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According to official news, the smart contract auditing platform Code4rena has announced that it will gradually cease operations, and the Web3 security company Immunefi will take over its clients and security researchers. Code4rena posted on social media that it has made the decision to shut down and stated that all ongoing competitions and bounty activities will be completed as usual, and existing collaborations will be "properly concluded." Immunefi stated that it will assist in migrating Code4rena's bounty projects, reward structures, and researchers to its platform.Code4rena is known for its "competitive auditing" model, where independent researchers compete to find vulnerabilities in smart contracts for rewards. This shutdown comes less than two years after blockchain security company Zellic acquired Code4rena in 2024. Previously, Code4rena raised $6 million from Paradigm in 2023 for auditing incentives and platform expansion.This shutdown comes at a difficult time for DeFi protocols and the security sector. Data from DefiLlama shows that there were over 20 crypto vulnerability incidents in April alone, setting a monthly record. JPMorgan analysts believe that ongoing DeFi security incidents are limiting major institutional investors from entering the market. Meanwhile, the total value locked in DeFi has decreased from about $160 billion in October to approximately $83 billion currently.

Researcher Dan Robinson from Paradigm proposed a new scheme called PACT (Verifiable Address Controlled Timestamp), aimed at protecting long-dormant bitcoins, including Satoshi's early addresses, from future quantum computing attacks.This mechanism allows users to prove their control over an address through a timestamp without the need to transfer assets or expose on-chain behavior. Once future quantum attacks occur, assets can be recovered in a quantum-resistant version of the Bitcoin network based on that proof. Compared to mandatory migration schemes (like BIP-361), PACT avoids the privacy exposure issues caused by actively transferring assets, providing long-term holders with a more flexible preemptive protection path.

Former Jump Trading senior quantitative researcher Yiming Zhang has received startup funding support from hedge fund giant Millennium Management after leaving the firm and will conduct business as an external manager in the future.Yiming Zhang worked at Jump for 17 years and was one of the key members of the core strategy department. Due to non-compete clauses, his new role is expected to officially start after the restriction period ends. Industry insiders point out that Millennium Management has been expanding its footprint in recent years by providing funding support to external teams, becoming one of the important "incubators" in the hedge fund sector.

According to The Block, Ethereum researchers are exploring the "Block-in-Blobs" proposal (EIP-8142), which plans to encode block execution load data into Blobs. Validators can verify data existence through Data Availability Sampling (DAS) without needing to download the complete dataset, reducing bandwidth pressure and improving scalability.In the zkEVM scenario, this proposal can also fill the gap where zero-knowledge proofs cannot guarantee data availability and aims to unify execution Gas and Blob data usage into a single "data Gas" system.In addition, Biconomy, in collaboration with the Ethereum Foundation, proposed ERC-8211, which supports executing multiple operations in sequence under a single signature to reduce failed transactions and optimize the DeFi interaction experience.

Devansh Mehta, a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, proposed a Validator Revenue Redistribution (VRR) scheme at the EthCC conference. It aims to allow validators to signal on the consensus layer and autonomously decide to redirect a certain percentage of their staking rewards to designated smart contracts, rather than withdrawing all to personal wallets. The recipients can be public goods funding platforms like Gitcoin, Octant, security auditing agencies, or core protocol research teams.The scheme involves two changes to the execution layer: signaling the redirection ratio by validators and the logical implementation of fund allocation to the designated contracts.

Bitcoin security researcher and Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake published a discussion on the timeline for quantum computing to crack Bitcoin.Justin Drake believes that the findings of Google's quantum AI white paper are conservative. "By 2032, quantum computers will have at least a 10% chance of recovering the secp256k1 ECDSA private key from leaked public keys. While it still feels unlikely that a cryptographically relevant quantum computer (CRQC) will emerge before 2030, it is undoubtedly time to start preparing."Justin Drake also stated that achieving commercially viable Bitcoin proof of work through Grover's algorithm will not happen in the short term. "We are talking about decades, or even centuries later. This observation should help shift the focus of the discussion onto ECDSA and Schnorr. As an unofficial Bitcoin security researcher, I still believe that Bitcoin proof of work has failed due to the reduction in the security budget."

According to The Block, Ethereum researchers demonstrated a proof of concept for "native Rollups" based on the execution client Ethrex, implementing EIP-8079 through the addition of an EXECUTE precompile, which directly replays and verifies Layer 2 block state changes on the Ethereum base layer.This solution does not rely on zero-knowledge proofs or fraud proofs, but instead is executed and confirmed by Ethereum itself to validate Rollup transaction validity. The related contracts are used to track Rollup state, bridge cross-layer messages, and verify withdrawals based on Merkle-Patricia proofs. Developers claim that native Rollups can simplify long-term maintenance of Layer 2, allowing them to directly inherit Ethereum's security and upgrade properties, and they are still in the exploration and proof of concept stage.

Cryptanalysis provider CoinMetrics senior researcher Tanay Ved expects Coinbase's total revenue for the fourth quarter of 2025 to be $1.77 billion, a 5% decrease from $1.87 billion in the third quarter, as declines in trading volume and asset prices offset growth in derivatives trading and USDC.Trading revenue is expected to be $978 million (a 6% quarter-over-quarter decline), with Deribit's contribution throughout the quarter driving growth in institutional business.Subscription and services revenue remains resilient at $723 million, with the growth in USDC supply offsetting the impact of the Federal Reserve's interest rate cuts and reduced staking rewards.The firm forecasts Coinbase's total revenue for the fiscal year 2025 to be approximately $7.2 billion, reflecting Coinbase's ongoing revenue diversification and strategic expansion into the derivatives space.It is reported that Coinbase will announce its fourth quarter and full-year financial results for 2025 after the market closes on February 12 (Wednesday).

Huobi HTX "New Year's First Lesson" series course fifth lecture (advanced course) will officially start tonight at 7 PM, featuring special guest Chloe Zheng, Senior Researcher at HTX Research, with the course theme "Surge! Seizing the Hundredfold Track in Advance".The core focus of the course revolves around three major highlights:Understanding new regulatory rules: clarifying compliance boundaries and seizing the bonus window brought by institutional entry;Identifying potential tracks: breaking down the logic of stablecoins and RWA explosions to pinpoint hundredfold targets;Mastering practical paths: teaching you to use ETF/ETP + RWA tokenization tools to low-risk ambush high-certainty opportunities.This advanced course requires completing one public class's study and answering questions to earn credits; after completing the questions, you can secure your course seat.

Ethereum researcher Thomas Thiery (also known as soispoke) proposed FOCIL as a core anti-censorship feature in the Hegota upgrade. Hegota is Ethereum's second major upgrade scheduled for the second half of 2026. FOCIL is a protocol layer mechanism that modifies Ethereum's fork choice rules to enforce the inclusion of any valid transaction in on-chain blocks within a limited time.The main goal of this proposal is to reduce Ethereum's reliance on centralized validators to mitigate the potential risk of large-scale transaction censorship in the future, thereby enhancing Ethereum's core value as a neutral, censorship-resistant blockchain. An Ethereum researcher stated, "Without FOCIL, the protocol would be vulnerable to large-scale censorship events. Ethereum should proactively design for long-term resilience rather than reactively respond to sudden censorship."

According to Cointelegraph, cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler discovered a public database containing approximately 149 million usernames and passwords, which were collected from infected personal devices through information-stealing malware. The database includes account information related to multiple major platforms, with at least 420,000 login credentials associated with Binance users.Experts emphasize that this is not a breach of Binance's systems, but rather the extraction of saved login information from infected devices via "information-stealing" malware. This malware disguises itself as game cheating tools or modifiers, specifically targeting cryptocurrency wallets and browser extensions, affecting over 100 browsers and at least 80 cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, Coinbase, Crypto.com, and MetaMask.

The recent surge in Ethereum network activity may be related to address poisoning attacks utilizing low Gas fees. The number of new addresses has reached 2.7 million, which is 170% higher than normal levels, with a daily transaction volume exceeding 2.5 million. The Fusaka network upgrade has reduced transaction fees by over 60%, leading to a decrease in the cost of such large-scale spam attacks. Currently, 3.8 million addresses have received such dust assets in their first transaction, accounting for 67% of the new addresses. So far, 116 victims have lost over $740,000 as a result.

Ethereum Foundation Research Co-Director Alex Stokes tweeted that the Ethereum Blob Pressure Optimization proposal BPO2 upgrade has officially taken effect on the mainnet. According to real-time on-chain data, the target value for Blobs has been increased to 14 per block, and the maximum capacity has been raised to 21.

Pantera Capital researcher Jay Yu published 12 predictions for the cryptocurrency market in 2026 on the X platform:Capital-efficient consumer credit: Combining on-chain and off-chain credit modeling, modular design, and AI user behavior learning will become the new frontier of crypto lending;Divergence in prediction markets: It will split into financial directions combined with DeFi and cultural directions capturing pop culture and long-tail enthusiasts;Rise of Agentic Commerce: The x402 protocol will expand into conventional payments, with Solana potentially surpassing Base in tiered trading volume;AI as the crypto interface layer: AI-assisted analytics, project research, and wallet tracking will permeate most consumer-grade crypto applications;Tokenized gold rises: It will become a leading asset in the RWA space as a safe-haven asset;Bitcoin quantum threat panic: Technological breakthroughs may trigger discussions about quantum computing threats, prompting holding institutions to develop contingency plans;Unified privacy development experience: Privacy-as-a-service bundles will emerge, simplifying the integration of privacy technologies into enterprise workflows;DAT integration: DAT will undergo consolidation, retaining only 2 to 3 in each major area through mergers or liquidations;Breaking the boundaries between tokens and equity: Convertible equity tokens may emerge, and the regulatory framework for token legal ownership will tend to solidify;Hyperliquid maintains Perp DEX dominance: The USDC share on HYPE may be replaced by USDe and USDH;Professional-grade AMMs moving to multi-chain: They will account for over half of Solana's trading volume and begin pricing assets like RWA;Stablecoin international settlements: Fintech companies like Stripe, Ramp, Brex, and Klarna will use stablecoins for international settlements.

Kalshi announced on platform X that it has launched Kalshi Research, aimed at providing internal data from Kalshi to scholars and researchers interested in exploring topics related to prediction markets. Currently, the first research report has been released, showing that Kalshi outperforms Wall Street in predicting inflation.

According to DL News, Blockstream researchers Mikhail Kudinov and Jonas Nick proposed in a revised paper published on December 5 that hash-based signature technology could be a key solution to protect the $1.8 trillion Bitcoin blockchain from the threat of quantum computers.The researchers believe that hash-based signatures are a compelling post-quantum solution because their security relies entirely on mechanisms similar to the hash function assumptions already present in Bitcoin's design. This scheme has undergone extensive cryptanalysis during the post-quantum standardization process at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), enhancing the credibility of its robustness.It is estimated that older Pay-To-Public-Key Bitcoin wallets created before 2012 (including Satoshi Nakamoto's holdings worth $98 billion) contain about $600 billion in Bitcoin, and these wallets will be the first to face the threat of quantum computers.

According to DL News, Blockstream researchers Mikhail Kudinov and Jonas Nick proposed in a published revised paper that hash-based signature technology could be the key solution to protect the $1.8 trillion Bitcoin blockchain from the threat of quantum computers.The researchers believe that hash-based signatures are a compelling post-quantum solution because their security relies entirely on mechanisms similar to the hash function assumptions already present in Bitcoin's design. This scheme has undergone extensive cryptanalysis during the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) post-quantum standardization process, enhancing the credibility of its robustness. It is estimated that older Pay-To-Public-Key Bitcoin wallets created before 2012 (including Satoshi Nakamoto's holdings worth $98 billion) contain about $600 billion in Bitcoin, which will be the first to face the threat of quantum computers.

The Donjon research team at Ledger demonstrated that electromagnetic fault injection (EMFI) can completely compromise a commonly used MediaTek smartphone chip, which is utilized in many Android phone models. The issue requires attackers to have physical access to the device, but it highlights the risks faced by users storing private keys on smartphones.Ledger stated that its team studied the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 (MT6878) chip produced by TSMC. Researchers used EMFI tools to disrupt the chip's boot read-only memory (boot ROM), successfully bypassing core security checks and gaining full control of the chip, allowing it to run arbitrary code at the highest privilege level (EL3). Ledger emphasized that this finding does not affect Ledger hardware wallets.Ledger disclosed this vulnerability to MediaTek in May. MediaTek responded that EMFI attacks are beyond the security scope of the MT6878 chip, which is designed for consumer products rather than financial or hardware security module applications. Additionally, MediaTek stated that devices with higher security requirements, such as cryptographic hardware wallets, should include specialized defensive measures.At the time of the report's release, physical attack incidents targeting cryptocurrency users were on the rise.