In January, activity on major altcoin networks, namely Solana and Ethereum, recorded significant milestones. In the second half of the month, the number of daily vigorous addresses on Solana consistently exceeded 5 million.

Ethereum overtook Main Layer 2 in December in terms of daily vigorous addresses after major network updates. In January, the network saw a 25% augment in the number of daily vigorous addresses thanks to the efforts of developers on the “future-proof” Ethereum.

Seven Bitcoin (BTC) miners in the US are in a critical storm zone and may have to temporarily curtail their mining activities as a winter storm rocked power grids and left thousands without power.

Geopolitical concerns, namely US President Donald Trump’s alleged aspirations to take over Greenland, are making global investors cautious. Bitcoin’s price has fallen almost 10% from its monthly high of $97,000.

Here’s January in numbers:

The number of vigorous Solana addresses increased by almost 115% amid the token launch frenzy

As of January 28, the monthly augment in the number of daily vigorous addresses in the Solana network was 115%. According to Nansen’s data, the total number of such addresses regularly exceeded 5 million.

This surge is the result of the renewed memecoin minting craze next the launch of Anthropic’s Claude Cowork, an AI agent that can control a user’s desktop. This enabled developers using Solana-based starter tokens to turn token launches into overdrive.

Fees on the platform increased to $4.5 million on January 16. For context, from September to December last year, daily fees were uncommon passed five figures and sometimes even several hundred dollars.

During the same period, the number of tokens that “switched” or launched from Bags surpassed another popular token launch platform, Solana Pump.fun.

Active Ethereum addresses augment by 25%

Activity on the Ethereum network has also seen significant growth. At the end of December, it overtook leading companies L2 Base and Arbitrum in terms of daily vigorous addresses. In January, the same indicator increased by 25%.

The augment in activity is due to several major network upgrades that have increased blob sizes and thus reduced fees. On January 29, average fees on Ethereum were lower than USD 0.01.

Related: Efforts to bulletproof Ethereum are paying off in user metrics

These updates were part of the effort to finalize Ethereum. On January 12, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said Ethereum should eventually pass a “pass test.” He said the real test of Ethereum will be to continue to function and meet user needs without the presence of developers actively changing and monitoring the network.

Seven US Bitcoin miners face mining restrictions during winter storm

Maybe seven Bitcoin mining operations in the United States shorten operations as winter storms strain the U.S. power grid in the Southeast and South Central regions.

According to Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at VanEck, mining locations operated by Riot, Core Scientific, CleanSpark and Bitdeer “are structurally configured to act as flexible payloads for utility demand response programs.”

“We don’t yet have confirmation whether there will be a real-time containment of this storm, but the model has already proven its value as conditions tighten.”

The storm, which also hit the Midwest and Northeast, caused flight cancellations, hazardous travel conditions and power outages. killed at least 20 people as of January 27.

The hardest hit were southern states, which are generally unaccustomed to snow and lack critical infrastructure to cope with winter conditions. As of Jan. 28, about 400,000 people were without power in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.

Many Bitcoin miners have set up operations in locations where they can stabilize grid prices by buying power cheaply when there is little or no demand and temporarily turning it off during times of stress.

Four out of 10 US merchants accept cryptocurrencies: PayPal report

Cryptocurrencies are becoming increasingly popular in payments, according to major payment processor PayPal. Four in 10 U.S. merchants now accept cryptocurrencies, the company said in a January report. A survey by PayPal found that cryptocurrencies offer faster transaction speeds and greater privacy, and attract cryptocurrency-savvy customers.

PayPal Vice President and General Manager May Zabaneh said: “Both in this data and in conversations with our customers, we see that cryptocurrency payments are moving beyond experimentation and into everyday commerce.”

About 84% of these same merchants believe that cryptocurrency payments will become mainstream in the next five years.

Bitcoin price remains unchanged despite the Greenland fiasco

Bitcoin’s price saw a brief surge towards $100,000 in the middle of this month before falling to $87,000. The decline of more than 10% came amid discussions about what might happen to Greenland, itself an autonomous Danish territory.

Trump argued that the US must control Greenland for security reasons and counter Chinese and Russian ambitions in the Arctic. This is despite the fact that Denmark and the US are part of NATO, an organization created to counter the same ambitions.

While sentiment has cooled, the fact that Bitcoin, like global markets in general, has been affected by saber rattling shows that BTC is a risky asset.

Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at the IG investment and trading platform, he said“Cryptocurrencies offered no shelter from the wave of selling that swept across global markets in response to Trump’s threat.”

According to some analysts, Trump’s radical foreign policy, including punitive, unilateral tariffs and increasing aggressive rhetoric against former allies, has weakened the price of Bitcoin.

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