally, the deviation in USDe price only occurred on Binance and did not spread to other trading platforms, which cannot explain the large-scale liquidation across the entire market and is fundamentally different from events like Terra that caused global balance sheet shocks.Haseeb believes that a more reasonable explanation is the combination of multiple factors: Trump's tariff comments disturbed the market on Friday evening, the Binance API anomaly prevented market makers from hedging across platforms, liquidation and the ADL mechanism amplified volatility, and the lack of traditional financial-style circuit breakers and self-stabilizing mechanisms in the crypto market ultimately caused the market to evolve along an unfavorable path. He emphasized that there is no simple and conspiratorial "single culprit" for 10/11; although the market suffered a heavy blow, it has not been permanently damaged in the long run and only needs time to restore liquidity and confidence.

On October 6, 2025, SSS officially launched, focusing on full-chain operation and DAO governance, building a deflationary + dividend dual-driven economic model, anchoring the long-term value development of the crypto market.The total issuance of SSS is 21 trillion tokens, with a daily deflation rate of 3.6% synchronously promoting token destruction and LP dividends, combined with an anti-dumping mechanism to maintain market stability, establishing five permanent income sectors for LPs; the ecological side has implemented a global consensus system, laying out offline domestic and international clubs and studios, integrating value investment concepts with on-chain governance technology, ensuring returns for participants from multiple dimensions. The CZ concept will be written into smart contracts, setting a new benchmark in the 2026 crypto market deflation wave, and working together with participants to build a new ecosystem for universal profit.

According to Jinshi reports, Federal Reserve Chairman Powell stated that the U.S. debt path is undoubtedly unsustainable, and the fiscal situation needs to be addressed.

According to Jinshi News, Monex USA's Washington trading director Juan Perez stated that it is reasonable for the Federal Reserve to remain cautious and not adjust interest rates amid market uncertainty. There is still a lack of consensus among the committee members, so this decision helps to alleviate some of the pressure the dollar has been under since January 20. Perez believes that the Federal Reserve's policy path will remain quite unpredictable.

Binance CEO He Yi commented on the significant losses of Cathie Wood's fund in crypto assets, stating, "Cathie is not a Binance user; we do not serve Americans and American entities, which is offensive."On January 26, ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood pointed out in a Fox Business program that the recent pullback of Bitcoin from its highs was influenced by the $28 billion deleveraging event caused by a software failure at Binance during the 1011 crash. This statement sparked discussions and controversies within the community regarding Binance's role in the 1011 crash.

QCP published a daily market analysis stating, "Bitcoin has rebounded above the key level of $88,000. Recently, a drop below this level often triggers a rapid downward move dominated by liquidations; however, if it can quickly recover, it will pull the price back into the consolidation range. Next, the market will face a series of intense U.S. macro events: the FOMC interest rate decision; the government funding deadline, which keeps the risk of a shutdown alive; and the Senate rescheduling discussions on cryptocurrency market structure legislation. The options market clearly reflects this asymmetry. Overall volatility remains controlled, and the term structure maintains a positive spread, so the baseline scenario remains consolidation rather than a crash.In terms of fiscal risk, the key issue is whether Washington can successfully resolve the funding issue. If a temporary solution can be passed in time, short-term risk premiums are expected to compress, and crypto assets will resemble pure Beta trades; if there is a brief misstep, the market may initially fluctuate but will rebound after an agreement is reached; if the deadlock continues, it could tighten liquidity and force the market to undergo broader de-risking. A closer key point is the Federal Reserve. The baseline expectation remains unchanged interest rates, with market focus on when rate cuts will resume. Inflation is still above 2%, while employment is starting to weaken, causing the committee to remain cautious and data-dependent.Against the backdrop of concerns about the independence of the Federal Reserve, it is expected to emphasize its independence and reiterate the statement of "waiting for more data"; if there is a hawkish pause, it may trigger a rebound in the dollar and lead to short-term volatility in risk assets."