Today's News Highlights:
Fartcoin (FARTCOIN) breaks $1, reaching an all-time high
World Liberty purchases 231,726 ENA with 250,000 USDC
Powell: We are not allowed to own Bitcoin and do not wish to change the law
Kelp DAO releases KERNEL token economics, with 55% allocated to community rewards and airdrops
Regulatory News
Binance.US plans to resume its USD services in early 2025
According to Decrypt, Binance.US plans to resume USD trading services in early 2025, marking the first significant adjustment since halting fiat trading in June 2023 due to SEC allegations. Interim CEO Norman Reed stated that restoring fiat services is the most anticipated feature by users, and the platform is working with new partners to expand custody and wallet solutions. Despite regulatory pressure, Binance.US has supported trading of 160 cryptocurrencies and staking of over 20 assets in the past 17 months, insisting that no misconduct has been found. The company's goal is to promote the development of the cryptocurrency industry and provide more choices for U.S. users.
Osprey Funds launches the first publicly traded BNB fund in the U.S.
Osprey Funds announced the launch of the Osprey BNB Chain Trust fund (ticker: $OBNB), which is listed on the OTCQX market, making it the first publicly traded BNB-based fund in the U.S. This fund provides U.S. investors with access to BNB through traditional brokerage accounts or IRA accounts, one of the few ways to invest in BNB given that it cannot be traded on centralized exchanges in the U.S. BNB, as the native token of the BNB Chain, underpins decentralized applications, DeFi protocols, and smart contracts.
17-year-old youngest Bitcoin Core contributor awarded Chaincode Labs Bitcoin scholarship
According to Bitcoin Magazine, New York's Chaincode Labs awarded 17-year-old Ishaana Misra the first Bitcoin scholarship, making her the youngest core code contributor in Bitcoin's 15-year history. The scholarship was selected from 232 global applicants and covers her tuition for one year, with the potential for renewal to support her entire undergraduate education. Misra began programming at the age of 12 and entered the Bitcoin space after reading the Bitcoin white paper before high school. She self-taught C++ and transitioned from running nodes to contributing to the Bitcoin Core codebase. Misra stated that the Bitcoin community values results over age, creating a particularly welcoming atmosphere for young developers. Chaincode Labs CEO Adam Jonas said the scholarship aims to encourage young people to engage in Bitcoin open-source development and provide them with experience and educational support.
According to Cointelegraph, El Salvador has reached a $1.4 billion loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), planning to receive funding support over the next 40 months. As part of the agreement, the country will make Bitcoin payments voluntary for merchants while gradually reducing government involvement in Bitcoin-related projects, including a phased exit from managing the state-supported wallet app Chivo. The IMF stated that this move will significantly reduce the potential risks associated with Bitcoin projects while clearly defining that public sector participation is limited to specific Bitcoin economic activities. Additionally, taxes will only be paid in USD, not Bitcoin. The agreement still requires approval from the IMF's executive board, marking the end of four years of negotiations since El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as legal tender in June 2021. The IMF has previously warned that the speculative nature of Bitcoin could pose financial risks to the country. The agreement will also facilitate additional financing from institutions like the World Bank, totaling over $3.5 billion. Nevertheless, El Salvador's Bitcoin advisor Max Keiser expressed disdain on social media X, stating that Bitcoin usage in the country has "never been so active and continues to grow." However, surveys show that 92% of Salvadorans have not used Bitcoin for transactions, an increase from 88% in 2023.
According to The Block, a federal court in California ruled that Coinbase can delist wBTC (Wrapped Bitcoin), dismissing a request for a temporary injunction filed by BiT Global, associated with Sun Yuchen. Coinbase previously announced it would delist wBTC on December 19, a decision related to its former custodian BitGo's collaboration with BiT Global to manage $14 billion in assets. BiT Global claimed that delisting wBTC would cause irreparable harm and sued Coinbase for violating competition laws and defamation. However, the court found BiT Global's claims to be unfounded and supported Coinbase's right to determine its platform's asset listings. Coinbase responded that BiT Global's accusations are baseless and plans to seek sanctions against them or their law firm. Currently, wBTC is the second-largest wrapped token by market capitalization (nearly $14 billion), allowing Bitcoin to be used within the Ethereum ecosystem. Coinbase's competing product, cbBTC, has surpassed $2.1 billion in market capitalization since its launch in September. Coinbase emphasized that its platform accounts for less than 1% of wBTC trading activity and denies attempting to monopolize the wrapped Bitcoin market.
Powell: We are not allowed to own Bitcoin and do not wish to change the law
The Federal Reserve announced its latest interest rate decision, lowering rates by 25 basis points as expected, bringing the federal funds rate target range to 4.25%-4.5%. The latest dot plot indicates two rate cuts are expected in 2025, down from four in September. According to the Federal Reserve's statement, recent data shows steady economic growth, a slight easing in the labor market, an increase in unemployment but still at low levels, and inflation close to the target but slightly rising. The committee will continue to reduce its balance sheet, with the decision supported by a majority of members, while Beth Hammack voted against it, advocating for maintaining rates at 4.5%-4.75%. Powell stated, "With today's action, we have lowered the policy rate by a full percentage point from its peak, and our policy stance is now significantly less restrictive. Therefore, we can be more cautious when considering further adjustments to the policy rate." He noted that more progress on inflation must be seen before further rate cuts. The wording suggests we are at or near a point of slowing rate cuts. Powell also stated at the press conference that we are not allowed to own Bitcoin and do not wish to change the law.
AI
Insider: Apple is in talks with Tencent and ByteDance to launch AI features in China
According to Reuters, Apple is in discussions with Tencent and ByteDance to integrate its artificial intelligence (AI) models into iPhones sold in China. These negotiations are still in the early stages. Currently, several domestic companies have launched AI models, including ByteDance's "Doubao," Tencent's "Hunyuan," and Baidu's "Wenxin Yiyan." Additionally, negotiations between Apple and Baidu regarding the use of its AI models have stalled due to technical issues, including disputes over using iPhone user data to train AI models. Apple faces pressure from declining market share in China, especially with intensified competition from domestic brands like Huawei. Huawei recently launched the Mate 70 series, featuring its self-developed large language model, with AI capabilities as a selling point. In the third quarter, Apple's smartphone sales in China fell 0.3% year-on-year, while Huawei's grew by 42%.
Sahara AI announces the official launch of the Beta version test network for its first-phase data platform. This event attracted over 780,000 user registrations, with more than 10,000 users ultimately qualifying for participation. Through the Sahara AI test network, ordinary users can contribute to the AI ecosystem by engaging in data collection, optimization, and annotation tasks, earning rewards while helping to build the world's first decentralized AI collaboration platform. The launch of the test network marks the first phase of Sahara AI's ecosystem development, with plans to introduce an AI data market and model center to further promote the tradability, traceability, and decentralized collaboration of AI assets. It is reported that Sahara AI previously secured $43 million in funding from investment institutions including Pantera Capital, Binance Labs, Polychain Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Samsung Next, to advance the development of decentralized AI.
OpenAI: ChatGPT now supports interaction with users via phone
According to an official announcement from OpenAI, ChatGPT now supports interaction with users via phone. U.S. users can call the dedicated number 1-800-CHAT-GPT (1-800-242-8478), which supports landlines and traditional mobile phones. This feature is also integrated with WhatsApp, allowing users to send inquiries via this number, similar to the existing web and mobile versions. Currently, U.S. users can use 15 minutes of voice calls for free each month, with specific rules and limitations subject to adjustment. OpenAI stated that to gain a more comprehensive experience and access more features (such as search, higher limits, and more personalization), existing users should continue to use ChatGPT directly through their accounts.
Financing
According to The Block, Fraction AI, a crypto and AI startup focused on decentralized data annotation, has completed $6 million in Pre-Seed financing, co-led by Spartan Group and Symbolic Capital, with other investors including Borderless Capital, Anagram, Foresight Ventures, and Karatage. Additionally, angel investors such as Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal and NEAR Protocol co-founder Illia Polosukhin are also involved and serve as advisors. Founded in February 2024, Fraction AI aims to reshape the data annotation process through decentralization, employing a hybrid approach that combines human insights with AI agents. Its platform primarily includes three types of participants: stakers who earn rewards by staking ETH or liquid staking tokens (like stETH), developers who create AI agents and participate in challenges, and reviewers who assess results based on specific criteria using the native token FRAC. Fraction AI plans to launch its mainnet and native token FRAC by the end of Q1 or early Q2 2025, having completed closed testing, with public testing expected next month and over 60,000 test users currently involved. The company is developing on Ethereum while planning to expand to NEAR and multiple Ethereum Layer 2 networks.
UTXO Stack completes a new round of financing, valued at $50 million
UTXO Stack announced the completion of a new round of financing led by UTXO Management, PAKA Fund, and CMS Holdings, with a valuation of $50 million. This financing will be used to accelerate liquidity development for the Lightning Network, introduce stablecoins into the Bitcoin ecosystem, and plans to launch a Bitcoin liquidity provider airdrop incentive in early January 2024, along with the first token generation event (TGE) on the Lightning Network.
According to Bloomberg, the startup /dev/agents, founded by former Google and Stripe executives, recently completed a $56 million seed round financing, with a valuation of $500 million. The financing was led by Index Ventures, with CapitalG, Alphabet's investment fund, also co-leading, and notable angel investors including Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang, Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora, and OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy participating.
/dev/agents plans to create a next-generation cloud operating system that supports AI agents, aiming to simplify the development process and provide developers with a unified technical framework to promote the widespread application of AI agents. The core team includes co-founders David Singleton, Hugo Barra, Ficus Kirkpatrick, and Nicholas Jitkoff, who have extensive experience in Android, AR/VR, and operating system development. The team is dedicated to developing interactive interfaces and AI agent computing infrastructure suitable for multiple devices to achieve seamless collaboration between users and AI agents.
Cross-border payment service provider Juicyway completes $3 million Pre-Seed financing
Juicyway, a cross-border payment service provider based on stablecoins, announced the completion of $3 million in Pre-Seed financing, with investments from P1 Ventures, Ventures Platform Fund, and Future Africa. Juicyway primarily utilizes stablecoins and cryptocurrencies to simplify cross-border settlements by bypassing traditional intermediaries and reducing transaction delays. The new funds will support its provision of accessible quasi-banking and crypto wallet services, enabling seamless deposit and withdrawal services with stablecoins as a bridge, promoting instant settlements and reducing reliance on highly volatile currencies.
AI software engineering platform Braintrust announced the completion of $36 million in Series A financing, led by Martin Casado of Andreessen Horowitz, with existing investors Elad Gil, Greylock, Basecase, and Datadog, Databricks Ventures, Guillermo Rauch (Vercel), Simon Last (Notion), and Bryan Helmig (Zapier) also participating. This round of financing brings Braintrust's total funding to $45 million.
Braintrust aims to address challenges in developing large language models (LLMs), such as non-deterministic models and the unpredictability of natural language input. The platform has collaborated with top teams from Notion, Stripe, and Airtable to support users in improving AI product quality through continuous experimentation. Braintrust user teams run more than 10 experiments daily on average. Additionally, Braintrust has launched a new feature called "Functions," allowing users to create tools, prompts, and scorers directly in the codebase and upload them to the platform with simple commands, optimizing experimentation and deployment processes while reducing infrastructure management time.
Project Updates
Re-staking platform Swell: Swellchain officially launched
The liquidity re-staking platform Swell officially announced the launch of Swellchain, based on the Optimism OP Stack's Optimistic Rollup, as a chain centered on re-staked assets, built on the "Proof of Restake" mechanism and supported by Ethena Labs, EigenLayer, and others. Users can share 31,250,000 $SWELL rewards by cross-chain holding assets before December 31, while exploring upcoming dApps like Euler Finance and Ambient Finance. Swellchain is also building an ecosystem around the $USDe and $sUSDe stablecoins to provide liquidity rewards for DeFi users.
Sophon mainnet launched, initial phase with no network fees
Sophon, a modular blockchain based on ZKsync and previously funded by Binance Labs, has now launched its mainnet, deploying its token SOPH (currently in a non-transferable state). Users can enjoy a fee-free service during the initial phase, with node holder rewards starting to accumulate on January 1, 2025, and full transferability of tokens expected to open in Q1 2025. Sophon aims to create an intuitive and user-friendly blockchain ecosystem for high-throughput consumer applications through automatic account creation, a gasless architecture, and instant transaction confirmations. Related reading: A quick overview of the ZKsync-based superchain Sophon.
Kelp DAO releases KERNEL token economics, with 55% allocated to community rewards and airdrops
The Ethereum liquidity re-staking platform Kelp DAO has announced the details of the KERNEL token economics, with 55% allocated to community rewards and airdrops (20% for airdrops, 35% for future community rewards), 5% allocated to ecosystems and partners, 20% for private sales, and 20% for the team and advisors (with a 6-month lock-up period for team and private sale tokens, unlocking over 24 months). Additionally, 20% of the KERNEL tokens will be distributed through three rounds of airdrops:
- First round airdrop: 10% of the total supply, with a snapshot date of December 31, 2024;
- Second round airdrop: 5% of the total supply, from January 1 to April 30, 2025; an additional 15% loyalty reward for re-staking before January 15, 2025;
- Subsequent airdrop: 5% of the remaining supply, with plans to be determined.
The KERNEL token will be used for governance, providing economic security for re-staking, liquidity mining, and ecosystem revenue buybacks, among other scenarios. The token generation event (TGE) is expected to be completed in early Q1 2025.
Kraken L2 network Ink officially launches mainnet, ahead of schedule
According to an official announcement from Ink, the Kraken L2 network Ink has officially launched its mainnet, several months ahead of schedule. Ink becomes part of the Optimism superchain, aiming to bridge the gap between users and DeFi developers by providing bridging tools.
Trump family's crypto project WLFI announces long-term collaboration with Ethena Labs
According to The Block, the Trump family's crypto project World Liberty Financial (WLFI) and Ethena Labs have announced that they are seeking a "long-term collaboration," starting with the implementation of Ethena's revenue token sUSDe. According to a statement, "As the first step in the collaboration, Ethena and WLFI will explore the potential implementation of sUSDe as the first new token available for collateral on the WLFI protocol, which is supported by Aave. Introducing sUSDe into WLFI's upcoming Aave instance will allow that instance to benefit from Ethena's total locked value (TVL) and user base." The governance layer of World Liberty Financial will vote on this measure this week. The two companies stated, "If WLFI's Aave instance does not receive approval from the governance layer, or if sUSDe is not approved as a collateral asset, WLFI and Ethena will continue to explore collaboration opportunities and intend to seek integration points." According to the statement, Wednesday's announcement was made after World Liberty Financial purchased $600,000 worth of ENA tokens. A spokesperson for World Liberty Financial stated that the purchase of ENA tokens "is not directly related to this collaboration but indicates WLFI's confidence in the long-term viability and success of the Ethena network."
Opinions
Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan analyzed that the Federal Reserve's announcement of a 25 basis point rate cut and the reduction of next year's rate cut expectations from four to two has led to a significant pullback in risk assets. The S&P 500 fell by 3%, the Russell 2000 small-cap index dropped by 4%, and Bitcoin's price fell from about $106,000 to below $99,000, before slightly rebounding. At the same time, approximately $600 million in leveraged long positions in the crypto market were liquidated, exacerbating market volatility. Matt Hougan believes that this pullback is merely a temporary fluctuation and does not alter the long-term bullish trend of the crypto market. He pointed out that the Federal Reserve's influence on the crypto market has diminished, while internal drivers within the crypto space are stronger, including a shift in Washington's policy to support crypto, increased institutional investment and ETF inflows, government and corporate purchases of Bitcoin, and significant breakthroughs in blockchain technology. Additionally, he noted that the 10-day exponential moving average of Bitcoin (around $102,000) remains above the 20-day exponential moving average (around $99,000), indicating that market trends are still positive. Overall, he believes that the crypto market is in a multi-year bull market, and short-term interest rate adjustments will not change this trend.
Binance released a global user survey report yesterday, with 27,230 respondents sharing their views on the current crypto market and expectations for 2025. The data shows that nearly 45% of participants entered the crypto space in 2024, with 24.52% joining in the past six months and 20.60% in the past year. Despite the influx of new users, trading activity remains high, with 31.09% of users trading daily. The survey also revealed that users' expectations for the crypto market in 2025 focus on more regulation (19.39%), AI tokens dominating market growth (23.89%), and broader applications of blockchain technology (16.51%). In terms of holdings, the most favored assets among respondents are Memecoins (16.1%), followed by Bitcoin (14.44%) and BNB (14.23%). Binance Spot trading is the most popular product, chosen by 25.89% of users, followed by Binance Earn (25.34%) and Binance Convert (17.33%).
Primitive Ventures investor: 2025 will see more integration of crypto and AI
Primitive Ventures investor Marco Manoppo shared his experience of missing a hundredfold investment opportunity with Virtuals Protocol on X. Marco reflected that despite early exposure to the project, he failed to invest in time due to a misjudgment of the trend of integrating crypto and AI. He emphasized that the Virtuals team achieved rapid iteration through cost advantages in Southeast Asia and stood out in the market with a pragmatic business orientation. Marco predicts that 2025 will see more integration of crypto and AI, especially in the tokenization of AI agents, consumer applications, and innovations in the payment sector. Related reading: Interview with Virtuals Protocol co-founder: Benchmarking Bittensor, the AI Agent's comeback behind a hundredfold market cap growth.
Important Data
FTX/Alameda has sold most of its 25 million WLD holdings, with only 334,000 remaining
According to monitoring by Yu Jin, FTX/Alameda's 25 million WLD holdings have been mostly sold. Currently, only 334,000 WLD (approximately $800,000) remain. Data shows that the FTX/Alameda address transferred 21.856 million WLD (approximately $58.77 million) to five BitGo custody wallets today and a half month ago, possibly sold to large investors or institutions through OTC methods. Additionally, since August, they have also transferred 2.809 million WLD to Binance at a rate of one transaction per week.
Data: USDT premium against the Korean won on Upbit reaches 3%, the highest in 26 years
CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju tweeted that Korean won whales are accumulating USDT in large quantities. Currently, the USDT-KRW trading pair on Upbit has a premium of about 3%, with the USDT price at 1,559 KRW. Notably, this unofficial exchange rate level is similar to that during the 1998 IMF financial crisis, marking the highest in 26 years.
Fartcoin (FARTCOIN) breaks $1, reaching an all-time high
According to market data from GMGN.AI, the Meme project Fartcoin (FARTCOIN) on the Solana chain has broken $1, rising 25.1% in 24 hours, currently priced at $1.05, reaching an all-time high with a market cap exceeding $1 billion. Previously, Binance Alpha announced the second batch of projects: CKP, GEAR, SD, SYRUP, and FARTCOIN.
Mt. Gox wallet address transfers 816.3 BTC, valued at approximately $82.12 million
On-chain data shows that a Mt. Gox wallet address transferred 816.3 BTC, valued at approximately $82.12 million.
Marathon Digital accumulates 1,627 BTC in the past 8 hours, valued at approximately $166 million
According to on-chain data monitored by Lookonchain, Marathon Digital (@MARAHoldings) has accumulated 1,627 BTC in the past 8 hours, valued at approximately $166 million.
World Liberty purchased 231,726 ENA with 250,000 USDC 4 hours ago
According to Onchain Lens monitoring, 4 hours ago, the Trump family's crypto project World Liberty used $250,000 USDC to purchase 231,726 ENA and exchanged 103 cbBTC (valued at approximately $10.36 million) for WBTC. World Liberty has conducted several large on-chain transactions this month, including purchasing 8,105 ETH for $30 million USDC, buying 103 cbBTC for $10 million USDC and exchanging it for WBTC, purchasing 78,387 LINK for $2 million USDC, buying 6,137 AAVE for $1.91 million USDC, purchasing 741,687 ENA for $750,000 USDC, and buying 134,216 ONDO for $250,000 USDC.
The US stock market closed on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones initially down 2.58%, marking the longest single-day losing streak since 1974 (falling for the 10th consecutive trading day); the S&P 500 index closed down 2.95%, and the Nasdaq closed down 3.6%. Tesla (TSLA.O) fell 8.28%, and Nvidia (NVDA.O) dropped 1.14%. The volatility index VIX saw an intraday increase of up to 78.0%, closing at 28.32 after the US stock market closed. Blockchain concept stocks also experienced significant declines.
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