December 30
Policy Regulation:
The EU's new regulations require cryptocurrency exchanges to comply with the Travel Rules Guidelines and strengthen anti-money laundering measures from December 30.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) has taken significant steps to strengthen anti-money laundering (AML) measures, announcing the extension of the Travel Rules Guidelines to crypto service providers and intermediaries. From December 30, cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the EU will be subject to the regulations (EU) 2023/1113 (Travel Rules Guidelines), which require reporting information on the transfer of funds and crypto assets.
Therefore, according to the definition of MiCAR, Crypto Asset Service Providers (CASPs) will be bound by the EU's Anti-Money Laundering/Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML/CFT) system. Once the regulations take effect, Payment Service Providers (PSPs), Intermediary PSPs, CASPs, and Intermediary CASPs will have a two-month buffer period to declare compliance with the new requirements. Some general provisions include collecting user information to transfer funds or crypto assets, determining whether transactions relate to the purchase of services, and detecting seemingly related transfers. Additionally, crypto service providers and intermediaries need to declare their policies for multiple intermediaries and cross-border transfers.
The EBA acknowledges that compliance with the EU Travel Rules Guidelines will place financial pressure on cryptocurrency exchanges and service providers. However, the regulatory body expects to benefit overall in the long run.
EBA has established guidelines for limiting measures for cryptocurrency providers, which will take effect on December 30, 2025.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) released new guidelines on November 14 for Payment Service Providers (PSPs) and Crypto Asset Service Providers (CASPs), clarifying that these institutions must comply with the EU and individual member states' restrictive measures when making transfers. The EBA noted that these guidelines will help financial institutions effectively implement restrictive measures within governance and risk management frameworks to avoid operational and legal risks.
The EBA emphasizes that if financial institutions have gaps in controls, internal policies, and procedures, it may lead to legal and reputational risks, weakening the effectiveness of the EU's restrictions, and even impacting the stability of the EU's financial system. The new guidelines require PSPs and CASPs to use reliable screening systems to prevent users or entities from circumventing restrictions. These guidelines will take effect on December 30, 2025.
The Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation will take effect on December 30.
The EU's specific regulations targeting the cryptocurrency industry, namely the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA), are set to take effect on December 30 across 27 member states. However, some countries have yet to establish legislation implementing MiCA. The Bank of Portugal stated on Monday that due to the legislation not being passed, it has not been determined which national authority will be responsible for these rules. Industry associations note that part of the reason for the delay by national authorities is the short interval between ESMA's release of the final technical standards and the implementation date in October.
Exchange:
Bloomberg: The EU requires cryptocurrency trading to delist USDT by December 30.
According to Bloomberg, the EU's cryptocurrency asset law will come into full effect by the end of the year, and to comply with the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA), several cryptocurrency exchanges in the EU have delisted the mainstream stablecoin Tether's USDT. This move is impacting the market for such tokens, with new issuers attempting to fill the gap, while investors are defaulting to using euros for buying and selling cryptocurrencies. Tether's main competitor, Circle, obtained such licensing in July. However, Tether has not yet obtained such licensing but has not ruled out attempting to obtain it in the future. In the absence of Tether's licensing, regulated exchanges must delist the token by December 30. Tether has not commented on its own electronic money license plans.
Previously, news indicated that Coinbase plans to delist non-compliant stablecoins like USDT in Europe.
Tether CEO retweeted several posts in response: USDT will not be deemed illegal in Europe on December 30.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino retweeted a post from the co-founder of weRate and the CEO of JAN3 on platform X, mentioning that there is a lot of 'FUD' information about USDT in the market, but the reality is that USDT will not be deemed illegal in Europe on December 30, 2024. The MiCA rules need to be adhered to, but stablecoin service providers have a transition period of 6-18 months, and some exchanges are waiting for clear information.
Binance contracts will delist the OMGUSDT U-based perpetual contract on December 30.
Binance contracts will postpone the automatic liquidation and delisting of the OMGUSDT U-based perpetual contract to December 30, 2024, at 17:00 (UTC+8). Users are advised to close their positions before trading stops to avoid automatic liquidation.
Token Unlocking:
Beldex (BDX) will unlock approximately 330 million tokens at 8:00 AM Beijing time on December 30, 2024, which is 4.78% of the current circulating supply, valued at approximately $26.1 million.
Tribal Token (TRIBL) will unlock approximately 22.07 million tokens at 8:00 AM Beijing time on December 30, 2024, which is 15.38% of the current circulating supply, valued at approximately $6.3 million.
Slash Vision Labs (SVL) will unlock approximately 605 million tokens at 8:00 AM Beijing time on December 30, 2024, which is 12.25% of the current circulating supply, valued at approximately $3.9 million.
December 31
Exchange:
Kraken plans to delist Monero in the European Economic Area due to regulatory requirements, and users must withdraw assets by December 31.
Affected by Kraken's announcement to stop supporting Monero (XMR) in the European Economic Area (EEA) at the end of October, the price of Monero has fallen by over 5% in the past 24 hours, down to $144. Kraken stated that this move is due to regional regulatory changes and will stop trading and deposits for all XMR markets on October 31. Users must withdraw assets by December 31, 2024, and any unwithdrawn Monero will be automatically converted to Bitcoin and distributed to users on January 6, 2025.
Policy Regulation:
Israel will launch six Bitcoin mutual funds on December 31.
The Israeli Securities Authority (ISA) approved six mutual funds tracking Bitcoin prices, which will launch simultaneously on December 31, 2024, launched by institutions such as Migdal Capital Markets, More, Ayalon, Phoenix Investment, Meitav, and IBI. The fund management fees range from 0.25% to 1.5%, with one fund being actively managed, aiming to outperform Bitcoin's performance. Initially, these funds will trade only once a day, but continuous trading may be possible in the future.
Token Unlocking:
Optimism (OP) will unlock approximately 31.34 million tokens at 8:00 AM Beijing time on December 31, 2024, which is 2.32% of the current circulating supply, valued at approximately $58.6 million.
Delysium (AGI) will unlock approximately 34.38 million tokens at 8:00 AM Beijing time on December 31, 2024, which is 2.57% of the current circulating supply, valued at approximately $5 million.
January 1
Policy Regulation:
Russia will fully ban cryptocurrency mining in ten regions starting January 1, 2025.
According to local Russian media TASS, the Russian government has approved a complete ban on cryptocurrency mining in 10 regions starting from January 1, 2025, with the ban lasting until March 15, 2031. These regions include Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, North Ossetia, Chechnya, and the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson regions. The ban applies to both mining pool activities and individual mining. Additionally, Russia will implement seasonal mining restrictions on the three Siberian regions of Irkutsk, Buryatia, and Transbaikal during the winter energy peak period. In 2025, these restrictions will last from January 1 to March 15, and then from November 15, 2025, to March 15 of the following year.
Project Updates:
ai16z will announce the new token economics proposal around January 1.
Eliza team members revealed at a community meeting that the project party plans to release two important announcements. First, the project party will formally announce the list of all partners to increase project transparency and help the community better understand the cooperation relationships and their specific scope. Second, regarding token economics, ai16z will announce a new token economics proposal around January 1. This proposal is designed by professionals from multiple teams and will include LP pairing mechanisms, DeFi functionality integration, and more. Additionally, the project party has revealed that they have acquired a Launchpad company, which will be used for official releases in the future.
Kelp DAO released the KERNEL token economics, with the second round of airdrops starting on January 1, 2025.
The Ethereum liquidity re-staking platform Kelp DAO has announced the KERNEL token economics details, with 55% allocated for community rewards and airdrops (20% for airdrops, 35% for future community rewards), 5% allocated for ecosystems and partners, 20% for private sales, and 20% allocated to the team and advisors (the team and private sale tokens have a 6-month lock-up period and will be unlocked over 24 months).
Additionally, 20% of the KERNEL tokens will be distributed through three rounds of airdrops:
First round of airdrop: 10% of the total supply will be allocated, with the snapshot date on December 31, 2024.
Second round of airdrop: 5% of the total supply will be allocated from January 1 to April 30, 2025; an additional 15% loyalty reward will be given for re-staking before January 15, 2025.
Subsequent airdrop: the remaining 5% will be allocated, with plans to be determined.
The KERNEL token will be used for governance, re-staking to provide economic security, liquidity mining, and ecosystem revenue buybacks, among other scenarios. The token generation event (TGE) is expected to be completed in early Q1 2025.
MANTRA updates the OM token economics, reducing its on-chain inflation rate to 3% starting January 1, 2025.
Layer 1 blockchain MANTRA focused on RWA assets passed the vote to update the OM token economics proposal last week.
Although the proposal suggests adjusting the token issuance schedule, the personal allocations obtained through various activities will remain unchanged. The specific contents of the proposal include:
Adjust the vesting schedule for OM upgrade rewards, the cliff period will end on March 18, 2025, followed by a linear vesting period that will continue until October 16, 2028.
10% of the initial allocation for the airdrop will be unlocked starting March 18, 2025, followed by a 6-month cliff period until September 18, 2025. From that date, the remaining rewards will start to vest linearly and will continue until March 18, 2027. Additionally, a proposal for a second phase of anti-sybil checks for all wallets is suggested. The vesting period for airdrop rewards will not be extended thereafter.
The cliff and vesting periods for team and core contributor incentives are extended, with the cliff period ending on April 23, 2027, and the vesting period ending on October 22, 2029.
The token cliff period for Pre-Seed round investors will end on October 23, 2025, with vesting concluding on October 23, 2027; the token cliff period for Seed round investors will end on April 23, 2025, with vesting concluding on April 23, 2026.
The ecosystem allocation will remain unchanged, and the on-chain inflation rate will be reduced from 8% to 3% starting January 1, 2025.
The meme trading tool ABOT is gradually shutting down its operations, with its meme features being removed on January 1, 2025.
The meme trading tool ABOT announced a gradual shutdown of operations, with specific arrangements as follows: service fees reduced to 0; meme functions will be removed on January 1, 2025; non-meme functions will be removed on January 7, 2025, and the website will be shut down; new feature development will continue until December 31, and real-time issue response will continue until the website closes.
Governance Voting:
Frax Finance community has opened a vote on the proposal to use BlackRock BUIDL as a supporting asset for frxUSD, ending on January 1.
The snapshot page shows that the Frax Finance community has opened a vote on adopting BlackRock BUIDL as a proposed reserve asset for the stablecoin Frax USD (frxUSD), with voting ending on January 1. Currently, the proposal has a support rate of 100%.
Additionally, the Frax community initiated a vote on the proposal to use USTB as collateral and escrow assets for frxUSD, aimed at providing stability, liquidity, and treasury bond yields as reserves for the stablecoin. The initial cap for USTB as collateral is set at $100 million. Currently, USTB is being evaluated as a yield source for Polygon's PoS Bridge Assets and Sky's USDS reserves. Voting will end on January 1, 2025.
Token Unlocking:
Sui (SUI) will unlock approximately 64.19 million tokens at 8:00 AM Beijing time on January 1, 2025, which is 2.19% of the current circulating supply, valued at approximately $270 million.
ZetaChain (ZETA) will unlock approximately 53.89 million tokens at 8:00 AM Beijing time on January 1, 2025, which is 9.35% of the current circulating supply, valued at approximately $32 million.
Sleepless AI (AI) will unlock approximately 23.21 million tokens at 8:00 AM Beijing time on January 1, 2025, which is 17.85% of the current circulating supply, valued at approximately $14.6 million.
dydx (DYDX) will unlock approximately 8.33 million tokens at 8:00 AM Beijing time on January 1, 2025, which is 1.17% of the current circulating supply, valued at approximately $12.8 million.
Ethena (ENA) will unlock approximately 12.86 million tokens at 3:00 PM Beijing time on January 1, 2025, which is 0.44% of the current circulating supply, valued at approximately $12.1 million.
Maverick Protocol (MAV) will unlock approximately 36.2 million tokens at 8:00 AM Beijing time on January 1, 2025, which is 7.86% of the current circulating supply, valued at approximately $7.8 million.
Eigenlayer (EIGEN) will unlock approximately 1.29 million tokens at 3:00 AM Beijing time on January 1, 2025, which is 0.61% of the current circulating supply, valued at approximately $4.4 million.
Sidus (SIDUS) will unlock approximately 448 million tokens at 8:00 AM Beijing time on January 1, 2025, which is 4.05% of the current circulating supply, valued at approximately $2.1 million.
DODO (DODO) will unlock approximately 10 million tokens at 8:00 AM Beijing time on January 1, 2025, which is 1.38% of the current circulating supply, valued at approximately $1.6 million.
Manta Network (MANTA) will unlock approximately 1.87 million tokens at 7:59 AM Beijing time on January 1, 2025, which is 0.49% of the current circulating supply, valued at approximately $1.6 million.
January 2
No information available.
January 3
Exchange:
FTX Announcement: The court-approved Chapter 11 reorganization plan will take effect on January 3, 2025.
According to FTX's announcement, its court-approved Chapter 11 reorganization plan will take effect on January 3, 2025, and will be set as the record date for the first distribution. The first distribution is expected to be completed within 60 days after the effective date and is applicable to approved claims in the convenience category. FTX has partnered with BitGo and Kraken to assist in distributing recovery amounts to customers and creditors. Distribution requirements include completing KYC verification, submitting tax forms, and connecting with designated service providers. FTX reminds users to be cautious of phishing emails and scam websites and will announce distribution dates for other claim categories in the future.
Additionally, HODL15Capital tweeted that FTX will repay $16 billion in cash, with claims processing starting on January 3 next year.
Binance plans to list BIO on January 3, 2025, at 18:00.
Bio Protocol (BIO) has become Binance's 63rd Launchpool project. Binance plans to list BIO at 18:00 (Beijing time) on January 3, 2025, and will open trading pairs BIO/USDT, BIO/BNB, BIO/FDUSD, and BIO/TRY. Seed labels will be applied to BIO.
Token Unlocking:
Staika (STIK) will unlock approximately 1.57 million tokens at 8:00 AM Beijing time on January 3, 2025, valued at approximately $2.2 million.
January 4
Token Unlocking:
Alephium (ALPH) will unlock approximately 1.88 million tokens at 8:00 AM Beijing time on January 4, 2025, which is 1.95% of the current circulating supply, valued at approximately $2.5 million.
January 5
Token Unlocking:
Cetus Protocol (CETUS) will unlock approximately 8.33 million tokens at 8:00 AM Beijing time on January 5, 2025, which is 1.32% of the current circulating supply, valued at approximately $2.7 million.
Everclear (NEXT) will unlock approximately 20.11 million tokens at 8:00 AM Beijing time on January 5, 2025, which is 18.82% of the current circulating supply, valued at approximately $2 million.
Specific time to be determined.
Project Updates:
Bounce Brand: The perpetual contract exchange BounceX will launch next week.
Bounce Brand tweeted that BounceX will launch next week, supporting the platform's native token AUCTION as a collateral asset. Previously, Bounce Brand announced that the perpetual contract exchange BounceX will launch in Q4 2024.
This week's macro outlook: the market is likely to remain calm during the New Year's holiday, but economic data may contradict the Federal Reserve.
U.S. stocks fell this Friday, thwarting investors' expectations of a so-called 'Santa Claus rally.' As the New Year's holiday approaches, global financial markets may also tend to remain calm next week. The U.S. ISM Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) may be the only focus in next week's economic data; however, any headlines related to Trump's policies may also stimulate market fluctuations. If economic data contradicts the Federal Reserve, the dollar's upward trend may fade, and the number of initial jobless claims next week may also become a significant driving force for the dollar's movement. Any data indicating that the Federal Reserve is overly cautious about inflation while being too optimistic about the labor market could lead to a collapse of the recent dollar rally.
