🐸 PEPE & BONK Rally, EVM Exploit Drains Wallets

Happy New Year!! 🎆

Crypto markets kicked off 2026 with fresh momentum as Bitcoin briefly pushed past $90K and memecoins like PEPE and BONK roared back into the spotlight. Meanwhile, a mysterious exploit continues to drain EVM wallets, and Vitalik Buterin’s new Milady PFP on X sent the floor price surging.

Dive into what you need to know below! 👇

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News Roundup

Artificial Intelligence

• AI-Powered Romance Scam Wipes Out Bitcoin Retirement Savings (Cointelegraph)

Decentralized, Centralized, & Traditional Finance

• India’s Central Bank Pushes CBDCs as Safer Alternative to Stablecoins (Cointelegraph)

• Hyperliquid Founder Reasserts Commitment to Credible Neutrality (Jeff Yan)

• Ethereum Co-Founder Says DApps Can Shield Crypto From Internet Outages (Cointelegraph)

• JPMorgan’s Onchain Money Market Fund Signals Institutional Shift Toward Ethereum (Cointelegraph)

• Russia’s $13B Tokenization Push Poised for Crypto Breakout in 2026 (DL News)

Exchanges

• Upbit and Bithumb to Add Gold-Backed XAUT Trading Pairs (Upbit)

• Bithumb Identifies $200M in Crypto Sitting Idle Across Millions of Accounts (Cointelegraph)

• Coinbase CEO Outlines 2026 Strategy Spanning Markets, Payments, and Onchain Growth (Brian Armstrong)

• OKX Releases Latest Proof of Reserves (OKX)

• Crypto Exchange Trading Slumps to 15-Month Low as December Activity Cools (The Block)

• Binance Adds Monitoring Tag to Four Tokens Over Risk Concerns (Binance)

• Binance to Delist Multiple Spot Trading Pairs in January (Binance)

Exchange-Traded Funds

• On Dec. 31, U.S. Bitcoin spot ETFs posted net outflows of $348.10 million.

• U.S Ethereum spot ETFs saw $72.06 million in net outflow on Dec. 31.

• On Dec. 31, U.S. Solana and XRP spot ETFs saw net inflows of $2.29 million and $5.58 million, respectively.

Gaming

• Illuvium Experiments With High-Stakes ‘Risk-to-Earn’ Gaming Model (Cointelegraph)

• Axie Infinity Signals Riskier Strategy Shift After Cautious 2025 (Cointelegraph)

Infrastructure

• Flow Network Halt Traps NFT Loan Borrowers as Exploit Fallout Spreads (The Block)

• Trust Wallet Chrome Extension Taken Offline After Chrome Store Bug (Cointelegraph)

• Vitalik Buterin Reflects on Ethereum’s Progress in 2025 (Vitalik Buterin)

• Ethereum Will Prioritize L1 Scaling and Institutional Privacy in 2026 (ETHPanda)

• Flow Moves Ahead With Recovery After Exploit (Cointelegraph)

• Hundreds of Wallets Drained in Ongoing EVM Exploit With No Clear Entry Point (The Block)

• Dexter Overtakes Coinbase as Top x402 Transaction Facilitator (Dune)

Markets

• Metric Signals Bitcoin Entered Bear Market Late in 2025 (Cointelegraph)

• Ethereum Activity Breaks Records, Surpassing 2021 NFT-Era Highs (The Block)

• South Korean Crypto Traders Shift $110B Offshore as Local Rules Bite (CoinGecko)

• Bitcoin Breaks Above $90K as Early 2026 Trading Signals Shift in Market Pattern (CoinDesk)

• DeFi Veteran Loses $50K After Missing Ether Price Call (Cointelegraph)

Meme Coins

• Trader Claims $1M Windfall From Unusual Memecoin Trading on Binance (Cointelegraph)

• Pepe Rallies 34% After Influencer Predicts Massive 2026 Upside (DL News)

• BONK Rallies Double Digits Before Entering Consolidation Phase (CoinDesk)

• Memecoins Surge Back Into Spotlight as PEPE and BONK Lead Gains (Cointelegraph)

Mining

• Bitfarms Exits Latin America With $30M Sale of Paraguay Mining Site (Globe Newswire)

• BitVentures Enters Crypto Mining Weeks After Nasdaq Rebrand (Cointelegraph)

Non-Fungible Tokens

• Vitalik Buterin’s Milady Profile Picture Sparks Sharp NFT Price Surge (CoinGecko)

Politics & Regulation

• Marjorie Taylor Greene Said She Voted Against the GENIUS Act (Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene)

• Lummis Frames 2026 Crypto Bill as Consumer-Safe Growth Catalyst (Senator Lummis)

• Senate Poised to Revive Crypto Market Structure Bill in Early 2026 (Cointelegraph)

• UK and Dozens of Nations Begin Enforcing OECD Crypto Tax Reporting Rules (FT)

• Davidson Warns Crypto Bills Could Pave Way for US Financial Surveillance (Cointelegraph)

• The Crypto Figures Trump Has Pardoned to Date (Decrypt)

• Turkmenistan Legalizes Crypto Exchanges and Mining at Start of 2026 (Cointelegraph)

• Iran’s State Arms Exporter Explores Crypto Payments for Weapons Sales (FT)

• Crenshaw’s Exit Leaves SEC Without Democratic Voice (Cointelegraph)

Treasuries & Reserves

• Tether Buys 8,888.8888888 BTC in Q4 2025 (Paolo Ardoino)

• Chainlink Reserve Buys An Additional 94,267.77 LINK (Chainlink)

• Tom Lee Presses BitMine Investors to Back Massive Share Authorization Increase (CoinDesk)

Other News

• a16z Crypto Maps 17 Priorities Shaping the Industry’s 2026 Agenda (a16z crypto)

• Bitfinex Hacker Credits Trump-Era Law for Early Prison Release (DL News)

Check This Out!

Solana led all chains in 2025, processing over 121 billion transactions.

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