Activity on major altcoin networks Solana and Ethereum recorded major milestones in January. Daily lively addresses on Solana consistently exceeded the 5 million mark within the second half of the month.
After major upgrades to the network, Ethereum overtook the foremost Layer 2 when it comes to each day lively addresses in December. In January, the network saw a 25% increase in each day lively addresses as a consequence of developers’ efforts to “future-proof” Ethereum.
Seven Bitcoin (BTC) miners within the US are in a critical storm zone and can have to temporarily reduce their mining activities as a winter storm rattled power grids and left 1000’s without power.
Geopolitical concerns, particularly US President Donald Trump's alleged intentions to amass Greenland, are raising concerns amongst global investors. The price of Bitcoin fell almost 10% from a monthly high of $97,000.
Here is January in numbers:
The variety of lively Solana addresses has increased by almost 115% amid the frantic token launch
The Solana network recorded a 115% monthly increase in lively each day addresses on January twenty eighth. The total variety of such addresses recurrently exceeded 5 million, in line with data from Nansen.
Data collection on January twenty eighth.
The increase is the results of a renewed uptick in memecoin minting following the launch of Anthropic's Claude Cowork, an AI agent that may control a user's desktop. This allowed developers using Solana-based token launchpad bags to show token launches into overdrive.
Fees on the platform rose to $4.5 million on January sixteenth. By comparison, from September to December last 12 months, each day fees rarely exceeded five figures and were sometimes as little as several hundred dollars.
During the identical period, the variety of tokens “graded” or launched by Bags exceeded that of other popular Solana token launch platform Pump.fun.
Active Ethereum addresses increase by 25%
Activity on the Ethereum network has also increased significantly. At the tip of December, it overtook well-known L2s Base and Arbitrum when it comes to each day lively addresses. In January, the identical metric rose 25%.
Data collection on January twenty eighth.
The increase in activity is as a consequence of some major upgrades to the network which have resulted in a rise in blob size and subsequently lower fees. As of January twenty ninth, average fees on Ethereum were lower than $0.01.
These upgrades were a part of an effort to finish work on Ethereum. On January 12, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said that Ethereum should ultimately pass a “walkaway test.” He said the true test of Ethereum is that it might probably proceed to operate and meet users' needs without developers having to actively modify and monitor the network.
Seven Bitcoin miners within the US are facing restrictions through the winter storm
Seven Bitcoin mining operations within the United States could limit their operations as winter storms strain America's power grid within the Southeast and South-Central regions.
According to Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at VanEck, the mining sites operated by Riot, Core Scientific, CleanSpark and Bitdeer are “structurally set as much as act as flexible loads through utility demand response programs.”
“We don’t yet have confirmation of real-time restrictions for this storm, however the model has already proven its value as conditions intensify.”
The storm, which has also affected the Midwest and Northeast, has caused flight cancellations, dangerous travel conditions and power outages, and killed at the least 20 people as of January 27.
Southern states, that are generally unaccustomed to snow and lack the infrastructure to resist winter conditions, were hardest hit. As of January 28, around 400,000 people were without power in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.
Many Bitcoin miners have arrange in locations where they’ll stabilize grid prices, buy electricity cheaply when there may be little or no demand, and temporarily shut down in periods of stress.
Four in 10 merchants within the US accept crypto: PayPal report
According to major payment processor PayPal, cryptocurrencies have gotten increasingly popular for payments. Four in 10 merchants within the U.S. now accept crypto, the corporate said in a January report. PayPal's survey found that crypto offers faster transaction speeds and more privacy, attracting crypto-savvy customers.
May Zabaneh, vp and general manager of PayPal, said: “What we’re seeing, each on this data and in conversations with our customers, is that crypto payments are moving beyond experimentation into on a regular basis commerce.”
About 84% of those same traders consider crypto payments will change into mainstream in the following five years.
Bitcoin price stagnates amid Greenland fiasco
Bitcoin price briefly rose toward $100,000 in the midst of this month before falling back to $87,000. The drop of greater than 10% got here amid discussions about what might occur to Greenland, itself an autonomous territory of Denmark.
Data collection on January twenty eighth.
Trump claimed that the US needed to manage Greenland for security reasons and to counter the ambitions of China and Russia within the Arctic. This is despite the undeniable fact that Denmark and the US are a part of NATO, a company created to counter the identical ambitions.
While tempers have cooled, the undeniable fact that Bitcoin, like global markets usually, has been affected by the saber rattling shows that BTC is a dangerous asset.
Chris Beauchamp, senior market analyst at investment and trading platform IG, said: “Cryptocurrencies offered no protection from the wave of selling that swept global markets in response to Trump’s threat.”
According to some analysts, Trump's erratic foreign policy, including unilateral tariffs and increasingly aggressive rhetoric against former allies, dampened Bitcoin's price.
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