Weekly Editor's Picks (0124-0130)
- Core Views: This week's selected articles focus on key themes such as the precious metals supercycle, the nature of stablecoin competition, Ethereum's application vision, and on-chain stock derivatives. They reveal the structural changes and evolving investment logic under the current convergence of crypto and macro markets.
- Key Elements:
- Precious metals (gold, silver, copper) are experiencing a once-in-45-years supercycle, driven by capital flight, industrial demand (e.g., solar energy), and supply constraints. COMEX silver may face physical delivery default risks by March 2026.
- The core of stablecoin issuance competition has shifted from technology to operational capabilities such as compliance, redemption efficiency, and bundled services. The cost of switching issuers is high, and the real value lies in the complete orbital infrastructure built around the stablecoin.
- Vitalik Buterin pointed out a disconnect between technology and applications within the Ethereum ecosystem. Its core value lies in "true ownership," and he called for building applications like DeSoc, smarter DAOs, and decentralized stablecoins.
- On-chain stock perpetual contracts represent a new narrative for Perp DEXes seeking growth. Their development needs to address challenges unique to the structure of US stocks, such as non-24/7 trading, which impacts oracle pricing and liquidation.
- Some argue that AI development may be hindered as it threatens existing interest structures. Shorting AI is essentially betting against the race between credit expansion and productivity growth, while going long on anti-fragile assets like hard assets.
- The Trump family's assets increased by approximately $14 billion within a year through crypto projects, sparking controversy over potential insider trading and market manipulation.
- The US crypto regulatory framework is gradually becoming clearer. The passage of a market structure bill would enhance industry predictability, and the CFTC has also indicated it will establish new rules for prediction markets.
"Weekly Editor's Picks" is a functional column by Odaily. While Odaily covers a vast amount of real-time news every week, it also publishes many high-quality in-depth analyses. However, these might get lost in the information feed and hot news, passing you by.
Therefore, our editorial team will select some worthwhile, high-quality articles from the past 7 days every Saturday, offering you new insights from the perspectives of data analysis, industry judgment, and opinion sharing in the crypto world.
Now, let's read together:
Investment & Entrepreneurship
Silver Moon in the Sky: How Long Will the Silver Rally Last?
$103 for silver is not the end, perhaps not even the midpoint. The driving factors (capital flight, currency devaluation, solar energy demand, supply constraints) remain unchanged and are accelerating. These same dynamics are spreading to other metals, particularly copper.
Key turning signals to watch: China actively addressing its real estate debt crisis; the US shifting towards fiscal responsibility; a more peaceful world; non-US Western elites reaching some agreement with the US.
What's Driving the Once-in-45-Years Super Rally for Gold, Silver, and Copper?
The new highs for gold, silver, and copper are not a cyclical rebound but a fundamental global shift in the valuation logic for hard assets.
In 2025, the Silver Miners ETF delivered a return as high as 195%, and this trade is not over yet.
The conclusion of peace agreements, the emergence of material substitutes, and short-term market pullbacks could lead to price corrections of 20% to 40%.
In Traders' Eyes, Silver is the Next Bitcoin
Silver's narrative is shifting from 'poor man's gold' to 'essential for industrial growth,' undergoing a profound structural reshaping of its fundamentals. Whether from industrial demand, monetary attributes, institutional moves, or ETF inflows, silver seems to be having its 'Bitcoin moment.'
Silver Faces a 'Delivery Failure' Crisis? March Could Be a 'Critical Moment' for Precious Metals
The COMEX could face a physical silver delivery default as early as March 2026, which would completely destroy the credibility of the existing pricing mechanism, trigger a chain reaction spreading to gold and credit markets, and potentially lead to a collapse of the entire financial system.
The real watershed for digital physical gold is moving from 'on-chain' to 'usable'—in the Web3 environment, XAUt can not only be traded but also combined with other assets, exchanged, and even connected to payment and consumption scenarios.
When Traders Start Trading Silver On-Chain: Hyperliquid's Full-Asset 'Infiltration War'
From a trader's perspective, as long as HIP-3's open interest continues to hit new highs, as long as BTC order book depth keeps approaching Binance's, and as long as precious metals trading volume maintains growth—as long as these three metrics hold, HYPE remains in an upward channel.
Also recommended: "Ark Invest's 'Big Ideas 2026' Crypto Chapter: BTC Market Cap to Rise to $16 Trillion by 2030"
Prediction Markets
Essential for Polymarket Developers: 18 Battle-Tested Core Open-Source Tool Libraries
Policy & Stablecoins
Compliance, Liquidity, Distribution: Where is the Real Battlefield for Stablecoin Issuance?
Core issuance capabilities are converging, but in areas with high operational demands like compliance, redemption efficiency, launch time, and bundled services, providers are not easily interchangeable. If you view issuers as completely fungible, you miss where the real constraints lie and misjudge where profits might be retained.
The article further breaks down the technology and operational stack of white-label issuance.
Stablecoins are fighting a customer acquisition war, aiming for retention through switching costs. Changing an issuer involves reserve and custody operations, compliance processes, redemption mechanisms, and downstream system integrations, so issuers are not "replaceable with a click."
Pricing power comes from bundling, regulatory environment, and liquidity constraints. The value lies not in "creating the token" itself but in the entire track infrastructure surrounding the stablecoin's operation.
Also recommended: "Tokenized Securities Regulation is Clearer, Which Hot Projects Won't Pass SEC Scrutiny?".
Airdrop Opportunities & Interaction Guides
2026 Potential Airdrop Project Mega Collection & Tutorials (Part 3)
The Ultimate Guide to 2026 Perp DEX Airdrops
Ethereum & Scaling
Vitalik: The biggest shift in recent years is seeing the huge divide between technology and application. Too many people seem to have forgotten the original intention of "building various decentralized applications that truly change how society collaborates." I hope Ethereum can become a core hub for all decentralized applications in the future, serving not just finance but permeating all industries. Its core value lies in 'true ownership.' The types of applications I most hope developers build are: DeSoc, smarter DAOs, decentralized stablecoins. Besides fiat, decentralized stablecoins can also be pegged to real-world value, like CPI.
The biggest structural dilemma for SocialFi is: if you tie social and finance too tightly, financial incentives often backfire and overwhelm social incentives.
In the long run, short-term bets on prediction markets don't have much social significance. Theoretically, prediction markets as a tool are successful (because they work), but we need more meaningful applications. In adjudicating disputes, the security standards for current Oracle data sources (like Web2 news sites, Twitter) are too low.
Worthwhile directions for AI×Crypto include: AI's bank account, prediction markets, content authenticity.
Also recommended: "Side Events May Be Slashed by Over 80%, Is ETHDenver's Halo Fading?"
CeFi & DeFi
The US stock market has unique structures like trading hour limitations (not 24/7), pre/post-market volatility, and halting mechanisms, requiring oracles to intelligently handle market state switches. Mainstream solutions incorporate mechanisms like market open/close markers, TWAP smoothing algorithms, and outlier filtering to ensure on-chain prices don't detach from real-world anchors during US market closures while avoiding price manipulation risks due to insufficient liquidity.
At the synthetic asset construction level, stock perpetual contracts do not mint tokens representing real equity but create virtual positions linked to the underlying stock price through smart contracts. To ensure smooth liquidation, mainstream protocols have introduced cross-asset risk engines and dynamic parameter adjustment mechanisms.
The traffic entry points for stock perpetuals are expanding from single official websites to diverse ecosystems. Stock perpetual contracts are at a critical breakthrough phase from zero to one. They are both a necessary choice for Perp DEXs seeking new growth narratives and a testing ground for the fusion of traditional assets and crypto finance.
One Year of the Trump Family's Crypto Project WLFI: When the Referee Joins the Race
The Trump family increased their crypto holdings by $1.4 billion in one year, accounting for 1/5 of their total net worth.
Three major controversies of the Trump family's crypto projects: WLFI public sale, TRUMP Meme coin, USD1 stablecoin popularization.
The Trump family's insider trading code: "News Trading" and "TACO-style trading" running throughout.
Also recommended: "Lazy Investor's Guide｜Latest Yield Calculation for Binance USD1 Airdrop; OpenEden Launches New Pool with 26.4% APY (January 26)".
Web3 & AI
Sorry, This Time I Must Bet on AI's Death
One of the best gauges for measuring actual currency devaluation is M2 growth rate. The idea that stocks always go up is an illusion. The monetization of commodities is real and happening.
When the excess of 'production' threatens the foundation of 'plunder,' interest groups will have ample motivation to make the AI revolution fail or be indefinitely delayed.
Betting on AI's 'death' essentially means: shorting the race between 'exponentially growing credit' and 'linearly growing productivity'; going long on hard assets and anti-fragile assets; shorting organizational efficiency. In other words, betting against AI is betting on physical laws and debt mathematics; betting for AI is betting on a technological singularity and the luck of human evolution.
Also recommended: "ClawdBot Explosion Hands-On Test: Invest $100, 'Earn' 200% Overnight".
Weekly Hot Topics Recap
In the past week, on January 30, BTC briefly fell below $81,200; Trump: Nominates Kevin Warsh as Fed Chair;
Furthermore, in policy and macro markets, The US enters a period of clearer crypto asset regulation, passage of market structure bills could improve industry predictability and benefit retail investors; Trump sues the IRS and Treasury Department, seeking $10 billion in damages; Trump: Not worried about dollar depreciation, can let it go up and down like a yo-yo; Sources: Trump reaches funding deal with Democrats to avoid government shutdown; White House declares "US is already the global crypto capital", CFTC to follow up with rule and regulation reforms; CFTC Chair: Will formulate new rules for prediction markets;
In opinions and voices, Opinion: 2026 is a critical inflection point for the crypto market, industry will shift to new financial infrastructure construction; a16z Crypto: AI-based adjudication mechanisms could solve prediction market scaling bottlenecks;
In institutions, large companies, and top projects, Tether officially launches federally regulated stablecoin USA₮ (Analysis); Binance lists Tesla contracts; ERC-8004 standard released on Ethereum mainnet;
In data, on January 26, Silver broke through $117/oz, hitting a record high (Introduction to tokenized silver); on January 29, Spot gold approached $5,600... Well, another rollercoaster week.
Attached is the series portal for "Weekly Editor's Picks".
See you next time~
