# Month at a Glance — January By [madZebra7](https://paragraph.com/@madzebra7) · 2022-04-29 --- Welcome to our latest issue of Month at a Glance where we breakdown most of the latest happenings and significant milestones taking place within the Tezos ecosystem on a monthly cadence. January 2022 was another jam-packed month in terms of network usage, integrations, and further adoption. Let’s break it all down. The title resounds well with the level of momentum and adoption we’ve seen this month. Contract calls eclipsed the ATH set back in September during the second wave of NFT mania. Integrations and adoption within the ecosystem is firing on all cylinders commensurate with the continued growth we’ve seen in network metrics. Further, take a look at new smart contract deployments, which is at an all time high on the Tezos network. I recounted what I feel is a pivotal piece of news in our latest baking sheet newsletter outside of NFTs, which have been going vertical all on their own organically. I don’t think people fully grasp the significance of this development so it’s worth expanding on a bit further. A turning point has been made and the ages old adage of “when institutions” is no longer some meme satirical comment on Twitter or Reddit. It’s especially more prominent as we examine comments stating that the only thing Tezos has going for it is NFTs. I digress, ETPs are here for tez and DOT. If you’ve been keeping up with this development, plans were announced a while back on our TezTalks stream with Daniel Masters. Mr. Masters also serves on the Tezos Foundation board. ETPs are listed on a national stock exchange and can be traded via traditional equity markets, so these products are perfect for dissuading against the long on-ramp process within crypto networks for institutions. Imagine having the ability to purchase a bulk amount of these ETPs and receive a reward for doing so as well as being able to participate in the underlying security of these Proof-of-Stake networks. Since CoinShares must retain physically staked tez commensurate towards the ETP purchasing amount, this directly creates more demand for tez if volume starts to pick up on the traditional markets. They didn’t choose to take a synthetic approach, which usually derives its backing/value from a basket of derivatives in a benchmark. This is physical tez/DOT that is staked by CoinShares. Furthermore, when you’re talking about institutions/investors of size, they want to reduce as much risk as possible. CoinShares ETPs provide that and a simple onboarding experience. As I mentioned in our newsletter, it’s truly a great way for institutions/investors of size to dip their toes into the water that is Proof-of-Stake without jumping in fully. That itself, can lead to more exploration of these protocols too. As a whole, we should continue to look through the lenses of a marathon, not a sprint. As the Tezos network continues to evolve and grow, we’re once again reminded the importance of the end goal. That end goal being a platform for millions to transact, communicate, and interact on — and build further upon. It’s starting to become a not so distant future by the day. “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says I’m possible”. — Audrey Hepburn Tezos network reaches 2 million validated blocks on mainnet Team Vitality announces Tezos ecosystem as main partner Announcing Tezos Commons CRP winners for December 2021 GAP launches an NFT collection on Tezos Tezos India Partners with The Blockchain School Encode x Tezos Liquidity Baking — Bridging Deep Liquidity for tez What’s next for Tezos upgrades? Empowering Artists and Creators on Tezos Why I like working on Tezos — Daniel Hines (Marigold) Tezzardz and custom collections are live on Rarible CoinShares Lists World’s First Crypto ETPs With Transparent Staking Rewards and Reduced Management Fees Transak integrates tez to its platform Kukai Wallet x Moon Pay Last month, winners for the December Community Rewards Program went live. You can click here for the details. Keep nominating those exceptional community members and people going above and beyond! The Small Grants Program is an experimental regional effort focused on providing funding for low cost, intermittent, or experimental projects in the Tezos ecosystem. If you have a great idea, please apply for a small grant! Three amazing community members have moved forward with the Small Grants Program with another on the way, more details soon. If you’d like to apply for the Small Grants Program (or know someone that should), for more information check here. Tezos is a decentralized and permission-less public blockchain. Tezos Commons is a non-profit organization with the primary purpose of building community on Tezos. Through organizing several community-focused events, providing funding for hackathons and small projects, Tezos Commons has been actively contributing towards building and retaining community on Tezos. Learn more about Tezos Commons. Tezos Commons hosts a variety of community-oriented events and content. You can keep up to date below! You can contact or reach out to us on Twitter or via email [social@tezoscommons.org](mailto:social@tezoscommons.org). --- *Originally published on [madZebra7](https://paragraph.com/@madzebra7/month-at-a-glance-january)*