Monero price surged by 17%
Monero (XMR) has reached a new all-time high, cementing its leadership among privacy cryptocurrencies amid a split in the team of rival Zcash. Its daily gain was 17%, reaching $652. At press time, XMR is trading at $622.
Sui network outage
The Sui layer-one blockchain has resumed operation after a technical glitch, the project team announced. Since January 14, users have been experiencing outages, the causes of which have not yet been officially disclosed; a promised investigation into the incident will be released in the coming days. Following this news, the SUI token price briefly rose by 4%, but then fell to $1.79, down 2% in 24 hours.
This outage is the second-largest since the network's launch in May 2023. A similar issue occurred in November 2024, when the blockchain was down for approximately two hours. The community attributed the incident to a possible DDoS attack, but the developers clarified that it was caused by an error in the transaction scheduling logic.
Polygon Labs changes strategy
Polygon Labs announced the acquisition of cryptocurrency startups Coinme and Sequence for over $250 million, Fortune reports. The parties did not disclose the exact terms, including the payment structure.
The deals reflect a shift in Polygon Labs' focus: the company is now focusing on the stablecoin payments market. According to the founder of the Polygon fund, the organization is transforming itself into a full-fledged fintech company and is ready to compete with players like Stripe.
Shortly after the announcement, layoffs at Polygon Labs were announced. The official scale of the layoffs has not been disclosed, but sources claim the restructuring could affect up to 30% of the workforce.
Gas in the Ethereum network will become a tradable asset
ETHGas will launch the GWEI governance token to transform Ethereum block space into a programmable and tradable resource. Of the 10 billion tokens, 10% will go to the community. The team proposes a new model: protocols will be able to pre-allocate bandwidth, which will reduce fees and ensure stable application operation.
GWEI holders will participate in governance, voting on network parameters, updates, and budget allocation. The project has already raised $12 million and launched a block space futures market with $800 million in liquidity. The target audience is institutional players. The airdrop snapshot is scheduled for January 19; the release date has not been specified.
ZKsync unveiled a roadmap for 2026
Matter Labs CEO Alex Glukhovsky presented an updated ZKsync development strategy: instead of building an alternative cryptoeconomy, the company will focus on integrating into global financial markets. The key idea is to create an "incorruptible infrastructure" for the real world. In 2025, the team is focusing on launching the technical foundation: Atlas, Prividium, and Airbender are already working as a unified system.
In 2026, the priorities will be privacy (Prividium), scaling (ZK Stack), and the development of zkEVM (Airbender). Matter Labs expects to launch major solutions in payments, capital markets, and trade finance, reaching tens of millions of users through partnerships with regulated institutions.
Crypto content views on YouTube fell to 2021 levels
Crypto content views on YouTube have dropped to their lowest level since January 2021, according to ITC Crypto founder Benjamin Cowen. The decline began in October, coinciding with the market crash and record-breaking $19 billion in daily liquidations. According to bloggers, audience interest in crypto videos has noticeably weakened: new videos are no longer achieving the viral reach they enjoyed during the 2021 frenzy.
