Ethereum

At the beginning of 2026, major cryptocurrencies and meme coins have rebounded from the prior year's downturn, while retail sentiment has turned more optimistic but remains highly reactive to short-term news. Social and sentiment data indicate that Bitcoin is trading increasingly in line with macroeconomic signals and ETF flows, as Ethereum, XRP and Solana see mixed yet notable shifts in discussion and price action. Meme coins, led by Dogecoin and its leveraged ETF performance, have also attracted renewed interest alongside whale activity and social media hype.

On January 10, 2026, Vitalik Buterin warned about what he calls "corposlop", urging crypto builders to prioritize sovereignty, privacy and user agency. Responding to a tweet forecasting 2026–2030, he said he agreed with 60% of the predictions and outlined tools to resist anti-user designs, including local-first apps, user-controlled social platforms, open and private AI, and mission-driven DAOs.

On Monday, the Starknet team published a post‑mortem on a temporary mainnet outage, attributing it to a state mismatch between its execution blockifier and proving layer. The incident triggered a block reorganization that reverted 18 minutes of activity. In September 2025, a sequencer bug caused a separate five‑hour halt, two reorganizations, and about 1 hour rolled back.

From early 2025 into early 2026, BTC's volume dominance slid from 45–50% toward 30–35%, while altcoins expanded above 55% and often 60–65%. ETH's share fluctuated between 20% and 30%. On-chain metrics show Ethereum addresses climbed from about 300 million to 370 million, but BNB Chain led with past 730 million addresses and roughly 4.4 million daily active users.

Tim Beiko, a long-standing contributor to Ethereum's core protocol at the Ethereum Foundation, has confirmed he is moving away from Layer 1 research and development to concentrate on what he calls frontier use cases. He will stay at the Foundation in an advisory position within the Protocol team, while researcher Ansgar Dietrichs extends his role chairing the All Core Developers Execution calls as the network prepares for two planned upgrades in 2026.

Ethereum is trading close to $3,090 and moving within a narrow $3,080–$3,100 range after a multi-day slide from the $3,250–$3,300 area. Short-term gauges show indecision, with intraday RSI in the low-to-mid 40s and MACD slightly negative. Key levels include support at $3,050 and resistance at $3,120–$3,150, with $3,250 still a cap.

Ethereum was trading near $3,092 with little 24-hour movement as large-scale staking, short liquidity and whale activity began to reshape its outlook for Q1 2026. SharpLink Gaming added to its 864,840 ETH treasury and restaked about $170 million on Linea, while heavy shorts around $3,400 and sizable leveraged whale positions increased the chance of a squeeze and further upside. However, very low transaction fees highlighted weak on-chain demand, meaning a confirmed breakout and retest would still be needed before ETH could realistically push toward $4,400.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies has appointed Young Kim as its new Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, reporting to Chairman Thomas "Tom" Lee. The leadership change is tied to Bitmine's plan to expand its Ethereum holdings from the current 3.43% of ETH supply toward a 5% target, a move that could affect Ethereum liquidity and market structure. Recent market data shows Ethereum trading around $3,092.87 with a market capitalization near $373.29 billion.

On January 9, US spot crypto ETFs recorded $337.22 million in net outflows, led by redemptions in Bitcoin and Ethereum funds. Bitcoin ETFs offloaded 2,750 BTC, about $250 million, while Ethereum products saw 30,205 ETH out, near $94 million. Smaller inflows into XRP, Chainlink, Litecoin, and HBAR signaled selective reallocations.

Ethereum is evaluating EIP-8004/ERC-8004 "Trustless Agents," a proposal to let autonomous AI agents operate on-chain through new identity, reputation, and validation registries. According to U.Today, the proposal is under review and may align with 2026 network upgrades, as the Glamsterdam hard fork targets a move toward six-second blocks in Q2 2026.