The Federal Reserve updates 4 rotating voting members for 2025, with a "hawkish" tilt possibly leading to more disagreements.
According to the Federal Reserve's official website, in 2025, the Federal Reserve welcomed 2 "hawkish" voting members, 1 "dovish" voting member, and 1 neutral voting member. Austan D. Goolsbee, President of the Chicago Fed; Susan M. Collins, President of the Boston Fed; Alberto G. Musalem, President of the St. Louis Fed; and Jeffrey R. Schmid, President of the Kansas City Fed, will become the new rotating voting members, replacing the 4 rotating voting members of 2024: Thomas I. Barkin, President of the Richmond Fed; Raphael W. Bostic, President of the Atlanta Fed; Mary C. Daly, President of the San Francisco Fed; and Beth M. Hammack, President of the Cleveland Fed. Bloomberg analysis suggests that the positions of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voting members in 2025 will be more dispersed, reducing neutrality, which may lead to more disagreements. Barron's believes that rotating voting members may tilt the Federal Reserve's decisions toward "hawkish" in 2025. Reuters analysis indicates that as time goes by, Federal Reserve policymakers may again find differences among themselves, especially when the cooling of the labor market outpaces inflation. The increase of hawkish voting members in the FOMC may exacerbate the risk of disagreements, although this may not change policy outcomes. The Federal Reserve's official website shows that the Federal Reserve will hold a total of 8 meetings in 2025, respectively in January, March, May, June, July, September, October, and December. The dot plot released by the Federal Reserve in December 2024 indicates that it has lowered the number of future rate cuts, reducing the number of rate cuts for 2025 from the previous forecast of 4 in September to 2, and the median rate forecast has been raised from 3.4% in September to 3.9%.
Aave governance proposal aims to peg Ethena's USDe to USDT, raising community concerns.
According to Protos, the Aave governance forum recently proposed a plan to peg USDe to Tether's USDT at a 1:1 ratio. This proposal has raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest, especially considering the differences in decoupling risks between the two. The proposal is currently in the consultation stage and aims to hard-code the USDe price to match the USDT price in Aave's pricing source, thus replacing the existing Chainlink USDe/USD oracle to ensure seamless integration and reduce interruptions caused by USDe price fluctuations. However, two co-authors of the proposal are from risk management firms ChaosLabs and LlamaRisk, which are associated with Ethena, raising questions of conflict of interest among MakerDAO community members. Additionally, Tether is supposedly fully backed by off-chain assets, ensuring that USDT can be exchanged for USD at a 1:1 ratio off-chain. In contrast, USDe is supported by a delta-neutral balance of long and short positions, facing the risk of a "persistent negative funding rate," which could occur if market sentiment turns bearish. One user likened this move to a "radical growth proposal," while another criticized the circular logic of recognizing different risks and then treating assets as having the same value without taking appropriate measures. In response, Ethena founder Guy Young denied any conflict of interest and emphasized the establishment of a risk committee for the project, aimed at providing external discipline and accountability for the ongoing management of the product.
Interactive Brokers is taking action to significantly reduce its risk exposure to MSTR.
According to Bitcoin News, Interactive Brokers is tightening its risk exposure to MicroStrategy (stock code MSTR) and gradually raising margin requirements, which will increase to a minimum of 50% by January 13, 2025. This clearly indicates they are preparing for significant volatility ahead.
Vitalik: Many cryptocurrency technologies can be applied to the thematic area of d/acc.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shared his latest thoughts on d/acc (decentralized acceleration) in a recent blog post, pointing out that there is a significant connection between d/acc and cryptocurrency. d/acc extends the underlying values of cryptocurrency, such as decentralization, resistance to censorship, and open economic and social concepts, to other technological fields. Cryptocurrency users, as early adopters, naturally become a testing ground for d/acc technologies. The community places a high value on practice rather than empty talk, making the cryptocurrency community an ideal incubator for d/acc technologies, especially in fields oriented toward information and biological defense. Cryptocurrency practitioners excel at collaborating. Moreover, technologies such as blockchain and zero-knowledge proofs can be applied to the financial, governance, and social media infrastructure construction of d/acc, protecting privacy. Nowadays, many prediction markets based on blockchain are leaning toward complexity, decentralization, and democratization. Collaborating on cryptocurrency-related technologies, such as formal verification, hardware and software security, and robust governance technologies, benefits both cryptocurrency projects and is crucial for achieving d/acc goals, enhancing the security and robustness of the Ethereum blockchain, wallets, and DAOs, while reducing vulnerabilities to cyberattacks (including superintelligent AI threats). In addition to these direct overlaps, there is a critical common concern: funding mechanisms. This is a way the cryptocurrency community can help d/acc in another way: by seriously exploring these funding mechanisms and making them work in their own environment, preparing for broader adoption in open-source science and technology. The next few decades will face two major challenges: first, the rapid development of new technologies, especially artificial intelligence, which may bring positive or negative results, with specific timing unknown; second, a reduction in international cooperation, with many actors pursuing self-interest more. However, he also sees hope: firstly, we have powerful tools to accelerate work processes, such as AI aiding the development of other technologies, brain-machine interfaces boosting productivity, the internet and social media expanding coordination range, cryptocurrencies enhancing financial power, and information defense and collaboration tools improving quality. Additionally, cybersecurity technologies, software development, biological defense, and biotechnology have all made significant progress. Secondly, broad alliances can reclaim cherished principles, and cryptocurrency has gained global recognition, with d/acc having this potential as well. Having tools means we can improve living beings and the environment, with the "defense" in d/acc ensuring realization without infringing on others' freedoms. Liberal pluralism allows for diversity, and common human goals drive us to accomplish tasks. Faced with the task of building a brighter 21st century, though daunting, he believes humanity can rise to the challenge.
Later news reports that Vitalik proposed to implement a global "soft pause button" from the hardware level to replace the dangerous AGI race.
The Artificial Superintelligence Alliance plans to conduct its first destruction of 5 million FET tokens on January 10.
The Artificial Superintelligence Alliance announced on the X platform that it plans to conduct its first destruction of 5 million FET tokens on January 10, thereby generating deflationary pressure in its ecosystem. This milestone is also part of its roadmap for the ASI Train model.
Caixin: Bitcoin, FAAMNG, and cocoa are the top performers in the global market in 2024.
According to Caixin, 2024 will be a year of dual bull markets for stocks and bonds in China. Virtual currencies and U.S. tech stocks have performed brightly among global assets. The strong dollar puts pressure on global exchange rates. In terms of global market performance in 2024, the top tier mainly consists of scarce assets: cocoa (NYBOT futures price) rose 169.36% for the year, Bitcoin (BTC) rose 133.83%, and FAAMNG (the six tech giants in U.S. stocks: Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Netflix, Google) rose 60.77%. Additionally, Ethereum (ETH) rose 53.41% for the year, NYMEX natural gas had an annual increase of 45.49%, and the Nasdaq index achieved a 30.78% increase, with these assets all having annual increases exceeding 30%.
1confirmation founder: Some countries are expected to attempt to adopt MicroStrategy's "Bitcoin playbook"
1confirmation founder Nick Tomaino stated on the X platform that countries will likely soon compete to adopt MicroStrategy's "Bitcoin playbook": issuing government bonds of varying maturities (5-year, 7-year, 10-year, etc.); using bonds to purchase cryptocurrencies; and repaying loans on time according to loan terms. Nick Tomaino added that the question is no longer whether countries will do this, but rather what kind of cryptocurrencies they will purchase, possibly starting with BTC, but the next will likely be ETH, and any sufficiently decentralized currency can participate, as the government bond market is larger than the stock market.
Michael Saylor has released Bitcoin Tracker information for the ninth consecutive week, which may indicate a further increase in BTC holdings.
MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor released Bitcoin Tracker-related information for the ninth consecutive week, but this time it was different as he stated, "Some parts of the website are not quite correct." (Note: The website marks a green dot on the corresponding date each time MicroStrategy buys BTC, while the BTC price trend line is in blue.) According to previous patterns, MicroStrategy usually increases its Bitcoin holdings the day after relevant news is released.
A bizarre case occurred in Pakistan where a cryptocurrency trader was kidnapped in a police car, involving an amount of $340,000.
According to Tribune reports, a bizarre case occurred in Pakistan where a cryptocurrency trader was kidnapped in a police car. It is reported that the cryptocurrency trader was abducted by five men in a police car and was forced to transfer $340,000 from his phone under the threat of a gun. The perpetrators claimed to be police officers, and local police have registered a case and transferred it to the Anti-Violence Crime Team (AVCC) for further investigation. The victim claimed that the suspects had previously contacted him for cryptocurrency trading, but he refused. According to police sources, evidence regarding the police phone and the involved officer has already been collected.
GSR Markets has deposited 6 million FLOCK tokens into CEX.
According to @ai_9684xtpa monitoring, GSR Markets serves as a market maker for the AI infrastructure project $FLOCK. Five days ago (on the first day of the token launch), GSR address 0x113…2320b received 6 million FLOCK tokens distributed from the project's multi-signature address for market making, accounting for 4.65% of the total circulation (0.6% of the total tokens), and currently all tokens have been deposited into Gate / MEXC / Bybit exchanges.
In 2024, Bitcoin network transaction volume exceeded $19 trillion, more than double that of 2023.
According to a post by Pierre Rochard, Vice President of Research at Riot Platforms, the Bitcoin network completed BTC transactions worth over $19 trillion in 2024, more than double the $8.7 trillion in 2023. This surge marks a significant reversal after two consecutive years of declining transaction volume since 2021. During the bull market in 2021, Bitcoin’s transaction volume peaked at $47 trillion but plummeted sharply in the following two years.
Data: Tokens such as APT, MOVE, and KAS will see significant unlocks this week, with APT unlocking worth approximately $110 million.
Token Unlocks data shows that tokens such as APT, MOVE, and KAS will see significant unlocks next week, including:
Movement (MOVE) will unlock about 50 million tokens at 8 PM Beijing time on January 9, with a ratio of 2.22% to the current circulation, worth approximately $53 million;
io.net (IO) will unlock about 3.22 million tokens at 8 PM Beijing time on January 11, with a ratio of 2.50% to the current circulation, worth approximately $11.8 million;
Kaspa (KAS) will unlock about 182 million tokens at 8 AM Beijing time on January 6, with a ratio of 0.72% to the current circulation, worth approximately $22.7 million;
Axie Infinity (AXS) will unlock about 815,000 tokens at 9:10 PM Beijing time on January 12, with a ratio of 0.52% to the current circulation, worth approximately $5.6 million;
Aptos (APT) will unlock about 11.31 million tokens at 9:59 AM Beijing time on January 11, with a ratio of 2.03% to the current circulation, worth approximately $110 million;
Ethena (ENA) will unlock about 12.86 million tokens at 3 PM Beijing time on January 8, with a ratio of 0.42% to the current circulation, worth approximately $16.2 million;
Optimism (OP) will unlock about 4.47 million tokens at 4 AM Beijing time on January 10, with a ratio of 0.33% to the current circulation, worth approximately $9.3 million;
Delysium (AGI) will unlock about 33.59 million tokens at 8 AM Beijing time on January 6, with a ratio of 2.45% to the current circulation, worth approximately $5 million;
Eigenlayer (EIGEN) will unlock about 1.29 million tokens at 3 AM Beijing time on January 8, with a ratio of 0.61% to the current circulation, worth approximately $5.2 million.
