Federal Reserve Governor Jefferson: No Need to Hurry to Further Cut Interest Rates, Strong Economy Makes Caution Appropriate

On January 8, the DeFi Total Value Locked (TVL) across several mainstream and new public chains has fallen sharply from their cycle peaks. Stable—Tether’s stablecoin-focused public chain—has even dropped to a staggering $29,231, sparking community discussion. Eclipse and Berachain have also seen their DeFi TVL evaporate by roughly 95% from peaks. Detailed data is below: ### Established Public Chains - **Ethereum**: Current DeFi TVL = $72.773 billion, down >25% from its August 2025 peak of $97.3 billion - **Solana**: Current DeFi TVL = $8.86 billion, down ~33% from its September 2025 peak of $13.22 billion - **Bitcoin**: Current DeFi TVL = $7.01 billion, down >23% from its October 2025 peak of $9.12 billion - **BNB Chain**: Current DeFi TVL = $6.797 billion, down >25% from its October 2025 peak of $9.15 billion - **Base**: Current DeFi TVL = $4.745 billion, down >12% from its October 2025 peak of $9.73 billion ### New Public Chains - **Stable**: DeFi TVL now at $29,231

On January 8, Binance announced the launch of TradFi Perpetual Contracts, offering perpetual futures trading for traditional financial assets with 24/7 access to traditional market price movements. These USDT-settled contracts track the prices of underlying TradFi assets, enabling users to trade price fluctuations without directly holding the assets. Margin requirements and settlement processes align with Binance’s existing cryptocurrency perpetual contracts. The first offerings are XAUUSDT (gold), which opened to all eligible markets on January 5, 2026, and XAGUSDT (silver), launched on January 7, 2026. Binance plans to expand the range of TradFi Perpetual Contracts going forward, with all contracts settling exclusively in USDT.

On January 8, per GMGN data, the Chinese meme coin "Wotamao" saw its market cap surge past $10 million shortly after listing on Binance Alpha, hitting a peak of $5.5 million. Its 24-hour price gain stands at +91.2%, with a 24-hour trading volume of $6.4 million. ### Notes on U.S. language habits adjustment: 1. **Date format**: Used *"On January 8"* (common in casual/quick news, omitting "th" for brevity). 2. **Terminology**: Replaced *"market value"* with *"market cap"* (standard jargon for crypto tokens in U.S. contexts); *"Meme token"* → *"meme coin"* (more widely used by U.S. crypto audiences). 3. **Tone**: Swapped passive *"was listed"* for active *"shortly after listing"*; *"reaching a peak"* → *"hitting a peak"* (more conversational for quick updates). 4. **Clarity**: Used *"price gain"* instead of *"price change"* (more precise for positive growth). No Chinese characters included, aligning with your request.

On January 8, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shared a post on Ethereum scalability, arguing increasing bandwidth is more secure than cutting latency. He noted that combining PeerDAS and zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) could enable thousands of times more scalability while preserving decentralization. However, latency is constrained by factors like the speed of light, node geography, censorship resistance, and economic practicality. Vitalik stressed Ethereum should be as reliable as the "world’s heartbeat"—not just a high-speed game server. Apps needing faster speeds should leverage off-chain components, a key reason layer-two (L2) networks will keep playing a critical role even as Ethereum scales up significantly.