Isa Nemirovsky

Walrus is increasingly positioning itself as a storage layer for decentralized AI. At the beginning of this year, integrations with networks such as Pipe Network and Swarm Network enabled Walrus to handle data retrieval with extremely low latency (under 50ms). This makes it an ideal solution for storing massive AI training datasets and other heavy media content, which are typically too expensive or slow to store directly on the blockchain (on-chain).
@Walrus 🦭/acc #walrus $WAL

A crucial news for the Walrus storage ecosystem emerges after Tusky (a file service partner) announced the shutdown of its service. Walrus is now the primary destination for data migration for various major projects, including the popular NFT collection Pudgy Penguins. Users and developers are given a deadline until January 19, 2026, to move their data to Walrus to ensure that decentralized, censorship-resistant data persistence remains intact.
@Walrus 🦭/acc #walrus $WAL

In the second week of January 2026, the price of $WAL moved significantly upward (approximately 15%) reaching a level of $0.15 - $0.16. This surge was driven by the Binance CreatorPad campaign, which offered a total prize pool of 300,000 $WAL tokens for trading activities and social promotion. Daily trading volume reportedly surged by 472%, indicating strong retail interest in this token as one of the key infrastructures on the Sui network.
@Walrus 🦭/acc #walrus $WAL

Dusk operates as a Layer-1 specifically designed for regulated financial markets. Its core technology is the use of Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP), which enables transactions to be inherently private by default while still allowing their validity to be proven to regulators. Their website emphasizes that privacy does not mean evading the law, but rather a way to protect business confidentiality and personal data within a transparent financial ecosystem.
#dusk $DUSK @Dusk

Lastly, the launch of the DuskTrade ecosystem scheduled for Q1 2026 is expected to be the main catalyst for mass adoption. The platform is designed with an interface resembling modern banking apps but runs entirely on the blockchain, enabling users to purchase fractional shares or bonds with minimal capital.
Integration with user-friendly digital wallets and a decentralized KYC (Know Your Customer) system ensures user privacy is maintained even when transacting within a highly regulated environment. With all these components tightly interlocked—from privacy technology and legal compliance to real investment products—Dusk Network is building a new standard for the future of global decentralized finance.

From the perspective of token economics and market structure, $DUSK after demonstrating exceptional resilience through the integrated Hyperstaking mechanism with network utility. The $DUSK token now serves not only as a payment instrument for gas fees or rewards for validators, but also as collateral within an institutional lending ecosystem that is beginning to grow on its network.
With the staking rate continuously increasing towards nearly 40% of the total supply, a supply scarcity phenomenon has occurred on major exchanges. This is driven by long-term holders' confidence that the current fundamental value $DUSK is supported by real transaction volumes from the traditional financial sector, not merely retail trading speculation.

Regulatory-wise, Dusk's position in 2026 becomes extremely crucial as the full implementation of the MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) framework takes place across the entire European Union. Dusk is not merely complying with these regulations but rather making them a core feature through the DLT-TSS (Distributed Ledger Technology Transferable Securities Settlement) license.
Successfully obtaining this license enables Dusk to act as both a custodian and a legally recognized settlement venue for digital securities—a rare achievement in the crypto world. This has attracted significant interest from major European banks, who are considering Dusk as their settlement layer to reduce operational costs and accelerate clearing times from days to seconds.

In terms of real-world asset implementation, Dusk has transformed into a liquidity hub for previously illiquid assets through deep integration with the NPEX exchange. The project not only tokenizes shares of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), but also extends into more complex debt instruments and real estate investment trusts (REITs).
Dusk's competitive advantage lies in the Citadel token standard, which enables asset issuers to embed compliance rules directly into the token code (compliance-as-code). This means assets can only be transferred if the recipient wallet meets specific legal requirements, such as geographic restrictions or accredited investor status, all verified instantly without human intermediaries.

The most transformative development today is the maturity of the DuskEVM infrastructure, which has gone beyond mere technical compatibility with Ethereum. Dusk now operates what they call a "Regulated DeFi stack," where the protocol combines the flexibility of Solidity smart contracts with high-level privacy through Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) technology.
This addresses the biggest dilemma for traditional financial institutions wanting to enter the blockchain world: the need for operational transparency while still safeguarding customer data and trading strategies. With DuskEVM, institutions can build financial applications that automatically reject transactions from unverified entities without exposing user identities to the public—a breakthrough that positions Dusk far ahead of other private blockchain competitors.

In terms of market performance, the price $DUSK has shown a significant recovery (rebound) since the beginning of the year, trading in the range of $0.051 to $0.057. Market sentiment remains positive due to the combination of regulatory compliance and zero-knowledge proofs privacy technology. Analysts view $DUSK as a long-term infrastructure asset, given its crucial role in bridging traditional finance (TradFi) with the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.
@Dusk #dusk $DUSK

From an economic token perspective, Dusk introduces the Hyperstaking mechanism, offering attractive yields to $DUSK token holders. As of mid-January 2026, approximately 30% to 40% of the total circulating supply has been locked in staking. This high level of participation technically reduces selling pressure in the free market while simultaneously strengthening network security through a broader and more stable distribution of validators.
@Dusk #dusk $DUSK

Along with the mainnet launch, the Dusk ecosystem introduces the DuskTrade platform, whose waitlist opens in January 2026. This investment platform is specifically designed to comply with MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) regulations, providing secure access for financial institutions and retail investors to trade legitimate digital assets. This positions Dusk as one of the most prepared blockchain infrastructures to meet the increasingly strict global crypto enforcement this year.