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According to CoinDesk, the prediction market Opinion has announced the completion of a $20 million Series A funding round, with participation from Hack VC, Jump Crypto, Primitive Ventures, Decasonic, and others.Forrest Liu, founder and CEO of Opinion, stated that the funding will be used to strengthen regional layouts and promote global expansion in preparation for the 2026 World Cup and multiple national election cycles.Opinion stated that its prediction market fully adopts on-chain settlement, with a model closer to Polymarket rather than the centralized platform Kalshi. The platform claims to currently handle about one-third of the global prediction market trading volume, with an open contract size exceeding $130 million, showing significant growth since last October, covering various fields such as macroeconomics and regional events.At the industry level, prediction markets are evolving from niche products into an emerging asset class. Data shows that the global monthly trading volume of prediction markets has approached $10 billion, with demand continuing to rise against the backdrop of increasing policy and geopolitical uncertainties.

Pharos Network has announced the launch of a builder incubation program called Native to Pharos, with a funding scale of over $10 million. The program aims to accelerate innovation in its on-chain financial ecosystem, focusing on the intersection of real-world assets (RWA), DeFi, and blockchain infrastructure.The incubation program is supported by partners such as Hack VC, Draper Dragon, Lightspeed Faction, and Centrifuge. Participating projects will receive technical guidance, strategic direction for product launch and scaling, as well as support from a network of investors and ecosystem partners. Pharos Network is a RealFi Layer 1 blockchain developed by former executives and engineers from Ant Group. The program is currently open for applications, with the first recruitment event set to launch in Hong Kong.

According to DLNews, VCs invested $1.4 billion in crypto companies in January 2026, a 14% increase from January 2025. Although the number of financing events dropped from 85 to 60, the amount per deal was larger, indicating a more concentrated bet from investors.This month's top investors include Wall Street firms such as Bank of New York Mellon, Fidelity, Citadel Securities, and Bain Capital, as well as crypto-native VCs like Arthur Hayes's Maelstrom Fund, Lightspeed, and Paradigm. With the clarity of U.S. regulations, funds are primarily flowing to U.S. startups focused on stablecoins, payment cards, and infrastructure.The largest financing deals in January include: crypto payment platform Rain completing a $250 million Series B round led by Iconiq Capital; institutional custody firm BitGo raising $213 million through an IPO; and trading platform LMAX Group receiving a $150 million strategic investment led by Ripple, aimed at connecting traditional markets with the blockchain settlement layer.

According to CoinDesk, stablecoin financial infrastructure provider VelaFi announced the completion of a $20 million Series B funding round, led by XVC and Ikuyo, with participation from Planetree, BAI Capital, and Alibaba Investment, among others. To date, the company's total funding has reached $40 million.Founded in 2020, VelaFi initially built payment infrastructure in Latin America and has since expanded its operations to the United States and Asia. Its platform connects local banking systems, cross-border payment networks, and mainstream stablecoin protocols, enabling businesses to transfer funds across markets faster and at a lower cost than traditional systems.

According to Binance spot data, the market has experienced significant volatility. CVC has dropped 25.81% in the last 24 hours, while TFUEL has risen 120% in the same period and is showing signs of a rebound.In addition, GLM, HIVE, MTL, STRAX, and SXP have all shown a "high and then low" pattern, with declines of 6.24%, 5.93%, 5.93%, 24.97%, and 12.09%, respectively.

Dragonfly partner Haseeb posted on X platform stating that there are three individuals in the cryptocurrency space who have proven themselves to be the undisputed GOAT (Greatest of All Time) in the VC investment world.The first is Kyle Samani, founder of Multicoin Capital, who gained massive returns from his seed investment in Solana and remained steadfast in holding after the FTX collapse, making him a true contrarian.The second is Chris Dixon from a16z crypto, who was the first to popularize cryptocurrency and web investments in Silicon Valley and among its institutional LP circles. His two most successful investments were leading the Series B funding for Coinbase and the Series A funding for Uniswap.The third is Dan Robinson from Paradigm, who was involved with Uniswap from its earliest days and is a co-author and foundational contributor to Uniswap V3. He was also a core contributor in the early days of Flashbots, which gave rise to modern MEV auctions. Additionally, he was an early research contributor to Plasma (the predecessor of modern Rollups) and consequently led the seed round for Optimism.

In 2025, the total amount of crypto venture capital reached $18.9 billion, an increase from $13.8 billion in 2024, but the number of transactions plummeted by 60% to about 1,200, with funding highly concentrated in later-stage projects. Digital Asset Trust (DAT) raised approximately $29 billion, attracting a large amount of institutional capital. Early-stage financing significantly slowed down, primarily due to a reduction in available VC funds, institutional investors' preference for AI projects, and regulatory clarity driving rapid expansion of mature companies.Multiple investors expect a moderate recovery in early-stage financing in 2026, but the barriers remain high, with investors focusing more on fundamentals rather than narratives. Regulatory clarity in the U.S. is seen as a key catalyst. Investment hotspots are concentrated in stablecoins and payments, institutional-grade infrastructure, prediction markets, RWA tokenization, and DeFi. There are divergences in the intersection of crypto and AI, with some believing that hype is ahead of actual applications.Token sales re-emerged in 2025 but did not replace traditional VC, with expectations of a hybrid financing model forming. Overall, market discipline will continue, and capital allocation will become more rational.

According to the “RootData 2025 Web3 Industry Annual Report”, the joint investment network among top VCs is becoming increasingly tight, with institutions like a16z, Coinbase Ventures, and Polychain participating in large rounds through deep collaboration.VC investment focus has shifted from early-stage speculation to AI blockchain, DeFi institutional applications, and infrastructure. With regulatory improvements and institutional funds pouring in, this specialized alliance model is paving the way for the AI-DeFi innovation wave in the context of Federal Reserve easing in 2026.

Trust Wallet posted on platform X that, as part of the reimbursement process, it has introduced a Customer Support Verification Code (CSVC) in the browser extension v2.71.0.Users can view this code by updating the browser extension and going to "Settings" - "Help & Support." This step is designed to confirm wallet ownership, streamline the verification process, and ensure that reimbursement funds are returned to the correct user. Trust Wallet reminds users to keep this code confidential and not to share it publicly.

In 2025, the scale of venture capital funding flowing into crypto companies exceeded $25 billion, a year-on-year increase of 73%. Looking ahead to 2026, five top investors predict that the industry will enter a mature phase.Tejwani, an executive at Coinbase Ventures, pointed out that perpetual contracts will transform from purely speculative tools into synthetic markets for trading real-world assets like oil and inflation data. With the clarification of regulations such as the Genius Act, "2026 will be more about maturity than speculation," and investors will focus on long-term visions of 5 to 10 years.Giampapa, a partner at Galaxy Ventures, predicts that stablecoins and tokenized assets will continue to grow, with large banks and asset management companies launching blockchain products. Conti from CV Labs emphasized that clearer regulations have facilitated institutional participation, with blockchain investments in emerging markets like Africa accounting for 7% of total venture capital.Ren, founder of OKX Ventures, believes that investments will focus on areas that interconnect with traditional finance, and stablecoins will become the default track for salary payments and cross-border transactions. Martynov from Morningstar Ventures predicts that consumer-grade DeFi applications will be as easy to use as Revolut, and blockchain will become the verification layer for artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, with technology ultimately achieving "invisibility."

According to CryptoRank data, VC projects that launched this year and have a certain level of recognition generally have a market capitalization that is significantly lower than their valuations. For example, Humanity Protocol (VC valuation of $1 billion, current market cap of about $285 million), Fuel Network (VC valuation of $1 billion, current market cap of about $11 million), and Bubblemaps (VC valuation of $1 billion, current market cap of about $6 million) show discrepancies of several times.Other projects like Plasmas and DoubleZero also have market caps that are only 10% to 30% of their VC valuations.