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Team Liquid has migrated their massive esports archive to @Walrus 🦭/acc on Sui as of Jan 21, 2026. This represents the largest dataset yet, showcasing massive scalability for onchain media assets. $WAL is trading at $0.1331 with $9.8M in volume today. #Walrus
Walrus Protocol: Scaling the 'Data Bridge' for the AI and DePIN Era
As the decentralised storage sector evolves in 2026, Walrus Protocol ($WAL ) is emerging as a critical infrastructure layer, positioning itself not merely as a storage solution but as a "data bridge" connecting isolated blockchains and powering artificial intelligence (AI) evolution. With a market capitalisation of approximately $550 million and a token price of $0.1331 as of 21 January 2026, the protocol is leveraging robust institutional backing and a deflationary model to redefine data utility in Web3. The 'Data Fuel' Economy and Deflationary Mechanics At the core of the Walrus ecosystem is the WAL token, which professionals increasingly view as "data fuel" for the network. This economic model draws a parallel to refining oil: as network usage intensifies, the supply of $WAL is refined through a continuous burning mechanism. Specifically, the protocol employs a 0.5% burn rate on transactions, which creates a direct correlation between adoption and supply scarcity. Currently, over 1 billion tokens are staked to secure nodes, out of a circulating supply of 1.57 billion. The token’s utility extends beyond simple value transfer; it is required for storage payments, governance via Requests for Proposals (RFPs), and securing the network. While the market anticipates a token unlock of 388 million in March, analysts suggest the rapid growth of the broader Sui ecosystem—which boasts a Total Value Locked (TVL) of $2 billion—will likely counterbalance inflationary pressure. Strategic Roadmap: AI Integration and SEAL Scaling The 2026 roadmap creates a clear trajectory for technical expansion, particularly within the high-demand sectors of AI and media. • Q1 Throughput Upgrades: The immediate focus is mainnet scaling, targeting a 50% increase in throughput during the first quarter. This enhancement is designed to support heavy workloads, such as those required by elizaOS agents and complex media archives. • Addressing AI Opacity: In response to industry shifts highlighted by OpenAI’s testing in mid-January, Walrus is implementing solutions to fix opacity in advertising technology. By utilising traceable blobs, the protocol offers a verifiable method for tracking impressions, a critical need for decentralised ad networks. • SEAL Expansion (Q2): The second quarter will introduce expanded capabilities for SEAL, the protocol's security framework. These updates add programmable permissions, granting users granular control over data privacy—a feature essential for compliant AI model training.
Institutional Validation and Real-World Adoption The protocol’s technical claims are bolstered by significant institutional capital and enterprise-grade adoption. A pivotal $140 million funding round led by a16z in March 2025 cemented Walrus's status as vital privacy infrastructure. Adoption has accelerated in early 2026 with high-profile integrations. On 21 January, Team Liquid began migrating its massive esports archive to Walrus, marking the largest dataset migration to the platform to date. This event is expected to drive substantial token burns due to the volume of data involved. Furthermore, the integration with Myriad on 14 January utilises Walrus blobs to ensure immutable records, proving the network's utility for data integrity. Liquidity conditions have also improved following Upbit’s resumption of WAL deposits on 15 January. Multichain Evolution and Financial Forecast Looking ahead, Walrus is shedding its reliance on a single ecosystem. The 2026 strategy includes expanding multichain support beyond Sui and Solana, utilising RedStuff architecture to ensure cross-chain data verifiability. Developers are being supported with new Software Development Kits (SDKs) and Command Line Interface (CLI) extensions to facilitate this transition.
Financially, the outlook remains bullish. CoinGecko forecasts an average price of $0.1803 for 2026, with a potential high of $0.4308—representing a 171% upside from current levels. While investors should remain mindful of a projected 9.69% volatility, the combination of deflationary tokenomics and increasing DePIN utility positions $WAL as a strong contender for long-term growth @Walrus 🦭/acc #walrus $WAL #Walrus
Walrus Protocol: $WAL Deflationary Dynamics and 2026 Roadmap
Walrus Protocol ($WAL ) is distinguishing itself in the decentralized storage sector through a token model that embodies deflationary innovation, creating value loops where token burns are intrinsically tied to network usage. As of 21 January 2026, the token is priced at $0.1331 with a market capitalisation of approximately $550 million, reflecting a daily gain of 0.2%. With a circulating supply of 1.57 billion against a maximum supply of 5 billion, over 1 billion tokens are currently staked, securing the network. Financial Outlook and Institutional Support Market analysis indicates a bullish trajectory for the protocol. CoinGecko projects a 2026 average price of $0.1803, with a potential high of $0.4308—representing a 171% upside amid volatility of roughly 9.69%. This sentiment is underpinned by significant institutional validation, specifically a $140 million funding round from a16z in March 2025 that positioned Walrus as essential privacy infrastructure. Liquidity has also received a boost following Upbit’s resumption of WAL deposits on 15 January.
Adoption and Real-World Utility The protocol’s deflationary mechanism, which includes a 0.5% burn rate, accelerates with increased adoption. Recent integrations highlight this utility; on 14 January, Myriad integrated Walrus to utilise blobs for immutable records. Furthermore, a significant milestone occurred on 21 January when Team Liquid began migrating its esports archive to the platform. As the largest dataset migration to date, this move is expected to drive substantial token burns. Currently, the ecosystem boasts over 170 project integrations and 150+ nodes. 2026 Roadmap: AI, SEAL, and Multichain Expansion The 2026 roadmap is focussed on mainnet scaling and technical evolution. The first quarter targets a 50% increase in throughput to enhance efficiency for AI and media workloads. In the realm of AI, Walrus is positioning itself to fix opacity in adtech by offering traceable impressions, a feature developed in response to OpenAI’s testing in mid-January. The architecture is robust enough to scale for heavy workloads, such as elizaOS agents. Moving into the second quarter, the protocol plans to expand SEAL capabilities, introducing programmable permissions that enable privacy controls for data training. Additionally, 2026 will see Walrus expanding its multichain support beyond the Sui and Solana ecosystems to mitigate reliance on a single chain, leveraging RedStuff to ensure data verifiability.
Tokenomics and Strategic Positioning Professionally, the $WAL token functions as "data fuel," where usage burns refine the supply in a manner akin to refining oil. The token is central to the ecosystem, utilised for governance via RFPs, payments for storage, and staking to secure nodes. While the protocol faces challenges, such as the unlocking of 388 million tokens in March, the broader growth of the Sui ecosystem—which has reached a Total Value Locked (TVL) of $2 billion—serves as a counter-balance. By acting as a "data bridge" that connects chains and powers AI evolution, Walrus is cementing its leadership position for the years ahead #walrus @Walrus 🦭/acc #Walrus
Esports Goes Onchain: Team Liquid and Walrus Protocol Redefine Data Sovereignty in 2026
As of 21 January 2026, the Web3 infrastructure landscape has shifted significantly with the Walrus Protocol achieving a "monumental milestone": the migration of Team Liquid’s entire esports content library to its decentralized storage protocol on the Sui network. This transition marks the largest single dataset migration to date, encompassing years of match footage, behind-the-scenes clips, and multimedia assets, all transformed into onchain-compatible formats.
Technological Infrastructure
This strategic move underscores Walrus's capacity to handle high-volume media, a critical capability amidst the booming AI and gaming sectors. The protocol's architecture is designed for massive scale, utilising programmable blobs encoded via RedStuff with Reed-Solomon redundancy. These assets are distributed across more than 150 nodes, using proof-of-availability to ensure data integrity. For Team Liquid, the benefits are distinct: the storage is immutable and censorship-resistant, effectively turning static files into dynamic onchain assets accessible globally. To prevent centralization as the node count grows, Walrus employs dynamic staking committees, a method detailed in their January 2026 updates regarding scaling decentralisation.
Market Impact and $WAL Tokenomics
Economically, the ecosystem is underpinned by the WAL token. Following the announcement, WAL was priced at $0.1331 with a market capitalisation of approximately $550 million and over 1 billion tokens staked. The protocol incorporates deflationary burns, utilizing a 0.5% rate from storage fees to create scarcity. Market forecasts for 2026 are bullish, driven by high-profile adoptions like the Team Liquid migration. CoinGecko projects an average price of $0.1803, with a potential high of $0.4308, offering a significant ROI. Liquidity is further enhanced by recent partnerships, such as Myriad for predictions and Upbit for deposits.
The Future: The "Esports Vault"
Creative visions for the protocol position Walrus as an "esports vault", where immutable archives empower fans with ownership and potentially allow for the tokenization of clips via governance. This aligns with broader 2026 gaming trends focused on fixing centralized vulnerabilities through data sovereignty. Looking forward, Walrus is targeting 50% efficiency for AI and media workloads in Q1 and plans to execute multichain expansions in Q2 to diversify beyond Sui. Developers are already being encouraged to build upon this open-source infrastructure using CLI tools to store footage and integrate SEAL for access. As noted by a16z, the platform’s focus on privacy in DePIN (Decentralised Physical Infrastructure Networks) further solidifies its standing in the evolving data landscape. #Walrus @Walrus 🦭/acc $WAL
Consumer-First Blockchain: Vanar’s Push to Make Infrastructure Invisible
A few years ago, I was experimenting with a small side project. Nothing ambitious. Just a lightweight app that mixed social features with simple token rewards. I had already spent years trading and following infrastructure projects, so I assumed the blockchain part would be the easy layer. It wasn’t. Tooling felt awkward, integrations were brittle, and every design decision seemed to leak blockchain complexity straight into the user experience. That was the moment it clicked for me. Most chains are built for people who already live inside crypto, not for developers or users who just want things to work.
The underlying problem is fairly simple. Blockchain stacks are still heavy with concepts that don’t map cleanly to how most software is built today. Gas management, wallet friction, inconsistent performance, and unpredictable costs all pile up. Web2 developers are used to abstractions that fade into the background. End users expect apps to respond instantly and predictably. When the infrastructure itself demands constant attention, adoption stalls. What should feel like a normal digital product instead feels like an experiment you’re participating in.
The analogy that keeps coming back to me is plumbing. In a modern building, nobody thinks about pipes, pressure systems, or filtration when they turn on a tap. The system is there, reliable, and invisible. You only notice it when something breaks. That’s the standard consumer software has been trained to expect. Blockchain hasn’t reached that point yet.
This is where Vanar is trying to position itself. The emphasis isn’t on reinventing decentralization, but on making it disappear from the surface. Vanar is designed as a base-layer chain optimized for consumer-facing applications, with a strong focus on developers coming from Web2 backgrounds. Instead of forcing teams to rebuild their entire stack around crypto primitives, it tries to meet them where they already are.
At a technical level, the approach leans into modularity. Vanar stays compatible with familiar Ethereum tooling, but adds native layers intended to reduce friction. One example is its data compression framework, which condenses documents and metadata into smaller, queryable representations so applications aren’t punished for storing or interacting with information frequently. Another is its onchain processing layer, which allows basic reasoning and logic to happen without constantly pushing computation offchain. The goal isn’t to make developers think about blockchain more, but less.
The VANRY token reflects that philosophy. It exists to pay for transactions, support staking for network security, and participate in governance. It isn’t positioned as a centerpiece narrative. It’s infrastructure fuel. If the chain succeeds, the token works quietly in the background. If it doesn’t, no amount of token design will compensate.
From a market perspective, Vanar is still small. Liquidity exists, but it isn’t commanding attention the way larger ecosystems do. That cuts both ways. Short-term price action is mostly sentiment-driven, especially when AI or gaming narratives flare up. Long-term value, if it shows up at all, depends entirely on whether real applications choose to build and stay.
There are real risks. Established chains already dominate developer mindshare. Scaling consumer workloads without reintroducing congestion is easier to promise than to deliver. There’s also execution risk in features like data compression or onchain processing. If those abstractions fail under real load, the trust they’re meant to create can disappear quickly.
Projects like this tend to be decided quietly. Not by launch hype or short-term charts, but by whether developers keep shipping and users keep showing up without thinking about the chain underneath. If Vanar succeeds, most people using it won’t even know its name. And that, paradoxically, might be the point.
Isolation for Stability: Why Plasma Treats Payments as Infrastructure, Not Just Traffic
A while back, I had to move USDT across chains to cover a position during a rough market session. Nothing clever. No yield, no trade, just moving funds so something else wouldn’t break. Ethereum was busy that day. Fees jumped, confirmations lagged, and by the time the transfer cleared, the damage was already done. I remember thinking this shouldn’t feel like speculation. It should feel like plumbing.
That experience isn’t rare. It points to a basic issue with how most blockchains are designed. Everything shares the same space. Payments, NFT drops, memecoin rushes, airdrops, bots. When activity spikes, the network doesn’t distinguish between someone gambling on momentum and someone trying to move money they actually depend on. Fees rise across the board. Settlement slows. Stablecoins end up behaving anything but stable.
The problem isn’t volatility itself. Volatility belongs in markets. The problem is letting it spill into settlement. Once that happens, the network stops behaving like financial infrastructure and starts acting like a crowded trading floor.
I tend to think of it in physical terms. Freight traffic and sports cars don’t mix well on the same road. Trucks need predictability. If every lane turns into a racetrack, deliveries get delayed and costs rise. Payments work the same way. They need isolation more than flexibility.
That idea is what sits underneath Plasma. It isn’t trying to be a general playground for every onchain use case. It is narrow on purpose. Stablecoin settlement comes first. Everything else is secondary.
Plasma is built so transfers resolve as completed events, not probabilities. Finality is fast and deterministic, even when conditions aren’t ideal. Stablecoin transfers are gasless for users, which matters more than it sounds once payments become routine. You don’t need to hold or manage a volatile token just to move value. The cost is handled at the protocol level instead of being pushed onto the person sending money at the worst possible moment.
It keeps full EVM compatibility, which is practical rather than flashy. Existing applications can deploy without rewriting logic, but they run in an environment where settlement is the priority, not an afterthought squeezed between speculative bursts.
Security choices follow the same mindset. Plasma anchors itself to Bitcoin, favoring assumptions that have survived real stress over new ideas that still need to prove themselves. For payments, durability tends to matter more than novelty.
The XPL token reflects that restraint. It covers non-stablecoin fees, validator staking, and governance. It isn’t framed as a growth story on its own. It exists to keep the system functioning, not to generate excitement.
Market behavior has been rough at times. Early enthusiasm faded quickly, and price action has been volatile. That’s typical for infrastructure that doesn’t lend itself to hype. The longer question is simpler. If stablecoins keep being used as everyday money, the chains that treat settlement as a first-class responsibility rather than shared blockspace may end up being the ones people rely on quietly.
There are real risks. Tron already dominates stablecoin volume. Regulatory shifts could change issuer behavior. If adoption slows, validator incentives will be tested. None of that is abstract.
But payment systems aren’t judged by launches or narratives. They’re judged by whether they work on bad days, when nothing else does. Plasma is betting that separating payments from speculative congestion is not a nice optimization, but a requirement. Whether that bet holds up will only become clear over time, not during the next attention cycle.
The biggest mistake people make about Web3 adoption is thinking the problem is “education.” It’s not. The real problem is friction. Most users don’t quit because they hate crypto they quit because onboarding feels like a homework assignment. Wallet download, seed phrase, bridging, gas fees, network switching… by the time they finish step five, they’re gone. That’s why I’m watching what @Vanarchain is building. Instead of betting on one niche, Vanar is pushing cross-vertical products like gaming, creator tools, and AI-native experiences that give users repeated reasons to return. And in crypto, retention is everything. If a chain can keep users coming back, liquidity and ecosystem growth follow naturally. Traders may focus on charts, but long-term value often comes from real usage. Token to watch: $VANRY #vanar Want 3 more variations in different tones?
Most crypto conversations still revolve around price, but the next adoption wave won’t be driven by charts it’ll be driven by payment experience. People don’t want to think about gas fees, network switching, or transaction delays just to move stablecoins. That friction quietly kills retention. That’s where @Plasma becomes interesting. The real value isn’t “another chain,” it’s the idea of making USDT-style transfers feel as smooth as sending money on a normal app. If fees are close to zero and settlement is fast, then stablecoins stop being a trader tool and start acting like digital cash. For investors, this matters because utility creates repeat usage. Repeat usage creates volume. And volume is what gives long-term relevance to an ecosystem. If Plasma executes well, $XPL won’t just ride narratives it can ride real transaction demand. #Plasma
#Vanar When I look at Vanry, I don’t see it as just another blockchain token competing for attention. To me, it feels like a thoughtful response to the real problems that have slowed down blockchain adoption for everyday people. Speed matters in the real world, and Vanry’s focus on fast, smooth transactions makes the technology feel practical rather than experimental. What I personally appreciate is how it keeps costs low and predictable, which removes the fear of using blockchain for simple, daily actions. On top of that, the commitment to sustainability and building a useful app ecosystem shows long-term thinking. From my point of view, Vanry is trying to make blockchain feel natural, reliable and usable, not just impressive on paper but meaningful in real life. $VANRY @Vanarchain
What I genuinely like about Plasma Coin is how thoughtfully everything fits together without feeling overengineered. Instead of trying to reinvent how blockchains work, Plasma focuses on making them actually usable for payments. The way PlasmaBFT handles fast block finality while a separate execution layer runs familiar smart contract logic feels like a very grounded design choice to me. Nothing feels forced or experimental. From my point of view, this separation is what allows Plasma to stay fast without breaking compatibility or reliability. Stablecoin transfers don’t feel delayed or unpredictable, which is a huge deal in real financial use. Add in the ability to work with Bitcoin value in a trust-minimized way and Plasma starts to feel less like a crypto project and more like real payment infrastructure built for everyday use. @Plasma #plasma $XPL
Plasma (XPL): When Blockchain Design Starts From Payments, Not Speculation
Most blockchains evolve by adding payment features after the fact. Plasma starts with payments as the primary design constraint. Every architectural choice reflects that focus: speed, predictability, and minimal user friction.
Plasma BFT, the network’s consensus mechanism, is derived from Fast Hot Stuff and optimized for parallel execution. Instead of slow, sequential steps, block proposals and voting happen concurrently, allowing transactions to reach finality within seconds. This matters for payment systems, where delayed confirmation isn’t just inconvenient — it’s unusable. Zero-fee USDT transfers are a direct response to real user behavior. Through a protocol-level paymaster, Plasma covers gas costs for standard USDT transfers under defined limits. Users can send stablecoins without worrying about fees or managing gas balances, which dramatically improves onboarding and retention. For broader activity, Plasma supports custom gas tokens. Applications can let users pay fees in assets like USDT, aligning costs with what users already hold. Developers benefit as well, since Plasma is fully EVM-compatible via its Reth execution layer, enabling seamless deployment of Solidity contracts and Ethereum tooling.
The Bitcoin bridge adds another layer of utility by allowing BTC to enter Plasma in a trust-minimized way. Deposited BTC mints pBTC, usable directly in smart contracts and across chains, while withdrawals return native BTC securely. XPL secures the network, rewards validators, and enables delegation without harsh stake slashing. Plasma isn’t trying to be everything — it’s trying to be dependable where it counts most: stable coin payments at scale. @Plasma $XPL #plasma
Plasma treats stablecoins as financial infrastructure, not just tokens. With zero-fee USDT transfers, fast finality through PlasmaBFT, and EVM compatibility, it’s built for continuous payment flow. Custom gas tokens remove friction, making Plasma practical for real users at scale.
Why AI Infrastructure Is About Readiness, Not Speed
High TPS doesn’t make a chain AI-ready. Memory, reasoning, automation, and settlement do. Vanar Chain is built around these primitives from day one, with live products already proving real usage. That’s why $VANRY reflects infrastructure readiness, not just an AI narrative.
Most chains still assume a human clicking buttons. AI doesn’t work that way. Intelligent agents need persistent context, autonomous execution, and native settlement without human UX friction. This is where the idea of “AI-ready” stops being marketing and becomes architecture. Vanar Chain approaches infrastructure from the agent’s perspective. myNeutron introduces semantic memory at the protocol level, allowing AI systems to retain context across interactions instead of resetting every transaction. Kayon adds on-chain reasoning and explainability, which is critical when decisions must be auditable, not just fast. Flows turns intelligence into controlled automation, enabling agents to act safely without constant oversight.
This design philosophy explains why new L1 launches struggle in an AI era. The problem isn’t lack of chains; it’s lack of usable intelligence infrastructure. Retrofitting AI onto legacy designs usually means external services, fragile bridges, and unclear value capture. Vanar’s stack is integrated by default.
Cross-chain availability starting with Base expands this further. AI-native infrastructure can’t stay siloed. Access to multiple ecosystems increases agent activity, enterprise experimentation, and real usage, all of which flow back into the network’s economic layer. Payments complete the loop. AI agents don’t browse wallets — they settle autonomously. By aligning $VANRY with real economic activity instead of short-lived narratives, Vanar positions itself around readiness and long-term value accrual, not hype cycles.
2026 is already shaping up to be the year of Dusk. From the modular architecture to the launch of DuskTrade and the EVM mainnet, the team is delivering on its roadmap. If you are looking for a Layer 1 designed specifically for regulated financial infrastructure, this is it. @Dusk $DUSK #Dusk
Huge moves happening with the Dusk x NPEX partnership! 🤝 NPEX isn't just any exchange; they hold MTF, Broker, and ECSP licenses. Building DuskTrade with a regulated Dutch exchange ensures that the platform is compliant from Day 1. This is how you onboard the next trillion dollars into crypto. @Dusk $DUSK #Dusk
Privacy in crypto usually means "hidden," but for institutions, it needs to be "auditable." This is where Hedger shines. By using zero-knowledge proofs, Dusk enables privacy-preserving transactions that still meet regulatory standards. Hedger Alpha is live, and it’s proving that compliant privacy is possible on EVM. @Dusk $DUSK #Dusk
The DuskEVM mainnet has arrived! This is a game-changer for developers. We finally have an EVM-compatible layer that allows standard Solidity smart contracts to settle on a privacy-focused Layer 1. This is exactly what institutions need to enter DeFi: low friction and high compliance. @Dusk $DUSK #Dusk
Real-World Assets are not just a buzzword; they are the future of finance. With DuskTrade, we are seeing the bridge between traditional finance and blockchain finally built. The collaboration with NPEX to bring €300M+ in tokenized securities on-chain is a massive milestone for 2026. The waitlist is open—don't sleep on this. @Dusk $DUSK #Dusk
Founded in 2018, Dusk has been quietly building the infrastructure for a regulated financial future. Now, in January 2026, all the pieces are falling into place. The ecosystem has exploded with activity, and here is why I am bullish on the long-term vision.
1. DuskTrade: The flagship RWA application is opening its doors. Backed by the licensed exchange NPEX, this platform is set to tokenize millions in securities. 2. DuskEVM: The application layer is now live, bringing EVM compatibility to privacy-focused tech. 3. Hedger: The key to "compliant privacy" is live in Alpha, proving that ZK-proofs can be used for regulated financial use cases.
Dusk is not just another general-purpose L1; it is a specialized blockchain designed for financial infrastructure. As regulations tighten globally, blockchains that were built with compliance in mind—like Dusk—will be the ones left standing. The modular architecture ensures scalability, while the privacy features ensure institutional interest. 2026 is just the beginning. @Dusk $DUSK #Dusk