It’s a new year for crypto, and things are heating up faster than most anticipated. It just might
be a sign that we’re in for a special 2026.
On the home front here at CryptoSlam, that’s exactly what’s coming. Make sure you’re the first to know about our upcoming Ethoswarm reveal by signing up for the waitlist now! And make sure you tune into SLAM Nation daily so you don’t miss any of the hot topics and market action this year. Catch SLAM Nation live every Monday through Friday at 9am ET on the SLAM Nation X account here.
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Anichess. It’s So Hot Right Now. 1 million registered users in 2025 was just the start for Anichess. Now Animoca and Chess.com’s red hot web3 chess game kicks off the new year with fresh ATHs, and the feeling that much more is on the way. - Anichess’ CHECK token rocketed to an $84M FDV yesterday, while their NFT collection called Anichess Ethernals climbed to .53 ETH (just .01 ETH from its ATH).
- Yat Siu compared CHECK to SAND and AXS, citing their early valuations of under $10M FDV before their own
explosive growth.
- Siu also highlighted Anichess’ early voluntary CHECK refunds as an important user-centric feature.
- 1M CHECK rewards are available to Kaito platform users who stake 2,000 CHECK, broken down by 150K
for CN creators, 150K for KR Creators, and 700K for the rest of the world.
- A new Grandmaster Queue has been added to the Winter Clash season, where players pay for game
entry and the winner takes the pot.
Virtuals Pegasus 
Virtuals Protocol has introduced Titan, a launchpad designed
specifically for established projects with proven track records, bypassing the bonding curve mechanics typical of early-stage meme launchpads. - Titan targets teams with existing products, institutional backing, or real-world deployment pathways that do not require early market validation.
- Projects must launch with a minimum valuation of $50M and pair at least 500k USDC worth of $VIRTUAL liquidity at TGE.
- The platform removes bonding curves in favor of immediate market depth, aiming to reduce volatility and attract "scale-ready" builders.
- Trading taxes are fixed at 1%, with tokenomics and vesting schedules fully defined by the project teams rather than the protocol.
- A "Titan Migration" path allows existing tokens to move into the Virtuals ecosystem under the same $50M valuation and liquidity requirements.
Infinex Opens Public Sale at $100M Valuation 
Infinex has launched its public sale for the $INX token, pivoting
to a "no cap" model to maximize distribution for its self-custodial super app designed to replace centralized exchanges. - The sale is live at a $100M valuation with no individual caps, utilizing a bottom-up allocation method to favor wider distribution.
- Patron NFT holders receive priority status in the allocation queue.
- Founder Kain Warwick adjusted the structure to remove caps following community feedback, aiming to solve the "whale dominance" issue.
- Infinex features passkey-first authentication (no seed phrases) and aggregates swaps/bridges across 24 chains, including ZEC, XRP, and DOGE.
- The app includes a frontend for perps trading via Hyperliquid and is scheduled for TGE later this month (Jan 2026).
AI 
The AI market is up +17.99% in the past 7 days to a $6.36B market cap. Top token movers include VIRTUAL (+61.21%), FET (+45.95%), FARTCOIN (+41.93%), AIC (+39.92%), and REKT (+38.88%). - PredictBase secured a strategic investment from Virtuals Ventures, including a $PREDI token
acquisition to accelerate infrastructure scaling.
- Capminal has integrated x402 to allow payments directly from their
terminal.
- CreatorBid announced the end of their staking model, launch model, platform access, and incentives.
They will be revealing new mechanics soon.
- Otto AI made Crude Oil perps tradable via the Buttler Agent through Virtuals
ACP.
- PRXVT is relaunching its token after their staking contract was compromised last
week.
- Solace released a demo of their Seed hardware wellness companion.
NFTs 
- NFTs are starting the year hot, with sales up +28.13% to $78.76M. But slowness over the last few days
of December is evident too, as transactions fell -19.44% (659K), buyers -8.48% (126K), sellers -7.50% (103K), and trade profits are down a whopping -62.94% (-$19.38M).
- NFT Paris has been officially cancelled for 2026 following a four-year run, citing current market
conditions.
- Bubbles (XCOPY) is patching its "popping" mechanic to trigger based on bubble count rather than
account status.
- World of Women teased a possible new NFT mint coming up called World of
Men.
- REKT announced its transition from "proof of concept" to "proof of scale" with new expansion
plans for 2026.
Top Gainers 7d RENDER - $2.42 (+85.2%)
PEPE - $0.000006514
(+56.0%)
BONK - $0.00001183 (+52.2%)
PUMP - $0.002435 (+35.2%)
SUI - $1.86 (+29.2%)
Top Losers 7d
NIGHT - $0.07625 (-23.6%)
ZEC - $507.09 (-4.6%)
FIGR_HELOC - $1.03 (-0.3%)
USDF - $0.9968 (-0.2%)
RLUSD - $1.00 (-0.0%) |
