This Week In Crypto – GoMining, Vitalik, X, Circle, and Polymarket

Dear reader, we’re closing out January with a packed crypto roundup that shows how fast the space is moving.

From luxury Bitcoin watches and new social discovery tools, to stablecoins reshaping FX, prediction markets going mainstream, and smooth on-chain swaps, here’s what shaped crypto this week.

Let’s dive in.

Vitalik Buterin makes decentralized social media a priority

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said he plans to fully recommit to decentralized social media in 2026, arguing that only platforms built on shared, decentralized data layers can foster real competition and support mass communication systems aligned with users’ interests rather than engagement metrics.

In a Wednesday post on X, Buterin said he has shifted his activity toward decentralized social platforms this year, noting that every post he has written or read so far in 2026 has been accessed through Firefly, a multi-client interface that supports X, Lens, Farcaster, and Bluesky.

“If we want a better society, we need better mass communication tools,” Buterin said, arguing that decentralization enables competition by allowing multiple clients to operate on a shared social data layer. 

Buterin criticized many crypto-native social projects for relying on speculative tokens as a substitute for meaningful innovation, arguing that SocialFi experiments have repeatedly failed by rewarding pre-existing social capital and short-term price speculation instead of content quality and constructive discourse.

He contrasted these efforts with creator-subscription models such as Substack, which he said better align incentives around high-quality content.

What is the state of decentralized social media?

Decentralized social media, or SocialFi, refers to platforms built on open or blockchain-based networks where user identities, content, and social graphs are not controlled by a single company.

While protocols such as Lens and Farcaster have gained early traction, the sector has so far struggled to convert that momentum into sustained mass-market adoption. Last week, Neynar acquired Farcaster from Merkle. Lens also recently had a leadership transition as Aave transferred stewardship to Mask Network.

Farcaster total users and interactions

Lens’ users count

Farcaster features more than two million total registered users and hundreds of thousands of daily interactions, measured by posts and reactions. Lens has accumulated about 506,000 users, according to Dune Analytics data.

GoMining, Jacob & Co. Debut $40K Luxury Bitcoin Watch

Bitcoin mining company GoMining has teamed with luxury watchmaker Jacob & Co. to offer a limited-edition watch aimed at pairing luxury with mining rewards. This was announced via an official announcement from the former.

The $40,000, 100-piece Epic X GoMining package consists of a Bitcoin-themed luxury watch hand-wound by Jacob & Co., plus a 1,000 terahash (TH) “digital miner.” The Epic X GoMining package will be available at the Jacob & Co. showrooms in New York and Miami, the watchmaker’s website, and the GoMining marketplace.

Unlike a physical mining rig, GoMining’s digital miner represents a certificate of 1,000TH of mining power from GoMining’s existing physical mining fleet. Users then earn rewards proportionally to their digital miner hash power, with BTC rewards being credited to the owner’s GoMining account daily, less upkeep fees like electricity and equipment service.

Digital miners on the platform start at around 1TH of computing power for around $23 and provide an estimated yearly net reward of about $6.53 based on today’s Bitcoin prices. That net reward jumps to nearly $7,000 a year for a 1,024TH miner, based on the platform’s custom miner creation tool, but the miner cost increases significantly too.

In this instance, users can get the 1,000TH digital miner alongside the watch for around a $10,000 discount, according to a GoMining representative.

“The price of the package is the combination of the price of the timepiece and TH power of a digital miner. Whilst the package can’t be sold separately, the indicated retail price for the timepiece is $30K, and a miner with similar TH power is approximately $20K.”

This isn’t the first time Jacob & Co. has offered a Bitcoin-themed watch, nor is this the most expensive rendition. In 2022, the jeweler launched the lavish Astronomia Solar Bitcoin timepiece, limited to just 25 pieces, each retailing for $348,000.

GoMining aims to keep bringing new products to the market that challenge the status quo. Hence, their partnership with a brand that has an established presence in the luxury marketplace is based on amazing craftsmanship. The watches created alongside Jacob & Co. will be the first of their kind. 

X to roll out ‘Starterpacks’ featuring crypto’s top posters

Social media platform X is preparing to launch a new onboarding feature called “Starterpacks,” letting new users instantly follow curated lists of accounts tied to specific interests, such as cryptocurrencies, to make it easier to get started on the platform.

X head of product Nikita Bier affirmed in a post that the tool will go live in a few weeks and that it had taken months of preparation to find and compile the top accounts for each interest category, with over 1,000 categories already pre-made.

In a video shared, the tool appears to cover a range of main topics, including cryptocurrency, news, politics, fashion, technology, business, and finance. Examples in the video of individual categories under these topics include memecoin trading, economics professors, software builders, and unhinged personalities. 

There has been chatter that engagement on crypto X has been in decline. Last week, Bitcoin cyberpunk Jameson Lopp shared data from social media entrepreneur Jean-Christophe Gatuingt showing that X posts containing the word “Bitcoin” fell 32% in 2025.

Bier seemingly teased the Starterpacks tool, recounting a conversation with an X product manager who said account growth is one of the app’s “toughest challenges,” and that the real “magic of X” comes when users leave the mainstream timeline of news and politics and delve into their niche interests.

He mentioned that X is an interest-based graph, where you can’t simply sync your contacts and have a relevant feed. Yet, with multiple iterations over the past six months, it is now much easier and quicker for new accounts to find their interests on X. 

Still, the Starterpacks concept isn’t new, as other social media platforms have already rolled out a similar feature in the past.

US decentralized microblogging social platform Bluesky released “Starter Packs” in June 2024, allowing users to create categories of accounts aligned with their interests. Meta’s X rival Threads also started testing a similar feature in December 2024, allowing users to follow custom feeds curated by members of Threads.

Circle launches StableFX to modernize global FX

Circle launched StableFX, an initiative to transform the $10 trillion daily foreign exchange (FX) market by enabling 24/7 on-chain currency conversion using stablecoins. This was announced via a social media post.

The platform, unveiled in November 2025 on Circle’s Arc blockchain, promises to eliminate long-standing FX bottlenecks, such as prefunding requirements, delayed settlement, and fragmented trading venues.

Circle’s StableFX allows institutions to trade stablecoin pairs like USDC/EURC via Request-for-Quote (RFQ) execution from multiple liquidity providers. Its atomic Payment-versus-Payment (PvP) settlement compresses traditional T+1/T+2 settlement times to sub-second finality.

The initiative also includes the Partner Stablecoins program, which supports regional stablecoin issuers from Japan, Brazil, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, and South Africa.

Early adoption shows promise. Japan approved USDC in March 2025 via a joint venture with SBI Holdings. Further, the Japanese stablecoin JPYC has been integrated with StableFX to enable low-cost yen-USDC swaps.

Emerging markets such as Singapore and Malaysia are exploring stablecoins for trade tokenization and FX hedging. Meanwhile, interest continues to grow in countries like Brazil and South Korea.

StableFX addresses key pain points in FX. By operating on-chain: 

• It enables programmable conversions
• Integrates with Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) for liquidity across blockchains
• Provides enterprise access through Gateway APIs and intuitive wallet interfaces.

In practice, this allows FX flows to be embedded directly into applications, enabling real-time global commerce. The market benefits are also clear, because FX, historically constrained by legacy systems and fragmented venues, could finally operate at the speed and flexibility of the internet.

Circle’s gamble is that StableFX has the potential to redefine global FX and cross-border commerce, making it faster, more programmable, and capital-efficient. 

StableFX embodies both the promise of a major global FX system and the peril of a high-stakes experiment that could reshape or transform money as we know it.

Also, Circle has issued a grant to support the rollout of digital financial infrastructure across the United Nations, with the aim of making humanitarian aid payments more efficient.

Announced at the World Economic Forum conference in Davos, Switzerland, the Circle Foundation said its first international grant would support the UN’s Digital Hub of Treasury Solutions (DHoTS) “efforts to streamline monetary value transfers across the UN ecosystem.”

The company, however, did not specify the size or form of the grant.

Polymarket partners with Major League Soccer 

Polymarket has inked a multi-year deal with Major League Soccer, the top-level soccer league in the US, to be the exclusive prediction market partner for the league and its main tournament, the Leagues Cup.

The MLS and Polymarket said on Monday that they will work together to create “new fan experiences” such as second-screen engagement, which typically includes data, statistics, or betting.

Polymarket founder and CEO Shayne Coplan said,

“As soccer’s audience continues to grow and evolve in the US, fans are looking for new ways to engage more deeply with the game,”

The companies said the partnership comes amid “sustained momentum” for the sport, as the FIFA World Cup is set to be held in North America and Mexico later this year. 

The MLS and Polymarket said the deal includes safeguards “designed to protect the integrity of MLS and Leagues Cup matches,” including independent monitoring of trading activities. 

Volumes on the major platforms Polymarket and Kalshi have continued to hit all-time highs after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission gave its green light to prediction markets, even as many US states are fighting to restrict them. 

Kalshi has pulled ahead of Polymarket for volume, seeing a record weekly tally of $2.15 billion for the week starting January 12. Polymarket saw its best-ever week for volume at the same time, with nearly $825 million traded on its platform.

Earlier this month, the CFTC issued a no-action letter to crypto derivatives exchange Bitnomial, allowing the exchange to run a prediction market and signalling it wouldn’t take action against similar platforms.

However, US states, including Nevada, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Massachusetts, have taken Kalshi and other prediction markets to court over offering sports event contracts, claiming they amount to unlicensed sports betting.

The platforms, Kalshi in particular, have pushed back, arguing the CFTC has exclusive jurisdiction over prediction markets.

Swap with Uniswap inside the Zypto app 

Uniswap has become a cornerstone of DeFi thanks to its deep liquidity, transparent execution, and broad token support across major EVM chains.

By integrating Uniswap, Zypto App strengthens its role as a multi-functional crypto app that brings together storage, access, and action in one place. Users can move from holding assets to actively swapping them on chain without needing to manage multiple platforms or external DEX interfaces.

To that end, users can access Uniswap liquidity without leaving Zypto App, switching interfaces, or managing multiple tools.

Find out more here.

Closing remark

By partnering with such a well-known and respected brand like Jacob & Co., GoMining aims to reach a wider audience and further move the needle for crypto enthusiasts. The Starterpacks feature by X is primed to help new accounts to easily follow crypto-related news.

Buterin urged users and builders to spend more time in decentralized social ecosystems, saying the industry must move beyond a single centralized “info warzone” and toward a more competitive frontier where new forms of online interaction can emerge.

The StableFX system requires no prefunding or bilateral agreements, making it capital-efficient for treasuries, payments, and global commerce. 

The Polymarket-Major League Soccer deal marks another major partnership for prediction market operators, who have inked deals to be included in other major sports leagues, news content, and Google’s search engine tool.

Uniswap liquidity and advanced swap routing are available directly inside Zypto App, with no need to connect external wallets or navigate separate DeFi platforms.