Coin Telegraph

Crypto venture capital firm Paradigm said Ethereum developers need to do more protocol updates to deliver on its “ambitious roadmap” more efficiently.

Ethereum developers could implement more protocol changes to evolve with changing market structures without changing its values, says crypto venture capital firm Paradigm.

“We think Ethereum’s core protocol could be improving much faster,” Paradigm said in a Jan. 25 blog post. “There are many high-impact improvements that Ethereum can start accelerating towards today without sacrificing its values.” 

“Historically, Ethereum has shipped about one change per year. Ethereum can do more,” it added.

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World Network, the iris-scanning digital ID project formerly known as Worldcoin, can no longer offer crypto incentives to Brazilians.

Brazil’s data protection watchdog has ordered the company behind the biometrics for the World ID project to stop offering crypto or financial compensation for collecting biometric data from its citizens.

The National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) on Jan. 24  ordered Tools for Humanity (TFH), which is behind the eye-scanning crypto project World Network, formerly Worldcoin, to stop providing services to Brazilians from Jan. 25 after an investigation that began in November following the launch of the World ID project in Brazil.

The ANPD’s enforcement division reported that it determined offering crypto as compensation could compromise the validity of user consent for collecting sensitive biometric data.

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Dean Norris, known for his role in the TV series Breaking Bad, had his X account hacked to promote a memecoin using his likeness, which hit a peak value of over $8 million.

TV star Dean Norris had his X account hijacked to promote a memecoin that used his likeness as part of a pump and dump scheme. 

In a Jan. 26 video posted to his X account, Norris, best known for his role as Hank Schrader in Breaking Bad, said he was hacked, and the memecoin, DEAN, was a “complete, fake scam” and blasted Reddit users who he claimed “called me all sorts of shit for something I didn’t do. Go fuck yourselves.” 

The post promoting the token has been taken down, but users took screenshots of the original and subsequent posts from the hackers, which included an apparent doctored photo of Norris holding a piece of paper with the ticker DEAN and its launch date.

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Some Ethereum layer 2s would be forgoing hundreds of millions of dollars obtained from fees to make Ethereum more connected at the base layer.

Executives from leading Ethereum layer 2s have said they’re willing to make Ethereum more unified by implementing “based” and “native” rollups, which they say could improve security while making the network less fragmented.

The head of Ethereum layer 2 Base, Jesse Pollak, said on a Jan. 25 call with Ethereum founders and developers that based rollups are “both a flexible and powerful tool that we’re going to be able to use for Base to make it more connected to Ethereum and increase the security guarantees that it provides.”

Optimism Foundation Director Ben Jones added that base rollups would improve the collaboration between Ethereum’s base layer and layer 2s.

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"While the hype surrounding meme coins may fade, the market itself will not disappear," the CryptoQuant founder wrote on social media.

CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju recently said that memecoins and the art market share similar valuation mechanisms, with both relying on the power of narrative creation to drive price appreciation.

Ju predicted that the memecoin market would mature over the next five years and won't disappear or go to zero despite short-term issues like rug pulls and fake tokens.

The CEO compared the economics of the art market to the memecoin market in a Jan. 26 social media post:

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Bitcoin trades in a predictable range while SOL, LINK, OM and RAY look ready to rally higher.

Bitcoin (BTC) has been relatively quiet over the weekend, indicating that the bulls and the bears are not waging a large bet on a directional move. “The market sees limited upside for the asset in the short term, likely due to the absence of a specific BTC reserve announcement,” said onchain options protocol Derive founder Nick Forster in a Jan. 25 analyst note viewed by Cointelegraph.

A more bullish projection came from CryptoQuant contributor IT Tech, who said in a Jan. 24 analyst note that Bitcoin long-term Bitcoin holders (LTH) — those who have held their Bitcoin for more than 155 days — continued to buy on declines and short-term holders bought during rallies. That makes IT Tech bullish on Bitcoin over the next 12 months. 

Crypto market data daily view. Source: Coin360

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According to the DeepSeek research paper, the project took only $6 million to train, and it performs on par with leading AI models.

The release of DeepSeek R1 — an open-source artificial intelligence large-language model — has caught the world by surprise and shattered long-held assumptions about AI development.

According to venture capitalist Nic Carter, the release of the AI model, which was developed in China, dispelled notions that the country would only produce closed-source AI, and has eroded Silicon Valley's perceived advantages over global competitors.

Carter added that DeepSeek is evidence that OpenAI does not have an unbeatable moat and that assumptions about scaling, value accrual in AI models, and development costs were also dispelled by the development.

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According to SaylorTracker, MicroStrategy is up more than 65% on its Bitcoin investment, with an unrealized gain of over $19 billion.

MicroStrategy co-founder Michael Saylor posted the Bitcoin (BTC) tracker for the 12th consecutive week, signaling an impending Bitcoin purchase on Jan. 27.

The company's most recent purchase of 11,000 BTC occurred on Jan. 21, at an average purchase price of $101,191 per coin.

According to SaylorTracker, MicroStrategy currently holds 461,000 BTC, valued at approximately $48.4 billion — surpassing the holdings of the United States government.

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Bitcoin traders avoid risk as the difference between spot and derivatives prices on Binance reaches unprecedented levels.

Bitcoin (BTC) derivatives traders are setting new bearish records while price circles all-time highs.

The latest findings from onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant reveal the largest-ever derivatives discount ever recorded on global exchange Binance.

Despite trading less than $5,000 from price discovery, BTC/USD is anything but enticing for derivatives traders.

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With 36.4 million tokens flooding the market, analysts question whether altcoin seasons are a thing of the past.

Cryptocurrency analysts and traders are debating whether an altcoin season — a period when alternative cryptocurrencies outperform Bitcoin in the market — is over.

Historically, altcoin seasons have been marked by significant price rallies for non-Bitcoin cryptocurrencies.

In the 2017-2018 cycle, the altcoin market experienced its most explosive growth, with coins like Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP), and Litecoin (LTC) posting record-breaking gains. 

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