decentralized

Circle Ventures announced a strategic investment in the decentralized trading platform edgeX, with specific amounts and valuation details not disclosed. Circle also plans to introduce its stablecoin USDC and cross-chain transfer protocol (CCTP) to edgeX's blockchain, EDGE Chain.It is reported that the two companies began discussions at the end of 2025 and ultimately completed the investment transaction last month, with Circle Ventures being the sole investor in this round of financing.

The decentralized large model routing service platform RouterLink under WORLD3 has announced the completion of a large-scale model expansion, integrating 21 new AI models from 10 providers in one go. This update includes flagship inference models (such as GLM-4.7, Gemini 3 Pro, Nova 2.0 Pro, Kimi K2 Thinking, MiMo-V2-Pro), high-speed response models (such as Gemini 3 Flash, Kimi K2 Flash, GLM-4.7-Flash, Nova 2.0 Lite, Seed 1.6 Flash, MiMo-V2-Flash, MiniMax M2.1 Flash), multimodal generation models (such as GPT Image 1.5, Seedream 4.5, Maverick 17B (Llama 4), Seed 1.6), and programming-specific models (such as Qwen3 Coder 480B, Qwen3 Coder 32B, MiniMax M2.1, Llama 3.1 8B / 70B Instruct), aiming to support flexible routing and invocation of AI Agents in complex application scenarios.The WORLD3 team stated that developers can access these cutting-edge models with zero migration costs through RouterLink's unified API, while the platform has also optimized the UI experience for model selection and discovery to enhance development efficiency. Currently, all newly added models are officially online.

Co-founder of MegaETH, Namik Muduroglu, stated that 53% of the total supply of MEGA tokens will be released upon the protocol achieving significant milestones, rather than being released according to a time-based unlocking schedule.These goals include MegaETH TVL, L2 decentralization, protocol performance, and external milestones reached by the Ethereum community. This move aims to address long-standing concerns about low liquidity/high FDV token economic models.

Data shows that the number of validator nodes on the Solana network has significantly decreased from a peak of 2,560 in March 2023 to the current 795, a drop of 68%, raising concerns in the market about the network's level of decentralization.Industry insiders point out that, in addition to clearing "zombie nodes," a more core reason is the continuous rise in operating costs + zero-fee competition among large nodes, which is systematically squeezing out small and medium-sized validators. An independent validator node operator stated that many small nodes are not bearish on Solana, but rather that the economic model has become unsustainable: "Without economic viability, decentralization becomes a charitable act." Meanwhile, Solana's Nakamoto Coefficient has dropped from 31 to 20 during the same period, a decline of about 35%, indicating that the control of staked SOL is concentrating in the hands of a few large nodes, reducing the network's level of decentralization.From a cost perspective: to maintain operation (excluding hardware and servers), a node needs at least $49,000 worth of SOL in the first year; approximately 401 SOL is required annually to pay for voting fees; and daily voting transaction costs can reach up to 1.1 SOL/day. The trend signals are clear: Solana is gradually evolving from a "broad participation node structure" to a structure dominated by large institutional nodes, which may have a profound impact on the network's security structure and governance patterns in the long term.

Web3 governance reputation platform DAO AI has officially launched the 0G mainnet, anchoring DAO governance reputation to a decentralized data availability layer. The platform aims to address the challenges of lacking long-term memory and reputation records in DAO governance by transforming governance data such as participation frequency, contribution levels, and representative actions into a permanent on-chain state, thereby building an immutable and verifiable governance reputation layer.In terms of technical implementation, DAO AI utilizes 0G storage technology to record all governance actions, including participation timestamps, representative actions, and reputation updates, ensuring the transparency and auditability of governance history. Unlike traditional off-chain statistics or temporary analyses, this system makes reputation a fundamental primitive acquired through actions rather than capital, and is directly protected by the storage layer. With the high throughput and data availability guarantees of the 0G network, DAO AI provides infrastructure support for the long-term preservation and cross-protocol access of governance data, helping DAOs establish trustworthy governance records.

The decentralized custody startup Entropy, led by a16z, announced its shutdown and the return of remaining funds to investors.Tux Pacific, founder and CEO of Entropy, stated on the X platform that the decision was made after four years of product development, multiple business adjustments, and two rounds of layoffs. Entropy was positioned as an alternative to centralized crypto custody institutions, utilizing technologies such as multi-party computation, threshold cryptography, and trusted execution environments to provide users with cross-chain asset management and automated signing services.According to the crypto data platform RootData, the company completed a $25 million seed round financing led by a16z in 2022, with participation from Dragonfly, Variant, Coinbase Ventures, and others, raising a total of approximately $27 million. Pacific mentioned that after recent research, it was found that the business model could not support venture capital-level growth, leading to the decision to cease operations and return capital. This event also reflects the tightening survival environment for crypto startups since 2025.

According to official news, the globally leading cryptocurrency trading platform Gate has completed the brand upgrade and functional update of its decentralized trading product, officially renaming the former Gate Web3 to Gate DEX. This upgrade is not only a change in name but also a systematic reconstruction of the positioning of decentralized trading entry, product capabilities, and overall user experience under the Gate All in Web3 strategic framework.The upgraded Gate DEX significantly simplifies the traditional DEX login process, now supporting one-click login with Gate accounts, Google accounts, and wallets, enabling quick access across multiple platforms. Users can quickly enter the trading interface without cumbersome configurations, and after connecting their wallets, they can directly start trading, significantly lowering the entry barrier for first-time users. In terms of experience, Gate DEX provides a trading experience close to that of centralized exchanges in aspects such as interface design, token coverage, and liquidity depth, laying a solid foundation for the large-scale application of decentralized trading.Meanwhile, Gate DEX will launch the "On-chain All-round Challenge" from January 23 to February 11 (UTC+8). During the event, users who complete their "first trade" in any section of Swap, Meme, Spot, or Contracts can unlock a cash reward of up to 100 USDT. The total prize pool for the event is 20,000 USDT, with limited spots available on a first-come, first-served basis.As the Gate All in Web3 strategy continues to deepen, Gate DEX, relying on the continuous empowerment of underlying ecological capabilities such as Gate Layer, is expected to become an important hub connecting centralized and decentralized trading experiences, further promoting the maturity and popularization of Web3 infrastructure.

Vitalik Buterin posted on Farcaster, "In 2026, I will use OpenStreetMap and the encrypted email service Protonmail, prioritizing decentralized social media to enhance the efficiency of privacy data protection. At the same time, I will continue to explore deployment solutions for local large language models (LLMs).The ideal solution is to leverage local LLMs as much as possible, compensating for the lack of parameters with dedicated fine-tuning models; for high-load scenarios, we will overlay pay-per-query zero-knowledge payments, trusted execution environments, and local query filtering, essentially integrating all imperfect solutions to provide the best possible protection. Of course, the ultimate goal remains to conquer highly efficient fully homomorphic encryption technology. Sending all data to third-party centralized services is indeed redundant. We have tools to significantly reduce such operations and should continue to build and apply them more actively."

According to Dan Romero, co-founder of Farcaster, one of the Farcaster clients, Neynar, will acquire the decentralized social protocol Farcaster. In the coming weeks, the Farcaster protocol contracts, codebase, applications, and ownership of Clanker will be transferred to Neynar, which will be responsible for subsequent operations and maintenance.Some members of the Merkle team, Varun, and Dan Romero will step away from the day-to-day operations of Farcaster to focus on new projects. The Neynar team has been developing on Farcaster from the beginning and is one of the earliest Farcaster clients, with its infrastructure now supporting most of the developer ecosystem.Dan Romero stated that after five years of development, Farcaster needs new approaches and leadership to realize its full potential.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently proposed a "native DVT (Distributed Validator Technology)" solution at the Ethereum Research forum, suggesting that DVT be directly integrated into the Ethereum staking protocol layer to enhance network security while promoting decentralization at the validator level.According to the proposal, validators can register multiple independent keys and operate collectively in the form of "grouped validators"; only when a set threshold number of key signatures is reached will the block proposal or witness be considered valid. This mechanism can significantly reduce the risk of single points of failure or validators going offline due to node breaches, while still maintaining existing slashing protections under reasonable threshold settings.Vitalik pointed out that, unlike current DVT solutions that rely on external coordination layers and complex deployments, native DVT will be directly embedded into the protocol itself. Validators holding multiple minimum staking thresholds (32 ETH) can set up to 16 keys and specify a signature threshold, effectively allowing multiple standard nodes to collectively form a single validator identity. He noted that the additional performance overhead of this design is minimal, only adding one extra delay for block production without affecting witness delays, and is compatible with any signature scheme, helping to reduce reliance on long-term potentially risky cryptographic assumptions.On the decentralization front, Vitalik believes that native DVT will enable individuals and institutions to participate in staking more easily in a "self-custodial, fault-tolerant" manner, rather than relying on large staking service providers, thereby improving the decentralization metrics of the Ethereum validator set (such as the Nakamoto coefficient). The proposal is still in the early discussion stage and will require extensive evaluation and consensus from the Ethereum community moving forward.

Vitalik Buterin stated that he plans to fully return to decentralized social networks in 2026, believing that if we want to build a better society, we must have better large-scale communication tools. These tools should help people filter high-quality information and opinions, find consensus, and serve the long-term interests of users rather than maximizing short-term interactions and emotional conflicts.Vitalik pointed out that there is no "one-size-fits-all" solution to the above problems, but enhancing competition is an important starting point, and decentralization is the key path to achieving competition: by sharing a data layer that allows anyone to build different clients on top of it. He revealed that since the beginning of this year, he has started using decentralized social tools for reading and posting, with all content synchronized across platforms like X, Lens, Farcaster, and Bluesky through Firefly.He also criticized some crypto social projects for deviating from their original intentions, overly viewing "token issuance" as innovation, and attempting to create price bubbles around individuals to incentivize creators. However, practice shows that such models often reward existing social capital rather than content quality, and the lifecycle of tokens is short. Vitalik emphasized that money and social interaction are not inherently in conflict; the key is whether they truly serve the content itself, such as through subscription-based support models rather than speculative asset designs.In his view, decentralized social should be driven by teams that genuinely care about the "essence of social interaction." Vitalik acknowledged the Aave team's previous long-term maintenance of Lens and expressed anticipation for the direction of the new team, believing they are more focused on solving real social problems. He stated that in the coming year, he will speak more on decentralized social platforms and encourage more users to participate in ecosystems like Lens and Farcaster, breaking free from the information adversarial environment of a single platform and exploring new forms of interaction.

Decentralized social protocol [Mask Network](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/Mask Network?k=Mjk0 "Web3 portal") and [Lens Protocol](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/Lens Protocol?k=MjA3Nw== "Social layer of Web3") jointly announced that Mask Network has become the new steward of Lens Protocol. In the future, the focus of Lens Protocol will shift from protocol experimentation to consumer-facing user experience, product design, and global distribution."Mask's mission is to make decentralized social features easy to use, intuitive, and able to meet the needs of everyday users, which aligns perfectly with Lens's next phase of development," said Suji Yan, founder of Mask."As Mask leads this important phase, our role will shift from daily product development to consulting. In this role, we remain committed to making open, scalable, user-owned social networks a core pillar of the future internet. We are dedicated to the long-term success of Lens, its developers, its community, and Suji and the Mask team," Lens stated in an official blog.According to RootData, Lens Protocol has raised over $46 million, with investors including Tencent, Robot Ventures, Variant Fund, and others. Last June, media reported plans for a new funding round at a valuation of $500 million. Mask Network has previously raised over $57 million, and its token MASK currently has a FDV of $60 million.

Starknet ecosystem Perp DEX Paradex announced temporary maintenance yesterday. After the expected maintenance completion time arrived, the protocol was still not online, leading to community rumors of a significant vulnerability in the protocol. Some users' perpetual contract trades were forcibly liquidated due to abnormally high funding rates.Paradex officially announced around 3 PM that the system was interrupted due to database maintenance/migration issues (including the BTC price anomalously dropping to zero, triggering a large number of forced liquidations). They will roll back the chain state to block 1604710 (UTC time 04:27:54), which is the state before the database maintenance and the last known correct state. The Paradex official website finally resumed operation at 8:13 PM last night.The crypto community has raised widespread doubts and accusations regarding Paradex's rollback, questioning the "reliability" of on-chain DEXs, especially the security of L2 architecture Perp DEXs and whether they are truly decentralized. Some community opinions suggest that Perp DEXs may have been a "wrong product form" from the beginning, as centralized control often re-emerges under the guise of "fixing the system" in extreme situations.The viewpoint of Solana community member chase.skr has gained significant support, stating that Solana's more decentralized validator set has prevented the chain from being rolled back, updated, or shut down without permission due to hacker attacks or fund forks. Consensus is necessary, centralized control in blockchain is harmful, and whether the "D" in DEX truly represents decentralization is worth reconsidering.

The social decentralized prediction market platform Slips announced the completion of a $3.5 million seed round financing, led by Las Olas Capital and Sunset Bay Capital, with participation from Andrew Schwartzberg, co-owner of the NBA's Charlotte Hornets and Leeds United Football Club.Slips offers AI-generated P2P prediction markets and location-based group activities, allowing users to interact in real-time both online and offline. The new funding will be used to expand its financial services infrastructure, including support for cryptocurrency payments and stablecoin withdrawals.

In the context of widespread anti-government protests in Iran and the government's implementation of internet blackouts, local residents are accelerating the transfer of Bitcoin into personal wallets. Blockchain analysis company Chainalysis points out that since the protests began and during the internet outages, there has been a significant increase in BTC withdrawal transactions from local exchanges to unknown personal wallets, indicating that the public is self-custodying Bitcoin with greater frequency during times of social unrest.Chainalysis believes that this behavior is closely related to the significant devaluation of the Iranian rial. Data shows that the exchange rate of the rial against the dollar dropped from about 420,000 to over 1,050,000 in a short period, leading to a rapid loss of purchasing power. Against this backdrop, Bitcoin is seen as an important tool to hedge against currency collapse and economic instability due to its decentralized, censorship-resistant, and cross-border transfer characteristics. The report also notes that this trend is consistent with other regions globally experiencing war, economic crises, or government repression. Additionally, Chainalysis revealed that addresses associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) accounted for over 50% of the total crypto asset receipts in Iran in the fourth quarter of 2025, with an annual on-chain processing amount exceeding $3 billion.

The Bitcoin trading and lending platform Sats Terminal, backed by Yzi Labs, announced the official integration of the Morpho protocol into its Borrow product, initially supporting the Arbitrum and Base networks. Through Sats Terminal, users can connect to the lending liquidity pools of Morpho and Aave using native BTC as collateral without the need for manual cross-chain transactions or asset wrapping, all while being self-custodial and without KYC, aiming to help users maximize the efficiency of their capital.It is reported that Sats Terminal previously raised $1.7 million in a Pre-Seed round from institutions such as Coinbase Ventures and Draper Associates. With the platform's aggregation layer design, users can discover and match the best lending rates and depths across the network. Sats Terminal plans to launch an SDK and Earn financial products in the future, empowering third-party wallets and Neobanks to directly access native Bitcoin DeFi capabilities, striving to become a one-stop entry point for Bitcoin finance.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin posted on social media that in 2014, he envisioned building a decentralized, permissionless application network based on a technology stack. Now, all the conditions to realize the original Web3 vision are in place and will continue to strengthen. It is time to build a decentralized world.He mentioned that the decentralized messaging protocol Waku has supported applications like Railway and Status, and IPFS performs strongly as a decentralized file retrieval method, although storage issues need improvement. Taking Fileverse, a decentralized alternative to Google Docs/Sheets, as an example, its usability has significantly improved, utilizing Ethereum and Gnosis chains for account handling, processing documents with decentralized messaging and storage, and also through open-source "exit tests." He criticized the various drawbacks of "corporate bloated products" and cited cases to prove the risks are real.Today, decentralized applications like Fileverse are good enough to use. He frequently uses them to write and collaborate on documents, contrasting this with the difficulty of decentralized applications in 2014. He calls on builders to collectively embrace the decentralized renaissance.