Today's news tips:
Metaplanet issues 5 billion yen in ordinary bonds to accelerate Bitcoin purchases
Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a single-day net outflow of $680 million, a record high
Nearly 720 BTC were transferred out of Mt.Gox address, worth about 69.87 million US dollars
DuckChain Completes $5 Million Financing, DWF Ventures and Others Participate
CZ says Revolut has listed BNB
Ethereum Foundation sold ETH 32 times in the past year, 15 times close to the high point
Regulatory News
Crypto.com and F1 extend partnership until 2030
According to Formula 1 official news, Crypto.com and F1's cooperation agreement has been extended to 2030. This cooperation started in 2021, during which time F1's cumulative TV audience reached 1.5 billion, with 750 million fans worldwide, and Crypto.com's user base has also grown to over 100 million. In the new agreement, Crypto.com will focus on creating unique experiences for fans in multiple Grand Prix, while continuing to serve as the official title partner of the F1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix. It is reported that the Formula 1 competition began in 1950 and is the world's most prestigious racing competition and the world's most popular annual sporting event.
US SEC approves Hashdex to launch Nasdaq Bitcoin and Ethereum crypto index ETF
According to documents released by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the SEC has approved the listing and trading of Hashdex Nasdaq Crypto Index US ETF and Franklin Crypto Index ETF. These funds will be listed on the Nasdaq and Cboe BZX exchanges respectively, allowing investors to invest in Bitcoin and Ethereum indirectly through traditional financial markets. The approval includes a comprehensive market monitoring protocol to prevent fraud and manipulation.
Animoca Brands announces Q2 and Q3 2024 financial and operational highlights
Animoca Brands announced financial and business highlights (unaudited, non-IFRS indicators) as of June 30 and September 30, 2024. The company's Q2 and Q3 scheduled revenues reached US$48 million and US$69 million, respectively, with cash and stablecoin balances of US$248 million, liquid digital assets worth US$330 million, and off-balance sheet token asset reserves of US$1.6 billion. The MOCA token was launched on Upbit and Bithumb in December, with a 24-hour trading volume of over US$2 billion and 1.8 million Mocaverse users. The number of active wallets on the Open Campus education chain test network reached 1.8 million, with a transaction volume of over 67 million transactions; The Sandbox Alpha Season 4 drove the SAND token up 350%; GAMEE had 16 million monthly active users. In 2024, the company realized US$28 million in revenue from token investments and continued to invest in more than 530 projects.
Metaplanet issues 5 billion yen in ordinary bonds to accelerate Bitcoin purchases
Metaplanet Inc., a Japanese listed company, announced that it will issue 5 billion yen of Series 5 ordinary bonds through a private placement, and the proceeds will be used to purchase Bitcoin. The repayment of these funds is expected to be completed through the exercise proceeds of the Series 12 stock acquisition rights. The bonds will not pay interest and are scheduled to mature on June 16, 2025, and holders can redeem some or all of the bonds early. The company said that the issuance will have limited impact on the financial results as of December 31, 2024.
According to a report by blockchain security company Blockaid, about 59% of the crypto tokens launched in 2024 were identified as "malicious tokens." Among them, 27% involved "rug-pull" scams. The growth of these malicious tokens is related to the popular Meme token trend in the market. Currently, there are 10 Meme tokens with a market value of more than $1 billion, attracting a large number of imitators to release similar tokens on chains such as Ethereum, Base and Solana. Despite this, losses caused by crypto scams and hackers have dropped sharply from $5.6 billion last year to $1.4 billion in 2024. This data is based on Blockaid's on-chain detection and response platform, an analysis of 2.41 billion transactions, 780 million dApp connections, and 220 million tokens.
Financing
DuckChain Completes $5 Million Financing, DWF Ventures and Others Participate
DuckChain, the consumer layer of TON ecosystem, announced the successful completion of a $5 million financing round, with investors including DAO5, Offchain Labs, Kenetic Capital, DWF Ventures, Oak Grove VC, Skyland VC, Geek Cartel, Gate.io, Presto Labs, etc. In addition, angel investors of well-known projects such as CamelotDEX and Quantstamp also participated in this round of financing.
DuckChain plans to use this funding to unlock the on-chain potential of more than 30 million Telegram Star users through TON-based EVM solutions. At the same time, DuckChain also launched the "Yellow Duck Mission" hackathon with a total prize pool of $1 million, and partners include Wallet, Arbitrum and OnePiece Labs.
Project News
AltLayer receives 1 million EIGEN tokens, all to be given back to the community
According to the official announcement of AltLayer, the Eigen Foundation has provided it with a grant of 1 million EIGEN tokens in recognition of its contribution to the EigenLayer ecosystem. AltLayer announced that all the tokens will be used to give back to the community: • The first batch of 500,000 EIGEN tokens: distributed to reALT holders and stakers starting this week, with snapshots from May 9 to December 12, 2024. • The remaining 500,000 EIGEN tokens: will be distributed after Eigen Layer's V2 reward mechanism goes live on the mainnet in 2025. Users can claim them through the only official website stake.altlayer.io, and the claim time is from 11:00 on December 20, 2024 to 11:00 on February 20, 2025, Beijing time.
Coinbase has suspended wBTC trading, and the WBTC team responded
According to the Coinbase announcement, it will suspend trading of wBTC (Wrapped Bitcoin) at around noon Eastern Time on December 19, 2024, including Coinbase.com, Coinbase Exchange, and Coinbase Prime platforms. Users' wBTC funds can still be withdrawn at any time. In this regard, the WBTC team expressed regret and surprise, saying that it has always been committed to providing compliant, transparent and decentralized Bitcoin tokenization products. The team emphasized that WBTC has a leading position in transparency and decentralization, and is deeply integrated with multiple DeFi protocols, making important contributions to the development of the ecosystem. At the same time, the team called on Coinbase to reconsider this decision and promised to provide more information to address any concerns.
According to Robinhood’s official announcement, the cryptocurrency $BONK has been officially launched on its trading platform. Users can now trade through Robinhood Crypto.
CZ says Revolut has listed BNB
Binance founder CZ said on social media that financial technology giant Revolut has listed BNB. He revealed that he had just learned the news and said that the community is growing.
Binance postpones delisting of OMG/USDT perpetual contract
Binance announced that it will further postpone the delisting of the USDⓈ-M OMGUSDT perpetual contract until 17:00 (Beijing time) on January 31, 2025. At that time, the platform will automatically settle the contract and then delist it.
According to James Fishback, the account of Vivek Ramaswamy, co-leader of the US government's efficiency department DOGE, has been hacked and a false statement has been issued, claiming that the DOGE department has reached a cooperation with the stablecoin issuer USUAL to reduce the federal fiscal deficit and promote cryptocurrency initiatives. Fishback confirmed that this statement is false news and Vivek has been locked out of his account. Binance market shows that USUAL briefly broke through $1.6 and is now trading at about $1.51.
OKX will launch FARTCOINUSDT and AI16ZUSDT perpetual contracts
OKX announced that it will launch FARTCOINUSDT and AI16ZUSDT perpetual contracts from 17:00 to 17:15 (UTC+8) on December 20, 2024. Users can trade through the web, App and API. FARTCOIN is the token mentioned by Truth Terminal, an autonomous chatbot created by artificial intelligence researcher Andy Ayrey; AI16Z is the world's first venture capital company led by AI agents, dedicated to connecting AI entrepreneurs and investors and promoting the rapid development of the ecosystem.
Viewpoint
Murad: Pay attention to the resilient Meme coins, which may perform well in 2025
According to statistics from Meme ecosystem KOL Murad, the prices of various Meme coins have generally fallen sharply in the past 30 days. Among them, LUCE, GINNAN and SKBDI fell by 76%, 65% and 56% respectively, while SPX6900 became a rare exception, rising 33% in the past 30 days. In addition, GIGA and MOG recorded 30-day increases of 25% and 1% respectively.
He said that for Memecoin, whose price has fallen in the past week, investors should pay special attention to the tokens that have performed the best. He pointed out that the communities of these tokens may have more "diamond hand" holders (long-term firm holders), which means that they have greater future potential and may perform well in 2025.
Spartan Group published an analysis that in the 2024 US presidential election, Trump not only won the election with an overwhelming advantage, but the Republican Party also controlled the Senate and the House of Representatives. This victory provides a huge lever to promote policy changes, and it is expected that the next 12 months will be very beneficial to the crypto industry.
The article points out that what is different about this election is the importance of the crypto agenda. Trump and his core advisers are crypto-friendly, and crypto companies have provided a lot of support in the election. In addition, Trump has expressed his hope that the United States will become a global crypto hub. Currently, the United States is a leader in crypto infrastructure, mining, and trading, but the new government's policies may further consolidate this position.
Historical data shows that the 12 months after the US election is usually a strong performance period for crypto assets. The policy clarity brought by the election results and the combined effect of the BTC halving cycle may drive market sentiment to risk appetite, especially for small and medium-sized tokens. Spartan Group believes that as the "altcoin season" approaches, the crypto market will have more room for growth in the coming year.
According to Greeks.live analyst Adam, BTC recently pulled back after failing to hit $110,000, clearing some leveraged longs, while the adjustment of altcoins has lasted for nearly a month. Based on previous bull market experience, a sharp correction in Bitcoin may trigger an "altcoin season", but the intensity of the correction is still unclear.
As Christmas and annual delivery approach, ETF funds are flowing out significantly, and market makers continue to adjust their positions. Recently, the daily average transaction volume of large call options exceeds 30%. After more than 40% of options expire at the end of the year, the large amount of margin released is expected to drive the implied volatility down, and the cost-effectiveness of buying options in the next week may be significantly improved. According to news yesterday, Deribit: BTC options and ETH options with a total nominal value of approximately US$2.7 billion will expire tomorrow.
Ki Young Ju, founder of CryptoQuant, pointed out that Bitcoin’s dominance rate recently fell by 6%, of which XRP accounted for 3% of the contribution, and the dominance rate is now recovering.
He said that only a few altcoins attracted new liquidity, and the rotation of BTC to altcoins was limited. This was not a "altcoin season" in the traditional sense, but more like a season for individual altcoins with outstanding performance.
Important data
According to coinmarketcap data, in the past 30 days, 10 of the top 500 cryptocurrencies by market value have fallen by more than 50%, of which 8 are meme coins. The specific data are as follows: Magic Eden (ME) fell 72.88% and is now priced at $3.07; Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT) fell 59.75% and is now priced at $0.6628; Goatseus Maximus (GOAT) fell 58.30% and is now priced at $0.4799; Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) fell 56.60% and is now priced at $0.1015; Popcat (SOL) (POPCAT) fell 55.57% and is now priced at $0.7724; Just a chill guy (CHILLGUY) fell 53.90% and is now priced at $0.1811; XION (XION) fell 52.93% and is now priced at $3.30; (PONKE) fell 52.76% and is now priced at $0.3369; Neiro (Neiro On Ethereum) (NEIRO) fell 52.11% and is now priced at $0.0009805; Sudang (HIPPO) fell 51.50% and is now priced at $0.009632.
Mt.Gox address just transferred nearly 720 BTC, worth about $69.87 million
Arkm data showed that at 9:07 Beijing time, Mt. Gox transferred 719.568 $BTC to two new wallet addresses, worth approximately US$69.87 million.
According to Sing Tao Daily, people in the virtual asset industry in Hong Kong said that the development of virtual assets in Hong Kong is in its early stages and they are not worried about market competition. Instead, they believe that as more participants join in, the market will grow. According to HashKey estimates, there are only about 100,000 active cryptocurrency users in Hong Kong, and the market size is relatively small. Moreover, most of the market has been occupied by existing licensed platforms. New entrants need to face high operating costs and face the problem of difficulty in seizing the market. It is expected that the competition in the virtual asset industry in Hong Kong will be less likely to intensify in the future.
El Salvador wallet address holds 11 bitcoins worth $1.07 million
On-chain data shows that at 8:07 Beijing time, the wallet address of El Salvador purchased 11 bitcoins worth $1.07 million for its strategic bitcoin reserves. Yesterday, it was reported that the El Salvadoran government will accelerate the purchase of bitcoins as strategic reserves, and the official bitcoin wallet Chivo will be sold or discontinued. Due to a $1.4 billion loan agreement with the IMF, bitcoin payments will become voluntary.
World Liberty purchased 722.2 ETH with $2.5 million 1 hour ago
According to Onchain Lens, an hour ago, Trump's World Liberty (@worldlibertyfi) used $2.5 million USDC to purchase 722.2 ETH, with an average price of $3,461 per transaction.
The Ethereum Foundation sold ETH 32 times in the past year, 15 times close to the high point
According to Lookonchain monitoring, the price of ETH has fallen by about 17% since the Ethereum Foundation sold 100 ETH on December 17. In the past year, the Ethereum Foundation has conducted 32 ETH sales transactions, totaling 4,466 ETH (about US$12.6 million), of which 15 transactions were close to market highs.
Hyperliquid’s 24-hour trading volume exceeds $13 billion, setting a new record
According to official news, the 24-hour trading volume of the Hyperliquid platform exceeded US$13 billion for the first time, setting a record high.
Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a net outflow of $680 million in a single day, a record high
According to SoSoValue data, on December 19, Eastern Time, Bitcoin spot ETFs had a net outflow of $680 million in a single day, a record high. Among them, Grayscale ETF GBTC had a net outflow of $87.8625 million in a single day, with a historical cumulative net outflow of $21.236 billion; Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF BTC had a net outflow of $189 million in a single day, but the historical cumulative net inflow was still $853 million. In contrast, WisdomTree ETF BTCW had a net inflow of $2.0474 million yesterday, with a historical cumulative net inflow of $229 million. As of now, the total net asset value of Bitcoin spot ETFs is $109.655 billion, accounting for 5.74% of the total market value of Bitcoin, and the historical cumulative net inflow is $36.329 billion.
