Activity on major altcoin networks, namely Solana and Ethereum, saw major milestones in January. Daily active addresses on Solana consistently topped 5 million in the second half of the month.
Ethereum overtook major layer 2s in December in terms of daily active addresses after major upgrades to the network. In January, the network marked a 25% increase in daily active addresses amid efforts from developers to “future proof” Ethereum.
Seven Bitcoin (BTC) miners in the US are in a critical storm zone and may need to temporarily scale back their mining activities as a winter storm rocked power grids and left thousands without electricity.
Geopolitical concerns, namely US President Donald Trump’s supposed aspirations to acquire Greenland, have global investors wary. Bitcoin’s price fell nearly 10% from a monthly high of $97,000.
Here’s January by the numbers:
Active Solana addresses increase nearly 115% amid token launch frenzy
The Solana network saw a monthly spike of 115% in active daily addresses as of Jan. 28. The total number of such addresses regularly topped 5 million, according to data from Nansen.
The surge is the result of a renewed spree in memecoin minting following the launch of Anthropic’s Claude Cowork, an AI agent that can control a user’s desktop. This allowed developers using Solana-based token launchpad Bags to turn token launches into overdrive.
Fees on the platform spiked to $4.5 million on Jan. 16. For context, from September to December last year, daily fees rarely passed five digits and, sometimes, were as low as several hundred dollars.
Over the same period, the number of tokens that “graduated,” or launched, from Bags overtook the other popular Solana token launch platform Pump.fun.
Active Ethereum addresses increase 25%
Activity on the Ethereum network has also seen a significant uptick. At the end of December, it overtook prominent L2s Base and Arbitrum in terms of daily active addresses. In January, the same metric increased 25%.
The increase in activity follows some important upgrades to the network, which have increased blob sizes and therefore lowered fees. On Jan. 29, average fees on Ethereum were less than $0.01.
Related: Efforts to bulletproof Ethereum are paying off in user metrics
These upgrades were part of an effort to finalize work on Ethereum. On Jan. 12, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said that Ethereum should ultimately pass a “walkaway test.” He said the true test of Ethereum would be for it to keep functioning and fulfilling the needs of users without the presence of developers actively changing and monitoring the network.
Seven US Bitcoin miners face curtailment during winter storm
Seven Bitcoin mining operations in the United States may curtail operations as winter storms put stress on the American power grid in the Southeast and South Central regions.
According to data from Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets research at VanEck, mining locations operated by Riot, Core Scientific, CleanSpark and Bitdeer “are structurally set up to act as flexible loads via utility demand response programs.”
“We do not yet have confirmation of real time curtailments for this storm, but the model has already proven its value when conditions tighten.”
The storm, which has also affected the Midwest and Northeast, has seen cancelled flights, dangerous travel conditions and power outages and has killed at least 20 people as of Jan. 27.
Southern states, which are generally unaccustomed to snow and lack the critical infrastructure to contend with wintry conditions, were hit hardest. As of Jan. 28, some 400,000 people were without power in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.
Many Bitcoin miners have set up in locations where they can stabilize grid prices, buying power cheaply when there is little to no demand and temporarily switching off during stress periods.
Four in 10 merchants in US accept crypto: PayPal report
Crypto is getting more popular for payments, according to major payments processor PayPal. Four in 10 merchants in the US now accept crypto, the company said in a January report. PayPal’s survey found that crypto offers faster transaction speeds and more privacy and attracts crypto-savvy customers.
PayPal vice president and general manager May Zabaneh said, “What we’re seeing both in this data and in conversations with our customers is that crypto payments are moving beyond experimentation and into everyday commerce.”
Some 84% of the same merchants believe that crypto payments will become mainstream in the next five years.
Bitcoin dips amid Greenland rhetoric and geopolitical risk
Bitcoin’s price saw a brief climb toward $100,000 in the middle of this month before falling back down to $87,000. The more than 10% decrease came amid discussions over what could happen to Greenland, itself an autonomous territory of Denmark.
Trump claimed that the US needs to control Greenland for security purposes and to counteract Chinese and Russian ambitions in the Arctic. This is despite the fact Denmark and the US are part of NATO, an organization created to counteract the very same ambitions.
While tempers have cooled, the fact that Bitcoin, along with global markets generally, was affected by the saber-rattling, shows that BTC is a risk-on asset.
Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at investing and trading platform IG, said, “Cryptocurrencies offered no haven from the wave of selling that washed over global markets in response to Trump’s threat.”
Trump’s mercurial foreign policy, including punitive, unilateral tariffs and ramping up aggressive rhetoric with former allies, put a damper on Bitcoin’s price, according to some analysts.
Magazine: 6 weirdest devices people have used to mine Bitcoin and crypto
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