Important information last night and this morning (January 6th - January 7th)
Reprinted from panewslab
01/07/2025·4M
Anti-crypto Fed Vice Chairman of Supervision Michael Barr resigns
According to Beincrypto, Michael Barr, the Federal Reserve’s vice chairman of supervision, announced today that he will resign from this position. Barr will no longer serve as the third-ranking official on the Fed's Board of Governors, but he intends to remain at the Fed until further notice. The industry generally believes that Barr is one of the key factors in the failure of U.S. banks to get involved in cryptocurrency and related services. According to a recent press release, his resignation will be effective on February 28 or when his successor is confirmed. However, Barr will remain on the Fed's board even if a new vice chair for supervision is found soon. His term was supposed to end naturally in 2032. However, this may be an important opportunity for cryptocurrency regulation. He claimed: "It is an honor to serve as Vice Chairman for Supervision of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. Controversy over this position threatens to distract from our mission. In the current environment, I believe it is better to serve the American people from the position of Governor Effective.” In 2023, Barr led a crackdown on stablecoins and expressed a desire to “keep cryptocurrencies out of the banking industry.”
MicroStrategy spent approximately US$101 million to increase its holdings of 1,070 Bitcoins again
According to MicroStrategy's announcement, the company purchased 1,070 Bitcoins at a total cost of approximately US$101 million, with an average purchase price of US$94,004 per Bitcoin. As of January 5, 2025, the company held a total of 447,470 Bitcoins, with a total purchase cost of approximately US$27.97 billion, and an average purchase price of US$62,503 per Bitcoin. In the fourth quarter of 2024, the company's Bitcoin yield (BTC Yield) reached 48%, and the annual yield was 74.3%.
Gemini agrees to pay $5 million to end CFTC lawsuit
Gemini Trust Co., the crypto exchange founded by the Winklevoss twins, agreed to pay $5 million to end a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Bloomberg reported. The lawsuit claims that Gemini misled derivatives regulators when it attempted to launch the first U.S.-regulated Bitcoin futures contract. The settlement, disclosed in documents signed by both sides on Monday, avoids a trial that was scheduled to begin on January 21, the day after Trump was inaugurated for a second term as U.S. president. Gemini neither admitted nor denied liability in this case.
In 2022, the CFTC filed a lawsuit against Gemini in Manhattan federal court, alleging that the exchange "made false and misleading statements about how to prevent Bitcoin price manipulation." U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein approved the settlement on Monday last year. In November, Judge Hellerstein rejected Gemini's request, ruling that the jury must determine whether 32 statements made by Gemini executives to regulators were misleading.
Gemini is still facing a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which accuses the exchange and cryptocurrency lending firm Genesis Global Capital of illegally raising billions of dollars in crypto from investors through the so-called Gemini Earn scheme. assets. In February, Gemini agreed to return at least $1.1 billion to customers as part of a separate settlement with New York regulators.
Dutch regulator issues EU MiCA crypto asset licenses to 4 companies
According to CoinDesk, MoonPay, BitStaete, FinTech ZBD and Hidden Road have received a "Crypto Asset Service Provider License" (CASP) from the Dutch Financial Market Authority (AFM), allowing them to operate within the 27 EU member states. MiCA requires companies to obtain a CASP license from any member state to operate throughout the EU. In addition, Socios.com also announced that it has obtained a Category 3 Virtual Financial Assets Act (VFAA) license from the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA). At the same time, the UK has also added GSR Markets to its crypto registration list by the end of 2024.
Guangzhou releases digital renminbi work action plan and strives to lead the country
The Office of the Financial Commission of the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee released the "Action Plan for Further Promoting Guangzhou's Digital RMB Work", proposing to deepen the digital RMB pilot results, comprehensively expand application fields, optimize the payment ecological environment, and help Guangzhou's high-quality economic development. The plan is clear. By June 2025, the application expansion of digital renminbi in people's livelihood, sports, consumption and other fields will be realized; by the end of 2025, key innovation scenarios such as cross-border payment and port and shipping trade will be broken through; by the end of 2026, full coverage of specific areas will be basically achieved, forming a complete Digital RMB ecosystem. The action plan includes: 1. Promotion in the field of people's livelihood: optimizing application convenience in public transportation, medical care, cultural tourism and other scenarios. 2. Cross-border payment innovation: Promote digital RMB settlement of cross-border trade in Nansha and participate in the pilot test of the multilateral central bank digital currency bridge. 3. Construction of demonstration areas: Create application models for digital RMB business districts and industrial parks. 4. Technology research and development support: Promote digital RMB related technology pilots and talent training. Guangzhou will coordinate through the leading group, improve emergency measures, strengthen publicity and guidance, steadily advance the digital renminbi pilot work, and provide a demonstration for the development of digital finance nationwide.
U.S. court documents suggest Do Kwon case may have more than 1 million victims
As reported by Cointelegraph, U.S. government prosecutors overseeing the criminal case against Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon estimated that Do Kwon may have caused more than a million victims worldwide following the collapse of the Terra ecosystem. On January 6, Acting U.S. Attorney Daniel Gitner of the U.S. Federal Court for the Southern District of New York notified the court of the process for informing Kwon’s victims of their rights in the criminal case. The government will create a website about public proceedings in Kwon's case because other methods of providing victims with rights protections are "impractical," according to U.S. prosecutors. Gitner said: “While it is difficult to precisely quantify Kwon, given the sheer volume of trades in the Terraform cryptocurrency and the manner in which these trades are conducted (many of which are conducted on foreign exchanges through digital asset wallets or cryptocurrency trading accounts without personally identifiable information) However, the government estimates that the number of victims in this case exceeds hundreds of thousands of individuals and entities, and may total more than one million.” According to previous news, Kwon is expected to appear in court again on January 8.
Arthur Hayes: The crypto market may peak in mid-March, followed by a severe correction
BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes explained in his latest blog post why he believes the crypto market will peak in mid-March and then experience a severe correction. The article stated that in the third quarter of 2022, when the Federal Reserve's reverse repurchase facility reached its peak, Bitcoin hit bottom; Yellen adjusted the bond strategy and withdrew more than 2 trillion US dollars in RRP, injecting liquidity into the market and promoting cryptocurrencies and stocks. Big rise. In the first quarter of 2025, the market will focus on whether U.S. dollar liquidity can offset the impact of slow implementation of Trump’s policies. If liquidity is sufficient, increasing risk exposure would be a safe option.
The Fed factor takes second place in the analysis, which focuses on how the Treasury Department responds to the debt ceiling. If politicians hesitate, the Treasury may inject liquidity from the General Account (TGA) to create a positive atmosphere for cryptocurrencies. The Fed's quantitative tightening policy continues, but the scale of RRP has almost cleared, and the RRP interest rate has been lowered to make it less attractive. This move is aimed at boosting demand for U.S. debt and paving the way for the discontinuation of QT and other policies. Yellen revealed that the Treasury Department expects to take "extraordinary measures" to raise funds in mid-January. When politicians will agree to raise the debt ceiling will test Trump's support. It is expected that the Treasury General Account (TGA) balance will be exhausted from May to June, and the market may react in advance. As of the end of the first quarter, total Fed and Treasury dollar liquidity is expected to be $612 billion. As the crisis of default and shutdown approaches, an agreement will be reached to raise the debt ceiling and the Treasury resumes borrowing and replenishes the TGA, resulting in reduced liquidity. After the tax deadline on April 15, the government's financial situation will improve and liquidity will also decrease. If TGA balances dominate cryptocurrency prices, the market may hit a high at the end of the first quarter and then fall back.
Yellen lowered that rate in order to issue short-term Treasury bills, frustrating Powell's strategy of tightening financial conditions to combat inflation. Although the Trump team may perform poorly on cryptocurrency and corporate legislation, a positive USD liquidity environment may offset this impact. Hayes said: “Investors are advised to sell in the late first quarter and wait for liquidity conditions to improve in the third quarter. As chief investment officer of Maelstrom, it is recommended that risk takers switch to aggressive mode and get involved in the decentralized science (DeSci) altcoin space. Maelstrom has purchased BIO, VITA, ATH, GROW, PSY, CRYO, NEURON, and if things go well, I will cut my baseline position in March.”
Calamos to launch Bitcoin ETF with downside protection on January 22
According to Crypto.news, Calamos Investments is launching a Bitcoin ETF with 100% downside protection. According to information released by the company, the ETF, called CBOJ, will debut on the Chicago Board Options Exchange on January 22. Debut, aiming to solve Bitcoin’s volatility issues while providing growth potential. According to reports, U.S. Treasury bonds are combined with options linked to the CBOE Bitcoin U.S. ETF Index to achieve this protection. This structure provides a regulated and transparent way to gain exposure to Bitcoin while minimizing risk.
Solana Foundation proposes to add a new hash type to improve account status efficiency and security
The Solana Foundation launched the SIMD-0215 proposal, which aims to scale Solana’s infrastructure to billions of user accounts. This proposal adds a new hash, the "Accounts Lattice Hash". According to reports, "Accounts Lattice Hash" uses homomorphic hashing to maintain the hash of the entire account status, which is both fast and safe, enabling each block to contain the hash of all accounts, not just the area. Accounts changed in block, and Epoch Accounts Hash deleted.
Babylon will launch the second phase of the test network on January 8
According to official news, the Bitcoin staking protocol Babylon announced that it will launch the second phase of the test network on January 8. The second phase of block production will start at 9 a.m. UTC time (17:00 Beijing time on January 8), and the equity pledge network application will be launched at 10 a.m. UTC time (18:00 Beijing time on January 8) . This phase will focus on testing the migration registration of the Signet Bitcoin pledge in the first phase, as well as the interaction with various protocol participants, including Bitcoin pledgers, final confirmation providers, verifiers, Liquid pledge protocols, etc. The test network supports permissionless smart contract deployment, with a single pledge limit of 0.0005-350 Signet BTC and an unbinding period of approximately 16-17 hours (100 Bitcoin blocks). The project is open to testing globally, but participation is limited to users in the United States, Canada, Australia and mainland China.
Lending protocol Dolomite has announced that the generation event for its native token DOLO will be held shortly after the launch of the Berachain mainnet. Dolomite plans to distribute 20% of DOLO tokens to the community through airdrops to encourage user participation and promote the development of the protocol. The specific distribution is as follows: 1. Platform users (9%): To reward users who use Dolomite for lending for a long time, 50% DOLO and 50% veDOLO locked for two years will be allocated. 2. Community contributors (1%): allocated to contributors such as security researchers, integration developers, and dashboard creators. 3. Minerals holders (10%): DOLO option airdrops are provided. Holders can purchase DOLO at a price of $0.045 for initial liquidity construction of the protocol. DOLO tokens will form a complementary mechanism with veDOLO and oDOLO to support protocol governance, liquidity incentives and income distribution, further promoting Dolomite's innovation and ecological development in the DeFi field.
Seraph officially announced that the token $SERAPH has been officially launched, marking that its gaming ecosystem has entered an important stage of development. The Seraph Foundation regards $SERAPH as the key to the integration of blockchain, AI and games, and is committed to creating innovative Web3 game experiences. At the same time, the Seraph game client is now open for download, and players can participate in the Genesis Season (Season1) to start their gold-earning journey. In addition, the $SERAPH trading pair has been listed on the following centralized exchanges: Bybit, KuCoin, HashKey, MEXC and LBank. It is officially recommended to use the Bybit exchange to participate in the exclusive Launchpool mining event. Users can stake $SERAPH, $MNT and $USDT to earn more $SERAPH rewards.
Michael Saylor says he would be happy to serve as encryption advisor in Trump administration
According to Bitcoin.com, MicroStrategy executive chairman Michael Saylor said he is willing to take on a cryptocurrency advisory role in the upcoming Trump administration. In an interview with Bloomberg, Saylor revealed that he has been in contact with multiple members of the new administration, but did not confirm whether he had met with Trump. Saylor said that if invited to join the Digital Asset Advisory Committee, he would be happy to provide advice and promote constructive digital asset policies. He recently met with Eric Trump at Mar-A-Lago and mentioned Bitcoin as a key topic of the meeting on social media.
According to The Block, crypto trading and liquidity services company GSR has received approval from the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and its subsidiary GSR Markets UK Limited can now operate as a registered crypto asset business and provide crypto asset trading to UK customers. Waiting for service. Previously, in April 2024, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) also granted GSR's entity in Singapore the status of "major payment institution", allowing it to provide over-the-counter trading and market-making services. In addition, in mid-2024, GSR experienced a reorganization of its executive team, with several executives leaving, including co-founder and co-CEO Rich Rosenblum and chief technology officer John MacDonald.
Riot announces production and operations data for December: a total of 516 Bitcoins mined
According to Riot Platforms’ announcement, the company mined 516 Bitcoins in December 2024, an increase of 4% from the previous month. Riot CEO Jason Les said that the first 400MW development phase of the Corsicana facility has now completed the installation of all systems and deployment of mining machines. Although the system has been installed, the company is adopting a step-by-step debugging approach to ensure the quality of power grid supply.
According to the latest report from CoinShares, global digital asset investment product inflows hit a record high of $44.2 billion in 2024, nearly four times the record in 2021. Among them, Bitcoin attracted US$38 billion in inflows, accounting for 29% of total assets under management (AuM); Ethereum had an inflow of US$4.8 billion throughout the year, accounting for 26% of AuM. Other altcoins (excluding Ethereum) saw a total inflow of $813 million, accounting for 18% of AuM. 2025 is off to a strong start, with $585 million in inflows in the first three days. However, the overall first week, including the last two trading days of 2024, saw a net outflow of $75 million. U.S. products dominate, with spot ETFs attracting 100% of inflows for the year, reaching $44.4 billion. The Swiss market saw an inflow of US$630 million, while Canada and Sweden saw outflows of US$707 million and US$682 million respectively.
The 24-hour DEX trading volume on the Solana chain exceeds that of Ethereum and Base combined
DefiLlama data shows that the 24-hour DEX trading volume on the Solana chain has exceeded the sum of Ethereum and Base. In the past 24 hours, the daily trading volume of DEX based on Solana reached US$3.982 billion, while the daily trading volume of DEX based on Ethereum was US$1.706 billion, and the daily trading volume of DEX on the Ethereum Layer 2 network Base was US$1.207 billion.
NVIDIA stock rose more than 5%, surpassing Apple in market value and ranking first
U.S. stock market trends show that Nvidia’s stock rose by more than 5%, surpassing Apple in market value and ranking first.
Sui TVL breaks through US$2 billion, reaching record high
Public chain Sui stated on the X platform that its total locked value (TVL) has exceeded US$2 billion, a record high. It only took three months after reaching the US$1 billion mark for the first time. Sui said its growth has been triggered by the recent announcement and launch of stablecoins, wallets and lending protocols. Industry giants such as Grayscale, VanEck and Franklin Templeton have also given Sui a boost.
According to Decrypt, Meme coin issuance platform Pump.fun has accounted for more than 70% of Solana network’s token issuance in the past two days and contributed more than 56% of decentralized exchange trading activity. In the past 24 hours alone, Pump.fun has issued more than 45,000 tokens, and its cumulative issuance for the year has exceeded 5.5 million. Although only 0.0085% of its issued tokens have a market value exceeding $1 million, the platform still stands out with significant revenue performance, with revenue reaching $79.94 million in December, surpassing mainnets such as Tron and Bitcoin.
According to the "2024 State of DePIN" report jointly released by Messari DePIN research analyst Dylan Bane and Escape Velocity Ventures co-founder Salvador Gala, the distributed physical infrastructure network (DePIN) field will achieve significant growth in 2024: 1. Market performance: DePIN The total market value of the market reaches 50 billion US dollars, covering 350 tokens, and the annual revenue price-earnings ratio is approximately 100 times. 2. Device contribution: More than 13 million devices participate in DePIN operations around the world every day. 3. Network competition: Solana leads in the infrastructure field, while Base dominates in the consumption and market fields. 4. Capital inflow: In 2024, the DePIN project raised more than US$350 million in seed rounds and early stage financing. 5. Application expansion: Local governments have begun to use DePIN to solve infrastructure problems, such as cross-border payments, logistics network optimization, etc. Looking forward to 2025, the DePIN field is expected to achieve 100-1000 times growth in emerging markets and break through in a wider range of application scenarios.
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