Regulatory news
The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) issued measures on reporting and management of high-risk transactions such as illegal cross-border financial activities of virtual currencies
According to the announcement of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the "Management Measures for Banks' Foreign Exchange Risk Transaction Reports (Trial)" has been issued and will take effect from today. The Measures is a supporting document of the Measures for the Administration of the Bank's Foreign Exchange Exhibition Industry (Trial), aimed at strengthening the bank's foreign exchange risk management, early identification, early warning and early disposal of high-risk transactions suspected of fake trade, underground banks, and illegal cross-border financial activities of virtual currencies.
The main contents include: clarify the responsibility of banks to report foreign exchange risk transactions, require the establishment of a monitoring system and submit reports; To stipulate the scope of information reporting, including activities suspected of illegal cross-border capital flows; Clarify the content of the report, such as the basic information and the measures to be taken; Strengthen internal management measures, including internal control system and data confidentiality management.
Cambodia's central bank approves compliant stablecoin services, but still bans bitcoin
According to the Phnom Penh Post, the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) has issued new regulations allowing commercial banks and payment institutions to offer services related to stablecoins and asset-backed cryptocurrencies for the first time, but unbacked assets such as Bitcoin are still banned. The new regulation requires relevant institutions to obtain prior approval to engage in crypto asset exchange, transfer and custody services, while prohibiting the use of customer assets.
Previously, Cambodia blocked 16 unlicensed crypto trading websites to strengthen regulation of the digital asset market.
Montenegro's justice minister signed an extradition order and Do Kwon will be extradited to the United States
Montenegro's Justice Minister Bojan Bozovic has signed a decision to extradite Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon to the United States, according to a statement from the Ministry of Justice. Earlier, Montenegro's Supreme Court ruled that the legal conditions for extradition to the United States had been met. After considering the seriousness of the case, the location of the crime and the order of the extradition request, the Justice Ministry gave priority to the extradition request from the United States, while rejecting the extradition request from South Korea.
Do Kwon is being investigated by U.S. and South Korean authorities for his financial scandal related to the collapse of TerraUSD and Luna. The event wiped out about $40 billion from the cryptocurrency market in May 2022, triggering multiple bankruptcies. Do Kwon was charged with defrauding investors and concealing assets. He was arrested in Montenegro in March 2023 for using a forged passport and sentenced to four months in prison, after which both the United States and South Korea filed extradition requests. After a review, Montenegro's Ministry of Justice decided to give priority to fulfilling the US extradition request.
The IRS requires DeFi brokers to report gains from digital asset sales and collect user transaction information starting in 2027
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has finalized rules requiring DeFi brokers to report gross proceeds from digital asset sales and provide clients with a 1099 form that collects user transaction information, including names and addresses. The Treasury noted that the final rule applies to "front-end service providers" that interact "directly with customers," meaning entities that run the primary website used to access the decentralized protocol, not the protocol itself. According to the document, the rule is expected to take effect on or after January 1, 2027. The idea of strengthening tax enforcement for digital asset service providers first appeared in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, passed in 2021, to help pay for the spending authorized by the bill.
Crypto lobby group Blockchain Association has filed a lawsuit over the IRS '" DeFi broker "rule
The Blockchain Association, a US cryptocurrency lobby, has tweeted that a lawsuit has been filed against new "broker" regulations passed by the IRS and Treasury Department. The IRS and Treasury Department have gone beyond their statutory authority and expanded the definition of "broker" to include providers of DeFi trading fronts, even though they do not execute trades. Not only does this violate the privacy rights of individuals using decentralized technology, it also pushes an entire thriving technology overseas.
AI
OpenAI plans to restructure itself to become a stronger nonprofit
OpenAI has announced that its board of Directors is reviewing its corporate structure to transform the existing for-profit division into the Delaware Public Interest Corporation (PBC) in order to balance the needs of shareholders, stakeholders, and the public interest, while providing stronger resources to support the non-profit sector. This initiative aims to ensure that Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity and advances the mission by raising more capital. In the future, the PBC will focus on commercial operations and technology development, while the nonprofit will focus on promoting the development of public goods such as education, health care and science.
OpenAI says ChatGPT hits 300 million weekly active users
In its announcement, OpenAI revealed that more than 300 million people use OpenAI's products every week for productivity, learning and other activities, most of which are free users.
Project dynamics
Bitget will destroy more than $5 billion worth of BGB, accounting for 40% of the total supply
The Bitget team has released a new BGB white paper announcing the introduction of a repo destruction mechanism. In the first destruction, 800 million BGB held by the core team will be destroyed in one go, accounting for 40% of the total supply, which is valued at more than $5 billion based on the current price of BGB. After the destruction, the total supply of BGB will be reduced to 1.2 billion and 100% in circulation.
At the same time, BGB will start the quarterly buyback destruction. Starting from 2025, Bitget will carry out the buyback destruction of BGB with 20% of the quarterly profit of the exchange and wallet business, and the profit will be paid by the spot, contract and leverage transaction fees of Bitget Exchange. And Bitget Wallet's Swap, contract, NFT transaction fees and other revenue composition.
The white paper also introduces BGB's future rights and interests plan, which will focus on three parts: on-chain application scenarios, PayFi payment scenarios, and in-site rights and interests scenarios, so that BGB, as a mainstream asset, will deeply integrate into the popular public chain and head DeFi ecology.
Binance Wallet supports 9 new DApps, covering cross-chain transactions and decentralized liquidity
According to Binance Wallet official news, the new launch of 9 decentralized applications (dApps), These include UniSat, ALPHA-X, WOOFi, oooo protocol, DeSyn Protocol, Prosper, Eddy Finance, Matrixdock, and Jasper Vault. These applications cover areas as diverse as cross-chain transactions, AI insights, and decentralized liquidity.
Galaxy Research annual forecast: BTC will exceed $150,000 in the first half of the year, ETH will exceed $5,500
Galaxy Research releases 2025 forecast report covering Bitcoin and Ether prices, DOGE, stablecoins, DeFi, L2s, policy, VC and more. The details are as follows:
Bitcoin will surpass $150,000 in the first half of the year and test or reach $185,000 in the fourth quarter of 2025.
By 2025, the assets under management of spot Bitcoin ETPs in the United States will exceed $250 billion.
In 2025, Bitcoin will once again be one of the best risk-adjusted performers among global assets.
At least one top wealth management platform will announce a recommended bitcoin allocation of 2% or higher.
Five NASDAQ 100 companies and five nation states will announce that they will add Bitcoin to their balance sheets or sovereign wealth funds.
Bitcoin developers will reach a consensus on the next protocol upgrade in 2025.
More than half of the top 20 publicly traded Bitcoin miners by market cap will announce transitions or partnerships with hyperscale providers, artificial intelligence or high-performance computing companies.
Bitcoin DeFi (the total amount of BTC identified as locked into DeFi smart contracts and deposited into pledge agreements) will almost double by 2025.
Ethereum will trade at more than $5,500 in 2025.
Ethereum collateral rate will exceed 50%.
The ETH/BTC ratio will be below 0.03 in 2025, but above 0.06 by the end of the year.
In 2025, L2 as a collective will generate more economic activity than Alt L1.
With on-chain applications distributing at least $1 billion in notional value to users and token holders from the money pool and revenue sharing, DeFi will enter the "dividend era."
On-chain governance will see a resurgence, and applications will experiment with future governance models.
By 2025, the world's four largest custodian banks will have custody of digital assets.
There will be at least ten stablecoins backed by TradFi partners.
By 2025, the total supply of stablecoins will double to more than $400 billion.
Tether's long-standing market dominance is set to fall below 50%, challenged by revenue alternatives such as Blackrock's BUIDL, Ethena's USDe and even Coinbase/Circle paid USDC Rewards.
Crypto venture capital will total more than $150 billion, up more than 50 percent year over year.
Stablecoin legislation will pass both houses of Congress and be signed by President Trump in 2025, but market structure legislation will not.
The U.S. government will not buy Bitcoin in 2025, but will use the bitcoins it already holds to build a reserve, and there will be action within departments and agencies to study policies to expand bitcoin reserves.
The Securities and Exchange Commission will investigate Prometheum, the first so-called "special purpose broker-dealer."
Dogecoin will eventually reach $1 and memecoin, the world's largest and oldest, will have a market cap of $100 billion.
VolatilityShares applied to launch a leveraged ETF based on Solana futures
Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store, tweeted that Volatility Shares filed an application with the U.S. SEC for a Solana future-based exchange-traded fund (ETF) covering 1x, 2x and -1x leverage exposure. VolatilityShares was active in pushing the SEC to launch an ether futures ETF.
Solana co-founder Stephen Akridge is being sued by his ex-wife, accused of stealing proceeds pledged by SOL
Solana co-founder Stephen Akridge is being sued by his ex-wife Elisa Rossi, who accuses him of stealing "millions of dollars" in awards arising from SOL pledges and is seeking claims including breach of contract, unjust enrichment and fraud, Bloomberg reports. According to the complaint, Stephen Akridge "took advantage of a wide difference in his expertise in cryptocurrencies and blockchain" to secretly obtain Elisa Rossi's pledge reward. The value of the tokens involved in the lawsuit was not disclosed, although Elisa Rossi referred to "significant amounts" in her request to the court to keep parts of the lawsuit secret. Elisa Rossi said that from early March to mid-May, the accounts "were operated and controlled by Stephen Akridge."
Akridge previously served as a principal engineer at Solana, where he played a key role in developing the blockchain platform along with co-founders Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal. Prior to joining Solana, Akridge worked at Qualcomm and is now CEO of Cyber Grant, a California-based cybersecurity company.
ProShares filed to launch Bitcoin hedged ETFs based on the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 and gold, respectively
Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store, tweeted that ProShares filed to launch a Bitcoin-hedged ETF based on the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and gold, respectively.
President of The ETF Store: 5 institutions have applied for crypto ETFs in the last 2 days
Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store, tweeted that five institutions have applied for crypto ETFs in the last 48 hours, namely:
Strive Bitcoin bond ETF;
Bitwise Bitcoin Standard Corporation ETF;
REX BTC Corporate Treasury Convertible Bond ETF;
VolatilityShares is a Solana futures based exchange-traded fund (ETF) covering 1x, 2x and -1x leverage exposure. ;
ProShares filed to launch a Bitcoin hedged ETF based on the S&P 500 index, the Nasdaq 100 index and gold, respectively.
ai16z launched a proposal to upgrade the token economics model, proposing the launch of Launchpad
ai16z launched a proposal to update the token economics model, focusing on: creating an official ai16z Launchpad platform for ELIZa-based projects; Implement community management process; Implement ai16z pledge for benefits such as early access and cost-sharing; Use distribution fees and LP profits to buy back and reinvest Eliza development instead of destroying it; Position ai16z as artificial intelligence L1 blockchain, etc.
Important data
The Bitcoin spot ETF had a net outflow of $298 million yesterday, and the FBTC had the largest daily net outflow of $208 million
The Ethereum spot ETF saw a net inflow of $47,771,200 yesterday, a fourth consecutive day of net inflows
ETH/BTC currency bull James Fickel paid off his WBTC loan about 4 hours ago, having lost $68.84 million over the past year
According to on-chain analyst Embers monitoring, ETH/BTC bull James Fickel sold 6429 ETH ($21.45 million) for 227 WBTC 4 hours ago to pay off all WBTC borrowings. James Fickel continued to go long on the ETH/BTC exchange rate for a whole year, losing $68.84 million (20,632 ETH) :
In the first half of the year, it borrowed 2,987 WBTC through Aave at the exchange rate of 0.054 and sold it into 55,315 ETH to long the ETH/BTC exchange rate;
Since August, ETH has been sold successively to buy back WBTC for repayment, and a total of 75,947 ETH has been spent to buy back 2,987 WBTC for repayment at 0.0393 exchange rate;
In the end, he lost 20,632 ETH ($68.84 million) on his long ETH/BTC exchange rate.
The 60.3 million MIRas purchased by a whale in the past two days are currently at a loss of $1.38 million
According to Onchain Lens, in the past 2 days, one whale spent $1.87 million to buy 60.03 million MIRAs at an average price of $0.031. Currently, the MIRas are worth $486,000, while the whales face losses of about $1.38 million.
Michael Saylor: 60 companies hold more than 590,000 BTC
MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor tweeted a list of 60 companies holding BTC and their positions, as of December 23, 60 companies held a total of 591,368 bitcoins, worth about $55.88 billion.
The address of the suspected VIRTUAL project party/early participant transferred 2 million VIRTUAL pieces to Bybit 2 hours ago
According to on-chain analyst @ai_9684xtpa monitoring, the "suspected $VIRTUAL project side/early participant" recharged 2 million VIRTUAL pieces to Bybit 2 hours ago, worth $6.96 million. In the past week, 8.75 million tokens have been transferred to the exchange, about $27.08 million, with a top-up price of $3.09; At present, the three associated addresses still hold $181 million in tokens, accounting for 10.9% of the total Base network tokens.
A whale deposited 250,000 links into CEX 3 hours ago and is currently losing about $4.5 million on the LINK
According to Lookonchain monitoring, three hours ago, a whale deposited 250,000 links ($5.37 million) into Binance and OKX. From December 14 to December 18, the whale withdrew 595,000 links ($17.31 million) from Binance at an average price of $29.1 and has now lost about $4.5 million on links.
The smart money that made $4.92 million from trading PEPE in the past six months added another $2.79 million of PEPE in the morning
According to on-chain analyst @ai_9684xtpa monitoring, "the smart money that made $4.92 million through the PEPE band in the last six months" added another $2.79 million of PEPE in the early morning. The current wave position has increased to 817.9 billion PEPE. In the past week, he has raised $14.25 million worth of PEPE from kraken at an average price of $0.00001,742, and is currently the number one asset held at the address, with a float of $695,000.
A whale bought 13.16 million ai16z two weeks ago and is currently floating $5.66 million
According to Lookonchain monitoring, two weeks ago, a whale spent 10 million USDC to buy 13.16 million ai16z, which is now worth $15.66 million, with an unrealized profit of $5.66 million.