PA Daily News | Gold and silver both hit record highs; SwapNet suffers attack, approximately $16.8 million in crypto assets stolen.

Today's top news highlights:

Spot gold broke through $5,100 ; silver broke through $110 /ounce.

South Korea postpones the passage of the second phase of the Virtual Asset Act due to controversy over stablecoin and other clauses.

Entropy, backed by a16z, will shut down and return remaining funds to investors.

Binance Alpha lists WorldMobileToken (WMTX)

SwapNet suffers attack, approximately $16.8 million in crypto assets stolen.

Binance will remove several spot trading pairs, including BTC/UAH and DASH/ETH.

Optimism releases Superchain's quantum-resistant roadmap: ECDSA and EOA will be phased out within 10 years.

Vitalik shifts his view: Blockchain should provide users with a "fallback" mechanism for self-verification.

Regulatory news

South Korea postpones the passage of the second phase of the Virtual Asset Act due to controversy over stablecoin and other clauses.

South Korea's second phase of legislation on the Virtual Asset Act has been delayed due to controversy over key provisions. The bill aims to comprehensively regulate digital assets, including stablecoins. The main points of contention are twofold: first, the issuer qualifications for Korean won stablecoins—whether banks or authorized companies should be the primary issuers; and second, whether to relax restrictions on the separation of financial and virtual asset operations to encourage innovation. Furthermore, the bill proposes a 15%-20% cap on shareholdings by major shareholders in exchanges, a restriction criticized as overly restrictive.

Due to legislative delays, discussions on related issues such as spot virtual asset ETFs and the trading of virtual assets by listed companies have also been put on hold. Negotiations are still ongoing among government agencies, industry participants, and political groups.

Japan may lift its ban on crypto ETFs in 2028, and SBI and Nomura are pushing forward with the development of related products.

According to Nikkei, Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) is expected to lift the ban on spot cryptocurrency ETFs, including Bitcoin, by 2028. To achieve this, the agency plans to amend the Enforcement Ordinance of the Investment Trust Act to classify virtual currencies as "specific assets" that investment trusts can invest in. Reportedly, large financial institutions such as SBI Holdings and Nomura Holdings are already developing related products. If approved for listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, individual investors will be able to trade virtual currency ETFs through their securities accounts, similar to buying and selling stocks or gold ETFs. Previous surveys have indicated that at least six asset management companies are researching and developing related products, targeting both individual and institutional investors.

Lifting the ban is contingent on tax reform. Currently, Japan uses a comprehensive taxation system for virtual assets, with a maximum tax rate of 55%. Discussions are underway to adjust this to a separate taxation system, with a uniform tax rate of 20%.

Project Updates

Entropy, backed by a16z, will shut down and return remaining funds to investors.

According to The Block, Entropy, a decentralized custody startup backed by a16z, has announced its closure and will return remaining funds to investors. Founder and CEO Tux Pacific stated that after four years of operation, multiple business shifts, and two rounds of layoffs, the company failed to find a business model commensurate with its venture capital investment.

Entropy completed a $25 million seed funding round in June 2022, led by a16z crypto, bringing its total funding to approximately $27 million. The company initially positioned itself as a decentralized alternative to centralized custodians like Fireblocks and Coinbase, but later shifted its focus to developing a crypto automation platform. The founders stated that after initial market feedback indicated its business model was not worthy of venture capital investment, they decided to cease operations.

MetaPlanet recorded a loss of approximately $679 million due to quarterly Bitcoin market capitalization volatility.

Japanese listed company MetaPlanet announced that it has revised its earnings forecast for fiscal year 2025 upward, with revenue increasing from 6.8 billion yen to 8.905 billion yen and operating profit rising to 6.287 billion yen. However, due to the quarterly market value fluctuation of Bitcoin, it has recorded an assessment loss of 104.636 billion yen (approximately US$679 million), resulting in an ordinary loss of 98.558 billion yen.

Binance Alpha lists WorldMobileToken (WMTX)

Binance Alpha is now listing WorldMobileToken (WMTX). Users holding at least 241 Binance Alpha Points can claim the token airdrop. Claim 580 WMTX tokens on the Alpha event page on a first-come, first-served basis. If the event continues, the point threshold will automatically decrease by 5 points every five minutes. Please note that claiming the airdrop will consume 15 Binance Alpha Points. Users must confirm their claim within 24 hours on the Alpha event page; otherwise, they will be considered to have forfeited their airdrop.

Binance will remove several spot trading pairs, including BTC/UAH, COMP/BTC, and DASH/ETH.

Binance will remove and cease trading the following spot trading pairs at 16:00 (UTC+8) on January 27, 2026: BTC/UAH, COMP/BTC, DASH/ETH, ETC/ETH, IO/BTC, LINEA/BNB, MINA/BTC, MMT/BNB, MOVE/BNB, OG/BTC, OGN/BTC, PLUME/BNB, PNUT/FDUSD, RUNE/ETH, SEI/FDUSD, SHIB/DOGE, STX/FDUSD, TIA/FDUSD, TON/BTC, VET/ETH, and YB/BNB.

Aperture Finance: V3/V4 contracts have been compromised by a vulnerability; core functionality has been discontinued on the front end.

Aperture Finance announced on its X platform that it has detected a vulnerability affecting Aperture V3/V4 contracts. To prevent new authorizations, core functionality has been suspended in the front-end application, and the company is working with security partners to investigate the root cause of the incident. To ensure wallet security, please immediately revoke all authorizations to the following contract address on the Ethereum mainnet: 0xD83d960deBEC397fB149b51F8F37DD3B5CFA8913.

Optimism releases Superchain's quantum-resistant roadmap: ECDSA and EOA will be phased out within 10 years.

According to official sources, Optimism has released its quantum-resistant roadmap for Superchain, the core of which is the announcement that it will phase out External Ownership Accounts (EOAs) based on ECDSA signatures over the next ten years. Specifically, by January 2036, EOA transactions using ECDSA signatures on the Optimism mainnet and Superchain will be deprecated, and all such accounts will need to delegate their key management to smart contract accounts that support post-quantum signatures.

This roadmap covers both the user and consensus levels. At the user level, leveraging account abstraction technology and standards such as EIP-7702, EOAs will gradually delegate signing authority to smart accounts capable of verifying post-quantum signatures. At the consensus level, L2 orderers and bulk committers will migrate to post-quantum signatures, while Ethereum itself is urged to develop a timeline for migrating validators from BLS signatures and KZG commitments to post-quantum algorithms. The entire upgrade process will be coordinated through hard forks, providing the ecosystem with ten years for a smooth transition.

SwapNet suffers attack, approximately $16.8 million in crypto assets stolen.

Matcha Meta reported a security vulnerability involving SwapNet, putting users who have not enabled the "one-time authorization" feature at risk. To date, approximately $16.8 million worth of crypto assets have been stolen. On the Base chain, attackers have exchanged approximately 10.5 million USDC for approximately 3,655 ETH and have begun transferring funds across chains to Ethereum.

Opinions & Analysis

Vitalik shifts his view: Blockchain should provide users with a "fallback" mechanism for self-verification.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin posted on the X platform that he no longer agrees with his 2017 statement that "ordinary users' self-verification of the entire system history is a bizarre 'mountain man' fantasy." He explained that he made this assertion at the time to refute the proposal that "blockchain only needs to record the order of transactions and not the state," because the latter would force users to rely on a single data source.

His shift in perspective stemmed from two core reasons: First, breakthroughs in technologies like ZK-SNARKs enabled users to efficiently verify the chain state without re-executing all transactions, significantly reducing the cost of self-verification. Second, he gained a deeper understanding of the complexities of the real world, including network risks, service disruptions, and potential threats of attacks and censorship. Therefore, a blockchain system aiming for long-term self-custody must provide users with a reliable and trustless "fallback"—the self-verification capability metaphorically represented by the "Mountain Hut." He emphasized that maintaining this capability is not about advocating for daily use, but about ensuring its availability during crises, serving as the cornerstone for enhancing the resilience of the entire system and user autonomy.

Da Hongfei called on Zhang Zhengwen to cooperate on "realizing Binance's investment value for Neo," to which the latter responded, "Don't use Binance to grab attention."

NEO founder Da Hongfei posted on the X platform, stating that Zhang Zhengwen had not previously mentioned the discussions between the two parties regarding the Binance investment. Neo invested in Binance in 2017, and although it has not yet received dividends or BNB returns, this investment remains an important financial asset for the Neo Foundation and NGD, and is a community asset that should not be managed in a dictatorial manner. He stated that one of his goals is to resolve and realize the value of this investment within the next two years, allowing the funds to contribute to the Neo ecosystem. To achieve this, cooperation with Zhang Zhengwen is necessary, not confrontation. Da Hongfei also accused Zhang Zhengwen of defaming his character, threatening his personal safety, and attempting a hostile takeover, pushing Neo to dangerous extremes and putting its assets at risk. He further stated that coercion through distorted facts is ineffective, and that Zhang Zhengwen has sufficient resources to do meaningful things for Neo and should no longer fight for personal control and dictatorial ambitions. He added that core developers should have been continuously adding features to the Neo mainnet for many years.

In response, Zhang Zhengwen told Da Hongfei to stop using Binance to grab attention, saying that no one likes to be used like that, and emphasized that the dialogue focused on Neo's internal governance and accountability, rather than external brand association or diverting attention.

Da Hongfei: Zhang Zhengwen seriously distorted the facts and "only told part of the truth," and he is still seeking "limited cooperation."

In response to a post by Neo co-founder Zhang Zhengwen , NEO founder Da Hongfei stated that it severely distorted the facts. Da Hongfei pointed out that Zhang Zhengwen's requested "mechanism" was actually phrased as "every transaction and all expenditures must be approved by me," which is essentially a copy of the Neo Foundation's autocratic management model. He clarified that he himself stated that starting this year, the Neo Foundation and NGD's financial reports will be released quarterly, with significantly improved transparency and detail. Da Hongfei stated that he had informed Zhang Zhengwen (and other community members) that they could publish news and blogs on neo.org, and even sent a message authorizing the @Neo_Blockchain account for Zhang's use to attract followers, but Zhang Zhengwen repeatedly "only told part of the truth." Da Hongfei stated that he will record all conversations from now on.

Da Hongfei also mentioned that, for the sake of transparency, after consulting with and obtaining Zhang Zhengwen's consent, he arranged for NGD to conduct transactions with the Neo Foundation's treasury, with the initial $1 million traded at spot prices. His motives were twofold: first, to increase NGD's equity stake to unify the interests of all parties; and second, to provide Zhang Zhengwen with operating funds to promote the Neo mainnet. Da Hongfei emphasized that he has always sought "limited cooperation," and that both parties still share the common goal of promoting Neo's development and revival. He stressed that they should cooperate where their goals align and work independently where there are disagreements, which is the only way to resolve Neo's governance deadlock in recent years, and demanded that Zhang Zhengwen stop distorting his statements. Previously, Zhang Zhengwen had called on Da Hongfei to resign from his leadership position in the NEO ecosystem .

Placeholder Partner: We haven't started buying yet, but we will continue to add to our positions in BTC and other crypto assets should the market experience a significant drop.

Chris Burniske, former head of crypto at Ark Invest and now partner at Placeholder VC, said: "I haven't started buying yet, but if I were a buyer, I think the key price ranges to watch for BTC include:

• Approximately $80,000: The low point in November 2025, which is also the interim low point of this "bear market";

• Approximately $74,000: Low point in April 2025, during the tariff panic, slightly below MSTR's cost price (approximately $76,000).

• Approximately $70,000: The upper limit of the $50,000–$70,000 range, close to the 2021 bull market high;

• Approximately $58,000: The 200-week moving average, which is also the on-chain cost range (realized value of approximately $56,000); $50,000 and below: The lower edge of the weekly range, which has strong psychological significance. If it falls below this level, the market may once again see the argument that 'Bitcoin is dead'.

Importantly, I'm not concerned about short-term market movements. If prices continue to rebound from current levels, I will hold my existing positions and gradually diversify my investments; if the market experiences a significant decline, I will choose to add to my BTC holdings and some select crypto assets.

Important data

Spot gold breaks through $5,100

Spot gold rose above $5,100 per ounce during the session, surging more than $110 on the day, a gain of over 2%.

Spot silver breaks through $110

Spot silver continued its upward trend from last week, strongly rising above $110 per ounce during the session, just one trading day after breaking through $100 last Friday, with a daily increase of about 6%.

Coinbase: 71% of institutional investors believe Bitcoin is undervalued in the $85,000 to $95,000 range.

At the beginning of the year, a "whale that had held ETH for 4 years and then switched to WBTC" exchanged 578.66 WBTC for 17706.74 WETH.

The "whale that bought WBTC and ETH at high prices using revolving loans" continued to sell 400 WBTC at a loss to repay the loan.

A dormant ETH whale, dormant for nine years, transferred 50,000 ETH to Gemini, worth approximately $145 million.

A whale that lost $18.8 million on ETH is now betting on gold, having already spent $36.04 million to buy XAUT.

A whale who lost $18.8 million on Ethereum in just two weeks is now doubling down on gold. Since December 13, 2025, he spent $36.04 million to buy 7,536 XAUT at an average price of $4,786 (currently worth $38.34 million), and currently has an unrealized profit of +$2.3 million.