Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia) Limited (“ICBC (Asia)”) and Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited (“Cyberport”) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a strategic partnership to jointly promote the development of innovation and technology in the Greater Bay Area, cultivate innovative and technological talents, accelerate the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises, and jointly enhance Hong Kong’s competitiveness in the field of innovation and technology, attract more international talents and capital, and contribute to leading the high-quality development of Hong Kong and the national economy.

Article author: Cyberport

The MOU was witnessed by Dr. Liu Yagan, Chairman and Executive Director of ICBC (Asia) and Mr. Chan Sai Ming, Chairman of Cyberport, and signed by Mr. Wu Long, Vice Chairman, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of ICBC (Asia) and Dr. Cheng Songyan, Chief Executive Officer of Cyberport.

On December 19, the Bitcoin Ecosystem Year-End Carnival: BTCEco 2024: Year in Review Space, hosted by SatoshiLab and co-organized by Waterdrip Capital, Web3labs, and MetaEra, was successfully held.

Article author: Ada, MetaEra

2024 is coming to an end. This year, we have witnessed the historic moment when Bitcoin broke through the $100,000 mark, and we have also seen more and more listed companies and institutions use Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset. In order to comprehensively review the achievements of the Bitcoin ecosystem this year, on December 19, 2024, SatoshiLab, together with Waterdrip Capital, Web3Labs, and MetaEra, held an AMA event entitled "Bitcoin Ecosystem Year-End Carnival" to review the latest developments in the Bitcoin market, technological innovations, and the future direction of ecological development. Guests participating in this event include active project parties from popular Bitcoin tracks such as BTCFi, Layer 2, Lightning Network, and infrastructure, as well as investment institutions that pay close attention to the BTC ecological track.

Recently, CertiK co-founder Ronghui Gu and Binance founder CZ (Changpeng Zhao) held a fireside chat to discuss the key factors behind market transformation, including technological advancement, changes in user needs, and the evolution of the global regulatory environment.

Article author: CertiK

They not only shared their unique insights into the future of the industry, but also conducted in-depth analysis of the security challenges and changing regulatory frameworks facing the current crypto world, providing deep insights into innovation, security, and compliance. Blockchain media PANews reported in depth on this wonderful conversation. The following is the full report:

The launch of the $HERE token is not only a milestone, but also an important step for SphereX to realize its vision - to build a meme platform that combines culture and practicality.

Article author: SphereX

Source: SphereX

SphereX, a decentralized exchange (DEX) focusing on meme culture, today officially announced the launch of the TGE event for its native token $HERE. $HERE tokens will first be listed on MEXC and BitMart exchanges, and then on WOO X and ProBit.

Over the past few months, SphereX has achieved significant milestones in its testnet phase, including 300,000 transactions, over $150 million in trading volume, and 45,000 active users, demonstrating its growing importance in the DeFi and meme communities.

introduction

With the continuous development of blockchain technology, Bitcoin not only exists as a cryptocurrency, but its ecosystem is also expanding and deepening. Bitcoin's expansion ecosystem covers a variety of Layer 2 solutions and applications. These expansions not only improve Bitcoin's transaction speed and efficiency, but also provide support for emerging fields such as smart contracts, decentralized finance (DeFi), and non-fungible tokens (NFT). These innovations have made Bitcoin's application scenarios more extensive, no longer limited to value storage and peer-to-peer payments, but can meet more complex and diverse needs, promoting the progress of the entire blockchain industry.

Author: Frontier Lab

Market Overview

Main market trends

Overall market overview

The market is currently in a state of extreme panic, with the sentiment index falling from 53% to 7%, coupled with the Fed's hawkish stance (anticipation of interest rate cuts dropped from 4 to 2), triggering forced liquidation of approximately US$1 billion, indicating that the market is experiencing significant ongoing deleveraging process.

DeFi Ecosystem Development

The DeFi sector saw its first negative TVL growth in nearly two months (-2.21%), but the market value of stablecoins continued to grow (USDT +0.55%, USDC +1.44%), indicating that despite the market correction, basic liquidity is still continuing to flow in, and stable income projects such as machine gun pools are sought after.

Author: @thedefiedge, Crypto KOL

Compiled by: Felix, PANews

On December 4, Fluid Protocol, a DeFi protocol under the Instadapp team, released a proposal for a rebranding and growth plan, intending to rename the token INST to FLUID and implement a 100% revenue repurchase plan. Fluid plans to launch a series of upgrades in the next 12 months, including launching DEX on L2, upgrading ETH Lite Vault, adding more asset support, and launching DEX v2. Crypto KOL @thedefiedge published an article to interpret Fluid Protocol, the following are the details.

Project name: Fluid

Token: FLUID (formerly INST)

Author: HASHED

Compiled by: Deep Tide TechFlow

Hashed has established and strictly enforced internal policies and procedures aimed at identifying and effectively managing conflicts of interest associated with investment activities. This content is for reference only and does not constitute legal, business, investment, or tax advice. Furthermore, any securities or digital assets mentioned are for illustrative purposes only and do not constitute investment advice or an invitation to provide investment consulting services.

Introduction by Simon Kim: Hashed 2025 Investment Proposition and Outlook on US Cryptocurrency Policy

Currently, we are at a critical moment where technological innovation intertwines with policy change. I am pleased to introduce our two important reports: (Hashed 2025 Investment Proposition: Global Blockchain Applications Centered on Asia) and a special report (2025 Trump Second Term: The Future of US Cryptocurrency Industry Policy).

A brief history of Pudgy Penguins:

Pudgy Penguins is an iconic NFT project that was launched on the Ethereum network in July 2021. It is a collection of 8,888 unique cartoon penguin NFTs, each with random features generated by up to 150 hand-drawn components. These penguins are different because they can have up to 5 randomly generated unique features, including special backgrounds, body shapes, shirts, and accessories. With its unique art style and community power, Pudgy Penguins has quickly become one of the stars of the NFT craze.

In the early days of the project, Pudgy Penguins was launched in July 2021 by X-user ColeThereum and anonymous users Mr. Tubby, Mickyj, and Jonah. But as the project developed, governance issues led to a crisis of trust. It was alleged that the initial founders were suspected of stealing funds allocated for project development. Doubts about the integrity of the project founders seriously affected the value of Pudgy Penguins.

Original title: 2024 Onchain Users Report

Original source: Flipside

Original translation: Yuliya, PANews

With the rapid development of the Web3 ecosystem, 2024 has become a milestone year for blockchain user growth. Major blockchain networks have set new records in the number of new users and the scale of super users. Among them, emerging public chains such as Base have redefined the possibility of user growth, while Ethereum and its L2 network have demonstrated the ability of mature ecosystems to adapt to evolving user needs.

However, a deeper analysis of on-chain data shows significant differences in the quality of user growth. This phenomenon highlights the need to not only pay attention to quantitative indicators when evaluating on-chain activities, but also to pay attention to the quality dimension of user participation. This report is based on Flipside’s real-time data of on-chain encrypted users in 2024. It comprehensively evaluates the annual cryptocurrency ecological development status by combining traditional performance indicators with multi-dimensional operability indicators, and provides new information for the assessment of on-chain user health in 2025. analysis framework.

This week's U.S. CPI data stabilized the market, with the Federal Reserve lowering interest rates by 25 basis points and being cautious about further rate cuts. Bitcoin experienced a turbulent decline, while Ethereum oscillated in the short term within the $3,300 - $3,800 range, awaiting guidance from Bitcoin.

Article author, source: Bitfi

This week's hot topics

On Wednesday, the U.S. released the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) data. The CPI was largely in line with market expectations, allowing the U.S. stock and cryptocurrency markets to stabilize without causing significant fluctuations. Nevertheless, market attention quickly shifted to the Federal Reserve's latest interest rate decision and its subsequent impact. The Federal Reserve announced a reduction of the benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points, lowering the target range to 4.25%-4.5%. This action marked a 1 percentage point pullback from the peak, indicating the Fed's gradual adjustment to the market environment. However, it also emphasized a cautious stance on further rate cuts in the context of various inflation indicators rebounding. This statement caused unease in the market regarding future policy directions, dampening investor optimism for the continuation of loose monetary policies.

Written by: Sandy Carter, COO of Unstoppable Domains

Compiled by: BitpushNews

Though it has been a long wait, Bitcoin finally achieved the predictions of countless people by successfully breaking the $100,000 barrier at the end of 2024. If you want, feel free to pop some champagne to celebrate. But I believe that Bitcoin breaking this historic threshold is just the beginning, and more significant events are on the horizon. I firmly believe that 2025 will be the long-awaited year of decentralization.

The reasons are not closely related to Bitcoin's skyrocketing valuation. Anyone who has been paying attention to the prospects of decentralized technologies over the past year would witness an explosive growth of new use cases. Some use cases are quirky, others are cool, and some promise to tackle some of the biggest challenges facing humanity today. Together, they push the utility of decentralization into the stratosphere through measurable impact rather than mere speculation. More importantly, they provide compelling reasons for people to adopt and engage with decentralization in 2025.

Written by: Adriano Feria

Translation: Vernacular Blockchain

Introduction

The Ethereum ecosystem is on the verge of a transformational wave of enterprise-level adoption. As the world's largest companies like Microsoft, JPMorgan, Santander, and EY collaborate through the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), the network's reputation as a global settlement layer and innovation platform grows stronger. Recently, Karen Scarbro, Microsoft's Technical Project Manager and EEA Executive Director, emphasized how financial and tech giants are integrating with Ethereum to leverage its secure, trust-minimized foundation to build the next generation of products and services.

Written by: Sankalp Shangari

Translated by: Blockchain in Plain Language

1. From dull bonds to a spectacular comeback with Bitcoin

If you find traditional finance boring, you're not alone. However, cryptocurrency is different; it is destined to change how financial markets and fiat currency systems operate.

Sometimes, there will always be a character who breaks the mold and brings about a new change. Michael Saylor is such a person—he has transformed a seemingly ordinary financial instrument—convertible bonds—into a powerful Bitcoin acquisition machine. This could be seen as the "Ocean's Eleven" of finance, but Saylor isn't robbing banks; he's successfully combining market volatility, debt, and Bitcoin into a heist of the entire market.

作者：YBB Capital Researcher Ac-Core

TL;DR

● World Liberty Financial, jointly launched by the Trump family and top figures in the crypto industry, is gradually influencing the direction of the industry’s development. Its recent purchase of selected coins has also driven the growth of the secondary market;

● After Trump's victory, potential short-term crypto-friendly policies include: the establishment of a strategic Bitcoin reserve in the United States, the normalization and legalization of cryptocurrencies, and the issuance of debt plans in conjunction with ETFs;

● The new interest rate cut cycle will attract more capital injection to DeFi, similar to the macro environment during the DeFi Summer from 2020 to 2021;

Original title: 2025 Crypto Market Outlook

Original source: Coinbase

Original translation: Felix, PANews

Looking ahead to 2025, the crypto market is poised for transformative growth. The maturity of the asset class continues to gain momentum as institutional adoption increases and use cases expand across sectors. Just in the past year, spot ETFs were approved in the U.S., the tokenization of financial products increased significantly, and stablecoins grew significantly and became further integrated into global payment frameworks.

Getting there was no easy task, and while it’s easy to view these successes as the culmination of years of hard work, there’s a growing consensus that they’re actually just the beginning of a much bigger journey.

Written by: Vince Dioquino

Compiled by: Centreless

According to an organization focused on promoting blockchain technology in gaming, blockchain games are moving toward a mature new phase, with more players being able to access games more seamlessly. However, with the entry of traditional game developers, the blockchain gaming industry is undergoing changes that could trigger significant shifts.

This trend of change aligns with major game studios like Sony and Square Enix entering the field through blockchain layer2 solutions. According to a recent industry survey report released by the Blockchain Game Alliance (BGA), public perception remains one of the key barriers.

Author: Nancy, PANews

Following OSL Exchange, HashKeyExchange, and HKVAX, Hong Kong's licensed virtual asset trading platforms (VATPs) welcome four new members. On December 18, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission announced that four virtual asset trading platforms were granted licenses under a fast-track licensing process, including Cloud Account Greater Bay Area Technology (Hong Kong), DFX Labs, Hong Kong Digital Asset Trading Group, and Thousand Whales Technology.

At the same time, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission is accelerating the approval process for virtual asset licenses and formulating a clear roadmap for the licensing process to further expand Hong Kong's footprint in the Web3 field.

MetaEra, a media and market consulting service agency based in the Web 3.0 industry, has become the most dazzling supernova in the market with a business growth rate of more than ten times, skyrocketing traffic data and brand influence, and global business operation capabilities that seamlessly cover the Asia-Pacific and North American markets.
Article author: 0x9999in1, MetaEra
2024 is undoubtedly a historic year for the cryptocurrency industry. Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs have landed in major financial markets around the world. As the dust settles on the US election, sovereign states and large institutions are scrambling to build strategic reserves of Bitcoin and accelerate the layout of the digital currency industry. As a result, Bitcoin has officially entered a new era of $100,000 per coin...

Blockfrost is collaborating with the Filecoin Foundation (FF) to integrate Filecoin's decentralized storage capabilities, creating a reliable backup layer for Cardano applications built on Blockfrost. This collaboration will enhance the data redundancy, quality assurance level, and degree of decentralization of Cardano applications.

Blockfrost offers an 'API as a Service' solution that allows users to more easily access the Cardano blockchain while providing additional features, notably without the hassle of managing and maintaining complex infrastructure and tools. Additionally, Blockfrost operates an IPFS gateway cluster, allowing users to easily add, pin, and access relevant resources.