Regulatory/Macro
Cryptocurrency stock performance in 2024: MicroStrategy up 402%, Core Scientific up 307%

2024 was a milestone year for the cryptocurrency market, marked by events including the launch of a spot Bitcoin ETF, Bitcoin's halving in April, and Trump's support, which brought volatility to cryptocurrency-related stocks. Overall, the S&P 500 is up 25% and Bitcoin is up nearly 120%. Among the best-performing stocks, MicroStrategy (MSTR) led the way with a 402% gain, bringing its market cap to $83 billion. As the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, MicroStrategy continues to buy large amounts of bitcoin in 2024. Core Scientific (CORZ) followed with a 307% gain, successfully signing a 12-year contract with AI giant CoreWeave. Terawulf (WULF) and Bitdeer Technologies (BTDR) were also strong performers, rising 142% and 122%, respectively. In addition, Coinbase (COIN) is up 69%, with a market cap of $66.5 billion, a solid performance. Among the worst performers, Greenridge Generation (GREE) plunged 74%, Argo Blockchain (ARBK) fell 80%, and Gryphon Digital Mining (GRYP) suffered a sharp drop in revenue, Shares fell as much as 92%.

financing
Venture capital firm Founders Fund is raising about $3 billion for its third growth equity fund

Founders Fund, the venture capital firm co-founded by Peter Thiel, is raising about $3 billion for its third growth equity fund, Axios has learned from multiple sources. Founders Fund hasn't provided potential investors with an official size target for the new fund, but said $3 billion would be the ballpark. Founders Fund has invested in some of the world's most valuable tech startups, including SpaceX and Stripe. Because of Thiel's longtime support of President-elect Trump and the company's multiple investments with Musk, it will also have access to the incoming White House. Founders Fund has also invested in a number of crypto projects, including Pudgy Penguins parent Igloo, Inc., bitcoin lending platform Lava, and Bitcoin rollup project Citrea. Founders Fund successfully raised $3.4 billion for its second growth equity fund in 2022, while raising $1.8 billion for its eighth early-stage fund. Early last year, however, sensing relatively few investment opportunities in the market, they decided to split the early-stage fund in two. But as of now, they have not started investing in what is now called the "ninth fund." In addition, although there were discussions about splitting the growth fund, it was not implemented. Now, most of the fund's money has been put to work, including investments in capital-intensive AI companies.

Project dynamics
UXLINK ranked first in 24-hour trading volume on both Upbit and Bithumb

Coingecko data shows that UXLINK's 24-hour trading volume ranked first on both South Korean crypto exchanges Upbit and Bithumb, with about $2.886 billion and $345 million, respectively. UXLINK is currently trading at $3.63, up 123.7% in 24 hours.

The TOP3 addresses for the first aiPool pre-sale project spent a total of 814 SOL, but only received 10 SOL equivalent METAV

On-chain analyst @ai_9684xtpa said: "The first AI-Pool public presale project paid a total of 814 SOL to the top 3 address, the actual received only 10 SOL equivalent METAV, the excess part and overtime transfers seem to be considered as donations. SOL part of the funds' and 'funds transferred later than the deadline' are also 'mandatory donations'. To tokens, mandatory lock-in. 2. Address 4b6ry...bKkjU: payment of 200 SOL; 10 SOL corresponding tokens have been received, that is, 109628 METAV, and all have been sold.3. Address 4MeZj...wpRsB: 200 SOL corresponding tokens of 10 SOL have been received and 23,000 more have been sold.

VitaDAO intends to distribute 6.9 million BIO to VITA and VitaDAO IPT holders

The VitaDAO community has launched a new proposal to "airdrop BIO Tokens to the VitaDAO Community" to strengthen ties between the BIO and VitaDAO communities while coordinating governance engagement through token distribution to active VITA and VITA IPT holders. The proposal proposes to distribute up to 6.9 million BIO tokens (out of VitaDAO's total allocation of 21 million) to the VitaDAO community through an airdrop mechanism. The distribution will target VITA token holders and VITA-IPT holders based on multiple snapshots, and the airdrop will use a tiered system to ensure fair distribution among different categories of holders. The application period is 2 months (January 2025 - March 2025).

GoPlus announces GPS Token Economics: 10% of the total amount will be used for airdrops

Web3 network security company GoPlus recently announced that it will issue GPS tokens, and TGE details will be announced soon. The launch of GPS marks the transformation of GoPlus from a secure service provider to a decentralized network. GPS tokens are designed to power all aspects of this security lifecycle: security service fees, pledge incentives, secure transaction fees. Regarding token economics, the total supply of GPS tokens is 10 billion, 60.67% for ecosystem and community growth, and 39.33% for initial contributors and private investors. The distribution of ecosystem and community growth is as follows: 24.67% for community and development, 10% for ecosystem growth, 6% for marketing and growth, 10% for airdrop, 7% for mobility, and 3% for consultants. Initial contributors and private investors will be allocated 20% to the team and 19.33% to early backers in 2021-2024.

viewpoint
Syncracy Capital co-founders: AI16z, Zerebro and Griffain are expected to top $1 billion in FDV

Daniel Cheung, co-founder of Syncracy Capital, said that it is expected that several AI agent platforms on Solana will achieve a full dilution valuation (FDV) of more than $1 billion in the next phase. He singled out AI16z, Zerebro, and Griffain as the projects most likely to reach that goal.

Artemis founder: TradFi participants will drive crypto assets from $3.5 trillion to more than $100 trillion

Jon Ma, founder of Artemis, an institutional data platform for cryptocurrencies, shared his experience in entering the cryptocurrency industry from the traditional financial sector on social media. He mentioned that when he was first exposed to bitcoin in 2015, he did not pay attention to it until 2017, when he paid attention again and bought bitcoin and other crypto assets.

Speaking with Shapeshift's Erik Voorhees, he said, he became aware of the possibility of separating money from government. In subsequent years, he missed the DeFi boom and the rise of NFT, but re-entered the crypto space in 2021, investing in Solana and its NFT, and experimenting with the DeFi initiative.

He also supported Philippine scholars through Axie Infinity with his girlfriend, and he believes that in the future, participants in the traditional financial field will drive the growth of crypto assets from $3.5 trillion to more than $100 trillion, and asset management companies such as Fidelity and BlackRock are actively launching digital asset ETFs and related products. Stripe and Visa, the world's largest fintech companies, are also likely to benefit from crypto payment networks.

Matrixport: Ethereum re-entry opportunity or not coming

Matrixport said Ether, like Bitcoin, tends to lose momentum when the price rises significantly, especially when the price rises more than 60 percent in a 30-day period. Based on historical data, this is usually a good time to profit. The price has now retraced to where it was a month ago, which could mean a re-entry opportunity is brewing, especially if the cryptocurrency bull market is expected to continue until 2025.

It is worth noting that Ethereum did not exhibit the higher beta characteristics of the last bull market in this rally. Nevertheless, it remains a popular asset for investors. The recent continued ETF inflows are proof of this. This strong demand not only highlights the importance of Ethereum, but also shows that it is still in the spotlight even after slightly underperforming expectations this cycle.

K33 Research: If history repeats itself, Bitcoin could reach its cycle peak within three weeks, or during Trump's inauguration

According to Morningstar, cryptocurrency Research firm K33 Research noted that Bitcoin has been wavering since breaking the $100,000 milestone earlier this month. But history suggests it could hit an all-time high by around mid-January. Vetle Lunde, head of research at K33, said that based on data from Bitcoin's past three cycles, the average duration of Bitcoin from the first to the last record high in each cycle is 318 days. With Bitcoin hitting its first all-time high on March 5 of the current cycle, if the average duration of previous cycles is repeated, investors could see the cryptocurrency reach a new peak for this cycle on January 17, 2025. If Bitcoin does reach its cycle peak in mid-January next year, it will be close to Trump's inauguration as president of the United States, which is January 20.

Important data
Sun Yuchen's suspected address transferred 70,182 ETH to HTX in the early morning, about $245 million

According to Spot On Chain monitoring, the suspected Sun address transferred 70,182 ETH ($244.9 million) to HTX seven hours earlier, including 42,905 ETH released from Lido Finance and 27,277 ETH transferred from Etherfi. Since November 10, he has deposited 179,101 ETH ($645 million) into HTX at an average price of $3,601. He still holds 106,905 STETH ($372.4 million) and 56,277 EETH ($195.8 million), of which 25,000 ETH ($87 million) have been released from Etherfi. Prior to yesterday's news, Sun Yuchen denied the ETH clearance rumors, saying that this is just the ETH transfer operation between different wallets of the team.

Glassnode: Solana has maintained positive net capital inflows since the beginning of September 2023

"Solana has maintained positive net capital inflows since the beginning of September 2023, with only small outflows during this period," Glassnode wrote in a post on the X platform. "This continued influx of liquidity has helped spur Solana's growth and price gains, reaching a significant peak of $776 million in new inflows per day.

Weekly trading volume on Coinbase International hit a new high of $119 billion

Total trading volume on Coinbase International topped $119 billion last week, a record high. The weekly total was 124% higher than the previous week's total, while the daily average for the past week was 164% higher than the previous week's daily average. Coinbase International's average daily trading volume in November was just $2.5 billion. As of December, the exchange's average daily trading volume was nearly $10 billion. The top five trading pairs on Coinbase International include perpetual futures for BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP and DOGE, which account for 99.8% of the exchange's total trading volume. BTC-PERP accounted for 57% of the total volume, followed by ETH-PERP at 34%.

PancakeSwap's total trading volume in 2024 reached $310 billion, up nearly 179% from the same period last year

According to Cointelegraph, decentralized exchange (DEX)PancakeSwap's total trading volume reached $310 billion in 2024, an annual increase of nearly 179% from $111 billion in 2023. PancakeSwap reports that largely thanks to L2 network Arbitrum and Base, cryptocurrency trading volume on Arbitrum grew 3,656% year-over-year to $13.2 billion, while cryptocurrency trading volume on Base grew 3,539% year-over-year. It will reach $11.6 billion by 2024. In addition, PancakeSwap trading volume grew by 179% compared to the same period last year, reflecting positive market sentiment and increased activity in the DeFi and DEX segments.

The average daily trading volume of cryptocurrencies in South Korea in November equaled that of the stock market, and the total number of investors exceeded 15 million

According to Naver, data from the Bank of Korea shows that the number of cryptocurrency investors in South Korea reached 15.59 million at the end of November, an increase of 610,000 from October. This figure represents more than 30 percent of the country's total population and reflects increased market activity following U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's pledge to support the cryptocurrency industry. The rise in the price of bitcoin has also contributed to the growth of this trend. As of the end of November, total cryptocurrency holdings by South Korean investors totaled 102.6 trillion won (about $70.8 billion), compared to 58 trillion won (about $40 billion) in October. The average daily trading volume in November reached 14.9 trillion won (about $10.288 billion), equivalent to the combined daily trading volume of the KOSPI market and the Korea Growth Enterprise Index (KOSDAQ) market in the same month.

An address with a balance of about 13.14 million USDTs on the Ethereum chain was frozen

According to Whale Alert monitoring, at around 06:36 Beijing time today, an address on the Ethereum chain with a balance of 13,145,135 USDT was frozen.

An anonymous user pledged 10,000 BTC worth more than $1 billion on Babylon 10 days ago

Bitcoin Pledge Protocol Babylon disclosed in its official blog that on December 15, during the third launch of the Babylon Bitcoin Pledge Protocol mainnet, an anonymous pledgee pledged 10,000 bitcoins worth more than $1 billion in three transactions. Babylon says: "Previously, the largest pledges came from entities wishing to pledge on behalf of their users (such as LST agreements and custodial institutions), but such a large pledge by an individual is of particular significance to Babylon and its agreements, regardless of who that person is, and they decide to pledge directly to Babylon rather than through LST." This moves the concept of 'trustless' pledge from the abstract to the concrete.

30 new wallets withdrew 1.37 million links from Binance in 5 days, worth about $34.1 million

According to Lookonchain monitoring, a total of 30 newly created wallets have withdrawn 1.37 million links from Binance in the past five days, worth about $34.1 million.