Today's news tips:
Japanese listed company Metaplanet increases its holdings of 619.7 Bitcoins
Binance Alpha announces new batch of projects: ZEREBRO, COOKIE, WHALES, and ORDER
Pump.fun denies Christmas airdrop rumors
Securitize proposes to add BlackRock’s BUIDL token as backing for stablecoin Frax USD
Regulatory News
Musk responded to a discussion on social media about the possibility of the US president pardoning a well-known person in advance (the picture shows a composite picture of Biden and SBF). He said: "I would be shocked if this doesn't happen."
Phoenix Group, the UAE’s first crypto-listed company, plans to dual-list in the U.S. next year
According to Cailianshe, Phoenix Group, the first local cryptocurrency company in the UAE to be listed on the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange (ADX), recently announced the appointment of a new CEO and plans to achieve dual listing on Nasdaq in 2025 to further expand the international market and enhance global influence. Phoenix Group was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Abu Dhabi, UAE. In October 2023, it was successfully listed on the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange, becoming the first private cryptocurrency and blockchain entity to be listed on the Middle East stock market. It is reported that Phoenix Group is the largest cryptocurrency mining business operator in the Middle East and North Africa, with a layout in mining, hosting, trading and investment, and operates a total of 765 megawatts of mining facilities worldwide.
Gate Group announces acquisition of Coin Master Co., Ltd., officially entering the Japanese market
According to the announcement of crypto asset trading platform Gate.io and the Financial Services Agency of Japan today, Gate Group announced that its Singapore legal entity Gate Japan KK ("Gate Japan", CEO: Lin Han) has successfully acquired all the issued shares of Coin Master Co., Ltd., a Japanese crypto asset trading service provider. At the same time, Coin Master Co., Ltd. will be renamed "Gate Japan Co., Ltd." from now on. Gate.io issued a statement on July 22, 2024, stating that it has stopped opening new accounts for users living in Japan since that day and gradually terminated global services for domestic users in Japan. However, through the acquisition of Coin Master Co., Ltd., Gate Group hopes to provide domestic users in Japan with exclusive digital asset trading platform services that comply with local regulations in the future, and further promote the expansion of localized business in the Japanese market.
Japanese listed company Metaplanet increases its holdings of 619.7 Bitcoins
PANews reported on December 23 that according to an official announcement, Japanese listed company Metaplanet announced that it had purchased an additional 619.70 bitcoins for 9.5 billion yen (approximately US$60.69 million). It currently holds a total of 1,761.98 BTC.
According to CCTV News, US President-elect Trump announced the nomination of Sriram Krishnan as the next senior policy advisor for artificial intelligence in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Trump said in a statement that Sriram Krishnan will work closely with David Sachs to focus on ensuring the continued leadership of the United States in the field of artificial intelligence. Earlier in November, a16z general partner Sriram Krishnan announced that he would leave at the end of the year.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has attracted widespread attention for his firm denial of plans to hold a $600 million wedding with his fiancée Lauren Sanchez in Aspen, Colorado, Bitcoin.com reported. He made it clear that the rumors were pure fiction. In response, a number of billionaires, including Tesla founder Musk, expressed their support for Bezos. Musk even jokingly wished Bezos a grand wedding in the future, while Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman directly refuted the rumors of a $600 million wedding, calling it "unbelievable." However, as everyone was discussing the hot topic, MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor cleverly changed the subject. He quipped: "600 million dollars can buy a lot of Bitcoin." This development follows a proposal from Amazon shareholders to encourage the company to invest at least 5% of its assets in Bitcoin (BTC), which coincides with a similar proposal recently made to Microsoft. Saylor's remarks once again highlight the ongoing efforts to bring Bitcoin into mainstream financial discussions and use popular events to highlight its investment potential. While Bezos laughed off the wedding gossip, Saylor took the opportunity to turn the focus to Bitcoin’s broader prospects as an alternative asset.
Trump Appoints Bo Hines as Executive Director of Presidential Digital Asset Advisory Council
According to The Block, US President-elect Donald Trump announced that he has appointed Bo Hines as the executive director of his "Presidential Digital Asset Advisory Committee" to lead his "Crypto Committee." Bo Hines was a college football player who failed to be elected to the House of Representatives in 2022. Trump wrote: "In his new position, Bo Hines will work with David Sacks to promote innovation and growth in the digital asset field while ensuring that industry leaders have the resources they need to succeed."
Financing
Kettle, an on-chain luxury watch trading market, raises $4 million in funding led by ParaFi Capital
Kettle, an on-chain luxury watch trading market, announced that it has completed a $4 million financing round, led by ParaFi Capital, with strategic investors including Zee Prime Capital, Kronos, Signum Capital, IOSG Ventures, and Puzzle Ventures. The funds will be used to build the RWA platform.
Kettle is a peer-to-peer marketplace where users can trade luxury watches based on their full financial value. Kettle says the watches on its platform are certified for insurance and stored in the Kettle Vault in New York.
Project News
Binance Launchpool Launches 63rd Project, Use BNB and FDUSD to Get Bio Protocol (BIO)
Bio Protocol (BIO) has become Binance's 63rd Launchpool project. It will officially open users to obtain BIO airdrop rewards by staking BNB and FDUSD at 08:00 (Beijing time) on December 24 for a period of 10 days.
Binance plans to list BIO at 18:00 (GMT+8) on January 3, 2025, and open BIO/USDT, BIO/BNB, BIO/FDUSD, and BIO/TRY trading pairs. The seed tag will be applied to BIO.
Binance Alpha announces new batch of projects: ZEREBRO, COOKIE, WHALES, and ORDER
According to official news, Binance Alpha announced the fifth batch of project lists, namely MGP, ZEREBRO, COOKIE, WHALES and ORDER. It is worth noting that MGP was announced as early as the fourth batch of Binance Alpha. After checking the contract address, it is obviously the same project.
Binance to launch HIVE/USDT perpetual contract
Binance Futures will launch HIVE/USDT perpetual contracts at 19:30 (GMT+8), providing up to 75x leverage trading services.
Lido officially released the Ethereum SDK, a TypeScript-based development tool library designed to help developers seamlessly integrate Lido's staking functionality into off-chain applications such as widgets, wallets, etc. The SDK is prepared for production environments and provides a series of tools, pre-built methods and clear documentation to support the rapid integration of Lido's staking functionality. The Lido Ethereum SDK is suitable for dApp developers who want to integrate staking functions, DeFi projects that require a stable staking infrastructure, and builders who explore Ethereum liquidity staking solutions. Its main functions include ETH staking and staking asset management, reward tracking and calculation, unstaking and asset packaging functions, protocol statistics tracking, and multi-chain support (such as OP mainnet).
PANews reported on December 23 that according to statistics from X platform user @sankin_eth, since Binance Alpha launched 29 tokens, the fully diluted valuation (FDV) of 17 tokens has increased compared to when Binance Alpha was launched, and the current FDV of 12 tokens has decreased compared to when Binance Alpha was launched. The FDV of small-cap tokens generally increased significantly. Among them, the token Shoggoth had the largest FDV increase, soaring 134.66%; followed by FROG and BOB, with FDV increases of 123.19% and 122.08% respectively. GNON and TERMINUS also doubled, with FDV increases of more than 104%. On the other hand, the FDV of some tokens fell sharply. APX's FDV fell the most, reaching 28.12%; GRIFFAIN and SD's FDV fell by 25.41% and 21.39% respectively.
Animoca co-founder Yat Siu plans to give his MOCA airdrop to the community as a Christmas gift
Animoca Brands co-founder and executive chairman Yat Siu posted on X that as a Christmas gift, the MOCA tokens obtained through MOCA NFT during TGE will be airdropped to the community in two phases. The first phase will mainly be given to the MOCA community of interactive users who posted tweets during MOCA TGE, and the rules for the second phase are still under consideration. Previously on July 12, Yat Siu posted that the number of Moca NFTs he holds has reached 88, and he will give the MOCA token airdrop rewards obtained through these NFTs to the community.
Pump.fun denies Christmas airdrop rumors
In response to rumors in the community that Pump.fun will conduct an airdrop on Christmas, Pump.fun co-founder Alon clearly responded with "False" and denied the news.
Securitize proposes to add BlackRock’s BUIDL token as backing for stablecoin Frax USD
Decentralized stablecoin protocol Frax Finance is considering integrating BlackRock’s BUIDL token as a reserve asset in its soon-to-be-relaunched Frax USD stablecoin, but the decision is subject to governance approval. Securitize Markets has written a governance proposal for this, noting that this move would not only increase the utility, security and convenience of Frax USD, but also reduce counterparty risk of the reserve. The BUIDL token currently manages over $530 million in assets, mainly short-term U.S. Treasuries. Although the proposal has not yet been voted on, initial feedback from members of the Frax Finance decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) has been generally positive. Meanwhile, Frax’s core team is planning to rename its core stablecoin to Frax USD (frxUSD) as described in another governance proposal, and simultaneously launch Staked Frax USD (sfrxUSD) as a yield-generating counterpart product. If the partnership with Paxos is successful, frxUSD will be directly convertible into fiat currency and may benefit from Frax Finance’s efforts to gain access to the U.S. Federal Reserve System’s master account. A new minting-redeem system will also accompany the launch of the stablecoin, and under the new system of "designated custodians," entities will be able to obtain minting-redeem rights for frxUSD if the governance layer allows their assets to back frxUSD. Competing tokenized fund platform Superstate has also made two governance proposals, suggesting that Frax use its USTB Treasury and USCC crypto arbitrage funds as stablecoin backing. Superstate called on Frax to allocate up to $20 million to its USCC fund and up to $100 million to the USTB fund.
Viewpoint
Adam, a macro analyst at Greeks.live, posted on the X platform that this Wednesday is Christmas, and major exchanges in Europe and the United States are closed. Cryptocurrency funds usually flow out this week. Currently, ETFs are the main source of external funds for the crypto market. The pressure of capital outflow on the crypto market has increased significantly compared with previous years, and the market is risk-averse. Regarding the outlook for the crypto market, there has not been a sharp correction in this round of bull market. Now that funds are tight during the Christmas holiday, it is not ruled out that there will be a deleveraging before Trump takes office, and the market is risk-averse. Regarding the crypto interest rate market, nearly $12 billion of options have expired in the options market, accounting for more than 40% of the current total positions. Large investors and market makers are actively adjusting their positions. Paying more attention to the market can occasionally get good opportunities to pick up leaks. The volatility of Christmas this week is not expected to be large. The market is more betting on the market before and after Trump takes office at the end of January. It is still a good opportunity to buy options in the near future.
Matrixport said that the rebound of Ethereum and other altcoins is limited and it is difficult to form a sustained rise, while Bitcoin still firmly controls the market dominance. At present, the market lacks significant positive news support, and Ethereum's dominance rate has further declined. Since the launch of the Ethereum ETF in early summer 2024, despite attracting billions of dollars in capital inflows, it has failed to reverse the downward trend. Analysts believe that Ethereum investors may need to wait for a more favorable market environment. It is expected that a new round of rising opportunities will be ushered in in 2025, helping the market to get rid of the current downturn.
According to Santiment analysis, crypto market sentiment has rapidly shifted from bullish to bearish in the past two weeks, especially after the market capitalization adjustment (especially altcoins). Investors' interest in meme coins has clearly declined, while attention to Bitcoin has risen again.
Santiment noted that this market panic and pessimism is a healthy part of the cycle, providing patient traders with the possibility to take advantage of "market panic" opportunities.
Justin Sun on coin issuance: The key lies in whether it enhances business value
Sun Yuchen expressed his views on coin issuance on social media. He said that coin issuance itself is a financial tool and innovation, but financial tools cannot directly determine the value of the business, it is just an amplifier. He compared coin issuance to a company's IPO, and believed that if the business form and business model are not correct, financial tools will not be able to save the business; and excellent businesses can show stronger value through suitable financial tools. He emphasized that whether coin issuance is valuable needs to be judged by the person in charge of the business, and the core lies in whether the business efficiency and user experience are improved and the business pain points are solved after the coin issuance.
Important data
20,000 ETH transferred from Binance to an unknown wallet, worth more than $66.05 million
According to Whale Alert monitoring, at 16:04 Beijing time on December 23, 20,000 ETH (worth approximately US$66,054,418) was transferred from Binance to an unknown wallet.
Data: ETFs, governments and MSTR Bitcoin holdings account for 31% of known Bitcoin holdings
Ki Young Ju, founder and CEO of CryptoQuant, released data saying: "The combined Bitcoin holdings of ETFs, governments and MicroStrategy now account for 31% of known Bitcoin holdings. This is higher than 14% last year." Ki Young Ju emphasized that this is not 31% of all Bitcoin, but 31% of known Bitcoin holders.
El Salvador added 29 BTC in the past week, bringing the total holdings to 5,995
According to Lookonchain, the Salvadoran government is increasing its accumulation of BTC. In the past week, El Salvador purchased 29 BTC ($2.84 million), bringing its total holdings to 5,995 BTC ($562 million).
According to the monitoring of on-chain analyst @ai_9684xtpa, the giant whale sbfonchain.sol, which spent $3.63 million to buy 3.25 million FARTCOIN during December 19-20, has currently suffered a floating loss of $1.224 million, and its position has shrunk by 34.5% (cost $1.1162, current price $0.7312).
According to the monitoring of on-chain analyst @ai_9684xtpa, the giant whale sbfonchain.sol, which spent $3.63 million to buy 3.25 million FARTCOIN during December 19-20, has currently suffered a floating loss of $1.224 million, and its position has shrunk by 34.5% (cost $1.1162, current price $0.7312).
According to Spot On Chain monitoring, in the past 7 days, the suspected Sun Yuchen address redeemed 39,999 ETH ($143 million) from Lido Finance and Etherfi, and then deposited all of them into HTX. Currently, he has 42,904 ETH ($139 million) being redeemed from Lido.
Arthur Hayes deposited 2 million ENA into Bybit, worth $2.06 million
According to OnchainLens, Arthur Hayes deposited 2 million ENA to Bybit 2 hours ago, worth $2.06 million, with an average price of $0.97. Previously, he had redeemed 9.01 million ENA and deposited $7 million of ENA to Binance.
