spark

OpenAI today released the GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark research preview, a streamlined version of GPT-5.3-Codex, and the first model designed specifically for real-time coding, supporting targeted editing, reshaping logic, or optimizing interfaces, with immediate result visibility.Codex-Spark has been optimized to run on ultra-low latency hardware, achieving near-instantaneous responses—delivering over 1000 tokens per second while still handling actual coding tasks.

At the "Build and Scale in 2026" themed forum recently held by ChainCatcher in Hong Kong, Spark co-founder Sam MacPherson delivered a keynote speech on "The Growth Engine of DeFi," systematically explaining how Spark builds an integrated solution to address the fragmentation and inefficiency of on-chain capital markets by integrating savings, lending, and institutional-level capital allocation.Sam MacPherson pointed out that the current on-chain capital market still faces challenges of severe fragmentation and low capital utilization efficiency. Spark builds its growth engine through three core products: first, the all-chain savings account Spark Savings, which has managed over $2.75 billion in deposits, providing users with a safe and stable income entry; second, the lending protocol SparkLend, which focuses on blue-chip assets and captures value by reducing external protocol commissions and protocol fees; third, institutional lending in collaboration with the Anchorage custodian, seeking risk-adjusted returns between DeFi, CeFi, and traditional finance.He believes that the next phase of DeFi's growth will rely on integrated protocols that can seamlessly integrate multi-chain liquidity, provide institutional-level risk control, and possess sustainable token economic models. Spark is promoting the evolution of DeFi towards a more efficient and robust direction through its product matrix and ecosystem development.

According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin's monitoring, a certain whale holding an ETH lending position on Spark started to sell ETH to stop losses at $2,050. After a night of stop-loss selling, 27,800 ETH were sold to repay $44.14 million in loans.The whale still has 9,810 ETH ($18.66 million) left on Spark, with a loan of 12.83 million DAI. The liquidation price of the remaining position has dropped from $1,800 yesterday to $1,560 now.

According to PR Newswire, Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin mining company CleanSpark released an unaudited Bitcoin mining and operational update report for the period ending in 2026, disclosing that it mined 573 BTC in January, sold 158.63 BTC at an average price of $91,752 in January, and reached a total Bitcoin holding of 13,513 BTC by the end of the month.

According to Jinshi News, the dollar rose after President Trump nominated Kevin Warsh as the chairman of the Federal Reserve. Jefferies economist Mohit Kumar pointed out that Warsh is likely to lean towards reducing the Fed's balance sheet in the coming years.If inflation is seen as entrenched, Warsh may adopt a less accommodative policy. Currently, the dollar index is up 0.1% to 97.108, having reached a one-week high of 97.298 overnight.

Spark Protocol co-founder Sam MacPherson has confirmed attendance at the "Build and Scale in 2026" themed forum to be held in Hong Kong on February 10. This event is co-hosted by ChainCatcher, RootData, and Alibaba Cloud, and is one of the important side events of the Consensus HongKong conference.Spark Protocol is a decentralized lending market launched by MakerDAO, integrating direct lending features within MakerDAO. Through Spark, users can obtain DAI loans using assets such as ETH, stETH, and sDAI. This forum will focus on industry convergence trends, growth paths, and market opportunities in the new cycle, with in-depth discussions around key tracks such as RWA, stablecoins, AI, payments, and DeFi. The event aims to gather high-quality project parties, investment institutions, and developers from around the world to build a high-value industry network and jointly explore future opportunities and value potential in the Web3 ecosystem.Event registration: https://luma.com/md5v6b5z

DeFi lending protocol Spark announced on platform X that its Spark Vaults will raise the Spark Savings limit, with the USDC limit on the Ethereum chain increased to $1 billion, the USDC limit on the Avalanche chain raised to $500 million, and the ETH limit increased to 250,000.

DeFi lending protocol Spark announced on platform X that its Spark Vaults will increase the Spark Savings limits, with the USDC limit on the Ethereum chain raised to $1 billion, the USDC limit on the Avalanche chain raised to $500 million, and the ETH limit increased to 250,000 coins.

Trove Markets stated that due to the liquidity partner withdrawing the 500,000 HYPE required for the Hyperliquid integration, the project has decided to shift its development to the Solana network. Trove Markets had previously raised over $11.5 million through a token sale, which was originally intended for the Hyperliquid integration. This decision has sparked criticism from the community, with some supporters demanding immediate refunds.Trove Markets developer Unwise stated that the team will rebuild the DEX from scratch on Solana. Currently, the TROVE token generation event is still scheduled for Monday, but more time is needed for the migration and refund processing. Additionally, ZachXBT has detected multiple unusual transfers involving HYPE movements.

According to PR Newswire, Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin mining company CleanSpark announced that it has reached a final agreement to acquire up to 447 acres of land in Brazoria County, Texas, and has signed a long-term transmission facility expansion agreement. This move will enable the company to develop a large data center project with a total capacity of 600 megawatts.The transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2026, but it must meet several conditions, including approvals related to utility companies and property, aimed at supporting the development of a large next-generation data center campus for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing workloads.

X product lead and Solana advisor Nikita Bier posted on the X platform, stating that since last October, there has been a notion circulating in crypto tweets (CT) that users need to reply hundreds of times daily to achieve account growth. However, each post consumes part of the day's influence, and since ordinary users only browse 20 to 30 posts a day, the platform cannot showcase all of a user's posts to all their followers. As a result, crypto Twitter users ultimately waste all their influence on hundreds of "gm" replies, while only a few pay attention when they post substantial content like project announcements. The decline of crypto tweets stems from their own behavior rather than algorithm issues, claiming that "CT is dying from suicide."This statement sparked dissatisfaction within the crypto community, with LedgArt co-founder KALEO pointing out that Nikita Bier does not support user growth and a long-term online user base from the users' perspective, and is attempting to stifle the crypto community on the X platform. He called for Nikita Bier to resign, and currently, Nikita Bier has deleted the related tweet.

According to PR Newswire, Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin mining company CleanSpark released a Bitcoin mining and operational update report for the period ending December 31, 2025, disclosing that the company mined 622 BTC last month, compared to a total mining output of 7,746 BTC for the year 2025.In addition, CleanSpark stated that it sold 577 BTC last month, generating approximately $51,461,322 in revenue. As of now, the company's total Bitcoin holdings have slightly increased to 13,099 BTC.

As the Iranian rial's exchange rate against the dollar has fallen to a historic low, large-scale protests have erupted in Tehran recently, with the public attributing the continuous devaluation of the local currency to the central bank's long-term fiscal and monetary policy failures. In response, Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley stated on the X platform that economic mismanagement has been a constant throughout the past, present, and future, while Bitcoin provides a new way for ordinary people around the world to protect their wealth amid significant devaluation of fiat currencies.Reports indicate that since the two-week conflict with Israel in June of this year, the purchasing power of the Iranian rial has shrunk by over 40%, with the current official exchange rate at approximately 1.4 million rials to 1 dollar. Alex Gladstein, Chief Strategy Officer of the Bitcoin Human Rights Foundation, also mentioned that in the early 1980s, the official exchange rate in Iran was only 70 rials to 1 dollar, highlighting the significant depreciation. Meanwhile, the governor of the Iranian central bank has resigned under protest pressure, further exacerbating market uncertainty.Additionally, although Iran allows cryptocurrency trading, the regulations on custody and mining remain relatively strict. VanEck's research director Matthew Sigel pointed out that Iran has recently cracked down on unregistered Bitcoin mining activities and even encouraged citizens to report their neighbors. Analysts believe that against the backdrop of sanctions, pressure on the banking system, and continuous devaluation of the local currency, discussions around Bitcoin as a decentralized store of value are on the rise.

The Gate annual bill officially launched on December 19. As of the time of writing, the overall performance of the page has been impressive, with high user participation and significant sharing effects. Data shows that the annual bill has been accessed nearly 150,000 times, with cumulative shares exceeding 100,000 times, reflecting users' high recognition and willingness to share the annual bill.Overall, the annual bill not only effectively carries users' annual reviews and emotional resonance but also lays the foundation for subsequent user growth, brand exposure, and long-term ecological construction. To give back to users, Gate will launch an annual bill welfare lottery from December 26, 2025, 16:00 to January 2, 2026, 16:00 (UTC+8). Users who open the annual bill will receive one free lottery chance, with a maximum reward of 100 GT for a single person.

The open-source AI trading system NoFx developer Tinkle issued a statement yesterday regarding the community controversy sparked by early project participant Zack. It stated that Zack joined the project on October 29, 2025, after it was open-sourced, participated for about 14 days, and contributed a small amount of code. He then demanded 50% equity in exchange for introducing Amber for commercialization. After being rejected, he withheld the project's Twitter account and demanded 500,000 USDT through a lawyer's letter, while also spreading false information through multiple channels. Tinkle stated that relevant records are verifiable and that the team will no longer respond to personal disputes, focusing instead on product development.In response, Zack issued a statement refuting the claims, stating that the allegations are seriously false and damage his personal reputation. The lawyer's letter was sent by a law firm, evidence has been preserved by the lawyer, and the claims are legal and compliant. If the dispute cannot be resolved through legal channels, he will publicly disclose complete video, audio, chat records, and timelines as evidence.The official NoFx X account subsequently published an open letter stating that recent discussions regarding community members, code usage boundaries, and intellectual property have been handed over to a professional legal team for unified handling. It denied rumors involving financing and利益输送, emphasizing that NoFx is a community-driven open-source project rather than a commercial company. The team also reiterated that the project is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and will legally uphold open-source standards and contributor rights, focusing on building an AI Trading OS that supports self-hosting and multi-platform trading access.Additionally, the ecosystem accelerator amber.ac under Amber Group also issued a statement, clearly stating that there is currently no formal incubation, investment, or commercial cooperation relationship with the NoFx project. The two parties have only engaged in open industry exchanges and called on all parties to return to technical and rational communication to promote healthy ecological development.

According to The Defiant, Gnosis Chain announced a hard fork on December 22 to return the $9.4 million frozen in the Balancer hack incident. Balancer suffered a loss of $128 million last month, and Gnosis had previously frozen part of the funds through a soft fork, but now a hard fork is needed to unlock and return the funds to users.This decision has sparked heated debate in the community. Supporters believe it demonstrates accountability, while opponents question whether it violates "code is law" and undermines blockchain immutability. Infrastructure lead Schommers emphasized the need for validator consensus and that it does not affect on-chain history.DeFi operator Ignas pointed out that the soft fork has already harmed immutability. The GNO token fell 3% to $115, highlighting the dilemma in DeFi between security and decentralization principles.

According to The Block, the Bitcoin rewards app Lolli now supports withdrawal operations on the Bitcoin Lightning Network after completing integration with Spark.This move may help address some complaints raised by users since Lolli was acquired by Thesis in July. Spark is an open-source Bitcoin Layer 2 protocol developed by Lightspark, enabling instant, low-cost, self-custodied transactions of Bitcoin and Bitcoin-based assets, and is fully compatible with the Lightning Network. Both companies stated that Spark's software development kit (SDK) will provide Lightning Network withdrawal support for "Bitcoin rewards held on the Lolli platform." Thesis's acquisition of Lolli has faced criticism from some users. Shortly after the acquisition announcement, Lolli suspended all Bitcoin reward transfers and withdrawal operations to migrate its backend to Thesis's infrastructure, which caused dissatisfaction among some users. Additionally, Thesis integrated its Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible Mezo Bitcoin scaling and programmable layer into Lolli before allowing on-chain Bitcoin or Lightning Network transfers, further angering some users.

According to PR Newswire, Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin mining company CleanSpark released a Bitcoin mining and operational update report for the period ending November 30, disclosing that it mined 587 BTC in November, with a total mining output of 7,124 BTC so far in 2025. As of November 30, the company's total Bitcoin holdings reached 13,054 BTC.