Headlines
XRP's market cap surpasses TotalEnergies, ranking 144th among global assets.
Infinite Market Cap data shows that XRP's market cap has surpassed TotalEnergies, climbing 39 places in global assets, currently ranking 144th. The data indicates that XRP's current market cap is $131.46 billion, with a 24-hour increase of 19.12% and a weekly increase of 62.37%; TotalEnergies has a market cap of $131.29 billion.
Ripple re-locked 1 billion XRP in a custodial wallet early this morning.
According to WhaleAlert monitoring, at 2:21 AM today, Ripple re-locked 1 billion XRP in a custody wallet, worth approximately $1.546 billion.
Earlier news indicated that Ripple stated it uses a custodial account system to provide transparency and certainty for the XRP market. The company locks up most of its XRP holdings to ensure it does not flood the market and manipulate prices. However, the company also uses XRP in custodial accounts to invest in and support projects within the Ripple ecosystem. The monthly release of 1 billion XRP tokens from the custodial account does not mean that all will enter the market. Ripple may choose to sell some to institutions or retail investors, use some for its purposes, or return some to new trusts.
Industry news
The MARA mining pool produced 820 BTC in November, the highest since January.
The leading Bitcoin mining company MARA's MARA Pool mined 820 BTC in November, setting a new high since January.
Network data shows that the MARA mining pool mined 254 Bitcoin blocks in November (UTC), receiving 793.7 BTC from block subsidies and 26.7 BTC from transaction fees. This is the highest monthly production for the MARA mining pool since January, partly due to lower uptime earlier this year.
In November, the average Bitcoin network hash rate was 731 EH/s, while the block production of the MARA mining pool indicated an actual hash rate of 42.7 EH/s. This suggests that the company installed additional mining machines in November, as it reported an operating capacity of 40.2 EH/s at the end of October.
The rebound in Ethereum prices has driven the NFT market recovery, with NFT sales in November exceeding $562 million.
With the recovery of Ethereum prices, NFT sales in November exceeded $562 million, a significant increase of 57.8% compared to $356 million in October, with sales on the Ethereum network exceeding $216 million, up 12% from October. However, the monthly trading volume of NFTs is still far from the peak in 2024. In March this year, NFT sales reached an annual high of $1.6 billion. However, it has remained sluggish and reached a low of $303 million in September, the lowest since 2021.
CryptoSlam data also shows that CryptoPunks led the NFT market in November, with 30-day sales exceeding $49 million, a month-on-month increase of 392%. It recorded 388 sales transactions, an increase of 213 compared to October. Besides CryptoPunks, the Pudgy Penguins series also had an impressive November, with monthly sales skyrocketing by 262%, reaching $16 million.
Ethereum Foundation researcher: Ethereum L1 will gradually improve in the future, with significant performance upgrades expected for L2 in the coming months.
Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake posted that today marks four years since the launch of the Ethereum beacon chain, with only 500,000 ETH staked in the initial phase. Although it did not bring direct benefits to users at first, it has gradually grown to become one of the most powerful foundations in blockchain history.
Looking ahead, Drake believes Ethereum has the opportunity to become the settlement layer of the value internet. Although the beacon chain is still not perfect, the upgrade path over the next few years will be challenging, including improvements to censorship resistance and MEV handling, reducing staking deposits, increasing finality speed, smart issuance, achieving smart watch-level full chain verification, and post-quantum security. Meanwhile, outside of the consensus layer, he hopes to achieve full sharding on the data layer and native Rollups on the execution layer.
Drake stated that many improvements to L1 will be gradually released over the coming years, with enhancements such as post-quantum security potentially requiring a complete redesign. L2 solutions will provide significant performance upgrades in the coming months, including fast user experiences, low fees, and unlimited throughput, as well as synchronous composability.
BlackRock's IBIT holdings market value exceeds $48 billion.
BlackRock's official data shows that as of November 27, the market value of IBIT holdings reached $48,035,615,461.69, with a holding of 495,443.6524 BTC.
The on-chain total holdings of U.S. Bitcoin spot ETFs exceed 1.12 million BTC, valued at $108.9 billion.
Dune data shows that as of December 1, the total on-chain holdings of U.S. Bitcoin spot ETFs have surpassed 1.12 million BTC (approximately 1.128 million BTC), accounting for 5.7% of the current BTC supply; the on-chain holdings are valued at $108.9 billion.
In November, there were more than 30 attacks in the cryptocurrency space, resulting in losses of about $85.53 million, of which about $25.2 million was recovered.
According to statistics from Shield, there were more than 30 hacking incidents in the cryptocurrency space in November 2024, causing approximately $85.53 million in losses, of which about $25.2 million was recovered.
The top 5 hacking incidents are as follows:
- Thala: $25.5 million (recovered $25.2 million + $300,000 bug bounty);
- DEXX: $21 million;
- Gifto: $12 million;
- PolterFinance: $8.7 million;
- DeltaPrime: $4.75 million.
Former CFTC Chairman: The SEC may drop the lawsuit against Ripple.
Former CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo discussed the high-profile SEC lawsuit against Ripple regarding XRP in an interview this week.
The SEC accused Ripple of violating securities laws by issuing XRP, and a federal court ruled that some of the issuance meets the conditions of securities, while others do not. Giancarlo believes the SEC should reconsider its approach, especially considering recent legal outcomes and the potentially changing regulatory environment.
When asked whether the SEC would drop the lawsuit against Ripple, Giancarlo said: "I think they should... I bet they will."
Project news
Nansen CEO: Currently ranked 9th among STRK staking validators.
Nansen CEO Alex Svanevik posted that Nansen is currently ranked 9th among STRK staking validators. According to related data, the current total staking amount of STRK has reached 76,123,003.743, accounting for 3.37% of the total circulating supply, with Nansen's staking amount reaching 804,994.064 STRK, accounting for 1.05% among all staking validators.
Publicly listed Hyperscale Data: Bitcoin mining output of 640 BTC so far this year.
NYSE-listed Hyperscale Data announced that as of November 26, 2024, the company's Bitcoin mining business has produced a total of 640 BTC, of which approximately 380 BTC were mined at its facility in Michigan, and the remaining approximately 260 BTC came from previously hosted mining machines by Core Scientific, Inc.
Additionally, the company revealed that it is currently attempting to transition into a pure AI data center.
ENS domains added 8,664 new registrations in November, the lowest since April 2021.
Dune data shows that in November, the number of new domain registrations for Ethereum Name Service (ENS) was 8,664, the lowest since April 2021.
In addition, the total number of currently active domains is 1,811,983, the number of unique ENS participants has reached 875,047, and the number of names sets has reached 899,849.
The head of the Base protocol praised Hyperliquid and reiterated that there are currently no plans to issue a token for Base.
Jesse Pollak, head of the Base protocol, posted that "Hyperliquid shows that it's a good thing to build a product people love before injecting price complexity.
We see the same thing on Base—starting without tokens allows us to focus on solving real problems, which means we have to truly work for it every day.
It should be noted that Hyperliquid is not the only data point in this regard. In fact, the entire history of startups has indicated this. Undoubtedly, the most important thing is to build a world-class product that people love. That's it.
Finally, to reiterate: we have no plans to launch a token for the Base network. We are focused on building. We want to solve real problems and let people build better. I hope to receive your feedback on areas we can improve.
Jito founder: Jito generated 9.2 million SOL for validators and stakers in November, with a new version v2 planned for release early next year.
Jito founder buffalu posted: "The Jito Labs Block Engine team has been advancing development work, focusing on reliability and performance.
- Reduce reliance on centralized databases;
- Better, faster network retries;
- Improved load balancer performance;
- Enhanced auction logic brings lower latency and more trades.
Investment and financing
Amber DWM, a subsidiary of Amber Group, has reached a final merger agreement with Nasdaq-listed iClick.
Nasdaq-listed iClick Interactive Asia Group Limited announced that it has signed a final agreement and merger plan with Overlord Merger Sub Ltd. (Merger Sub). Merger Sub is an exempt company from the Cayman Islands and is a direct wholly-owned subsidiary of iClick and Amber DWM Holding Limited (Amber DWM).
Amber DWM is a digital wealth management subsidiary of Amber Group, branded as "Amber Premium," serving institutions and high-net-worth clients.
According to the merger agreement, Merger Sub will merge with Amber DWM, which will continue as the surviving entity and become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company. The shareholders of Amber DWM will exchange all of Amber DWM's issued and outstanding equity for the company’s newly issued Class A and Class B common stock as specified in the merger agreement, and this transaction is not subject to the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933.
The stablecoin issuance protocol usdx.money completed a $45 million financing, with a valuation of $275 million.
The synthetic stablecoin issuance protocol usdx.money announced last Friday the successful completion of its latest round of financing, with a post-financing valuation of $275 million. The financing amount was approximately $45 million, with major investors including NGC, BAI Capital, Generative Ventures, UOB Venture Management, among others, some of whom invested through warrants. Existing supporters of the project include Dragonfly Capital and Jeneration Capital.
usdx.money aims to build the next generation stablecoin infrastructure, with USDX as its first stablecoin product. After completing financing, usdx.money will further accelerate its ecological layout and promote the application of stablecoins USDX and sUSDX in multiple areas.
Regulatory trends
The Financial Services Agency of Japan proposes to relax the reserve requirements for stablecoins issued by trust banks and implement travel rules.
Recently, the Financial Services Agency (FSA) of Japan proposed some ideas regarding cryptocurrencies and stablecoins to the Payment Services Working Group of the Financial System Council, mentioning that it is unwilling to allow banks, other than trust banks, to issue stablecoins. For stablecoins issued by trust banks, the FSA hopes to relax the current requirement that all assets must be held in the form of bank demand deposits. However, the FSA also wishes to implement travel rules, requiring KYC for stablecoin transfers issued by trust banks.
Japan passed stablecoin legislation in 2022, supporting banks, licensed remittance companies, and trust companies to issue stablecoins. As part of its working group's presentation, the Financial Services Agency distinguished between stablecoins issued on permissioned blockchains and those issued on public blockchains. It was satisfied with the existence of all three types of stablecoins on permissioned chains but expressed caution about allowing licensed deposit-taking institutions to issue stablecoins on non-permissioned chains.
The Financial Services Agency proposes to develop lightweight legislation for non-exchange cryptocurrency intermediary institutions.
Japan is considering new lightweight legislation for cryptocurrency intermediary institutions that are not exchanges. Recently, the Financial Services Agency (FSA) presented its ideas to the Payment Services Working Group of the Financial System Council.
Japan introduced legislation for cryptocurrency asset service providers (CAESP) in 2017, covering the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies, acting as brokers, managing funds related to these services, or providing custody. However, many so-called introducers who do not operate cryptocurrency exchanges do not consider themselves to be CAESP.
Therefore, the Financial Services Agency is considering proposals requiring them to register as intermediaries. Introducers would be obligated to provide information to users, be subject to advertising restrictions, and could bear liability for damages if issues arise.
The Financial Services Agency also considered how to handle damage compensation. Current regulations for other financial service intermediaries not belonging to larger groups require collateral to pay for potential damages. If an intermediary is affiliated with a cryptocurrency exchange, the damages may be borne by the exchange.
The Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade has requested to extend the timeline for the rollout of the digital ruble by two years.
The Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade has requested to extend the timeline for the rollout of the digital ruble by two years, similar to the timeline provided to small retailers. In October, the Central Bank of Russia announced the timeline for the rollout of the digital ruble as part of a bill submitted to the State Duma. The large-scale launch date is set for July 1, 2025. By then, the largest banks and retailers must support the central bank digital currency (CBDC).
The July 1 deadline applies to retailers with turnover exceeding 30 million rubles ($274,000). Retailers with income between 20 million and 30 million rubles can receive an additional year, while small companies can receive an extra two years.
The department pointed out that there are still no rules regarding the operation and functioning of the digital ruble, so retailers do not have enough time to prepare and adjust their point-of-sale software.
Trade organizations agree with this viewpoint. The Retail Companies Association (ACORT) stated in a letter: "We believe it is necessary to avoid setting specific timeframes through legislation for launching systems at the trade level and to provide at least a two-year transition period during which companies will carry out necessary work."
Arthur Hayes: South Korea has postponed virtual asset taxation by two years, allowing the bull market to continue.
Arthur Hayes cited South Korean media reports stating: "The bull market can continue, as the capital gains tax in South Korea has been postponed for another 2 years."
Reports indicate that Park Chan-dae, a representative of the Democratic Party of Korea, stated today, "We have decided to agree to postpone taxation on virtual assets for two years." During a press conference held at the National Assembly on Yeouido in Seoul, he announced this news, stating: "After in-depth discussions on postponing virtual asset taxation, I believe it is time for further reforms on virtual asset taxes." Regarding the budget-related bill designated by National Assembly Speaker Yoo Won-sik (phonetic), Park stated: "There are 13 bills proposed by the government, of which 8 do not have issues between the ruling and opposition parties will be passed. He added: "The plenary session tomorrow will handle this, and five bills will be passed. We will further discuss and decide on the direction of handling today." He emphasized that "some bills need to be rejected, and I plan to reject the inheritance tax and gift tax bills."
Character voice
Solana co-founder: We need a national XRP reserve.
Solana co-founder toly posted on X stating: "We need a national XRP reserve."
Bitwise CEO: Participants should change their zero-sum thinking in a bull market and instead "expand the pie."
Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley posted: "Now is the time to cultivate an abundance mindset in the cryptocurrency field. The bear market breeds zero-sum thinking, with one party profiting by taking shares from others as the pie shrinks. But as of November this year, the total market cap of cryptocurrencies has exceeded the previous high of $3 trillion in November 2021.
The market is entering a period where the pie is getting bigger, and now is the time to shift mindsets. The winning mentality in this phase is to encourage the maximization of the pie, increase participation, treat on-site participants well, and support teams to maximize their potential and strengths. If all this happens, you will do very well. I am excited about the restoration of growth and abundance.
Cathie Wood: Looking forward to an era of regulatory easing for cryptocurrencies and digital assets after Trump takes office.
Cathie Wood, founder and CEO of Ark Investment Management LLC, stated that she welcomes the era of regulatory easing following Trump's presidency, especially concerning technology, cryptocurrencies, and digital assets.
"The U.S. has almost lost its foothold in the cryptocurrency space," Wood said, citing "over-regulation" and the concerns of outgoing SEC Chairman Gary Gensler regarding the industry.
Wood stated on last Sunday’s program that crypto and artificial intelligence are among the technology platforms that the U.S. must "seize and harness" to "lead the way, just as we did in the internet space. Changes in the regulatory framework, with a focus on crypto and AI, will be very significant."
Michael Saylor: It's a good idea for the younger generation to invest their savings in Bitcoin.
Bitcoin supporter and Stanford University PhD in Mathematics Fred Krueger posted: "My advice to the younger generation is to focus all their energy on artificial intelligence and invest their savings in Bitcoin." In response, MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor said: "That's a good suggestion."
CZ shares management insights: small decisions, big meetings; big decisions, small meetings.
CZ posted on X: "Small decisions, big meetings; big decisions, small meetings."
Senator Lummis: It is very important to protect Bitcoin and those who hold BTC in personal wallets.
U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis stated: "It is very important to protect Bitcoin and those who hold BTC in personal wallets... We do not want to see this asset controlled by the government, as it is a great virtue."
Gemini co-founder: The coordinated assault by the Fed, OCC, and FDIC on the crypto industry is 10 times worse than the SEC.
Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss posted on X stating: "The SEC's war on cryptocurrencies is evil, but at least it is largely out in the open. In contrast, the coordinated efforts of the Fed, OCC, and FDIC to eradicate banking for cryptocurrencies are conducted in the shadows under the cover of the Patriot Act and other federal privileges, which is an evil act. So you can expect their actions to be 10 times worse than the SEC. It is time to lift the veil on allowing federal banking regulators to do this and persecute their political enemies."
