Headline preview:
(Market in Crypto-Assets (MiCA)) will take effect on December 30;
Optimism (OP) will unlock approximately 31.34 million tokens at 8:00 AM on December 31, 2024 (UTC+8), accounting for 2.32% of the current circulation, valued at approximately $58.6 million;
ai16z will announce a new token economics proposal around January 1;
Sui (SUI) will unlock approximately 64.19 million tokens at 8:00 AM on January 1, 2025 (UTC+8), accounting for 2.19% of the current circulation, valued at approximately $270 million;
ZetaChain (ZETA) will unlock approximately 53.89 million tokens at 8:00 AM on January 1, 2025 (UTC+8), accounting for 9.35% of the current circulation, valued at approximately $32 million;
FTX claims processing will start on January 3 next year, repaying $16 billion in cash;
Binance plans to list BIO on January 3, 2025, at 18:00 (UTC+8);
December 30
Policy regulation:
The new EU regulations require cryptocurrency exchanges to comply with travel rule guidelines and strengthen anti-money laundering measures starting December 30.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) is taking significant steps to strengthen anti-money laundering (AML) measures, announcing that the travel rule guidelines will be extended to cryptocurrency service providers and intermediaries. From December 30, cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the EU will be subject to Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 (travel rule guidelines), which requires reporting information on the transfer of funds and crypto assets.
Thus, according to the definition in MiCAR, Cryptocurrency Asset Service Providers (CASP) will be subject to EU anti-money laundering and combating terrorist financing (AML/CFT) measures. Once the regulations take effect, payment service providers (PSP), intermediary PSPs, CASPs, and intermediary CASPs will have a two-month grace 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 purchasing services, and detecting seemingly related transfers. Additionally, cryptocurrency service providers and intermediaries need to declare their multiple intermediaries and cross-border transfer policies.
The EBA acknowledges that compliance with the EU travel rule guidelines will impose financial pressure on cryptocurrency exchanges and service providers. However, the regulatory body expects that overall, this will benefit in the long run.
EBA has established guidelines for restrictive measures for cryptocurrency providers, which will take effect from December 30, 2025.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published new guidelines on November 14 for payment service providers (PSPs) and cryptocurrency asset service providers (CASPs), clarifying that these institutions must comply with restrictive measures when transferring funds. 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 there are loopholes in the controls, internal policies, and procedures of financial institutions, it may trigger legal and reputational risks and weaken the effectiveness of EU restrictive measures, even impacting the stability of the EU financial system. The new guidelines require PSPs and CASPs to select reliable screening systems to prevent users or entities from circumventing restrictive measures. These guidelines will take effect on December 30, 2025.
(Market in Crypto-Assets (MiCA)) regulations will take effect on December 30.
The EU's specific regulations for the cryptocurrency industry, namely the Market in Crypto-Assets (MiCA), are set to take effect on December 30 across 27 member states. However, some countries have yet to formulate legislation to implement MiCA. The Bank of Portugal stated on Monday that the responsible regulatory authority for these rules has not yet been determined due to the legislation not being passed. Industry associations noted that part of the delay in national authorities is due to the short interval between the final technical standards issued by ESMA in October and the implementation date.
Exchanges:
Bloomberg: EU cryptocurrency trading must delist USDT by December 30.
According to Bloomberg, the EU's cryptocurrency asset law is set to take full effect by the end of the year, and to comply with the Market 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, as new issuers attempt to fill the void, while investors default to using euros for cryptocurrency trading. Tether's main competitor, Circle, obtained such a license in July. However, Tether has not yet obtained such a license and has not ruled out the possibility of attempting to acquire one in the future. In the absence of Tether's license, regulated exchanges must delist the token by December 30. Tether declined to comment on its own e-money licensing plans.
Previous news stated 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 CEO of JAN3, mentioning that there is a lot of 'FUD information' about USDT in the market; however, the reality is that USDT will not be deemed illegal in Europe on December 30, 2024. The MiCA rules need to be complied with, but stablecoin service providers have a transition period of 6 to 18 months, and some exchanges are waiting for clear information.
Binance contracts will delist the OMGUSDT perpetual contract on December 30.
Binance contracts will postpone the automatic liquidation and delisting of the OMGUSDT perpetual contract to December 30, 2024, at 17:00 (UTC+8). Users are advised to close positions themselves before trading stops to avoid automatic liquidation.
Token unlock:
Beldex (BDX) will unlock approximately 330 million tokens at 8:00 AM on December 30, 2024 (UTC+8), accounting for 4.78% of the current circulation, valued at approximately $26.1 million.
Tribal Token (TRIBL) will unlock approximately 22.07 million tokens at 8:00 AM on December 30, 2024 (UTC+8), accounting for 15.38% of the current circulation, valued at approximately $6.3 million.
Slash Vision Labs (SVL) will unlock approximately 605 million tokens at 8:00 AM on December 30, 2024 (UTC+8), accounting for 12.25% of the current circulation, valued at approximately $3.9 million.
December 31
Exchanges:
Kraken plans to delist Monero due to regulatory requirements in the European Economic Area; users need to withdraw assets by December 31.
Affected by Kraken's announcement to stop supporting Monero (XMR) in the European Economic Area (EEA) by the end of October, the price of Monero has dropped over 5% in the past 24 hours to $144. Kraken stated that this move is due to regional regulatory changes and will stop trading and deposits of all XMR markets on October 31. Users must withdraw their assets by December 31, 2024, or 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) has approved six mutual funds tracking Bitcoin prices, which will launch simultaneously on December 31, 2024, by institutions including Migdal Capital Markets, More, Ayalon, Phoenix Investment, Meitav, and IBI. The management fees for the funds range from 0.25% to 1.5%, with one fund being actively managed, aiming to outperform Bitcoin's performance. Initially, these funds will only trade once daily but may facilitate continuous trading in the future.
Token unlock:
Optimism (OP) will unlock approximately 31.34 million tokens at 8:00 AM on December 31, 2024 (UTC+8), accounting for 2.32% of the current circulation, valued at approximately $58.6 million.
Delysium (AGI) will unlock approximately 34.38 million tokens at 8:00 AM on December 31, 2024 (UTC+8), accounting for 2.57% of the current circulation, valued at approximately $5 million.
January 1
Policy regulation:
Russia will completely ban cryptocurrency mining in 10 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 January 1, 2025, which will last until March 15, 2031. These regions include Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, North Ossetia, Chechnya, and the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions. The ban applies to both pool activities and individual mining. Additionally, Russia will implement seasonal mining restrictions in three Siberian regions—Irkutsk, Buryatia, and Transbaikal—during the winter energy peak. In 2025, these restrictions will last from January 1 to March 15, and then from November 15, 2025, until March 15 of the following year.
Project updates:
ai16z will announce a new token economics proposal around January 1.
During a community Q&A session, a member of the Eliza team revealed that the project plans to release two important announcements. First, the project will officially announce the list of all partners to enhance project transparency, helping the community to better understand the partnerships and their specific scope. Secondly, regarding token economics, ai16z will announce a new token economics proposal around January 1. This proposal has been co-designed by professionals from multiple teams and will include LP pairing mechanisms and integration of DeFi functionalities. Additionally, the project revealed that they have acquired a launchpad company, which will be used for official releases in the future.
Kelp DAO released KERNEL token economics, and the second round of airdrops will begin on January 1, 2025.
The Ethereum liquidity re-staking platform Kelp DAO announced the details of the KERNEL token economics, with 55% allocated to community rewards and airdrops (20% for airdrops, 35% for future community rewards), 5% allocated to ecosystems and partners, 20% for private sales, and 20% allocated to the team and advisors (with a 6-month lock-up period for team and private sale tokens, unlocking within 24 months).
In addition, 20% of the KERNEL tokens will be distributed through three rounds of airdrops:
First round airdrop: 10% of total supply allocated, snapshot date is December 31, 2024;
Second round airdrop: 5% of total supply allocated, from January 1 to April 30, 2025; an additional 15% loyalty reward for re-staking before January 15, 2025;
Subsequent airdrops: 5% of remaining allocation, timing to be determined.
KERNEL tokens will be used for governance, re-staking to provide economic security, liquidity mining, and ecosystem yield buybacks, among other scenarios. The token generation event (TGE) is expected to be completed in early Q1 2025.
MANTRA updates OM token economics, with its on-chain inflation rate set to drop to 3% starting January 1, 2025.
The Layer1 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, personal allocations obtained through various activities will remain unchanged. Specific contents of the proposal include:
Adjust the vesting schedule for OM upgrade rewards, with the cliff period ending on March 18, 2025, followed by a linear vesting period that continues until October 16, 2028.
10% of the initial allocation from the airdrop will unlock on March 18, 2025, followed by a 6-month cliff period until September 18, 2025. From that date, the remaining rewards will begin to vest linearly and will continue until March 18, 2027. Additionally, a proposal for a second phase of anti-witch checks on all wallets will be made. After this, the vesting period for airdrop rewards will not be extended.
The cliff period and vesting period for team and core contributors' incentives will be 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 ends on October 23, 2025, with vesting concluding on October 23, 2027; the cliff period for Seed round investors ends on April 23, 2025, with vesting concluding on April 23, 2026.
Ecosystem allocations will remain unchanged, and the on-chain inflation rate will drop from 8% to 3% beginning January 1, 2025.
The meme trading tool ABOT is gradually shutting down operations, with its Meme functionality to be taken offline on January 1, 2025.
The meme trading tool ABOT announced it will gradually shut down operations, with the following arrangements: service fees reduced to 0; meme functionality will be taken offline on January 1, 2025; non-meme functionality will be taken offline and the website will be closed on January 7, 2025; new feature development will continue until December 31, and real-time issue response will be maintained until the website closes.
Governance voting:
The Frax Finance community has opened a vote on 'Using BlackRock's BUIDL as a reserve asset for frxUSD', which ends on January 1.
The snapshot page shows that the Frax Finance community has opened a vote to adopt BlackRock's BUIDL as the proposed reserve asset for the stablecoin Frax USD (frxUSD), with voting ending on January 1, and the current proposal support rate is 100%.
In addition, the Frax community has initiated a proposal vote for 'USTB as collateral and custodial assets for frxUSD'. The proposal aims to introduce USTB, 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 assessed as a source of yield for Polygon's PoS Bridge Assets and Sky's USDS reserves. The voting will end on January 1, 2025.
Token unlock:
Sui (SUI) will unlock approximately 64.19 million tokens at 8:00 AM on January 1, 2025 (UTC+8), accounting for 2.19% of the current circulation, valued at approximately $270 million.
ZetaChain (ZETA) will unlock approximately 53.89 million tokens at 8:00 AM on January 1, 2025 (UTC+8), accounting for 9.35% of the current circulation, valued at approximately $32 million.
Sleepless AI (AI) will unlock approximately 23.21 million tokens at 8:00 AM on January 1, 2025 (UTC+8), accounting for 17.85% of the current circulation, valued at approximately $14.6 million.
dydx (DYDX) will unlock approximately 8.33 million tokens at 8:00 AM on January 1, 2025 (UTC+8), accounting for 1.17% of the current circulation, valued at approximately $12.8 million.
Ethena (ENA) will unlock approximately 12.86 million tokens at 3:00 PM on January 1, 2025 (UTC+8), accounting for 0.44% of the current circulation, valued at approximately $12.1 million.
Maverick Protocol (MAV) will unlock approximately 36.2 million tokens at 8:00 AM on January 1, 2025 (UTC+8), accounting for 7.86% of the current circulation, valued at approximately $7.8 million.
Eigenlayer (EIGEN) will unlock approximately 1.29 million tokens at 3:00 AM on January 1, 2025 (UTC+8), accounting for 0.61% of the current circulation, valued at approximately $4.4 million.
Sidus (SIDUS) will unlock approximately 448 million tokens at 8:00 AM on January 1, 2025 (UTC+8), accounting for 4.05% of the current circulation, valued at approximately $2.1 million.
DODO (DODO) will unlock approximately 10 million tokens at 8:00 AM on January 1, 2025 (UTC+8), accounting for 1.38% of the current circulation, valued at approximately $1.6 million.
Manta Network (MANTA) will unlock approximately 1.87 million tokens at 7:59 AM on January 1, 2025 (UTC+8), accounting for 0.49% of the current circulation, valued at approximately $1.6 million.
January 3
Exchanges:
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 is set as the record date for the first distribution. The first distribution is expected to be completed within 60 days after the effective date, applicable to approved claims in the convenience category. FTX has collaborated with BitGo and Kraken to assist in distributing the recovery funds to customers and creditors. Distribution requirements include completing KYC verification, submitting tax forms, and connecting with designated service providers. FTX reminds users to be wary of phishing emails and scam websites and will announce the distribution dates for other categories of claims in the future.
In addition, 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 on January 3, 2025, at 18:00 (UTC+8), and will open trading pairs BIO/USDT, BIO/BNB, BIO/FDUSD, and BIO/TRY. Seed tags will be applied to BIO.
Token unlock:
Staika (STIK) will unlock approximately 1.57 million tokens at 8:00 AM on January 3, 2025 (UTC+8), valued at approximately $2.2 million.
January 4
Token unlock:
Alephium (ALPH) will unlock approximately 1.88 million tokens at 8:00 AM on January 4, 2025 (UTC+8), accounting for 1.95% of the current circulation, valued at approximately $2.5 million;
January 5
Token unlock:
Cetus Protocol (CETUS) will unlock approximately 8.33 million tokens at 8:00 AM on January 5, 2025 (UTC+8), accounting for 1.32% of the current circulation, valued at approximately $2.7 million.
Everclear (NEXT) will unlock approximately 20.11 million tokens at 8:00 AM on January 5, 2025 (UTC+8), accounting for 18.82% of the current circulation, 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 announced that BounceX will launch next week, supporting the platform's native token AUCTION as collateral. Previously, Bounce Brand announced that it would launch the perpetual contract exchange BounceX in Q4 2024.
Macro outlook for next week: The market tends to remain calm during the New Year holiday, but economic data may contradict the Federal Reserve.
US stocks fell this Friday, disappointing investors' expectations for a so-called 'Santa Claus rally', and as the New Year holiday approaches, global financial markets may also tend to remain calm in the coming week. The US ISM Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) may be the only focus among economic data next week; however, any policy-related headlines regarding Trump could also stimulate market volatility. If economic data contradicts the Federal Reserve, the dollar's upward trend may fade, and the number of initial jobless claims next week could also become a significant driver of the dollar's movement. Any data indicating that the Federal Reserve is overly cautious about inflation while being overly optimistic about the labor market could lead to a collapse of the dollar's recent gains.