Whale accumulation across Solana tokens is headlining crypto-related social buzz as 2026 begins, according to data from Santiment. Cryptocurrency markets kicked off 2026 with a focus on Solana, as Santiment data showed discussion regarding whale accumulation of SOL-related tokens as the top trend on Thursday. Santiment said multiple SOL-linked assets have seen repeated purchases of 10 or more Solana (SOL) by large wallets. “Market caps vary widely, but liquidity remains strong, indicating sustained interest from large holders,” Santiment said in a Thursday post sharing five trending topics. Read more
Millions of long-inactive users still hold crypto at Bithumb, highlighting how early retail capital can remain untouched for years. South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb flagged over $200 million in customer assets dormant across 2.6 million accounts, offering a glimpse into how much retail capital remains untouched on centralized platforms. The disclosure came as part of the exchange's dormant asset recovery campaign, which targets users who have not logged in or traded for over a year. According to Bithumb, dormant assets total about 291.6 billion Korean won (about $201.8 million), with some balances left inactive for over a decade. Bithumb said the largest dormant holding it had identified was worth about $2.84 million. Meanwhile, the longest period of inactivity stretched to 4,380 days, or almost a dozen years. Read more
Solana’s bid to move beyond memecoins will depend on whether its upgrades can deliver predictable execution for serious onchain finance. Solana heads into 2026 facing the question of whether infrastructure upgrades and tokenized financial activity can push the network beyond its memecoin reputation. Solana kicked off 2025 at the height of the memecoin frenzy, with Solana (SOL) reaching a new all-time high of $293 on Jan. 19. As memecoin volumes cooled over the year, SOL had fallen to around $130 by mid-December. “Solana needs to shake off the stamp of ‘memecoin [or] NFT’ chain and position itself as a serious place for Web2 and Web3 financial businesses to come and build the future of finance,” Tomas Fanta, principal at the crypto investment firm Heartcore, told Cointelegraph. Read more