PANews

Interview: The Round Trip
Compiled & Edited by Yuliya, PANews
As the AI wave sweeps the globe at an unprecedented speed, a "arms race" centered around computing power has already begun. When Nvidia's market value surpasses one trillion, and giants like AWS and Google Cloud almost monopolize cloud computing power, a profound challenge faces all AI innovators: Will the high concentration of computing power stifle open innovation and lock the future of AI within the "walled gardens" of a few companies?
With a successful track record of selling a company for $60 million to Snapchat and founding Product Science, which provides AI code optimization services for top enterprises, Gonka AI's co-founders David and Daniel

In 2025, competition among consumer AI intensifies, with ChatGPT user stickiness exceeding 90%, leading the market. Competitors like Gemini are growing rapidly, while Anthropic focuses on technical users. The ultimate winner of AI assistants remains uncertain.

Author: Yuan Shan Insights
Data sources: Farside Investors, SoSoValue, Federal Reserve H.4.1 Report, CryptoQuant
On the first trading day of 2026, the BTC ETF saw a net inflow of $471 million in a single day.
What does this number mean?
In November and December, the total net outflow of spot BTC ETFs was approximately $4.57 billion; among them, December alone saw a net outflow of about $1.09 billion.
Many people are frantically cutting losses above 93K, while institutions bought back about one-tenth in just one day on January 2.
At the same time, the following events occurred:
- The Federal Reserve's balance sheet increased by approximately $59.4 billion week-over-week (WALCL: as of 12/31, it was $6.6406 trillion, an increase of about $59.4 billion since 12/24)
- A new giant whale's holdings surpassed 100,000 BTC ($12 billion)
- BTC from 8

Author: danny
Around the winter of 2020, the project's goal shifted from "creating value and serving users" to "appeasing exchanges and serving the studio well." The core driving force behind this phenomenon lies in the rigid demand for data from exchanges and the cold start dilemma faced by early-stage projects. Due to the lack of genuine initial users and data, but with exchanges requiring this data, project teams are forced to "collude" with studios and artificially inflate activity through volume manipulation to create a false sense of prosperity and meet market expectations.
This model leads projects to directly "start businesses facing exchanges" (To Exchange) and "start businesses targeting airdrop hunters" (To Airdrop Hunter). In this context, the industry has seen a phenomenon of "bad money driving out good," where false, arbitrage-driven interactions (bad money) crowd out network resources. By diluting rewards and increasing usage costs, this trend pushes out genuine users,

Arthur Hayes
Translated by: Yuliya, PANews
Imagine a video call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Venezuelan President Pepe Maduro, as Maduro was flying from Caracas to New York.
> Trump: "Pepe Maduro, you're a bad guy. The oil in your country is now mine. Long live America!"
>
> Pepe Maduro: "Trump, you crazy!"
>
>
Note: Arthur Hayes refers to the Venezuelan president as "Pepe Maduro" instead of his real name Nicolás Maduro. "Pepe" is a Spanish term

Virtuals Protocol aims to support builders by introducing three release mechanisms—Pegasus, Unicorn, and Titan—to meet the needs of teams at different stages. Pegasus focuses on distribution, Unicorn emphasizes belief and accountability, and Titan provides scalable support for mature teams. As the market evolves, Virtuals will continue to adapt, ensuring the right release mode is available at the right time.

Author | Momir @IOSG
The altcoin market has experienced its most difficult period this year. To understand why, we need to go back to decisions made a few years ago. The funding bubble of 2021-2022 fueled a wave of projects that raised large amounts of money. Now, these projects are issuing tokens, leading to a fundamental problem: a massive supply flooding the market, while demand remains scarce.
The issue is not just oversupply; even more concerning is that the mechanism causing this problem has remained largely unchanged to this day. Projects continue to issue tokens regardless of whether there is a market for their products, treating token issuance as an inevitable step rather than a strategic choice. As venture capital dries up and primary market investments shrink, many teams see token issuance as the only fundraising channel or a way to create exit opportunities for insiders.
This article will analyze the "Four Losses Dilemma" that is dismantling the altcoin market, examine why past repair mechanisms have failed, and propose possible pathways for rebalancing.
1

The cryptocurrency market is undergoing a transformation, with countries and corporations beginning to include it on their balance sheets. Trump has established Bitcoin reserves, indicating that cryptocurrencies are gradually gaining mainstream recognition. Despite price volatility, long-term investors remain optimistic about its value, especially in the context of the current market structural changes. Cryptocurrency demand may increase in the coming years, but price uncertainty should still be monitored.

At CES 2026, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang announced the new autonomous driving AI system Alapamayo, marking a new stage in autonomous driving technology characterized by explainable decision-making capabilities, rather than relying solely on sensor data.

Written by: DaiDai, Maitong MSX Maidian
Core Overview
In the early hours of January 3, 2026, the U.S. military operation "Operation Southern Spear" struck with a thunderous force that suffocated the global markets, crushing Caracas's anti-American stronghold that had lasted for over twenty years; this was not just a military decapitation targeting the Maduro regime, but a violent reset of the energy map of the Western Hemisphere. It marked the official takeover of this "bankrupt giant" with 3,030 billion barrels of oil reserves by the "American Union," centered around Wall Street capital, Texas oil, and Pentagon defense technology.
I. The Critical Point of Geopolitics—From "Monroe Doctrine" to "Tangro Doctrine"
1. The Deep Logic of Escalating Conflict: Hegemony Driven into a Corner
The military action on January 3, 2026, was not an abrupt black sky

Original author: Lawyer Li Xinyi, Mankun Blockchain
Introduction
A ruling by the Hangzhou Internet Court clearly demonstrates that "Fat Tiger Vaccination" NFT infringement case: decentralization does not mean no responsibility. Behind the technology, there are still clear legal boundaries.
Many people think that since they only develop technology, build platforms, and provide tools, and do not directly participate in infringement, they should be fine. But this ruling clearly states: technology itself cannot serve as a "shield" against infringement; if used improperly, it can still be illegal.
In this article, we will discuss a key but often overlooked concept: "Technological Evasion of Copyright Infringement."
What is it?
How can ordinary people avoid it?
And how should we find a balance between innovation and compliance?
Technological Evasion of Infringement: The Deadly Shortcut to Bypass "Digital Locks"
In the Web3 and digital creation fields, there is a form of infringement that is often underestimated: it is not direct theft.

Author | ZeR0 Junda, Zhitongxi
Editor | Moying
Zhitongxi Las Vegas, January 5th report, just now, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang delivered the first keynote speech of 2026 at the International Consumer Electronics Show CES 2026. True to his usual style, Jensen Huang wore a leather jacket, announcing 8 major releases within 1.5 hours, covering chips, racks, and network design, providing an in-depth introduction to the entire new generation platform.
In the fields of accelerated computing and AI infrastructure, NVIDIA announced NVIDIA

Author: Shutu Blockchain
In the past two days, global public opinion has been buzzing about a blockbuster news story "comparable to a Hollywood movie": the United States launched a lightning-fast operation against Venezuela, "precisely locking onto" President Maduro overnight, and completed the control of the regime and the takeover of key oil and gas assets in a very short period.
Although the details of this operation remain uncertain, one name has been frequently mentioned in the finance and tech circles: Palantir — a company whose stock price has skyrocketed nearly 20 times in two and a half years, crowned as the "AI Intelligence Empire" for its data integration and AI decision-making capabilities, and regarded by many as the most powerful digital brain behind such "seamless operations."
What's even more interesting is that beyond traditional military and government intelligence, Palantir has quietly become one of the "data and compliance infrastructure providers" in the crypto industry over the past two years — providing services to exchanges, custodians

Author: 0xjacobzhao
In our previous Crypto AI series reports, we consistently emphasized the following point: the most practically valuable scenarios in the current crypto space are mainly focused on stablecoin payments and DeFi, while Agents are the key interface between AI industry and users. Therefore, in the trend of integrating Crypto and AI, the two most valuable paths are: in the short term, AgentFi based on existing mature DeFi protocols (such as lending, liquidity mining, and other basic strategies, as well as advanced strategies like Swap, Pendle PT, and funding rate arbitrage), and in the medium to long term, Agents centered around stablecoin settlement and relying on protocols like ACP/AP2/x402/ERC-8004.

Cryptocurrency exchanges Gemini and Crypto.com parent company donate $21 million to pro-Trump super PAC
According to FinanceFeeds, Gemini and Crypto.com parent company Foris Dax recently donated a total of $21 million to MAGA Inc., a super PAC supporting Trump, with Gemini providing $1.5 million in USDC and Foris Dax donating $10 million in cash twice.
Crypto data platform The

Author: Jae, PANews
In 2025, the DeFi (Decentralized Finance) market experienced a thrilling roller coaster ride. At the beginning of the year, driven by explosive Layer 2 performance and institutional capital inflows, TVL (Total Value Locked) skyrocketed from $182.3 billion to a historic peak of $277.6 billion, making a trillion-dollar ecosystem seem within reach.
However, in the fourth quarter, an unexpected 10/11 flash crash poured cold water on the market, causing TVL to sharply shrink to $189.3 billion, erasing the year's gains to a negligible 3.86%. This intense volatility revealed the true fabric behind the glamorous narrative of DeFi: on one side, deep evolution in sectors like staking, lending, and RWA; on the other, the fragility and governance fractures caused by leverage accumulation.
This has been a crucible of ice and fire. The market witnessed Lido's dominance in the staking sector.

The past 2025 has showcased an unprecedented "Tech Ice and Fire Show" in the capital markets.
On one side are the newly listed tech giants, whose stock prices have plummeted like a kite with a broken string. Once hot star companies have seen their market values evaporate by billions of dollars within months, with some cases experiencing declines of over 50%. The market's "coldness" has quickly spread, causing many star companies planning to go public to become fearful and repeatedly postpone their IPO plans.
On the other side, the "hot pursuit" of capital is burning fiercely.
A brand-new "Trillion-Dollar Club" is gathering outside the gates of the capital market. From Elon Musk's space empire SpaceX to Sam Altman's OpenAI, and the emerging giants like Anthropic, they are preparing with valuations often reaching hundreds of billions or even trillions, gearing up for the next wave of technological advancement.