dex

Also: EF’s Stańczak to leave ED role, XRPL member-only #DEX and Ethereum revives the DAO.
Network News
ZORA MOVES FROM BASE TO SOLANA:
On-chain social platform and decentralized protocol Zora is making a decisive shift beyond its non-fungible tokens (NFT) and creator roots with the launch of “attention markets” on Solana, a product that allows users to trade tokens tied to internet trends, memes and cultural moments. The feature, unveiled Feb. 17, lets anyone create a new market for 1 SOL. Once live, users can buy and sell positions on whether a topic will gain or lose traction across social media. Instead of wagering on elections or macro data, traders speculate on buzz itself — such as hashtags, viral narratives, even broad themes like “AI girlfriend” or “bitcoin.” The design leans heavily into Solana’s strengths. Fast block times and low transaction costs make it easier to support rapid price updates and frequent trading, which are essential for markets built around fleeting online momentum. Initial activity was limited, however. The primary “attentionmarkets” token briefly touched roughly $70,000 in market capitalization, with around $200,000 in trading volume. Most other trend markets struggled to attract meaningful liquidity, with few crossing the $10,000 mark on their first day. Percentage swings were sharp, though largely driven by thin order books rather than sustained demand. Zora was among the breakout applications on Coinbase's Layer 2 Base network in the past few years. It launched its ZORA token there in April and helped roll out Creator Coins tied to Base profiles in July, a push that briefly helped Base overtake Solana in daily token creation. Creator coins are tokens tied to an individual creator’s online profile, brand or community. Think of them as tradable “shares” in a person’s internet presence. On platforms like Zora and Base, a creator coin could be automatically generated from a user’s profile. Fans could buy the coin to signal support, gain social clout, or speculate that the creator’s popularity would grow. As more people bought in, the price could rise, and interest faded, it could fall. As such, some in the Base community saw the new “attention markets” product as a pivot away from that momentum.
EF EXECUTIVE-DIRECTOR TO LEAVE:
Tomasz Stańczak, co-executive director of the Ethereum Foundation (EF), announced he will step down from his leadership role at the end of February 2026, marking a notable shift in the organization’s executive team. Stańczak, who has co-led the foundation alongside Hsiao-Wei Wang since early 2025, said in a blog post that he believes the foundation and the broader Ethereum ecosystem are “in a healthy state” as he prepares to hand over the reins to Bastian Aue, who will take the co-executive director role alongside Wang. Stańczak’s tenure began at a turbulent time for the EF. He was brought aboard following the transition of long-time executive director Aya Miyaguchi into a new leadership position amid mounting community criticism that the foundation wasn’t doing enough to aggressively push the Ethereum ecosystem forward. At the time, detractors pointed to a perceived disconnect between the EF and developers, including conflicts of interest, clashes over strategic direction and frustrations about ETH’s price performance. Such criticisms helped spur a broader leadership restructuring. While Stańczak stressed his confidence in the team’s ability to carry forward the EF’s mission, he also signaled his intention to remain involved in the ecosystem.
XRP LEDGER RELEASES MEMBER-ONLY DEX:
The XRP Ledger has activated a new “Permissioned DEX” amendment, a technical upgrade designed to let regulated institutions trade on XRPL without opening markets to everyone. The change, known as XLS-81, allows the creation of permissioned decentralized exchanges that work like XRPL’s existing built-in DEX, but with a key difference. A permissioned domain can restrict who can place offers and who can accept them, creating a gated trading venue where participation is tied to compliance requirements such as KYC and AML checks. Think of it as a 'members only' marketplace, while still keeping the trading mechanics native to the ledger. The feature is aimed at banks, brokers and other firms that may want onchain settlement and liquidity but cannot interact with fully open DeFi markets. For these players, the ability to control access is not optional; it is a minimum requirement. The activation also adds to a growing set of “institutional DeFi” primitives XRPL has been rolling out this month. Token Escrow, or XLS-85, went live last week, extending XRPL’s native escrow system beyond XRP to all trustline-based tokens and Multi-Purpose Tokens, including stablecoins such as RLUSD and tokenized real-world assets.
ETHEREUM MEMBERS REVIVE NEW VERSION OF THE DAO: 
In the summer of 2016, the Decentralized Autonomous Organization, known as the DAO, became the defining crisis of Ethereum’s early years. A smart contract exploit siphoned millions of dollars’ worth of ether (ETH) from that initial project, and the community’s response — a contentious hard fork to recover those funds, splintered the original chain from the current one, leaving the old chain behind, known as Ethereum Classic. The DAO was once the greatest crowdfunding effort in crypto’s history, but faded into a cautionary tale of governance, security, and the limits of “code is law.” Now, nearly a decade later, that story has taken an unexpected turn. What was lost, or rather, left untouched, is being repurposed as a ~$150 million (at today’s prices) security endowment for the Ethereum ecosystem. The endowment, now known as TheDAO Security Fund, will stake some of the 75,000 dormant ether (ETH) and deploy the yield through community-driven funding rounds to support Ethereum security research, tooling and rapid-response efforts, while keeping claims open for any remaining eligible token holders. At the center of this story is Griff Green, one of the original DAO curators and a veteran of Ethereum decentralized governance. “When the DAO hack happened [in 2016], obviously, I jumped into action and basically led everything but the hard fork,” Green said of assembling the white hat group that rescued funds on the original Ethereum chain. “We hacked all these hackers. It was straight up DAO wars”. That effort, alongside others, helped salvage funds that might otherwise have been lost forever. At the time, the hard fork restored roughly 97% of the DAO’s funds to token holders, but left a small fraction, roughly 3%, in limbo. These “edge case” funds came from quirks of the original smart contracts: people who paid more than expected, those who burned tokens to form sub-DAOs, and other anomalies that didn’t cleanly map back. Over time, that leftover balance, once only worth a few million, ballooned into something far more significant due to ether’s appreciation. “The value of the funds we control has grown dramatically… well over 75,000 ETH,” a blog post for the new DAO fund states.
In Other News
A recent poll of 1,000 American investors in digital assets found that over half are scared they'll face an IRS tax penalty this year as new transparency rules governing crypto exchanges take effect. The data collected at the end of January by crypto tax platform Awaken Tax canvassed U.S. holders’ concerns about a radical shift from self-disclosure to automatic reporting of transactions. This has been enacted through the introduction of the “Digital Asset Proceeds From Broker Transactions,” or Form 1099-DA, which tens of millions of Americans will be made aware of over the next month or so. The new rules are designed to clamp down on crypto tax evasion and compel brokers, such as crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN), to report all sales and exchanges of digital assets that occurred in 2025 to the tax agency. The aim is to give tax authorities a clear view of investor gains and losses by opening up customer data inside exchanges for the first time, allowing the IRS to compare what crypto brokers report with what taxpayers file. While the goal is to remove any margin of error, the rules are a “blunt instrument,” created by legislators who know nothing about crypto, according to Awaken Tax founder Andrew Duca. “It means crypto is being treated like stocks, but it doesn’t behave in that way. Real crypto users will move assets between multiple wallets and interact with decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, using pretty complex trading strategies,” Duca said. — Ian AllisonCrypto venture firm Dragonfly Capital completed a $650 million fourth fund, marking one of the largest raises in the sector at a time when many blockchain-focused VCs are struggling, Managing Partner Haseeb Qureshi said. “It’s a weird time to celebrate,” Qureshi wrote on a social media post, describing low spirits and “the gloom of a bear market” for crypto. However, he noted that Dragonfly has historically raised capital during downturns, including the 2018 ICO crash and just before the 2022 Terra collapse, 'vintages,' he said, ultimately became the firm’s best performers. In September, the firm said it aimed to raise $500 million for its fourth fund, targeting early-stage projects. It has not yet identified any of them. In May 2023, Dragonfly Capital raised $650 million for its third crypto fund for later-stage companies. — Olivier Acuna 
#ICO #solana #blockchaineconomy
$S
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$ETH

One month into 2026, @Fogo Official public mainnet is already proving why speed matters in DeFi. Built on the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) with a custom Firedancer-based client, this Layer 1 delivers ~40ms block times and sub-second finality—making on-chain trades feel seamless and responsive, closer to traditional markets than ever before.
Designed by traders for traders, Fogo tackles real pain points: minimal latency for precise executions, reduced MEV risks through innovative consensus, and full compatibility for easy migration of Solana dApps. From on-chain order books and perpetuals to real-time auctions, the ecosystem is expanding with live apps like Valiant DEX, showing genuine utility in action.
The $FOGO token powers it all—covering gas fees, enabling staking for network security, and supporting governance as the community grows. With strong exchange listings and momentum building, Fogo reminds us that thoughtful engineering can push blockchain forward without hype. Keep building, trading, and staking—real progress happens one fast block at a time. #fogo #FOGOUSDT #DEX #decentralization
Disclaimer: This is not financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency markets are highly volatile and involve significant risk. Always do your own research (DYOR) and only invest what you can afford to lose.

While the crypto world obsessively tracks "TPS" (Transactions Per Second), FOGO is focusing on something more human: Friction. If you’ve ever tried to trade on a fast chain during a high-volatility event, you know the pain. The network is fast, but your wallet keeps popping up, your transaction fails because of a "micro-lag," and by the time you click "Approve," the price has moved. FOGO solves this not just with a faster engine, but with a smarter design.

Fogo Sessions: The "One-Click" Revolution
​The biggest bottleneck in DeFi isn't the chain—it's the wallet pop-up.
FOGO introduces Sessions, a chain-level primitive that allows for gasless, session-based interactions.
​How it works: You sign into a dApp (like the Valiant DEX) once. You authorize a "Session" for a set period.​The Result: You can swap, place limit orders, or adjust positions for the next hour without a single wallet confirmation or gas fee pop-up. It feels exactly like trading on a Centralized Exchange (CEX), but you keep 100% custody of your funds

​Multi-Local Consensus: Defying Physics
​Blockchain latency is often limited by the speed of light—data has to travel between validators across the globe. $FOGO tackles this with Multi-Local Consensus.
​Instead of waiting for a validator in Tokyo and a validator in New York to agree on every tiny detail, #FOGO co-locates primary validation in performance-optimized "zones" (like Tokyo or London).​This "follow-the-sun" architecture reduces the physical distance data must travel, allowing for 40ms block times. To put that in perspective, that is 10x faster than Solana and nearly 20x faster than $SUI .

The "Anti-MEV" Edge
​In slower chains, MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) bots have a "window" of several hundred milliseconds to see your trade and front-run you. At 40ms, that window effectively slams shut. On FOGO, the price you see is much more likely to be the price you actually get, making it a "fairer" playground for retail and pro traders alike.

Ecosystem Spotlight: Where to use $FOGO
​The network isn't just a ghost town of speed; it has a growing suite of native "Fire-branded" dApps:
​Valiant: The flagship #DEX for sub second swaps.​FluxBeam: Advanced trading with professional-grade limit orders.​Pyron: A lending protocol designed for instant, zero-delay liquidations.
@Fogo Official #Write2Earn #CreatorPad