Today's news highlights:
1. Trump-backed Mike Johnson re-elected as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
2. MicroStrategy plans to issue up to $2 billion in preferred stock to increase its Bitcoin holdings.
In 2024, various projects distributed tokens worth $14.91 billion to crypto users through airdrop activities.
4. Tether and Circle's on-chain revenue in December 2024 totaled $664 million, dominating the stablecoin market.
5. Coinbase CEO sold $636 million of COIN stocks last year, while Michael Saylor sold $410.8 million of MicroStrategy stocks.
6. Solv co-founder published an article denying the accusations regarding Solv's asset security issues.
7. Ethena releases 2025 roadmap: 'iUSDe' will launch in February to enter the TradFi space.
8. Shiba Inu will launch its ecosystem token TREAT in January 2025.
9. 15 wallet transactions suspected to be internal personnel have collectively profited over $20 million.
Regulatory/Macro.
The U.S. FDIC does not encourage member banks to use public blockchains like Ethereum.
According to unredacted documents obtained by Coinbase, U.S. banks attempted to provide services based on public blockchain networks but seemed to be dissuaded by the FDIC. This disclosure stems from extensive unredacted crypto-related communications between the FDIC and member banks. San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase obtained these documents through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Last month, Coinbase received a large number of heavily redacted versions of 23 such letters. Due to a court order, the contents of these letters (and two new letters) were disclosed today (almost) in full.
One letter was sent by the FDIC New York office to a member bank in March 2022, detailing how the federal agency learned that the bank planned to launch a 'bank digital deposit' program operating on a public blockchain. The name of the public blockchain has not yet been disclosed. In the letter, the FDIC seemed dissatisfied with the bank's choice to use a public blockchain rather than a private permissioned network. Blockchains like Ethereum and Solana are decentralized and permissionless, meaning that activities on them are fully public and cannot be overridden by third-party human administrators. In contrast, private blockchain networks (like those used by nation-states for issuing central bank digital currencies) restrict who can use them and for what purposes.
The FDIC clearly does not favor member banks launching products on omnipotent, fully transparent networks. In a letter from March 2022, the regulator instructed New York banks that any product launched on a public blockchain must undergo a new detailed review process. Other disclosed letters indicate that the FDIC ordered member banks to halt all services related to buying and selling Bitcoin. Portions of the same letter that were unredacted last month showed that the FDIC instructed member banks to 'suspend all activities related to crypto assets.'
Trump-backed Mike Johnson re-elected as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
U.S. Republican Congressman Mike Johnson, publicly supported by Trump, narrowly succeeded in being re-elected as Speaker of the House. Mike Johnson previously voted in favor of the 21st Century Financial Innovation and Technology Act (commonly known as FIT21) and anti-central bank digital currency (CBDC) legislation. Johnson's re-election (along with legislators like Tom Emmer) means that pro-crypto members in Congress are likely to push for cryptocurrency legislation in 2025.
Project Updates.
BIO Protocol: The transfer function of the BIO token has been enabled and is currently only available on the Ethereum mainnet.
The DeSci protocol BIO Protocol announced on platform X that the transfer function of the BIO token has been enabled, with the Ethereum mainnet contract address being 0xcb1592591996765Ec0eFc1f92599A19767ee5ffA, and is currently only available on the Ethereum mainnet. Any tokens on other blockchains are scams. More blockchains will be launched in the coming days and weeks.
Binance Alpha adds FLOCK, ELIZA, METAV.
Binance Alpha announces a new batch of project listings, including: FLOCK, ELIZA, METAV.
Koma: Will destroy 5% of the total supply of KOMA within 24 hours.
The dog-themed meme project Koma on BNB Chain announced on platform X that it will destroy 5% of the total supply of KOMA within 24 hours, worth $5.9 million.
Coinbase has acquired BUX's Cyprus subsidiary, suspected to be aiming to enter the contracts for difference field.
U.S.-listed crypto exchange Coinbase has acquired the Cyprus subsidiary of BUX (formerly Stryk), renaming the entity to Coinbase Financial Services Europe. BUX CEO Yorick Naeff also confirmed the deal, stating: 'We are pleased to sell our MiFID-authorized entity BUX Europe Limited (BEU) to Coinbase.'
Through this acquisition, Coinbase now holds a Cyprus Investment Firm (CIF) license, which authorizes it to offer contracts for difference (CFD) products. Furthermore, Coinbase can leverage this Cyprus license to offer financial products to other European Economic Area (EEA) member states. The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) registered that the domain 'coinbase.com/international-exchange/europe' has been approved by the regulatory authority but has not yet been put into use. Although Coinbase has not officially confirmed, it seems to be targeting professional and institutional clients by utilizing the services provided under its Cyprus license.
The transaction is suspected to have been completed last October, as the registration records of the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) indicate that the entity's name was changed from Bux Europe Ltd to Coinbase Financial Services Europe Ltd on October 11, 2024.
Ethena releases 2025 roadmap: 'iUSDe' will launch in February to enter the TradFi space.
DeFi protocol Ethena releases 2025 roadmap 'Convergence', stating that Ethena's next phase of growth will primarily be driven by exporting products to traditional finance. Ethena will launch a new product 'iUSDe' next month, aimed at allowing sUSDe to be exported to the TradFi space in a regulated form. Similar to sUSDe, but with a simple wrapping contract that adds some transfer restrictions at the token level, enabling traditional financial entities to hold and use it. This will include collaborations with partners to provide independent SPVs managed by regulated investment managers, allowing them to subscribe to shares of this tool, thus enabling traditional finance to efficiently enter this product without touching cryptocurrency rails. Ethena will announce the initial TradFi distribution partners for iUSDe this month.
In addition, Ethena plans to address payment and savings tool use cases by building dedicated applications in the Telegram and TON ecosystems, specifically launching a dedicated use case for sUSDe in the Telegram app, allowing users to send, consume, and save within a mobile banking-like experience. Payments will be directly connected to Apple Pay, allowing users to switch between savings assets in sUSDe and direct mobile payments on their phones.
In addition to these core products, Ethena will continue to evolve from a single-asset issuer into a platform that best utilizes and implements on-chain financial innovations. Two applications have been announced: the spot exchange Ethereal and the on-chain options and structured products protocol Derive. Ethereal will open its testnet next month, while Derive will launch its token in the next two weeks. These are just the first examples in the entire DeFi ecosystem built on sUSDe, with more examples set to launch in Q1 2025.
The official X account of 0xScope has been compromised, please do not click on suspicious links.
lmk.fun (formerly Scopescan) released a warning on platform X that the X account of the Web3 knowledge graph protocol 0xScope (@ScopeProtocol) has been compromised, please do not click any links or trust the content posted, an investigation is underway to restore it.
The Solana on-chain AI conceptual token ZAILGO announced an airdrop to 8,185 holder wallets.
The Solana on-chain AI conceptual token ZAILGO announced an airdrop to 8,185 holder wallets, with each wallet receiving 10,177.2 ZAILGO tokens, worth approximately $915.9 at the current price of $0.09.
According to GMGN data, ZAILGO's market cap briefly reached a record high of $96 million, now falling back to $89 million. The ZAILGO token price rose over 101% in 24 hours.
Shiba Inu will launch its ecosystem token TREAT in January 2025.
Shiba Inu Inc. has officially announced that it will launch its ecosystem token TREAT in January 2025, with the announcement first released through the official Treat account on January 2. Shiba Inu's chief developer Shytoshi Kusama further confirmed this news. Detailed information regarding TREAT has now been published on the Shiba Inu official website, outlining the key role of this token in the Shiba Inu ecosystem. TREAT is designed to unlock advanced features of the network state operating system, serving as an access token that integrates rewards, governance, security, and spending into a cohesive framework aimed at fostering a vibrant and engaged community.
Earlier news from last April reported that the Shiba Inu team raised $12 million by selling unissued TREAT tokens to non-U.S. venture capital investors to develop its new privacy-focused Layer 3 blockchain. According to Shiba Inu, the TREAT token is the 'utility and governance token' for its new privacy-focused Layer 3 blockchain, which is built on the Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain Shibarium.
MicroStrategy plans to issue up to $2 billion in preferred stock to increase its Bitcoin holdings.
MicroStrategy plans to raise up to $2 billion through the sale of preferred stock to advance its previously announced plan to raise $42 billion over three years to fund Bitcoin purchases. MicroStrategy's latest issuance is expected to take place in Q1 2025, but depends on market conditions, and the company reserves the right to decide whether to proceed. The sold preferred shares may be convertible into MSTR Class A shares and pay dividends. MicroStrategy has not set a target price for this issuance.
Base is considering launching tokenized COIN stock but is currently in the exploratory phase.
Base developer Jesse Pollak tweeted that Coinbase is considering offering tokenized COIN stock to its U.S. users on the Base network. Pollak stated that non-U.S. users can already obtain tokenized COIN stock through protocols like Backed (a tokenized RWA platform). Pollak mentioned that implementing COIN on Base is 'something to be explored in the new year' and added that ultimately 'every type of asset in the world will be implemented on Base.' Coinbase 'currently has no specific plans' and is in the 'exploration stage', as the exchange is working to understand how to comply with U.S. regulations. 'We need regulatory clarity and improvements, unlocking this functionality for everyone as an open platform.'
FTX's restructuring plan has taken effect.
The FTX restructuring plan will take effect on January 3 and will allow users to start receiving repayments. Customers need to file claims through the official website to be eligible for refunds, and FTX stated that the first group of customers should receive refunds within 60 days. According to the FTX plan, the first 'convenience class' users, which includes those with claims of $50,000 or less, will be repaid first. The registration and payment dates for claims from other categories will be announced later. The plan was approved in October, specifying that 98% of FTX users are expected to receive a repayment of 119% of their claimed value. FTX Debtors warns that users requesting claims should be cautious of phishing emails that appear to be sent from the exchange.
Solv co-founder published an article denying the accusations regarding Solv's asset security issues.
Solv co-founder Ryan Chow tweeted a positive response to the community's heated discussions about asset security issues, the full text is as follows:
After experiencing a whole day of baseless public opinion attacks on '1,800 RUG' and 'private agreements' yesterday, Solv is facing even more absurd accusations today. These accusations target the core asset security issues, but their basis is erroneous and contradictory, attempting to mislead the public through confusion. In response, Solv has decided to respond directly.
First, Nubit co-founder Hans publicly accused Solv of misappropriating the underlying BTC of SolvBTC.BBN, attempting to substantiate it by referencing a mempool link (address xxxm5I2). In fact, the mempool link he intercepted is for another revenue asset of Solv, SolvBTC.CORE. Direct proof is included in the screenshot he provided.
Additionally, Hans accused Solv of urgently submitting update requests to DeFillama after 'exposing themselves'. In fact, BTC involved in SolvBTC.CORE must be re-staked to a new script address every two weeks, with the last stake of 12.19, 1.2 taken back and re-staked. Each completion requires resubmitting the address to DeFillama, which is completely normal for Solv in managing SolvBTC.CORE assets. On-chain information can fully prove Solv's daily operational actions regarding revenue assets.
Additionally, Hans accused Solv of misappropriating user assets again by referencing the decline of SolvBTC.BBN's TVL during Babylon Cap3. In fact, Solv officially began the redemption of SolvBTC.BBN that day, and any change in TVL is entirely normal, further highlighting the liquidity and flexibility that SolvBTC.BBN provides to users.
The content even leads the market to speculate that Solv has the situation of 'BTC three flowers', implying that each BTC of Solv is counted three times in TVL.
Solv has been built for four years and is facing a series of meticulously planned baseless attacks at this sensitive time just before the TGE. In response, Solv has provided all facts and evidence, leaving the truth for the market and the public to judge.
Important data.
Tether and Circle's on-chain revenue in December 2024 totaled $664 million, dominating the stablecoin market.
DeFiLlama data shows that the cryptocurrency industry’s on-chain revenue in December 2024 is quite substantial, with stablecoin issuers capturing the largest share. These issuers collectively earned over $664 million, accounting for more than 40% of the total $1.5 billion revenue generated by crypto protocols.
As the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, Tether has become the largest contributor with an income of $532.1 million. Following closely is USDC issuer Circle, with an income of $132.77 million. Together, these two issuers dominate the stablecoin space, holding nearly 90% of the market share, which is valued at over $200 billion.
Coinbase CEO sold $636 million of COIN stocks last year, while Michael Saylor sold $410.8 million of MicroStrategy stocks.
According to the insider stock sales of the top 60 companies in the S&P 500 index for 2024, including Apple, Nvidia, and Walmart, about 500 insiders, executives, investors, and other major shareholders reported selling a total of $36.9 billion in company stock. Amazon executive chairman Jeff Bezos accounted for more than one-third of that total ($13.4 billion).
Four crypto executives made it to the top 25: Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong ranks 8th with $636 million; MicroStrategy's Michael Saylor ranks 13th with $410.8 million; Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam ranks 22nd with a total of $203.8 million, which includes his trust and shares of COIN sold by his fund Paradigm; closely following Ehrsam is Coinbase COO Emilie Choi, who joined the company from LinkedIn in 2018, with an amount of $186.4 million. All these sales placed Coinbase 7th on the internal trading sales leaderboard last year.
Amazon: $13.5 billion.
Walmart: $4.84 billion.
Palantir: $4.14 billion.
Meta: $2.72 billion.
Nvidia: $2 billion.
Salesforce: $1.27 billion.
Coinbase: $1.25 billion.
Oracle: $842 million.
Apollo: $630.6 million.
Intuit: $593.9 million.
MicroStrategy: $567.8 million.
Netflix: $528.3 million.
A certain ENS related address transferred 50,000 ENS to Binance, worth approximately $1.91 million.
According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin's monitoring, an address that received 339,000 ENS from the ENS Cold Wallet between 2022-2023 transferred 50,000 ENS ($1.91 million) to Binance five hours ago. After receiving ENS, this address transferred 250,000 ENS to Binance in the past year, with an average transfer price of $22.8, worth $5.69 million.
In 2024, various projects distributed tokens worth $14.91 billion to crypto users through airdrop activities.
According to on-chain analysis by crypto aggregator Dropstab, in 2024, various projects distributed tokens worth $14.91 billion to crypto users through a series of airdrop activities. Topping the airdrop distribution list is Hyperliquid, whose over 90,000 users received $1.34 billion in airdrops. Following closely is Starknet, with 1.3 million addresses receiving 700 million tokens worth $1.33 billion. Pengu's $1.15 billion airdrop, Wormhole's $896 million airdrop, and Jupiter's $891 million airdrop became the top five highest-grossing airdrop projects in 2024.
Of the $14.91 billion distributed through airdrops, $4.22 billion (28.3%) was allocated to the L2 sector, $3.31 billion (22.2%) to the DeFi sector, and $2.63 billion (17.6%) to the L1 sector. Gaming and meme, liquid staking, and AI projects received tokens worth $2.28 billion, $1.27 billion, and $373 million respectively.
Wintermute and Amber Group may be market makers for VIRTUAL.
According to on-chain analyst @ai_9684xtpa's monitoring, Wintermute and Amber Group may be market makers for the AI proxy token VIRTUAL. Both market makers have started high-frequency interactions since a month ago, and their current positions are as follows:
WIntermute: Address 0xDBF...dC080 holds 0.31% of the total amount of tokens, approximately $1.53 million, making it the top 47 address by holdings.
Amber: Deposited 500,000 VIRTUAL coins into Gate two hours ago, worth $2.13 million.
Additionally, the market maker that was previously involved in Binance's new coin mining project PORTAL seems to also be market making for VIRTUAL, but the specific institution has not yet been identified; the institution withdrew tokens worth $6.07 million from Bybit in the past hour and currently holds 2.04 million VIRTUAL (worth $8.05 million), making it the top 38 address by holdings.
15 wallet transactions suspected to be internal personnel have collectively profited over $20 million from Focai.
According to Lookonchain monitoring, 15 suspected internal personnel wallets spent 67.16 SOL ($146,000) to purchase 605 million Focai (60.5% of the total supply). They then sold all Focai for 94,175 SOL ($20.5 million), netting a profit of 94,108 SOL ($20.48 million).
Bitcoin spot ETF saw a net inflow of $908 million yesterday, with an ETF net asset ratio reaching 5.72%.
Ethereum spot ETF saw a net inflow of $58.7878 million yesterday, with an ETF net asset ratio reaching 3%.
