Hot Tokens Learning Week 15: Ethereum Glamsterdam Public Testnet Launching Soon

Overview

1. Compared with 2025, the community in 2026 increasingly recognizes the “institution-friendly” characteristics of XAUT.

2. Ethereum Glamsterdam’s current Devnet-4 has completed multiple EIP tests and is transitioning to Devnet-5; the public testnets (Holesky/Sepolia) are about to be launched.

1、 The community widely acknowledges that BTC has entered the “institutional investment era”, with cumulative ETF inflows, corporate treasury accumulation (e.g., MicroStrategy), and regulatory progress (such as the Clarity Act) viewed as structural support.

4. The SOL community is generally cautiously bullish. Long-term holders and developers remain confident, but retail sentiment is affected by depressed prices, showing a noticeable short-term wait-and-see attitude.

5. TRON has emerged as a leading global infrastructure for stablecoin settlement and is often referred to as the "King of Stablecoins".

XAUT

Project Overview

XAUT is a tokenized physical gold asset introduced by Tether in 2020 under the name Tether Gold (XAUT). By integrating traditional gold with blockchain technology, XAUT enables users to own, transfer, and trade physical gold as easily as cryptocurrencies. XAUT is fully backed 1:1 by physical gold. XAUT tokens are dynamically minted and burned to ensure that each XAUT token represents one fine troy ounce of gold corresponding to a physical bar of gold that meets the Good Delivery standard of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) with a minimum purity of 99.99%.

Community Views

In the short term, XAUT is highly sensitive to spot gold prices, and the community has discussed “sell signals” or short-term bearish scenarios (e.g., large short liquidations on Hyperliquid). In the long term, the community forecasts a potential price of $4,500–6,000+ by the end of 2026, with a bullish outlook toward $5,000–10,000. Many recommend allocating 5–10% of crypto portfolios to XAUT as a defensive asset.

Most exchange platforms is bullish or neutral-bullish, particularly when the gold price exceeds $4,500. Compared with 2025, the community in 2026 increasingly recognizes the “institution-friendly” characteristics of XAUT. Common community recommendations include “start with small allocations + follow Tether’s weekly gold purchases + leverage your USDT holdings within the ecosystem”.

ETH

Project Overview

Ethereum (abbreviated as ETH, symbol Ξ) is the world's second-largest cryptocurrency and the leading smart contract platform and underlying infrastructure for decentralized applications (dApps). It was proposed in late 2013 by Vitalik Buterin, who was just 19 at the time. In 2014, he published the Ethereum Whitepaper, outlining the vision of a Turing-complete blockchain platform capable of supporting smart contracts, which are self-executing code that operates without intermediaries.

Technical Developments

Two major hard forks are scheduled for 2026: Glamsterdam and Hegotá.

Ethereum Glamsterdam’s current Devnet-4 has completed multiple EIP tests and is transitioning to Devnet-5; the public testnets (Holesky/Sepolia) are about to be launched. The mainnet launch remains expected in H1 2026 (ideally June, possibly extended to Q3).

Key Features of Glamsterdam:

ePBS (EIP-7732): Native Proposer-Builder Separation and on-chain block building reduce MEV centralization risks.

Block-level Access Lists (EIP-7928): Block-level access lists support parallel execution and state prefetching.

Gas Limit: Gradually increased (initially to 100 million, ultimately targeting 200 million).

Expected Results: Average gas fees reduced by ~78%, throughput approaching 10,000 TPS, regarded as the “most significant L1 upgrade since The Merge”.

Community Views

Developers are highly bullish, and retail sentiment is mostly neutral. The community generally sees 2026 as Ethereum’s “L1 revival year”. Glamsterdam is regarded as the most important L1 upgrade since The Merge: ePBS + parallel execution + ~78% gas reduction + approaching 10k TPS, restoring L1 competitiveness and reducing excessive dependence on L2. Many comment that it “finally brings performance back to the main chain”.

BTC

Project Overview

Bitcoin is the world's first decentralized cryptocurrency and is dubbed "digital gold". It operates independently of any bank, government, or central authority and instead enables peer-to-peer (P2P) value transfer through blockchain technology.

Community Views

The community widely acknowledges that BTC has entered the “institutional investment era”, with cumulative ETF inflows, corporate treasury accumulation (e.g., MicroStrategy), and regulatory progress (such as the Clarity Act) viewed as structural support. Many predict new all-time highs in 2026 ($100k–$180k range), emphasizing that the “cycle has changed” and is no longer a purely four-year one.

Some analysts consider a potential bear market or further correction ($60k–$35k low discussion), with macro factors (bond yields, Fed policy) dominating price, and regulatory catalysts already priced in.

Overall, market sentiment is neutral to cautiously optimistic. Institutional and long-term investors show bullish sentiment, while retail investors are cautious in the short term. Historically depressed sentiment often precedes rebounds, but macro support (rate cuts, policy implementation) is required.

SOL

Project Overview

Solana is a high-performance Layer-1 blockchain designed for speed, scalability, and low transaction costs. It aims to support large-scale decentralized applications (dApps), DeFi, payments, NFTs, gaming, RWA (real-world assets), and memecoins.

Community Views

The SOL community is generally cautiously bullish. Long-term holders and developers remain confident, but retail sentiment is affected by depressed prices, showing a noticeable short-term wait-and-see attitude. Currently, SOL trades in the $84–$87 range, down more than 70% from ATH, with the market in an “accumulation phase”.

TRX

Project Overview

TRON (TRX) is a high-performance Layer 1 public blockchain built on a Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) consensus mechanism, with a core mission to "Decentralize the Web". It is designed to deliver high throughput, low transaction fees, and smart contract functionality. In particular, TRX has emerged as a leading global infrastructure for stablecoin settlement and is often referred to as the "King of Stablecoins".

Community Views

Overall, the community recognizes TRON’s real-world adoption but holds mixed opinions on its centralization and the founder’s influence. Bullish Views: Many highlight TRON’s dominance in stablecoin transfers, low fees and high TPS, and genuine user growth (discussions on Reddit’s r/Tronix mention all-time highs (ATH) and long-term holding through 2050; on X the focus is on cross-chain integration, real-world use cases (such as Kalshi and real estate settlements), and potential price breakouts with targets of $0.30 or higher.

Concerns: Some criticize Justin Sun’s management style and centralization risks, noting that TRX price performance has lagged behind the network’s growth (with Q4 being the weakest quarter), although whale accumulation suggests continued confidence.

Overall Sentiment: Active discussions about DeFi TVL, deflationary proposals and TRON’s role as a “global settlement layer” on Reddit and X underline optimism for a bullish 2025–2026 cycle, while reminding participants of volatility risks.