Today's news tips:
PIPPIN breaks through $0.23, rising more than 20 times in a week
Ethereum and Solana Staking No Longer Classified as Collective Investment Schemes in the UK
Binance launches AIXBT, CGPT and COOKIE spot trading pairs
Grayscale updates asset review list, including KAS, APT, TIA, etc.
Artela announces token economic model: 62% allocated to the community
Sui Hydropower Accelerator announces 12 selected teams, including 7k, AdToken, etc.
Regulatory/Macro
According to Beijing Business Daily, on January 10, the Ministry of Public Security held a press conference, and the spokesperson of the Ministry of Public Security, Zhang Ming, introduced the issue of telecommunications network fraud involving me in northern Myanmar, which has attracted the attention of all walks of life. Since the deployment of special work to combat telecommunications network fraud crimes involving me in northern Myanmar in July 2023, the Ministry of Public Security has relied on the China-Myanmar law enforcement and security cooperation mechanism to direct public security organs in Yunnan, Zhejiang and other places to jointly fight and fully carry out case investigation. By the end of 2024, a total of more than 53,000 Chinese suspects of fraud have been arrested, and the notorious "Four Families" criminal group in Kokang, northern Myanmar has been completely destroyed. The large-scale electronic fraud park in northern Myanmar near the border has been completely eradicated. The special work has achieved significant phased results, leading to a significant decline in the number of telecommunications network fraud cases and losses nationwide. At present, the cases of the "Four Families" criminal group have entered the litigation stage one after another. Although the crackdown and governance work has achieved significant results, the current crime situation remains severe and complex. These include: the offensive and defensive confrontations are constantly intensifying and escalating, and the fraud groups use new technologies such as blockchain, virtual currency, and AI intelligence to continuously update and upgrade criminal tools.
ScaleBit: Found a 0-day vulnerability that can transfer all assets on Uniswap Wallet
The ScaleBit security team under BitsLab published a statement saying that in October 2024, the ScaleBit security team under BitsLab discovered a vulnerability in the Uniswap iOS wallet, named "Unauthorized access to mnemonics". This vulnerability allows attackers with physical access to the device to bypass the wallet's authentication mechanism and directly access the mnemonics stored in the device. The root cause of this vulnerability is that there are defects in the design of the storage and access mechanism of the mnemonics. The mnemonics have not been effectively encrypted at the application layer, and the trigger conditions of the recovery page are unreasonable, which allows attackers with physical access to the device to easily bypass the wallet's authentication mechanism and directly obtain the mnemonics in the wallet. At present, the vulnerability still exists in the latest version of Uniswap Wallet (Version 1.42), which brings potential risks to all users who use the wallet. Therefore, users need to pay special attention to the physical security of the device during use to avoid leaking the unlock password or lending the device to others.
Former British Prime Minister Truss says he is a supporter of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies
According to Cointelegraph, former British Prime Minister Liz Truss said: "I am a supporter of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, I think they are great." It is reported that Truss is the shortest-serving prime minister in the UK. She was forced to resign after only 49 days in office because the government's mini budget caused borrowing costs to soar.
Russia ‘begins selling’ 1,032 Bitcoins seized in fraud case
Russia has begun selling bitcoins seized in its 2023 investigation into the Infraud hacker group, Cryptonews reported. The move suggests Moscow is looking to convert more than 1,000 bitcoins into fiat currency. Russian state news agency TASS confirmed the development, saying Moscow will start by selling nearly $10 million worth of bitcoins seized from former Russian Investigative Committee investigator Marat Tambiev. Last year, Tambiev was convicted of accepting bribes from the hacker group. Prosecutors found hundreds of bitcoins on his computers and storage devices. The former investigator was convicted of accepting 1,032.1 bitcoins from the group and sentenced to 16 years in prison. However, the bailiffs' efforts to liquidate all 1,032.1 bitcoins have been complicated by legal obstacles. Tambiev appears to have divided the bitcoins into several smaller amounts. This means the bailiffs must submit a separate court ruling to allow Moscow to access the bitcoins. However, the bailiffs have successfully persuaded the court to allow them to sell the first batch of bitcoins. They said Tambiev stored the bitcoins in a Ledger Nano X hardware encryption wallet. TASS cited sources as saying that prosecutors also want to sell another batch of Bitcoin "worth millions of rubles," and they also want to sell "several properties in the Moscow region" and a "Honda motorcycle."
Ethereum and Solana Staking No Longer Classified as Collective Investment Schemes in the UK
According to CryptoSlate, the UK Treasury has amended the Financial Services and Markets Act (FSMA), which will take effect on January 31, excluding cryptocurrency pledges from the classification of collective investment schemes. According to this change, pledging ETH and SOL will only be regarded as a blockchain verification process and will no longer be subject to regulatory requirements applicable to collective investment schemes. Previously, due to vague regulatory definitions, pledges were at risk of being classified as traditional collective investment tools, which are subject to stricter FSMA regulations. The amendment clarifies that pledges involve participants locking cryptocurrencies to verify blockchain transactions and ensure network security, which is essentially different from collective investment schemes and requires a tailored regulatory framework. Bill Hughes, a lawyer at ConsenSys, welcomed the move as an important step for the industry and emphasized that British law has traditionally taken a tough regulatory approach to collective investment schemes, which may hinder the development of the industry. It is worth noting that this move is consistent with the UK's broader strategy of promoting innovation in the cryptocurrency field while maintaining appropriate regulation to protect market participants.
Cynthia Lummis poised to lead new U.S. Senate digital assets subcommittee
According to The Block, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee plans to appoint cryptocurrency-friendly Senator Cynthia Lummis to lead the newly formed Digital Assets Subcommittee to fulfill the new chairman's promise. Some Republican members of the Senate Banking Committee have preliminarily selected the leaders and members of the subcommittee, but the committee still needs to vote to confirm. Senate aides revealed that Lummis will lead a Digital Assets Subcommittee, whose members include crypto-friendly Senator Bill Hagerty and newly elected Senator Bernie Moreno. Incoming committee chairman Tim Scott said earlier that if elected, he would set up a subcommittee focused on digital assets. The current chairman Sherrod Brown is critical of the cryptocurrency industry and calls for a crackdown on related illegal activities. The leadership of the Senate Banking Committee is also crucial because the chairman holds the financial power of legislation, including crypto bills. Earlier news, the U.S. House Financial Services Committee appointed Bryan Steil as chairman of the Digital Assets Subcommittee.
AI
Artela announces token economic model: 62% allocated to the community
Artela Network, a L1 network for fully on-chain AI agents, has released its token economic model, which aims to support the large-scale application of on-chain AI agents. As the native asset of Artela, the ART token assumes core functions such as staking, paying gas fees, governance rights and ecological liquidity, becoming the key to network security, governance and economic operation. The ART token adopts an inflation model, with an initial annual inflation rate of 8%, decreasing by 1% each year, and eventually reaching a long-term issuance rate of 0%, ensuring that supply growth is controllable and supporting long-term value stability. The total supply of ART is 1 billion, and the distribution includes 62% for the community (4.5% for airdrops, 28.5% for network staking, 23% for ecological development, etc.), 15% for the team, 18% for investors and 5% for early contributors. The tokens will be gradually released according to a clear unlocking plan to support the sustainable development of the ecosystem. Earlier news, blockchain infrastructure startup Artela completed a $6 million seed round of financing, led by Shima Capital.
Theta, a decentralized streaming platform, released its 2025 roadmap. In the first half of 2025, it will focus on launching EdgeCloud's hybrid cloud edge architecture in June and expanding the rapidly growing edge network. This version will fully support distributed edge architecture across devices, regions, and configurations, be able to prioritize and opt out of specific job types, and analyze completed jobs. A developer API interface will also be released to provide developers with the tools they need to develop efficiently on EdgeCloud. Other major features will be launched based on the needs of current EdgeCloud customers, such as persistent storage, GPU node upgrades, and on-demand API access to AI models. These features, together with the beta version of the AI Agents platform, will automatically use AI models through autonomous interactions on the chain to achieve a large number of use cases and encourage customers to continue to adopt them in key target areas such as academia, private enterprises, professional sports, and e-sports. Theta Hackathon will be expanded to an offline event in the second half of the year, and continuous support will be provided for Theta ecological projects. Discussions are ongoing with several well-known professional sports and esports teams, hoping that EdgeCloud can help them develop their AI strategy and have the opportunity to launch child chains to support their business use cases. Third-party platforms are also considering integrating TDROP as a user participation token, starting with OpenTheta, with more platforms coming online by 2025. In addition, TDROP is being evaluated and may be rebranded to extend its usefulness to AI agents, RAG chatbots, and other consumer-facing AI and video AI applications built on EdgeCloud. Finally, EdgeCloud's hybrid edge cloud architecture will be fully released in 2025, including intelligent job orchestration and optimization, as well as full support for Linux, Windows, and Mac.
Tether CEO: Will give a speech at Italian AI Week in May to introduce Tether’s AI strategy
Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, said on X Platform: “I will be speaking at Italian AI Week in May and will be presenting the latest developments in Tether’s AI strategy, which is completely focused on individual freedom of expression and financial freedom, open source, peer-to-peer technology, and privacy protection. I will be revealing the truth, including future scenarios that are often obscured by ‘political correctness’, involving the future development of artificial intelligence, robotics, brain-computer interfaces, and other disruptive technologies.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin wrote on the X platform that the wrong use of AI will create a new type of independent self-replicating intelligent life. The correct use of AI is a mechanical armor built for human thinking. If we only do the former but not the latter, humans will face the risk of losing power forever. If we do the latter, we will usher in a prosperous super-intelligent human civilization. In addition, in response to the question of "as a design choice, is it to create a generation of AI agents (Agents) or enhance human agency", Vitalik said: "'Agents' is an interesting word. Sometimes it means 'AI that can run autonomously without human intervention and develop complex plans that last for days', but more often it just means 'chatbots replace graphical user interfaces (GUIs) as the interface for everything'. The latter is great!"
Project News
Binance launches AIXBT, CGPT and COOKIE spot trading pairs
Binance announced that it will launch spot trading pairs of aixbt by Virtuals (AIXBT), ChainGPT (CGPT) and Cookie DAO (COOKIE) at 21:00 Beijing time on January 10, including AIXBT/USDC, AIXBT/USDT, CGPT/USDC, CGPT/USDT, COOKIE/USDC and COOKIE/USDT. Users can now top up AIXBT, CGPT and COOKIE to prepare for trading, and withdrawal services will be opened at 21:00 on January 11. There is no listing fee for this launch, and the relevant smart contract addresses have been announced. Please note that these tokens have been listed on Binance Alpha Market before.
Grayscale updates asset review list, including KAS, APT, TIA, etc.
In the latest update of the "Asset Inspection List" on Grayscale's official website this morning, a variety of digital assets that may be launched as investment products in the future are listed, including $KAS, $APT, $ARB, $TIA, $HBAR, $MNT, $SEI, $S, $STRK, $TON, $TRX, $AERO, $BNB, $ENA, $INJ, $JUP, $ONDO, $PENDLE, $RUNE, $DOGE, $IMX, $AKT, $FET, $AR, $EIGEN, $HNT, $JTO, $PYTH and $WLD, etc. Grayscale also encourages the community to provide feedback on whether there are any potential assets that have been missed in order to further improve the layout of investment products.
Sui Hydropower Accelerator announces 12 selected teams, including 7k, AdToken, etc.
Sui Foundation announced on January 8 that a total of 12 teams in the first Hydropower Accelerator Program completed eight weeks of project development. These projects cover the fields of DeFi, DePIN and RWA, including advertising networks, digital gift platforms and new liquidity staking tools. Participating teams include: 7k: The second largest transaction aggregator on Sui, providing an intelligent trading ecosystem. AdToken: Peer-to-peer advertising network, paying by advertising performance. CryptoMate: Stablecoin fintech operating system, supporting low-code and AI functions. Gifted: Digital gift platform, focusing on interactive experience. InsiDeX: DeFi analysis and trading platform on Sui chain. Lotus Finance: Decentralized market maker and high-frequency trading infrastructure. Nativerse: Non-custodial liquidity staking tool to help Bitcoin liquidity. Nemo Protocol: Sui native income trading platform. Pomerene: International trade DePIN network. Printr: Cross-chain tokenization and fundraising platform. Protocol Media Labs: Innovative news platform, supporting independent media. The twelfth team is in confidentiality mode and no information is disclosed.
Synthetix closes Arbitrum perpetual contract market, focuses on Base network
Synthetix announced that its perpetual contract market on Arbitrum has entered a closed-only mode, and users cannot open new positions or increase existing positions. The move is part of Synthetix's strategic adjustment to consolidate operations and focus on Coinbase's Base network. As USDx on Arbitrum is gradually decommissioned, Synthetix Treasury has begun to repurchase USDx from the market and provide stability and liquidity support. Synthetix has asked liquidity providers on the Arbitrum platform to migrate to Base, and will provide additional incentives on Base to facilitate migration. Existing positions can still be closed or reduced during the decommissioning of Arbitrum. In addition, Synthetix also plans to integrate ecological projects such as Kwenta and TLX into a unified native trading platform.
Pump Science has started airdropping 2.5 million BIO to RIF and URO holders
Pump Science announced on the X platform that it has begun airdropping 2.5 million BIO tokens to RIF and URO holders. The airdrop distribution is based on three snapshot nodes in November, December and January. The holding addresses held by all snapshot nodes can receive a 2.5x airdrop bonus. In addition, each wallet can receive up to 8,000 BIO.
Binance: BNSOL Super Staking will launch the fifth phase of the project - Renzo (REZ)
According to the official announcement of Binance, BNSOL Super Staking will launch the fifth phase of the project - Renzo (REZ), a re-staking protocol on Ethereum and Solana chains. From 08:00 on January 13, 2025 to 07:59 on February 1, 2025 (Eastern Time 8), users who hold BNSOL in their Binance accounts and Binance wallets, or stake SOL to BNSOL, will receive REZ APR Boost airdrop rewards. REZ APR Boost airdrop rewards are additional token airdrops provided on top of the Binance SOL staking base annualized interest rate, providing users with a higher rate of return. REZ APR Boost airdrop rewards can be collected around 13:30 (Eastern Time 8) every day starting from January 14, 2025.
Bithumb to List SONIC, SAFE, and AHT in Korean Won Market
According to an official announcement, South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb will list SONIC, SAFE and AHT in the Korean won market.
InfiniGods plans to launch its native token GOD, 17% of which will be allocated to its NFT holders
According to The Defiant, the crypto game InfiniGods is currently preparing to launch its native token GOD. GOD tokens will be distributed among NFT holders in the ecosystem, with 4.25% allocated to InfiniPass holders, 3.25% to Elder Gods NFTs, and 9.5% to God Vault NFT holders. TGE has not yet set a date, but InfiniGods Chief Marketing Officer Bry DiSanto hinted that the airdrop is coming, posting on X that "January, time is coming soon." InfiniGods is a mobile game studio that was founded in 2022 after the company completed a $9 million seed round led by Pantera Capital, with Framework Ventures and Animoca Brands also participating. The company raised another $8 million in April 2024 and completed a $1.3 million strategic round of financing led by Arete Capital in December.
According to Cryptoslate, team members from Coinbase, Google, ai16z and other major players have teamed up to launch Aiccelerate, a new decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) designed to accelerate the integration of cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence (AI). The announcement on January 9 showed that the DAO will focus on promoting decentralized, open-source AI development and supporting high-potential projects in different ecosystems. In addition, Aiccelerate positions itself as a DAO that focuses on both investment and development. Its main mission is to promote innovation in the field of what it calls "agent AI." The DAO aims to build a collaborative community of top developers in multiple frameworks. These experts will contribute to a range of agents and tools designed to advance the organization's goals. In addition, Aiccelerate will unify its initiatives through a token called AICC. DAO will use part of its profits to repurchase its native tokens. The list of development advisors includes ai16z founder Shaw, Virtuals Protocol core contributor EtherMage, EigenLayer developer relations director Nader Dabit, and Story Protocol co-founder Jason Zhao. On the investment side, Aiccelerate’s advisors include Andrew Kang and Marc Weinstein of Mechanism Capital, Justin Lee of Coinbase Ventures, and Anil Lulla of Delphi Digital.
Coinbase International will launch AERO, BEAM and DRIFT perpetual contracts
Coinbase International Station announced on the X platform that Coinbase International Station and Coinbase Advanced will add support for Aerodrome Finance, Beam and Drift perpetual futures contracts. The AERO-PERP, BEAM-PERP and DRIFT-PERP markets are expected to be opened on or after 17:30 on January 16, 2025, Beijing time.
Viewpoint
Matrixport's weekly report pointed out that macroeconomic negatives and changes in global liquidity may cause Bitcoin to enter a consolidation phase. Although ETF inflows are stable, the Fed's hawkish stance may limit further gains. The report believes that Bitcoin's rise is more affected by the Fed's policies than the launch of ETFs. Technically, the "shooting star" candlestick pattern indicates that the medium-term upward trend may be coming to an end. In the case of low implied volatility, options are seen as an effective risk management tool. Traders can capture rising opportunities through call options or protect gains with put options.
Alliance DAO discloses its holdings: all in Bitcoin and AI agents
Qiao Wang and Imran Khan, co-founders of Web3 accelerator and founder community Alliance DAO, shared their latest personal holdings in the latest video podcast. Qiao Wang said that he is all in Bitcoin and AI agents tokens. And Imran Khan said that he still holds HYPE (Hyperliquid) and firmly believes that it is "a strong Beta token."
VanEck executive: Block is expected to become the first company in the S&P 500 to hold Bitcoin
Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at VanEck, wrote on the X platform that fintech company Block is expected to become the first company in the S&P 500 to hold Bitcoin. For a stock to be included in the index, it must meet six major criteria, including: 1) a market value of more than $18 billion; 2) more than 10% of public shares; 3) earnings in the most recent quarter should be positive, and the sum of GAAP earnings in the previous four quarters should also be positive; 4) high liquidity; 5) listed for 12 months; 6) the company is headquartered in the United States. Block met the last criterion (earnings) after the release of the first quarter of 2024 financial report. However, inclusion in the S&P 500 index does not strictly follow a formula, but is determined at the discretion of the index committee. Historically, companies that meet all requirements have been included within 3 to 21 months (LULU is a special case, which took 65 months). Industry diversification is one of the factors considered by the index committee, and they aim to maintain an industry composition that is roughly consistent with industry economics. The phrase "in line with sector economics" is not clearly defined, so the S&P Total Market Index can be used as a reference: Financials currently account for 13.9% of the S&P 500 and 14.6% of the broader index, suggesting that there is still room for financials to increase.
Important data
According to GMGN.AI data, COOKIE briefly broke through $0.7, up 46.6% in 24 hours, possibly due to the listing on Binance; ChainGPT (CGPT) broke through $0.3, up 50.8% in 24 hours; aixbt by Virtuals (AIXBT) broke through $0.54, up 30% in 24 hours. Earlier news, Binance launched AIXBT, CGPT and COOKIE spot trading pairs.
PIPPIN breaks through $0.23, rising more than 20 times in a week
According to GMGN.AI market data, Solana ecosystem AI Meme coin pippin (PIPPIN) broke through $0.23, setting a new record high, up 216% in 24 hours and 2027.3% in 7 days. Earlier on January 6, Binance Alpha added FREYA, pippin and OPUS.
Top 7 ai16z holdings: 9 hours ago, the whale added $1.61 million in ai16z
According to the monitoring of on-chain analyst @ai_9684xtpa, the top 7 whales holding ai16z increased their holdings of $1.61 million of ai16z through their trumpets 9 hours ago, at an average price of $1.46. Influenced by the tweet of ai16z founder Shaw to sell the coin, the coin price fell to $1.32 yesterday. The whale took the opportunity to buy the dip during the decline. At present, the increased holdings have made a floating profit of $33,000, and the cumulative holdings are 18.62 million tokens (about $27.75 million).
