币币通666

Today is January 18, 2026. I took a look at the alpha returns for January, and I can only describe it as bleak. I received only two airdrops for the points I earned, and due to the depreciation of the trading competition, it barely covers the daily cost of brushing alpha. You can see my screenshot; there were only two airdrops after the 21st that I claimed, esim and brev. The others were rewards for recharges or the trading competition, meaning I only received two throughout the month. I didn't participate in Fogo, and I felt that the odds for the 350 million subscription weren't high. I didn't expect the spot market to open quite well, although it has now fallen below the issuance price. Therefore, my earnings for this month amount to 100U. This is still considering that I participated in the trading competition; for friends who didn't, the thousand U low guarantee accounts are probably just barely breaking even.

Dusk<ml-25/>This project, to be honest, currently feels a bit like 'bouncing back from the trough to execution validation', but if you look closely, you'll find that it's actually making significant progress quietly. $DUSK 's current price is around $0.117-0.125 (having surged over 29% in the last 24 hours, it once hit a high of $0.14, with trading volume exploding to over $87 million, indicating clear capital rotation), with a market cap of approximately $58-62 million (slight differences across platforms, CoinMarketCap shows around $58M), and a 24-hour trading volume of $80-93 million (liquidity suddenly expanded, Vol/Mkt Cap over 150%), circulating supply is about 497 million (total supply cap of 1 billion, initial 500 million + 36 years of staking gradually releasing 500M), tokenomics are healthy, with no extreme pre-mining, and staking incentives are oriented towards the long term.

Vanar@Vanarchain . To be honest, it feels a bit like 'falling from the narrative high point back to the execution test' right now, but if you look closely, you'll realize it's actually quietly doing big things. The current price of $VANRY is around 0.0060-0.0063 USD (recent fluctuations in the last 24 hours have been between 2-4%, with occasional slight recoveries but overall low-level oscillations), with a market capitalization of about 13-14.5 million USD (there are slight differences across platforms, CoinMarketCap shows around 14.4M), and a 24-hour trading volume of 2.1-2.8 million USD (liquidity is average, with both selling pressure and buying interest not fierce), and a circulating supply of about 2.2-2.3 billion (total supply cap is 2.4 billion, distribution is relatively clean, with no extreme pre-mining).

Plasma_-22/, to be honest, I feel a bit like I've 'fallen back to reality' now, but if you look closely, you'll find that it's actually quietly making significant progress. The current price of $XPL is around $0.083-$0.085 (with fluctuations of 3-5% in the last 24 hours, occasionally warming up but overall under pressure), with a market cap of about $150-180 million (data varies slightly across different platforms, CoinMarketCap shows around $152M), and a 24-hour trading volume of $60-70 million (high liquidity but also indicates considerable selling pressure), with a circulation of about 180-220 million (total supply cap of 1 billion, early unlocking + inflation mechanism leading to a high FDV above $800M), the token distribution is relatively clear, with no extreme pre-mining, but there is a significant unlocking risk for the team/investors in July 2026.

Dusk@Dusk This project indeed has a bit of the flavor of 'making money quietly', but compared to those purely speculative RWA/privacy projects before, it feels more like it's really doing work rather than just shouting slogans. The current price of $DUSK fluctuates between $0.09 and $0.10 (it surged over 20% in the last 24 hours at one point, but overall it is still oscillating), with a market cap of about $48 million to $52 million, and a 24-hour trading volume reaching $15 million to $35 million (with significant spikes during large fluctuations), a circulation of about 500 million (with a total supply cap of 1 billion, the remainder released through long-term staking), the tokenomics is relatively healthy, with no major pre-mining, and distribution mainly to institutions and the community. It has dropped over 90% from its ATH, which is common in bear markets, but after the mainnet launch on January 7, 2026, there was a noticeable price recovery, and now it is testing support again.

Vanar@Vanarchain . To be honest, it is quite low-key now, but if you look closely, you will find that it is actually making big moves quietly. The current price of $VANRY is about $0.006, with a market capitalization of around $13-14 million, a 24-hour trading volume of $2-3 million, a circulation of about 2.2 billion, and a total supply cap of 2.4 billion. There isn't much pre-mining by the team, and the distribution is relatively clean. It has climbed up a bit from the low point at the end of last year, but it is still far from its historical high, having fallen over 98%. Everyone suffers in a bear market.
Essentially, it is an AI-native L1 chain with a five-layer architecture that sounds impressive: at the bottom is the Vanar Chain modular blockchain, which has high throughput security; on top of that is the Neutron semantic memory layer, which compresses large files/data into 'Seeds' to store on the chain, allowing AI to understand context and perform persistent queries; then there is the Kayon on-chain reasoning engine, which can directly run natural language queries, compliance automation, and contextual decision-making without relying on external servers; Axon is responsible for intelligent automation, and Flows pushes the application layer. In simple terms, it aims to give dApps their own intelligence, enabling agents to have long-term memory, real-time risk management in DeFi, and automatic optimization of strategies in PayFi and RWA tokenization.

Plasma@Plasma This project is currently a bit low-key, to be honest, but if you look closely, you'll realize that it's actually doing significant things quietly. The current price of $XPL is around $0.08, with a market capitalization of about $177 million, a 24-hour trading volume slightly over $100 million, a circulating supply of approximately 2.2 billion, and a total supply cap of 10 billion. There isn’t much pre-mining by any large team, and the distribution is relatively clean. It has dropped quite a bit since the peak last September, but it's still far from the historical peak of $1.50, having fallen over 85%. It's tough for everyone in this bear market.
Essentially, it is a stablecoin native L1 chain, designed for global payments: it uses PlasmaBFT consensus at the base layer, with a block time of 1 second, high throughput, and zero fees; it supports customizable gas tokens, allowing USDT transfers to be free, without the need for external servers; it is also EVM compatible, capable of seamlessly running DeFi applications; at its core is a built-in paymaster system that eliminates stablecoin friction, allowing money to flow as seamlessly as the internet. In simple terms, it aims to make stablecoin payments smoother, with zero cost for cross-border remittances, real-time optimization for DeFi, and automatic settlement for RWA. This is not a general-purpose L1, but rather a vertical payment infrastructure, with the goal of bringing trillion-dollar stablecoins onto the chain.

Dusk< m-25/>This project is currently quite low-key, to be honest, but if you look closely, you'll find that it is actually doing significant things quietly. $DUSK is currently priced around $0.085-0.09, with a market cap of about $42-44 million, a 24-hour trading volume of $10-13 million, a circulating supply close to 500 million (circulating ≈500M), and a total supply cap of 1 billion. There wasn't much excessive pre-mining, and the team and early distribution are relatively clean. It has climbed up some from the bear market low, but is still far from its historical high (around $1.09), having fallen over 90%. It's tough for everyone in a bear market.
Essentially, it is a privacy-first L1 chain designed for regulated financial markets, with the core selling point being 'compliant privacy': using zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) to make transactions default private (hiding amounts, identities, and counterparties), while supporting selective disclosure to meet regulatory audit needs, such as MiCA and the EU travel rules. The architecture is clearly layered: the bottom layer uses Segregated Byzantine Agreement (SBA) consensus (a PoS variant), which is efficient and decentralized; Phoenix is a custom ZK-UTXO model that supports private transfers; DuskEVM is the EVM-compatible execution layer that allows developers to write familiar smart contracts with privacy; the Hedger module handles compliance logic; and there is also DuskDS for data availability and settlement. In simple terms, it aims to enable institutional-grade assets (RWA securities, bonds, stocks) to be issued, traded, and settled on-chain, with full privacy, compliance, and instant settlement, without relying on centralized intermediaries.

To be honest, public chain projects are everywhere now, and there are even more claiming to be AI-focused, but there are very few that truly treat AI as a core function. Vanar (formerly known as Virtua) is one of the few that is serious about it. It doesn't just write a couple of sentences about "AI empowerment" in the white paper but is focused on allowing the chain to run real intelligent agents from the ground up.
This chain is an EVM-compatible Layer 1, fast and low-cost (Gas often costs a few cents, blocks are produced in a few seconds), but the truly impressive part is its five-layer design: at the bottom is the Vanar mainnet, followed by Neutron (focused on data compression and semantic memory), Kayon (decentralized AI reasoning), Axon (intelligent automated execution), and Flows (application layer for industries). Among them, the Neutron layer is the most hardcore, capable of directly compressing large files onto the chain, such as compressing a video of several dozen MB by hundreds of times while still storing it natively, without relying on IPFS or centralized clouds; on-chain data can finally come to life.

To be honest, stablecoins have become the hardest currency in the crypto world, with hundreds of billions in transfers daily. However, using Ethereum or other chains to send USDT often incurs gas fees of several dollars, which is painful for friends making cross-border remittances. The Plasma project has identified this pain point and has developed a **Layer 1 chain specifically optimized for stablecoins**.
In simple terms, Plasma< m-15/> focuses on several key aspects: USDT transfers with **zero fees**, lightning-fast speed, and full compatibility with EVM. You can deploy your Solidity contracts directly without any modifications, making the migration cost for developers nearly zero. It uses PlasmaBFT consensus (an upgraded version of HotStuff) for the underlying technology, achieving sub-second confirmation speeds and high throughput, making it particularly suitable for high-frequency small payments, such as cross-border remittances, merchant payments, and daily borrowing in DeFi.