Today's news tips:
1. The new chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee intends to focus on the structure of the crypto market
2. South Korea's National Assembly passed the impeachment of President Yoon Seok-yeol and appointed Prime Minister Han Deok-soo as acting president
3. MICROSTRATEGY stock is included in the Nasdaq 100 Index
4. BiT Global, which is related to Justin Sun, sued Coinbase for delisting wBTC
5. VanEck releases top ten predictions for 2025: Bitcoin will reach $180,000, and the bull market will reach its mid-term peak in Q1
6.BIO Protocol proposes to remove transfer restrictions on BIO token contracts
7.OpenAI whistleblower was found dead in San Francisco apartment, suspected suicide
8. A PEPE whale that has been silent for 600 days transferred 2.1 trillion PEPE to a new address, spending only $27 to buy it
9. MegaETH developer MegaLabs raises $10 million through Echo platform
Regulatory News
Societe Generale and Bank of France collaborate to complete blockchain repo transaction
SG-Forge, the digital asset subsidiary of Societe Generale, has announced the completion of a blockchain repo transaction with the Banque de France, the first such tokenized transaction by a eurozone central bank.
In this transaction, SG-Forge used its 2020 bonds as collateral through the Ethereum blockchain in exchange for the central bank digital currency (CBDC) issued by the Bank of France on its exclusive DL3S blockchain. It is worth noting that this transaction did not involve SG-Forge's euro stablecoin EUR CoinVertible (EURCV).
New U.S. House Financial Services Committee Chair to Focus on Crypto Market Structure
Hill, the incoming chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, said he would focus on easing bank regulations, promoting capital formation to facilitate more companies to go public, and addressing structural issues in the crypto market.
French Hill, a pro-crypto Republican, was elected today as the next chairman of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, and will succeed current chairman Patrick McHenry on January 25, 2025. Hill has promoted a number of cryptocurrency-related bills, including legislation to regulate digital assets, and said he will continue to promote a clear cryptocurrency regulatory framework and consumer protection policies. Hill said he will work with President Trump and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott to promote economic policies and usher in a "new era of prosperity."
Japanese lawmaker proposes setting up national Bitcoin reserve
Japanese lawmaker Satoshi Hamada proposed that the government launch a national Bitcoin reserve, citing similar actions being taken by the United States and Brazil. It is suggested that the Japanese government "consider converting part of its foreign exchange reserves into virtual currencies such as Bitcoin." Hamada also pointed out in his proposal that Bitcoin is "less influenced by specific countries or institutions." Bitcoin's "neutrality and decentralized nature" can support economic activities without relying on any specific currency. The government is expected to respond to Hamada's questions in writing in the coming weeks and may publish them publicly on its official website.
According to Jin Shi, citing CCTV News, the South Korean National Assembly held a plenary session at 16:00 local time on the 14th to vote on the second impeachment of President Yoon Seok-yeol proposed by the opposition camp. According to the voting results, 204 members of the South Korean National Assembly voted in favor of impeaching President Yoon Seok-yeol, and the impeachment case was finally passed. Yoon Seok-yeol's presidency was immediately terminated, and South Korean Prime Minister Han Deok-soo was appointed as acting president.
AI
OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment, suspected suicide
Suchir Balaji, a 26-year-old former OpenAI employee who publicly accused the company of unethical use of data to train its artificial intelligence platform, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment.
Suchir Balaji worked as a researcher on the technical staff of OpenAI from November 2020 to August 2024. He said in an interview with The New York Times that he helped OpenAI train ChatGPT without permission using large amounts of data collected from the internet until its public release in November 2022. Among other allegations, The New York Times reported that the company created its own transcription software and ran it on YouTube to collect data.
According to authorities, police and medical personnel were called to Balaji's home on November 26 to check on his health and later found him dead in his apartment. "The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) has identified the deceased as Suchir Balaji, 26, of San Francisco," the medical examiner's office said in a statement. "The cause of death has been determined to be suicide."
Project News
The World Liberty Financial governance page shows that the WLFI community voted to pass the first proposal to deploy a lending instance based on Aave v3 on the Ethereum mainnet. This instance will support lending of ETH, WBTC, USDC and USDT, and will be managed through Aave's risk management system.
The WLFI protocol aims to provide a seamless experience for users who are new to DeFi, promote the popularity of overcollateralized lending, and enhance Aave's leadership in the digital asset lending market. AaveDAO will receive 20% of the protocol fee income and 7% of the $WLFI tokens for governance participation and liquidity incentives.
Binance Futures to Launch AVA and DEGO U-margined Perpetual Contracts
Binance Futures will launch AVAUSDT and DEGOUSDT perpetual contracts on December 13, 2024, with trading opening at 21:00 and 21:15 Beijing time respectively, supporting up to 75x leverage.
Binance to Launch VELODROME U-Based Perpetual Contract
Binance will launch the VELODROME principal-guaranteed coin-earning current product and open subscription at 22:00 (Eastern Time) on December 13, 2024. From 18:00 on December 16, users can purchase VELODROME through the fixed investment function or by using credit cards, Google Pay, Apple Pay, etc., and support "one-click coin purchase" and flash exchange functions, and exchange to BTC, USDT, etc. without handling fees. In addition, Binance will launch VELODROME full-position and position-by-position leveraged trading pairs at 00:00 on December 14. VIP users can borrow assets in advance, and launch U-standard perpetual contracts with a maximum leverage of 75 times at 00:15 on the same day.
The Q3 Bitcoin mining report released by CoinShares shows that the weighted average cash cost of listed miners to produce 1 Bitcoin increased to approximately $55,950, an increase of 13% from Q2, and the total cost including non-cash costs was approximately $106,000. Although mining remains profitable at the current Bitcoin price of $100,000, the rapid growth of network computing power and the fact that some miners have invested funds in AI infrastructure or hoarding coins (HODL) strategies have weakened computing power growth and increased costs. High electricity prices in Texas in the summer have further pushed up production costs for some miners. Terawulf has become the miner with the lowest cash cost by reducing debt costs, Marathon has increased Bitcoin production and obtained tax benefits, and Riot has fallen in the cost ranking due to electricity costs despite improved operating efficiency. The report predicts that the rise in Bitcoin prices in Q4 may temporarily ease the pressure of low hash prices, but equipment prices, electricity competition and capital costs may cause production costs to continue to rise, and some miners such as Argo are at risk of bankruptcy.
Sui and Ant Digits Collaborate to Promote ESG-Backed RWA Tokenization
Sui, a Layer1 blockchain platform, announced a strategic partnership with Ant Digits and its Web3 technology brand ZAN, aiming to tokenize real-world assets (RWA) in the field of ESG (environment, social and governance) and introduce them into the Sui blockchain ecosystem. In August this year, Chinese new energy company Langxin Group completed a "charging pile" RWA of about RMB 100 million. Industry insiders believe that RWA links both ends of asset and capital supply and demand, which will help to revitalize the existing high-quality assets of small and medium-sized enterprises, improve the liquidity of heavy assets, and empower the real economy.
At present, the total market value of Sui blockchain has reached 13 billion US dollars, and the total locked value (TVL) has exceeded 1.8 billion US dollars. Recently, the integration with crypto wallets such as Phantom and Backpack has further improved user accessibility. At the same time, Sui has received support from institutions such as Grayscale and VanEck.
Asset management giant VanEck released its top ten cryptocurrency predictions for 2025:
1. The crypto bull market reached a mid-term peak in the first quarter and a new high in the fourth quarter. Bitcoin is expected to be worth about $180,000, Ethereum will trade at more than $6,000, Solana will exceed $500, and Sui will exceed $10.
2. The United States will embrace Bitcoin with strategic reserves and increased cryptocurrency adoption. Under the new SEC, multiple new spot cryptocurrency ETPs will be approved. Ethereum ETPs will include staking, and both Ethereum and Bitcoin ETPs will allow physical trading and redemption.
3. Tokenized securities exceed $50 billion in value. Tokenized securities grow 61% to $12 billion in 2024, but most of that value is on permissioned chains. 2025 will be a breakout year for tokenized securities to launch on open source blockchains as entities like the DTCC explore connecting public and private blockchains.
4. Stablecoins are expected to revolutionize payments, with daily settlement volumes expected to reach $300 billion by the end of 2025, a threefold increase from the current daily volume of about $100 billion. At this level, stablecoins will process transactions equivalent to 5% of DTCC's daily volume. Following a 180% year-on-year increase in 2024, this surge will be driven by global commerce, remittances, and integration with major technology and payment networks.
5. 1 million new AI agents will emerge. Think of AI agents as digital workers — autonomous software programs that perform tasks or make decisions on your behalf, such as managing investments, moderating online communities, or even playing video games. These agents generated significant revenue in the last month of 2024, and their on-chain activity is expected to surge as they expand from DeFi to social media, gaming, and consumer applications in 2025.
6. Bitcoin Layer 2 TVL will reach 100,000 BTC. On this basis, it will achieve an explosive growth of 600% in 2024, bringing the TVL to 30,000 BTC.
7. The Ethereum blob space will generate $1B in fee revenue, driven by explosive L2 adoption, rollup optimizations, and high-fee use cases like tokenized assets and enterprise applications.
8. DeFi will hit an all-time high with DEX trading volume reaching $4 trillion and TVL reaching $200 billion, thanks to AI-related tokens, consumer-facing dApps, and tokenized assets driving liquidity and adoption.
9. NFT transaction volume is expected to rebound to $30 billion in 2025. Despite the downturn in the past few years, projects such as Pudgy Penguins, which transformed from collectible toys to consumer brands, and outstanding projects such as Miladys, which gained cultural status in satirical Internet culture, have bucked the trend with strong community ties.
10. DApp tokens close the performance gap with L1 tokens. In 2024, L1 blockchain tokens will outperform dApp tokens by 2x, but the launch of innovative dApps in AI and Decentralized Tokenization is expected to drive a performance shift.
BIO Protocol proposes to remove transfer restrictions on BIO token contracts
BIO Protocol initiated a proposal on obtaining BIO liquidity, aiming to allow new participants to join the BIO economy; secondly, deploying liquidity on Ethereum will promote the accessibility and long-term growth of BIO, while also enabling the token to be expanded to other chains in the future. The proposal is as follows:
- Remove transfer restrictions on the BIO token contract and make it transferable
- Allocate 6% of BIO supply to provide liquidity for decentralized and centralized markets. Grant the BIO Association the power to actively manage liquidity based on market demand.
- Providing initial liquidity on the Ethereum mainnet through the ETH/BIO liquidity pool
If the proposal is passed, it will take effect within 7 days.
BiT Global, which is associated with Justin Sun, sues Coinbase for delisting wBTC
BiT Global, a company associated with Justin Sun, sued Coinbase, claiming that Coinbase's delisting of wBTC and launching of competing products was anti-competitive and violated "numerous state and federal laws" and that the delisting would also "harm" BiT Global.
On November 19, Coinbase announced that it would delist WBTC from December 19, 2024, citing the need to regularly review its “listing standards.” A few months ago, BitGo, which has served as the main custodian of wBTC since its launch in January 2019, disclosed that it would distribute custody control of the project to three entities, including BiT Global, a Hong Kong trust company with ties to Justin Sun.
The so-called "strategic partnership between BitGo, Justin Sun, and the TRON ecosystem" has been questioned by many in the crypto community. For example, major DeFi projects MakerDAO and Aave began to consider removing wBTC as a collateral asset, but ultimately did not do so. WBTC is the first and largest tokenized version of BTC, traded on Ethereum and other blockchains. Under the new agreement, BitGo will manage and operate the wBTC business, while BiT Global Trust will serve as the custodian of the underlying wBTC collateral. BitGo, BiT Global, and BiT Global's subsidiary in Singapore will each hold one of the three wBTC multi-signature keys.
Earlier news revealed that BitGo and BiT Global have partnered to create a joint venture to diversify WBTC's custody and cold storage businesses across multiple jurisdictions, and BitGo will become a minority shareholder in the new joint venture.
Coinbase adds Parcl (PRCL) to its coin listing roadmap
Market News: Opensea registers foundation in Cayman Islands
Azuki researcher wale.moca tweeted that the NFT marketplace Opensea has registered a foundation in the Cayman Islands.
MICROSTRATEGY is included in the Nasdaq-100 Index
MICROSTRATEGY was included in the Nasdaq-100 Index. The Nasdaq-100 Index tracks the 100 largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq exchange, including market-dominant companies such as Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Tesla, and Costco.
Azuki founder blocked by Taylor Swift
Azuki founder Zagabond said its X account was blocked by superstar Taylor Swift. Yesterday, Zagabond created a beta AI tool chill guy agent that can send cryptocurrency to any Twitter user, even if they have never used cryptocurrency before. Zagabond transferred 0.0013 ETH to Taylor Swift through the tool.
10x Research said in a post that there are more and more claims about the tightening supply of Bitcoin, especially with the continuous accumulation of Bitcoin ETFs and MicroStrategy, the available supply of Bitcoin continues to decrease, laying the foundation for a potential "squeeze" market. In the past 30 days, the exchange has recorded a net outflow of 124,000 Bitcoins. It is worth noting that:
- Coinbase, which holds the largest Bitcoin reserves, saw an outflow of 72,000 Bitcoins, accounting for nearly 10% of its total balance, which currently stands at 748,000 Bitcoins.
- Binance Bitcoin outflow was 29,000, leaving a remaining balance of 570,000.
- In contrast, Bitfinex saw an inflow of 8,500 bitcoins, increasing its holdings to 391,000.
- Other major exchanges, such as Gemini, OKX, and Kraken, also experienced notable outflows, with Kraken seeing outflows of around 7-8% of its holdings.
If these trends continue and demand remains strong, the market could face a severe Bitcoin supply crunch. This could be further exacerbated by the launch of these Bitcoin ETF options, which could trigger additional gamma squeezes, exacerbating price pressures.
Financing News
MegaETH developer MegaLabs raises $10 million via Echo platform
MegaETH developer MegaLabs has raised $10 million through the Echo platform. MegaLabs co-founder Shuyao Kong said the structure of this round of financing is equity plus token warrants, the same as MegaLabs' $20 million seed round in June, and both rounds of financing were valued at "nine figures." Kong said that although the over-the-counter (OTC) market valuation of MegaLabs is "significantly higher," the valuation of the Echo round remains unchanged to prioritize decentralization and community participation.
Earlier news , MegaETH's developer MegaLabs completed a $20 million seed round of financing, led by Dragonfly and participated by Vitalik and others.
Important data
According to News.bitcoin, Microstrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) Executive Chairman Michael Saylor shared a chart showing the performance of Microstrategy stock relative to other major investments.
Since adopting the Bitcoin strategy on August 10, 2020, the firm has achieved an annualized return of 124%, outperforming all major asset classes. Factset data from December 11 showed that Bitcoin has achieved a strong annualized return of 64% in the same time frame. In comparison, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla have returned 31%, the S&P 500 has returned 15%, real estate has returned 10%, and gold has returned 7%. Bonds have performed poorly, with a return of negative 5%.
According to Lookonchain monitoring, a PEPE whale that had been silent for 600 days transferred all 2.1 trillion PEPE (52 million U.S. dollars) to a new address. The whale initially spent only 0.0135 ETH (27 U.S. dollars) to buy 2.1 trillion PEPE and has held it until now. From 27 U.S. dollars to 52 million U.S. dollars, the return is 1.9 million times.
According to @ai_9684xtpa, a whale who built a position of 19,992 ETH at an average price of $2,550 since January 2024 deposited 2,700 ETH (about $10.56 million) into Binance three hours ago. If sold, it will make a profit of $3.67 million. Currently, the whale still holds 13,162 ETH.
Suspected VIRTUAL project owner/early participant deposited 7 million tokens into Bybit
On-chain analyst @ai_9684xtpa monitored that suspected VIRTUAL project parties/early participants recharged 7 million tokens to Bybit in the past 17 hours, worth 17.09 million US dollars. In the past two months, a total of 11.97 million tokens have been recharged to the exchange, worth up to 25.74 million US dollars.
This address received 54.85 million VIRTUAL airdrops from the Ethereum mainnet on December 23, 2023 (accounting for 5.49% of the total tokens), and then transferred the tokens to the Base network in April 2024. After multiple transfers, 10 million of the tokens were transferred to the current address. Currently, the original address still holds $100 million worth of VIRTUAL.
A whale has accumulated 7,661 ETH through Binance in the past day and a half.
On-chain analyst Ember monitored that a whale deposited 5 million USDT to Binance 18 hours ago, and then withdrew 2,500 ETH (9.81 million USD) from Binance 20 minutes ago. In the past day and a half, this whale has accumulated 7,661 ETH (29.87 million USD) through Binance, with an average price of 3,899 USD.
