​​Akedo raised $5M in a Seed funding led by Karatage

Akedo is an AI-powered game and content creation platform that uses an AI agent framework to let users build playable games using simple natural language prompts, greatly reducing development time and lowering technical barriers.

👉 markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/akedo-raises-5m-seed-round-to-build-ai-native-content-creation-engine-1035724212

​​Noble sunsets Cosmos appchain and migrates to EVM-based L1

Noble is winding down its Cosmos appchain in favor of launching a standalone, EVM-compatible Layer 1 network. This transition aims to improve developer access and performance for stablecoin and FX infrastructure while tapping into the broader EVM ecosystem.

👉 x.com/noble_xyz/status/2013603974201463086?s=20

​​Binance Futures to list Acurast and 我踏马来了 later today

Acurast, the first verifiable compute network powered by phones, will be listed at 12:45 UTC. 我踏马来了, a Chinese meme coin on BNB Chain, scheduled to be listed at 14:30 UTC.

👉 binance.com/en/support/announcement/detail/7736f9a5aae24

​​Mask Network has stepped in as the new steward of Lens

The move aims to accelerate the adoption of decentralized social by focusing on real products. Backed by years of experience bridging Web2 and Web3, Mask plans to build consumer-ready social experiences through MaskDAO and its growing ecosystem.

👉 x.com/LC/status/2013614839705612290?s=20

​​Chainlink rolls out 24/5 U.S. Equities Streams

Equities Streams bring near-continuous price feeds for major U.S. stocks and ETFs on-chain. The rollout enables dApps to access reliable equity data beyond traditional trading hours, unlocking new use cases across derivatives, RWAs, and on-chain financial products.

ℹ️ What this milestone highlights:
- Expansion of real-world assets on-chain
- Improved market accessibility and uptime
- New opportunities for perps, synthetics, and prediction markets

This move further positions Chainlink as the core data infrastructure bridging traditional finance and on-chain markets.

👉 blog.chain.link/chainlink-24-5-us-equities-streams/

​​Trump Media sets February 2 for its rewards token launch

Trump Media shareholders need to hold their positions by February 2nd to be eligible for the token airdrop. The tokens are expected to be minted and custodied via Crypto com, with more details on allocation and distribution to follow.

👉 theblock.co/post/386306/trump-media-sets-feb-2-record-date-for-upcoming-rewards-token

​​Bermuda unveils plan for world’s first fully on-chain national economy

Bermuda has announced plans to become the world’s first fully on-chain national economy, with support from Circle and Coinbase, integrating blockchain and stablecoins into everyday activities.

👷 What’s Being Built
- On-chain payments infrastructure using stablecoins like USDC
- Tokenization tools for public and private sector use
- Blockchain rails embedded across services and businesses

ℹ️ Why It Matters
- Serves as a real-world blueprint for nation-scale adoption
- Lowers transaction costs and modernizes financial infrastructure
- Positions Bermuda as a global on-chain finance hub

👉 x.com/circle/status/2013333135908343956?s=20

​​Price Discovery Board: Sentient vs Top AI Projects

With a 34.4B total supply and a $380M FDV, this chart benchmarks potential market scenarios based on comparable AI projects like 0G Labs, Virtuals and Render. Launch is scheduled for Jan 22, 10:00 UTC.

Neynar Acquires Farcaster, Takes Over App, Protocol & Clanker

Neynar has acquired Farcaster, taking control of the protocol contracts, code repositories, the Farcaster app, and Clanker.

The transition will roll out over the coming weeks, with members of the Merkle team, including Varun, stepping back from daily operations. Neynar, one of Farcaster’s earliest clients, already powers much of the developer infrastructure and will introduce a builder-focused vision.

ℹ️ What changes?
- Users. No immediate impact — the app and Clanker continue to operate normally
- Developers. Protocol contracts and repositories move to Neynar, which will also run developer calls

The Clanker team will continue with Neynar, while other Merkle members pursue new paths, marking a new leadership phase for Farcaster after five years

👉 farcaster.xyz/dwr/0x72aab3a5

​​Is Opinion TGE Approaching Amid Token Creation Rumors on BNB Chain & Ethereum?

Korean community activity is fueling speculation around the OPN token launch, with reports of token creation on BNB Chain and Ethereum, though no official confirmation has been made.

The Opinion Points program continues to gain traction despite no announced tokenomics or airdrop details.

Opinion has gained strong momentum, reportedly surpassing Polymarket in trading volume in early January, and is becoming one of the most talked-about prediction platforms on BNB Chain, alongside Kalshi and Polymarket.

👉 x.com/opinionlabsxyz/status/2013801442973532478?s=20

​​X Open-Sources Its Recommendation Algorithm: What Drives Reach Now

X has open-sourced its content recommendation algorithm on GitHub via the X Engineering account, offering rare transparency into how posts are ranked in user feeds.

ℹ️ How It Works
- Likes aren’t the primary signal
- The algorithm first matches a user’s interest profile with a post’s semantic meaning. Content that doesn’t align with prior behavior never enters ranking, explaining why topical consistency outperforms scattered posting

1️⃣ Why Posts Go Viral
- X evaluates multiple actions at once — likes, replies, reposts, quotes, saves, and watch time.
- Engagement across several actions boosts scores non-linearly, leading to sudden acceleration

2️⃣ Media & Freshness
- Image opens and video completion are tracked separately, giving an edge to carousels and video-first posts
- Older content is heavily penalized; timely posts dominate recommendations
- Posting Frequency & Negative Signals
- X reduces reach for frequent posting to prevent feed saturation
- Mute, block, report, and “not interested” directly cut distribution — even high engagement can be overridden

3️⃣ What Matters Most
- Read/watch time
- Quote reposts (rank higher than simple reposts)
- Sharing behavior
- Clear keywords and semantic density improve discovery; hashtags may be regaining relevance when used sparingly

4️⃣ Key Takeaways
- Stick to one core topic
- Optimize for multiple engagement signals
- Use images and video to increase dwell time
- Post less often, but at the right moments
- Avoid negative feedback triggers
- Test hashtags carefully

👉 x.com/elonmusk/status/2013482798884233622?s=20

​​Saga pauses its SagaEVM following ~$7 million exploit

According to the project's investigation update, the exploit involved a coordinated sequence of contract deployments, liquidity movements and cross-chain interactions that allowed the attacker to extract funds rapidly.

👉 theblock.co/post/386638/sagaevm-suffers-exploit

​​BitGo (BTGO) goes public today on New York Stock Exchange

Crypto custodian BitGo priced its U.S. IPO at $18 per share, above the $15–$17 range, raising about $213M at a valuation above $2B, with trading set to begin Jan. 22 on the NYSE under the ticker BTGO.

👉 theblock.co/post/386629/bitgo-prices-us-ipo

​​River received $8 million in funding from Justin Sun

River is building a chain-abstracted stablecoin system that lets users mint and use USD-pegged assets across multiple blockchains without relying on bridges. RIVER rallied roughly 4x in January, rising from around $12 to the $46-47 range and reaching $4.5B+ FDV.

👉 x.com/RiverdotInc/status/2013957517873946649

​​Vietnam begins accepting crypto exchange licenses

New pilot program includes strict requirements such as a ~$400M minimum capital and 49% foreign ownership limit, aiming to protect domestic investors and encourage big players to enter market.

The move comes amid some of the world’s highest crypto adoption rates, with over 17M Vietnamese holding digital assets and the nation ranking among the top countries globally for crypto use.

👉 theblock.co/post/386543/vietnam-opens-crypto-exchange-licensing

​​Tria unveiled plans to roll out its futures trading solution

Waitlist is now open for everyone. Tria's Perp DEX will offer fast order execution without any bridging, freedom to use any funding source, trade any asset across any chain, and open any position type.

Tria is a Web3 Neobank uniting cross-chain finance, real-world cards, and seamless on-chain operations. Users can get their 6% cashback card using our promo link.

👉 x.com/useTria/status/2013929665510162793?s=20

​​Ondo Global Markets went live on the Solana blockchain

The launch brings 200+ tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs on Solana for trading with deep liquidity and fast settlement. It offers fractional ownership of traditional financial assets like NVDA, AAPL while tapping NASDAQ/NYSE liquidity and supporting 24/7 trading.

👉 x.com/solana/status/2013983005711479017?s=20

​​Iran’s Central Bank has quietly built a $507M USDT reserve

Elliptic’s blockchain analysis shows the Central Bank of Iran acquired at least $507 million in USDT, routing funds through exchanges like Nobitex and cross-chain bridges as a way to support the collapsing rial and work around international banking restrictions.

👉 elliptic.co/blog/iran-has-acquired-us-dollar-stablecoins-worth-at-least-half-a-billion-dollars

​​Biggest Lending Protocols by Assets Borrowed

Lending continues to be a cornerstone of DeFi, with Aave being a clear leader. These protocols underpin on-chain credit markets, providing deep liquidity, leverage options, and sustainable real-yield opportunities for users.

​​Immunefi (IMU) initial listing to take place today, at 14:00 UTC

Immunefi sits at the core of crypto’s most resilient market, security, which remains essential at any time. As the “App Store for security,” it provides a hub for every builder to keep protocols protected.

Immunefi, which previously completed a $71M Gate IEO with 28.4x oversub, is hinting at a potential WLFI partnership and a compelling IMU accumulation case ahead of a possible Coinbase debut.

Check IMU trading pairs 👉 bit.ly/IMU-Inc

​​Binance Wallet Introduces New AI-Powered Features To Help Identify On-Chain Narratives

The new AI-powered features will help users spot emerging on-chain narratives and track market trends across BSC, Solana, and Base.

1️⃣ Social Hype. Ranks tokens by social attention and engagement, highlighting rising hype and momentum across chains

2️⃣ Topic Rush. Uses AI to surface emerging narratives from Meme Rush activity and major tweets, grouping related tokens into topic cards (Early / Rising / Viral)

3️⃣ AI Assistant. A pinned AI widget that instantly summarizes token narratives, X sentiment, narrative scores, and key event timelines

👉 binance.com/en/support/announcement