Looking at the recent market data, I can't help but marvel at the upward pressure on various assets. Silver only needs to rise another 4.8% to break the $100 mark, while gold requires a 5.8% increase to reach $5000. In comparison, cryptocurrencies face much greater pressure — Bitcoin needs a 38% rally to return to its all-time high, Ethereum is even more exaggerated, requiring a 59% increase, and SOL needs a doubling with a 128% growth. From this perspective, the upward potential of traditional precious metals seems indeed more manageable. But on the other hand, the volatility inherent in the crypto market carries this kind of large-scale fluctuation, and in the 2026 time window, there are still many variables across different assets. Whether it's Bitcoin, Ethereum, or SOL, the next breakthrough is not out of reach.

Asset data from the past year shows that the market has already undergone significant divergence. **This round of precious metals has truly been exceptional** Silver soared directly from 28.92 to 93.36, an increase of 222.82%. Behind this is the sustained growth in demand from the photovoltaic industry combined with a dual drive of risk aversion sentiment. "Gold for the poor" has unexpectedly become the biggest dark horse. Gold also performed steadily, with a rise of 79.77%, successfully breaking through the $4700 mark. The joint rise of these two traditional asset classes indicates that the market’s attitude towards risk assets is indeed changing. **The crypto world is having a tough time** Bitcoin retreated from 94,000 to 91,000, a decline of only 3.57%. At first glance, this isn’t a big drop, but considering that spot ETFs are still attracting funds, this performance actually reflects a cautious market attitude for the future. The approaching 2028 halving cycle still hasn't fully ignited market enthusiasm. Ethereum’s decline is even more noticeable, down 7.59%. The cooling of DeFi’s hotness and the exploration phase of Layer2 ecosystems are factors suppressing ETH’s performance. However, the Cancun upgrade is imminent, which could become a turning point to reverse the situation. **The current question is** In this super rally of precious metals, did you miss the opportunity to get on board? Bitcoin is around 90,000, and the chance to buy the dip is right here, but are you really willing to take the plunge? Looking further ahead, who will be a better choice in 2026—precious metals or crypto assets? This is a question worth serious consideration.

The year 2026 marks an important milestone. The Dusk Network mainnet officially launched, which is not just a technical upgrade but a breakthrough in moving privacy and compliance from paper plans to real-world applications. What is the core competitive advantage behind this? The dual virtual machine architecture. It sounds a bit technical, but it’s actually a very clever design. First, let’s talk about Piecrust VM. This is a high-performance engine based on WebAssembly, used to replace the earlier Rusk VM version. Its main task is one: to handle complex cryptographic computations like zero-knowledge proofs natively. How effective is it? Official data shows ZK performance has increased tenfold. What does this mean? The previously sci-fi concept of "instant transaction finality" has become a reality—transactions can be confirmed and permanently locked within 2 to 3 seconds, and can never be changed again. In short, Piecrust VM is the heart of Dusk’s privacy capabilities, dedicated to confidential transactions and compliance logic. On the other side is DuskEVM. Its strategic significance is entirely different. Simply put, it builds a compatibility bridge with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). What are the benefits? Solidity developers can almost seamlessly migrate existing smart contracts to Dusk, or directly develop new privacy-focused financial applications. Development difficulty is greatly reduced, making it natural to attract Ethereum’s large developer ecosystem. DuskEVM was launched alongside the mainnet in January 2026, aiming to remove this final barrier. How do these two VMs work together? Their roles are clearly defined. The underlying Piecrust VM provides native support for privacy and compliance, while the top-layer DuskEVM offers an open and user-friendly development environment. One lays the foundation, the other builds the house. What’s interesting about this design is that it solves a traditional dilemma: financial institutions need transaction privacy and compliance auditing (via protocols like Hedger), while developers need rich applications and convenient tools. Most public chains patch these features onto existing frameworks, but Dusk fundamentally integrates privacy and compliance into the protocol layer from the ground up. More importantly, as the DuskTrade platform, in cooperation with NPEX, begins handling real assets worth hundreds of millions of euros, this architecture will face the ultimate test in the real financial world. By then, all theories will need to prove themselves through actual operation.