Project Progress

Xross Road announces the completion of a $1.5 million Pre-Seed funding round, which will be used for the development of its AI comic creation tool HANASEE, and to initiate the closed beta testing of the tool. Future plans include launching a blockchain copyright management system and seeking collaborations with intellectual property rights holders.

Stripe is arranging a new round of tender offers with a valuation of at least $140 billion, a jump of over $30 billion from last year's $107 billion. This payments giant has been frequently conducting tender offers since 2024, allowing employees to cash out without going public. Co-founder John Collison stated in January this year that Stripe is not in a rush to go public, as they lay off 300 employees while continuing to hire.

The Pi Network core team announced that all nodes must complete the v19.6 upgrade by February 12th. This is a mandatory requirement before the open network phase. Currently, over 16 million users have migrated to the mainnet. This upgrade is a crucial step in the phased transition from v19 to v23, and node operators are not allowed to skip versions and upgrade directly. The KYC verifier reward mechanism has entered final testing and is expected to be officially launched in March.

Sports blockchain platform Chiliz announces a three-phase roadmap to prepare for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The plan includes re-entering the US market, launching national team tokens, activating Omnichain cross-chain functionality, and a 10% profit buyback mechanism for CHZ tokens. Future steps will introduce performance-based supply regulation, with victories triggering burns and losses leading to issuance increases. Starting in 2027, sports revenue streams and intellectual property will be tokenized.

The MegaETH mainnet launches today, enabling gasless transactions for new users. The token generation event will depend on stablecoin growth and app activity, with a focus on network use rather than price. Integration with Chainlink enhances DeFi access.

20 new Chainlink integrations rolled out across 8 services and 12 blockchains, including Ethereum, Linea, World Chain, and zkSync. MegaETH joined Chainlink Scale and launched with Data Feeds, Data Streams, and CCIP enabled from day one. Chainlink has announced 20 new integrations to its

Last weekend, MetaDAO, a Solana ecosystem platform, failed in its first ICO project Hurupay, which did not reach the minimum funding goal of $3 million, raising only about $2 million. The community believes that the reasons for the failure include overvaluation of the project, unclear team background, and changes in financing terms. All participant funds will be refunded.

Ethereum Domain Name Service ENS cancels the Layer-2 Namechain plan, opting to deploy ENSv2 directly on the mainnet. Lead developer nick.eth stated that gas costs have decreased by 99% over the past year, and Fusaka upgrade will raise the gas cap to 60 million, with a target of 200 million by 2026. ENS will focus resources on architectural improvements while maintaining L2 interoperability.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has approved five crypto institutions—Circle, Ripple, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Paxos—to obtain nationwide trust bank charters, marking a thorough integration of TradFi and crypto. Federal licenses allow giants to connect directly to the Federal Reserve's clearing network, Fedwire, gaining real-time settlement capabilities. The acting OCC deputy director stated that new entrants benefit competition within the banking system.

ERC-8004 is about to go live on the Ethereum mainnet, providing a standardized solution for trust issues in AI Agents. The AP2 protocol promoted by Google and the x402 protocol have integrated payment scenarios, but cross-platform AI Agents face a key bottleneck in verifying each other's identity and reputation. ERC-8004 establishes a trusted communication mechanism through on-chain identity verification and reputation systems.

Teltlk supports Visa cards for Pi Coin and USDT global spending, allowing shopping on Amazon, eBay, and Apple Pay. KYB verification has been completed, supporting deposit, withdrawal, and exchange. New features include quick exchange, no binding required for deposit and withdrawal, and improved notifications. The Discover page has added a Web3 Academy educational module.

Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo has invested in the prediction market platform Kalshi, becoming the first active NBA player to directly invest in a federally regulated event contract exchange. The two-time MVP announced the partnership on Friday, stating that he will participate as a shareholder and collaborate on live events. Kalshi confirmed the agreement but emphasized that internal regulations prohibit Giannis Antetokounmpo from trading in any NBA-related markets.

Kyle Samani stepped down as co-founder of Multicoin Capital on February 5th, and three days later publicly criticized Hyperliquid for "facilitating crime." Ironically, on-chain data shows that Multicoin purchased over $40 million worth of HYPE tokens in January, sparking market speculation: Did investment disagreements lead to this Solana enthusiast's departure?

Pi Network announces the launch of the mainnet protocol upgrade, gradually upgrading from version 19 to version 23 in phases. All node operators must follow a 7-step mandatory upgrade path, with the first deadline set for February 12, 2026, to complete the v19.6 upgrade. At the same time, the network celebrates the Annual Mainnet Appreciation Day, recognizing the contributions of volunteers worldwide. The biggest highlight of this upgrade is that version 23 will directly integrate KYC permissions into the blockchain layer.

Ripple will release its roadmap on February 11th on X Spaces, with the theme "XRP Capital Markets Era." Key focuses include smart contracts, ZK proof privacy, and cross-chain liquidity. The event will highlight regulated financial products and wrapped assets. XRP weekly attracts $45 million in ETFs, and Standard Chartered predicts it will reach $8 by the end of the year.

Vitalik and c-node discuss the essence of DeFi. c-node criticizes USDC lending as "commodity worship" that is superficial. Vitalik believes that over-collateralized algorithmic stablecoins are true DeFi and require diversification of counterparty risk. The criticism of USDC strategy is just about centralized coin deposit protocols, calling for a shift away from the US dollar toward decentralized accounting.

Amidst the intense volatility in the cryptocurrency market, DeFi protocol World Liberty Financial (WLFI), supported by the family of U.S. President Donald Trump, has unexpectedly come under pressure due to liquidation risks faced by lending platforms. The protocol was forced to sell Bitcoin to repay debts, drawing significant market attention. According to on-chain data platform Arkham Intelligence, the official wallet of World Liberty Financial sold over 170 Bitcoins on Wednesday at an approximate price of $67,000 each, cashing out about $11 million. The funds were immediately transferred to leading lending protocol Aave to repay loans and avoid liquidation. Alongside the forced sale of assets to cover debts, WLFI tokens have also continued to experience downward pressure.

MegaETH is set to launch its mainnet on February 9, with the MEGA token's Token Generation Event (TGE) contingent on meeting specific ecosystem KPIs. These include a minimum USDM supply and transaction activity. Post-launch, MegaETH will also experiment with Proximity Markets.

Pump.fun acquires trading terminal Vyper on Thursday, expanding again after acquiring Padre in October 2025. Vyper will be integrated into Terminal and will cease service, with this acquisition focusing on EVM and Base chain support. On February 2, Pump.fun issued nearly 30,000 tokens, far exceeding the average of 9,000-13,000 per day in October.