On February 3, 2026, Vitalik Buterin reiterated that Ethereum L1 is scaling and challenged the role of L2s, following a blog post last month questioning their original vision. Base is leaving Optimism's Superchain, and a February 18 estimate put Base at ~97% of the collective's revenue. Polygon is pivoting to a payments stack with $250M in January acquisitions, while Sonic pursues vertical integration.

In its 2026 Global Family Office Report, JPMorgan Private Bank surveyed 333 family offices averaging $1.6B in net worth across 30 countries and found that 89% have no cryptocurrency exposure. The study also shows only 17% expect to prioritize digital assets in the future, while 65% plan to focus on AI investments and roughly 75% of current portfolios are allocated to public equities and alternative assets.

On January 15, 2026, Twitter (X) updated its developer API to ban apps that reward users for posting, with product lead Nikita Bier citing a surge of AI-driven spam. After the announcement, InfoFi tokens fell, as Kaito dropped over 15% and Cookie declined 20%, and Bier offered migration help to Threads and Bluesky.

Base, a Coinbase-incubated Ethereum L2, closed 2025 with $82.6M in revenue, $4.3B in DeFi TVL, and $4.8B in stablecoin value. Across April, July, and December 2025, it reached Stage 1 decentralization, cut block times to 200 milliseconds, and launched a Solana bridge via Chainlink CCIP. The year also brought onchain loans, yield options, DEX access, builder programs, and new developer toolkits.