This report deeply analyzes the underlying reasons for the underperformance of Web3 games in the 2024 bull market, revealing the industry's major progress from the surge in user numbers to the entry of traditional gaming giants, as well as its transformation process of seeking breakthroughs through innovative paths such as social platform integration and AI empowerment.

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."

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.

Blockchain game brand Illuvium recently announced a partnership with Virtuals Protocol to upgrade non-player characters (NPCs) in its games. Virtuals is the technology protocol behind the popular AI agents on the X platform. The partnership will leverage 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, improving the interactivity and diversity of the gaming experience. The Virtuals team gave an example that players' interactions with NPCs in the game will be more realistic. For example, players can choose to anger the bartender NPC, causing it to attack, or receive customized rewards through friendly interactions. This dynamic interaction will run through every scene in the game, creating endless story possibilities.

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."

Artificial intelligence startup Anthropic is in talks to raise $2 billion in a deal that would value it at $60 billion, more than three times its valuation a year ago. The round was led by venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners, and the $60 billion valuation includes the money Anthropic plans to raise in the current round, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal would make Anthropic the fifth most valuable U.S. startup after SpaceX, OpenAI, Stripe and Databricks, according to data provider CB Insights. Anthropic was valued at $18 billion in a round led by Menlo Ventures last year.

Sol Strategies, a Canadian public company, 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 annual interest rate of this unsecured revolving credit line is 5%, which is calculated daily. Wald said that 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 can be used until January 6, 2027.

Katherine Polk Failla, a judge at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, approved Coinbase's request for an interlocutory appeal on Tuesday, temporarily halting the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) lawsuit against the exchange. An interlocutory appeal is an appeal filed before the judge makes a final ruling, and such requests are rarely granted. The case will next be submitted to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals for trial.

Ethereum Layer 2 network Arbitrum has awarded its largest developer grant ever to South Korea’s Lotte Group, a multi-billion dollar conglomerate with businesses in shopping malls, media, and entertainment. The grant, provided by the Arbitrum Foundation, is intended to support Lotte’s metaverse gaming platform Caliverse and solidify Arbitrum’s position as its primary blockchain infrastructure provider.

Michael Saylor tweeted that MicroStrategy purchased a total of 258,320 bitcoins in 2024, with a total expenditure of approximately US$22.07 billion and an average purchase price of approximately US$85,450 per bitcoin.

Usual announced the launch of the "Revenue Switch" mechanism, which distributes protocol revenue directly to $USUAL stakers. The activation condition is that more than 50% of $USUAL is staked as USUALx, or it will be automatically activated on February 1, 2025.