According to reports, the financial crime movie (Crash) based on true events will officially be released on January 15 next year. The film tells the story of a young man who created the cryptocurrency MOMMY, achieving unprecedented success but facing regulatory issues, ultimately leading to a crash that caused a loss of 50 trillion Korean won. In addition to receiving support from the Korea Creative Content Agency's new media content department, this film is also the last work of the late actor Song Jae-rim.

Community speculation suggests that (Crash) is based on the Terra Luna incident.

The news reports that the film is based on real events, and the judicial authorities have not yet made a final judgment. The production team has conducted thorough preliminary investigations, as well as detailed reviews and legal consultations. The official announcement has recently confirmed the release date as January 15, 2025, and the teaser poster has been made public.

Binance Labs announced an investment in Quine Co., the core team of the decentralized stablecoin protocol Perena. However, it is not rooted in the BNB Chain; Perena is natively built on Solana, utilizing cutting-edge financial engineering techniques to address key issues in the stablecoin ecosystem, such as market decentralization and issuance risk. Its innovative approach transforms stablecoin exchanges into liquid synthetic dollars, streamlining stablecoin operations and laying the foundation for the next wave of decentralized financial applications.

(How did Binance Labs grow into a $9 billion scale, the best-resourced venture capital institution in the crypto space?)

The Bitcoin MENA conference is currently in full swing, and Tron founder Justin Sun is also discussing the development, application, and long-term value of Bitcoin and blockchain technology at the conference. Justin Sun stated that Bitcoin is like an 'introductory course' into the cryptocurrency field, while blockchain technology is a 'multifaceted museum' attracting global attention.

Bitcoin remains stable, but innovation relies on other blockchains.

Justin Sun first affirmed Bitcoin's core value, mentioning: "Bitcoin is quite stable as a store of value; its design is meant to provide a secure, decentralized currency system unaffected by political or other external factors."

Decentralized privacy startup Nillion announced the successful completion of the Verifier program, showcasing the immense potential of community-driven privacy. This program attracted over 501,000 validators, who collectively verified 195 million secrets, providing a powerful impetus for privacy in the crypto world. The goal of the Verifier program is to create a network composed of community participants to ensure data integrity and security; for participants, Nillion has also hinted at the possibility of an airdrop.

(Privacy blockchain project Nillion raises $25 million to promote the application of 'blind computing' technology)

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin wrote on Twitter: 'ARS/USD is at the exact same level as it was a year ago. For a currency that seemed to be on an unstoppable path of hyperinflation, this is quite an impressive turnaround. Inflation rates have also been rapidly declining in recent months.'

Argentina's currency ARS has suffered from inflation for the past few years, attracting international attention and drawing loud criticism from the cryptocurrency community regarding central bank monetary policies, with hopes that cryptocurrency could change the local value storage methods. However, under the adjustment of government policies, the vicious phenomenon of inflation is undergoing a transformation.

The 2024 Taipei Blockchain Week (TBW 2024) grandly opened today (12/12), connecting Taiwan's blockchain to the world from the first session 'Bridge', to the second session 'Scale' becoming a 5,000-person scale conference, and this year's 'Onboard' focuses on the practical application of blockchain. Regarding the annual Taiwan blockchain event, Taipei Mayor Jiang Wan'an also delivered a speech emphasizing the city government's supportive attitude towards emerging technologies.

Taipei Mayor Jiang Wan'an discusses the technology vision

Taipei City is actively promoting a five-year, 1 billion scale smart city innovation budget to encourage city government agencies to adopt AI technology, promote cross-departmental collaboration, and create more smart city application cases.

ChatGPT quickly recovered after hours of outage

OpenAI announced on Thursday that the ChatGPT assistant, Sora video generation tool, and API have all resumed full operation after being temporarily unavailable due to an outage lasting over four hours. According to OpenAI's status page, this service interruption caused several services the company uses to be unavailable.

This is not the first time OpenAI has encountered similar issues. In June this year, OpenAI also experienced an outage of more than five hours, preventing users from accessing the service.

ChatGPT's rapid rise! Reached 300 million users

Previously, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim proposed the 'Bitcoin Friendly City' plan to integrate Bitcoin into municipal finances. This proposal was successfully passed on 12/11. However, some government officials and scholars have indicated that local governments, including Vancouver, are not allowed to use Bitcoin as a financial reserve, sparking public debate.

Vancouver passes Bitcoin financial reserve plan

According to previous reports, Sim had already proposed the 'Bitcoin Financial Reserve' plan to the Vancouver City Council. Since Sim's ABC party holds a majority in the council, the chances of the proposal passing are considerable. On 12/11, the city council officially approved this plan and continues to explore the potential uses of Bitcoin for local municipal purposes. Sim also stated in a telephone interview: 'As the United States becomes increasingly friendly towards cryptocurrency, and other countries follow suit, we certainly want to join in.'

This year, gold prices have risen by 30%, making gold an especially attractive investment as a safe-haven asset. Data from the World Gold Council shows that in China, the world's largest gold-consuming country, demand for gold bars and coins reached its highest level in a decade in the first half of this year. However, the difficulty of tracking gold, its portability, and high liquidity also make it a tool for fraud and money laundering in China.

Gold has become a tool for money laundering and fraud.

According to Bloomberg, jewelry stores across China have been receiving mysterious, unusually large orders for gold bars, with customers requesting the gold be shipped to remote addresses within the country.

Speak startup raised $78 million in Series C funding at a valuation of $1 billion, led by Accel Ventures, with participation from OpenAI and Y Combinator. Speak is a language startup that teaches learners how to learn foreign languages by leveraging AI to learn from native speakers' speaking styles. The AI generates audio conversations and listens to user responses, allowing learners to practice conversing with AI.

OpenAI is one of the main investors in Speak, not only financially but also using OpenAI's ChatGPT technology for machine learning. Ian Hathaway, a partner at OpenAI's venture fund, invested in Speak out of a shared vision to fundamentally change language learning through artificial intelligence. It is exciting to see Speak's top-tier AI talent and unique product vision creating transformative learning experiences for a rapidly growing global user base.

There has been progress in the FTX case, as the FTX bankruptcy restructuring team has reached settlement agreements with multiple political action committees (PACs) and various state Democratic groups, recovering approximately $14 million in political donations.

Recovered $14 million from the majority party PACs and Democratic groups in both chambers of Congress.

According to court documents from December 10, the FTX bankruptcy management team reached a total settlement of $9 million with the majority party political action committees (House & Senate) in November, and also reached additional settlements with Democratic groups in various states in the U.S., recovering a total of approximately $14 million in settlement funds.

ETF issuer Bitwise has released its latest forecast report for 2025, stating that 2024 will be a milestone year for cryptocurrencies, but 2025 will mark the beginning of the crypto gold era.

Here are Bitwise's predictions for the coming year:

Bitcoin Target Price: $200,000

Record inflows into Bitcoin ETFs, the supply reduction due to the halving in April 2024, and new purchases from corporations and governments will continue to drive Bitcoin up. If the U.S. government establishes a strategic reserve of 1 million Bitcoins, the price could soar to $500,000 or more.

In a recent report, Citigroup Wealth stated that the adoption and growth of stablecoins could 'consolidate the long-term global dominance of the US dollar,' which also challenges the claim that Bitcoin will end the dominance of fiat currency.

Stablecoin trading volume accounts for over 80% of cryptocurrency transactions, and clearer regulation is expected to enhance its attractiveness.

According to a report by The Block, Citigroup Wealth strategists believe that stablecoins not only have the potential to strengthen the dollar's dominance but also challenge the notion that Bitcoin will one day end the dollar's supremacy.

Initially, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin were seen as competitors to central bank-issued currencies. In fact, some believe Bitcoin could end the dominance of the US dollar. However, Citigroup wrote in a new report that stablecoins, which account for more than four-fifths of cryptocurrency trading volume, are challenging this notion.

The U.S. consumer price index (CPI) meets expectations, solidifying the Federal Reserve's expectation for interest rate cuts next week, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq breaking the 20,000 mark for the first time. Cryptocurrencies are rising across the board, with Bitcoin once again surpassing the $100,000 mark and Ether returning above $3,800.

CPI meets expectations, the Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates by one basis point next week

The U.S. November consumer price index (CPI) meets expectations, growing 0.3% compared to October and 2.7% compared to the same period last year. Excluding the volatile food and energy prices, core CPI rose 0.3% compared to the previous quarter and 3.3% compared to the same period last year.

Time magazine has just announced the best CEO of 2024. Originally, everyone thought it would be Jen-Hsun Huang, but this honor was awarded to Lisa Su, CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Su Zifeng and Huang Renxun were both born in Tainan, Taiwan, and both have solid science and engineering backgrounds and work experience. Su Zifeng, like Huang Renxun, does not deliberately dye her hair. Her silver hair gives people the impression of wisdom, stability and maturity. Su Zifeng broke the ceiling as an Asian woman in the United States and became the CEO of an outstanding technology company. She also appeared on the cover of Time and appeared with Huang Renxun. Not inferior to AMD, and her strong ambition to challenge Huida's position also made the American media begin to actively report AMD's layout and industry trends.

Ray Dalio, founder of the world's largest hedge fund Bridgewater and author of bestsellers (Principles), (The Big Debt Crisis), (The Changing World Order), recently stated at Abu Dhabi Finance Week (ADFW) that we are about to face a debt and currency problem. He warned investors to stay away from debt assets and hold hard currencies such as gold and Bitcoin.

The debt levels of major countries have reached unprecedented heights

According to reports, Ray Dalio stated during his speech at Abu Dhabi Finance Week that:

'I believe we may soon face a debt and currency problem. I want to stay away from debt assets, such as bonds and other liabilities, and hold some hard currencies like gold and Bitcoin.'

Coincheck, Japan's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, will list on the U.S. NASDAQ this Wednesday, becoming the second cryptocurrency exchange to go public in the U.S. after Coinbase. According to Coincheck's official statement, this listing is completed through a merger with Thunder Bridge Capital via a de-SPAC transaction.

Coincheck's year-long preparation for listing has finally been completed

Coincheck and Thunder Bridge Capital submitted the final F-4 document to the U.S. SEC in May of this year, which is a key document required for foreign companies to list in the U.S. After months of revisions, the document was finally approved. In fact, Coincheck had initiated the listing process as early as 2022, but due to increased disclosure requirements for SPAC listings in the U.S., the plan was postponed to this year.

Everyone wants to invest in cryptocurrency to make a fortune, and even pastors are no exception. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) charged a pastor from a church in Washington State on December 10 for allegedly promoting a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme, luring nearly 1,500 followers with a high monthly return of nearly 35%, and defrauding them of up to $6 million.

The pastor led the 'Solanofi' platform, claiming stable profits.

According to the CFTC indictment, the pastor named Francier Obando Pinillo claimed to be the CEO of 'Solanofi' and its associated companies Solano Partners Ltd. and Solano Capital Investments. He claimed that these companies built the 'Solano ecosystem,' conducting efficient trading through cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and USDT, allowing clients to make a fortune.

David Solomon, CEO of Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs, stated at the Reuters Next conference hosted by the well-known foreign media Reuters on December 10 that if U.S. regulations loosen in the future, the company may consider participating in Bitcoin and Ethereum trading.

Currently limited by regulatory restrictions, future assessment of spot trading is possible.

"These technologies are attracting a lot of attention." Solomon pointed out that global interest in the cryptocurrency market continues to rise, mainly because the market expects U.S. regulations to possibly loosen in the future. He emphasized that Goldman Sachs is currently still restricted by regulations and cannot engage in spot trading of Bitcoin and Ethereum, but if the regulatory framework changes, Goldman Sachs will reassess the possibility of entering the market.

According to Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas' tweet, MicroStrategy (stock code MSTR) may be added to QQQ on 12/23, with an official announcement to be made on 12/13. Its weight is estimated to be 0.46% (the 40th largest holding). Currently, there are $550 billion in ETFs tracking this index, and next year MicroStrategy may have a better chance of joining the S&P 500 index.

QQQ is an ETF that tracks the Nasdaq 100 index (NASDAQ-100 Index), issued by Invesco, and was established on March 10, 1999. It is the most commonly purchased ETF by investors who favor technology stocks, currently with an asset management scale of $325.8 billion.