- Polygon and Berachain cut staff to refocus on payments and core dev, while Base pivots its app toward trading-first users.
- Base dominated Ethereum L2 fees with ~70% share, highlighting widening revenue gaps across rollup ecosystems.
- Ethereum usage surged with record new wallets, while Aave crossed 50% DeFi lending share for the first time since 2020.
Restructuring, product shifts, and usage milestones influenced the crypto sector this week across multiple networks. Developments emerged between January 14 and January 18, spanning Polygon, Ethereum, Base, ZKsync and Berachain. The updates reflect staffing cuts, strategic pivots, rising on-chain activity and changing revenue dynamics across major blockchain ecosystems.
Staffing Cuts and Strategic Refocusing
Polygon implemented internal layoffs affecting nearly 30% of its workforce, according to employee disclosures on social media. The company has not officially confirmed the cuts. However, the reductions followed Polygon’s shift toward stablecoin payments after acquiring Coinme and Sequence.
Similarly, the Berachain Foundation announced layoffs across most retail-focused marketing teams in its 2025 year-end update. The foundation redirected resources toward core development. It also confirmed lead developer Alberto will depart to co-found a Web2 firm with former banking colleagues.
Meanwhile, Base co-founder Jesse Pollak said the Base app will reposition as “trading-first.” He cited user feedback pointing to excessive social features and limited high-quality tradable assets. As a result, Base will prioritize trading tools and finance-focused user experiences.
Protocol Roadmaps and Revenue Data
ZKsync released its 2026 roadmap through Matter Labs co-founder Alex Gluchowski. The plan centers on Prividium, ZK Stack, and Airbender. Notably, the roadmap targets institutional adoption with privacy by default and verifiable risk controls.
On January 14, CryptoRank data showed only three Ethereum Layer 2 networks generated over $5,000 in daily fees. Base led with about $147,000. Arbitrum followed with roughly $39,000, while Starknet generated approximately $9,000.
Base accounted for nearly 70% of all Ethereum L2 fee revenue that day. In contrast, all other L2s combined produced just over $15,000.
Platform Shifts and Network Growth
Kaito AI founder Yu Hu announced the shutdown of the Yaps incentive system. He introduced Kaito Studio instead. The change followed X’s API restrictions on reward-based posting and persistent low-quality content issues.
Brevis, BNB Chain, and 0xbow also expanded cooperation on privacy infrastructure. They plan to launch an Intelligent Privacy Pool on BNB Chain in Q1 2026.
Meanwhile, Aave reached a 51.3% share of DeFi lending on January 14, according to DefiLlama. It became the first protocol since 2020 to exceed 50%.
Ethereum activity also surged. Santiment data showed about 327,000 new wallets daily last week. A single-day record reached 393,000, while non-empty wallets climbed to 172.9 million.