Gate Research Institute: High-level deleveraging triggers decline | Divergence between Ethereum and Solana routes becomes apparent

Cryptocurrency Market Overview

• BTC (-2.48% | Current price 92,639.9 USDT): BTC experienced a rapid deleveraging and decline amid high-level oscillations. After a previous surge, the price consolidated sideways, with short-term moving averages (MA5, MA10) flattening and turning downward, while the medium-term MA30 remains relatively flat. Short-term momentum cooled but the structure remained intact. Breaking below the oscillation lower boundary triggered stop-losses and liquidations, causing a quick dip on the 1-hour chart with a long lower shadow, with significant support around $92,000. If the $92,000 support holds, the trend may continue to oscillate within the $92,000–$96,000 range; resistance levels are at $95,000–$96,000 for rebounds.
• ETH (-2.78% | Current price 3,200.36 USDT): ETH followed BTC downward, with a generally passive structure. After rebounding to $3,350–$3,400, it entered sideways consolidation. The short-term moving averages (MA5, MA10) flattened and turned downward, while MA30 also flattened, indicating insufficient momentum; driven by BTC’s decline, ETH broke below the oscillation lower boundary, triggering stop-losses and liquidations. The 1-hour chart shows a quick drop to around $3,180 with a long lower shadow, indicating some support in that area. The key support is at $3,180–$3,200; holding this could maintain the $3,200–$3,350 range. Resistance is at $3,320–$3,350, with stronger resistance at $3,380–$3,400.
• Altcoins: The Fear & Greed Index dropped from 49 yesterday to 44, indicating sentiment shifted from “neutral” to “fear.” High-beta altcoins experienced amplified declines, reflecting a phase of risk aversion, with funds prioritizing withdrawal from more volatile assets.
• Macro: On January 16, the S&P 500 fell 0.064% to 6,940.01 points; the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.17% to 49,359.33 points; the Nasdaq dropped 0.062% to 23,515.39 points. As of 11:10 AM UTC+8 on January 19, spot gold is priced at $4,666.17 per ounce, up 1.52% within 24 hours.

Hot Tokens in the Market

( DUSK DUSK Network (+81%, Market Cap $99.8 million)

According to Gate data, the current price of the BOT token is $0.20, up over 80% in 24 hours. Dusk Network (DUSK) is a privacy-focused blockchain platform aimed at providing compliant zero-knowledge proof solutions for financial applications, supporting securities tokenization and RWA applications.

The surge in DUSK is mainly driven by fundamental breakthroughs, coupled with capital inflows and market momentum. Recent catalysts include the launch of the mainnet, which boosted market confidence, and integration with Chainlink for RWA tokenization. Additionally, a partnership with Dutch licensed exchange NPEX allows issuance of securities up to €200 million, further encouraging institutional adoption. Meanwhile, spot trading volume surged to hundreds of millions of dollars in the past 24 hours, with open interest increasing over 80%, indicating significant capital inflow.

NAM Namada (+103%, Market Cap $3.12 million)

According to Gate data, NAM’s current price is $0.00318, up over 100% in 24 hours. Namada (NAM) is a multi-chain privacy Layer 1 blockchain using proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus, supporting IBC protocol, integrated with the Cosmos ecosystem, providing asset-agnostic privacy protection suitable for cross-chain asset transfers and DeFi applications.

NAM’s rise is mainly driven by technical breakthroughs and capital inflows under low liquidity, but lacks strong fundamental support. Traders note that NAM has broken out of a descending wedge pattern, signaling a bullish trend. As a small-cap asset, a small amount of buying can significantly move the price, with market activity likely driven by retail FOMO. Overall, there are no major fundamental news; the rise appears to be driven by low-market-cap speculation.

FRAX Frax (+29%, Market Cap $104 million)

According to Gate data, FRAX’s current price is $1.12, up over 29% in 24 hours. Frax (FRAX) is the governance token of Frax Finance, a decentralized stablecoin system known for its partially algorithmic stability model, supporting RWA integration, and expanding DeFi applications via Layer 2 solutions like Fraxtal.

FRAX’s increase is mainly driven by rebranding and ecosystem expansion. The renaming from FXS to FRAX was completed on January 15, 2026, and adjustments were made on major exchanges like Gate, boosting visibility and liquidity. Recent catalysts include the launch of FraxNet, an account-based platform supporting minting, redemption, and yield generation of frxUSD across 20+ blockchains, enabling self-service access.

Alpha Insights

ETH staking entered a new high since August 2023, with the queue fully cleared

According to ValidatorQueue data, since entering 2026, the number of ETH staked in validator queues has significantly increased, with the amount waiting to be staked growing more than fivefold since the beginning of the year, currently reaching 2.582 million ETH, the highest since early August 2023, with an average wait time exceeding 44 days. Meanwhile, the validator exit queue has been completely cleared, after a peak of over 2.6 million ETH in September 2025, now down to zero, indicating a structural shift in staking fund flows.

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Prices face pressure, but long-term locking willingness in staking is clearly strengthening. This contrasts with recent ETH corrections and market deleveraging, yet shows opposite directional fund behavior. The sharp increase in queue entries, combined with the disappearance of the exit queue, suggests that there is no long-term capital withdrawal during downturns; instead, more ETH is actively being locked and delayed from entering circulation.

) Should Ethereum and Solana diverge in their evolution paths?

Recently, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik and Solana co-founder Toly engaged in a heated debate over whether protocols should cease evolving. Vitalik emphasizes the walkaway test and ossification, essentially addressing whether a chain can remain a trusted infrastructure if all core developers leave. He believes mature public chains should resemble fundamental tools in the physical world—once core rules are established, changes should be minimized, maximizing decentralization and censorship resistance through protocol robustness. Ethereum thus leans toward creating a “permanently available minimal trusted core,” reducing innovation to client, parameter, or application layers, rather than continuously modifying consensus and core protocols.

Toly, on the other hand, views “evolution capability” as a core competitive advantage. His stance is almost opposite: he does not see “developers leaving with confidence” as the goal, but rather considers continuous evolution as vital for protocol vitality. In Solana’s view, if the protocol stops iterating based on real user and developer needs, it’s akin to giving up competition; as long as the network creates real utility and enables developers to profit, it will naturally attract contributors, possibly driven by AI/LLM governance and resource allocation in the future. Under this philosophy, the protocol is not a “finalized tool,” but a system that must be constantly upgraded. The key is not whether it is modified, but whether it solves real problems and can say “no” to worthless proposals. This is not a debate between conservatism and radicalism, but two distinct paths: Ethereum chooses stability for ultimate trustworthiness, while Solana opts for continuous evolution to maintain competitive edge.

The Hidden Security Risks of IDE Auto-Execution in the Vibe Coding Boom

As more people use VS Code, Cursor, Antigravity, and other derivative IDEs for Vibe Coding—cloning projects, rapidly testing code—they often overlook the IDE’s own “automatic execution” capabilities. SlowMist founder Cos points out that the core risk lies in enabling Allow Automatic Tasks: when you open a project directory, commands hidden in .vscode/tasks.json may silently execute—turning a simple GitHub clone into a supply chain attack if crafted by malicious actors.

A low-cost but effective way to reduce risk: go to settings via CTRL + SHIFT + P, disable Allow Automatic Tasks, or directly set task.allowAutomaticTasks to off in user settings JSON. This blocks most hidden attack paths that trigger upon opening. This setting generally does not impact most development scenarios, as most developers do not need the IDE to run tasks automatically when opening directories. If using Cursor, you can further enable Workspace Trust, which prompts for confirmation when opening new directories, even if trusted, preventing automatic execution of .vscode/tasks.json. As AI programming accelerates development efficiency, security boundaries must shift to the IDE layer; otherwise, the most dangerous attack is not what’s written in code, but what gets executed without your explicit command.
References:

• Gate, [https://www.gate.com/trade/BTC_USDT]###https://www.gate.com/trade/BTC_USDT(
• Farside Investors, [https://farside.co.uk/btc/])https://farside.co.uk/btc/(
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• ValidatorQueue, [https://www.validatorqueue.com/])https://www.validatorqueue.com/(
• X, [https://x.com/toly/status/2012541454669783314?s=20])https://x.com/toly/status/2012541454669783314?s=20(
• X, [https://x.com/evilcos/status/2012724893235003803?s=20])https://x.com/evilcos/status/2012724893235003803?s=20(

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