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Arbitrum Foundation issues largest developer grant ever to South Korean giant Lotte
Bhutan’s Glep Mindfulness City (GMC) announced that it will include BTC, ETH and BNB in its strategic reserves
Kazakhstan regulator has blocked over 3,500 “illegal” crypto exchanges
Musk: No plans to use cryptocurrency in X Payments service in the near future
Trump proposed several surprising strategies at the press conference, and many countries responded
Data: Ethereum Foundation sells 100 ETH
Thailand to trial cryptocurrency payments in Phuket, allowing foreign tourists to use digital currencies for shopping
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Thailand to trial cryptocurrency payments in Phuket, allowing foreign tourists to use digital currencies for shopping
Thailand will launch a new cryptocurrency payment project, starting with the popular tourist destination of Phuket, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Pichai Chunhavajira announced at a Thai Marketing Association seminar on Wednesday. The project will allow foreign tourists to use digital assets to make purchases in tourist cities.
Pichai Chunhavajira stressed that the pilot program will adhere to the existing legal framework and will not violate any laws. The Phuket pilot will allow foreign tourists to register their bitcoins through a Thai exchange, complete identity verification, and then use cryptocurrencies to pay for goods and services.
Earlier news, the former Prime Minister of Thailand suggested trialing the use of Bitcoin payments in Phuket.
Data: Ethereum Foundation sells 100 ETH
According to Arkham monitoring, 4 minutes ago, the address 0xd77 used by the Ethereum Foundation to sell ETH in small amounts and at high frequency sold 100 ETH in exchange for 336,000 DAI.
South Korea's Financial Services Commission plans to gradually allow legal persons to invest in virtual assets
On January 8, the Financial Services Commission of South Korea announced its main work plan for 2025, announcing that it would gradually allow legal persons to open real-name accounts for virtual asset transactions through discussions in the Virtual Asset Committee. Although the law does not explicitly prohibit the issuance of real-name accounts for legal persons, financial regulators have previously instructed banks to avoid issuing such accounts to legal persons. The Financial Services Commission plans to start with non-profit legal persons and gradually develop specific implementation plans.
In addition, the Financial Committee will also promote the "Second Phase of Virtual Assets Bill", which covers the issuance and circulation supervision of virtual assets. In the future, the focus will be on discussing the listing standards, stablecoin management, and rules of conduct for virtual asset exchanges, and aligning with the global regulatory framework.
Bhutan’s Glep Mindfulness City (GMC) announced that it will include BTC, ETH and BNB in its strategic reserves
According to the official website of Bhutan's special economic zone, Glep Mindful City (GMC), Bhutan announced that it will include BTC, ETH and BNB in its city's strategic reserve assets, becoming one of the first special administrative regions in the world to include digital assets in its strategic reserves.
According to the official website, BNB is included in the list of reserve assets because of its high market value, ample liquidity and running on a mature and secure blockchain. One of GMC's future economic priorities is to promote and support the application of blockchain technology. This move not only strengthens GMC's economic resilience, but also demonstrates its determination to promote the development of blockchain technology. In March 2025, GMC will hold a high-level meeting to discuss the strategic reserve of digital assets and establish an international advisory committee.
Hyperliquid responds to community feedback
Hyperliquid published a post on X, stating that in response to the recent misunderstanding of the community about the validator mechanism, the project side made the following clarifications:
All validators are qualified based on testnet performance, and the claim of “buying a seat” is not true and is unfair to serious validators. As the network grows, the validator set will gradually expand;
The previously announced Foundation delegation program will support high-performing validators and further decentralize the network;
Anyone can run an API server pointing to any node, and while the sample client code sends requests to a specific API server, this is not a fundamental requirement for the network;
The black market trading behavior of the test network HYPE is unacceptable, and the project team will continue to optimize the test network user experience;
The current node code is closed source and will be open source in the future after it is developed to be stable and secure;
Currently there is only one binary, and even on mature networks like Solana, most validators run a single client.
Hyperliquid said that the project is iterating at a faster pace and on a larger scale, and will continue to listen to community feedback and improve the ecosystem in the future.
Kazakhstan regulator has blocked over 3,500 “illegal” crypto exchanges
According to Finance Magnates, Kazakhstan's regulator AFM RK announced that authorities have blocked more than 3,500 illegally operating cryptocurrency exchanges. The action was the result of a joint effort between the National Security Committee and the Ministry of Culture and Information. Previously in 2023, authorities also blocked access to Coinbase for alleged violations of digital asset laws.
In 2024, regulators liquidated 36 illegal cryptocurrency exchanges with a total transaction volume of 60 billion Kazakh tenge (about $113 million) and froze assets worth 4.8 million USDT. In addition, the authorities uncovered two cryptocurrency pyramid schemes, returned 545,000 USDT to victims, and froze 120,000 USDT held by the platform.
The AFM said it is working with international partners to strengthen regulation of cryptocurrency transactions, combat their use for crime, and develop legal amendments to hold digital asset providers accountable for money laundering. Financial institutions' inspections of cryptocurrency transactions have also been strengthened.
Bithumb will launch Deepbook (DEEP)
South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb will list Deepbook (DEEP). Deepbook is the Sui ecosystem liquidity protocol.
Publicly traded company Sol Strategies receives $25 million credit line to invest in SOL and pledge businesses
Publicly traded company Sol Strategies (ticker: CYFRF, HODL.CN) announced on Monday that it will invest $25 million Canadian dollars in the Solana ecosystem through an unsecured credit facility.
The unsecured revolving credit facility will accrue interest at a rate of 5% per annum, accruing daily. Sol Strategies has drawn down $4 million in principal and plans to use “the remaining funds to make large-scale purchases of Solana tokens to support its staking operations and acquisitions.” It must use the entire amount by January 6, 2027, according to the statement.
The Toronto-based company is the latest move by Cypherpunk Holdings to become one of the major Solana stakers and ecosystem players following its rebrand.
Backpack Exchange acquires FTX EU for $32.7 million, will be responsible for distributing $55 million in FTX bankruptcy claims
Backpack Exchange, founded by former FTX and Alameda employees, has acquired the bankrupt FTX’s former European entity for $32.7 million to expand its derivatives offering in the region.
FTX EU was one of the business units that ultimately went bankrupt following the collapse of FTX in 2022. As part of the acquisition, Dubai-based Backpack will be responsible for distributing previously court-approved FTX bankruptcy claims of approximately €53 million ($55 million) to FTX EU customers.
The FTX bankruptcy administrator filed a lawsuit seeking to recoup millions of dollars from FTX EU’s original owners. The lawsuit was ultimately dropped as part of a settlement that included the resale of the unit to FTX Europe’s co-founders, Patrick Gruhn and Robin Matzke. Backpack bought the company from the co-founders.
Musk: No plans to use cryptocurrency in X Payments service in the near future
When talking about X platform payment related topics at X stream, Musk said: "There are no plans to use cryptocurrency in the X Payments service in the near future. We need a license. Now we are only focusing on legal currency and focusing on launching the X Payments service efficiently."
Trump proposed several surprising strategies at the press conference, and many countries responded
At a press conference held at Mar-a-Lago, U.S. President-elect Trump made a number of shocking statements in just one hour and escalated his rhetoric on sovereignty issues against Canada and other countries.
He called for economic means to absorb Canada as part of the United States, did not rule out the use of force to seize the Panama Canal and Greenland, and demanded that NATO countries increase defense spending to 5% of GDP. He also vowed that if Hamas did not release Israeli hostages before he took office, "the Middle East will fall into chaos."
Trump has also promised to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “American Gulf.” He has not explained how these seemingly impossible promises would be achieved, other than threatening to impose tariffs on countries that don’t cooperate, including Denmark.
In response, many parties responded to Trump's remarks. Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau said that Canada could not become a state of the United States, and the country's foreign minister said that it would never back down in the face of threats; the Danish Prime Minister reiterated that Greenland was not for sale; the Panamanian president responded that he would not comment on Trump's remarks on the Panama Canal before Trump took office.
Foreign media commented that Trump's remarks are consistent with a bolder stance, that is, Trump believes that he has been authorized (by the people and the electoral college) to speak and act almost as he pleases.
Arbitrum Foundation issues largest developer grant ever to South Korean giant Lotte
According to CoinDesk, Offchain Labs, the developer behind Arbitrum, announced at the CES 2025 conference that the Arbitrum Foundation has issued the largest developer grant ever to the South Korean Lotte Group. Lotte Group is a multi-billion dollar South Korean conglomerate known for its shopping malls, media companies and entertainment asset portfolios. A representative of the company declined to disclose the specific amount of the grant "at this stage." According to Offchain Labs, the grant consolidates Arbitrum's position as the main blockchain infrastructure provider for Lotte's metaverse gaming platform Caliverse.
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Node operators send open letters to question Hyperliquid's centralized API, causing controversy again
Editor's note: Node operator Chorus One described in detail the multiple problems of the Hyperliquid test network in an open letter on the X platform, including frequent node shutdowns, operational difficulties caused by closed-source code, and single-point failure risks caused by centralized APIs, and proposed a number of improvement suggestions to improve the transparency and decentralization of the chain. In response to these contents, Hyperliquid founder Jeff responded and emphasized that the validator selection criteria have been explained in the announcement; the Hyperliquid official account also published a separate article on the X platform to clarify the issues mentioned in the letter and stated that the node code will be open sourced under safe conditions.
The following is the original content (for easier reading and understanding, the original content has been reorganized):
The following letter is from Chorus One to the @HyperliquidX engineering team, hoping that the team can take the time to review this feedback on Hyperliquid chain management.
Archaeology 2024: The top ten Bitcoin whales that "reappeared" in the world: the highest transfer exceeded 1,000 BTC, and the lowest cost was less than $1
In 2024, the Bitcoin blockchain once again brought an unexpected surprise - multiple Bitcoin wallets that had been inactive for more than a decade suddenly restarted. These wallets had been silent for many years, and suddenly transferred a large amount of Bitcoin, which aroused widespread attention and discussion in the cryptocurrency field. The market has a lot of speculation about why these wallets were reactivated, especially those involving large transactions.
As we enter 2025, these reactivated wallets not only remind the market of the long-term value of Bitcoin, but also highlight that the Bitcoin network can still bring unpredictable dynamics after many years. This article will focus on analyzing the top ten most influential Bitcoin whale wallet reactivation cases, deeply explore the multiple possible reasons behind these activities, and analyze how they can potentially affect market sentiment, pricing, and the dynamic development of the entire crypto ecosystem.
Encrypted IQ curve: retards, mediocre people and geniuses, who are the real leeks?
Intelligence is a broad, relative, and highly subjective variable that humans have yet to adequately quantify. Generally speaking, we classify an organism as intelligent if it is “alive” and “autonomous.” This abstract ambiguity is particularly evident in the field of encryption.
From degens writing papers on the potential value of Fartcoin, to governments exploring strategic Bitcoin reserves, to academics developing complex and useless technologies, the cryptocurrency industry is a huge Pandora’s box of paradoxes.
In this crazy world, there are few winners and many losers. The only simple metric that determines the difference between the two is a single, simple measure of intelligence measured by portfolio performance.
If you want to win in the crypto game, you have to stay away from mediocrity. Either you are a Sith Lord with an IQ of 200 (the leader of the dark force users in the movie (Star Wars) series), or you are an absolute degenerate ape with an IQ of 20 (a complete brainless speculator). If you are in between these two, you are doomed.
In the crypto world, the greatest insult a person can receive is to be called “average intelligence” (not to mention the emotional and financial pain that comes with it).
Meme Hot List
According to the Meme token tracking and analysis platform GMGN market data, as of 19:40 on January 8:
The top five popular Ethereum tokens in the past 24 hours are: PERCY, SPX, CIPHER, POPPY, RAI
The top five Solana popular tokens in the past 24 hours are: AI21, TRENCH, SONIC, CNJR, CATG
The top five popular tokens in the past 24 hours are: VIRTUAL, AIXBT, CATOF, AKUMA, BRAIN
