Mining Updates

While we discuss the price, technology is making a quantum leap. Today, January 23, the global stress test MegaETH has started. This Ethereum L2 project aims for the impossible: to process 11 billion transactions in 7 days at a peak speed of 47k TPS.
Why is this important?
The death of high fees: If MegaETH confirms stability, transaction costs in the ETH ecosystem could become negligible.

Ethereum has just introduced an updated roadmap for 2026, where the main goal is to make crypto as simple as Apple Pay. No more complicated 12-word phrases that can be lost. The new standard "Trustless Wallets" will allow authentication through biometrics or social networks without compromising security.

While BTC consolidates, the AI sector (Artificial Intelligence) demonstrates incredible strength. In January 2026, we see how "computational power" becomes more expensive than gold. Projects providing GPUs for AI training are becoming the new market favorites.
Top 3 directions for this week:
Render (RNDR) / Fetch.ai (FET): The integration of AI agents into real business processes pushes these tokens to new highs.

In 2026, the battle of blockchains reached a new level. Ethereum finally became the "foundation" for corporations, while Solana transformed into the main hub for retail users. But where is it more beneficial to be right now?
Ethereum L2 (Base, Arbitrum, Optimism):
Pros: Highest security and immense liquidity. Institutional money (funds, banks) choose these networks.

We started the year 2026 with great expectations, but the January correction made many nervous. The market $BTC is at a crossroads. On one hand, there is institutional acceptance and ETFs, on the other hand, concerns about inflation risks and new trade tariffs.
Miners continue to hold coins (HODL), and network difficulty is hitting records. This indicates the belief of major players that the true peak is still ahead. However, many small investors are starting to doubt whether there will be enough fuel to break through the six-digit mark this quarter.

Currently $BTC is trading in the consolidation zone of $91,000–$93,000. Despite macroeconomic pressure and U.S. tariff policy, the fundamental indicators of the network remain "bullish."
Important point: in January, a recalculation of mining difficulty is expected. The forecast is an increase to 148.20 T. This means that competition is intensifying, and miners continue to deploy new equipment, despite the temporary price pullback from historical highs.

The world of mining has changed forever. If previously we only talked about hash rate, today the key term is HPC (High-Performance Computing). Why are giants like MARA and Bitdeer actively retrofitting their data centers for Artificial Intelligence?
According to the latest reports, AI contracts generate 3 times more revenue per megawatt of power than traditional bitcoin mining. The operational margin from AI deals reaches 80-90%, while in mining it often amounts to less than 20% due to the high network complexity.

The Polymarket prediction market has once again shocked the financial world with an incredible success story. On January 17-18, 2026, a trader under the pseudonym beachboy4 demonstrated a true masterclass, earning an impressive $6.12 million in just 24 hours. The most interesting thing is that this incredible leap allowed him to cover almost 90% of his previous losses, which had accumulated over months.

At the beginning of 2026, the crypto community was shaken by rumors that the US government had secretly sold 57.5 $BTC , confiscated from the developers of the Samourai Wallet. However, Patrick Witt, the head of the President's Advisory Council on Digital Assets, officially denied this information, clarifying the situation that could undermine trust in the new rules of the game.

The Trove Markets project, which creates a decentralized exchange for trading perpetual contracts on collectible items (such as Pokémon cards), has found itself at the center of a loud scandal. After receiving over $11.5 million from investors for a launch based on Hyperliquid, the team suddenly announced a complete transition to Solana.

As of January 19, 2026, the Bitcoin network's hash rate has fallen below the psychological threshold of 1000 EH/s (1 zettahash). The founder of the StandardHash platform, Leon Liu, cited a reason that shocked the crypto community: it is not just a technical failure, but the beginning of a large 'great migration' of power.

In January 2026, the crypto community witnessed a sharp conflict between two industry leaders. Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson publicly expressed dissatisfaction with Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse's position on the CLARITY Act bill. While Garlinghouse supports the document, believing that 'bad regulation is better than no regulation at all,' Hoskinson calls such an approach a dangerous compromise.

Recent statements by Donald Trump, which many interpreted as skeptical of cryptocurrencies, triggered an immediate reaction in the market. Bitcoin, the flagship digital asset, reacted with a significant drop of 3% within a few hours. This led to a chain reaction – millions of dollars in long positions were liquidated, further intensifying the pressure on the price.

The law enforcement agencies of South Korea completed a large-scale special operation, as a result of which an international group was uncovered that laundered over $101.7 million through digital assets. This case has become one of the most high-profile this year, highlighting Seoul's determination to restore order in the crypto space.

The restaurant chain Steak 'n Shake, known for its burgers and milkshakes, has recently taken a bold step by adding an impressive $10 million in Bitcoin to its treasury. This decision marks a significant moment, as traditional businesses are increasingly viewing cryptocurrencies as a viable asset for investment and risk hedging. The investment reflects the growing confidence of large companies in digital currencies and their potential as a means of preserving and growing capital.

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, recently expressed his concern about the growing number of "junk" tokens and projects that are overwhelming the network. He emphasized the importance of focusing on genuine innovations and useful applications, rather than speculative schemes that do not provide real value. Buterin highlighted that the future of Ethereum depends on its ability to deliver meaningful solutions, rather than becoming a platform for quick profits.

At the beginning of 2026, the crypto industry faced harsh statistics: nearly 80% of crypto projects that experienced a serious hack never recover their positions. This was stated by Mitchell Amador, the CEO of Immunefi. But it's not just the loss of money that is to blame.
The main reason is 'response paralysis'

Investment director of Bitwise Matt Hougan has once again shaken the market with his analytics. In January 2026, when the price $BTC demonstrates volatility, Hougan urges investors not to panic, but to pay attention to gold. According to him, what we are seeing now in Bitcoin is a mirror reflection of the structural breakthrough of gold that occurred in 2025.

As of January 19, 2026, the main cryptocurrency in the world — $BTC — has come dangerously close to the $95,000 mark. After a tumultuous start to the year, when BTC updated historical highs amid colossal inflows into spot ETFs (over $1.5 billion just in a week), the market entered a phase of exhausting consolidation. The number one question on traders' terminals: will the 'bulls' be able to hold this level?

The question of whether $XRP will ever reach the $100 mark remains one of the hottest topics in the crypto community at the beginning of 2026. Currently, the token is trading around $2.14–$2.50, showing steady growth after resolving disputes with the SEC and the approval of spot ETFs. However, a jump to $100 is a challenge of an entirely different scale.