Key Developments Across Blockchain Networks
Polygon and Berachain have reduced staff to refocus on payments and core development, respectively. Base is pivoting its application towards a trading-first user experience. Base has dominated Ethereum Layer 2 fees, capturing approximately 70% of the market share, which highlights growing revenue disparities across different rollup ecosystems. Ethereum has experienced a surge in usage, marked by record numbers of new wallets, and Aave has surpassed a 50% share in DeFi lending for the first time since 2020.
Staffing Cuts and Strategic Refocusing
Polygon has implemented internal layoffs, affecting close to 30% of its workforce, according to disclosures made by employees on social media platforms. The company has not yet officially confirmed these reductions. These cuts follow Polygon's strategic shift towards stablecoin payments, a move bolstered by its acquisitions of Coinme and Sequence.
Similarly, the Berachain Foundation announced layoffs impacting most of its retail-focused marketing teams in its year-end update for 2025. The foundation is redirecting resources to prioritize core development efforts. Additionally, it was confirmed that lead developer Alberto will depart to co-found a Web2 firm alongside former banking colleagues.
In parallel, Jesse Pollak, co-founder of Base, stated that the Base application will be repositioned to be "trading-first." He attributed this decision to user feedback indicating an excess of social features and a limited availability of high-quality tradable assets. Consequently, Base will enhance its focus on trading tools and finance-centric user experiences.
Protocol Roadmaps and Revenue Data
ZKsync has unveiled its roadmap for 2026, as communicated by Alex Gluchowski, co-founder of Matter Labs. The plan centers on key initiatives including Prividium, ZK Stack, and Airbender. A significant objective of this roadmap is to target institutional adoption by integrating privacy features by default and implementing verifiable risk controls.
Data from CryptoRank, reported on January 14, indicated that only three Ethereum Layer 2 networks generated over $5,000 in daily fees. Base led this group with approximately $147,000 in fees. Arbitrum followed with roughly $39,000, while Starknet generated approximately $9,000.
On that particular day, Base accounted for nearly 70% of all fee revenue generated by Ethereum Layer 2 networks. In contrast, all other Layer 2 networks combined produced just over $15,000 in fees.
Platform Shifts and Network Growth
Yu Hu, founder of Kaito AI, announced the discontinuation of the Yaps incentive system. He subsequently introduced Kaito Studio as its replacement. This change was implemented in response to restrictions imposed by X (formerly Twitter) on its API concerning reward-based posting and ongoing issues with low-quality content.
Brevis, BNB Chain, and 0xbow have also expanded their collaboration on privacy infrastructure. The partners plan to launch an Intelligent Privacy Pool on BNB Chain during the first quarter of 2026.
Concurrently, Aave reached a 51.3% share of the DeFi lending market on January 14, according to data from DefiLlama. This milestone marks the first time since 2020 that the protocol has exceeded a 50% share.
Activity on the Ethereum network has also seen a significant increase. Data from Santiment revealed that approximately 327,000 new wallets were created daily over the past week. A single-day record was set with 393,000 new wallets, and the total number of non-empty wallets climbed to 172.9 million.