On January 22, Messari researcher AJC stated that decentralized social networks are entering a new adjustment phase. Between January 14 and January 21 alone, several core projects experienced directional shifts, triggering a reshaping of the DeSoc track landscape. The Base App shifted from a social tool to a trading application centered on token exchange and wallet functions; Lens Protocol handed over control to Mask Network; Farcaster was acquired by its long-term infrastructure partner Neynar. These chain reactions in a short period indicate that the first round of experiments with "decentralized social platforms" is coming to an end. These changes reveal the real challenges faced by DeSoc. Although Farcaster has raised approximately $180 million, most decentralized social applications remain niche, with user retention and monetization struggling to break through. The high operational costs and sluggish revenue create a gap, forcing teams to seek more direct monetization paths, making trading and wallet tools higher priority. However, this also causes overlap between SocialFi and DeFi tools, increasing competition, and the community's enthusiasm for "social as finance" has noticeably cooled down.

Mask founder Suji Yan expressed support for Neynar's acquisition of Farcaster, emphasizing that increased competition brings benefits, and revealed that she is a minor shareholder of Neynar. Meanwhile, Aave founder Stani announced that the management rights of Lens will be handed over to the Mask team, with the original team serving as advisors.

The future of Lens Protocol will be led by Mask Network, with the original team no longer guiding its development. The project aims to create neutral social infrastructure that supports developers in building applications for mainstream users. Mask Network emphasizes focusing on creating practically useful products and thriving communities.

PANews January 20 News, according to official sources, Lens announced the completion of its phased task to verify the "feasibility of decentralized social networks owned by users." The focus of ecosystem development will shift from protocol and infrastructure to consumer-grade applications and user adoption. Mask Network is seen as the successor to the next phase of Lens, dedicated to advancing decentralized social from technical experimentation to everyday use. Stani and Avara will continue to serve as advisors to Mask founder Suji Yan and her team.

ChainCatcher message, according to Jinshi reports, Federal Reserve's Smith said that the pressure in the labor market is structural, and interest rate cuts cannot mask these issues.

MetaMask officially announces the addition of native Bitcoin support in its wallet, marking an important step in its multi-chain strategy. Users can now directly purchase Bitcoin with fiat within MetaMask, conduct on-chain transfers, and exchange BTC for EVM native assets or Solana tokens without the need for third-party bridge tools, significantly enhancing the user experience and security. On the technical level, MetaMask has supported native SegWit addresses for Bitcoin and has incorporated Taproot support into its future development plans. This means that the Wallet will further enhance its transaction efficiency, fee optimization, and privacy capabilities. As the Bitcoin mainnet features continue to upgrade, MetaMask is gradually improving its infrastructure capabilities within the BTC ecosystem. This update is not only an expansion of features but is also closely tied to the incentive mechanism. Users performing Bitcoin exchange operations within MetaMask can earn MetaMask reward points, which will be linked to a MASK-style incentive program in the future. According to reports, this program may involve LINEA Tokens worth over 30 million USD to encourage user participation in a multi-chain ecosystem.

ChainCatcher news, Arthur Hayes recently stated that although the liquidity of the US dollar has contracted since April 9, the inflow of ETFs and the purchase of DAT have allowed Bitcoin to rise, but this situation has now ended. The tone is insufficient to encourage institutional investors to continually purchase ETFs, and most DAT trading prices are below mNAV, prompting investors to start avoiding these Bitcoin derivative securities. If these flows can't mask negative liquidity, Bitcoin will have to fall to reflect current short-term fears that dollar liquidity will contract or not grow as fast as politicians have promised.

Golden Finance reported that on November 15, Beijing time, U.S. President Trump posted a picture on the social media platform Truth Social, featuring a character with half of their face covered by a mask, resembling the style of the "Phantom of the Opera" character, holding a sign that reads "TRUMP 2028." However, Trump did not provide any textual explanation for the image.

BlockBeats news, on October 19th, the integrated liquidity hub Honeypot Finance announced the completion of a new round of financing with a valuation of 35 million dollars, with investors including Mask Network, CatcherVC, and Credit Scend, among others. The specific financing amount has not yet been disclosed. This round of financing will mainly be used to advance its AMM Perp.

Jin10 data reported on October 17 that despite increasing concerns in the market about the fundamentals of the U.S. economy, believing that the AI boom may mask potential risks, Wall Street analysts are becoming increasingly optimistic about the earnings outlook for U.S. companies. According to data tracked by Yardeni Research, Wall Street analysts have continuously raised their earnings expectations in October, pushing the indicator that measures the proportion of net upward revisions to total expectation changes to its highest level in four years. The S&P 500 net earnings revision index (NERI) rose by 0.6 percentage points this month, marking five consecutive months of increases since it hit a 28-month low of -7.8% in May. The speed and magnitude of this rebound are also striking. The surge over these five months is the largest single improvement in NERI since December 2020. NERI data shows that analysts are broadly raising their earnings expectations, with 7 out of 11 zones seeing upward revisions outnumber downward revisions, the most since August 2024.