Today's news tips:
1. The IRS requires DeFi brokers to report digital asset sales income and collect user transaction information starting in 2027
2. The State Administration of Foreign Exchange issued the Reporting Management Measures for High-risk Transactions such as Illegal Cross-border Financial Activities of Virtual Currency
3. Montenegro's Minister of Justice signs extradition order, Do Kwon will be extradited to the United States
4. Galaxy Research's annual forecast: BTC will exceed $150,000 in the first half of the year, and ETH will exceed $5,500
5. ETH/BTC exchange rate bull James Fickel repaid his WBTC loan about 4 hours ago, with a loss of $68.84 million in the past year
6. Michael Saylor: 60 companies hold more than 590,000 BTC
7. President of The ETF Store: 5 institutions applied for crypto ETFs in the past 2 days
8. In the past six months, the smart money made a profit of $4.92 million by swing trading PEPE and added another $2.79 million of PEPE in the early morning
Regulatory News
According to the announcement of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the "Measures for the Administration of Bank Foreign Exchange Risk Transaction Reports (Trial)" has been issued and will be implemented from now on. The "Measures" is a supporting document for the "Measures for the Administration of Bank Foreign Exchange Business (Trial)", which aims to strengthen the foreign exchange risk management of banks and conduct early identification, early warning and early disposal of high-risk transactions such as suspected false trade, underground banks, and illegal cross-border financial activities of virtual currencies.
The main contents include: clarifying the reporting responsibilities of banks for foreign exchange risk transactions, requiring the establishment of a monitoring system and the submission of reports; stipulating the scope of information reporting, including activities suspected of illegal and irregular cross-border capital flows; clarifying the content of the report, such as basic information and measures to be taken; and strengthening internal management measures, including internal control systems and data confidentiality management.
Cambodia’s central bank approves compliant stablecoin services, but still bans Bitcoin
According to Phnom Penh Post, the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) has issued new regulations that allow commercial banks and payment institutions to provide services related to stablecoins and asset-backed cryptocurrencies for the first time, but unbacked assets such as Bitcoin are still prohibited. The new regulations require relevant institutions to obtain prior approval before engaging in crypto asset exchange, transfer and custody services, and prohibit the use of customer assets.
Previously, Cambodia blocked 16 unlicensed cryptocurrency trading websites to strengthen supervision of the digital asset market.
According to a statement from the Montenegrin Ministry of Justice, Minister of Justice Bojan Božović has signed a decision to extradite Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon to the United States. Previously, the Montenegrin Supreme Court ruled that the legal conditions for extradition to the United States were met. After comprehensively considering factors such as the severity of the case, the location of the crime, and the order of extradition requests, the Ministry of Justice gave priority to approving the extradition request from the United States and rejected the extradition request from South Korea.
Do Kwon is being investigated by the US and South Korean authorities for his financial scandal related to the TerraUSD and Luna collapse. The incident caused the cryptocurrency market to evaporate about $40 billion in May 2022, triggering the bankruptcy of several crypto companies. Do Kwon is accused of defrauding investors and hiding assets. He was arrested in Montenegro in March 2023 for using a forged passport and sentenced to four months in prison. After serving his sentence, both the United States and South Korea made extradition requests. After review, the Montenegrin Ministry of Justice decided to give priority to the US extradition request.
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has finalized rules requiring DeFi brokers to report gross proceeds from digital asset sales and provide customers with 1099 forms that collect user transaction information, including name and address. The Treasury Department noted that the final rule applies to "front-end service providers" that interact "directly with customers," meaning the entity that runs the main website used to access decentralized protocols, not the protocol itself. According to the document, the rule is expected to take effect on or after January 1, 2027. The idea of strengthening tax enforcement for digital asset service providers first appeared in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed in 2021 to help pay for spending authorized by the bill.
Crypto lobby group Blockchain Association files lawsuit against IRS over “DeFi broker” rules
The Blockchain Association, a US cryptocurrency lobbying group, tweeted that it had filed a lawsuit against the new "broker" regulations passed by the IRS and the Treasury Department. The IRS and Treasury Department have exceeded their statutory authority and expanded the definition of "broker" to include providers of DeFi trading front ends, even though they do not execute transactions. This not only violates the privacy rights of individuals using decentralized technology, but also pushes the entire booming technology overseas.
AI
OpenAI plans to adjust its structure to become a stronger non-profit organization
OpenAI announced that its board of directors is evaluating the company structure and transforming the existing for-profit sector into a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) to balance the needs of shareholders, stakeholders and the public interest, while providing stronger resource support for the non-profit sector. This move aims to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all mankind and advances its mission by raising more capital. In the future, PBC will focus on business operations and technological development, while non-profit institutions will focus on promoting the development of public welfare fields such as education, medical care and science.
OpenAI says ChatGPT has over 300 million active users per week
OpenAI revealed in its announcement article that currently, more than 300 million people use OpenAI's products every week for activities such as productivity improvement and learning, and most of them are free users.
Project News
Bitget will destroy BGB worth more than 5 billion US dollars, accounting for 40% of the total supply
The Bitget team released a new version of the BGB white paper and announced the introduction of a repurchase and destruction mechanism. In the first destruction, 800 million BGBs held by the core team will be destroyed at one time, accounting for 40% of the total supply. According to the current price of BGB, the value of the destroyed part exceeds 5 billion US dollars. After the destruction, the total supply of BGB will be reduced to 1.2 billion, and 100% will be fully circulated.
At the same time, BGB will start quarterly repurchase and destruction. Starting from 2025, Bitget will repurchase and destroy BGB with 20% of the quarterly profits of the exchange and wallet business. The profits will be composed of the spot, contract, and leverage transaction fees of the Bitget exchange, and the Swap, contract, and NFT transaction fees of the Bitget Wallet.
The white paper also introduces BGB's future equity plan, which will revolve around three parts: on-chain application scenarios, PayFi payment scenarios, and on-site equity scenarios, allowing BGB to be deeply integrated into popular public chains and top DeFi ecosystems as a mainstream asset.
According to official news from Binance Wallet, 9 new decentralized applications (dApps) have been launched, including UniSat, ALPHA-X, WOOFi, oooo protocol, DeSyn Protocol, Prosper, Eddy Finance, Matrixdock and Jasper Vault. These applications cover multiple fields such as cross-chain transactions, AI insights and decentralized liquidity.
Galaxy Research released a 2025 forecast report covering Bitcoin and Ethereum prices, DOGE, stablecoins, DeFi, L2s, policies, VC, etc. The details are as follows:
- Bitcoin will break through $150,000 in the first half of the year and test or reach $185,000 in the fourth quarter of 2025.
- By 2025, the asset management scale of US spot Bitcoin ETP will exceed US$250 billion.
- In 2025, Bitcoin will once again be one of the best risk-adjusted performing assets in the world.
- At least one top wealth management platform will announce a recommended Bitcoin allocation of 2% or more.
- Five Nasdaq 100 companies and five nation states will announce the addition of Bitcoin to their balance sheets or sovereign wealth funds.
- Bitcoin developers will reach consensus on the next protocol upgrade in 2025.
- More than half of the top 20 publicly traded Bitcoin miners by market value will announce transitions or partnerships with hyperscale providers, AI or high-performance computing companies.
- Bitcoin DeFi (defined as the total amount of BTC locked in DeFi smart contracts and deposited in staking protocols) will nearly double by 2025.
- Ethereum will be traded at over $5,500 in 2025.
- Ethereum staking rate will exceed 50%.
- In 2025, the ETH/BTC ratio will be below 0.03, but will be above 0.06 by the end of the year.
- In 2025, L2 as a collective will generate more economic activity than Alt L1.
- DeFi will enter the “dividend era” as on-chain applications distribute at least $1 billion in notional value to users and token holders from treasuries and revenue sharing.
- On-chain governance will see a resurgence, and applications will experiment with future governance models.
- By 2025, the world's four largest custodian banks will be custodians of digital assets.
- There will be at least ten stablecoins launched that will be backed by TradFi partners.
- By 2025, the total supply of stablecoins will double to over $400 billion.
- Tether’s long-held market dominance will fall below 50%, challenged by yield alternatives like Blackrock’s BUIDL, Ethena’s USDe, and even Coinbase/Circle’s USDC rewards payments.
- Total crypto venture capital will exceed $150 billion, an increase of more than 50% year-over-year.
- Stablecoin legislation will pass both houses of Congress and be signed by President Trump in 2025, but market structure legislation will not.
- The U.S. government will not purchase Bitcoin in 2025, but will use the Bitcoin it already holds to build reserves, and various departments and agencies will also take action to study expanding Bitcoin reserve policies.
- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is set to launch an investigation into the first so-called “special purpose broker-dealer,” Prometheum.
- Dogecoin will eventually reach $1, and the market cap of the world's largest and oldest memecoin will reach $100 billion.
VolatilityShares files to launch leveraged ETF based on Solana futures
Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store, tweeted that Volatility Shares has submitted an application to the US SEC for an exchange-traded fund (ETF) based on Solana futures, covering 1x, 2x and -1x leverage exposure. Volatility Shares has actively promoted the SEC to launch an Ethereum futures ETF.
Solana co-founder Stephen Akridge sued by ex-wife, accused of stealing SOL staking income
Solana co-founder Stephen Akridge has been sued by his ex-wife Elisa Rossi, accusing him of stealing "millions of dollars" in rewards generated by SOL staking, and seeking claims including breach of contract, unjust enrichment and fraud, according to Bloomberg. According to the complaint, Stephen Akridge "took advantage of the huge difference in his expertise in cryptocurrency and blockchain" to secretly obtain Elisa Rossi's staking rewards. Although Elisa Rossi mentioned a "huge amount" in her request to the court to keep part of the lawsuit confidential, the value of the tokens involved in the lawsuit was not disclosed. Elisa Rossi said that from early March to mid-May, the accounts "were operated and controlled by Stephen Akridge.
Akridge previously served as Solana’s chief engineer, playing a key role in developing the blockchain platform alongside co-founders Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal. Prior to joining Solana, Akridge worked at Qualcomm and is now the CEO of Cyber Grant, a California-based cybersecurity company.
ProShares files to launch Bitcoin hedge ETFs based on S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 and gold
Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store, tweeted that ProShares has applied to launch a Bitcoin hedge ETF based on the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 and gold.
President of The ETF Store: 5 institutions have applied for crypto ETFs in the past 2 days
Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store, tweeted that five institutions have applied for crypto ETFs in the past 48 hours, namely:
- Strive Bitcoin Bond ETF;
- Bitwise Bitcoin Standard Inc ETF;
- REX BTC Corporate Treasury Convertible Bond ETF;
- VolatilityShares is a Solana futures-based ETF with 1x, 2x, and -1x leverage exposures.
- ProShares has applied to launch a Bitcoin hedge ETF based on the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 and gold.
ai16z initiated a proposal to upgrade the token economics model and proposed to launch Launchpad
ai16z initiated a proposal to update the token economics model, with the following highlights: creating an official ai16z Launchpad platform for Eliza-based projects; implementing a community management process; implementing ai16z staking to gain benefits such as early access and fee sharing; using issuance fees and LP profits to repurchase and reinvest in Eliza development rather than destroying them; positioning ai16z as an artificial intelligence L1 blockchain, etc.
Important data
According to on-chain analyst Ember, ETH/BTC long James Fickel sold 6,429 ETH (US$21.45 million) for 227 WBTC 4 hours ago to pay off all WBTC loans. James Fickel has been long on ETH/BTC for a whole year and lost US$68.84 million (20,632 ETH):
- In the first half of the year, I borrowed 2,987 WBTC through Aave at an exchange rate of 0.054 and sold them for 55,315 ETH to go long on the ETH/BTC exchange rate;
- Since August, ETH has been sold to buy back WBTC to repay the loan. A total of 75,947 ETH was spent to buy back 2,987 WBTC at an exchange rate of 0.0393 to repay the loan.
- In the end, he lost 20,632 ETH ($68.84 million) on the long ETH/BTC exchange rate.
According to Onchain Lens, in the past two days, a whale spent $1.87 million to buy 60.03 million MIRA at an average price of $0.031. Currently, these MIRA are worth $486,000, and the whale faces a loss of about $1.38 million.
Michael Saylor: 60 companies hold more than 590,000 BTC
MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor tweeted a list of 60 companies holding BTC and their holdings. As of December 23, the 60 companies held a total of 591,368 bitcoins, worth approximately US$55.88 billion.
According to on-chain analyst @ai_9684xtpa, "suspected $VIRTUAL project owner/early participant" recharged 2 million VIRTUAL to Bybit 2 hours ago, worth $6.96 million. In the past week, a total of 8.75 million tokens have been transferred to the exchange, about $27.08 million, with a recharge price of $3.09; currently, three associated addresses still hold $181 million in tokens, accounting for 10.9% of the total tokens of the Base network.
According to Lookonchain monitoring, 3 hours ago, a whale deposited 250,000 LINK ($5.37 million) into Binance and OKX. From December 14 to December 18, the whale withdrew 595,000 LINK ($17.31 million) from Binance at an average price of $29.1, and currently lost about $4.5 million in LINK.
According to the monitoring of on-chain analyst @ai_9684xtpa, "smart money that has made a profit of $4.92 million through PEPE bands in the past six months" has increased its position of $2.79 million in PEPE in the early morning. The position of this round of bands has increased to 817.9 billion PEPE. In the past week, he has withdrawn a total of $14.25 million worth of PEPE from Kraken, with an average price of $0.00001742. It is currently the top asset held by this address, with a floating profit of $695,000.
According to Lookonchain monitoring, two weeks ago, a whale spent 10 million USDC to purchase 13.16 million ai16z, which is now worth $15.66 million, with an unrealized profit of $5.66 million.
