Q1 2026, the crypto ecosystem will see many significant developments worth paying attention to.

Let's start with the plans of some leading projects. BNB Chain will undergo the Fermi hard fork on January 14th, simultaneously releasing the annual performance roadmap. Solana is also making notable moves—launching the SKR ecosystem token in January, with the Alpenglow upgrade expected to take place throughout the year. Meanwhile, TAO will advance the registration process for the positional tensor strategy ETF.

There are also new developments in the stable asset track. Ondo's US government short-term bond fund (SWEEP) plans to go live on the Solana network, backed by support from State Street and Galaxy, with Ondo providing seed funding. This is a concrete example of the integration of DeFi and traditional finance.

In terms of interoperability and cross-chain efforts, ICP's Chain-Fusion will focus on enabling smart contracts to interact directly with the Ethereum/EVM ecosystem, which will significantly boost the on-chain application ecosystem. INJ's native EVM mainnet (MultiVM milestone) also paves the way for application growth and liquidity flow in 2026.

ETF filings have been quite active recently—Bitwise has applied for strategy ETFs across multiple sectors including Zcash, Sui, NEAR, StarkNet, Hyperliquid, and Aave. This reflects a rising market demand for diversified asset allocation.

On January 20th, DOT will restore the effectiveness of its native smart contract law, with the issuance reduction mode also launching on March 14th. The RENDER team is pushing forward with enterprise-level GPU support upgrades (H100/H200/MI300) and computing expansion plans. FET's migration related to ASI will be reflected in the unlocking/migration events in 2026. Aerodrome plans to launch Aero in Q2, integrating Velodrome's functionalities.

XRP's progress depends on whether the SEC broadens the scope of approval for general crypto ETPs. LINK is expected to launch in the second half of the year due to DTCC's tokenization services, as DTCC has been exploring Chainlink's applications in the capital markets, which provides confidence.

From the perspectives of technological iteration, ecosystem expansion, and regulatory friendliness, the first two quarters of 2026 are likely to be critical windows for validating these expectations. Market participants should continue to monitor the progress of these key projects.