Cryptocurrency Market Performance
Currently, the total market value of cryptocurrencies is $3.45 trillion, with BTC accounting for 57.03%, or $1.97 trillion. The market value of stablecoins is $20.58 billion, with a 7-day increase of 0.7%, of which USDT accounts for 67.82%.
This week, the price of BTC exhibited a range-bound fluctuation, with the current price of BTC at $96,782; ETH also showed range-bound fluctuation, with the current price at $3,426.
Among the top 200 projects on CoinMarketCap, most decreased while a few increased, among which: ZEN increased by 100.34% in the last 7 days, FAX increased by 66.62% in the last 7 days, and BGB increased by 92.56% in the last 7 days.
This week, there was a net outflow of $457 million for the U.S. Bitcoin spot ETF; there was a net inflow of $329.1 million for the U.S. Ethereum spot ETF.
The 'Fear & Greed Index' on December 27 was 74 (the index remains the same as last week), with market sentiment: greedy over the last 7 days.
Market Prediction: Due to last week's comments from the Federal Reserve on reduced rate cuts next year, coinciding with the Christmas holiday, the market performed generally this week, with significant net outflows in the U.S. Bitcoin spot ETF, and stablecoins seeing a slight increase in issuance. The market is expected to continue consolidating, with a focus on the AI Agent sector as a hot track.
Understand now
Review of the week's major events
1. On December 23, Securitize, the broker-dealer for BlackRock's BUIDL tokenized money market fund, submitted a governance proposal calling for the addition of the BUIDL token as a reserve asset for Frax's upcoming re-launched Frax USD stablecoin;
2. On December 23, Trump appointed former college football player and Republican House candidate Bo Hines as the executive director of the President's Digital Asset Advisory Committee, which Trump referred to as the 'Crypto Council';
3. On December 23, according to official news, stablecoin issuer Usual completed a $10 million Series A financing, led by Binance Labs and Kraken Ventures, with participation from OKX Ventures, IOSG Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, GSR, Amber Group, and others;
4. On December 23, Justin Sun, founder of TRON and member of the HTX Global Advisory Committee, announced on social media that the AI token issuance function of the Tron network Meme coin issuance platform SunPump is now online;
5. On December 25, according to official news, Sonic Labs (formerly Fantom) announced its Sonic Gateway is now live, allowing users to bridge USDC, EURC, WETH, and FTM from Ethereum to Sonic;
6. Greeks.live: Option market data shows a significant decrease in market activity, with participants' optimism for January weakening;
7. On December 25, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov stated that Russian companies have begun using Bitcoin and other digital currencies in international payments, a result of legislative changes allowing such uses in response to Western sanctions;
8. On December 25, according to Yonhap News Agency, data from the Bank of Korea shows that as of the end of November, there were 15.59 million domestic cryptocurrency investors in Korea, accounting for 30% of South Korea's total population (approximately 51.23 million), an increase of 610,000 from the previous month;
9. On December 26, Pump Science officially announced on social media that BIO Protocol will airdrop BIO to holders of URO and RIF.
Macroeconomics
1. On December 24, according to market news, Grayscale has submitted a Grayscale Horizen Trust (ZEN) 8-K form to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC);
2. On December 26, according to CME 'FedWatch' data, the probability of the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates by 25 basis points in January next year is 8.6%, while the probability of maintaining the current rate is 91.4%;
3. On December 27, Bitwise submitted an application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for listing the 'Bitcoin Standard Corporations ETF'.
ETF
According to statistics, there was a net outflow of $457 million for the U.S. Bitcoin spot ETF between December 23 and December 27; as of December 27, GBTC (Grayscale) had a total outflow of $21.306 billion, currently holding $19.521 billion, while IBIT (BlackRock) currently holds $52.018 billion. The total market value of the U.S. Bitcoin spot ETF is $108.99 billion.
The U.S. Ethereum spot ETF had a net inflow of $329.1 million.
Envisioning the Future
Event Preview
1. CoinDesk will host Consensus Hong Kong from February 18 to 20, 2025, in Hong Kong.
Project Progress
1. The first airdrop season of the Ethereum liquidity re-staking platform Kelp DAO will have a snapshot date of December 31, 2024, with airdrops accounting for 10% of the total supply;
2. The airdrop token PRCL for the Solana ecological real estate trading protocol Parcl has a claim deadline of December 31;
3. The re-staking protocol Swell Network's Swellchain will allocate 1.25 million SWELL to users who cross-chain and hold assets on Swellchain within the first two weeks; users must complete the cross-chain process by 8:00 on December 31 to qualify for the allocation;
4. The second XP season of the decentralized perpetual derivatives Layer2 application chain Paradex will run from January 3, 2025, to July 31, 2025.
Important Events
1. The European Banking Authority (EBA) will implement new guidelines for the 'travel rule' applicable to crypto assets starting December 30, 2024;
2. The EU's (Crypto Asset Market Regulation) MiCA guidelines for cryptocurrency exchanges and other companies operating in the EU will take effect from December 31;
3. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has released a consultation document on the risk disclosure of banks related to crypto assets, following its prudent standards established in December 2022 for handling crypto asset risks. The consultation document proposes a standardized disclosure form and template for banks to disclose their crypto asset risks, with the proposed implementation date set for January 1, 2025;
4. The Bitcoin and Ethereum ETPs launched by Global X, an ETF provider in the U.S., will not charge any fees until January 3, 2025, after which the fees will become 0.29%. These two products were initially listed on the Xetra exchange in Frankfurt and the Swiss Stock Exchange in Zurich in March 2022, with a total expense ratio of 0.65%;
5. FTX and its associated debtors announced that the Chapter 11 reorganization plan approved by the court will officially take effect on January 3, 2025. The first round of distributions will start within 60 days after the effective date, targeting approved creditors in Convenience Classes. FTX has reached an agreement with cryptocurrency custodians BitGo and exchange Kraken to provide asset distribution services for retail and institutional clients. To qualify for the first round of distributions, users must complete the following steps before January 3, 2025: log in to the FTX debtor customer portal, complete KYC verification, submit necessary tax forms, and open an account with BitGo or Kraken.
Token Unlocking
1. COTI (COTI) will unlock 2 billion tokens on January 1, worth approximately $244 million, accounting for 45.12% of the circulating supply;
2. Orbler (ORBR) will unlock 37.41 million tokens on January 2, worth approximately $8.61 million, accounting for 1.87% of the circulating supply;
3. TARS AI (TAI) will unlock 28.89 million tokens on January 2, worth approximately $10.16 million, accounting for 2.89% of the circulating supply.
