A 5-Minute Recap of Last Week's Web3 Market

We have compiled the latest market information and major news from the past week.

Happy New Year.
I’m Mitsui, a web3 researcher.

We’re resuming our newsletter starting today. The first issue will be a news recap, though there wasn’t much to cover due to the year-end and New Year holidays. We’ll continue updating as usual from today onward, so thank you for your continued support!

📰Pickup News
📗Pickup Article
📊Market & News

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📰Pickup News

Ethereum’s daily transaction volume hit a record high, surpassing the 2021 NFT boom.

• Ethereum’s daily transaction count has reached 1.87 million, surpassing the peak during the 2021 NFT boom.

• The number of new and active addresses has also reached its highest level in several years, with network usage expanding driven by actual demand.

• Reducing fees and improving scalability, among other things,Effects of the Pectra・Fusaka Upgradebecomes apparent

• ETFs, RWA, stablecoins, etc.,Establishment of Financial Use Casesis the background

Creator Coin has once again failed to meet expectations, and ZORA has declined.

Brian Armstrong@brian_armstrong

Let’s go - good case study in how content monetizes better on Base vs other platforms. More examples coming soon. Which top creator should we chat with next?

chiron @chironchain

This could genuinely be a breakthrough moment for @Base & @Zora They onboarded Nick to the @baseapp a couple of days ago, and he might be the first viral creator to use their platform in its intended fashion since he's a journalist His video got interactions from every big name

8:00 PM · Dec 28, 2025 · 236K Views

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256 Replies · 92 Reposts · 951 Likes

• A coin issued by a prominent creator on Base’s Zora platform plummeted by approximately 80% in a short period, significantly failing to meet expectations.

• Following this disappointment, the ZORA token itself also declined, leading to a loss of confidence in the creator coin model.

• Market participants strongly criticize it as “a structure lacking real demand or ongoing utility, destined to be sold after unlocking.”

• The experiment combining content and tokens proved unsustainable beyond mere buzz, highlighting a lack of design for sustained usage and revenue.

Lighter Launches Native Token LIT, Allocating Half to Ecosystem Growth

• Lighter, a decentralized perpetual DEX,Native Token LITissue

• 50% of the total supply is allocated to ecosystem growth (airdrops and future incentives).

• Protocol revenue is visualized on-chain,Value accrues to LIT holdersDesign

• Lighter is solidifying its position as one of the major perpetual DEXs, backed by high trading volume and growth rates.

Dexter AI has released the x402 SDK to add per-request USDC payments to its API.

• Dexterx402-compatible SDKEnables easy implementation of USDC micropayments per API

• Automate 402 error handling, wallet signing, and retries,Implement payment processing with just a few lines of codepossible

• Dynamic pricing based on token count (for AI inference) and Phantom compatibility included as standard features

• Based on API × Payment × AI,Practical Implementation of On-Chain Billing InfrastructureExamples demonstrating

Trust Wallet Begins $7 Million Compensation Process for Browser Extension Hacking Victims

• The Trust Wallet Chrome extension has been compromised,Approximately $7 million was lost.

• The cause was due to an API key leak in the Chrome Web Store,Malicious updates distributedthe point that was made

• Trust Wallet has officially launched its compensation process,The full amount of damages will be compensated.Then stated

• In wallet extensionsSupply Chain Attack Riskhas been brought into sharp relief once again

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📗Pickup Article

Introducing posts and articles I found interesting.

Five Charts Showing How Cryptocurrency Will Change by 2025, Based on Data

• In 2025, while BTC will hit new highs,The alto section as a whole is sluggish.The bull market failed to materialize

• U.S. spot ETFs continue to see inflows,Institutional investor involvement has become established

• Stablecoin supply has reached record levels, establishing itself as a payment and remittance infrastructure.

• Prediction markets (Polymarket / Kalshi) become mainstream and integrate with media and finance

• While Perp DEX makes a comeback, the boom in cryptocurrency holding companies (DATs) rapidly shrinks.

Balance of power

• Modern society faces the simultaneous expansion of three major powers: big government, big business, and big crowds.

• The essence of the problem is,A structure where economies of scale self-reinforce power concentration

• As a solution, the diffusion of technology, knowledge, and means of production is crucial, rather than mere redistribution of wealth.

• Open standards, interoperability, and adversarial interoperability are key.

• Decentralization is not “neutralization,”Design that exerts influence without creating dominanceis

2026: What to Expect from Real-World Asset Tokenization

• RWA tokenization has concluded its experimental phase,Standard Infrastructure for Asset Managementis beginning to be positioned as

• By 2026, it is predicted that a majority of major asset managers will have strategies based on tokenization.

• The axis of growth is not speculation,Actual demand, stability, operational efficiency (settlement, liquidity, distribution)

• Index products, government bonds, and private credit are being fully integrated onto the blockchain.

• The challenge lies not so much in the issuance itselfCirculation, Integration, and Secondary Marketand this is where the competition lies

To Predict or Not to Predict? My take on Prediction Markets in 2026

• Prediction markets will transition from niche to mainstream by 2025, with 2026 marking the stage of “how they will evolve.”

• AI agents are not analytical tools,market participants themselvesbecome

• Rather than opinion polls,Predictive markets begin to be used as a reference layer for decision-making.

• Evolving from YES/NO-type to conditional branching and scenario decomposition markets

• The future competitive axis will be more about quality than liquidity.Reliability and Standardization of Resolution

Crypto Card Moats

• The crypto card market has entered a mature phase,Rewards and cashback are no longer differentiating factors.

• The true moat lies in the “underlying infrastructure” of liquidity, licensing, compliance, and settlement rails.

• CeFi platforms achieve scale but have low profit margins, while DeFi platforms offer high leverage tied to yields but are unstable.

• B2B infrastructure providers (issuance, FX, KYC, settlement)Once integrated, it becomes extremely difficult to switch.

• The future winner will be,Stripe-like full-stack middlewareplayer holding

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📊Market & News

🟠The entire market

⛓️L1 Blockchain

• The Fed leaked bullish liquidity signals suggesting Bitcoin could anticipate a 2026 recovery.

• Bitcoin has a 70% probability of experiencing a major breakthrough in 2026, but only if this trend continues.

• Why Tom Lee Says Ethereum Is Headed for a 2026 ‘Supercycle’ Despite Price Decline

• Vitalik Buterin emphasizes true usability and decentralization over the victory of the “next meta.”

• Ethereum’s daily transaction volume hit a record high, surpassing the 2021 NFT boom.

• Flow blockchain, FLOW token plunges over 40%, investigates security incident

⛓️L2 Blockchain

💰DeFi

• Childcare Fraud Journalist Tokenizes Content on Base

• Creator Coin has once again failed to meet expectations, and ZORA has declined.

• UNI fell after Uniswap Labs burned 100 million tokens

• Aave Labs is attempting to ease governance tensions through non-protocol-compliant revenue distribution.

• Hyperliquid Labs Schedules Next HYPE Token Payment Following Unstaking of 1.2 Million Tokens

• Lighter Launches Native Token LIT, Allocating Half to Ecosystem Growth

• Kalshi’s weekly trading volume reached $2.3 billion, nearly double that of Polymarket.

🤑RWA・Stablecoin

• SBI Securities and Others to Demonstrate DVP Settlement for Secondary Digital Securities Trading Using Tokenized Deposits “DCJPY”

• WLFI’s USD-pegged stablecoin “USD1” surpasses $3 billion in supply

🏢ETF・DAT

• Spot crypto ETF cumulative trading volume has surpassed $2 trillion, doubling in half the time.

• Grayscale files for spot Bittensor ETF after network’s first halving event

• Bitmain’s holdings of Ethereum exceed 4.1 million coins, with its total cryptocurrency and cash holdings reaching $13.2 billion.

🖼️NFT

🤖AI Agent

• Elsa introduced its proprietary x402 facilitator, enabling on-chain payments using multiple tokens per request between agents on Base.

• GenLayer announces the live release of Intelligent Contracts. Users can now build and deploy the first AI-powered smart contracts.

• Dexter AI has released the x402 SDK to add per-request USDC payments to its API.

• BitAds launches the first live on-chain marketing campaign to generate revenue using incentive-based e-books

National, Legal, and Regulatory Matters

• Coinbase CEO Announces First Arrest in India Over Insider Data Leak: “More Arrests to Follow”

• South Korea’s stablecoin bill stalls amid controversy over issuance qualifications

• Congressman Torres condemns “insider trading” in prediction markets after traders profit $400,000 following Maduro’s arrest

Other

• December cryptocurrency trading volume hits lowest level in 15 months

• Hundreds of crypto wallets compromised across EVM chains; root cause remains unidentified: ZachXBT

• Trust Wallet Begins $7 Million Compensation Process for Browser Extension Hack Victims

• Cryptocurrency M&A and IPOs surged in 2025, with industry insiders expecting the momentum to continue into 2026.

• Amid altcoin gains in the cryptocurrency market following the holiday, PEPE is leading the rally in meme coins.

• Trump Media Announces New Token Issuance in 2026

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Disclaimer：I carefully examine and write the information that I research, but since it is personally operated and there are many parts with English sources, there may be some paraphrasing or incorrect information. Please understand. Also, there may be introductions of Dapps, NFTs, and tokens in the articles, but there is absolutely no solicitation purpose. Please purchase and use them at your own risk.

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🇯🇵🇺🇸🇰🇷🇨🇳🇪🇸 The English version of the web3 newsletter, which is available in 5 languages. Based on the concept of ``Learn more about web3 in 5 minutes a day,'' we deliver research articles five times a week, including explanations of popular web3 trends, project explanations, and introductions to the latest news.

Author
mitsui
A web3 researcher. Operating the newsletter "web3 Research" delivered in five languages around the world.

Contact
The author is a web3 researcher based in Japan. If you have a project that is interested in expanding to Japan, please contact the following:

• X：@web3researchgl

• Telegram：@mitsui0x

*Please note that this newsletter translates articles that are originally in Japanese. There may be translation mistakes such as mistranslations or paraphrasing, so please understand in advance.