Welcome to the first State of Crypto Weekly of 2026, your investor-focused deep dive into the trends driving the digital asset landscape.

It’s a bumper issue this week. We tried to break for the holidays, but – as crypto never sleeps – our team kept digging through the data and producing analysis:

• When geopolitical tensions rise, how does Bitcoin react? Darius Moukhtarzade details what the US-Venezuela crisis reveals about the asset’s strategic importance.
• When the internet goes dark: Adrian Fritz explains Bitcoin’s ’no-internet’ ecosystem designed to bypass network shutdowns.
• What’s the significance of Aave’s recent governance vote? We unpack the crisis, why the vote failed to resolve it, and what it means for investors and DAO-based protocols at scale.

When geopolitical tensions rise, how does Bitcoin react?

Bitcoin’s strategic role is reiterated.

US intervention in Venezuela triggered a repricing across energy markets while reinforcing Bitcoin’s resilience. Oil fell on forward supply expectations, inflation risk eased, and Bitcoin outperformed as investors increasingly treated it as a neutral, non-sovereign hedge amid accelerating geopolitical and monetary fragmentation.

When the internet goes dark, Bitcoin doesn’t

Our Chief Investment Strategist on Bitcoin’s robust ecosystem.

On the other side of the world, amid Iran’s internet blackouts in reaction to the anti-government protests, Bitcoin highlights a rarely discussed strength: continuity without connectivity. Through satellites, offline signing, and alternative transmission channels, the network keeps running even when banks and payment systems fail – underscoring Bitcoin’s role as a form of money designed to function when infrastructure, trust, and access break down.

Aave’s vote is over, the ownership question isn’t…

A deep dive into DeFi’s governance crisis.

Aave’s recent governance vote exposed a deeper fault line in DeFi: who truly owns a protocol’s economic value when governance is onchain, but brands and interfaces are privately controlled? This note unpacks the crisis, why the vote failed to resolve it, and what it means for investors and DAO-based protocols at scale.

In case you missed it

21shares in the world

New Year’s resolutions

Russell Barlow, our CEO here at 21shares, takes top Swiss publication Finenews through his three objectives for 2026.

What we did in 2025

Our take on the “Spotify wrapped” trend, jumping on the bandwagon to celebrate some milestones from 2025.

Head of Research on the Milk Road podcast

Eliezer Ndinga explains why most Ethereum Layer 2s are about to disappear.

Commenting on the US jobs report

Crypto research strategist, Matt Mena, was quoted on MarketWatch: ”If unemployment continues to hold steady while inflation cools, we expect a definitive breakout of the $100k and a retest of the $110,000 psychological milestone that once served as an all-time high.”

Connect with us today

If you have any questions or want to discuss a product in detail, please visit our website at www.21shares.com

Research Newsletter

Each week the 21Shares Research team will publish our data-driven insights into the crypto asset world through this newsletter. Please direct any comments, questions, and words of feedback to research@21shares.com

Disclaimer

The information provided does not constitute a prospectus or other offering material and does not contain or constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of any offer to buy securities in any jurisdiction. Some of the information published herein may contain forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties and that actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. The information contained herein may not be considered as economic, legal, tax or other advice and users are cautioned to base investment decisions or other decisions solely on the content hereof.