Gate Research: Signs of Marginal Recovery in Market Sentiment | Polygon PoS Fee Burns Reach a Record High

Crypto Market Overview

• BTC (-0.21% | Price: 92,505 USDT): BTC pulled back from recent highs over the past day and entered a consolidation phase, trading around the 92,500 level, with short-term upside momentum slowing. The moving average structure has started to diverge, as MA5 has crossed below MA10 and price slipped below short-term support, while the medium-term MA30 remains upward sloping, indicating that the broader uptrend has not been invalidated. MACD remains below the zero line, with the green histogram narrowing but not yet turning positive, suggesting easing bearish momentum without a confirmed reversal. Overall, BTC is in a post-pullback stabilization phase; a reclaim of the 93,500–94,000 range would support trend continuation, while sustained weakness below short-term averages would bring the 91,800–92,000 support zone into focus.
• ETH (-0.23% | Price: 3,250 USDT): ETH continues to outperform BTC on a relative basis, holding above 3,250 and maintaining a strong, high-level consolidation pattern. The moving average system remains in a bullish alignment, with MA5 and MA10 closely tracking price and providing near-term support, while MA30 continues to trend higher, reflecting a healthy medium-term structure. MACD is hovering near the zero line with alternating histogram bars, indicating balanced bullish and bearish forces as the market digests prior gains. Overall, ETH remains in a constructive consolidation phase; a volume-backed breakout above 3,300 could reopen upside potential, while a break below 3,200 would raise the likelihood of a pullback toward the 3,150 support area.
• Altcoins: The Fear Index has rebounded to 42, remaining in the “Fear” zone. While this marks a clear improvement from the “Extreme Fear” levels seen over the past week and month, it has edged slightly lower versus the prior day, highlighting the choppy and uneven nature of sentiment recovery.
• Macro: On January 6, the S&P 500 rose 0.62% to 6,944.82, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.99% to 49,462.08, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.65% to 23,547.17. As of January 7 at 02:15 AM (UTC), spot gold was trading at USD 4,467 per ounce, down 0.62% over the past 24 hours.

Trending Tokens

DSYNC Destra Network (+71.71%, circulating market cap $51.82M)

According to Gate market data, DSYNC is currently trading at $0.05172, up approximately 71.71% over the past 24 hours. Destra Network is a project focused on decentralized AI infrastructure and autonomous agents, with a core mission to bring AI agent runtime environments, inference capabilities, and incentive mechanisms on-chain.

The sharp rally in DSYNC appears to be driven by narrative momentum amplified by a cluster of recent developments. The team has released several key updates, including the launch of NPC 2.0 with early access testing, a preview of the mobile AI node product Destra Edge, and a buyback-driven airdrop mechanism aimed at long-term participants—collectively strengthening market expectations around execution pace and ecosystem delivery.

FHE Mind Network (+35.76%, circulating market cap $11.78M)

According to Gate market data, FHE is currently priced at $0.04791, up 35.76% in the past 24 hours. Mind Network is a privacy computing network built around Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE), positioned to provide native privacy protection for AI agents, on-chain payments, and institutional-grade applications.

The recent price appreciation appears to stem from a short-term convergence of privacy narratives and event signaling. The project has actively reviewed its 2025 progress and outlined its 2026 roadmap, emphasizing AI agent payments, institution-ready privacy infrastructure, and the role of FHE in on-chain commercial use cases. This, combined with sustained messaging from the community and founders around “2026 as the year of privacy,” has reinforced longer-term narrative expectations.

XPLA CONX (+43.06%, circulating market cap $21.29M)

According to Gate market data, XPLA is currently trading at $0.02744, up approximately 43.06% over the past 24 hours. XPLA CONX is an infrastructure-focused project centered on Web3 gaming, IP co-creation, and interactive content ecosystems. Through its Arena mechanism, it brings developers, creators, and well-known IPs into a shared collaborative framework to enable on-chain game prototyping, pixel art co-creation, and playable content development. Its model emphasizes challenge-based participation, evaluation-driven selection, and reward pool incentives, offering a low-barrier experimentation platform for Web3 gaming and IP narratives.

The recent surge in XPLA appears largely event-driven, fueled by the rapid rollout of multiple Arena initiatives. The NOM Arena has concluded submissions and entered the evaluation and prototype delivery phase, while the JOO JAEBUM Arena has been announced. Combined with a $10,000 reward pool and exposure tied to well-known IP collaborations, these developments have continued to elevate activity and visibility within the gaming and creative segments.

Alpha Insights

Aave Horizon RWA Borrowing Hits a New High, Institutional On-Chain Credit Momentum Accelerates

Aave’s Horizon RWA market has recently reached a record high, with active borrowings surpassing USD 200 million, highlighting the accelerating penetration of real-world assets (RWAs) within DeFi credit markets. This growth reflects sustained demand from institutional and structured capital for on-chain financing backed by off-chain assets, while also signaling market confidence in Aave’s permissioned RWA architecture in terms of compliance and risk management. Compared with earlier phases of DeFi lending dominated by retail participation, the current expansion is more concentrated in assets with predictable cash flows and stronger credit characteristics.

From a broader perspective, the continued expansion in borrowing volumes underscores the deepening integration between traditional finance and DeFi infrastructure. RWA use cases are transitioning from proof-of-concept to scalable deployment, increasingly serving as core balance-sheet tools within on-chain credit markets. If this trend persists, Aave is well positioned to further consolidate its role in institutional DeFi, while reinforcing RWAs as a strategic growth engine for the next stage of the industry.

Polygon PoS Fee Burns Reach a Record High, Deflationary Effects Emerge

Polygon PoS has recently recorded an all-time high in daily fee burns, with approximately 3 million POL burned within 24 hours—around 0.03% of total supply. The figure, disclosed by Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, points to a notable increase in network activity and on-chain usage intensity. Rising fee burn volumes typically indicate growth in organic transaction demand rather than activity driven solely by incentives or short-term campaigns.

Structurally, the record level of fee burns strengthens deflationary expectations under the Polygon PoS mechanism and highlights its effective throughput within the Ethereum scaling ecosystem. If high-frequency applications and on-chain interactions remain active, continued fee burns could exert sustained marginal pressure on token supply, providing fundamental support for POL’s long-term value. That said, it remains important to assess whether this surge represents a durable trend or a temporary peak, as well as its correlation with application growth and developer activity.

Solana’s 2025 Core Metrics Surge, Ecosystem Scale and Capital Absorption Expand in Tandem

In its official recap, Solana reported that multiple core network metrics reached new all-time highs in 2025, signaling entry into a phase of application-driven expansion. Annual network revenue climbed to USD 1.4 billion—roughly 48 times higher than two years earlier—reflecting a sharp deepening of on-chain economic activity. Average daily active wallets rose to 3.2 million, up 50% year over year, setting a new record and indicating strong growth in user engagement and usage frequency. Meanwhile, year-end stablecoin supply reached USD 14.8 billion, more than doubling year over year, underscoring Solana’s growing capacity to retain capital across payments, DeFi, and trading use cases.

From a capital and trading perspective, Solana’s appeal and liquidity base strengthened concurrently. Total staked SOL increased to 421 million tokens, up 8% year over year, supporting network security and long-term holding incentives. Spot SOL ETFs recorded net inflows of USD 1.02 billion, reflecting rising acceptance of Solana exposure among traditional finance investors. At the same time, annual on-chain DEX trading volume reached USD 1.5 trillion, up 57% year over year and setting another record—evidence that Solana is evolving from a high-performance chain narrative into a comprehensive on-chain financial infrastructure with meaningful depth and scale.


References

• Gate, https://www.gate.com/trade/BTC_USDT
• Farside Investors, https://farside.co.uk/btc/
• Gate, https://www.gate.com/trade/ETH_USDT
• Farside Investors, https://farside.co.uk/eth/
• Gate, https://www.gate.com/crypto-market-data
• Investing, https://investing.com/indices/usa-indices
• Investing, https://investing.com/currencies/xau-usd
• X, https://x.com/Cointelegraph/status/2008576924818272570?s=20
• X, https://x.com/Cointelegraph/status/2008554403716849673?s=20
• X, https://x.com/solana/status/2008536556475478349

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