Texas House of Representatives introduces bill to establish strategic Bitcoin reserves
According to CNBC, on Thursday, the Texas House of Representatives proposed legislation to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve that could serve as a testing ground for the U.S. Treasury Department. Republican Congressman Giovanni Capriglione announced at the X Spaces event on Thursday that the bill would allow the state to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve by accepting taxes, fees and donations in the form of Bitcoin, and would hold it for at least five years. Satoshi Action Fund, a nonprofit Bitcoin advocacy organization that worked with Capriglione to develop the bill, said the Texas bill aims to provide a way to strengthen the state's financial stability and make it a leader in Bitcoin innovation. "Inflation may be the biggest enemy of our investment, and establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve and investing in Bitcoin will be a win-win for the country," Capriglione said. Texas is not only the second largest economy in the United States and the eighth largest economy in the world, but also the region with the highest concentration of Bitcoin miners in the United States.
Ukraine plans to legalize cryptocurrencies in early 2025, but will not offer tax benefits
According to Daniel Hertmantsev, chairman of the Ukrainian Tax Committee, Ukraine is expected to pass a bill to formally legalize cryptocurrencies in the first quarter of 2025. Nevertheless, cryptocurrencies will be taxed according to the securities model, and the profits from converting assets into fiat currency will be taxed, without any tax incentives. Hertmantsev said that this move was made after consultation with European experts and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to prevent the use of cryptocurrencies to evade traditional market taxes.
Pro-crypto Congressman French Hill gets chairmanship of US Financial Services Committee
According to The Block, crypto supporter and U.S. Arkansas Congressman French Hill defeated three other competitors to win the position of chairman of the country's Financial Services Committee. It is reported that French Hill said in the Unchained podcast in July that stablecoins and market structure legislation would be the two bills he most wanted to pass after becoming chairman.
Trump: Will do great things in the cryptocurrency space
US President-elect Donald Trump has just stated at the opening bell ceremony of the New York Stock Exchange that he may veto any budget or appropriations bill that does not meet the goals of the newly established "Department of Government Efficiency". In addition, he plans to reduce the corporate tax rate to 15% to promote economic growth and attract more corporate investment. In addition, he said: "Some great things will be done in the field of cryptocurrency." His government plans to take major actions in the fields of cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence, and mentioned that the development of these fields will require more electricity support. In addition, he emphasized the key role of the stock market in the economy, saying "The stock market is everything to me, and it's very important."
Earlier news, Trump was elected Person of the Year 2024 and appeared on the cover of Time magazine .
Musk: The SEC is just an agency used as a political tool
Elon Musk just tweeted in response, "The SEC is just another agency weaponized to do political dirty work." Previously, Mike Lee criticized the SEC as an "untrustworthy 'independent committee'."
Google releases Gemini 2.0, a new generation of artificial intelligence model
According to Google's official blog, Google has released a new generation of artificial intelligence model Gemini 2.0. Gemini 2.0 supports multimodal input such as text, images, videos, and audio, and has multimodal output functions such as native image generation and multi-language text-to-speech (TTS). Compared with Gemini 1.5 Pro, the model speed has been doubled, and multimodal reasoning, complex instruction execution, and tool usage capabilities have been optimized, supporting calls to Google search, code execution, and third-party functions. The experimental version Gemini 2.0 Flash is now open to developers. In January 2025, the multimodal function will be fully promoted, and a multimodal real-time API will be launched to provide developers with more application support.
OpenSea's official X avatar has been changed to Pudgy Penguins
According to OpenSea’s official X account, NFT marketplace OpenSea has changed its avatar to the image of Pudgy Penguins.
Alipay denies supporting direct cryptocurrency purchases
In response to online rumors that "Alipay supports buying coins", Alipay officials clarified through social media that "seeing banana ads on platform X does not mean you can buy bananas on X", denying the rumors. Previously, Justin Sun and some social media users mentioned that there were recommendations related to cryptocurrency on the Alipay homepage. In fact, the recommendation involved an investment fund (Huabao Overseas Technology C), whose investment targets included Coinbase stocks and Bitcoin ETFs, rather than direct purchases of cryptocurrencies. Alipay emphasized that its services did not support direct purchases of crypto assets.
According to DL News, MicroStrategy has accumulated 423,600 bitcoins through convertible bonds and stock financing, worth about $42 billion, accounting for 2% of the total supply of bitcoin. This strategy has caused its stock price to rise 30 times since August 2020, attracting other companies to follow suit. According to BitcoinTreasuries data, about 144 companies hold bitcoin on their balance sheets. Imitators include bitcoin mining companies Marathon Digital, Riot Platforms, Core Scientific, Terawulf and Bitdeer, which purchased bitcoin through similar convertible bond financing; Japan's Metaplanet plans to hold 10,000 bitcoins by 2025; medical technology company Semler Scientific recently increased its holdings by 303 bitcoins, bringing its total holdings to 1,873. In addition, Coinbase, as a custodian, holds more than 11% of the total supply of bitcoins, including the bitcoins held by MicroStrategy. Tesla and Hong Kong game company Boyaa have also participated in the wave of hoarding coins. Tesla holds $1.5 billion in bitcoins and Boyaa holds 3,183 bitcoins, worth $310 million.
French financial group Oddo is developing a euro stablecoin and is expected to launch it next year
According to Bloomberg, people familiar with the matter said that Paris-based financial group Oddo BHF SCA is working with encryption technology company Fireblocks to develop a euro-denominated stablecoin. Oddo expects to launch the token next year, but it needs to wait for regulatory approval. It is reported that Oddo manages more than 140 billion euros (147 billion U.S. dollars) in client assets, has about 3,000 employees as of the end of 2023, and has three major business lines: private banking, asset management, and corporate and investment banking. The company is majority-owned by the Oddo family and had net banking income of 806 million euros last year.
Anchorage Digital integrates with EigenLayer to provide ETH re-staking services for institutions
According to official news, crypto custody platform Anchorage Digital announced its integration with EigenLayer, enabling institutions to participate in ETH re-pledge and EIGEN custody and pledge. EigenLayer said that this marks an important milestone for institutions to adopt EigenLayer re-pledge, and Anchorage Digital Bank NA is the only U.S. federally chartered bank approved to provide digital asset pledge services. Earlier news, Anchorage Digital added support for the liquid pledge token LsETH, providing ETH pledge services for institutions.
ODOS launches DAO and tokenized loyalty program, rewards claiming starts on December 20
DEX aggregator ODOS announced the official launch of Odos DAO and launched its tokenized loyalty program, which is scheduled to go live at 12:00 on December 20, Beijing time. It marks its shift towards decentralized governance and user-centric growth. To reward early users, 494,278 eligible addresses will receive retroactive ODOS rewards based on historical usage. Eligibility queries will begin on December 12, 2024, and claims will begin on December 20, 2024.
EigenLayer's new proposal proposes to introduce a penalty mechanism
According to official news, Ethereum re-staking protocol EigenLayer has released its second improvement proposal (ELIP-002): Slashing. The ELIP proposal introduces a penalty mechanism (Slashing) for the EigenLayer protocol to enhance cryptoeconomic commitments and provide AVS (Active Verification Service) with tools to innovate and reward high-quality service operators. The penalty mechanism design in the proposal incorporates two new concepts proposed by Eigen Labs: Unique Stake and Operator Sets, enabling AVS to punish operators who fail to fulfill their commitments (such as calculation errors or activity issues). Unique staking ensures that each AVS has exclusive access to specific punishable stakes, reducing systemic risks. Operator sets allow AVS to subdivide tasks and operators for better accountability mechanisms and reward distribution.
According to Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, Jay Jacobs, head of U.S. thematic and active ETFs at BlackRock, said at the "ETFs in Depth" conference: "We are just at the tip of the iceberg in our exploration of Bitcoin and especially Ethereum. Only a very small number of clients hold (IBIT and ETHA), so our current focus is on this rather than launching new altcoin ETFs."
Australian asset management company AMP purchased $27 million in Bitcoin
According to Bitcoin Magazine, AMP, an Australian asset management company with $56 billion in assets under management, recently purchased $27 million worth of Bitcoin.
According to CryptoBriefing, Philip Banks, the creator of the image of the meme coin ChillGuy, announced in a tweet that he would grant intellectual property (IP) to the CHILLGUY token team. Subsequently, when people linked Banks' account to the release of another new meme coin on Pump.fun featuring his character Philb, speculation that his X account had been hacked arose. The new coin quickly became popular and reached a market value of $1 million before it was completely sold off. The official CHILLGUY X community account also expressed confusion: "We were surprised by a tweet from Philip Banks tonight, who announced that he had granted a license and intellectual property. We will continue to seek detailed information. Please be vigilant and do not transfer money based on unverified information." Banks' sudden change of position confused many people. He initially intended to take severe measures against the unauthorized use of the ChillGuy character, and now authorized the intellectual property to the token team. Despite the controversy, the market value of the ChillGuy token initially rose by 30% after the announcement of the intellectual property authorization. However, this increase was quickly wiped out.
Securitize appoints former Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein as COO
According to Securitize's announcement, Michael Sonnenshein, former CEO of Grayscale Investments, officially joined the company as Chief Operating Officer (COO) on December 9. During his 10 years in office, Sonnenshein developed Grayscale into the world's largest crypto asset management company, managing tens of billions of dollars in assets, and promoted the approval of the first spot Bitcoin ETF in the United States.
Nano Labs increases its Bitcoin holdings to 360 via Hong Kong HashKey Exchange
According to Nano Labs (NASDAQ: NA), the company recently increased its holdings of Bitcoin through HashKey Exchange, a licensed virtual asset exchange in Hong Kong. The total holdings now reach about 360 Bitcoins, worth about $36.22 million. The company said that its average purchase cost of Bitcoin was $99,700 per Bitcoin (including transaction fees).
Coinbase plans to remove USDT and other non-compliant stablecoins in Europe
According to Cointelegraph, Coinbase Europe, Coinbase Germany and Coinbase Custody International will delist Tether's USDT and five other stablecoins (PAX, PYUSD, GUSD, GYEN and DAI) on December 13. This move is to comply with the requirements of the European Crypto Asset Market Regulation (MiCA). Coinbase said it will continue to support stablecoins that comply with MiCA regulations, including USDC and the euro stablecoin EURC, which it operates jointly with Circle, and will evaluate the possibility of relisting stablecoins that comply with MiCA in the future.
Binance to Officially List Usual (USUAL) on December 18
Binance will end pre-market trading of Usual (USUAL) at 17:00 (ET) on December 17, 2024, and open the following spot trading pairs: USUAL/BTC, USUAL/USDT, USUAL/FDUSD, USUAL/TRY at 19:00 (ET) on December 18, 2024. Deposits will be open at 18:00 (ET) on December 17, 2024; withdrawals of USUAL are expected to be open at 19:00 (ET) on December 19, 2024; transfers will be restored before 18:00 (ET) on December 17, 2024.
Coinbase International will launch Movement perpetual futures contracts
Coinbase International Station announced on the X platform that Coinbase International Station and Coinbase Advanced will add support for Movement perpetual futures contracts. The MOVE-PERP market is expected to open at or after 17:30 on December 17, 2024, Beijing time.
Grayscale Launches Lido Trust and Optimism Trust
Grayscale has added the Lido DAO Trust Fund, which aims to provide investors with access to the Lido DAO ecosystem. In addition, Grayscale announced the launch of the Optimism Trust Fund, which aims to provide investors with access to the Optimism ecosystem.
BlackRock: Bitcoin allocation ratio can be capped at 2%
According to Forbes, BlackRock, the world's largest asset management company, suggested in its research report "Bitcoin Size in Portfolios" that it is a reasonable choice to allocate 1% to 2% of the portfolio funds to Bitcoin. BlackRock believes that Bitcoin, as a tool for portfolio diversification, has similar risk characteristics to the "Big Seven" stocks such as Google, Amazon, and Apple, while its low correlation can reduce overall investment risk. BlackRock pointed out that Bitcoin's high volatility makes a higher proportion of allocation less feasible, and a 1% allocation will account for a 2% risk weight, while a 2% allocation will increase to 5%. Despite this, BlackRock expects that Bitcoin may be used to hedge risks like gold in the future, and its return characteristics will change significantly.
Uplink Becomes the First DePIN Project to Launch on the Avalanche Blockchain
According to The Block, the decentralized Internet connection platform Uplink was officially launched on the Avalanche blockchain, becoming the first decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) project on the Layer 1 network. Uplink aims to promote the decentralization of Internet connectivity by incentivizing users to share existing networks and deploy new infrastructure, especially in areas with insufficient network services. Uplink plans to launch the Uplink application in 2025 to verify router locations and support users to share real Internet connections. At the same time, it will release innovative features and launch a Layer 1 testnet on Avalanche to provide data consumption and transaction support for the ecosystem. In addition, Uplink also plans to launch platform tokens to promote global data usage and transactions.
Web3 communication protocol Push will launch Layer 1 blockchain Push Chain
According to The Block, the Web3 communication protocol Push Protocol is developing a Layer 1 blockchain called Push Chain, which focuses on chain abstraction technology and supports cross-network Web3 application development. Push Chain aims to solve the problems of fragmented user experience and scalability. It plans to launch a test network in phases in mid-January 2025 and launch the main network at the end of the year. The blockchain will have functions such as wallet and gas fee abstraction, sharding technology, and sub-second transaction finality. At the same time, it will serve as a universal settlement layer for each Layer 1 and Layer 2 chain, supporting "universal smart contract" cross-chain operations. Previously, Push received a $10.1 million Series A financing led by Jump Crypto, and completed a seed round of financing supported by former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan and others in 2020.
According to Cointelegraph, Andreas Kohl, co-founder of Bitcoin sidechain Sequentia, exploited the "DogeReaper" vulnerability to crash 69% of the nodes in the Dogecoin network. On-chain data shows that there were 647 active Dogecoin nodes before the vulnerability was exploited, and now there are only 315. The vulnerability was discovered by security researcher Tobias Ruck, allowing attackers to crash nodes by remotely triggering memory segmentation errors. Related analysis points out that if the vulnerability is exploited on a large scale by malicious parties, it may cause the entire network to stop running for several days, with no transactions or blocks generated. Despite the huge potential threat of the vulnerability, Coinbase only offers a $200 reward for reporting. Andreas Kohl later said that the Dogecoin vulnerability only affects nodes that have not been updated to the latest version, which account for the majority of the network, but does not include centralized exchanges (CEX) and other major custodians. Therefore, most Dogecoin users were not affected by the incident, and most users have limited knowledge of the self-custody mechanism.
Avalanche raises $250 million from Galaxy, other investors
According to Forbes, despite the Avalanche Foundation holding about $3 billion worth of AVAX tokens, it still raised $250 million in a private token sale led by Galaxy Digital, Dragonfly, and ParaFi Capital, with participation from more than 40 other firms, including SkyBridge and Morgan Creek Digital.
Smart contract platform Waterfall Network completes $11.6 million in new round of financing
According to IBTimes, the smart contract platform Waterfall Network announced the completion of a new round of financing of US$11.6 million, with participation from Bolt's Capital, Alpha Token Capital and Enflux, providing it with funds to advance its research and development. The new funds will be used to strengthen the platform's infrastructure, simplify nodes and further improve them. It is reported that Waterfall Protocol, launched in July 2024, is a Layer1, scalable, decentralized smart contract platform developed by software development company BlueWave based on DAG technology and fast final PoS consensus. It is designed for the development of Dapps and aims to provide scalability, security and a truly decentralized governance platform while being compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).
Tether minted 1 billion USDT on the Ethereum network in the early morning
According to Lookonchain monitoring, at 00:04 this morning, Tether minted an additional $1 billion USDT on the Ethereum network. Since November 6, Tether has minted 21 billion USDT on the Ethereum and Tron blockchains.
Greeks.live macro analyst Adam posted on the X platform that 21,000 BTC options will expire today, with a Put Call Ratio of 0.83, a maximum pain point of $98,000, and a nominal value of $2.1 billion. In addition, 164,000 ETH options will expire today, with a Put Call Ratio of 0.68, a maximum pain point of $3,700, and a nominal value of $640 million. This week's market is mainly adjusted. Unlike last week, Bitcoin has a smaller adjustment this week, while altcoins have a stronger adjustment. As Christmas and annual delivery are approaching, market makers have begun to adjust their positions. Recently, large call option transactions account for a high proportion, with an average daily share of more than 30%. In previous years, the popularity of European and American transactions has declined significantly during Christmas. This year, the influence of US stocks on cryptocurrencies has increased, and this phenomenon may be more obvious. In the past two weeks, the options market data has shown that market makers are more cautious. The violent fluctuations in the market have led to a slight increase in the main term IV. Options are very suitable for short-term gaming at this time point. The main transactions this week are also short-term PVP, and the cost-effectiveness of buying options is still very high.
A whale withdrew 3.72 million OM from Binance in the past 48 hours, worth $15.53 million
According to Onchain Lens, in the past 48 hours, a whale withdrew 3.72 million OMs from Binance at an average price of $4.17, worth $15.53 million.
