The Solana Foundation launched Solana Agent Skills on April 4, providing AI tools with prebuilt functional modules to simplify interaction with the Solana network. The official skill modules include error handling, security checks, and more. The community offers more than 60 skills, covering areas such as DeFi and payments.

Defense AI company Shield AI announced it has completed a $2.0 billion funding round, with its valuation jumping from $5.3 billion to $12.7 billion, a gain of 140%. The round was led by a major PE player, signaling a shift in the structure of defense technology investment. Shield AI and companies like Anduril have all achieved substantial valuation increases, indicating that the market’s outlook for defense AI firms has shifted toward evaluating platform potential. The U.S. military has also set AI and autonomous systems as a separate budget category, further driving the flow of defense technology funding.

Bitcoin mining pool operator Foundry Digital will launch a domestic Zcash mining pool in the United States next month, providing compliance review and operational control support for institutional and publicly listed company miners. The new mining pool will implement KYC and anti-money laundering checks, and mining rewards will be distributed through transparent addresses.

Some UK lawmakers have proposed a temporary ban on political cryptocurrency donations to address the risk of foreign funding interference, calling for a pause on such donations until clear regulatory guidelines are established. The proposal includes requiring donations to be processed through registered service providers and implementing strict source of funds verification. Compared to other countries, the UK places greater emphasis on political funding compliance and anti-money laundering checks, which could influence future policies.

ChainCatcher reports that according to JIN10, the Federal Reserve meeting minutes show that at the January meeting, Roberto Perli, the manager responsible for Federal Reserve financial market operations, noted that the New York Fed's trading desk conducted a "currency check" on the USD/JPY exchange rate, after which the dollar significantly depreciated. Following the release of the minutes, the USD/JPY briefly plummeted over 40 points, reaching a low of 154.33.

a16z Crypto's Daejun Park proposed that DeFi protocols should shift from "code is law" to "standards are law," strengthening security through standardized norms and immutability checks. The report shows that hackers exploited vulnerabilities to steal large amounts of funds, and developers are concerned about AI-assisted attacks. While immutability checks can improve security, they increase gas costs, which may lead to user attrition.

On January 14th, it was announced that the UK government has officially withdrawn the previously planned mandatory digital identity verification scheme. The scheme originally required all employees to use a government-issued digital identity credential for work authorization checks, no longer accepting traditional documents such as passports. Amid months of strong opposition, the government led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer ultimately decided to make substantial concessions to this policy. Overall, this digital identity plan was seen as one of the flagship reforms of the UK government, but it sparked widespread controversy even before implementation. Several cross-party politicians, civil liberties organizations, and privacy advocates warned that a centralized digital identity system could become a highly sensitive data "honeypot," with potentially devastating consequences if attacked. Additionally, critics fear that the system could expand in the future to include housing, bank accounts, and even voting rights verification, evolving into an overreach surveillance tool.

India is further strengthening its regulation of the cryptocurrency industry. According to disclosures from the Indian Press Trust, the Indian Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) issued updated guidelines on January 8, 2026, requiring all cryptocurrency platforms operating locally to implement stricter identity verification and compliance checks, with a focus on combating money laundering and terrorist financing activities. The new regulations require platforms to introduce real-time selfie verification during user registration. Users must prove their real identity through dynamic actions such as blinking, while the system must simultaneously record geographic location, date, time, and IP address to prevent identity forgery and cross-border abuse. In addition to the Permanent Account Number (PAN), platforms are also required to collect official documents such as passports, driver's licenses, Aadhaar cards, or voter IDs, and verify mobile numbers and email addresses through one-time passwords.

ChainCatcher Announcement, 0G announces that the Starboard Season 1 rewards are now live, with a total prize pool of $50,000 in 0G tokens. During the snapshot period from April 15, 2025, to December 15, 2025, the top 250 creator accounts after robot filtering and integrity checks will receive rewards. Accounts must be registered for at least 3 months, and X accounts and wallets must be linked to Galxe.

BlockBeats News, December 26 — The Lighter team announced that their perpetual and spot trading zk circuits have completed auditing and are officially open-sourced. The team has released the complete verification code, allowing external independent verification of whether each order placement, cancellation, and liquidation operation on Lighter L2 on Ethereum is genuine and valid. Developers can generate ZkLighterVerifier build scripts via GitHub and perform consistency checks with the deployed contracts on Ethereum.