Today's news tips:
Bhutan GMC announces inclusion of BTC, ETH and BNB in strategic reserves
Analysis: Bitcoin miners’ share of transaction volume near historic lows
Sol Strategies receives $25 million CAD credit line to invest in Solana ecosystem
Matrixport: Global liquidity tightening may lead to short-term consolidation of Bitcoin
Hyperliquid clarifies multiple issues raised by the community
Illuvium partners with Virtuals to bring autonomous AI NPCs to its games
Regulatory/Macro
On January 8, the Financial Services Commission of South Korea announced its main work plan for 2025, announcing that it will gradually allow legal persons to open real-name accounts for virtual asset transactions through discussions of the Virtual Asset Committee. Although the law does not explicitly prohibit the issuance of real-name accounts for legal persons, financial regulators have previously instructed banks to avoid issuing such accounts to legal persons. The Financial Services Commission plans to start with non-profit legal persons and gradually develop specific implementation plans. In addition, the Financial Services Commission will also promote the "Virtual Asset Phase II Act", covering the issuance and circulation supervision of virtual assets. In the future, the focus will be on discussing the listing standards, stablecoin management, and the rules of conduct for virtual asset exchanges, and aligning with the global regulatory framework.
Bhutan GMC announces inclusion of BTC, ETH and BNB in strategic reserves
Bhutan's newly established special administrative region, Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC), announced plans to include digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and BNB in its strategic reserves, becoming one of the first regions in the world to officially list digital assets as strategic reserves. Officials said the move will enhance the economic resilience of the administrative region and continue its exploration in the field of Bitcoin mining. In addition, GMC plans to hold a high-level meeting in Bhutan in March 2025, inviting global government officials and industry leaders to discuss the significance of incorporating digital assets into strategic reserves, and plans to establish an international digital asset advisory committee.
Ark Invest Digital Assets Head Yassine Elmandjra Announces Resignation
Yassine Elmandjra, Head of Digital Assets at Ark Invest, announced on X Platform that today is his last day with the company after more than six years, and expressed his gratitude to CEO Cathie Wood and the ARK Invest team for the experiences and memories.
Wang Yongli, former vice president of the Bank of China, published an article titled "Rationally Look at Trump's New Bitcoin Policy" in the first issue of "China Foreign Exchange" in 2025. The article pointed out that Bitcoin highly imitates gold at the "currency" level, and is therefore called "digital gold". However, Bitcoin is a purely chain-born digital asset, not a natural physical asset. Its value depends on the development space of its application scenarios and people's faith and investment. Bitcoin can be divided into small units of one billionth, which is more flexible in payment, but it is not backed by real gold. It is not "paper gold" in the strict sense. Once it loses trust, it will be wiped out and worthless, and the risk is far greater than gold. Moreover, Trump's new Bitcoin policy is difficult to implement. First, it is difficult for the United States to have new Bitcoin. The development of quantum computing technology will also pose a major challenge to the security of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Secondly, the so-called national strategic reserve of Bitcoin, whether it is a strategic reserve of the government (finance) or a strategic reserve of the Federal Reserve (central bank) as the US dollar, has risks and uncertainties. Replacing gold reserves with Bitcoin reserves is unlikely to have a practical positive impact on the US dollar, and it is also difficult to use it to repay government debts. Thirdly, Trump's new Bitcoin policy contradicts his position of strengthening the US dollar as the key global currency. Therefore, Bitcoin can only be a new type of tradable wealth or digital asset, and it is difficult to become a real currency. It cannot replace sovereign currency at all. Whether it can replace gold as a national strategic reserve is still a big question. The international community should treat Trump's new Bitcoin policy calmly and objectively, and should not blindly follow suit.
Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley forwarded the news disclosed by insider Luis Berruga on the X platform: "It has been confirmed that major Spanish banks are actively developing a regulatory and operational framework to provide cryptocurrency ETPs. Some platforms such as MyInvestor have already started to do so. In the coming months, the pace of adoption across Europe should accelerate."
According to data from unfolded., ETFs and listed companies alone purchased 859,454 bitcoins in 2024. This is equivalent to absorbing 4.3% of the circulating supply in one year, which is roughly equivalent to the issuance of bitcoins in the next eight years.
Sol Strategies receives $25 million CAD credit line to invest in Solana ecosystem
According to The Block, Canadian listed company Sol Strategies announced on Monday that it will invest 25 million Canadian dollars in the Solana ecosystem through an unsecured credit line. This is the latest move by the company to transform into one of Solana's largest pledgers and ecosystem participants. According to the announcement, the unsecured revolving credit line has an annual interest rate of 5%, calculated daily. Wald said the financing plan provides the most favorable structure for shareholders. The company has withdrawn $4 million in principal and plans to use the remaining funds for large-scale purchases of Solana tokens to support pledge operations and acquisitions. The entire credit line is available until January 6, 2027. Previously, the company was called Cypherpunk Holdings and had invested extensively in the encryption industry. Later, it hired Leah Wald as CEO in July this year and turned its focus to the Solana ecosystem. To concentrate resources, Sol Strategies sold a number of investments, including its second largest holding, Animoca Brands, and directly invested in SOL tokens and Solana verification nodes. As of December 31, 2024, Sol Strategies has staked over 1.5 million SOL tokens (valued at approximately $450 million CAD) through its validator node operations, including 140,000 SOL held by the Company.
AI
Illuvium partners with Virtuals to bring autonomous AI NPCs to its games
According to Cointelegraph, blockchain game brand Illuvium recently announced a partnership with Virtuals Protocol to upgrade non-player characters (NPCs) in its games. Virtuals is the technical protocol behind the popular AI agent on the X platform. The partnership will use Virtual's GAME AI model framework to enable NPCs in Illuvium's three beta games to dynamically adjust dialogues, tasks or challenges based on player behavior, enhancing the interactivity and diversity of the gaming experience. The Virtuals team cited an example that players' interactions with NPCs in the game will be more realistic. For example, players can choose to irritate the bartender NPC, causing it to attack, or get customized rewards through friendly interactions. This dynamic interaction will run through every scene in the game, creating unlimited story possibilities. Illuvium said in an announcement that the technology will first be applied to "Overworld", a third-person exploration game set on an alien planet called Illuvium, where players (called rangers) can discover and collect creatures called Illuvials, which can be used in another combat game "Illuvium: Arena". The technology will also be applied to all three of its games, including Illuvium Zero - a base-building game in which players generate resources and craft skins for use in Overworld and Arena.
AI startup Anthropic plans to raise $2 billion at a valuation of $60 billion
According to Jiemian News, citing the Wall Street Journal, artificial intelligence startup Anthropic is in talks to raise $2 billion in funding, a deal that would bring its valuation to $60 billion, more than three times its valuation a year ago. People familiar with the matter revealed that this round of financing was led by venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners, and the $60 billion valuation includes the funds Anthropic plans to raise in this round of financing. According to data provider CB Insights, the deal will make Anthropic the fifth most valuable U.S. startup after SpaceX, OpenAI, Stripe and Databricks. In a round of financing led by Menlo Ventures last year, Anthropic was valued at $18 billion.
Financing/Acquisition
According to CoinDesk, Ethereum Layer2 network Arbitrum has awarded its largest developer grant ever to South Korea's Lotte Group. Lotte Group is a multi-billion dollar conglomerate with businesses in multiple fields including shopping malls, media and entertainment. The grant is provided by the Arbitrum Foundation to support Lotte's metaverse gaming platform Caliverse and consolidate Arbitrum's position as its main blockchain infrastructure provider. Offchain Labs shared the news at the 2025 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada. A representative of the company declined to disclose the specific amount of the grant "at this stage." The grant is technically awarded by the non-profit Arbitrum Foundation, which regularly issues grants in the form of ARB tokens to help promote the development of the Arbitrum ecosystem. Lotte showed interest in the metaverse as early as 2022 and reached a strategic cooperation with Arbitrum last year. Caliverse is Lotte's testing ground for exploring artificial intelligence, virtual reality and encryption technologies, where users can experience a variety of media content such as virtual shopping and concerts. Currently, Caliverse has cooperated with 7-Eleven, Tomorrowland Music Festival, and fashion brands such as Givenchy and MCM.
Ocean Protocol invests $735,000 to support Yiedl.ai in developing AI-driven DeFi
The Ocean Protocol team announced that OceanDAO, co-founders Trent McConaghy and Bruce Pon, and members of the Ocean Predictor team have jointly invested $735,000 in Yiedl.ai, an AI-based DeFi market platform dedicated to driving DeFi innovation through data-intensive AI. To celebrate the collaboration, Yiedl also launched an airdrop of 50,000 YIEDL tokens for the Ocean community, with a total value of $5,000.
Project News
Hyperliquid said on the X platform that the community has played a key role in the development of the ecosystem and its feedback is highly valued. Recently, there have been some misunderstandings about validators. Hereby clarify: ① All validators are qualified based on testnet performance and cannot obtain seats through purchase; the relevant false statements belittle the efforts of those validators who have invested time and energy to understand the system; as the blockchain matures, the validator set will gradually expand. ② As previously announced, a foundation delegation program will be launched to support high-performing validators and further decentralize the network. ③ Anyone can run an API server pointing to any node; the sample client code sends requests to a specific API server, but this is not a basic requirement of the network. ④ Yes, it is unacceptable for users to try to create a black market for the testnet HYPE; this has been stated many times; we will continue to work hard to improve the onboarding process of the testnet. ⑤ Yes, the node code is currently closed source; open source is important, and the project will be open source after development enters a stable state; Hyperliquid's development speed is several orders of magnitude faster than most projects, and its scope is also several orders of magnitude larger than most projects; the code will be open source when it is safe. ⑥ Yes, there is only one binary file at present. Even for a very mature network like Solana, the vast majority of validators run a single client. Earlier today, a user wrote to the Hyperliquid Core team pointing out multiple problems with its management.
Binance Futures will launch SONICUSDT 1-75x USDT perpetual contracts
According to the official announcement, Binance Futures will launch perpetual contracts at the following time, with a maximum leverage of 75 times: January 8, 2025 15:00 (Eastern Time Zone 8): SONICUSDT perpetual contract.
On-chain browser and search engine Roam founder and team join Coinbase
Xen Baynham-Herd, founder of the on-chain browser and search engine Roam, announced on the X platform that the Roam team and its co-founders (Xen Baynham-Herd, Selfishfish.eth and jagra.base.eth) have joined Coinbase to help accelerate the company's efforts in the on-chain consumer space. Baynham-Herd said: "We are gradually closing the Roam application and joining Coinbase because here we can make the greatest impact by building products that support this new open financial system."
According to official news, the first season of ZKsync's incentive program Ignite has been launched. Season 1 will last from January 6 to March 31, distributing 100 million ZK tokens to DeFi users who provide liquidity in DEX, lending, and contracts. The entire plan of ZKsync Ignite is to distribute 325 million ZKs within 9 months, aiming to turn ZKsync Era into the liquidity of Elastic Network. There are currently 15 participating protocols, but the DeFi Steering Committee will accept applications on a rolling basis. DEX: iZUMi Finance, Koi Finance, Maverick, PancakeSwap, Syncswap, Uniswap, WOOFi, zkSwap Finance Permanent Contracts: Holdstation, RFX, Vest Exchange Lending: Aave, Reactor Fusion, Venus Protocol, Zerolend.
Ripple CEO shares photo of himself having dinner with Trump on Monday night
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse shared a photo of him, Ripple Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty, and US President-elect Trump having dinner at Mar-a-Lago on Monday night on the X platform today, and wrote: "Strong start to 2025."
Viewpoint
Matrixport: Global liquidity tightening may lead to short-term consolidation of Bitcoin
According to research by Markus Thielen, an independent analyst at Matrixport, fluctuations in global liquidity could exert short-term pressure on Bitcoin prices. Historical data shows that liquidity changes usually lead Bitcoin price movements by about 13 weeks. As the dollar strengthens after Trump's re-election, global liquidity denominated in US dollars has begun to tighten, which may suggest that Bitcoin may enter a consolidation phase in the near term. Nevertheless, in the long run, risk assets such as Bitcoin still show positive potential. However, in a weak liquidity environment, traders need to be more cautious, as global liquidity has proven to be a reliable market vane.
Analysis: Bitcoin miners’ share of transaction volume near historic lows
According to IntoTheBlock analysis, the proportion of Bitcoin miners' transactions to total transactions is approaching a historical low and has hit a new cycle low in the past few weeks. This trend usually accelerates during bull markets as more external funds flow into the market. Over time, block rewards have gradually decreased, coupled with increased market investment, and miners' share of total transactions has continued to decline.
Important data
According to Lookonchain monitoring, a whale trader has accumulated profits of more than 10 million US dollars on multiple tokens through precise operations: For $ai16z tokens, the trader entered the market early on October 25, 2024, and purchased 13.45 million $ai16z at $70,000, and then purchased 7.45 million at $547,000. He currently holds 6 million $ai16z (worth $11.04 million), with a total return of $11.5 million and a return rate of 16,564%. For $GRIFFAIN tokens, he entered the market when the market value was less than $8 million, spent $125,000 to purchase 8.05 million $GRIFFAIN, and then sold 3.05 million for a profit of $1.22 million. He currently holds 5 million $GRIFFAIN (worth $2.22 million), with a total return of $3.32 million and a return rate of 2,648%. For the $ZEREBRO token, he entered the market when the market value was $11 million, spent $295,000 to buy 6.45 million $ZEREBRO, and then sold 1.4 million for a profit of $697,000. He currently holds 5 million $ZEREBRO (worth $1.98 million), with a total profit of $2.38 million and a return rate of 808%. In addition, the trader has continued to increase his holdings of $AVA over the past week, buying a total of 2.17 million $AVA (worth $333,000), with an unrealized profit of $120,000, and the most recent purchase occurred 9 hours ago.
According to Onchain Lens, a whale withdrew 7.24 million WIF (worth about $13.32 million) from Binance and 1.87 million POPCAT (worth about $1.24 million) from Bybit. Subsequently, the whale spent $6.1 million USDC to purchase a variety of meme coins, including: 5.79 million POPCAT (unit price $0.80) with $4.65 million USDC; 4.57 million FWOG (unit price $0.21) with $979,000 USDC; 3.9 million MICHI (unit price $0.12) with $469,000 USDC. Currently, these funds have been transferred to another wallet.
According to Sosovalue data, the top 100 tokens in the cryptocurrency market capitalization are all in a falling state. The following are the 10 projects with the largest 24-hour declines: FTM fell 18.5% in 24 hours and is now quoted at $0.6432; AI16Z fell 17.98% in 24 hours and is now quoted at $1.79983; HYPE fell 17.45% in 24 hours and is now quoted at $21.532; ENA fell 16.67% in 24 hours and is now quoted at $0.9647; TIA fell 15.84% in 24 hours and is now quoted at $4.612; GALA fell 15.63% in 24 hours and is now quoted at $0.03567; BONK fell 15.42% in 24 hours and is now quoted at $0.00002912; RUNE fell 15.01% in 24 hours and is now quoted at $4.155; It fell 14.94% in 24 hours and is currently priced at $0.325; JASMY fell 14.82% in 24 hours and is currently priced at $0.03304.
According to Spot On Chain monitoring, Galaxy Digital deposited the remaining 4.46 million ENA ($4.92 million) into Binance 9 hours ago as the price plummeted. This allowed them to sell a total of 10.85 million ENA ($12.4 million) at an average price of $1.144 in the past 29 hours, with a possible profit of $2.37 million (+23.5%). Overall, three whales/institutions including Galaxy Digital deposited a total of 25.81 million ENA ($30.43 million) into Binance and Bybit in the past 2 days.
