A New Future for Pendle
DeFi protocol Pendle Finance will begin phasing out its vePENDLE token for its new liquid staking derivative, sPENDLE.
This move is part of the team’s efforts at reducing user friction from long token lockups and complex token derivatives.
Compared to vePENDLE which includes locks that could be extended for multiple years, sPENDLE can be locked and withdrawn after a 14-day waiting period, or immediately for a 5% fee.
Additionally, up to 80% of protocol revenue will be used for PENDLE buybacks, which will be redistributed to sPENDLE holders.
sPENDLE staking is slated to go live today, while vePENDLE locks will be paused on January 29.
Since Pendle’s announcement, the price of PENDLE spiked earlier today to $2.06, but has since retraced to $1.91 amidst current market conditions.
Nansen’s Next Move
Following its foray into AI-powered analytics, on-chain data platform Nansen has announced its new AI-powered trading terminal, available on web and mobile platforms.
According to the team, the AI trading agent includes both analysis and execution within a single interface, allowing users to ‘vibe trade’ based on their conversation with the agent.
While the agent is capable of providing trading ideas and suggestions, it does not offer custodial services and transactions will have to be approved by the user.
For this product, the team has also integrated DEX aggregators such as Jupiter and OKX, as well as Li.Fi for cross-chain swaps.
During this initial phase, the product only supports trades on both Base and Solana.
It’s also worth noting that usage of the AI agent will play a crucial part in Season 3 of Nansen’s ongoing points campaign.
The Nansen AI trading agent is currently available to most users except specific countries such as Syria, Singapore and North Korea.
Same Lens, New Mask
DeFi lending protocol Aave has transferred stewardship of its SocialFi network Lens Protocol to Mask Network.
While Mask Network takes over the primary leadership, Aave founder Stani Kuchelov stated that his team will continue to provide technical support as it switches its sights back to DeFi.
Under this new arrangement, the Mask team will be in charge of all day-to-day operations and future product updates on Lens.
However, all of Lens’ underlying on-chain features and smart contracts will remain permissionless.
Since the announcement, the price of the native MASK token has remained largely unchanged, falling slightly by 1.1% as the market downturn continues.
The Peculiar Plunge on Paradex
The Starknet-based appchain Paradex has announced a rollback after suffering a data issue which caused the price of Bitcoin, ETH and other assets to plunge close to zero on the DEX.
This erroneous price plunge resulted in mass liquidations on the platforms, shortly before Paradex reported a system-wide outage across its trading interface, API and block explorer.
The team has addressed the situation, stating that the error was caused due to a database migration.
As such, the team has decided to rollback the chain to a prior state before the migration, with all account balances to be restored accordingly.
Additionally, the team reassured users that all funds remain secure, and that all open orders will be cancelled except for take-profit and stop-limit orders.
Paradex is now back online, with most of the exchange’s services restored, including platform and vault withdrawals.
Since the incident, the price of STRK has dropped by 10.2% from $0.088 to $0.079 today.
In Other News
DJT Airdrops? Donald Trump’s Trump Media & Technology Group, a publicly traded stock, announced that it intends to airdrop crypto tokens to its shareholders with the cutoff date set at February 2. While no other details about the token is shared, the token would be minted in partnership with crypto exchange, crypto.com.
All Eyes on ZRO. Interoperability project, LayerZero released a cryptic tease about the future of their project. An official announcement is expected on February 10, no other details are shared.
SKR Floodgates Open. SKR, the token airdropped to users of the Solana Seeker mobile phone, can now be claimed. Over 100K users are eligible, and must claim their tokens within the next 90 days.
Galaxy Digital Sets Up $30M Crypto Fund. Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital announced a $100M hedge fund, with $30M allocated towards crypto. Galaxy Digital is a notable crypto investor, having recently closed a $75M tokenized loan obligation on the Avalanche blockchain.
Mastercard’s Crypto Acquisition Falls Through. Payments giant Mastercard has reportedly failed to acquire blockchain infrastructure firm Zerohash, after the firm opted to remain independent. It was previously reported in October 2025, that Mastercard was prepared to pay as much as $2B for Zerohash.
Pumpfun Starts Crypto Fund. Solana memecoin launchpad Pump.fun announced the launch of their new investment fund, “Pump Fund”, debuting with $3M, with the intention to invest $250K each into 12 crypto projects at its “Build in Public Hackathon”.
Makina Finance Suffers $5M Exploit. Blockchain security firm CertiK flagged a suspicious transaction at DeFi app Makina Finance. CertiK reported that the attacker used a flash loan exploit to drain Makina’s stablecoin pools for over $5M.
MegaETH Preps for Launch. Ethereum L2 MegaETH is set to undergo an ambitious stress test starting Thursday where the team aims to process 11B transactions in a week. The team aims to launch its public mainnet shortly after the completion of the stress test.
Have You Been Paying Gas Fees? ETHGas, a DeFi protocol commoditizing Ethereum gas fees, has announced the launch and airdrop of their upcoming GWEI token. The airdrop eligibility checker and tokens claim is live, eligible users will be vested for a minimum period of 30 days.
Wale Slashed Over TROVE ICO. Ethos, a crypto socials reputation platform has successfully slashed crypto influencer Wales over his undisclosed paid promotion of TROVE, where Wales was paid 8000 USDC. TROVE was recently implicated over an alleged rugpull of over $20M.
Magic Eden Activates Revenue Sharing. NFT marketplace Magic Eden announced that starting from February 1, 15% of generated revenue will be allocated to ME token holders. 7.5% of the revenue will be used to buyback ME tokens, while the remaining 7.5% will be redistributed to ME stakers in the form of USDC.
