Daily Report | OKX Jumpstart will launch ANIME (Animecoin) staking mining on January 20; Binance CEO: Currently, over 562 million people worldwide own cryptocurrencies; Ripple spokesperson denies rumors related to Trump's criticism of its lack of election support
January 17 News SummaryOrganizer: Luan Peng, ChainCatcher
Important News:
- Cryptocurrency wallet Phantom completes $150 million Series C funding round at a $3 billion valuation, led by Sequoia Capital and Paradigm
- Insiders: Trump plans to issue an executive order to prioritize cryptocurrency as a national policy
- Ethereum developers plan to upgrade the Pectra mainnet in March
- Binance will launch U-based ARC and AVAAI perpetual contracts
- Kraken's Chief Legal Officer Marco Santori announces resignation
- Zhao Changpeng: What is beneficial for Bitcoin will also benefit altcoins
- Binance will launch SOLV 1-75x U-based perpetual contracts
- OKX Jumpstart will launch ANIME (Animecoin) staking mining on January 20
"What important events happened in the last 24 hours"
Cryptocurrency wallet Phantom has completed a $150 million Series C funding round at a $3 billion valuation, led by Sequoia Capital and Paradigm, with participation from a16z and Variant.
Since its launch in 2021, Phantom has reached 15 million monthly active users and manages $25 billion in self-custodied assets.
According to RootData, Phantom is a user-friendly cryptocurrency wallet that allows users to securely and easily store, buy, send, receive, trade tokens, and collect NFTs on the Solana blockchain.
Insiders: Trump plans to issue an executive order to prioritize cryptocurrency as a national policy
According to Bloomberg, insiders revealed that U.S. President-elect Trump plans to issue an executive order to elevate cryptocurrency as a national policy priority. The order is expected to position cryptocurrency as a "national imperative," aimed at guiding government agencies to collaborate with the industry and establish a cryptocurrency advisory committee to voice industry policies.
Ethereum developers plan to upgrade the Pectra mainnet in March
According to The Block, Ethereum developers plan to launch the Pectra upgrade for the network in March 2025, setting specific milestones before the mainnet fork.
During a core developer conference call on Thursday, it was stated that after coordinating with client software teams, a new client upgrade and hard fork for the Ethereum test networks Sepolia and Holesky is expected to be released in February. If the fork on the test networks proceeds as planned, the mainnet will launch next month.
Binance will launch U-based ARC and AVAAI perpetual contracts
Binance's contract platform will launch ARCUSDT and AVAAIUSDT perpetual contracts with a maximum leverage of 25x.
Kraken's Chief Legal Officer Marco Santori announces resignation
Kraken's Chief Legal Officer Marco Santori announced his resignation. The veteran lawyer has led Kraken's legal department for nearly five years and stated that he will continue to serve as a senior advisor to the company, helping Kraken establish a "global advisory board."
Zhao Changpeng: What is beneficial for Bitcoin will also benefit altcoins
Zhao Changpeng posted on X, stating: "What is beneficial for Bitcoin will also benefit altcoins."
Binance will launch SOLV 1-75x U-based perpetual contracts
Binance will launch SOLV 1-75x U-based perpetual contracts on January 17, 2025, at 20:15 (UTC+8).
Additionally, Binance Wealth Management, one-click buy, flash exchange trading platform, leverage, and dollar-cost averaging platform will launch Solv Protocol (SOLV).
OKX Jumpstart will launch ANIME (Animecoin) staking mining on January 20
The OKX Jumpstart staking mining event will start on January 20, 2025, at 14:00 (Beijing time). OKB and BTC holders can stake OKB and BTC to earn ANIME tokens as rewards. The event will last until January 23 at 14:00.
The total OKB reward pool for this event is 53,333,334 ANIME, and the total BTC reward pool is 26,666,666 ANIME. There is no minimum limit for individual staking, with a maximum staking limit of 600 OKB and 0.3 BTC for BTC. Staking and unstaking can be done at any time. ANIME tokens are expected to be listed for trading on January 23, with specific timing to be announced later.
The Central Political and Legal Work Conference was held in Beijing from the 12th to the 13th, making arrangements to promote comprehensive rule of law and strive to build a higher level of rule of law in China. The conference emphasized the need to solve new problems through scientific legislation. For key areas, emerging fields, and foreign-related areas, the Ministry of Justice should proactively study and propose legislative suggestions on new issues such as autonomous driving, low-altitude economy, artificial intelligence, virtual currency, and data ownership, and explore legislation to regulate platform behavior and strengthen the protection of the legal rights and interests of new employment groups.
According to the Suqian Court's official account, the court disclosed a network pyramid scheme disguised as an investment in virtual currency financial projects. The suspects created the "ACORNS" online platform and, without any actual business projects, lured members to invest 100 USDT for financial returns by issuing virtual currencies like "ACO" and promoting the idea of high returns. As of the case's occurrence, the platform had over 3,000 effective recharge members, accumulating nearly 3.16 million USDT in funds.
After trial, the Suqian Court sentenced the defendants in this case to prison terms ranging from five years and three months to three years for organizing and leading pyramid schemes, with fines ranging from 170,000 to 100,000 yuan.
Ripple spokesperson denies rumors of Trump's criticism for not supporting the election
According to Unchained, Trump criticized blockchain company Ripple for not supporting him during the election and instead providing funding to Kamala Harris. The report cited an article from Axios stating that Trump mentioned in a meeting with representatives of an unnamed company that the company did not stand by him at a critical moment. Sources identified the company as Ripple.
However, a Ripple spokesperson denied this, stating that the related rumors are "completely untrue."
RootData released the "2024 Web3 Industry Investment Research Report." The report shows that popular TGE projects in the first half of 2025 focus on BTC, artificial intelligence, and high-performance chains.
Overview of popular TGE financing in H1 2025 (*indicates completed TGE):
- Projects with total financing exceeding $100 million include Monad, Farcaster, *EigenLayer, *Magic Eden, Berachain;
- Projects with total financing between $50 million and $100 million include Babylon, *Scroll, Morpho, Eclipse;
- Projects with total financing between $10 million and $50 million include Sahara, Nillion, *Movement, *Puffer, Initia, Walletconnect, *Usual, Lombard, Solayer, *Bio, Sophon;
- Projects with total financing less than $10 million include Roam, Symbiotic, *deBridge, *Grass.
Additionally, the overall quotation amount in the OTC market has risen, with a total trading volume of 262 transactions, a month-on-month decrease of 3%; the total order quotation amount reached $1.2 billion, a month-on-month increase of 29%, with an average transaction amount of $5.2 million, a month-on-month increase of 34%. Buyers accounted for 41.98%, while sellers accounted for 58.02%. The OTC market in the first half of 2025 is led by Solana, focusing on high-performance narratives.
Binance CEO: Over 562 million people worldwide own cryptocurrency
Binance CEO Richard Teng posted on X, stating that according to Triple-A data, over 562 million people worldwide own cryptocurrency.
RootData released the "2024 Web3 Industry Investment Research Report," which shows that early-stage investments (under $5 million) continue to dominate, with 627 financing events occurring throughout the year, a 20.6% increase from 520 projects in 2023. Mid-stage investments ($5 million to $10 million) showed steady growth, with 244 projects completed in 2024, a 24.5% increase from 196 projects in 2023. Late-stage and large-scale investments (over $10 million) completed 188 projects, a slight increase from 175 projects in 2023.
In terms of active leading investments, Polychain ranked first with 30 leading investments, focusing significantly on infrastructure and DeFi sectors. The second-ranked Hack VC had 24 leading investments, 17 of which were directed towards the infrastructure field. Animoca Brands had 17 leading investments, with 8 directed towards gaming projects, indicating its professional layout in the gaming sector. Overall, sectors like NFT and DAO showed a lack of leading investment activity, with most institutions having zero leading investments in these areas.
In the top 10 active investment institutions in 2024, OKX Ventures ranked first with 72 investments, primarily focusing on infrastructure and DeFi sectors. Notably, OKX Ventures was active in the gaming sector, making 34 investments. Following closely were MH Ventures and Cogitent Ventures, both with 56 investments.
"What are the exciting articles worth reading in the last 24 hours"
Public Chain Lego: Connecting Layer 1 and Layer 0 blockchains, reshaping the market landscape
In past cycles, whenever Ethereum faced "performance" dilemmas, "Ethereum killers" would emerge. "Ethereum killers" refer to Layer 1 blockchains, while Ethereum's proposed Layer 2 solutions counter them.
However, since Ethereum completed the Cancun upgrade this year, the narrative volume of Ethereum Layer 2 has surpassed that of Layer 1, even replacing Layer 1 as the mainstream narrative. On one hand, the competitive landscape of Layer 1 has not changed; in terms of market capitalization, (excluding BTC) ETH, BNB, and Solana form a three-way stalemate, with ETH dominating. On the other hand, a question arises: why have we seen almost no new Ethereum killers emerge in this cycle?
Interestingly, Ethereum also seems to be trapped in the Layer 2 dilemma. Token Terminal data shows that ETH Layer 1 revenue has plummeted, dropping 99% since March 2024. Meanwhile, in August this year, Multicoin Capital criticized Ethereum Layer 2 on the Bankless program, and subsequently, Ethereum Foundation researchers stated in an AMA that Ethereum is still exploring Layer 1 rather than fully relying on Layer 2.
The issues obscured by Layer 2 prosperity have thus begun to surface.
Galaxy Q4 2024 Crypto VC Report: $3.5 billion invested; VC situation remains difficult
Although Bitcoin has reached an all-time high, crypto venture capital activity is far below previous cycle peaks.
Notably, the SEC has never regarded Litecoin as a security. With the Trump administration about to take office, the market is full of expectations regarding the future regulatory direction for altcoin ETFs, especially concerning the approval of ETFs for Litecoin, Solana, and XRP.
Meme Popularity Rankings
According to the meme token tracking and analysis platform GMGN, as of January 17, 19:50:
In the past 24 hours, the top five popular Ethereum tokens are: Yilongma, SXR, SPX, LINK, PEPU
In the past 24 hours, the top five popular Solana tokens are: TRUMP, SHIKOKU, AGiXT, GSB, SPY
In the past 24 hours, the top five popular Base tokens are: VIRTUAL, AIXBT, TOSHI, AERO, BABYXBT
