Weekly Recap: Will the Relief Last?
Happy first weekend of 2026, Defiers!
Markets have continued Friday’s rally into the weekend after mostly trading sideways the last two weeks of the year. BTC is trading solidly over $91,000 and ETH is holding out above $3,100 today, with both assets posting moderate gains this week of 4% and 7%, respectively.
XRP and DOGE are the biggest gainers this week among the top-10 large-cap coins, with DOGE joining a “blue-chip” memecoin rally on Friday, gaining nearly 22% in the past seven days.
Market sentiment is still shaky following the holiday slump, but “extreme fear” is at least alternating with just “fear” this weekend, per the Crypto Fear & Greed Index.
News was light this week given the new year holiday, but some projects kept shipping. Perpetual futures DEX Lighter launched its much-anticipated LIT token — though many criticized the team’s timing, while some reported withdrawal issues on the platform. Trump Media also announced it was planning to launch a token available to shareholders, apparently in exchange for their equity.
Earlier in the week, Layer 1 blockchain Flow was exploited for nearly $4 million, and its native token has yet to recover from the incident.
Finally, Zcash emerged as by far the top performing asset among large-caps over the past year.
Enjoy!
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Uniswap’s Hayden Adams Unpacks UNIfication and the Protocol’s Fee Switch
Top Stories This Week
Lighter Users Report Withdrawal Issues After Perp DEX Launches LIT Token
Users of decentralized perpetuals exchange Lighter reported problems withdrawing assets on Tuesday, hours after the platform announced and launched its native LIT token overnight. The team made its first official announcement of the token late Monday night and the TGE occurred several hours later, catching many supporters by surprise.
Trump Media Announces New Token Launch in 2026
While many crypto traders are ready to put a tumultuous year behind them, President Donald Trump’s media company, Trump Media, just announced plans to launch a new digital token for its shareholders. The token is expected to launch “in the near future” in partnership with Crypto[.]com, using its Cronos blockchain.
Flow Back Online After Token Drops 40% on $4M Exploit
Dapper Labs’ Layer 1 blockchain Flow suffered a $3.9 million exploit on Dec. 27 that caused more than 24 hours of downtime, and a drastic drop in token price.
The FLOW token dropped 40% from a $280 million market capitalization to $170 million early last Saturday morning. Despite resuming activity earlier this week, FLOW holders are yet to experience much of a relief bounce.
Zcash Emerges as Top-Performing Large-Cap Crypto of the Year
The top-performing large-cap cryptocurrency of the year isn’t Bitcoin, but Zcash, which has surged more than 800% as investor interest in privacy-focused tokens took center stage.
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Trending
- ZachXBT Reports EVM Hack Affecting Hundreds of Wallets
- Crypto Markets Move Higher After Holidays, Memecoins Outperform
- Memecoins Lead Crypto Rally as PEPE Surges Over 30%
- 2025 Marks a Year to Forget for Altcoins
- Trump Media Announces New Token Launch in 2026
- Zcash Emerges as Top-Performing Large-Cap Crypto of the Year
That’s it for today — have a great weekend! If you enjoyed this newsletter, tell your friends! https://thedefiant.io/subscribe





