Ethereum changes the transaction verification principle
✨ The network is preparing to transition from re-executing all transactions by each node to verification through zkEVM proofs.
🏀 Currently, nodes re-execute the entire block → high load and hardware requirements. In the future, it will be sufficient to verify the cryptographic proof.
🕔 What this will provide:
🔵 reduced hardware requirements 🔵 fast synchronization 🔵 simplification of validator operations
Home stakers will benefit the most. The update is planned to be implemented through EIP-8025 in 2026.
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Buterin on the future of the AI and Ethereum union
🕔 Vitalik Buterin talked about how he envisions the development of AI together with Ethereum. The main priority is human freedom and security, without scenarios of "AI has replaced everyone" or total control from power structures.
✨ In his opinion, Ethereum can become:
🔵 a tool for private work with AI (local LLMs, ZK payments, cryptographic guarantees); 🔵 an economic layer for interaction between neural networks (API payments, on-chain arbitration, AI reputation); 🔵 a foundation for fully verifiable dApps with audits through AI; 🔵 a platform for new models of governance and markets, enhanced by LLMs.
🔺 Buterin believes that the combination of AI + ZK will provide decentralization with a completely new level of possibilities.
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🧠 Buterin: DeFi makes sense only without counterparty risk
🕔 Vitalik Buterin stated that DeFi projects are justified only when they truly eliminate counterparty risk. If someone can freeze funds or influence the system — it is no longer full decentralization, but traditional finance under the guise of "crypto".
🟢 As an example, he cited lending using USDC. Despite operating through Aave or Compound, the risk remains: the issuer Circle controls the token and can freeze assets. If collateral is blocked outside the blockchain, the smart contract continues to operate, but the collateral disappears — and this is a systemic vulnerability.
🔺 Buterin considers a model with excessive crypto-collateralization, like DAI, to be more stable. Here, liquidations and risks depend on market conditions and occur according to transparent on-chain rules, not by a centralized company's decision.
💵 The next step for DeFi, in his opinion, is to reduce dependence on dollar stablecoins and develop diversified on-chain indices with decentralized collateral.
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📉 Is the bear market final? Sharpe at a minimum, whales accumulating
🪙 The Sharpe ratio for Bitcoin has fallen to -10 — the lowest since March 2023. Analyst CryptoQuant notes that similar values were previously recorded at the bottom of the cycles in 2018 and 2022. Although risks still exceed potential returns, such phases often precede a reversal.
🔺 Meanwhile, the background remains weak: 🔵 interest in crypto on Google has fallen to an annual minimum; 🔵 the fear and greed index is in the "extreme fear" zone (14); 🔵 analysts say there are no clear drivers of growth.
🐳 Against this backdrop, large players are taking advantage of the downturn: on February 6, addresses for accumulation received 66,940 BTC — the largest inflow of the cycle.
✍️ Retail is in fear, whales are buying. Is the market close to a turning point?
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Ethereum Foundation has introduced a network security assessment tool
✨ The Ethereum Foundation has launched the One Trillion Dollar Security Dashboard — a public panel reflecting the current state of blockchain protection, key risks, and progress in addressing them.
🕔 The solution has become part of the long-term Trillion Dollar Security program aimed at comprehensively enhancing the resilience of the ecosystem. The initiative includes auditing potential vulnerabilities, prioritizing critical areas, and regularly informing the community about the work done.
📊 The new dashboard systematizes data across several key areas: security of user operations, reliability of smart contracts, infrastructure and RPC services, consensus mechanism, incident response, as well as governance and social layer issues.
💻 Among the strategic tasks are increasing the transparency of transaction signing, implementing standards for wallets with independent verification, developing a verifier alliance, linking audits to on-chain code, enhancing censorship resistance, and exploring quantum-resistant cryptographic solutions.
🔺 The foundation emphasizes that the goal of the project is to build a systematic approach to Ethereum's security as its role in the global financial infrastructure grows.
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Miners are massively shutting down equipment amid record losses
📊 The profitability of bitcoin mining has fallen to an all-time low — about 3 cents per terahash (compared to $3.5 in 2017). Against the backdrop of falling BTC prices and rising electricity rates, companies have started to shut down equipment en masse.
🔽 Analysts expect a decline in difficulty of more than 13% — this could be the largest decrease since 2021. Meanwhile, the hash rate remains above 1 ZH/s.
🟦 The crisis has hit the stocks of public miners: CleanSpark lost 10%, MARA — 11%, TeraWulf — 8.5%, Riot — 4.8%. IREN reported a quarterly loss of $155.4 million amid asset revaluation and the transition of part of the capacities to AI workloads.
🥇 MARA transferred 1317 BTC (~$87 million) to external wallets and exchanges. Part of the funds went to the digital asset manager Two Prime.
✍️ Companies are increasingly diversifying their business: CleanSpark, TeraWulf, IREN, Bitfarms, and Bit Digital are reorienting data centers towards AI infrastructure. However, the main source of revenue for most remains bitcoin mining.
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U.S. pension funds lost up to 60% on Strategy stocks
🔽 U.S. state pension funds recorded significant paper losses on investments in Strategy amid the decline of Bitcoin. Over three months, the company's stock has decreased by 49%, and over six months — by approximately 67%.
🟢 According to Fintel, 11 funds own nearly 1.8 million shares of Strategy. The value of the packages dropped from $577 million to around $240 million — the total unrealized loss is estimated at $337 million. Ten out of eleven funds lost about 60% of their investments.
💻 The investments of funds in New York (−$53 million), Florida (−$46 million), and Wisconsin (−$26 million) suffered the most. Significant losses were also recorded in North Carolina, New Jersey, Utah, Kentucky, and Maryland.
🕕 The decline reflects the risks of the Strategy, which is based on aggressive Bitcoin purchases through debt and stock issuance. In periods of market growth, the model enhances returns, but during price declines, it leads to accelerated capitalization reduction.
🥇 Experts note that interest from pension funds in crypto exposure remains, but the high dependence on BTC volatility makes such investments particularly vulnerable during corrections.
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