The non-contentious hard fork to upgrade one of crypto’s most popular privacy protocols, Monero, was successfully completed Saturday. The fork took place at block 2,688,888 (18:47 UTC) and enhances the network with a host of new privacy-preserving features:
The number of signers for a ring signature has been increased from 11 to 16 for every transaction. Ring signatures are digital signatures that can be produced by any member in a group. It should be computationally infeasible to determine which key (from that group of keys) was used to create the signature. Ring signatures make it impossible to trace the origin of a Monero transaction.
The previous Bulletproofs algorithm was upgraded to “Bulletproofs+.” Bulletproofs are zero-knowledge proofs that enable confidential transactions. Bulletproofs+ reduces transaction size and increases transaction speed. Overall performance is expected to improve by 5%-7%.
View tags are a new way to speed up wallet syncing by 30%-40%. Wallets that support the monero XMR$474.77 currency include Ledger and Trezor, two popular hardware wallets. Cake wallet is a hot wallet that was originally exclusive to monero but now also supports bitcoinBTC$89,817.91, litecoinLTC$69.88 and haven (XHV).
Fee changes will minimize fee volatility and improve overall network security.
Multisignature functionality has been improved and critical security patches were added.
The price of XMR is holding steady, currently trading at $165.80 at the time of publication.
Pudgy Penguins is building a multi-vertical consumer IP platform — combining phygital products, games, NFTs and PENGU to monetize culture at scale.
What to know:
Pudgy Penguins is emerging as one of the strongest NFT-native brands of this cycle, shifting from speculative “digital luxury goods” into a multi-vertical consumer IP platform. Its strategy is to acquire users through mainstream channels first; toys, retail partnerships and viral media, then onboard them into Web3 through games, NFTs and the PENGU token.
The ecosystem now spans phygital products (> $13M retail sales and >1M units sold), games and experiences (Pudgy Party surpassed 500k downloads in two weeks), and a widely distributed token (airdropped to 6M+ wallets). While the market is currently pricing Pudgy at a premium relative to traditional IP peers, sustained success depends on execution across retail expansion, gaming adoption and deeper token utility.
The Deus X CEO discussed his journey into digital assets, the company's infrastructure-led growth strategy, and why his Consensus Hong Kong panel promises "real talk only."
What to know:
Tim Grant entered crypto in 2015 after early exposure to Ripple and Coinbase, drawn by blockchain’s ability to improve traditional finance rather than replace it.
Deus X combines investing and operating to build regulated digital finance infrastructure across payments, prime services, and institutional DeFi.
Grant will be speaking at Consensus Hong Kong in February.