Adam. Who is Adam Back?

Adam, one of the core developers of Bitcoin and founder of Blockstream. Adam Back was recently invited by legislator Ge Rujun to give a speech at the Legislative Yuan on the theme of "Virtual currency value-added applications: promotion of digital economy, security cryptography and financial technology education in Taiwan - taking Bitcoin Layer 2 as an example" Special discussion. The scene included domestic encryption industry-related associations, academic representatives, and many legislators including Ge Rujun, Wu Zongxian, Lin Qianqi, Liao Weixiang, Huang Jianhao, etc.

British cryptologist Dr. Adam. Baker is a pioneer in cryptography and blockchain technology, and is also one of the key figures in the history of Bitcoin development. He is honored as the "Godfather of Bitcoin" by the community.

Ethereum could see a healthy correction before resuming its uptrend

As Bitcoin breaks through $90,000 and is challenging the $100,000 round-digit mark, Ethereum ($ETH) has lagged recently, stuck near $3,300 many times and has yet to hit a new high.

According to (Cointelegraph), Gracy Chen, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Bitget, said that once Bitcoin breaks through the $100,000 mark, it is expected to affect the trend of Ethereum and trigger a correction.

It’s worth noting that even with $2.6 billion in options expiring on November 22, Bitcoin’s gains have remained largely unaffected. As of writing today (25th), Bitcoin is quoted at $98,144, while Ethereum is quoted at $3,380.

From "almost hopeless" to "can be expected before the end of 2025"

The BZX exchange of the Chicago Board of Trade (Cboe) recently submitted applications for four Solana ETFs.

With the end of the US election day, Trump will take office, and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler announced that he will resign in January next year. The cryptocurrency ETF regulatory environment is expected to undergo major changes, creating new opportunities for the approval of Solana ETF.

Analysts believe that the SEC will return to a regulatory model based on "enforcement" to "based on information disclosure". If the Solana ETF is approved, it will stimulate huge demand in the crypto ETF market.

Top 30 Influencers in Blockchain Award Winners

Chen Bofu: Founder and CTO of Numbers Protocol

Contributions to the industry in the past year:

Collaborating with Taiwan's first Web3 blockchain imaging reporting platform, Huo Ying She, (DeFiance), Public Television, TaiwanPlus, and Sanlih TV to empower imaging narratives through blockchain technology.

Collaborating with emerging AI creator Ike Hermon (@ikehermon2010) to register his AI works on the chain, ensuring transparency and traceability of the source and creation process of each work.

Partnering with Instill AI to host hackathons and no-code AI workshops.

The Capture solution launched the Capture AI feature to prevent the abuse of deepfake content.

Winners of the Top 30 People in Blockchain

Xu Ruizhen: Co-founder of XueDAO

Contributions to the industry over the past year:

In 2024, XueDAO led over 20 students from 8 universities to successfully hold Taiwan's first student-exclusive blockchain hackathon - CONNECT Hackathon. A total of 120 student hackers registered, 25 projects submitted, and over 200 people attended Demo Day, cultivating a new generation of student developers for the blockchain industry and promoting the popularization of blockchain education.

XueDAO raised an award pool of 11K USDC within two months, set up 6 tracks from domestic and foreign project parties, and held 10 technical workshops and 4 themed lectures covering blockchain technology and career discussions.

Blockchain Top 30 Winners

Lin Baicheng: Co-founder of Isle Finance

Contributions to the industry in the past year:

Developed the on-chain protocol Isle Finance, successfully obtained investment from well-known institutions such as Outlier Ventures, and was selected into the BNB Incubation Alliance program. Isle Finance aims at the capital turnover and financing pain points of traditional manufacturing and supply chains to create an on-chain protocol that allows buyers to borrow from a capital pool and pay suppliers in advance, so that both parties can have more room for capital turnover.

Organize the XueDAO community: Successfully established and led XueDAO, the largest student developer community in Taiwan, which brings together student developers from all over Taiwan and even internationally, and is committed to creating a platform that can promote technical learning, cooperation and innovation.

Blockchain Top 30 Winners

Peng Jinlong: Chairman of the Financial Supervisory Committee

Contributions to the industry in the past year:

The current team of the Taiwan Financial Supervisory Commission can be said to be the most supportive of the encryption industry so far. It has actively formulated a regulatory framework, including announcing the four major stages of Taiwan's VASP industry management and the formulation of special laws, and opening up professional investors to invest in foreign virtual asset ETFs.

The Financial Supervisory Commission has completed a number of key measures this year and opened up traditional financial applications, such as establishing a "Real World Asset Tokenization Group" in collaboration with CHICs and six financial institutions, and planning to open up the banking and securities industries to participate in the virtual asset custody business. , showing its emphasis on the development of the encryption industry.

Winners of the 30 most influential figures in blockchain

Peng Shaofu: Chairman of the Taiwan Blockchain University Alliance

Contributions to the industry over the past year:

The Taiwan Blockchain University Alliance, composed of 35 universities with blockchain clubs and communities, continues to cultivate connections between industry and academia, research and teaching, application promotion, anti-fraud and anti-money laundering, career development, and international exchange, making it the largest blockchain student organization in Asia and a member of the YOUNGO youth organization under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Every year, we lead over 3,000 newcomers to accurately understand blockchain and virtual assets, collaborating with universities on credit and micro-credit courses, founding campus seed training for anti-fraud and anti-money laundering; organizing and inviting scholars and experts to conduct study groups and focus communities on blockchain financial laws, smart contracts, DApps (Decentralized Applications), on-chain data, climate action, enterprise-level blockchain, decentralized identity, etc., to cultivate foundational and advanced blockchain talent.

Introduction

In the 2024 cryptocurrency world, it is no longer a rollercoaster of daily highs and lows but resembles a gradually stable, somewhat dull textbook story.

This does not mean that 2024 is unimportant. This year, significant events that laid the foundation for the entire industry occurred in various aspects, including regulation, technological innovation, and applications. Even Taiwan has participated more than ever before.

This year is a crucial moment to redefine future development trends. (WEB3+) closely tracks global cryptocurrency dynamics and selects the 10 most influential events both domestically and internationally, outlining the core developments behind these events.

introduction

With the launch of the 2025 "Top 30 Blockchain Figures" list, (WEB3+) also released the "Top 10 Influential Figures in Blockchain Asia-Pacific" list for the first time this year.

The birth of this list combines the nomination suggestions from the past 30 blockchain figures and third-party reviewers, and integrates the observations of the (WEB3+) editorial team to present readers with industry innovators whose influence has expanded to the Asia-Pacific and even global regions. .

The selected influential figures and projects not only have a leading position in technology or innovation, they are also key figures in promoting the expansion of the entire blockchain ecosystem.

Introduction

After Donald Trump was officially elected the 47th President of the United States, Bitcoin rose nearly 20% within five days, setting a new historical high, with a growth rate even surpassing Nvidia and TSMC.

The cryptocurrency market seems to be welcoming a bright and sunny prelude.

But how hot it is now, 2024 has been that cold. Many people jokingly say, 'AI is the new blockchain,' because the industry has been too quiet, many industry insiders have turned to discuss the hottest AI topics.

Is it really cold? But not quite.

This year, the United States passed the Bitcoin spot ETF, which is considered the most important development in cryptocurrency history, as it allows the general public to invest in Bitcoin through stock trading. It has truly entered the homes of ordinary people. Additionally, the Taiwan Financial Supervisory Commission has also gradually passed amendments and made statements, indicating that cryptocurrencies and virtual currencies are no longer grey areas. For an industry to thrive, there must be laws to follow.

Binance CEO Richard has completed his first year in office

Binance's new CEO, Richard, has completed his first year in office, and he has issued a public letter to report on the new benchmarks Binance has set in growth, responsibility, and innovation over the past year.

Below is the original text of the public letter:

A year ago, I took on a daunting task with humility and honor: to lead this incredible organization created by CZ and the Binance founding team into a new era of the crypto industry. This transformation occurred during a challenging time for Binance and the entire digital asset space. Many doubted whether Binance and crypto assets could weather this phase, let alone continue to grow.

ChillGuy who became popular from TikTok

In today's general meme retaliation, who is the most popular rebel? No need to think about it, it must be the ChillGuy with the expressionless face and his hands in his pockets.

The emoji boy in the picture above who became popular from TikTok made waves in just 24 hours: the market value once exceeded 600 million US dollars, and the increase was dozens of times in 24 hours, and the trading volume exceeded 700 million US dollars. The transactions in the last hour The amount also exceeded 100 million US dollars.

A few days ago, it was just spreading on TikTok.

What’s interesting is that while we are still lamenting the mantra Just Chill, currency players have already used practical actions to explain what “real Chill” is: from the President of El Salvador’s post to Musk’s retweet, from TikTok to Twitter, everything Can become the focus of attention and hype.

Dream of opening an account shattered: Why is KYC so difficult?

Ah Wei stared at the notification on his phone screen: 'Verification failed, please resubmit the information.' This was already the fourth time he received the same message. Eager to ride the Bitcoin express, he decided to apply for an account at a cryptocurrency exchange, only to find that the seemingly simple KYC process turned into a time-consuming nightmare.

Ah Wei followed the instructions to take a photo of his ID, but was rejected due to glare. He changed angles and lighting, trying 3 times before passing. Next, he had to take a photo of a handwritten note, making sure his handwriting was neat, but the system indicated the handwriting was blurry. He took out a thicker pen and tried again, but still failed.

Bitcoin breaks the $97,000 mark.

Bitcoin today strongly breaks the $97,000 mark, once again setting a historical record. As the price of bitcoin continues to soar, the global call for including bitcoin in national reserve assets is growing louder, while many institutions are also accelerating their pace of increasing bitcoin holdings.

This article from PANews summarizes the bitcoin holdings of major institutions based on the latest data from BitcoinTreasuries.com. As of November 21, 93 entities (ETFs, countries, publicly listed companies, and private companies, etc.) worldwide publicly hold over 2.728 million bitcoins, accounting for nearly 13% of the total bitcoin supply. This trend further indicates that institutional investors have gradually replaced retail investors as the dominant force in the market during this bull market.

Blockchain finance has great potential, but the barrier to entry is an obstacle

How can a smartphone costing 3,000 New Taiwan Dollars become the key for African countries to enter the Web3 world?

This phone is called JamboPhone, founded by Alice Zhang and James Zhang, who are third-generation Chinese in Africa from Congo, whose family has been trading between Africa and China since early times.

They have long known that African countries face a serious issue: more than half of the population lacks bank accounts, making many financial services unfeasible. Another JamboPhone founder employee, Sam Sungmin Kang, stated: 'Africa has 1.4 billion people, with an average age of only 19, but 57% of the population does not have access to bank accounts or credit cards, making cross-border payments not only difficult but also expensive.'

What makes the decentralized prediction market TrueMarkets different?

Although Polymarket faces strict scrutiny and challenges from U.S. regulators, it gained fame by accurately predicting the U.S. election and successfully ignited enthusiasm for the prediction track.

Behind the rise of Polymarket, there is no shortage of strong support from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. Now, another decentralized prediction market TrueMarkets has also gained Vitalik's favor and endorsement.

On November 19, according to Shield monitoring, the address marked on-chain as 'vitalik.eth' has bridged 32 ETH from the Ethereum chain to Base and minted 400 Patron NFTs.

Subtitle

Today's on-chain hot topic is a Meme coin called Quant soaring, with a market cap already reaching $60 million.

Beyond the surge, the highlight comes from the fact that the Dev behind this coin is just a minor little brat.

Under the wave of simple token issuance mode on Pumpfun, creating a Meme has become easier and easier, and the points that stir everyone's emotions are becoming increasingly outrageous:

A little brat issued a Meme and then sold for over $3 million; subsequently, he replicated the process and issued 2 more coins to continue profiting... Humorously speaking, haven't we already achieved Mass Adoption? Even little brats can come in and issue tokens.

What happened?

President-elect Trump announced on November 19 that he has nominated Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, as Secretary of Commerce, which has attracted widespread attention.

Lutnick is known for his active role in the cryptocurrency field; his company has been responsible for managing the large-scale U.S. Treasury assets of the stablecoin Tether (USDT) since 2021 and expanded into bond portfolios in 2023.

Trump's new cabinet nomination: Howard Lutnick to take over as Secretary of Commerce

a16z 2024 Crypto Industry Report

Two years ago, when we released our first annual (State of Cryptocurrency Report), the world was a very different place than it is now.

At the time, cryptocurrencies were not a priority among policymakers. Bitcoin and Ethereum’s exchange-traded products (ETPs) have yet to receive SEC approval, and Ethereum has not moved to more energy-efficient proof-of-stake.

Layer 2 (L2) networks, designed to increase capacity and reduce transaction costs, are largely inactive, and transaction fees on them are much higher than they are today.

Today, things have changed, as our new 2024 (State of Cryptocurrency Report) shows.