A recent study by ApeX ranked the top 10 countries in blockchain and cryptocurrency technology, with Singapore at the top. The study evaluated countries using a composite index that reflects blockchain development and adoption through three core indicators: blockchain patents, blockchain technology jobs, and the number of cryptocurrency exchanges.

Ethereum network NFT transaction volume soared to $199.9 million. It has increased by 73.56% in the past seven days. Bitcoin network NFT ranked second, with a transaction volume of 23% down to $39.7 million. However, the network's user engagement grew well, with the number of buyers reaching 38,987. The Solana network consolidated its third position with a transaction volume of $29.9 million, a month-on-month increase of 5.14%, and a total of 104,958 buyers, a month-on-month increase of 108.45%.

According to on-chain analyst Ember’s monitoring, about 30 minutes ago, Arthur Hayes withdrew 7.85 million USDC from Binance. It is estimated that the 7 million ENA transferred to Binance last night have been sold at an average price of US$1.12.

The Biden administration plans to add Sophgo, an artificial intelligence company affiliated with Bitmain, to the U.S. Department of Commerce's restricted trade list because the company's TSMC-made chips were illegally incorporated into Huawei's artificial intelligence processors, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Max Keiser, a senior bitcoin adviser to the President of El Salvador, said that President Bukele has increased his daily bitcoin purchases, with a medium-term goal of buying another 20,000 bitcoins.

Since the activation of EIP-1559, 4,523,479.74 ETH has been permanently destroyed, worth over $15.3 billion. On-chain transfers account for about 8.17% of the total ETH destroyed, while Opensea NFTs account for about 5.08% of the total ETH destroyed. Decentralized exchange (dex) platform Uniswap destroyed 225,723.78 ETH, accounting for 4.99% of the total ETH destroyed. Meanwhile, Tether (USDT) transactions on the Ethereum network resulted in the destruction of 205,458.95 ETH, accounting for 4.54% of the total ETH destroyed. The network's inflation rate is currently at a moderate 0.820%, and the amount of ETH in circulation has increased by 3,245,017.99 since the hard fork.

Microstrategy added three new board members to its board of directors shortly before it was added to the Nasdaq 100 stock index, bringing the total number of board members to nine, according to the latest filings. The new board members include Brian Brooks, Jane Dietze and Gregg Winiarski, all of whom have experience working for large companies dealing with digital assets, according to the filings. Each board member will receive $2 million worth of equity, half of which will be options and the other half will be RSUs, which will vest over four years.

PANews reported on December 21 that according to News.bitcoin, the cryptocurrency market has been as unpredictable as the shutdown of US government agencies in recent days. There are reports that the US government is about to shut down due to a stagnation in spending negotiations, which has historically affected the market in various ways. Due to the disillusionment of market participants' short-term expectations, Arthur Hayes believes that the cryptocurrency market will see a "dismal decline" near Trump's inauguration day, but the crypto community is holding its breath to see if Trump's inauguration will trigger a legendary "God candle" trend (Note: "God candle" refers to a sharp rise in prices in one day, which eclipses the surrounding activities on the price trend chart), which means that the current market downturn is only a temporary calm, a bear market stage in a larger bull market cycle, and if the United States solves the 2025 budget problem and Trump implements a number of Bitcoin-focused strategies to encourage the market, Bitcoin may see a huge recovery.

PANews reported on December 21 that this week, the Federal Reserve finally confirmed the "turn" that the market had long expected. The central bank's statement this week and the update of its economic forecast had a huge impact on the market. Market participants currently expect the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by about 40 basis points by December 2025, and U.S. Treasury yields have risen in response. Bitcoin fell from its all-time high earlier this week. Bitcoin continued its decline in European trading on Friday and once approached $95,000. Earlier, Bitcoin had just set a record high of more than $108,000. This round of decline in the currency circle has a greater impact on altcoins such as Ethereum and Dogecoin.

PANews reported on December 21 that according to DL News, Tai Mo Shan Ltd., a subsidiary of Jump Trading, will pay a settlement of $123 million to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to settle allegations that investors were misled during the TerraUSD crash. It is reported that the company made a large number of purchases during the TerraUSD crash to support the stablecoin's peg to $1, suspected of market fraud.

PANews reported on December 21 that according to the Financial Times, Trump's victory has driven a strong rebound in Bitcoin, allowing some cryptocurrency hedge funds to "make a fortune." According to data disclosed by data provider Hedge Fund Research, funds using encryption strategies rose 46% in November, with an annual return rate of 76%. The returns of these fund companies far exceeded the industry average (10% in November).

Yesterday, Grayscale's Ethereum Trust ETF ETHE had a single-day net inflow of $7.5055 million, and the current historical net outflow of ETHE is $3.617 billion. Grayscale's Ethereum Mini Trust ETF ETH had a single-day net inflow of $8.1047 million, and the current historical total net inflow of Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust ETH is $605 million. The Ethereum spot ETF with the largest single-day net inflow yesterday was Fidelity's ETF FETH, with a single-day net inflow of $12.9513 million, and the current historical total net inflow of FETH is $1.405 billion. The second is Grayscale ETF ETH, with a single-day net inflow of $8.1047 million, and the current historical total net inflow of ETH is $605 million.

Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF BTC had a single-day net inflow of $6.4074 million, and the current total net inflow of Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust BTC is $860 million. The second is Franklin Templeton ETF EZBC, with a single-day net inflow of $5.6136 million, and the current total net inflow of EZBC is $467 million.

In November, decentralized exchange trading volume reached $300 billion, surpassing the previous cycle high of $260 billion set in May 2021. The DEX to CEX ratio continued its upward trend, reaching 11% in November, up from 9.3% at the beginning of 2024 and 0.04% at the beginning of 2020.

Uniswap L2 network Unichain announced the mainnet development roadmap, and the mainnet will be officially launched early next year. Since the launch of the Unichain Sepolia testnet in October, 50 million test transactions and more than 4 million test contracts have been deployed on the network. The Sepolia testnet is now public, and infrastructure providers are actively testing the mainnet. After the mainnet is launched, decentralization and performance improvements will continue to be promoted through new features. These features will first be launched on the experimental testnet for stability and performance testing, then transferred to Sepolia for more extensive testing, and finally launched on the mainnet. The first feature on the public experimental testnet is Flashblocks, which will reduce the effective block time to 250 milliseconds, making transactions instant. The Unichain verification network will also be launched on the experimental testnet, and the community will be invited to run test verification nodes.