Web3 | Identosphere Blogcatcher

Interactive Brokers is setting itself up as an early play on a regulated blockchain future

AXS surges as Axie Infinity debuts bonded rewards and reputation-based fees.

The DeFi token jumped after River announced an expansion of its stablecoin infrastructure.

Critics warn of expanded CFTC oversight and custody requirements.

Altcoins posted mild losses as total crypto market capitalization dipped 1% to $3.11 trillion.

Lens and Farcaster enter new chapters under Mask and Neynar.

Crypto startup Superstate has closed a large Series B round led by Bain Capital Crypto.

Accelerated activity on Base deployments of Uniswap and Aerodrome drove the growth.

The Most Precious Resource

Kais, Blockit, and Optimizing Time

By Pat Grady Published January 22, 2026 Adding Value

People and markets. These are the two core primitives in our business.

Investing in a Person

In 2019 we invested in Kais Khimji – not as a founder, but as a partner. Here is an excerpt from our investment thesis on Kais:

Long term, Kais has a chance to be exceptional. Dating back to high school, he has always been the hardest worker in the room. His appetite for learning is exceptional. He is thoughtful about companies and people. He takes initiative. He receives feedback well, and he acts on it. He cares about relationships and makes a genuine effort to connect with people. He is the consummate underdog. He has tenacity in spades, a relentless appetite for self-improvement, and the IQ & EQ to be exceptional long term.

We probably didn’t need to use the word “exceptional” three times, but we were excited! 

Investing in a Market

Fast forward a few years, and Kais had some news for us: he was becoming a founder. We were sad, but only for a moment. This was his calling, and we were delighted to see him pursue it. Even when we were first getting to know him, he was talking about this idea he had for an app that could optimize the world’s time. 

“Return on time” has always been part of Sequoia’s lingua franca, so this market is close to our hearts. Here is an excerpt from our investment thesis in Blockit:

Time is our most precious resource. For most people, that resource is sub-optimally allocated with high-touch, high-friction, expensive scheduling. Thanks to the magic of LLMs, Blockit is building a world in which time is optimally allocated, painlessly. This takes the shape of a freemium subscription business with high virality (scheduling is a multi-player game), strong network effects (more calendar inventory leads to better matching which leads to a better experience), and high monetization (replacing work, not software). Blockit has a chance to become a $1Bn+ revenue business, and Kais will make sure it gets there.

When People & Markets Collide

The collision of people and markets produces businesses.  Kais and cofounder John Han have assembled a small but elite team perfectly suited to the task at hand, and their progress to date has been impressive.

One qualitative litmus test we apply to new investments is the following: could this become one of the most important companies of the next couple decades? 

Blockit passes this test with flying colors. Imagine a world in which you’re more productive at work and more present at home. You’re both happier and healthier. It’s a pure pareto gain on life. This is the future Blockit promises.

It is an honor to partner with Kais, John, and the rest of the Blockitons, and to support them in building this dream into a reality. 

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The post The Most Precious Resource appeared first on Sequoia Capital.

The report looks at foreign currency stablecoin adoption, namely of USD-pegged assets, in 45 emerging market countries.

Inferact is a new AI infrastructure company founded by the creators and core maintainers of vLLM. Its mission is to build a universal, open-source inference layer that makes large AI models faster, cheaper, and more reliable to run across any hardware, model architecture, or deployment environment. Together, they broke down how modern AI models are actually run in production, why “inference” has quietly become one of the hardest problems in AI infrastructure, and how the open-source project vLLM emerged to solve it. The conversation also looked at why the vLLM team started Inferact and their vision for a universal inference layer that can run any model, on any chip, efficiently.

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Solana Labs’ mobile arm launched its web3 smartphone Seeker in August

BitGo priced its IPO at $18 per share, looking to raise $212M in the first major crypto listing of 2026.

The survey found younger Americans are far more likely than baby boomers to boost crypto activity this year.

The privacy coin trade continues to heat up, but what are the key differences between Monero's XMR and Zcash's ZEC?

The protocol is overhauling its staking mechanism, swapping multi-year locks for a 14-day withdrawal period and shifting to an algorithmic emissions model.

Major altcoins gain as total crypto market capitalization climbs 1% to $3.14 trillion.

Neynar acquires Farcaster from Merkle as founders step back. The move follows Lens shifting to Mask Network amid a broader SocialFi reset.

The Ethereum co-founder said he plans to post more on Lens this year and warned that many crypto social projects rely too heavily on tokens and hype.

Former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison is set for release from a federal halfway house today after partially serving a two-year sentence for fraud charges.

The publicly traded online brokerage firm is getting ready to onboard institutions to prediction markets to manage their risk.

The post Welcome, Chang Li! appeared first on Greylock.

The total value locked across crypto prediction markets broke above its previous U.S. presidential election-fueled ATH.

As we look back on 2025, Zcash Foundation (ZF) celebrates a year of progress, collaboration, and strategic growth that strengthened the Zcash ecosystem and advanced financial privacy for the public good. Across technical development, governance, and community initiatives, our shared work this year reflected the Foundation’s enduring belief that privacy is essential infrastructure for human dignity.

The year began with transition and renewal. In the first quarter, ZF bid farewell to longtime Executive Director Jack Gavigan, whose leadership over four years left an indelible mark on the organization and the broader Zcash community. With Jack’s departure, COO Alex Bornstein served as Interim Executive Director. 

This period also marked a season of community empowerment and collaboration: the results of the Zcash Community Grants (ZCG) election brought new energy to participatory grantmaking, and the Foundation introduced a new Zcash trademark policy ensuring that Zcash’s identity remains protected while fostering broader adoption. Our flagship conference, Zcon VI, held virtually and co-curated with ecosystem partners, showcased the power of decentralization and cross-ecosystem collaboration, followed by the inaugural in-person Zcash Dev Summit in Sofia—a pivotal step toward fostering technical dialogue and innovation. In recognition of our broader organizational excellence, ZF earned a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator, affirming our commitment to transparency and accountability.

The following quarter built on that momentum with strengthened internal alignment and long-term planning under interim executive leadership. A major governance milestone was the ZF Board’s endorsement and community’s adoption of the Community & Coinholder (C&C) Funding Model, a participatory framework that balances community input and coinholder governance with an eye toward long-term sustainability and decentralized decision-making. Extensive ZCAP polling and coinholder participation underscored strong community support for this framework. The Foundation also emphasized team cohesion and strategic alignment through an in-person staff retreat, fostering collaboration and planning as ZF continued to evolve in service of the ecosystem.

During the third quarter, ZF entered a new phase of mission-driven impact and global engagement. The quarter’s centerpiece achievement was the launch of Shielded Aid Initiative, an innovative effort to apply Zcash’s privacy-preserving capabilities to humanitarian aid delivery. By helping NGOs protect vulnerable recipients and align with international data protection standards, this initiative highlights the real-world potential of privacy technology. 

Complementing this work, ZF shared its Three-Year Vision for Community Events—a roadmap for inclusive, global gatherings that strengthen learning, collaboration, and participation across the Zcash community. This strategy encompasses a range of convenings, including virtual and in-person events such as Zcomm, Zcash Dev Summits, Zcon Voices, and the flagship Zcon7 in 2026. We also made significant updates to the Zcash Community Forum’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, aligning community governance tools with international data protection standards and reaffirming ZF’s commitment to responsible governance.

During the final quarter of the year, the Foundation announced several momentous leadership appointments, most notably the ZF Board’s appointment of Alex Bornstein as Executive Director. Reflecting on ZF’s direction and the broader Zcash ecosystem, Bornstein emphasized the importance of collaboration and execution in realizing Zcash’s long-term vision:

“Zcash’s future will be defined by bold coordination and relentless execution. Our strength lies in collaboration—with the Foundation’s world-class engineers, our partners at ECC, Shielded Labs, ZCG, QEDIT, ZecHub, and the global community driving innovation every day. Together, we’re not just sustaining momentum, we’re pioneering the next generation of privacy technology. The world needs privacy that scales, and Zcash will deliver it.”

Two other key leadership appointments were announced during this same period, Danika Delano as Chief Operating Officer and Pili Guerra as Head of Engineering, reflecting our commitment to promoting from within and recognizing the exceptional talent that has been instrumental to our success. 

ZF also introduced the new Zcash Foundation website that includes a donation page, designed to improve accessibility and public accountability. 

ZF transitioned ZCAP voting from the legacy Helios platform to Secure Internet Voting (SIV), which is a modern, cryptographically transparent and privacy-respecting system chosen for its responsive support, enhanced auditability and alignment with community values. The election engagement in the first SIV-powered ZCG election was excellent, with a record turnout!

Amid renewed momentum for Zcash this quarter, Alex spoke on the global stage at the Humanitarian Leadership Academy’s panel, “Humanitarian Futures: Still here, still human – what next?” The event brought together leaders to explore how the sector can adapt to global challenges through resilience and innovation. Alex’s participation highlighted Zcash’s growing relevance and elevated awareness of ZF’s Shielded Aid Initiative and its privacy-preserving approach to humanitarian response. Alex was also a featured guest on Cointelegraph’s “Chain Reaction” podcast, where he discussed the growing significance of Zcash and its role in humanitarian aid and digital financial inclusion.

Parallel to these organizational milestones, ZF sustained high-impact engineering momentum by strengthening the open-source infrastructure that Zcash depends on for day-to-day reliability and long-term protocol evolution. Across four major Zebra releases: Zebra 2.5.0 Release (deploying NU6.1 on the public Testnet), Zebra 3.0.0-rc.0 Release (locking in the mainnet activation parameters and hardening CI/Docker), Zebra 3.0.0 Release: Our Most Feature-Rich Release Ever (a production-readiness step-change, including platform support and operational tooling), and Zebra 3.1.0 Release (stability and infrastructure-focused improvements for operators). This work in total: reduced systemic risk and improved node operability in ways that directly strengthen network resilience. That delivery cadence was matched by rigorous third-party assurance: the Zebra NU6.1 Audit by Least Authority reinforced confidence that Zebra’s consensus-critical changes were implemented with the level of scrutiny required for high-stakes network upgrades. 

ZF’s cryptography work continued to push the ecosystem toward safer, more usable multisig: the team shipped a security-focused update in the FROST 2.2.0 Release, and the external review documented in FROST Demo Audit: frost-client and frostd validated the security posture and practical integration path for wallets. Together, these releases and audits underscore ZF’s ongoing investment in privacy-preserving, production-grade, independently validated open-source software—the kind of infrastructure work that compounds over time by making the network more robust, upgrade-ready, and trustworthy for the full ecosystem of users and integrators.

Throughout 2025, ZF continued to make transparency a cornerstone of our mission, reflecting our belief that open communication and accountability are essential to building public trust in privacy technology. Our quarterly reports, Q4 2024 Report, Q1 2025 Report, Q2 2025 Report, and Q3 2025 Report, provided detailed updates on financial stewardship, governance participation, community initiatives, and organizational progress. These reports serve as an evolving public record of how ZF operates: as an accountable steward of financial privacy infrastructure, a convener of community dialogue, and a transparent nonprofit working in service of the public good.

As we enter 2026, ZF remains focused on building robust software, fostering participatory governance, and scaling global engagement in ways that uphold privacy rights and digital autonomy. To the Zcash community—thank you for your collaboration, feedback, and shared belief in what privacy technology can enable. The best is yet to come.

The post Zcash Foundation: 2025 Year in Review appeared first on Zcash Foundation.

Bermuda is gearing up to digitize its entire economy on Base, citing lower transaction costs and more access to global finance as motivating factors.

As we move through 2026, the conversation around cryptocurrency has shifted from “if” privacy is needed to “how” it can be implemented responsibly. In this exclusive interview, we caught up with PIVX’s Business Development Lead, Jeffrey. He shares his unique perspective on the power of grassroots ambassador programs, the emerging role of Africa as a crypto powerhouse, and why configurable privacy is a trend to watch out for.

PIVX relaunched its Ambassadors Program last year. How has this grassroots expansion changed the way PIVX approaches business development compared to traditional VC-backed projects?

This has actually been an interesting topic with our partners, many of whom are inspired by our ambassador program and have reached out for help to set up their own. As we enter Q2 2026, I will be leveraging our ambassadors to collaborate with new and upcoming partners to deepen ties and potentially grow our footprint globally. Having an ambassador program is the best thing, in my opinion, to expand into regions that may need privacy and what PIVX has to offer.

If you could name one “hidden trend” that will define the rest of 2026 for privacy-focused assets, what would it be?

For me, this has to be configurable or optional privacy. Privacy coins have existed in the past. However, they mandated pure anonymity, which conflicts with those who want to display certain things publicly or have the option to provide a viewing key for a specific transaction. PIVX integrated zk-SNARKs (SHIELD) with the freedom of allowing balances or transactions to remain private or transparent. This means users can opt for selective disclosure to maintain compliance where necessary, whilst keeping all balances/transactions private from the public. They can also opt to use transparent transactions should they wish. This setup is the most optimal in today’s world that demands financial privacy whilst also compliance when necessary. Communities around projects like PIVX commonly discuss this approach, praising optional shielding, viewing keys for audits, and programmable privacy as the way to scale adoption without getting delisted or sidelined by strict regulatory environments.

Having travelled to several countries, where do you see the next “crypto capital” emerging in 2026?

I truly believe that Africa is the biggest emerging continent as a whole for crypto growth. South Africa, especially where numerous companies have started accepting crypto natively. It’s estimated that over 10% of the entire population of South Africa is using cryptocurrency, and when you travel there you can easily find major merchants online and in-store to spend your crypto or a wide variety of services and exchanges that assist in acquiring or using cryptocurrency.

As PIVX’s BD Lead, what is the single most important KPI you are tracking this year to measure “success” for the ecosystem?

I’m quite a nerd when it comes to the blockchain. I love to see activity! My favorite KPI then is to see inflows and outflows from new partner services. It shows the PIVX ecosystem is flourishing. For 2026, my focus will be on even more use cases for PIVX.

What has been the biggest challenge in 2025 for getting merchants to accept PIVX directly instead of converting to stablecoins?

This naturally has been payment processors not accepting PIVX. We did form a big partnership with the NOW group, which means that merchants can accept PIVX using NowPayments. However, the goal now is to get us on the top 3 cryptocurrency payment gateways. This will make the adoption of PIVX much smoother.

Is privacy a harder or easier “sell” in 2026 compared to five years ago?

I will be honest. If you are actively reading the news and keeping up with what’s happening in the financial world, you should be drawn to the idea of using privacy-protecting tools and cryptocurrencies like PIVX. Privacy will become the norm for adoption. We have seen countless issues over the past 5 years that make relying on transparent blockchains a liability. Privacy is becoming the norm.

If we sit down again in 2027, what is the one partnership or business milestone you hope to have checked off the list?

I have quite a few in mind. A major one would be a perpetual contract listing on Binance, as well as a USDC pair there. I am also aiming to expand PIVX into more regions where our ambassadors are located, namely the top exchanges in those regions.

PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.
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“Africa is the Biggest Emerging Continent for Crypto,” PIVX’s Lead Business Dev Says was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The decentralized physical infrastructure sector faces a reality check as investors debate if it can deliver beyond the hype.

In this feed drop from The Six Five Pod, a16z General Partner Martin Casado discusses how AI is changing infrastructure, software, and enterprise purchasing. He explains why current constraints are driven less by technical limits and more by regulation, particularly around power, data centers, and compute expansion.

The episode also covers how AI is affecting software development, lowering the barrier to coding without eliminating the need for experienced engineers, and how agent-driven tools may shift infrastructure decision-making away from humans.

Watch more from Six Five Media: https://www.youtube.com/@SixFiveMedia

 

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NYSE's major announcement presented a comprehensive vision for an equity tokenization platform. It's a big deal.

Regulators moved to block the prediction market platform after heavy election-related betting.

Tuesday’s sell-off wiped $713M in leveraged positions and came after Trump’s Greenland tariff threats.

Corners is a new Base app that turns internet curation into onchain markets.

The oracle provider now offers 24/5 price streams for U.S. equities across 40+ chains.

Trump Media plans to distribute a rewards token to shareholders with the help of Crypto.com

PUMP rallied as much as 10% but erased its gains as crypto markets dipped.

The former NFT marketplace said it will allocate revenue to the ME ecosystem, including USDC rewards paid out to stakers.

But most say limited merchant acceptance and high fees stop them from spending crypto.

Sourcegraph's CTO just revealed why 90% of his code now comes from agents—and why the Chinese models powering America's AI future should terrify Washington. While Silicon Valley obsesses over AGI apocalypse scenarios, Beyang Liu's team discovered something darker: every competitive open-source coding model they tested traces back to Chinese labs, and US companies have gone silent after releasing Llama 3. The regulatory fear that killed American open-source development isn't hypothetical anymore—it's already handed the infrastructure layer of the AI revolution to Beijing, one fine-tuned model at a time.

 

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The Gas Town token has plunged to a $1.1 million valuation just four days after peaking above $60 million.

At Zcash Foundation, our mission is to build and support infrastructure that ensures Zcash remains a secure, private, and decentralized financial system. As always, our focus remains unwavering: we are here to ship code that keeps Zcash running.

Today, we are proud to announce a significant addition to the Zcash ecosystem: a native Rust implementation of the Zcash DNS Seeder.

Why a New Seeder?

DNS seeders are a critical piece of “plumbing” for any decentralized network. When a new Zcash node starts for the first time, it has no idea where to find peers. The seeder provides an initial list of active, healthy nodes, allowing the new participant to join the network.

Historically, the ecosystem has relied on legacy implementations. By rewriting this tool in Rust, we achieve several key objectives:

Native Integration with Zebra: The new seeder leverages the zebra-network crate—the same battle-tested networking stack that powers our Zebra full node. This ensures that the seeder crawls the network using the exact same logic and protocol standards as the rest of our infrastructure. Memory Safety and Performance: The seeder uses a modern, lock-free architecture to serve DNS queries with minimal latency, even under high load. Built-in Resilience: The seeder includes per-IP rate limiting to protect against DNS amplification attacks, ensuring that our infrastructure cannot be weaponized against others. Shipping While it Matters

We believe that the best way to support Zcash is to shore up its weak spots. Peer discovery is often overlooked until it fails; by providing a modern, high-performance alternative, we are ensuring the Zcash network remains robust and accessible to everyone.

Features at a Glance

The new seeder is ready for production testing and includes several features designed for modern operators:

Active Network Crawler: Uses zebra-network for reliable peer discovery and management. Authoritative DNS Server: Serves A and AAAA records using the hickory-dns framework. Observability: Includes built-in Prometheus metrics for real-time monitoring of peer health and query volume. Docker-Ready: Ships with full Docker and docker-compose support for rapid, secure deployment. Looking Ahead

We invite the Zcash community and node operators to review the code and begin testing the new seeder on both Mainnet and Testnet. You can find the source code, documentation, and deployment guides in our GitHub repository. Please report any issues on the Github repository.

We remain committed to delivering the high-quality, open-source infrastructure that the Zcash community deserves. There is much more work to be done, and we’re getting after it.

The post Strengthening the Zcash Network: Announcing a Native Rust DNS Seeder appeared first on Zcash Foundation.

The Intercontinental Exchange said the new platform is part of its broader digital strategy, as tokenized stocks soar in popularity.

Bankless Ventures investor Arnav Pagidyala on the predictions he's betting on in the new year.

All the top-10 crypto assets by market capitalization are in the red today as markets digest President Trump’s EU tariff threats over Greenland.

Trusting the government to protect your fundamental rights to privacy and freedom? Think again!

In the early evening of January 13, 2026, the digital lights went out across Uganda. As the nation prepared for a high-stakes general election, the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) issued a directive to all telecommunications providers to suspend public internet access. By 6:00 PM, a country of 45 million people was plunged into a state-mandated information vacuum.

While the government framed the blackout as a precautionary intervention to curb misinformation, the reality on the ground told a different story.

The Law as a Weapon

Under President Yoweri Museveni, who has held power since 1986, the Ugandan government has mastered the art of using the law not as a shield for rights, but as a sword against dissent. In the 2026 cycle, we witnessed a three-pronged legal assault on privacy and information.

The UCC invoked broad “national security” mandates to justify the shutdown. Yet, international law, and Uganda’s own Constitution, requires that any restriction on expression be necessary and proportional. By implementing a blanket, indefinite blackout, the state bypassed these tests, essentially declaring that the government’s convenience outweighs the citizens’ constitutional right to access information.

Prior to the total blackout, the government targeted alternative lifelines. Elon Musk’s Starlink was deactivated in early January under the guise of licensing requirements. While regulatory compliance is a standard legal hurdle, the timing suggested a strategic move to eliminate any platform the state could not directly throttle or monitor.

New directives issued just days before the vote banned the live streaming of unlawful processions and violent incidents. By making it a crime to record and share real-time evidence of state-led repression, the government effectively legislated away the public’s right to bear witness.

Perhaps the most egregious aspect of the 2026 shutdown was the preceding campaign of deception. As recently as January 5, the Ministry of ICT publicly dismissed rumours of a blackout as false and misleading. By promising transparency and then delivering a blackout, the state didn’t just violate privacy; it destroyed the fundamental trust required for a functional democracy.

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How Uganda’s 2026 Election Redefined State Overreach was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Hinkal’s newest feature lets you send crypto privately from your existing Ethereum wallet.

The a16z AI Apps team outlines how they are thinking about the AI application cycle and why they believe it represents the largest and fastest product shift in software to date. The conversation places AI in the context of prior platform waves, from PCs to cloud to mobile, and examines where adoption is already translating into real enterprise usage and revenue. They walk through three core investment themes: existing software categories becoming AI-native, new categories where software directly replaces labor, and applications built around proprietary data and closed-loop workflows. Using portfolio examples, the discussion shows how these models play out in practice and why defensibility, workflow ownership, and data moats matter more than novelty as AI applications scale.

 

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Not an offer or solicitation. None of the information herein should be taken as investment advice; Some of the companies mentioned are portfolio companies of a16z. Please see https://a16z.com/disclosures/ for more information.  A list of investments made by a16z is available at https://a16z.com/portfolio

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Iranians building freedom technology across the globe are watching freedoms disappear at home.

The investigator said the attacker swapped funds into Monero and moved BTC across chains using Thorchain.

The first federally chartered U.S. digital asst bank also wants to IPO in 2027.

Crypto is closer than ever to mass adoption, but its founding values aren’t embedded in every blockchain.

Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol gives AI agents a shared language for shopping.

Novogratz doesn't believe crypto legislation needs to be perfect to move forward.

The Solana-based launchpad is gaining market share amid a resurgence in creator-linked coins.

Base lead Jesse Pollak said the web3 app will focus more on trading features, dialing back its social-heavy approach.

David Solomon confirmed GS is checking out crypto-adjacent technologies, but downplayed any near-term plans.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps accounted for about half of all crypto inflows in Q4 2025.

Crypto-linked cards are emerging as a key channel for stablecoin usage, with annualized volumes now catching up to peer-to-peer on-chain transfers.

InfoFi-fueled “AI slop” isn’t the only reason CT feels more empty, as social and trading data across platforms shows retail participants are disengaging.

Crypto markets are mostly lower today as momentum fades and analysts flag a key range for Bitcoin.

PIVX Weekly Pulse (Jan. 9th, 2026 — Jan. 15th, 2026)

Your PIVX briefing has landed! We’re unpacking this week’s ecosystem news and market shifts to keep you at the forefront of the privacy revolution. Everything you need to know from the last 7 days starts right here.

Market Pulse Masternode Count: The PIVX network remains rock solid with the addition of three new masternodes this week. This brings the total number of active masternodes up to 2,123. Meanwhile, over 21% of the total supply is now locked in nodes. Price Check: Although recent price action suggests an expansion in market interest, PIVX maintained its sideways trajectory this week. The Daily USD Value fluctuated between $0.13 and $0.15, lifting the weekly average to $0.1356. This marks a 0.89% increase over the previous week’s average of $0.1344. Trading Buzz: Despite a sluggish start where volume plunged below the $2.0M benchmark, PIVX saw a robust turnaround towards the end of the week. This late-stage recovery pushed the cumulative volume to $24.7M, a substantial leap over last week’s $16.1M. Exchange Listings PIVX Heading to BloFin: BloFin has officially confirmed that they will soon list PIVX on their spot trading markets. Keep an eye on exchange’s official channels and the PIVX socials for the exact “Go-Live” date and pair details. Phemex Debuts PIVX/USDT Trading Pair: PIVX has secured a listing on Phemex, officially entering the exchange’s Spot Innovation Zone on January 16. As an industry veteran founded in 2019, Phemex brings institutional-grade infrastructure and a massive reach of over 10 million users to the PIVX ecosystem.

PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.
To stay on top of PIVX news please visit PIVX.org and Discord.PIVX.org.

PIVX Weekly Pulse (Jan. 9th, 2026 — Jan. 15th, 2026) was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

An Open Letter to All Privacy Builders, In light of recent ZCash developments … To Our Fellow Privacy Builders,

PIVX was founded in 2016 with no premine, no ICO, and no venture capital — by design. We operate as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization. There is no CEO, no board that can alter employment terms, and no single company that owns the project. Developers organize themselves, make their own decisions, and answer to the mission itself. When conflicts arise, the community decides the path forward — with privacy and PIVX as the focus, first and foremost.

PIVX is driven by community and governance through masternode voting, a culture of autonomy and meritocracy, and real opportunity to shape protocol direction. Our roadmap includes deterministic masternodes, Halo integration, and expanded zk-SNARKs functionality. We’re already listed on many exchanges with strong market maker support. We are proud of the infrastructure we have developed.

We recognize that crossroads are important moments. Alliances and a merging of vision can be powerful.

We understand that privacy promoting projects are not only about technology, they also depend on governance, autonomy, and the ability to execute a mission. Defending values and beliefs requires integrity, courage and conviction.

At PIVX, we respect technical alliances and partnerships. PIVX’s SHIELD protocol is built on the Sapling technology ZCash’s team pioneered. In January 2021, we became the first project to implement zk-SNARKs Sapling on Proof of Stake — and five years later, PIVX remains stable and continues to advance privacy in cryptocurrency.

PIVX is a home for those who want to make the world a better place, and we are always open to new discussions. Confidential conversations and exploratory dialogue are welcome. This is an open invitation, not a sales pitch.

With respect and solidarity,
The PIVX Community

Confidential inquiries: Jeffrey@PIVX.org

PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.
To stay on top of PIVX news please visit PIVX.org and Discord.PIVX.org.

An Open Letter to All Privacy Builders, In light of recent ZCash developments … was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Stanford PhD who built DSPy thought he was just creating better prompts—until he realized he'd accidentally invented a new paradigm that makes LLMs actually programmable. 

While everyone obsesses over whether LLMs will get us to AGI, Omar Khattab is solving a more urgent problem: the gap between what you want AI to do and your ability to tell it, the absence of a real programming language for intent. He argues the entire field has been approaching this backwards, treating natural language prompts as the interface when we actually need something between imperative code and pure English, and the implications could determine whether AI systems remain unpredictable black boxes or become the reliable infrastructure layer everyone's betting on.

 

Follow Omar Khattab on X: https://x.com/lateinteraction

Follow Martin Casado on X: https://x.com/martin_casado

Check out everything a16z is doing with artificial intelligence here, including articles, projects, and more podcasts.

 

Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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It was a slight red day for tokens, but many crypto stocks got hammered.

Galaxy CLO 2025-1 totals $75 million and brings a private credit deal onchain.

Hyperliquid's HIP-3 framework is putting gold and Tesla stock into the mix for perps traders.

Through a partnership with Ondo Finance, Felix is set to be HyperEVM’s first liquid spot equity provider.

Ondo’s TVL surge is driven by its tokenized U.S. Treasuries fund.

Base’s pivot mirrors Farcaster’s wallet shift and signals crypto’s broader return to finance.

In this episode, recorded live at Buidl Europe 2026, host Sebastian Couture leads a panel with Ben Lakoff (Bankless Ventures), Richard Muirhead (Fabric Ventures), Aurora Orellana (G20 Strategies), and Matthew Arrow (Dark Forest). Together, they tackle the existential question facing the industry: can Cypherpunk values like self-custody and permissionless survive as multi-billion dollar institutions become the primary drivers of adoption?

The discussion delves into the tension between individual sovereignty and the regulatory reach of organizations like the FATF, which they describe as a "Goliath" accountable to no one. They explore the concept of the "DeFi Mullet" a centralized user interfaces powered by decentralized backends and how privacy tech is becoming essential not for institutions seeking defensible competitive moats. Finally, the conversation looks at how global competition between jurisdictions will define the next decade of financial freedom and what it truly means to be a Cypherpunk in 2026. 

Topics

00:00 Intro & Context 04:15 Cypherpunk Values in an Institutional World 09:30 Permissionless Deployment & Self-Custody 15:00 The Regulatory Spectrum: KYC vs. Freedom 21:45 The FATF & Global Financial Surveillance 27:10 Jurisdictional Competition & Portability 35:20 Selling Privacy to Institutions vs. Individuals 42:15 The DeFi Mullet & Atomic Settlement 49:00 Barriers to Entry: Legacy Mainframes & Career Risk 55:30 What it Means to be a Cypherpunk in 2026

Links

Ben Lakoff on X: https://x.com/benlakoff Richard Muirhead on X: https://x.com/RichardMuirhead Matthew Arrow on X: https://x.com/mattarrow  Bankless Ventures: https://bankless.ventures/ Fabric Ventures: https://www.fabric.vc/ Gnosis: https://gnosis.io/

Sponsors: Gnosis: Gnosis has been building core decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem since 2015. With the launch of Gnosis Pay last year, we introduced the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Start leveraging its power today at http://gnosis.io

IBKR clients can now fund their brokerage accounts using USDC.

The Solana-compatible Layer 1 blockchain launched Thursday with live apps, exchange listings, and a token airdrop.

Newrez now includes crypto assets in its loan eligibility calculations.

Nikita Bier, X's head of product, announced the change this morning.

Stern says Privy underpins Stripe’s stablecoin stack — and argues crypto needs better trade-offs, not absolutism.

The ETH treasury firm is now an investor in MrBeast's media and consumer empire.

Product lead Nikita Bier announced X had revoked API access for apps rewarding posts, citing AI spam surge.

a16z cofounders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz join a16z general partner Erik Torenberg and Not Boring founder Packy McCormick for a conversation on how the media and information ecosystem has changed over the past decade. The discussion breaks down the shift toward a more open and decentralized speech environment, the rise of writer- and creator-led platforms like Substack, and the erosion of centralized media gatekeepers. Marc and Ben also tie these dynamics to their investing worldview, outlining how supply-driven markets, major technological step changes, and reputation-driven venture platforms shape outcomes in the AI era.

Timecodes: 

00:00  Introduction
00:46  How the media ecosystem is changing
4:20  Why a16z invested in Substack
6:28  Supply-driven markets and new content creation
8:07  Why writers felt trapped by media companies
10:09  Databricks and the 10x cloud multiplier
13:58  Long-form podcasting proves demand
15:40  What the new fund signals about the future
16:24  AI as a universal problem solver
18:49  Why market sizing is broken
20:45  Go-to-market, policy, and platform power
22:37  Turning inventors into confident CEOs
25:58  Borrowing power to scale faster
27:29  Building dreamers, not killing dreams
30:46  Reputation as a core competitive advantage
35:57  Taking arrows in public
38:56  Avoiding big company failure modes
40:39  Autonomous teams inside a16z
41:54  Venture capital as the last job
46:01  Why intangibles matter more than ever
48:17  Original thinkers with charisma
50:06  Why Zoomers are different

Resources: 

https://www.notboring.co/p/a16z-the-power-brokers

https://www.a16z.news/p/firm-fund

Follow Marc Andreessen on X: https://twitter.com/pmarca

Follow Ben Horowitz on X: https://twitter.com/bhorowitz

Follow Erik Torenberg on X: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg

Follow Packy McCormick on X: https://twitter.com/packyM

 

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Find a16z on X: https://twitter.com/a16z

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Listen to the a16z Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711

Follow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg](https://x.com/eriktorenberg

Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

 

Stay Updated:

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Follow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg

 

Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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Ethereum L2 Starknet’s native token is now available across the Solana ecosystem, a day after Solana's official X account mocked the L2 for low usage.

Crypto markets are mostly flat today as ETF inflows stay elevated and analysts note Bitcoin is undergoing a transitional phase.

Brian Armstrong just yoinked his company's support for the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act.

Armstrong withdrew support for the draft legislation, claiming that it could restrict tokenized equities, DeFi, and stablecoin rewards.

With Trump teeing up a personally controlled Federal Reserve, hard money seems like an easy bet, but Bitcoin and gold aren't behaving the same.

Tokenized trading card platforms are making a comeback with sector activity approaching new highs.

The Berachain Foundation plans to “build, acquire, or partner” businesses that create value for the BERA token.

The $20M Series A round was led by Castle Island Ventures.

There will be no enforcement actions brought against the Zcash Foundation.

The ‘dino’ token surged from about $55 to $86 amid the ongoing privacy coin rally.

Crypto scammers are increasingly using DeFi protocols, with total losses exceeding $17 billion in 2025.

2026: This is AGI By Pat Grady and Sonya Huang Published January 14, 2026 Saddle up: Your dreams for 2030 just became possible for 2026.

Years ago, some leading researchers told us that their objective was AGI. Eager to hear a coherent definition, we naively asked “how do you define AGI?”. They paused, looked at each other tentatively, and then offered up what’s since become something of a mantra in the field of AI: “well, we each kind of have our own definitions, but we’ll know it when we see it.”

This vignette typifies our quest for a concrete definition of AGI. It has proven elusive.

While the definition is elusive, the reality is not. AGI is here, now.

Coding agents are the first example. There are more on the way.

Long-horizon agents are functionally AGI, and 2026 will be their year.

Blissfully Unencumbered by the Details

Before we go any further, it’s worth acknowledging that we do not have the moral authority to propose a technical definition of AGI. 

We are investors. We study markets, founders, and the collision thereof: businesses.

Given that, ours is a functional definition, not a technical definition. New technical capabilities beg the Don Valentine question: so what? 

The answer resides in real world impact. 

A Functional Definition of AGI

AGI is the ability to figure things out. That’s it.*

*We appreciate that such an imprecise definition will not settle any philosophical debates.  Pragmatically speaking, what do you want if you’re trying to get something done? An AI that can just figure stuff out. How it happens is of less concern than the fact that it happens.

A human who can figure things out has some baseline knowledge, the ability to reason over that knowledge, and the ability to iterate their way to the answer. 

An AI that can figure things out has some baseline knowledge (pre-training), the ability to reason over that knowledge (inference-time compute), and the ability to iterate its way to the answer (long-horizon agents).

The first ingredient (knowledge / pre-training) is what fueled the original ChatGPT moment in 2022. The second (reasoning / inference-time compute) came with the release of o1 in late 2024. The third (iteration / long-horizon agents) came in the last few weeks with Claude Code and other coding agents crossing a capability threshold.

Generally intelligent people can work autonomously for hours at a time, making and fixing their mistakes and figuring out what to do next without being told. Generally intelligent agents can do the same thing. This is new. 

What Does It Mean to Figure Things Out?

A founder messages his agent: “I need a developer relations lead. Someone technical enough to earn respect from senior engineers, but who actually enjoys being on Twitter. We sell to platform teams. Go.”

The agent starts with the obvious: LinkedIn searches for “Developer Advocate” and “DevRel” at competing companies — Datadog, Temporal, Langchain. It finds hundreds of profiles. But job titles don’t reveal who’s actually good at this.

It pivots to signal over credentials. It searches YouTube for conference talks. It finds 50+ speakers, then filters for those with talks that have strong engagement.

It cross-references those speakers with Twitter. Half have inactive accounts or just retweet their employer’s blog posts. Not what we want. But a dozen have real followings — they post real opinions, reply to people, and get engagement from developers. And their posts have real taste. 

The agent narrows further. It checks who’s been posting less frequently in the last three months. A drop in activity sometimes signals disengagement from their current role. Three names surface.

It researches those three. One just announced a new role — too late. One is a founder of a company that just raised funding — not leaving. The third is a senior DevRel at a Series D company that just did layoffs in marketing. Her last talk was about exactly the platform engineering space the startup targets. She has 14k Twitter followers and posts memes that actual engineers engage with. She hasn’t updated her LinkedIn in two months.

The agent drafts an email acknowledging her recent talk, the overlap with the startup’s ICP, and a specific note about the creative freedom a smaller team offers. It suggests a casual conversation, not a pitch.

Total time: 31 minutes. The founder has a shortlist of one instead of a JD posted to a job board.

This is what it means to figure things out. Navigating ambiguity to accomplish a goal – forming hypotheses, testing them, hitting dead ends, and pivoting until something clicks. The agent didn’t follow a script. It ran the same loop a great recruiter runs in their head, except it did it tirelessly in 31 minutes, without being told how.

To be clear: agents still fail. They hallucinate, lose context, and sometimes charge confidently down exactly the wrong path. But the trajectory is unmistakable, and the failures are increasingly fixable.

How Did We Get Here? From Reasoning Models to Long-Horizon Agents

In last year’s essay, we wrote about reasoning models as the most important new frontier for AI. Long-horizon agents push this paradigm further by allowing models to take actions and iterate over time.

Coaxing a model to think for longer is not trivial. A base reasoning model can think for seconds or minutes.

Two different technical approaches seem to both be working and scaling well: reinforcement learning and agent harnesses. The former approach teaches a model intrinsically to stay on track for longer by poking and prodding it to maintain focus during the training process. The latter designs specific scaffolding around the known limitations of models (memory hand-offs, compaction, and more). 

Scaling reinforcement learning is the domain of the research labs. They have made exceptional progress on this front, from multi-agent systems to reliable tool use. 

Designing great agent harnesses is the domain of the application layer. Some of the most beloved products on the market today are known for their exceptionally engineered agent harnesses: Manus, Claude Code, Factory’s Droids, etc.

If there’s one exponential curve to bet on, it’s the performance of long-horizon agents. METR has been meticulously tracking AI’s ability to complete long-horizon tasks. The rate of progress is exponential, doubling every ~7 months. If we trace out the exponential, agents should be able to work reliably to complete tasks that take human experts a full day by 2028, a full year by 2034, and a full century by 2037. 

So What?

Soon you’ll be able to hire an agent. That’s one litmus test for AGI (h/t: Sarah Guo).

You can “hire” GPT-5.2 or Claude or Grok or Gemini today. More examples are on the way:

Medicine: OpenEvidence’s Deep Consult functions as a specialist Law: Harvey’s agents function as an Associate Cybersecurity: XBOW functions as a pen-tester DevOps: Traversal’s agents function as an SRE GTM: Day AI functions as a BDR, SE, and Rev Ops leader Recruiting: Juicebox functions as a recruiter Math: Harmonic’s Aristotle functions as a mathematician  Semiconductor Design: Ricursive’s agents function as chip designers  AI Researcher: GPT-5.2 and Claude function as AI researchers 

From Talkers to Doers: Implications for Founders

This has profound implications for founders. 

The AI applications of 2023 and 2024 were talkers. Some were very sophisticated conversationalists! But their impact was limited.

The AI applications of 2026 and 2027 will be doers. They will feel like colleagues. Usage will go from a few times a day to all-day, every day, with multiple instances running in parallel. Users won’t save a few hours here and there – they’ll go from working as an IC to managing a team of agents. 

Remember all that talk of selling work? Now it’s possible. 

What work can you accomplish? The capabilities of a long-horizon agent are drastically different than a single forward pass of a model. What new capabilities do long-horizon agents unlock in your domain? What tasks require persistence, where sustained attention is the bottleneck?

How will you productize that work? How will your application interface evolve in your domain, as the UI of work grows from chatbot to agent delegation?

Can you do that work reliably? Are you obsessively improving your agent harness? Do you have a strong feedback loop?

How can you sell that work?Can you price and package to value and outcomes?

Saddle Up!

It’s time to ride the long-horizon agent exponential.

Today, your agents can probably work reliably for ~30 minutes. But they’ll be able to perform a day’s worth of work very soon – and a century’s worth of work eventually.

What can you achieve when your plans are measured in centuries? A century is 200,000 clinical trials no one’s cross-referenced. A century is every customer support ticket ever filed, finally mined for signal. A century is the entire U.S. tax code, refactored for coherence.

The ambitious version of your roadmap just became the realistic one.

Thanks to Dan Roberts, Harrison Chase, Noam Brown, Sholto Douglas, Isa Fulford, Ben Mann, Nick Turley, Phil Duan, Michelle Bailhe, and Romie Boyd for reviewing drafts of this post.

Share Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share this on LinkedIn Share this via email Generative AI: A Creative New World By Sonya Huang, Pat Grady and GPT-3 Perspective Read Generative AI’s Act Two By Sonya Huang, Pat Grady and GPT-4 Perspective Read Generative AI’s Act o1 by Sonya Huang, Pat Grady, and o1 Perspective Read AI in 2026: A Tale of Two AIs by David Cahn Perspective Read JOIN OUR MAILING LIST Get the best stories from the Sequoia community. Email address Leave this field empty if you’re human:

The post 2026: This is AGI appeared first on Sequoia Capital.

On August 31, 2023, Zcash Foundation received a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in connection with an inquiry designated “In the Matter of Certain Crypto Asset Offerings (SF-04569)”.

We are pleased to announce that the SEC has concluded its review and informed us that it does not intend to recommend any enforcement action or other changes against Zcash Foundation regarding this matter. This outcome reflects our commitment to transparency and compliance with applicable regulatory requirements. Zcash Foundation remains focused on advancing privacy-preserving financial infrastructure for the public good.

The post Notice Concluding SEC Investigation appeared first on Zcash Foundation.

Risk appetite is improving across crypto as spot Bitcoin ETFs see their largest daily inflows in three months and traders weigh macro risks tied to U.S. tariff rulings.

Monero surged past $700 on Wednesday, as XMR overtakes ZEC as the premier privacy coin play following internal strife at Zcash.

Mantra’s native token lost most of its value last April after what the project’s founder described as “reckless forced liquidations” by CEXs.

Blues Makes Every Thing Smarter

Ray Ozzie and his team built a low-cost, easy-to-use solution to connect any device to the cloud.

By Roelof Botha Published January 14, 2026 BLUES FOUNDER RAY OZZIE.

“No one can do what Blues can do!”

That’s the kind of effusive praise I’ve heard again and again when I talk to customers about Blues. In 2024, I had the privilege of assuming a role on the company’s board on behalf of Sequoia. I’d been enthusiastic about Blues’ future since our partnership began four years earlier, but I wanted to deepen my understanding of the company and its value proposition. So I organized a series of calls to hear first hand from customers—and my enthusiasm rose dramatically.

Customers loved Blues. They emphasized the product’s flexibility, affordability and ease-of-use. They also complimented the team’s professionalism and responsiveness.

These customers were from a diverse range of industries, testament to the breathtakingly broad use cases for Blues’ products. A flower grower tracking greenhouse temperatures. A shipping business monitoring air currents for ideal travel routes. Enabling remote healthcare across underserved areas of the Caribbean. Smart cranes. Smart port-o-potties! The list goes on and on, from industrial to retail to energy. 

This scale of connectivity was not always possible. But this idea has been brewing in Blues founder Ray Ozzie’s imagination for many years. Ray is a visionary technologist who rebuilt low-connectivity sync. Earlier in his career, he served as Microsoft’s CTO and chief software architect, and before that he founded Lotus Notes. Ray and his team believe not just smart phones and cars but most products in the world should be connected to the cloud—and they understood the barriers to that vision were a mix of technical complexity, business model complexity and overall cost. Blues solves these challenges, one by one, empowering companies to focus on what matters most: growing their business. 

They’ve built integrated hardware (Notecard) and cloud software (Notehub) that enables a plug-and-play solution: a cheat code for any developer looking to turn physical products into data-driven, intelligent services. Each Notecard is equipped with top-tier security, runs on minimal power and offers flexible connectivity across cellular, satellite, Wi-Fi and long range. The Notehub, meanwhile, is a cloud-based control center for instant and secure data routing and fleet management. 

Together, these tools put developers in the driver’s seat. Instead of trying to build for the countless use cases themselves, Ray and his team have given innovators exceptional technology and empowered them to solve their own problems—across a staggering range of applications, with a single API. And as more and more people build with Blues, they form an entire ecosystem of specialists helping each other connect to the cloud.

It is remarkable to see the creativity of applications built on Blues, and we at Sequoia can’t wait to see what users dream of next. We share the enthusiasm of Blues customers and decided to double-down on our partnership, leading their most recent financing. We believe in Ray and his team, and in their mission to make every thing connected and smarter.

Share Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share this on LinkedIn Share this via email Insurance As It Should Be By Roelof Botha and George Robson News Read Partnering with Sunflower Labs: Your Autonomous Eye in the Sky By Roelof Botha News Read Partnering with Rillet By Julien Bek, Roelof Botha and Cornelius Menke News Read JOIN OUR MAILING LIST Get the best stories from the Sequoia community. Email address Leave this field empty if you’re human:

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The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) has officially prohibited the use of privacy-focused cryptocurrencies and implemented rigorous new standards for stablecoins within its International Financial Centre.

For years, Dubai has been the North Star for crypto enthusiasts, an oasis of innovation where digital assets were welcomed with open arms. But as of January 12, 2026, the golden gates have swung shut on privacy coins.

This ban effectively outlaws privacy-centric tokens like Monero and Zcash, which were designed to protect user identities and transaction histories. The DFSA believes that the core features of these assets are fundamentally at odds with international standards for anti-money laundering and the prevention of terrorism financing.

The ban also makes it illegal for regulated firms to facilitate trades, provide custody services, or market these assets within the free zone. Furthermore, it extends to other privacy tools, strictly forbidding the use of mixers, tumblers, and services designed to obscure the digital paper trail.

In addition to the crackdown on private tokens, the DFSA has introduced a new “Policy Statement on Fiat Crypto Tokens” to tighten the definition and oversight of stablecoins. Under these new rules, an asset is only recognized as a legitimate fiat crypto token if it is pegged to a fiat currency and backed 1:1 by high-quality, liquid reserve assets.

This shift effectively sidelines algorithmic stablecoins. While they are not explicitly banned, they have been stripped of their stablecoin status and reclassified as high-risk crypto tokens, subjecting them to much more stringent suitability requirements and oversight.

A significant structural change in this reset is the removal of the “Recognized Crypto Tokens” list. Previously, firms relied on a pre-approved registry from the regulator to determine which assets were safe to trade. Now, the DFSA has shifted to a principles-based model where the burden of proof lies with the companies themselves.

Firms must now perform and document their own comprehensive due diligence to ensure that any token they handle does not possess hidden anonymity-enhancing features or violate the new transparency mandates.

PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.
To stay on top of PIVX news please visit PIVX.org and Discord.PIVX.org.

DFSA Bans Privacy Tokens and Overhauls Stablecoin Rules was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

a16z General Partner Alex Rampell joined the Technology Brothers Podcast Network following the announcement of Andreessen Horowitz’s new fund to discuss what drives founders to build enduring companies. Drawing on his journey from early software entrepreneur to leading a16z’s apps fund, Alex shared how high agency, deep historical understanding, and the ability to attract talent, capital, and customers separate great founders from the rest. He reflected on motivation beyond money, explaining why “revenge or redemption” often fuels the resilience required to push through the hardest moments of company building.

 

Resources:

Follow Alex Rampell on X: https://twitter.com/arampell 
Follow John Coogan on X: https://twitter.com/johncoogan 
Follow Jordi Hays on X: https://twitter.com/jordihays

Listen to more from TBPN: https://www.tbpn.com/

 

Stay Updated: 

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see http://a16z.com/disclosures.

 

Stay Updated:

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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The latest CPI report shows U.S. inflation held steady in December, helping stabilize sentiment as investors remain cautious amid fragile crypto market consolidation.

Fueled by PYUSD and PAXG, Paxos’ total assets are up more than fivefold over the last 365 days.

The Senate's draft crypto market structure bill is here, and it makes some controversial concessions. Let's dig into the details.

TokenWorks continues iterating on its strategy token model, with IndexStrategies on the horizon.

Security firms said the Ethereum-based trade likely bypassed slippage protections.

JPM's CFO associates risk with yield-bearing stablecoins.

Crypto price tracker CoinGecko is reportedly exploring a sale after hiring investment bank Moelis to advise it.

The company acquired Coinme and Sequence, adopting their licenses and enabling operations in 48 states.

Polygon Labs acquires Coinme and Sequence for over $250M to build regulated stablecoin payments infrastructure via its Open Money Stack toolkit.

A wallet linked to the NYC token deployer removed about $2.5 million in USDC liquidity, according to on-chain analysts.

When you open a Zcash wallet or start a Zcash node for the first time, it needs to locate and connect to other computers on the network. This is where DNS seeders come in. They are like a phonebook for the Zcash network; they help new nodes find their first connections so they can start sending and receiving transactions.

Until recently, the Zcash network relied on a small number of DNS seeders operated by Electric Coin Company (ECC), Zcash Foundation (ZF) and Jack Grigg (AKA str4d), who is a Zcash Core Developer and former ECC employee. 

On January 8th, the DNS seeders operated by ECC stopped responding. It’s likely that ECC seeders going offline resulted in slower than usual bootstrapping for new Zcash clients, as they would time-out when attempting to connect to the offline ECC seeders. While the Zcash network itself continued to operate normally, this reduced the number of available seeders and created a need for additional infrastructure to ensure reliable peer discovery for users.

What We Did

In response, ZF deployed five new DNS seeders across multiple regions:

United States: South Carolina and Oregon Europe: Belgium, Germany, and Finland

Combined with ZF’s existing seeder in Iowa, this brings the total number of ZF-operated seeders to six. These seeders are now live and helping nodes connect to the Zcash network.

Why This is Important

Having multiple DNS seeders in different geographic locations is important for two reasons:

Reliability. If one seeder goes offline, others are available to help users connect. This ensures that wallets and nodes can always find peers on the network, even during outages.

Performance. Users in Europe can now connect to seeders that are geographically closer to them, which can improve startup times for wallets and nodes.

Our Commitment to the Ecosystem

This work is part of Zcash Foundation’s ongoing commitment to supporting the Zcash network’s infrastructure. As one of the primary organizations in the ecosystem responsible for maintaining and developing Zcash, we take our role seriously. When we identified a gap in the network’s infrastructure, we moved to address it.

The Zcash network’s strength comes from its decentralization; no single organization controls the network, and multiple independent parties contribute to its operation. By expanding our seeder infrastructure, we are helping to ensure that the network remains resilient and accessible to users around the world.

Looking Ahead

We are considering additional deployments in other regions to further improve coverage and reliability. Shielded Labs is working to deploy additional seeders as well. If you operate Zcash infrastructure and would like to coordinate on network resilience, we welcome collaboration; please contact us via Discord or utilize this Docker image with a README to spin up a seeder on your own.

For technical details about this deployment, the infrastructure code is available in our public repositories.

The post Expanding Zcash Network Infrastructure: New DNS Seeders Launched in the United States and Europe appeared first on Zcash Foundation.

With JPMorgan known as a pioneer, more big banks are leaning into tokenized deposits as a way to get blockchain’s benefits, without giving up control.

The DeFi lending protocol staged a major comeback in 2025, rising to new TVL highs last year after it was hacked in 2023.

Partnering with Sandstone: An AI-Native Platform for In-House Legal Teams

Nick and Jarryd are empowering in-house legal teams to streamline and scale their operations.

By Bogomil Balkansky Published January 13, 2026 TEAM SANDSTONE.

The first sentence of my Sequoia profile reads: “Happenstance has been a theme in my life—that, and being open to opportunities.”

Partnering with Sandstone is Exhibit A.

I was introduced to CEO Nick Fleisher by Genevieve Forslund from our talent team. She had flagged Nick as an up-and-comer—someone we should consider either for Sequoia itself or for one of our portfolio companies. She also introduced him to the CEO of a cybersecurity company we’d partnered with.

That CEO fell in love with Nick immediately and gave me explicit marching orders: “Your mission is to help close Nick.”

I happened to be spending a month in New York. Over a few Negronis, I got to know him.

What stood out right away was Nick’s intensity—the hunger to achieve. As a McKinsey alum, I was especially impressed that he made engagement manager at the firm in just 18 months by, in his words, “hacking the system.” McKinsey is famously time-based, but Nick figured out that early specialization—becoming a true domain expert—was the fastest way to short-circuit the ladder. His trampoline was legal tech, which also turned out to be the preamble to his founder story.

At the time, I was very much in pitch mode, trying to recruit him to our cybersecurity portfolio company. Nick’s verdict: “If I were to take a job, this would be the one. But I really want to try my luck starting my own company.” Fair enough, I thought. And of course, the next best thing to recruiting Nick into a portfolio company was partnering with him on his own entrepreneurial journey.

My first question was simple: “What will the company do?”

“Legal tech,” he replied. He told me he’d spent his entire McKinsey career serving general counsels and overlooked mid-market in-house legal teams. Nick knew that AI could give these understaffed and overworked teams real leverage.

That’s where the serendipity kicked in.

Back in 2019, before joining Sequoia, I had seriously considered starting a legal tech company myself. I had just left Google, and I was traveling the world, plotting my next move. The idea came from my time at VMware, where it had taken a team of 10 people to manually extract 62 key terms from licensing contracts. That stuck with me.

I started calling GC friends in the Valley and quickly realized: everyone was doing some version of this. Spreadsheets as databases. Manual toil everywhere. The MVP became obvious—use ML to extract key contract terms and populate a searchable system. This was pre-LLMs, but even then it felt doable. 

Had I started that company, it could easily have evolved into Sandstone: an AI-native workflow engine for in-house legal teams. Sandstone learns from a company’s legal intelligence to execute work and simplify business operations, transforming their roles from reactive to strategic.

At Sequoia, we often talk about the idea of a prepared mind—doing the work on big market shifts before the opportunity shows up. In a sense, I’d been preparing for Sandstone for years. Happily, so had Nick. When he told me his idea, I dusted off my 2019 Product Requirements Document and sent it to him. That may have sealed the deal.

Historically, legal tech hasn’t been an easy market. But AI has fundamentally changed the dynamics. We’re now seeing multiple legal AI companies scaling quickly, driven by two forces:

Law is the perfect LLM use case—the profession is based on text in, text out. AI is most powerful when it automates expensive human toil, and few professions rely so heavily on highly trained people doing repetitive work.

Before Sandstone, Sequoia had already partnered with Harvey (AI lawyer), Crosby (AI-enabled law firm), and Ironclad (AI contracting and contract lifecycle management), so we’d seen these dynamics play out firsthand.

Two months after meeting Nick, we led Sandstone’s pre-seed. Along the way, we got to know his co-founder Jarryd Strydom—another McKinsey alum, and a rare combination of attorney and builder.

Nick and Jarryd accelerated from a standing start. They built the MVP in weeks, put it in front of customers immediately, and recruited an outstanding founding team that matches their intensity. The energy in their Brooklyn office is palpable, and it comes from the top. One of my favorite anecdotes: after a dinner together in NYC, we wrapped around 11pm—and both Nick and Jarryd went straight back to the office.

That speed and execution gave us the conviction to double down and lead Sandstone’s seed round.

And this is just the beginning. Sandstone is well on its way to transforming how legal teams operate and how business gets done.

Share Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share this on LinkedIn Share this via email Related Topics #AI #Funding announcement Partnering with Traversal By Bogomil Balkansky and Charlie Curnin News Read Partnering with FastAPI Labs: Simplified App Deployment By Bogomil Balkansky and Lauren Reeder News Read Partnering with Apex Security: The AI-Empowered Future, Secured By Bogomil Balkansky News Read JOIN OUR MAILING LIST Get the best stories from the Sequoia community. Email address Leave this field empty if you’re human:

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Partnering with WithCoverage: Insurance As It Should Be

JD, Max, and their team are breaking the scaling laws of risk management.

By Roelof Botha and George Robson Published January 13, 2026

As the old saying goes, insurance is bought not sold. U.S. businesses alone spend hundreds of billions on it each year, yet the details go unnoticed. Coverage is understood as “the cost of doing business” while many companies go without the protection they actually need. In a market that still runs on emails and PDFs, customers have nonetheless come to expect that their premiums will increase every year. And business owners also accept, or simply don’t know, that commissions—often as high as 30%—incentivize brokers to sell them expensive policies that too often don’t actually mitigate the risks they face.

The very largest companies, such as the Fortune 2000, have in-house risk managers to oversee insurance. But most other businesses must rely on traditional brokers. These legacy providers’ high costs and manual operations prevent personalized assessments from specialists who deeply understand a business’s operations, while perverse incentives align the brokers’ interests with insurers’, not customers’. Rather than delivering the best client experience, insurance producers are focused primarily on growing their book of business; as a result, customers are simultaneously overcharged and underinsured.

With AI, however, all of that can change.

WithCoverage co-founders JD Ross and Max Brenner are supercharging risk management by pairing industry experts with technology. JD and Max believe comprehensive risk audits shouldn’t be reserved for the world’s biggest companies—they think that’s how insurance should work for everyone. WithCoverage’s AI audit engine helps their team analyze a business’s policies and operations to spot what brokers miss, so they can deliver a line-by-line breakdown of potential savings and risks on a customer’s first call. Meanwhile, countless emails and PDFs are replaced by a simple, digital platform and a unified team. Hidden commissions are replaced by transparent fees. One convert told us, “I had no intention of changing brokers, but they blew us away.” 

When we at Sequoia talked to the teams that use WithCoverage, we heard the same effusive customer love again and again. “The best claims call we’ve ever had.” “Your team will actually thank you.” “Instead of taking you golfing, they will actually save you money on insurance.” And then there were the bottom lines: saving customers up to 30% on their total insurance budget, representing up to seven figures.

The customers aren’t the only ones suddenly paying more attention to insurance. JD and Max understand that building applied AI is about capturing nuance—automating countless tiny decisions, in the right order, to deliver for their customers—and that is exactly how WithCoverage operates. Product and Engineering teams sit side-by-side with risk specialists, working together to design what customers truly need. For anyone interested in breaking the scaling laws of a massive market, it is the perfect place to be.

Even better, WithCoverage is led by two exceptional founders. While at Washington University, JD founded and scaled two businesses, joined the fintech company Addepar as its fifth employee when he was just 19, and still graduated in three years. A few years later, he and Keith Rabois (our co-lead in WithCoverage’s Series B) joined forces with Eric and Ian to co-found Opendoor. Max, meanwhile, scaled Compound to its first $1B in AUM as part of the founding team. Applying software to financial advice reshaped his view of why legacy advisory businesses stagnate—and where they can be rebuilt from first principles. After leaving, he was intent on starting a generational business. When a friend introduced JD and Max over lunch, they knew immediately that they wanted to work together. They are true outliers, and they have the velocity and grit to go the distance.

Hundreds of companies across sectors have already switched to WithCoverage, and word is spreading fast. JD, Max, and the team are quickly expanding into new verticals, from construction to aerospace—and in response to customer demand, plan to grow beyond insurance, as well. We at Sequoia are proud to be by their side as they work to fully modernize risk management and to bring insurance on-side for businesses.

Share Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share this on LinkedIn Share this via email Related Topics #AI #Enterprise #Funding announcement Partnering with Aspora: Diaspora Banking Goes Global By Luciana Lixandru, George Robson and James Flynn News Read Partnering with Sunflower Labs: Your Autonomous Eye in the Sky By Roelof Botha News Read Partnering with Tola: Cash-Flow Management for Small Businesses By George Robson News Read Partnering with Flow: The Agile Hardware Future News Read JOIN OUR MAILING LIST Get the best stories from the Sequoia community. Email address Leave this field empty if you’re human:

The post Partnering with WithCoverage: Insurance As It Should Be appeared first on Sequoia Capital.

The asset manager has updated two Western Asset money market funds to support stablecoin reserves and blockchain-based distribution.

AI is changing how companies are built and how venture firms operate, forcing faster decisions, clearer judgment, and new ways of working.

In this exclusive conversation, Ben Horowitz shares how Andreessen Horowitz adapts to that shift. He explains why managing GPs is different from running a company, how investors are evaluated at the moment of decision rather than years later, and why verticalized teams help the firm scale without internal politics.

Ben also breaks down the current AI cycle, from treating AI as a new computing platform to why application design and model orchestration matter more than raw model size. He discusses the return of M&A and why today’s AI market reflects real demand, not just inflated valuations.

 

Resources:

Follow Ben on X: https://twitter.com/bhorowitz

Follow Jen on X: https://twitter.com/jkhamehl  

Read Justine’s piece ‘There is No God Tier Video Model’: https://a16z.com/there-is-no-god-tier-video-model-but-there-is-something-better/

 

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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Unlike prediction markets, there are no wrong answers here.

The former mayor made an unexpected announcement at his first press conference since Zohran Mamdani took office.

Two Senate committees are set to mark up competing crypto bills that would clarify SEC and CFTC oversight.

This episode is a special feed drop from The Twenty Minute VC, featuring a conversation between Harry Stebbings and a16z General Partner Alex Rampell.

Alex shares how he thinks about investing at scale, including why ownership and incentives matter, how venture changes as funds get larger, and what it really takes to win the best deals. He walks through his core founder framework of backing people who can materialize talent, capital, and customers, and explains why the strongest companies often have “hostages,” not just customers.

The discussion also covers pricing risk, secondaries, moral hazard in private markets, and how AI is reshaping software, labor, and company formation. Together, Harry and Alex unpack what it takes to build durable, category-defining companies in an era where technology is moving faster than ever.

 

Resources:

Find Alex on X: https://x.com/arampell

Find Harry on X: https://x.com/HarryStebbings

Listen to more from 20VC: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com

 

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends!

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see http://a16z.com/disclosures.

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The Committee will gather expertise and recommendations on innovation in financial markets.

The recently launched perpetual DEX token is down nearly 30% over the past week.

DFSA cites money-laundering and sanctions risks as it bans assets like Monero and Zcash from DIFC-based platforms.

BTGO shares are expected to go public on January 22.

U.S. Fed Chair Powell called out political pressure and threats from the Trump administration in a statement Sunday, weighing on global risk sentiment.

In a shock announcement, Powell said grand jury subpoenas over his renovation testimony are a pretext to pressure the central bank on interest rates, threatening its independence.

Tom Lee's BitMine acquired another 24,266 ETH as it races toward 5% ETH ownership.

Ethereum’s co-founder said the network should remain usable and secure even if core developers step back from active updates.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve heard people make statements like: “I don’t care if the government or big tech tracks me; I have nothing to hide.”

That’s a seductive argument because it feels virtuous. Those in support assume that privacy is a cloak used only by those with skeletons in their closets. But this perspective is a misunderstanding of what privacy actually is. Privacy isn’t about hiding bodies; it’s about protecting the space that makes you human.

If you think privacy is only for criminals, consider why you put curtains on your windows, passwords on your phone, or why you close the door when you go to the bathroom. You aren’t committing a crime in there. You are simply exercising your right to be yourself without an audience.

Data is Forever (And Context is Not)

The “nothing to hide” argument assumes that the people collecting your data today will always be “the good guys” and will always interpret your data fairly.

History shows us this is a dangerous gamble. A joke you made ten years ago, a medical search you performed in confidence, or a protest you attended can be stripped of context and used against you by a different regime, a future employer, or an insurance company looking for a reason to hike your premiums.

The Power Asymmetry

Privacy is fundamentally about the balance of power. When an entity (whether a government or a corporation) knows everything about you, but you know nothing about them, you are at a massive disadvantage.

This data isn’t just stored; it’s used to build a digital twin of you. This twin is used to predict your behaviour, influence your purchases, and even nudge your political leanings. Without privacy, you aren’t just a citizen or a customer; you are a predictable asset to be managed.

Imagine trying to write a journal or brainstorm a radical new business idea while someone stands over your shoulder, taking notes. You wouldn’t do it. You would self-censor.

Privacy is the “lab” of the human mind. It is where we experiment with unpopular ideas, explore our identities, and grow. And I feel that a society without privacy is one that stops innovating and starts performing.

Privacy is a Collective Good

Privacy is often framed as an individual right, but it’s actually a social necessity. Much like herd immunity, the more people who demand and use privacy tools, the safer the most vulnerable members of society become. When you opt out of privacy because you feel secure, you make it harder for those who aren’t safe to protect themselves without looking suspicious.

Privacy is the boundary where the world ends, and you begin. It is the right to define yourself to the world on your own terms, rather than being represented by a set of data points harvested without your conscious consent.

In the digital age, saying you don’t care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is like saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say. Both are the bedrock of a free and functioning society.

PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.
To stay on top of PIVX news please visit PIVX.org and Discord.PIVX.org.

Privacy Isn’t Just for Bad Actors was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Following the announcement of a16z’s new fund, Andreessen Horowitz cofounder and general partner Ben Horowitz joined TBPN to discuss how Andreessen Horowitz has evolved its firm structure as technology becomes embedded across every sector of the economy. Ben reflects on which lessons from The Hard Thing About Hard Things still apply to founders, why entrepreneurship remains difficult at any scale, and how long-term partnerships shape decision-making inside the firm. He explains the move toward specialized, independent investment teams, how a16z evaluates new markets, and why AI represents a generational technology shift that changes how companies are built and how investors operate. The conversation also lessons from prior technology cycles and bubbles, the role of public policy in sustaining innovation ecosystems, and how founders can navigate modern media attention and public discourse while building durable, long-term companies.

 

Resources:

Follow Ben Horowitz on X: https://twitter.com/bhorowitz
Follow John Coogan on X: https://twitter.com/johncoogan 
Follow Jordi Hays on X: https://twitter.com/jordihays

 

Stay Updated:

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Follow our host: https://x.com/eriktorenberg](https://x.com/eriktorenberg

Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see http://a16z.com/disclosures.

 

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Across the globe, new technologies are enabling oppressed peoples to circumvent government controls.

The venture capital giant highlights prediction markets, zk-SNARKS, and ‘staked media’ as themes to watch.

Dogecoin and Shiba Inu still account for the bulk of memecoin market capitalization.

ERC-8004 launches January 16th, bringing onchain identity and reputation to autonomous agents. The machine economy's trust layer is here.

The institution-friendly blockchain has drawn heavy criticism for its centralized design. Here’s a closer look at the network and its tokenomics.

The largest custodial bank in the world is moving onchain.

Bitcoin slipped under $91,000, while Ethereum and Solana dropped 1.5%.

POL, formerly MATIC, is soaring after the Polygon CEO shared the chain’s vision for its Open Money Stack.

The major venture firm raised over $15B, though no funds were earmarked for a16z crypto which last raised a new fund in 2022.

Security experts warned that most hacked projects never fully recover after major attacks.

In this feed drop from Uncapped, Jack Altman sits down with a16z co-founder Ben Horowitz to unpack the founding bet behind Andreessen Horowitz. VC should be a better product for entrepreneurs, built on real operating experience, real networks, and real support.

Ben shares how he and Marc Andreessen have worked together for 30 years, how they make decisions, and what it takes to scale a venture firm without losing the edge that actually helps founders. They also dig into why boards matter, how platform teams can change what partners do day-to-day, and the difference between “heat-seeking” investing and conviction-driven company building, especially in sectors like AI and crypto.

Timecodes:

00:00 Introduction 

01:05 Ben Horowitz & Marc Andreessen’s Partnership  

04:05 Building & Leading a16z  

07:16 Managing High-Powered VCs  

11:01 Boards, Governance & Founder Support  

15:36 Platform Services & Recruiting  

17:43 Scale vs. Concentration in Venture  

20:57 Why Venture Can Scale  

24:27 Platform Services: What Works and What Doesn’t  

27:50 The Real Value of Board Membership  

35:38 Media, Brand & Marketing Evolution  

41:32 The Future of Media & Journalism  

45:30 Limits on Venture Firm Size  

49:13 Winning vs. Picking Deals  

53:16 The Case Against Venture Scale  

55:49 Hiring Operators & Rethinking the VC Product

Resources:

Follow Ben on X: https://twitter.com/bhorowitz

Follow Jack on X: https://twitter.com/jaltma

Watch more from Uncapped: https://www.altcap.com/

 

Stay Updated:

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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The major round was led by the venture firm ICONIQ.

In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, Chris Storaker sits down with Alex Garn, Chief Product Officer at Borderless, to unpack how stablecoins are quietly transforming cross-border payments — and what it actually takes to move money at scale across jurisdictions.

PIVX Weekly Pulse (Jan. 2nd, 2026 — Jan. 8th, 2026)

Your weekly PIVX briefing has arrived. We’re breaking down the latest market shifts, ecosystem news, and everything you might have missed in the last 7 days. Stay ahead of the curve.

Market Pulse Masternode Count: The PIVX network reached a major milestone this week as active masternodes surged to 2,120, outpacing last week’s count of 2,085. This growth reinforces network security and decentralization, with over 20% of the total circulating supply now locked in masternodes. Price Check: PIVX maintained its sideways trajectory this week, though the price action suggests a tightening of support. The Daily USD Value settled into a more focused corridor of $0.13 to $0.14. This steady performance lifted the weekly average to $0.1344, a consistent climb from the previous week’s $0.1293. Trading Buzz: While price action remained positive, trading activity saw a cooling period this week. Total weekly volume adjusted to $16.1 million, down from the previous week’s high of $24.5 million.

PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.
To stay on top of PIVX news please visit PIVX.org and Discord.PIVX.org.

PIVX Weekly Pulse (Jan. 2nd, 2025 — Jan. 8th, 2026) was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In this episode, host Brian Crain is joined by Gracy Chen, CEO of Bitget, to discuss the exchange's rapid ascent and its ambitious roadmap for 2026. Gracy shares her journey from a mathematics background and journalism into the C-suite of a top-tier exchange, detailing Bitget's growth from a team of 150 to over 2,200 employees. She outlines the concept of the "Universal Exchange" (UEX) a unified platform where the boundaries between crypto, tokenized equities, and commodities effectively disappear.

They explore how Bitget is leveraging Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and AI-driven advisory tools like Get Agent to redefine user acquisition and trading intelligence. Gracy also provides a candid outlook on the "altcoin fading" phenomenon, arguing that the market is shifting toward blue-chip assets and real-world utility. Finally, they discuss the immense challenges of global regulatory compliance, including Bitget’s priorities for securing MiCA licenses and navigating a potential entry into the complex US market.

Topics

- 00:00 Intro & Crypto Beginnings

- 05:45 The Origin of Bitget

- 10:15 The "Universal Exchange" (UEX) Vision

- 16:30 Tokenized Stocks vs. TradFi Brokers

- 22:00 Competition: CEX, DEX, & Robinhood

- 28:15 AI in Trading: Get Agent & GEO

- 34:40 The State of Altcoins in 2026

- 41:00 Global Compliance: MiCA & US Markets

- 55:30 2026 Market Predictions

Links

- Gracy Chen on X: https://x.com/GracyBitget

- Bitget: https://www.bitget.com/

- Bitget Wallet: https://web3.bitget.com/

- Gnosis: https://gnosis.io/

Sponsors: Gnosis: Gnosis has been building core decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem since 2015. With the launch of Gnosis Pay last year, we introduced the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Start leveraging its power today at http://gnosis.io

Start the new year by chasing 'drops from these five promising tokenless protocols.

The vote will begin on Jan 22, and OP buybacks will begin in February if the measure passes.

The White Whale memecoin marks the first pumpfun token to surpass a $100 million market capitalization in almost a year.

SharpLink declared it would begin deploying ETH to Linea back in October.

The major bank continues to be a first mover in its class when it comes to crypto.

Bitcoin and Ether edge lower as more macroeconomic data points to a cooling job market.

The former CEO pointed to governance changes at Bootstrap, the Zcash-linked nonprofit.

In light of recent developments at Electric Coin Company, Zcash Foundation would like to reaffirm several key facts about the Zcash network and our enduring role in the ecosystem.

Zcash is—and always has been—a decentralized, open-source protocol.

No single contributor, team, or organization controls Zcash. In fact, Zcash was deliberately designed for resilience. Its codebase is open source, its consensus rules are enforced by independent node operators around the world, and a diverse set of organizations and contributors support its development. This structure ensures that changes within a single organization or across many of them, while meaningful, do not compromise the integrity or continuity of the Zcash blockchain. This continues to be true: the network continues to operate normally—blocks continue to be produced, transactions continue to settle, and users’ funds and privacy remain secure.

As a steward of the protocol, Zcash Foundation’s mission is to serve the public good. Our work focuses on:

Maintaining and supporting Zcash protocol development Funding independent research and engineering Supporting decentralization across infrastructure and governance Advocating for privacy as a fundamental human right

These commitments remain unchanged.

We recognize that moments of transition within the ecosystem can create uncertainty. However, at moments like this it is important to understand this distinction: distinguish between organizational shifts and the health of the network. The Zcash network is fundamentally independent of any single organization, board or corporate entity. 

The network’s resilience and future are not tied to any single organization’s fate. Instead, its strength and future is shaped by a global community of independent users, miners, researchers, developers, and organizations united by a shared commitment to privacy-preserving technology. This decentralization is not only Zcash’s strength–it is a defining hallmark.

As always, Zcash Foundation remains committed to transparency, continuity, and collaboration with all ecosystem participants, and we will continue to act in the best long-term interests of the Zcash network and the community.

Zcash was built to last. Its decentralization is not theoretical—it is operational, proven, and secured by a global, independent network committed to financial privacy. The network continues to run smoothly and securely, just as it always has—uninterrupted, reliable, and resilient.

The post The Zcash Network: Strength in Decentralization, Unity in Purpose appeared first on Zcash Foundation.

Electric Coin Company's full staff resigned over governance issues, leaving Zcash's future uncertain.

The Oct. 10–11 crash exposed weaknesses in exchange risk systems.

In 2025, we saw the first glimpses of true AI agents. In 2026, every company will be rushing to get them into production, and they’ll need companies like Keycard to manage fleets of agents.

In this conversation, a16z Partner Joel de la Garza sits down with Keycard Cofounder and CEO Ian Livingstone to discuss the continuum from copilots to agents, the security realities of tool-calling, why enterprises will adopt before consumers, and how to control your agents.

Follow Joel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/3448827723723234/

Follow Ian on X: https://x.com/ianlivingstone

Follow Keycard on X: https://x.com/keycardlabs

Learn more about Keycard: https://www.keycard.sh/

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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ERC-4804 gives NFT projects a way to move metadata fully onchain without migrating contracts.

The Hyperliquid command center brings superior analytics to the perps trading experience.

Polymarket has also become the exclusive prediction market partner of the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones.

The state's Frontier Stable Token (FRNT) is now available through Kraken.

The sports apparel giant’s NFT experiment has come full circle.

Bitcoin and Ether slipped modestly as labor data pointed to a cooling U.S. job market.

Canton will become the second blockchain to host native JPM Coin.

DATcos like Strategy and BitMine remain eligible for inclusion in Morgan Stanley Capital International indexes.

The FRNT dollar-backed token is managed by Franklin Templeton and marks a rare move by a state government into digital money.

The UK government has unveiled its latest “Government Cyber Action Plan,” a £210 million strategy promised to be the definitive shield for public services. But for those following the dizzying carousel of Westminster’s digital policies, the announcement feels less like a breakthrough and more like a tactical admission of past failure.

For years, the government’s approach to cybersecurity was one that allowed individual departments manage their own digital moats. The new plan pivots sharply toward central oversight with the creation of a Government Cyber Unit.

This shift moves the goalposts for civil servants. Accountability is now being centralized, yet the government’s own report on the state of digital services warns that the risk level remains “critically high.” By introducing this new unit, the government is attempting to bridge a gap that critics say should have been closed years ago during the last multi-billion-pound investment cycle.

A Double Standard of Regulation

Perhaps the most notable change in stance involves the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill. The government is signaling a move from encouragement to enforcement, but the weight of this change falls unevenly.

Companies managing data centers, water, or energy now face the threat of massive fines if their security isn’t up to par. But while the government admits many of its own departments are struggling with legacy IT and known vulnerabilities, there is no equivalent fine for a government agency that fails to protect citizen data.

This “do as I say, not as I do” framework suggests a government that is comfortable regulating the private sector to fix national vulnerabilities, while remaining vague on how it will address its own internal failings beyond the 2030 deadline.

While £210 million sounds like a definitive commitment, industry analysts are skeptical. When distributed across the sprawling infrastructure of the NHS, local councils, and tax systems, the funding appears more like a stopgap than a total overhaul.

The government’s own figures suggest that digitizing services could save £45 billion in productivity. However, by admitting that the 2030 resilience targets are already at risk, they are effectively acknowledging that the digital-first push is moving faster than the security required to support it.

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

In my opinion, the core risk of this latest pivot is a phenomenon known as policy churn. When the government frequently updates its strategy, it creates a moving target for the very people tasked with defending the networks.

If the 2030 goals are already being hedged in 2026, the question isn’t just “what could go wrong,” but rather: what happens when the government decides to change the stance again in 2028?

PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.
To stay on top of PIVX news please visit PIVX.org and Discord.PIVX.org.

Why the UK’s New Cyber Action Plan is a Masterclass in Moving Goalposts was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Digital Asset and Kinexys plan a phased rollout of the JPMD token on the privacy-focused Layer 1 blockchain.

a16z co-founder and General Partner Marc Andreessen joins an AMA-style conversation to explain why AI is the largest technology shift he has experienced, how the cost of intelligence is collapsing, and why the market still feels early despite rapid adoption. The discussion covers how falling model costs and fast capability gains are reshaping pricing, distribution, and competition across the AI stack, why usage-based and value-based pricing are becoming standard, and how startups and incumbents are navigating big versus small models and open versus closed systems. Marc also addresses China’s progress, regulatory fragmentation, lessons from Europe, and why venture portfolios are designed to back multiple, conflicting outcomes at once.

 

Resources:

Follow Marc Andreessen on X: https://twitter.com/pmarca

Follow Jen Kha on X: https://twitter.com/jkhamehl

 

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

 

 

 

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Speculation grows surrounding a rumored $60 billion Bitcoin reserve amassed by the Venezuelan dictatorship.

BTC hovers around $92,000 as ETH extends weekly gains.

As Polymarket and Kalshi go mainstream, highly visible insider trading episodes create risks for early adopters.

What are the next big intrigues in NFTs? We look ahead with predictions for 2026.

The bill is expected to undergo a markup on January 15.

Liquidity has surged since October, but daily active users have fallen by more than half from their peak.

Expanding from Bitcoin to Ethereum, Solana, and other altcoins, public companies embraced crypto as a core treasury tool — and exposed new risks along the way.

24/5 trading is here; 24/7 trading is "coming soon"

The SUI DATco is the only one with an official Sui Foundation relationship.

In this episode of The Defiant podcast, Camila Russo sits down in Buenos Aires (Devconnect) with Marissa Posner (Product, Ethereum Foundation) and Yoav Weiss (security researcher, Ethereum Foundation) to unpack The Trustless Manifesto and the Ethereum Interop Layer (EIL), why “trust assumptions” are quietly creeping into Ethereum’s stack, and what it will take to preserve Ethereum’s core values while making UX actually usable. We dig into the hidden places users are forced to trust intermediaries, from cross-chain interoperability and solvers to something most people never question: RPCs. Then we get practical: the guests walk through the EIL, a new approach to cross-chain UX that aims to deliver one-signature interop without introducing new trust assumptions, plus why the wallet becomes the center of the user’s security model. Finally, we zoom out: how should wallets warn users, what does “walkaway test” really mean, and why institutions may end up being one of the strongest forces pushing crypto toward less counterparty risk.

The team has removed contribution caps and changed the allocation distribution process.

One analyst called the filings a “shocker” as the first major U.S. bank enters the spot crypto ETF arena.

Dylan Field is the co-founder and CEO of Figma, a design software company that went public in July 2025. Founded in 2012, Figma transformed how people design, prototype, and build products together. After a $20 billion acquisition attempt by Adobe collapsed in 2022 because of regulators, Dylan helped Figma rebound stronger than ever. Just three years later, Figma listed its shares at nearly $20 billion and its stock price more than tripled on its first trading day.

A few highlights:

Expanding a sleepy market

Merging of designers and product roles

Counter-narrative to polarizing CEOs

If models get better, we have to

Remembering Brat Summer

 

Resources:

More on Dylan:

https://www.figma.com/

https://X.com/zoink

More on Jack:

https://www.altcap.com/

https://x.com/jaltma

https://linktr.ee/uncappedpod

Email: friends@uncappedpod.com

 

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. 

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Ritchie Torres wants to limit how federal officials make bets on prediction markets.

Vitalik Buterin argues Ethereum's latest upgrades enable scaling that doesn't compromise on decentralization or security. Let's take a closer look at the tech advances.

RENDER surges as demand for A.I. infrastructure grows.

Crypto prices advanced Monday alongside strong ETF inflows and widespread short liquidations.

Ledger customer contact information held by a payment processing partner was exposed in a newly disclosed breach. Ledger's hardware wallets and software were not compromised, the company said.

The disruption marks the second major incident since Starknet’s Grinta upgrade last year.

The leading decentralized prediction market is working with Parcl, an onchain real estate market, to enable users to bet on US home prices.

The world's largest ETH holder now has more than 4.14 million ETH.

Total losses dropped to about $76 million last month from more than double that in November, though PeckShield warns exploit activity remains persistent.

Think about this: when you hand a $20 bill to a merchant, the transaction is instant, final, and to a great degree anonymous. The central bank that issued the note has no idea where it was spent, what was purchased, or who currently holds it.

It’s no longer news that countries are in a race to deploy Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). While this may seem like innovation on the surface, I opine that the very nature of money is being rewritten. Money is no longer just a “store of value” or a “medium of exchange”; it is becoming a programmable software protocol.

Spare me the promise of efficiency and financial inclusion; a deeper look reveals a sobering reality. CBDCs are the ultimate tool for state-level surveillance and behavioural engineering.

Money with Strings Attached

The most dangerous feature of a CBDC is programmability. Unlike “dumb” cash or even current digital bank deposits, a CBDC can be hard-coded with specific rules and conditions.

In a CBDC ecosystem, the government doesn’t just see your money. They can control the logic of your money. Imagine a scenario where the government programs your savings to lose 5% of its value every month if not spent. This may come under the cover of stimulating the economy, effectively forcing consumption and destroying the ability to save. Your money could also be “locked” so that it can only be spent within a 10-mile radius of your home, or restricted from being sent abroad.

In the current banking system, there is a “buffer” of privacy provided by commercial banks. While banks report suspicious activity, the central bank (the government) does not have a real-time ledger of every citizen’s morning coffee or rent payment.

CBDCs remove this buffer. Because a CBDC is a direct liability of the central bank, every single transaction is recorded on a centralized government ledger. This creates a “Financial Panopticon” where every cent has a digital fingerprint. The state can retrospectively track the flow of every unit of currency back to the moment of its creation.

When money is programmable, it can be linked to a Social Credit Score. Falling behind on a utility bill or posting a “wrong” opinion online could result in an automatic “freeze” of your digital assets or a limitation on your ability to use public transport.

The End of Financial Exit Ramps

Physical cash is the ultimate “exit ramp.” If a bank fails or a government becomes tyrannical, cash allows you to operate outside the digital grid. CBDCs are designed to close this loop.

Governments are already signalling the “War on Cash.” By making physical banknotes obsolete and funnelling all economic activity into a state-controlled digital ledger, the government gains an Electronic Kill Switch. Without the ability to hold a physical asset or use a private decentralized alternative (like PIVX or Bitcoin), a citizen who is de-banked by the state is effectively deleted from society. They cannot buy food, pay for shelter, or travel.

The Illusion of Convenience

The marketing of CBDCs often focuses on “faster payments” and “lower fees.” However, these are problems that have already been solved by private fintech and cryptocurrencies.

The true motivation for CBDCs is monetary policy precision. In a traditional system, the central bank is like a doctor prescribing a general antibiotic to a whole population (by raising or lowering interest rates). With a CBDC, the central bank becomes a surgeon with a scalpel. They can apply “negative interest rates” to specific demographics, or drop “helicopter money” that can only be spent at specific government-approved retailers.

The Role of Decentralization

As the “Programmable Surveillance” era looms, the importance of privacy-preserving technologies has never been higher. Projects like PIVX offer the exact opposite of the CBDC model. Transactions are shielded by default using zk-SNARKs, ensuring that your financial data belongs to you, not a central ledger. You are your own bank, and there is no kill switch.

We are standing at a fork in the road. One path leads to a centralized CBDC future, where money is a tool for behavioral control and total transparency for the state. The other path leads to decentralized privacy, where money remains a neutral tool for individual freedom.

CBDCs are not just a technological upgrade; they are a fundamental shift in the power dynamic between the citizen and the state. When money becomes programmable, so does the person using it.

PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.
To stay on top of PIVX news please visit PIVX.org and Discord.PIVX.org.

CBDCs Are Programmable Surveillance Money was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Originally published in June 2023, this conversation features a16z cofounder Marc Andreessen following the release of his nearly 7,000-word essay arguing that AI does not threaten our humanity. In a wide-ranging discussion with a16z General Partner Martin Casado, Andreessen expands on why he believes AI can dramatically amplify human potential, why its future should be shaped by open markets rather than regulation, and why fears of existential catastrophe are misplaced. Rather than destroying the world, he argues, AI may help save it.

Read “Why AI Will Save the World”: https://a16z.com/2023/06/06/ai-will-save-the-world/ 

 

Resources:

Follow Martin on X: https://x.com/martin_casado

Follow Marc on X: https://x.com/pmarca

 

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

 

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This is the 36th post in an ongoing series describing new privacy features in Brave. This post describes work done by Mikhail Atuchin (Sr. Staff Engineer), Pavel Beloborodov (Sr. Software Engineer) and Anton Lazarev (Staff Adblock Engineer). It was written by Shivan Kaul Sahib (VP, Privacy and Security).

Brave has overhauled its Rust-based adblock engine to reduce memory consumption by 75%, bringing better battery life and smoother multitasking to all users. The upgrade represents roughly 45 MB of memory savings for the Brave browser on every platform (Android, iOS and desktop) by default, and scales even higher for users with additional adblocking lists enabled. These performance boosts are live in Brave v1.85, with additional optimizations coming in v1.86.

Screenshot comparison of versions 1.79.118 and 1.85.118 of Brave, demonstrating a drop in memory consumption of the overall browser process (of which the adblock engine is a part).

As announced in June and October last year, we achieved this major memory milestone by iteratively refactoring the adblock-rust engine to use FlatBuffers, a compact and efficient storage format. This architectural transition allowed us to move the roughly 100,000 adblock filters shipped by default from standard, heap-allocated Rust data structures (such as Vecs, HashMaps, and structs) into a specialized, zero-copy binary format. 

Along the way, we completed several other key performance optimizations (some of these are coming in v1.86):

Memory management: Used stack-allocated vectors to reduce memory allocations by 19% and improved building time by ~15%. Matching speed: Improved filter matching performance by 13% by tokenizing common regex patterns. Sharing resources: Resources are shared between instantiations of adblock engines, saving ~2 MB of memory on desktop. Storage efficiency: Optimized internal resource storage memory by 30%.

Saving 45+ MB of memory is a significant milestone in the world of browser performance and a massive win for users on mobile and older hardware. While Brave already improves performance on the Web by blocking invasive ads and trackers, our latest engineering effort ensures that our own built-in protections are as lightweight and invisible as possible. Unlike adblocking in other browsers, Brave’s adblocking engine is built into the browser and maintained by our privacy team. Such deep optimizations are impossible for extension-based blockers, which are restricted by browser extension APIs and sandboxing. This native architecture is also why Brave’s own ad and tracker blocking is entirely unaffected by Manifest V3.

This performance boost is the culmination of several months of in-depth cross-team engineering work between our performance and privacy teams. It marks a significant leap in the browser’s efficiency and ensures that we continue shipping best-in-class privacy to over 100 million users.

This report summarizes the key development contributions and progress made across PIVX and PIVX Labs, with a focus on enhancements to server infrastructure, shielded transaction support, and Vector-related tools and SDK improvements.

- PIVX Core - ElectrumX Server

Significant progress was made to add full Sapling (shielded) support for PIVX in ElectrumX, enabling shielded receiving addresses, balances, and transaction handling. This brings improved privacy features and compatibility with light wallets such as Cake Wallet and Zcash lightwallet.

Added PIVX Sapling transaction dataclasses and deserializer.
https://github.com/Liquid369/electrumx-1/commit/58576993936651f5e557ed2cfa7bcd52ecfaf498 Added Sapling data storage for PIVX shielded transactions.
https://github.com/Liquid369/electrumx-1/commit/9e3b1f25bf20cefe1357b8aadfab449580c83e89 Added dedicated PIVXSaplingBlockProcessor.
https://github.com/Liquid369/electrumx-1/commit/a04e8014c7b85be3ad0a8cc7a5349867ca0b621f Added PIVXSaplingElectrumX RPC handlers.
https://github.com/Liquid369/electrumx-1/commit/c9d0a7ab1efa400cd4e95d24e61da02e542f4697 Wired PIVX with Sapling block processor and session.
https://github.com/Liquid369/electrumx-1/commit/7a1ea05d7642e6ed507b2e79bff4a6ce90eecf70 Added PIVX Sapling unit and integration tests.
https://github.com/Liquid369/electrumx-1/commit/b135eca4c6deeb0874e7641b418d3595393c6549 Refactored APIs for Cake Wallet compatibility.
https://github.com/Liquid369/electrumx-1/commit/5502fc4bb2fc815bb307c7d079cc74fc6aabe9df Added blockchain.sapling.get_block_range for Zcash lightwalletd compatibility.
https://github.com/Liquid369/electrumx-1/commit/d88c47338d8598291d68b17e631af65607e4f36c Expanded get_block_range with full lightwalletd fields.
https://github.com/Liquid369/electrumx-1/commit/607cccc75687e4c4cdd7aac95e5f28c6ba312d08 Fixed get_block_range to use read_tx_block() instead of read_varint().
https://github.com/Liquid369/electrumx-1/commit/d610c0ba613243cd89b13c7afcdf58f9176a878b Fixed header_len to static_header_len in get_block_range.
https://github.com/Liquid369/electrumx-1/commit/6d55e2e2cf35e8703eed66b52846c0e98336aa23 Adjusted sync block size for better performance.
https://github.com/Liquid369/electrumx-1/commit/e4f45292b0ba9b4a6594ee4070e33ad6a643852a

- PIVX Labs -

Vector Bot SDK Example

Expanded the example repository with additional bot varieties to demonstrate SDK usage, along with comprehensive documentation updates in preparation for an upcoming release.
https://github.com/Luke-Larsen/Vector-SDK-Example

Vector Bot SDK

Advanced development on group support for bots, extending core functionalities from direct messages to groups. Enabled group bots with message sending, image and file sending, reaction sending, and typing indicators. Finalized styling and documentation, with beta/public work available on the dedicated branch.
https://github.com/VectorPrivacy/Vector-SDK/tree/mls-groups

Pulse-Notifier

Implemented fixes and upgrades to handle over-reporting from the explorer more reliably.

Refactored for better structure and added checks for consecutive issues.
https://github.com/Luke-Larsen/Pulse-Notifier/commit/aefc94282bd0f00c08103b1f75990cb1be47cfa9 Introduced a disabled_services system to filter out persistent false positives from misbehaving services.
https://github.com/Luke-Larsen/Pulse-Notifier/commit/482eae72b433e0e252a93d8107c9162088d4a413

PIVCards

Ongoing housekeeping and user ticket handling to maintain smooth operations, alongside planning for future upgrades.

This report summarizes the key development contributions and progress made across PIVX and PIVX Labs, with a focus on enhancements to server infrastructure, shielded transaction support, and Vector-related tools and SDK improvements.

PIVX. Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Choice.

PIVX Core and PIVXLabs Development Report was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The on-chain sleuth said that a total of roughly $100,000 had been drained across hundreds of wallets in a yet-to-be resolved exploit.

Crypto is entering a new era in 2026, and its builders are chasing a new cohort of users.

Bitcoin, Ethereum, and major memecoins recorded gains, while privacy-focused coins slipped.

In this exclusive conversation from a16z’s Bio and Health BUILD Summit, founding partner Ben Horowitz sits down with general partner Jorge Conde. Originally released in August 2023, the episode covers everything from the inspiration behind Ben’s book The Hard Thing About Hard Things and how the open internet was secured, to the difference between wartime and peacetime CEOs, what it really means to scale culture, and how bio and healthcare innovation differs from other forms of technology.

Ben’s Book: https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Thing-About-Things-Building/dp/0062273205

 

Resources:

Follow Ben on Twitter: https://x.com/bhorowitz

Follow Jorge on Twitter: https://x.com/jorgecondebio

 

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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Originally aired in October 2023, this episode centers on Marc Andreessen’s essay The Techno-Optimist Manifesto, which lays out his vision for the future of technology. The piece sparked widespread discussion across traditional and social media by challenging the prevailing pessimistic narrative around technology and arguing instead that it can be a force for growth, progress, and abundance.

In this one-on-one conversation, based on listener questions from X (formerly Twitter), a16z cofounder Ben Horowitz and Marc discuss how technological advances can improve quality of life, support marginalized communities, and shape how we think about humanity’s long-term future.

Read the full manifesto: https://a16z.com/the-techno-optimist-manifesto/

 

Resources:

Follow Marc Andreessen on X: https://x.com/pmarca

Follow Ben Horowitz on X: https://x.com/bhorowitz

 

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In this episode, hosts Sebastien Couture, Brian Crain, and Friederike Ernst gather for their annual wrap-up to discuss the end of the "infinite money glitch": the era where tokens traded at billions without proven product-market fit. They explore the 2025 "spring cleaning" that devastated the altcoin market and the quiet, efficient entry of web2 incumbents like Revolut and Stripe. The discussion centers on the industry's maturation into a space where protocols are finally judged on their ability to generate real revenue and growth.

The team analyzes the 2025 "spring cleaning" of altcoins alongside Polymarket’s mainstream breakout. As giants like Stripe and Revolut scale crypto integrations, the hosts debate if consolidating distribution power is diluting the original promise of decentralized agency. Finally, they address the existential quantum threat to Bitcoin and share their 2026 "hot takes.

Topics

00:00 Intro & Notable Memories 04:30 The Bybit Hack & Price Action 08:15 Polymarket & The Mainstream Breakout 12:00 The Altcoin "Spring Cleaning" 18:45 Axelar & The Circle Acquisition 25:30 Incumbents: Back-end Upgrades vs. Values 33:15 Social Media & The Economics of Attention 42:00 Staking Consolidation & Distribution Power 50:30 The Quantum Threat to Bitcoin 58:45 2026 Predictions: RWAs & Perps

Links

Sebastien on X: https://x.com/seb3point0 Brian on X: https://x.com/crainbf Friederike on X: https://x.com/tw_tter Gnosis: https://gnosis.io/

Sponsors: Gnosis: Gnosis has been building core decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem since 2015. With the launch of Gnosis Pay last year, we introduced the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Start leveraging its power today at http://gnosis.io

Despite Bitcoin reaching a fresh all-time high in October, altcoins were battered and bruised all year long, barring a few exceptions.

With crypto-native’s ready to put 2025 in the rearview mirror, President Donald Trump is set to drop another token in 2026.

The privacy-focused token has far outperformed Bitcoin and Ethereum as interest in confidential on-chain transactions surged.

This episode is a special replay of David George’s conversation with Harry Stebbings on 20VC. David is a General Partner on a16z’s growth team, and in this discussion he breaks down how he thinks about breakout growth investing: why great business models are now table stakes, where real edge comes from non-consensus views on TAM, and how to underwrite upside in a world of higher prices and increasing competition.

They also dig into the mechanics behind the scenes: unit economics at growth, “pull vs push” products, winner-take-most market structures, and how David decides when to double or triple down on a company. Along the way, they touch on SPACs, the rise of crossover funds, single-trigger decision making, and how David manages fear, pressure, and performance over the long arc of an investing career.

 

Resources:

Learn more about 20VC: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@20VC

Follow Harry on X: https://x.com/HarryStebbings

Follow David on X: https://x.com/DavidGeorge83

 

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures](http://a16z.com/disclosures.

 

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Trading volumes stayed subdued while BTC, ETH and other large-caps rose slightly.

Base supporters are giving up on the Zora ecosystem’s creator coins after the viral journalist Nick Shirley’s coin failed to live up to hype.

The platform’s native token went live late eastern time, catching many traders off guard.

The consumer trading apps are going head-to-head on features as each looks to become a cross-asset super app.

A curated holiday recap of some of the best Metaversal posts from 2025.

A field report on onchain gaming in 2025: what worked, plus titles to watch.

American architect Buckminster Fuller once wrote, “Whether it is to be utopia or oblivion will be a touch-and-go relay race right up to the final moment.” It’s the line that opens our manifesto. And so, at year’s end, it only makes sense to ask the question: where are we in this civilizational relay race? Firmly, we believe, in the handoff zone — where runners lock stride, momentum compounds, and the pace picks up anew.

In 2025, the companies we backed early surpassed significant milestones and raised more than $1B in follow-on capital over the last 12 months, to succeed on their respective missions to drive us towards utopia and to hold the line against oblivion. Just a few examples:

Castelion, which we backed at seed, raised a $100m Series A, followed by a $350M Series B. The company also secured major government contracts for hypersonic missile systems designed to defend democracies around the world. Marvel Fusion raised a $120M Series B and secured a further $150M project financing form the Department of Energy to build a fusion demonstrator at the University of Colorado. Chemify raised a $60m Series B to unlock the potential that resides at the intersection of compute and chemistry, and has become a partner of choice for top 10 pharma companies for molecule innovation. Corintis raised a $50M Series A/A+ and partnered with Microsoft in addition to many of the hyperscalers, validating microfluidic cooling as critical infrastructure for next-generation compute. Two further $50m+ rounds are currently unannounced, and 13 more sub $30m rounds closed in 2025. Privy grew explosively to 100 million accounts and was acquired by Stripe to upgrade our legacy financial infrastructure.

In 2025 we welcomed 13 new companies to the portfolio — all on the core mission of propelling humanity through this moment: e.g. a new silicon compiler to design faster chips, AI models for the steel industry to make production more viable in the West, a new resilient p2p protocol that can pierce firewalls, a solid rocket motor company to feed a massive need and disrupt a legacy an oligopoly market, AI models to create novel integrated systems, etc. New investments include Aerska, Alterego, Boundless, CHOMP, Dost, Eigenblue, Foresight Data Machines, ManexAI, Miren, Number0, and ZeroPhase.

The founders in our portfolio share a common thread: they’re working on technologies urgently needed to keep us from unravelling. The underlying infrastructure — physical, biological, digital — that everything else depends on. When a technology looks too hard or too strange for others to touch, that’s usually when we start paying attention or decide to double down.

Building the Network for What’s Next

We talk a lot about being fluent in weirdness and volatility. This past year, we formalized what we’d been doing informally for years: creating spaces where founders and operators who share that fluency can find one another and compare notes.

We continued our Risk Club dinner series — intimate gatherings designed to debate the key risks of our time and how we might treat volatility as opportunity. The motto for those dinners is Semper Audentes. Always daring. In 2026, we have big plans for this series and how to bring it to more of you.

We also hosted Climbing Hard AI Peaks at Lake Tegernsee in the Bavarian Alps, convening 100 founders, builders, and investors working on AI’s hardest frontiers. No stages, no panels, just conversations during walks in the mountains about chips, data centers, productisation, and the societal implications of increasingly capable AI systems.

The most challenging times produce the most innovative technologies. When systems break down, when old infrastructure fails, when certainties dissolve, breakthrough solutions emerge. The question isn’t whether we’ll face more volatility. We will. The question is whether we’re building the networks that give founders what they need to build the technologies that get us all through it.

To that end, we also welcomed Mike Wax as General Partner. As founder and CEO of Forto, Mike built digital freight infrastructure from idea to more than 1,200 people across 18 countries, raising over $500M along the way. He has backed more than 75 startups as an angel and brings hard-won founder experience to support the next generation of companies.

The Relay Runs On

We’re not yet in the final stretch of Fuller’s relay race. We’re still firmly in the middle, where the race can be won or lost based on execution, where the baton must pass cleanly from one breakthrough to the next.

Looking ahead to 2026, we see the physical constraints becoming more acute. AI scaling will increasingly run into limits: heat, energy, infrastructure. Defense will continue shifting from large legacy primes to teams reinventing the supply chain from first principles. AI will encounter harder and harder last-mile problems in essential industries, and the teams that can translate raw capability into working systems will win.

We’ll keep backing the n-of-1 founders globally, who see these problems clearly and choose to move toward them anyway. The ones who know the road (in this case, the racetrack) ahead doesn’t exist yet, but that it’s imperative we keep running.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article has been prepared solely for informational purposes and is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase an interest in any entity managed by BlueYard Capital (“BlueYard”). Any reference to a specific company or security does not constitute a recommendation to buy, sell, hold, or directly invest in the company or its securities. It may not be modified, reproduced, or redistributed in whole or in part without the prior written consent of BlueYard. Portfolio company information presented herein is for informational purposes only and not intended to be a guarantee of certain investment results. BlueYard does not represent that the information herein is accurate, true, or complete, makes no warranty, express or implied, regarding the information herein and shall not be liable for any losses, damages, costs, or expenses relating to its adequacy, accuracy, truth, completeness, or use. All other company, product and service names or service marks of others and their use does not imply their endorsement of, or an association with this program.

The perps exchange detailed supply splits, airdrops, and onchain revenue plans.

This episode is a special replay from The Generalist Podcast, featuring a conversation with a16z General Partner Martin Casado. Martin has lived through multiple tech waves as a founder, researcher, and investor, and in this discussion he shares how he thinks about the AI boom, why he believes we’re still early in the cycle, and how a market-first lens shapes his approach to investing.

They also dig into the mechanics behind the scenes: why AI coding could become a multi-trillion-dollar market, how a16z evolved from a small generalist firm into a specialized organization, the growing role of open-source models, and why Martin believes AGI debates often obscure more meaningful questions about how technology actually creates value.

 

Resources:

Follow Mario Gabriele

X: https://x.com/mariogabriele

https://www.generalist.com/

Follow Martin Casado:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martincasado/

X: https://x.com/martin_casado

The Generalist Substack: https://www.generalist.com/

The Generalist on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGeneralistPodcast

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6mHuHe0Tj6XVxpgaw4WsJV

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-generalist/id1805868710

 

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The privacy-focused token surged after Hoskinson highlighted Midnight’s role in DeFi privacy.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong helped onboard Nick Shirley, the journalist covering the Minnesota Daycare Fraud scheme.

Ten outcomes that Polymarket users are betting the New Year will bring.

The decline comes as analysts suggest the protocol’s new “UNIfication” fee structure may take time to boost the token’s value

The Layer 1 blockchain created by the team behind NFT Top Shot and CryptoKitties was exploited this weekend.

Bitcoin and Ethereum edged lower, while liquidations and ETF outflows continued to weigh on sentiment.

Saylor's firm acquired nearly 225K BTC in 2025.

As 2025 comes to a close, consumer AI is entering a new phase. A small number of products now dominate everyday use, multimodal models have unlocked entirely new creative workflows, and the big labs have pushed aggressively into consumer experiences. At the same time, it is becoming clearer which ideas actually changed user behavior and which ones did not.

In this episode, a16z consumer investors Anish Acharya, Olivia Moore, Justine Moore, and Bryan Kim look back at the biggest product and model shifts of 2025 and then look ahead to what 2026 may bring. They discuss why consumer AI appears to be trending toward winner-take-most, how subtle product design choices can matter more than raw model quality, and why templates, multimodality, and distribution are shaping the next wave of consumer products.

Where do startups still have room to win? How will the role of the big labs continue to change? And what will it actually take for consumer AI apps to break out at scale in 2026?

 

Resources:

Follow Anish: https://x.com/illscience

Follow Olivia: https://x.com/omooretweets

Follow Justine: https://x.com/venturetwins

Follow Bryan: https://x.com/kirbyman01

 

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Frontier tech is accelerating, and Ethereum is in the critical path.

Synthdata's decentralized network for financial AI gets to work on Polymarket.

In this episode, host Sebastian Couture is joined by Ismael Hishon-Rezaizadeh, CEO of Lagrange, to explore the intersection of frontier cryptography and national security. Ismael discusses the transition of zero-knowledge (ZK) technology from a "token-centric" crypto tool to a vital component of defense, specifically focusing on its role in securing autonomous drone swarms and closing the hypersonic missile gap.

They delve into Deep Proof, Lagrange's ZK-machine learning library, which facilitates verifiable AI execution while protecting sensitive model intellectual property and private input data. Ismael introduces the concept of "Accountable Autonomy," arguing that cryptographic proofs are necessary to ensure that lethal "kill chain" decisions are made by the correct models under verified inputs, removing the risks inherent in "black box" AI decision-making. Finally, the conversation touches on the geopolitical competition with China, the importance of domestic chip manufacturing, and why the US market's ability to align private sector innovation with military needs is a decisive strategic advantage.

Topics

00:00 Intro & Context 04:15 ZKML vs. Venice 09:30 Protecting Model IP 15:00 Dual-Use Defense Pivot 21:45 The Palantir Comparison 27:10 US-China Chip Race 35:20 Drone Swarm Consensus 42:15 Accountable Autonomy Explained 49:00 Kill Chain Verifiability 55:30 EU vs. US Defense

Links

Ismael on X: https://x.com/Ismael_H_R Lagrange Labs: https://www.lagrange.dev/ Anduril Industries: https://www.anduril.com/ Gnosis: https://gnosis.io/

Sponsors: Gnosis: Gnosis has been building core decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem since 2015. With the launch of Gnosis Pay last year, we introduced the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Start leveraging its power today at http://gnosis.io

The prediction market’s volumes accelerated over the past seven days to overtake its main rival.

The leading perp DEX by trading volume is gearing up for its highly anticipated token airdrop.

The multi-year saga has finally reached a resolution, with the Uniswap DAO voting to funnel a portion of protocol fees to buyback and burn UNI.

Breaking down our five favorite podcasts and five favorite newsletters of 2025.

The crypto wallet said it will compensate users for lost funds after a malicious version was linked to wallets being drained within hours.

BTC fails to hold $89,000, while ETH continues to trade below $3,000.

New infrastructure primitives are creating entirely new rails for building.

In this episode of Big Ideas 2026, we explore three foundational shifts that unlock new markets and workflows, not through incremental upgrades, but through primitives that compound over time.

First, programmable money evolves beyond stablecoins into on-chain credit origination and synthetic financial products, offering lower operational costs and greater composability than traditional finance. Second, autonomy begins entering scientific research through collaborative labs, where AI reasoning models work alongside automation and robotics, and interpretability becomes essential for progress. Third, distribution itself becomes a primitive, as AI-native startups win early by selling to other startups at formation, then scale alongside the next generation of companies.

You will hear from Guy Willette on the next phase of on-chain finance, Oliver Shu on autonomous labs and AI-assisted discovery, and James da Costa on the greenfield go-to-market strategy.

Together, these ideas define what new infrastructure primitives really mean: the rails that enable entirely new systems to emerge, compound, and scale.

 

Resources:

Read more all of our 2026 Big Ideas

Part 1: https://a16z.com/newsletter/big-ideas-2026-part-1

Part 2: https://a16z.com/newsletter/big-ideas-2026-part-2/

Part 3: https://a16z.com/newsletter/big-ideas-2026-part-3/

Crypto Big Ideas: https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/big-ideas-things-excited-about-crypto-2026/

 

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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AI is moving into the physical economy.

In this episode of Big Ideas 2026, we explore what changes when AI leaves the screen and becomes part of factories, construction sites, supply chains, and critical infrastructure. When the product is physical, reliability matters, real-world constraints appear quickly, and the advantage shifts from standalone software to end-to-end systems.

You will hear from Erin Price-Wright on factory-first principles, Ryan McEntush on the electro-industrial stack, Zabie Elmgren on physical observability, and Will Bitsky on why data, not compute, determines who wins.

Together, these ideas define what physical AI really means: not smarter chat, but deployable systems built for the real world, grounded in new operating models, industrial infrastructure, and defensible data collection.

 

Resources:

Follow Ryan McEntush on X: https://x.com/rmcentush

Follow Erin Price-Wright on X: https://x.com/espricewright

Follow Zabie Elmgren on X: https://x.com/zabie_e

Follow Will Bitsky on X: https://x.com/willbitsky

Read more all of our 2026 Big Ideas

Part 1: https://a16z.com/newsletter/big-ideas-2026-part-1

Part 2: https://a16z.com/newsletter/big-ideas-2026-part-2/

Part 3: https://a16z.com/newsletter/big-ideas-2026-part-3/

 

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Voice is becoming one of the fastest paths for AI to do real work, especially in regulated environments where accuracy and compliance matter. In this episode, we look at voice agents replacing and augmenting phone-based workflows, what trust and measurement look like when AI runs sensitive interactions, and how healthcare and consumer products shift toward continuous monitoring and deeper connection. The throughline is simple: as AI enters higher-stakes moments, the winners will be the systems people can trust and actually rely on.

 

Resources:

Follow Olivia Moore on X: https://x.com/omooretweets

Follow Bryan Kim on X: https://x.com/kirbyman01

Follow Julie Yoo on X: https://x.com/julesyoo

Read more all of our 2026 Big Ideas

Part 1: https://a16z.com/newsletter/big-ideas-2026-part-1

Part 2: https://a16z.com/newsletter/big-ideas-2026-part-2/

Part 3: https://a16z.com/newsletter/big-ideas-2026-part-3/

 

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DATs, stablecoins, foundation restructuring, Fusaka, privacy, and everything else that defined the World Computer's chaotic year.

From the SEC closing NFT cases to the CryptoPunks entering MoMA, here's a retro of the NFT moments that mattered most in 2025.

AI is becoming the orchestration layer inside the enterprise.

In this episode of Big Ideas 2026, we explore the shift from isolated AI copilots to coordinated multi-agent systems that plan, analyze, and execute work across teams and tools. This is not a new feature, but a new way workflows run inside large organizations.

You will hear from Seema Amble on context extraction and coordinated agent teams, Angela Strange on why unified data and parallel workflows accelerate core replacement, Alex Immerman on multiplayer AI and execution boundaries, and David Haber on what makes these systems commercially defensible.

Together, these perspectives define the enterprise orchestration layer: not a chatbot and not a standalone tool, but a coordinated system of agents that runs the workflow and delivers real outcomes across the business.

 

Resources:

Follow Angela Strange on X: https://x.com/astrange

Follow David Haber on X: https://x.com/dhaber

Follow Alex Immerman on X: https://x.com/aleximm

Follow Seema Amble on X: https://x.com/seema_amble

Read more all of our 2026 Big Ideas

Part 1: https://a16z.com/newsletter/big-ideas-2026-part-1

Part 2: https://a16z.com/newsletter/big-ideas-2026-part-2/

Part 3: https://a16z.com/newsletter/big-ideas-2026-part-3/

 

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

 

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It's been a wild first year of term two, and Donald Trump is largely living up to his self-declaration as 'America's First Crypto President.'

AI is moving from chat to action.

In this episode of Big Ideas 2026, we unpack three shifts shaping what comes next for AI products. The change is not just smarter models, but software itself taking on a new form.

You will hear from Marc Andrusko on the move from prompting to execution, Stephanie Zhang on building machine-legible systems, and Sarah Wang on agent layers that turn intent into outcomes.

Together, these ideas tell a single story. Interfaces shift from chat to action, design shifts from human-first to agent-readable, and work shifts to agentic execution. AI stops being something you ask, and becomes something that does.

 

Resources:

Follow Marc Andrusko on X: https://x.com/mandrusko1

Follow Stephanie Zhang on X: https://x.com/steph_zhang  

Follow Sarah Wang on X: https://x.com/sarahdingwang

Read more all of our 2026 Big Ideas

Part 1: https://a16z.com/newsletter/big-ideas-2026-part-1

Part 2: https://a16z.com/newsletter/big-ideas-2026-part-2/

Part 3: https://a16z.com/newsletter/big-ideas-2026-part-3/

 

Stay Updated:

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends!

Find a16z on X: https://twitter.com/a16z

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Listen to the a16z Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX

Listen to the a16z Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see http://a16z.com/disclosures.

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David Hoffman: 2025 was slightly red for ETH and BTC, and we should prep for another transitional year in 2026.

A challenging 2025 for Ethereum L2s didn’t slow Coinbase’s homegrown chain.

Hegota is scheduled to follow the impending Glamsterdam upgrade.

The bankruptcy administrator is suing Jump et al. for $4B.

Selig is being celebrated as a pro-crypto pick.

Understanding the most impactful changes of x402's V2 and soberly assessing its protocol activity, which is both inflated and growing steadily.

Fintech went from a full-blown surge to a near standstill in just two years. At its peak, about 25 percent of all venture dollars were pouring into the category. By late 2022, that number had collapsed to almost zero. In this conversation, a16z General Partner David Haber and Plaid cofounder and CEO Zach Perret unpack what actually happened during that cycle and why the market is heating up again.

We explore how the industry moved from the explosive growth of 2020 and 2021 into a deep freeze, and why we are now seeing real momentum return. We also dig into the forces reshaping fintech today: AI’s outsized impact on fraud and underwriting, incumbents finally embracing external software, the renewed importance of deposits, and the rise of embedded finance across entirely new categories.

Zach shares how Plaid has navigated these shifts, what the company is building now, and how he sees the next phase of fintech taking shape.

 

Resources:

Find Zach on X: https://x.com/zachperret

Find David on X: https://x.com/dhaber

 

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see http://a16z.com/disclosures

.

Stay Updated:

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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The company also announced Solana DEX access, derivatives, and stablecoin tools in a sweeping expansion.

A primer on terra0’s Autonomous Forest, an NFT project using art, Ethereum, and a DAO to explore collective forest stewardship.

Five coins we're watching closely over the coming holiday weeks.

Technical and preparatory work is complete for the launch of digital euros.

Intercontinental Exchange is in talks to invest in MoonPay's latest funding round.

The post Introducing Tin Can: The Landline is a Network Again appeared first on Greylock.

Fresh off the launch of the Ignition Chain and a successful community-led $61M token sale, Aztec Network co-founder Zac Williamson joins Friederike Ernst to unpack the "existential" journey of building programmable privacy. Zac opens up about the "sacrificial altar" moment where the team decided to kill their live product, Aztec Connect which had 60k users because they realized true decentralized privacy required rebuilding from scratch rather than iterative upgrades.

They dive deep into the architecture of the new network, which utilizes a hybrid state model (encrypted UTXOs for privacy, public accounts for transparency) to enable composable applications. Zac challenges the cryptographic dogma of "don't roll your own crypto," arguing that for pioneers, relying on "battle-tested" libraries is impossible. He explains why decentralized sequencers are not just a moral choice but a security necessity to prevent government-mandated backdoors.

Finally, Zac contrasts the chaotic but decentralized resistance to surveillance in the US with the increasing top-down control in the UK and Europe, framing Aztec as essential "defense in depth" for the digital age.

Topics

00:00 Intro  03:45 The "Sacrificial Altar": Killing Aztec Connect 10:15 Hybrid Architecture: UTXOs vs. Accounts 16:30 Why You Must "Roll Your Own Crypto" 22:00 Decentralization as a Defense Against Backdoors 28:15 Performance: Throughput & Latency Trade-offs 34:40 Private Smart Contracts: Gaming & Identity 41:00 The Macro View: US vs. EU Surveillance

Links

Gnosis: https://gnosis.io/ Zac Williamson on X: https://twitter.com/Zac_Aztec Aztec Network: https://aztec.network Noir Language: https://noir-lang.org

Sponsors: Gnosis: Gnosis has been building core decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem since 2015. With the launch of Gnosis Pay last year, we introduced the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Start leveraging its power today at http://gnosis.io