CoinW Research Institute Weekly Report (December 29, 2025 - January 4, 2026)

CoinW Research Institute

Key points

The global cryptocurrency market capitalization reached $3.22 trillion, up approximately 5.23% from $3.06 trillion last week. As of press time, the total net inflow into US Bitcoin ETFs was approximately $57.08 billion, with a net inflow of $459 million this week; the total net inflow into US Ethereum ETFs was approximately $12.5 billion, with a net inflow of $161 million this week.

The total market capitalization of stablecoins this week was $312 billion, a decrease of 0.32% from $313 billion last week. USDT accounted for $187 billion, or 59.9% of the total stablecoin market capitalization; followed by USDC at $75.44 billion, or 24.2%; and DAI at $5.36 billion, or 1.7%.

According to DeFiLlama data, the total TVL of DeFi this week was $124.3 billion, up approximately 5.16% from $118.2 billion last week.

Based on public blockchains, the three public blockchains with the highest TVL are Ethereum (68.42%), Solana (8.24%), and Bitcoin (6.68%).

This week, on-chain activity across public blockchains showed a clear divergence, with trading and user activity continuing to concentrate on high-frequency ecosystems. In terms of daily trading volume on on-chain DEXs, Solana saw the largest increase, rising approximately 45.5%; BNB Chain experienced the largest decrease, falling approximately 42.2%; Ethereum rose approximately 27.4%; Ton saw a slight increase but its volume remains relatively low; Sui and Aptos decreased by approximately 30.8% and 12.5%, respectively. Regarding transaction fees, overall gas levels remained stable, with only Sui showing a slight increase, while the remaining public chains were largely unchanged from last week. In terms of daily active addresses, Solana saw the largest increase, rising approximately 9.5%; Aptos experienced the largest decrease, falling approximately 10.2%; Ton also declined by approximately 9.6%; Ethereum and BNB Chain increased by approximately 8.8% and 5.9%, respectively; Sui saw a slight increase. In terms of TVL, Sui saw the most significant increase, rising by approximately 7.6%; Ethereum rose by 6%; Solana and BNB Chain saw slight increases; and Ton and Aptos remained generally stable.

New projects to watch: Kumbaya is a DEX built on MegaETH, with its core focus on cultural consensus and community building, and it mainly focuses on the issuance, discovery and trading of cultural tokens; Reflect is a synthetic currency trading protocol based on Solana, aiming to provide high-yield, low-volatility "dollarized" financial products to global users; CipherOwl is a programmable smart layer for institutional-grade crypto applications, positioned to provide public institutions, financial institutions and protocol developers with automated, controllable and transparent compliance infrastructure.

Key points

I. Market Overview

1. Total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies / Bitcoin market capitalization ratio

2. Fear Index

3. ETF Inflow and Outflow Data

4. ETH/BTC and ETH/USD exchange rates

5.Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

6. On-chain data

7. Stablecoin Market Cap and Issuance Status

II. Hot Money Flows This Week

1. The top five gainers this week: VC coin and Meme coin

2. New Project Insights

III. New Industry Trends

1. Major Industry Events This Week

2. Major events that will happen next week

3. Key Investment and Financing Activities Last Week

IV. Reference Links

I. Market Overview

1. Total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies / Bitcoin market capitalization ratio

The global cryptocurrency market capitalization is $3.22 trillion, up from $3.06 trillion last week, representing a week-on-week increase of approximately 5.23%.

Data source: Cryptorank, https://cryptorank.io/charts/btc-dominance

Data as of January 4, 2026

As of press time, Bitcoin 's market capitalization was $1.83 trillion, accounting for 56.95% of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization. Meanwhile, stablecoins had a market capitalization of $312 billion, representing 9.7% of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization.

Data source: Coingeck, https://www.coingecko.com/en/charts

Data as of January 4, 2026

2. Fear Index

The cryptocurrency fear index is 27, indicating a state of fear.

Data source: Coinglass, https://www.coinglass.com/pro/i/FearGreedIndex

Data as of January 4, 2026

3. ETF Inflow and Outflow Data

As of press time, the total net inflow into U.S. Bitcoin spot ETFs was approximately $57.08 billion, with a net inflow of $459 million this week; the total net inflow into U.S. Ethereum spot ETFs was approximately $12.5 billion, with a net inflow of $161 million this week.

Data source: Sosovalue, https://sosovalue.com/zh/assets/etf

Data as of January 4, 2026

4. ETH/BTC and ETH/USD exchange rates

ETHUSD: Current price $3,168, all-time high $4,946.05, down approximately 36.35% from the high.

ETHBTC: Currently at 0.03434, historical high was 0.1238

Data source: Ratiogang, https://ratiogang.com/

Data as of January 4, 2026

5.Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

According to DeFiLlama data, the total TVL of DeFi this week was $124.3 billion, up approximately 5.16% from $118.2 billion last week.

Data source: Defillama, https://defillama.com

Data as of January 4, 2026

Based on public blockchains, the three public blockchains with the highest TVL are Ethereum (68.42%), Solana (8.24%), and Bitcoin (6.68%).

Data source: CoinW Research Institute, Defillama, https://defillama.com

Data as of January 4, 2026

6. On-chain data

Layer 1 related data

The analysis primarily focuses on daily trading volume, daily active addresses, and transaction fees of on-chain DEXs, currently covering Layer 1 cryptocurrencies including ETH, SOL, BNB, TON, SUI, and APT.

Data source: CoinW Research Institute, Defillama, https://defillama.com

Data as of January 4, 2026

On-chain DEX Daily Trading Volume and Transaction Fees : On-chain DEX daily trading volume and transaction fees are core metrics for measuring public chain activity and user experience. In terms of daily trading volume, Solana saw the largest increase, rising approximately 45.5%; BNB Chain experienced the largest decrease, falling approximately 42.2%; Ethereum rose approximately 27.4%; Ton saw a slight increase but its volume remains relatively low; Sui and Aptos decreased by approximately 30.8% and 12.5%, respectively. Regarding transaction fees, overall gas levels remained stable, with only Sui showing a slight increase, while the remaining public chains were essentially unchanged from the previous week.

Daily Active Addresses (DAU) and TVL : DAU reflects the ecosystem participation and user stickiness of a public blockchain, while TVL reflects the level of user trust in the platform. In terms of DAU, Solana saw the largest increase, rising approximately 9.5%; Aptos experienced the largest decrease, dropping approximately 10.2%; Ton also declined by approximately 9.6%; Ethereum and BNB Chain increased by approximately 8.8% and 5.9% respectively; Sui saw a slight increase. Regarding TVL, Sui showed the most significant increase, rising approximately 7.6%; Ethereum increased by 6.0%; Solana and BNB Chain saw slight increases; Ton and Aptos remained generally stable.

Layer 2 related data

According to L2Beat data, the total TVL of Ethereum Layer 2 is $37.91 billion, up approximately 6.23% from $35.82 billion last week.

Data source: L2Beat, https://l2beat.com/scaling/tvs

Data as of January 4, 2026

Base and Arbitrum hold the top positions with market shares of 37.54% and 34.84% respectively. This week, Base ranked first in the TVL of Ethereum Layer 2.

Data source: Footprint, https://www.footprint.network/public/research/chain/chain-ecosystem/layer-2-overview

7. Stablecoin Market Cap and Issuance Status

According to Coinglass data, the total market capitalization of stablecoins this week was $312 billion, a decrease of 0.32% from $313 billion last week. USDT accounted for $187 billion, or 59.9% of the total stablecoin market capitalization; followed by USDC at $75.44 billion, or 24.2%; and DAI at $5.36 billion, or 1.7%.

Data source: CoinW Research Institute, Coinglass, https://www.coinglass.com/pro/stablecoin

Data as of January 4, 2026

According to data from Whale Alert, the USDC Treasury issued a total of 1.111 billion USDC this week, while the Tether Treasury issued a total of 1 billion USDT. The total issuance of stablecoins this week was 2.111 billion, an increase of approximately 5.1% compared to the 2.008 billion stablecoins issued last week.

Data source: Whale Alert, https://x.com/whale_alert

Data as of January 4, 2026

II. Hot Money Flows This Week

1. The top five gainers this week: VC coin and Meme coin

The top five performing VC coins in the past week

Data source: CoinW Research Institute, Coinmarketcap, https://coinmarketcap.com/

Data as of January 4, 2026

The top five gainers in the past week: Meme coins

Data source: CoinW Research Institute, Coinmarketcap, https://coinmarketcap.com/

Data as of January 4, 2026

2. New Project Insights

Kumbaya is a DEX built on MegaETH. Its core positioning is not a traditional liquidity-driven trading platform, but rather revolves around cultural consensus and community building, focusing on the issuance, discovery, and trading of cultural tokens. Kumbaya attempts to integrate Launchpad with DEX, lowering the barrier to entry for creating culture- and narrative-driven assets and providing a native trading venue for early-stage communities.

Reflect is a synthetic currency trading protocol based on Solana, aiming to provide high-yield, low-volatility "dollarized" financial products to global users. Reflect differentiates itself by building a Delta-Neutral synthetic currency mechanism based on Liquidity Staking Tokens (LSTs) and combining them with perpetual contract strategies. This mechanism captures both native staking yields and derivative funding rate returns while maintaining a relatively neutral risk exposure, resulting in a stable and attractive yield structure. Founded in 2022, Reflect has completed approximately $3.75 million in funding rounds, with core investors including a16z CSX and Solana Ventures.

CipherOwl is a programmable smart layer for institutional-grade cryptographic applications, positioned to provide public institutions, financial institutions, and protocol developers with automated, controllable, and transparent compliance infrastructure. By modularizing, standardizing, and programmableling compliance logic, CipherOwl enables key functions such as KYC, AML, transaction monitoring, and compliance reporting to be executed efficiently through on-chain and off-chain collaboration, thereby meeting institutions' rigid requirements for regulatory compliance without sacrificing system flexibility and privacy boundaries.

III. New Industry Trends

1. Major Industry Events This Week

The second phase of the Stable pre-deposit program has ended, and deposits are now available for withdrawal. All users who received allocations in the second phase can now withdraw their funds through Merkl, and users with excess refunds can also withdraw through the Merkl dashboard. Users who were not approved to participate in the second phase can withdraw their USDC at any time through the application or directly from the underlying smart contract.

Web3 wallet brand SafePal is launching a limited-edition Mastercard card design for 2026 for its banking users. New and existing users who meet the requirements can claim it before January 31st, and it will be valid permanently once claimed. After claiming, users can change the card design within the app.

Multi-chain trading platform Magic Eden announced the start of its fourth season, which will run until January 31st. Magic Eden is a cross-chain NFT marketplace dedicated to building a user-friendly platform driven by industry-leading minting and trading solutions. Magic Eden introduces representative cultural and narrative scenes into the blockchain world, empowering users to create, discover, and collect NFTs, focusing on serving the creator economy and the circulation and accumulation of on-chain cultural assets.

DGrid AI, a decentralized AI intelligent network, officially launched its Genesis Membership Program on January 1st. The DGrid AI Genesis Membership Program aims to recruit the first batch of network co-builders. Users can subscribe through the official website to obtain Genesis Membership and unlock multiple core benefits, including high-value AI model calls and API rights, dual token rewards, and priority in ecosystem co-construction. Currently, the DGrid Genesis Member dual token reward airdrop has begun; subscribing to Genesis Membership immediately unlocks DGAI and IOTX dual token rewards. DGrid AI is a decentralized AI intelligent network designed to provide Web3 developers and AI applications with low-cost, highly available, and verifiable decentralized AI capabilities.

2. Major events that will happen next week

Web3 bot company XMAQUINA will partner with Virtuals Protocol to conduct a DEUS community sale on January 8th. The auction will begin on January 8th, with a FDV of $60 million. At TGE, 33% will be liquid assets, and 67% will vest linearly within 12 months. The public sale is open to all non-US contributors. Eligible wallets will receive a 20% DEUS reward, including Genesis OG rewards from any previous Genesis Auction. Contributing 10,000 USDC using the same wallet will earn a 20% DEUS reward.

Based, an omnichannel trading platform, announced plans to officially launch its native token, BASED, in the first quarter of 2026. Based is a cryptocurrency trading and consumption platform that allows users to trade spot and perpetual contracts on Hyperliquid. Its core positioning is to provide users with a unified, low-friction trading and asset usage experience based on high-performance on-chain trading infrastructure.

Ranger, a crypto derivatives exchange within the Solana ecosystem, will launch a four-day ICO on the MetaDAO platform on January 7, 2026. The target minimum funding amount is $6 million, with a public offering pool of 10 million RNGR tokens, representing approximately 39.02% of the total supply. Tokens will be 100% unlocked during TGE. Ranger will employ an "oversubscription and project-determined acceptance amount" mechanism and introduce "Ranger Points" to ensure priority allocation for early users. Furthermore, the project will implement a "buy-the-wall" mechanism within 90 days of the ICO to stabilize initial market liquidity.

Sui will complete its evolution from L1 to a unified developer platform, namely the end-to-end decentralized development stack S2, in 2026. It views the features released over the past few years as pieces of the puzzle paving the way for their convergence in 2026, unifying them into a single stack. Updates to be released in 2026 include: a protocol with default privacy transaction-level security; USDsui as the anchor stablecoin for the Sui economy; Slush as the consumer-facing gateway; and completely free stablecoin transfers on the Sui network by 2026.

3. Key Investment and Financing Activities Last Week

Cango has completed its latest funding round, bringing its total funding to $10.5 million. This round of funding primarily came from Enduring Wealth Capital. Cango primarily engages in Bitcoin mining, with mining farms and operations covering North America, the Middle East, South America, and East Africa. It officially entered the cryptocurrency space in November 2024, leveraging the development of blockchain technology and the increasing penetration of digital assets to drive its transformation from traditional business to a diversified cryptocurrency business structure centered on Bitcoin mining. (December 30, 2025)

Kimi, the Dark Side of the Moon, recently completed a $500 million Series C funding round, with IDG leading the investment with $150 million and existing investors including Alibaba and Tencent oversubscribing. The post-money valuation reached $4.3 billion. Kimi is an AI company focused on general-purpose large-scale models and intelligent assistant products. Its flagship product, Kimi, excels in long-text understanding and processing capabilities, with core capabilities covering high-frequency cognitive tasks such as complex information retrieval, document analysis, reasoning, and writing. The company aims to create a general-purpose intelligent entry point for both general users and professional scenarios, establishing a sustainable commercialization path in the application layer of large-scale models and productivity tools. (December 31, 2025)