Tech Headlines

1. Inventor of ZK-STARK, Layer2 Protocol StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson Praises AntChain's GPU Acceleration Technology

https://x.com/EliBenSasson/status/2005550105621876956

AntChain has released NitrooZK-stwo-cairo, a GPU-accelerated version of StarkWare's Stwo prover, and will continue to roll out fully integrated features to achieve greater speed improvements. This GPU acceleration technology has been recognized by Eli Ben-Sasson, the inventor of ZK-STARK and CEO of StarkWare.

2. Solana Enters 2026 on RWA Momentum as Institutionalization Trends Heat Up

https://cointelegraph.com/news/solana-institutional-momentum-heading-2026

On January 2, Solana recorded record real-world asset (RWA) tokenization activity at the end of 2025, injecting new momentum into its development in 2026. Data shows that the scale of on-chain RWAs on Solana grew nearly 10% month-over-month in December, reaching a new high of $873 million, and the number of RWA holders increased 18.4% to 126,000.

Currently, RWAs on Solana are dominated by U.S. Treasury-type assets, including BlackRock's BUIDL fund (about $255 million) and Ondo's dollar-yield products (about $176 million). At the same time, tokenized stocks such as Tesla and NVIDIA, as well as institutional funds, are also accelerating their deployment on Solana.

Solana is expected to become the third public blockchain to surpass $1 billion in RWA scale, after Ethereum (about $12.3 billion) and BNB Chain (over $2 billion).

Bitwise recently noted that if the U.S. passes the CLARITY Act related to crypto market structure in 2026, the tokenization wave will accelerate, and Solana may become one of the biggest beneficiaries. Although SOL's price remains below its all-time high, the spot Solana ETF has been approved and has attracted about $765 million in inflows. Meanwhile, Western Union has chosen Solana to build a stablecoin settlement platform scheduled to launch in the first half of 2026, further strengthening its institutional adoption outlook.

3. BNB Chain 2026 Technical Roadmap: Further Lower Gas Fees, Achieve 20,000 TPS with Sub-Second Finality

https://x.com/BNBCHAINZH/status/2005974596261142583

On December 30, BNB Chain released its 2026 technical roadmap and will continue to adopt a dual-client strategy: the Geth-based client serves as a stability anchor for validator compatibility and operational reliability, while the Reth-based client serves as a high-performance engine for full nodes, archive nodes, and future validator participation. The goals for 2026 include:

• 20,000 TPS with sub-second finality;
• Further reductions in gas fees through software optimizations;
• Advanced consensus and network latency improvements to push finality deeper into sub-second territory.

BNB Chain aims to become a next-generation transaction chain during 2026–2028 to support extreme performance demands, with key goals including:

• Targeting approximately 1 million TPS, requiring sustained execution capacity of ~20 GGas per second;
• Near-instant transaction confirmation, with a best-case target of 150ms;
• A hybrid off-chain and onchain compute architecture using execution proofs and attestations;
• Stronger decentralization through improved validator models and fault tolerance;
• Best-in-class security and production reliability.

4. Coinbase CEO Reveals 2026 Strategic Priorities: Exchange, Stablecoins, and Onchain

https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/2006855956840239265

On January 2, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said that Coinbase's priorities for 2026 include:

• Grow the everything exchange globally (crypto, equities, prediction markets, commodities - across spot, futures, and options);
• Scale stablecoins and payments;
• Bring the world onchain through the Coinbase Developer Platform, the Base chain, and the Base app.

Coinbase is making major investments in product quality and automation underlying each of these as well. Goal is to make Coinbase the No.1 financial app in the world.

Industry Dynamics

1. Bank of China: Starting January 1, Balances in Digital RMB Verified-Name Wallets Will Accrue Interest

https://www.boc.cn/ebanking/bi2/202512/t20251231_25636788.html

On December 31, the Bank of China issued the "Announcement on Interest Payment for the Digital RMB": starting January 1, 2026, the Bank of China will pay interest on the balances of digital RMB verified-name wallets opened at the bank for users at the bank's posted demand deposit interest rate, with interest calculation and settlement rules consistent with those for demand deposits.

2. The Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework Will Take Effect in 2027; 48 Countries Have Begun Collecting Crypto Tax Data This Year

https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-tax-data-carf-oecd-begins

On January 2, the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), led by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), will officially take effect in 2027. Before that, starting January 1, 2026, the first batch of 48 jurisdictions has already required local crypto service providers to begin collecting users' crypto wallet and transaction data to prepare for subsequent cross-border tax information exchanges.

According to the OECD, entities participating in data collection include centralized exchanges, some decentralized platforms, crypto ATMs, and brokers. CARF's core objective is to enhance tax transparency, crack down on cross-border tax evasion and money laundering, and ensure that taxpayers can fulfill their tax obligations no matter where they conduct crypto transactions.

In addition to the first 48 countries, another 27 jurisdictions (including Australia, Canada, and Switzerland) will begin collecting data starting in 2027 and join the information exchange mechanism in 2028.

Although CARF is officially positioned for tax purposes, industry participants point out that the related data may be used in the future for identity verification, anti-money laundering, and criminal investigations, having a profound impact on the anonymity and compliance environment of the crypto industry.

In-Depth Analysis

1. SlowMist Annual Security Report: Total Losses from Security Incidents Reached About $2.935 Billion Over the Year, Generative AI Frequently Became an Attack Tool

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ZYabUBTILiVytV6nM-BeZA

On December 30, according to SlowMist's incomplete blockchain statistics, a total of 200 security incidents occurred throughout the year, resulting in losses of about $2.935 billion. Compared with 2024 (410 incidents, losses of about $2.013 billion), although the number of incidents declined significantly, the amount of losses increased by about 46% year-on-year.

In terms of ecosystem distribution, Ethereum remained the most frequently attacked ecosystem with the most severe losses, with annual losses of about $254 million, leading by a notable margin; BSC followed, with related losses of about $21.93 million; Solana ranked third, with annual losses of about $17.45 million.

By sector, DeFi projects were the most frequently attacked: in 2025, there were 126 security incidents, accounting for about 63% of the annual total, causing losses of about $649 million, down about 37% compared with 2024 (339 incidents, losses of $1.029 billion). There were only 12 exchange-related incidents, yet they caused losses as high as $1.809 billion, among which Bybit alone lost about $1.46 billion in a single incident, making it the most severe event of the year.

In terms of attack causes, smart contract vulnerabilities were the main trigger, with 61 incidents; hacked X accounts followed closely, with 48 incidents.

The report notes that as generative AI has rapidly proliferated over the past two years, attackers have also begun to incorporate it into fraud and attack chains. Compared with traditional tools, AI's capabilities in text, voice synthesis, and image and video generation have significantly reduced the cost of scams. Attacks no longer rely on crude scripts or obviously abnormal behavior; instead, they use highly realistic content, coherent interactions, and precise target selection, making it harder for victims to perceive risk at a psychological level.