Headlines
▌Trump may be sentenced before taking office as President of the United States
On January 7, local time, U.S. Appeals Court Judge Alan G. Korman rejected President-elect Trump's latest request to postpone the sentencing proceedings for his "hush money" case. Trump's lawyers claimed that as President-elect, Trump enjoys the same immunity from criminal prosecution as the President, but this view was dismissed by the court. With less than two weeks before Trump's inauguration, if sentencing is not completed before January 20, when his second term begins, presidential immunity could delay the case until after he leaves office. The court's ruling means Trump's sentencing is still scheduled for January 10. However, Trump and his legal team stated they would continue to seek legal avenues to delay or cancel the sentencing.
▌Sol Strategies secured a $25 million credit facility for investment in SOL tokens and staking operations
The listed holding company Sol Strategies (stock code: CYFRF, HODL.CN) announced that it has secured a $25 million credit facility for investment in SOL tokens and staking operations.
Sol Strategies has drawn $4 million in principal from its credit facility and plans to use the "remaining funds to make large-scale purchases of Solana tokens to support its staking operations and acquisitions." The statement said the company must use the full amount by January 6, 2027.
As of December 31, 2024, Sol Strategies has staked over 1.5 million SOL tokens (valued at approximately CAD 450 million) in its validator operations, including over 140,000 SOL owned by the company.
Market Trends
As of the time of writing, according to Coingecko data:
The recent transaction price of BTC is $97,001.38, with a daily fluctuation of -5.0%;
The recent transaction price of ETH is $3,397.72, with a daily fluctuation of -7.8%;
The recent transaction price of BNB is $700.64, with a daily fluctuation of -3.9%;
The recent transaction price of SOL is $202.68, with a daily fluctuation of -7.2%;
The recent transaction price of DOGE is $0.3512, with a daily fluctuation of -9.5%;
The recent transaction price of XPR is $2.30, with a daily fluctuation of -5.1%.
Policy
▌U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis meets with SEC Chairman nominee Paul Atkins to discuss digital asset legislation and regulatory reform issues
On January 8, U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis met with SEC Chairman nominee Paul Atkins to discuss digital asset legislation and regulatory reform issues. She hinted that changes may be forthcoming, joking about putting the SEC into "Atkins Diet" mode.
Previously reported, on August 1, 2024, U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis from Wyoming formally proposed the (Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Act), which would instruct the U.S. government to establish a reserve fund for this scarce decentralized asset. The bill also sets a long-term goal of accumulating 1 million Bitcoins over time, approximately 5% of the total Bitcoin supply. The bill plans to use existing U.S. Treasury funds to purchase Bitcoin in an amount corresponding to the distribution of U.S. Treasury gold.
▌Trump's press conference proposed several stunning strategies, with multiple countries responding
At a press conference held at Mar-a-Lago, President-elect Trump made several shocking statements in just one hour and escalated comments regarding sovereignty issues with countries like Canada. He called for economic means to absorb Canada into the U.S. and did not rule out using force to seize the Panama Canal and Greenland, demanding NATO countries to raise defense spending to 5% of GDP. He also vowed that if Hamas does not release Israeli hostages before he takes office, "the Middle East will descend into chaos." Additionally, Trump promised to rename the Gulf of Mexico to "American Bay." Besides threatening tariffs on uncooperative countries (including Denmark), he did not explain how these seemingly impossible promises would be fulfilled. In response, various parties reacted to Trump's remarks. Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau stated that Canada could not become a state of the U.S., and the country's foreign minister said they would never back down in the face of threats; the Danish Prime Minister reiterated that Greenland is not for sale; the President of Panama responded that he would not comment on Trump's remarks regarding the Panama Canal before Trump takes office. Foreign media commented that Trump's remarks align with a bolder stance, suggesting he believes he has the (public and electoral) mandate to express opinions and take actions almost at will.
▌Coinbase wins permission for an interim appeal, will appeal SEC's securities charges to the Second Circuit Court
Coinbase's Chief Legal Officer paulgrewal.eth posted on X platform that U.S. Judge Failla approved Coinbase's motion for an interim appeal, pausing the district court's litigation. This is a significant legal victory for Coinbase, meaning Coinbase will be able to appeal the SEC's charges to the Second Circuit Court.
The SEC previously claimed that Coinbase violated federal securities laws by operating as an unregistered exchange and broker-dealer, and illegally selling unregistered securities through its staking program.
Blockchain Applications
▌Ripple collaborates with Chainlink to promote the adoption of the stablecoin RLUSD
Ripple and Chainlink have collaborated to further expand the use and utility of Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin in decentralized finance (DeFi).
Cryptocurrency
▌TD Cowen: The Trump administration is expected to relax rules for banks using cryptocurrency, but caution is still needed
Investment bank TD Cowen stated that the Trump administration could bring positive changes for crypto entities working with banks, but expectations for this new regulatory environment should remain "within reasonable bounds."
TD Cowen's Washington Research Group (led by Jaret Seiberg) wrote in a report that banks are responsible for complying with anti-money laundering (AML) and Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) rules and managing risks such as liquidity and concentration. Analysts stated: "Even if Trump's regulators are less concerned about increasing connections between traditional finance and cryptocurrency, this could lead some banks to remain cautious, which is why some banks may still consider the risks too high while others seize the opportunity. Additionally, some cryptocurrency entities may refuse any government oversight. This could limit banks' comfort in working with them."
Nevertheless, Jaret Seiberg stated that under Trump's administration, the link between traditional finance and cryptocurrency will be "inevitable."
▌The Arbitrum Foundation awarded the largest-ever developer grant to South Korean giant Lotte
The developer behind Arbitrum, Offchain Labs, announced at the CES 2025 conference that the Arbitrum Foundation awarded the largest-ever developer grant to South Korea's Lotte Group. Lotte Group is a multi-billion dollar South Korean conglomerate known for its vast shopping malls, media companies, and entertainment assets.
A representative of the company declined to disclose the specific amount of the grant at this stage, stating that this grant solidifies Arbitrum's position as the primary blockchain infrastructure provider for Lotte's metaverse gaming platform Caliverse.
▌CryptoQuant: The Coinbase Bitcoin premium has turned positive for the first time since December 17, 2024
CryptoQuant's analysis shows that the Coinbase Bitcoin premium has turned positive for the first time since December 17, 2024, as a sign of rising demand for Bitcoin among U.S. investors. CryptoQuant analyst Burak Kesmeci stated: "Since the U.S. approved the spot Bitcoin ETF, the behavior of U.S. investors has been a leading indicator for the cryptocurrency market. The data indicates that U.S. investor behavior is once again dominated by buying pressure."
Additionally, analysts added that Bitcoin's recent breakthrough of the $100,000 mark is attributed to the reduction of selling pressure from miners and the improvement of miner profitability.
▌Analysts: The correlation between Bitcoin and U.S. stocks has re-emerged
Bitwise's European Research Director Andre Dragosch stated that after Donald Trump's election, Bitcoin and the S&P 500 index began to diverge, but these two asset classes have recently started to move more synchronously. Bitcoin and the S&P 500 index have once again begun to be closely correlated, with their correlation reaching 0.88 on the recent 20-day moving average (0 indicates no correlation, 1 indicates absolute correlation).
Dragosch summarized: "While on-chain factors may provide significant momentum at least until mid-2025, the deterioration of the macro environment could also pose short-term risks for Bitcoin, especially considering its relatively high correlation with the S&P 500 index."
▌CME Group executive: This year ETH's performance is expected to surpass BTC
Payal Shah, Director of Equity and Cryptocurrency Research and Product Development at CME Group, wrote that this year ETH's performance will surpass BTC's.
The article states that Ethereum has risen about 53% in 2024, while Bitcoin has risen 113%; however, Ethereum's recent performance shows promising prospects. Since the announcement of the U.S. election results, Ethereum has risen 39%, surpassing Bitcoin's 35% increase and indicating that market optimism regarding President-elect Donald Trump's expected pro-cryptocurrency policies has driven Ethereum's potential recovery. Other key factors driving this optimism include strong staking activity, stable transaction fees, and growing institutional interest, especially through ETFs.
Important Economic Dynamics
▌The probability of the Federal Reserve maintaining interest rates in January is 95.2%
According to CME's "Fed Watch," the probability of the Federal Reserve maintaining interest rates in January is 95.2%, while the probability of a 25 basis point rate cut is 4.8%. The probability of maintaining the current interest rate in March is 60.9%, with a cumulative probability of a 25 basis point rate cut at 37.3%, and a cumulative probability of a 50 basis point rate cut at 1.7%.
▌The dollar index rose 0.26% on the 7th
The dollar index, which measures the dollar against six major currencies, rose 0.26% that day, closing at 108.549 in the foreign exchange market. As of the close of the New York foreign exchange market, 1 euro exchanged for 1.0355 dollars, down from 1.0388 dollars the previous trading day; 1 pound exchanged for 1.2490 dollars, down from 1.2513 dollars the previous trading day. 1 dollar exchanged for 157.78 yen, up from 157.54 yen the previous trading day; 1 dollar exchanged for 0.9086 Swiss franc, up from 0.9045 Swiss franc the previous trading day; 1 dollar exchanged for 1.4347 Canadian dollar, up from 1.4337 Canadian dollar the previous trading day; 1 dollar exchanged for 11.1091 Swedish krona, up from 11.0528 Swedish krona the previous trading day.
▌Bostic: Inflation is expected to gradually decline to 2% this year, but the Federal Reserve should still make cautious decisions
Federal Reserve's Bostic stated that given the uneven progress in reducing inflation, officials should be cautious in decision-making, leaning towards keeping interest rates high. In a podcast recorded on December 9 and released on Tuesday, Bostic also indicated that he expects inflation to continue to gradually decline to the Fed's 2% target this year. He noted that price pressures are expected to ease, although at times it may seem progress is stalling, or inflation is becoming more aggressive. "I want to ensure that we are receiving the correct signals and that our policies are calibrated based on the right signals. If we must make a mistake, I would prefer to err on the side of caution," Bostic said in the podcast. "I want to ensure—of course—to ensure—that inflation reaches 2%, which means we may have to keep the policy rate higher than people expect."
Golden Encyclopedia
▌What is a compressed NFT?
CNFT is a newer type of non-fungible token that utilizes state compression technology to store data more efficiently on Solana. Unlike traditional NFTs that store all token metadata directly on-chain or via external links (like IPFS), cNFT uses Merkle trees to optimize data storage.
Disclaimer: Golden Finance, as a blockchain information platform, publishes articles for informational reference only and does not constitute actual investment advice. Everyone should establish a correct investment concept and enhance risk awareness.
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