Sony Soneium mainnet launch sparks controversy, Little Red Book concept Memes gaining popularity, XRP ETF set to be approved?
Source: Talking about Li and Talking about the Outside
Today, let's briefly discuss a few interesting things that have happened in the past couple of days.
1. Controversy Surrounding the Launch of Sony's Soneium Mainnet
In an article last year, we mentioned that Sony's Sony Block Solution Labs announced the launch of the Ethereum Layer 2 network Soneium, which is built on Optimism Rollup technology using the OP Stack of the Optimism blockchain ecosystem. As shown in the image below.
Just yesterday (January 14), Sony officially announced that the Soneium mainnet has been launched and is fully operational. As shown in the image below.
According to on-chain data, the network has attracted over 15.6 million active wallets during its more than four-month testing period and has processed over 50 million transactions. As shown in the image below.
Sota Watanabe, director of Sony BSL, stated in an interview that Soneium is suitable for everyone and is a public blockchain open to all.
However, within less than a day, some controversial discussions about Soneium emerged online:
The issue arose when someone discovered that Soneium would review early tokens during the RPC phase, and if they failed the review, they would receive a Forbidden prompt.
The general process of this situation is that someone quickly launched a MemeCoin on the Soneium network, but some of these MemeCoins were blacklisted and restricted by Soneium on the grounds of suspected intellectual property infringement. If users attempted to query these MemeCoins through the Soneium block explorer, they would receive a forbidden alert.
However, Soneium's approach (freezing contracts) seems inconsistent with the decentralized spirit of blockchain. As the anonymous founder of Pump Fun also criticized Soneium, it further fueled dissatisfaction among more people. As shown in the image below.
As the situation escalated, a dramatic turn of events occurred when another user discovered that they could bypass Soneium's Sequencer (an important component in Layer 2 Rollup that receives unordered transactions and generates ordered transaction batches) and force transactions (purchases) of tokens banned by Soneium through Layer 1. As shown in the image below.
This seems to indirectly confirm the power of OP Stack: it can bypass L2 sequencers and force transactions through L1, thus achieving L2's anti-censorship mechanism. In layman's terms, the design of OP Stack allows each L2 to inherit the security of Ethereum L1. Although L2 can be censored at the RPC level (centralized), they cannot prevent users from forcing transactions through L1 (anti-censorship).
Of course, the above are just some opinions and discussions regarding Soneium. Additionally, regarding the censorship mechanism in blockchain, different people may have different views. For example, some may argue that the censorship mechanism is one of the advantages of L2 over L1, as it can filter out some junk information.
If you are also interested in the topic of Soneium, you can follow some related developments through X or Google. For something new, some people like to watch the excitement from a gossip perspective, some prefer to turn a blind eye, and others like to explore potential opportunities behind it. It all depends on your choice. I took a quick look at Soneium's official website, and currently, there are over 160 protocols deployed in that ecosystem. If you have the time and energy to research, you might also try to discover some potential airdrop or trading opportunities.
2. Xiaohongshu Concept Memes Spark Interest
Yesterday, Xiaohongshu suddenly became popular, and many of you might have seen it. The reason is that there are reports that TikTok may be banned by the U.S. on January 19, leading to a surge of American users flocking to Xiaohongshu, which topped the download charts in the U.S. app store. As shown in the image below.
This incident also caused a long-awaited rise in related sectors of the A-share market (some listed companies associated with Xiaohongshu). However, compared to the cautiousness of the A-share market, the crypto market is much more lively, with many MemeCoins themed around Xiaohongshu quickly emerging, and some tokens successfully capitalized on this wave, leading to rapid speculative price increases.
In the past couple of days, I have also seen some KOLs in the Chinese community actively promoting these tokens. Regarding this hype, I still advise everyone to remain calm; things that rise quickly tend to fall even faster. If you can't resist the urge to take risks, it's best to use only the positions (funds) you can afford to lose.
As for how long this hype around Xiaohongshu will last, I don't know. However, as a domestic social media app in China, it theoretically "should not" allow a large influx of foreigners who enjoy free speech; otherwise, various "you know what" comments would be difficult to manage effectively. What’s the point of the firewall we spend so much money on?
Although TikTok "belongs" to Douyin, it is extremely cautious about preventing domestic users from using it, and even if you use a VPN, you cannot access it directly unless you remove the domestic SIM card and make some special settings on your phone. If Xiaohongshu allows countless foreigners to express their opinions freely on our territory, it would be like playing with fire.
3. Is XRP ETF About to Be Approved?
Today, I noticed some partners in the group discussing XRP, as its rebound in the past couple of days has indeed been relatively strong compared to other altcoins. It seems to be a typical case of a coin that you ignore during a bear market but can't afford during a bull market.
The main expectations for XRP recently should be related to RWA layout and spot ETF.
Last week (January 7), Ripple announced a partnership with Chainlink, hoping to further increase the usage of RLUSD in the DeFi market. This RLUSD is a stablecoin launched by Ripple last month (December 2024), primarily targeting the future RWA market. It seems Ripple aims to become a bridge connecting cryptocurrencies with the modern financial system.
Just a few days ago, Ripple's CEO Monica Long publicly revealed in an interview that the XRP spot ETF is about to be approved, which will make it the third spot ETF after BTC and ETH. The incoming Trump administration's supportive policies for virtual assets will accelerate the approval of the XRP spot ETF.
In fact, news regarding the XRP spot ETF had already appeared online at the end of last year (2024), such as:
In October 2024, Canary Capital (a U.S.-based crypto investment firm) and Bitwise submitted an S-1 filing for a spot XRP ETF to the SEC.
In November 2024, 21Shares submitted a spot XRP ETF application to the SEC. WisdomTree (an exchange-traded fund issuer) registered an XRP entity in Delaware.
In December 2024, WisdomTree became the fourth institution in the U.S. to submit a spot XRP (XRP) ETF application to the SEC.
Currently, popular spot ETFs mainly include XRP, SOL, DOGE, etc. As for which of them will ultimately become the third ETF after BTC and ETH, we should be able to find out this year; it seems that it is just a matter of time.
Regarding ETFs, even analysts at JPMorgan have expressed optimism. In a recent report, they stated that the potential XRP ETF could bring in $4 billion to $8 billion in inflows within 6 to 12 months. As shown in the image below.
In terms of capital flow, last week, XRP saw inflows of $41 million, as shown in the image below. This is likely driven mainly by political and legal factors (the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered the SEC to submit a hearing statement on Ripple Labs' appeal by January 15, 2025).
In addition, XRP also has strong advantages in cross-border payments. They have established an ecosystem integrated with numerous partners (including banks and payment institutions), allowing partner banks to enable customers to access crypto products through Ripple's custody services, including Citi, HSBC, BNP Paribas, etc.
If we follow Ripple's current strategy, we might speculate:
The aforementioned RLUSD is likely just their first step. In the near future, they may provide corresponding tokenization services like banks and expand those assets that can be tokenized onto the blockchain (the previously mentioned collaboration with Chainlink makes sense at this point).
If Ripple can successfully execute this grand strategy, theoretically, they could become a tokenization support center for banks (global partner banks), which would further open up the practical scenarios for XRP in the future.
Of course, this speculation is merely wishful thinking. The realization of this matter may not be as simple as imagined here, and it may not ultimately be achieved by Ripple. We are just sharing opinions here, not encouraging you to blindly buy XRP tokens. Any altcoin could lead to a total loss of your principal. Before making any decisions, you must take responsibility for your own wallet. However, further speculation suggests that the narrative around RWA indeed has considerable imaginative potential. It depends on what policies will emerge after Trump takes office. If restrictions can be relaxed or allowed, this narrative might become one of the important narratives in 2025.
4. Finally, let's briefly look at a few other noteworthy events from the past couple of days:
- Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Hits All-Time High
According to on-chain data, Bitcoin's mining difficulty has reached 110.45 T, setting a new all-time high. As shown in the image below.
Generally speaking, the rise in difficulty and hash rate will further solidify the market's value expectations for BTC. We can also refer to the current shutdown price of mainstream machines. As shown in the image below.
- Tether and Its Subsidiaries to Move to El Salvador
According to an announcement from Tether (USDT) a few days ago (January 13), they will complete all procedures for moving to El Salvador. What do you think about a giant company choosing to leave the U.S. and European markets to settle in El Salvador?
- Trump to Issue Executive Order Related to Crypto Policy on First Day in Office?
Reports indicate that Trump is expected to sign an executive order next week after taking office to abolish cryptocurrency banks and eliminate the accounting policy that allows banks holding cryptocurrencies to list digital assets as liabilities. As shown in the image below. Whether this news is true, we will find out after Trump takes office next week.
- The U.S. Will Release December CPI Year-on-Year Rate Today (21:30 Beijing Time)
The market expects the overall inflation year-on-year rate to record 2.9%, up from 2.7% in November last year. As shown in the image below.
Additionally, current observations indicate that the likelihood of the Federal Reserve maintaining interest rates (i.e., not cutting rates) on January 29 has risen to 97%. As shown in the image below.
That's all for today~
