Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market:
Bitcoin #bitcoin has again exceeded the $100,000 mark. Analysts predict that Bitcoin will grow to $200,000 by the end of 2025.

Ethereum remains the second largest cryptocurrency in the world. Experts debate whether Ethereum is worth investing in in 2025.

Mining:
The shares of most mining companies ended 2024 with losses, despite the fact that the Bitcoin rate increased by 113% during the year.

Hey guys! Let's look at what is happening in the cryptocurrency market right now. XRP, Ripple's token, has overtaken Tether (USDT) and returned to third place by market capitalization. This is a big event for the crypto industry, and here's why.
XRP Is Back in the Top Three
To date, XRP's market capitalization has grown to $140 billion, surpassing USDT, which is valued at $137 billion.
XRP has risen in price by 15% in the last seven days, and by 350% in a year. This growth has led to a redistribution of forces in the top 3 largest cryptocurrencies: now only bitcoin and ether remain ahead of XRP.
Why Is XRP Growing?
The growth of XRP is explained by several factors at once:
1. The launch of Ripple USD (RLUSD)
In December, Ripple Labs released its stablecoin, Ripple USD (RLUSD), which is fully backed by US dollars. This has increased confidence in the Ripple ecosystem and attracted new investors.
2. Waiting for the approval of the ETF
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), led by crypto-friendly chairman Paul Atkins, may approve an exchange-traded fund (ETF) based on XRP.
WisdomTree and Bitwise have already announced their plans to launch an XRP-based ETF.
If the ETF is approved, it will attract large institutional investors.
3. Trust in Ripple after winning in court
Ripple won an important case against the SEC in 2023. This strengthened its position in the market and made XRP more attractive for long-term investments.
Why Is Tether Losing Ground?
USDT, the world's largest stablecoin, has faced a number of challenges that have negatively affected its market capitalization.
1. Regulation in the EU (MiCA)
On December 30, strict rules governing cryptocurrencies (MiCA) came into force in the European Union.
On January 2, Tether's market capitalization dropped by 1.2%.
Since then, total losses have totaled $1.6 billion.
Tether does not comply with the new MiCA rules, which forced exchanges to restrict its use in Europe.
2. Exclusion from Coinbase
On December 13, the largest US cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, announced that it would exclude USDT from its listing. This decision is also related to Tether's non-compliance with new regulatory requirements.
3. Old transparency issues
Tether has long been criticized for the lack of transparency of its reserves. Investors doubt that the company really has 100% collateral for all issued USDT.
Can Tether Come Back?
Despite the difficulties, Tether remains an important player in the market.:
80% of the USDT trading volume is in Asia.
This region remains a key one for Tether, which allows the company to compensate for losses in Europe.
Tether can strengthen its position if it resolves transparency issues and adapts to new regulatory requirements.
What does this mean for the Market?
Increasing competition among stablecoins
The launch of RLUSD and other alternatives could weaken Tether's monopoly.
The importance of regulation
The European MiCA laws show how much regulation can affect the cryptocurrency market.
Interest in XRP will continue to grow
If an XRP-based ETF is approved, it will be a new incentive for growth.
XRP is back in the top three, showing that the crypto market remains dynamic and unpredictable. While Ripple is celebrating success, Tether is preparing to fight to regain its position.
What do you think about this? Is XRP a new market favorite, or is Tether still capable of surprising?
$XRP #Tether #XRPBackInTop3

The Aave community has pushed back against the proposal, questioning whether it addresses the core risks.
A new proposal on Aave suggests hardcoding the price of Ethena’s USDe to match Tether’s USDt in Aave’s pricing feeds.

The proposal, co-authored by Chaos Labs and LlamaRisk, was submitted on Jan. 3 and seeks to protect Aave users from exposure to secondary market fluctuations. Notably, LlamaRisk is part of Ethena’s risk committee. The proposal reads:
“By linking USDe’s value directly to USDt, we align the sUSDe oracle with USDt pricing, ensuring seamless integration and avoiding disruptions caused by transient price fluctuations in USDe."
AAVE is the largest decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocol, with $37 billion in total value locked, allowing users to borrow and lend cryptocurrencies without intermediaries. Users can deposit assets into Aave’s liquidity pools and earn interest or borrow using crypto as collateral.
USDE, created by Ethena, is a synthetic dollar stablecoin backed by onchain assets and derivatives, unlike USDT, which relies on fiat reserves. USDE now ranks as the third-largest stablecoin, with a $5.85 billion market cap, trailing USDT and USD Coin USDC, according to CoinGecko.
Related: Ethena’s USDe beats DAI to become 3rd-largest stablecoin

Why peg USDE to USDT?
Aave currently uses Chainlink’s USDe/US dollar price feed to value staked USDe (sUSDe), a staked version of USDE.
According to the proposal, a 5% drop in USDE’s price could put over $300 million worth of USDE-backed loans on Aave at risk of liquidation. This could trigger collateral sell-offs to repay outstanding debt.
“To mitigate the risk associated with a USDe depeg event, we propose hardcoding USDe’s price to USDT,” the authors stated.
Community backlash:
The proposal has drawn skepticism from Aave users, who question whether the approach addresses fundamental risks.

A snippet of community feedback on Aave’s proposal to hardcode USDE’s price to USDT. Source: Aave Governance Forum.

Hardcoding the USDe price to USDT price sounds a bit risky given USDe isn’t really intended to be a stablecoin,” user Hazbobo pointed out. “What’re the edge case risks involved? What’s the worst case scenario?”
Another community member, ElliotNess, criticized the proposal for failing to address underlying risk factors:
“This is a disappointingly low-quality ARFC from two service providers without digging into any potential conflicts… Frankly, this can be said of every non-hardcoded asset listed on the Aave protocol,” they noted.
ElliotNess questioned the rationale behind pegging USDE to USDT, suggesting that if Aave plans to hardcode USDe’s price, it might as well peg it directly to $1.00 to avoid secondary market price deviations entirely.
The proposal is in its early discussion stage, with no formal vote scheduled yet.
At the time of publication, AAVE was trading at $340, up 7% in the past 24 hours and 230% over the past year.
Aave’s growth in 2024 has been driven by expansion into new markets, including BNB Chain, Scroll, ZKsync Era, and Ether.fi. The protocol is also eyeing further integrations in 2025, with potential additions like Sonic, Mantle, Ethereum layer 2 Linea, Bitcoin layer 2 BOB, Spider Chain and Aptos, pending community approval.
Ethena’s 2025 roadmap:
Ethena surged 17% following the release of its 2025 roadmap, detailing plans to integrate with Telegram and launch a new dollar savings product.
The Jan. 3 roadmap introduced iUSDe, a wrapped version of sUSDe, which currently offers a 10% yield. Ethena announced plans to integrate sUSDe into Telegram, leveraging its 900 million users. The integration will introduce a payment and savings app based on sUSDe, aiming to deliver a “neobank experience” within the messaging platform. #Altcoin #blockchain #Tether #stablecoin #XRPBackInTop3