GM, Readers!

What’s brewing in the crypto market this week? Read the latest at WhaleTales…

Crypto President Trump’s recent 10% EU tariff threats and Greenland controversy rattled investors and fuelled fresh rounds of geopolitical concerns. Stocks sank, Bitcoin and other digital assets tumbled. However, the market experienced a brief respite during Trump’s recent Davos visit. He unveiled pro-crypto plans and relaxed tariff imposition that temporarily eased the market, and Bitcoin rebounded towards $90k.

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Breaking: The Ethereum Foundation (EF), the non-profit organisation behind Ethereum’s ecosystem, has taken a step forward. It pushes its long-running Quantum research to form a dedicated Quantum resistance team backed by fresh funding of $2 million.

Ethereum vs. Quantum threat…

On January 24, senior researcher Justin Drake announced on X, “After years of quiet R&D, EF management has officially declared PQ security a top strategic priority.”

The dedicated new Post-Quantum (PQ) team will be headed by EF researcher and cryptographic engineer Thomas Coratger and cryptographer Emile of Ethereum’s LeanVM project.

Ethereum researcher Antonio Sanso will conduct bi-weekly All Core Devs (ACD) PQ transactions sessions starting next month. It will leverage LeanVM’s architecture to future-proof the network from quantum risks and considerably reduce gas fees and network congestion.

Note: Drake explained LeanVM or “lean Ethereum” (primarily proposed by Vitalik Buterin in 2025) in his blog post as a simple zero-knowledge virtual machine (zkVM) that will scale up Ethereum’s capacity over the next decade and provide advanced security against the looming Quantum threat.

EF announced a $1 million Poseidon Prize to boost the Poseidon hash function, crucial for Ethereum applications and layer-2 solutions, and also a $1 million Proximity Prize for advancing post-quantum research.

The quantum threat is real. Many cryptographic experts believe that the current blockchain infrastructure, even highly secure networks like Bitcoin or Ethereum, are not entirely safe from quantum threats.

Back in August 2025, Buterin cited 20% chance that the quantum threat could infiltrate modern cryptography by 2030.

In his recent posts, Vitalik Buterin emphasized making Ethereum “cryptographically safe for a hundred years” and stressed that the network “must pass the walkaway test,” without continued surveillance from its developers.

Ethereum’s latest upgrades provide a clear roadmap for building long-term cryptographic security that will protect the network from quantum risks, not just for decades but for generations without repeated upgrades.

The Foundation is planning to host several post-quantum events, including a 3-day PQ event in October and a PQ day on March 29, Cannes, ahead of EthCC. The ZKPodcast will soon release a video series outlining Ethereum’s new post-quantum strategy.

👉 Now Read This: Blackrock Frames Ethereum as Primary Beneficiary of Rising Stablecoin Adoption.

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Last week’s quiz result: Option 3. Originally proposed by American cryptographer, Nick Szabo back in the 1990s.

Keep playing folks! 🎲

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Several U.S.-based Bitcoin mining pools suffered a heavy blow in hashrates last Friday when a deadly winter storm hit several parts of the U.S., including Texas, Kansas, and Oklahoma.

A bone-chilling winter storm with freezing rain and an Arctic blast engulfed vast areas of the U.S. and swept across Europe.

The aftermath?

The catastrophic storm disrupted power lines, and several bitcoin mining pools experienced a sharp fall in hashrates, which temporarily slowed down the block production process.

Foundry USA, the world’s largest bitcoin mining company, took the biggest blow. Its hashrate dropped 60% to nearly 200 exahashes per second (EH/s) since last Friday. The company represents nearly 23% of the global mining pool hashrate.

The average block time of the Bitcoin network is 10 minutes. According to hashrateindex.com, the average block time since the storm has slowed down to 12 minutes 13 seconds (at the time of writing).

Bitcoin miners took control

Bitcoin miners can control power grids to offset the load during peak and off-peak hours or harsh climatic conditions.

Over one million residents faced power outages during the storm. Bitcoin miners voluntarily shut down the mining machines to save power for essential services.

👉 Also Read: Global crypto ETPs log $1.7 billion in weekly outflows as bearish macro sentiment spurs largest withdrawal since November.

Built on Ethereum, the RAILGUN Project is a next-gen privacy protocol. It is a smart contract that utilizes zero-knowledge (ZK) cryptography (zk-SNARKs) to shield user assets, transaction history, and other activities. It increases privacy exponentially and provides complete anonymity without compromising the functionality of decentralized finance.

Earlier, transactions on public networks were visible to everyone. The existing privacy solutions, such as Tornado Cash or Zcash, isolate users from the main ecosystem that impact liquidity and privacy.

Railgun bridges this gap through non-custodial RAILGUN wallets and 0zk addresses. The shield allows users to trade, swap, lend, or provide liquidity without risking their identities to third-party systems.

Read the RAILGUN doc here.

President Donald Trump delivered his bold vision to reinforce America’s global leadership in crypto during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week.

Among other things, Trump reiterated, “I’m also working to ensure America remains the crypto capital of the world… Congress is working very hard on crypto market structure legislation… Which I hope to sign very soon, unlocking new pathways for Americans to reach financial freedom.”

He emphasized that “congress is working hard” in establishing pro-crypto policies and regulations and mentioned key developments in the crypto frontier like the Genius Act and the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve.

The market reacts…

Despite the recent geopolitical tension, Trump’s crypto-centric speech at Davos ignited fresh hopes and bullish sentiment among some traders, crypto communities, prediction markets, and social media forums.

The highlight?

Trump signalled that a major regulatory framework is on the way that could heighten regulatory clarity and institutional participation, remove roadblocks, and pave the way to greater crypto innovation and growth in the U.S.

👉 Also Read: Trump-linked World Liberty Financial partners with Spacecoin on satellite-powered DeFi.

Ripple Labs extends custody partnership with Turkish private bank GarantiBBVA Kripto to gain access to millions of retail investors. On January 23, Ripple’s Senior Executive Officer and Managing Director, Reece Merrick, shared an X post about their joint vision with their Turkish partner. He further added that the custody relationship will continue to ensure secure storage and transfer of funds like BTC, ETH, and XRP to their retail customers. 🔗 Read More at Yahoo Finance.

Pseudonymous crypto investigator ZachXBT claimed that the individual behind the $40M+ U.S. government wallet heist is John Daghita, allegedly the son of Dean Daghita, President of CMDSS (Command Services & Support, Inc.). Zach identified that John also goes by the online name “Lick.” ZachXBT’s investigations traced the compromised funds to the 2016 Bitfinex theft. According to the investigator, John is also suspected of a $90M+ heist that occurred between November and December 2025. There are no official charges yet. 🔗 Read More at The Block.

Based on CoinMarketCap data, 28 January, 2026, 1:28 AM, ET.