This Week's News Preview | Trump Takes Office as President of the United States; Final Penalty Details for Upbit to be Determined; OKX Jumpstart to Launch ANIME Staking Mining
Highlights of the week from January 20 to January 26.Organizer: Fairy, ChainCatcher
Key News:
- OKX Jumpstart will launch ANIME (Animecoin) staking mining on January 20
- Trump will officially take the oath of office as President of the United States at 1 AM Beijing time on the 21st
- South Korean financial regulators have issued a business suspension order to Upbit, with final penalty details to be determined on January 21
- MicroStrategy's shareholder meeting will vote on the plan to increase the stock issuance on January 21
- Four Solana ETF applications will face the SEC's first review deadline on January 25
- Orbiter Finance token (OBT) TGE will take place on January 20
January 20 (Monday)
SEC General Counsel Megan Barbero will resign on January 20
According to CoinDesk, SEC General Counsel Megan Barbero will resign on January 20. Previously, Gurbir Grewal, head of the SEC's enforcement division, resigned in October 2024, and Paul Munter, head of the accounting department, announced his impending departure this week. Barbero has served as General Counsel since February 2023, overseeing the SEC's legal disputes with crypto companies in federal court.
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler will resign on January 20
According to an official announcement, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler will resign on January 20.
The announcement mentioned that in the last full fiscal year, although the cryptocurrency market accounted for less than 1% of the U.S. capital market, 18% of the tips, complaints, and referrals received by the SEC were related to cryptocurrencies. Courts have supported the Commission's actions to protect investors and dismissed all arguments that the SEC could not enforce the law when issuing securities, regardless of the form of the securities issuance.
It is reported that Trump's presidential term will also begin on January 20.
CFTC Chairman will resign on January 20, the day of Trump's inauguration
According to the Financial Times, CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam will resign on January 20, the day of President Donald Trump's inauguration, and will officially leave office on February 7.
Behnam is concerned that regulation of digital assets, including Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, remains insufficient. He stated, "A significant portion of the digital asset space remains unregulated in the U.S. regulatory framework, and given the adoption we see from some traditional financial institutions and the huge demand from retail and institutional investors for these products, it is crucial to fill this gap."
He indicated that the CFTC is still "well-positioned to become the spot regulator for digital commodity assets."
Orbiter Finance token (OBT) TGE will take place on January 20
Layer2 cross-chain protocol Orbiter Finance announced on X that it will launch the OBT token, with the TGE taking place on January 20, 2025. OBT is the ERC-20 governance and utility token of the protocol, launching on Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Base, with a total supply of 10 billion tokens and a circulating supply of 2.8 billion tokens (28%) at TGE.
Regarding token distribution, the community allocation accounts for 40%, with 22% distributed as an initial airdrop to Orbiter users, with 3% airdropped to eligible users monthly for 6 months. The ecosystem and growth allocation accounts for 20%, with 2.5% unlocked at TGE. The Orbiter Foundation allocation accounts for 15%, with 3.5% unlocked at TGE, and the remainder vesting monthly over 23 months. The team and contributors allocation accounts for 15%, and the investor allocation accounts for 10%. Additionally, on-chain governance will open in February 2025.
Orbiter Finance is a decentralized cross-rollup bridge for transferring Ethereum's native assets. In Orbiter Finance, there are two roles: Sender and Maker. When the Sender initiates a transfer, the Maker provides liquidity for it. Smart contracts ensure the security of this process. If the Maker behaves poorly and causes the transfer to fail, the Sender can initiate an arbitration request against the Maker's collateral with the contract and receive excess compensation.
OKX Jumpstart will launch ANIME (Animecoin) staking mining on January 20
The OKX Jumpstart staking mining event will start at 14:00 (Beijing time) on January 20, 2025, allowing OKB and BTC holders to stake OKB and BTC to earn ANIME tokens as rewards. The event will last until 14:00 on January 23.
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, supporting staking and unstaking at any time. ANIME tokens are expected to be listed for trading on January 23, with specific timing to be announced later.
January 21 (Tuesday)
Trump will officially take the oath of office as President of the United States at 1 AM Beijing time on the 21st
According to BBC News, Donald Trump will officially take the oath of office as the 47th President of the United States at 12 PM Eastern Time on January 20 (1 AM Beijing time on the 21st).
Inauguration Day includes the official swearing-in ceremony, musical performances, a celebratory parade, and a series of formal balls. The elected Vice President Vance (J.D. Vance) will also take the oath of office, joining Trump on stage to officially begin the new government.
Trump's second inauguration ceremony will first take place at the historic St. John's Church in Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C., followed by a tea reception at the White House. Musical performances and opening remarks will begin at 9:30 AM Eastern Time (10:30 PM Beijing time on the 20th) on the main event stage on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol. Subsequently, Trump and Vance will hold the swearing-in ceremony, during which the President will deliver an inaugural address outlining the goals for the next four years. Afterward, Trump will go to the presidential office near the Senate to sign important documents. He will then attend a lunch hosted by the Joint Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. Following that, the parade will proceed from the Capitol along Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.
Later that evening, Trump will attend three inaugural balls—the Commander-in-Chief Ball, the Liberty Inaugural Ball, and the Starlight Ball. He is expected to deliver speeches at all three events.
South Korean financial regulators have issued a business suspension order to Upbit, with final penalty details to be determined on January 21
According to South Korean media NAVER, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) issued a business suspension notice to South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange Upbit on January 9, primarily for violating anti-money laundering obligations regarding customer identity verification (KYC) under the Specific Financial Transaction Information Act. The FIU found approximately 700,000 cases of improper KYC execution and violations related to business dealings with unregistered overseas virtual asset service providers.
Once the penalty is confirmed, Upbit will be restricted from new user-related business for up to 6 months. Upbit currently holds over 70% of the South Korean cryptocurrency trading market, and this penalty could affect its business license renewal review. The FIU will hold a sanctions committee meeting on January 21 to determine the final penalty details.
Judge has postponed the trial date for CFTC vs. Gemini to January 21
The U.S. court has postponed the CFTC vs. Gemini case to January 21, 2025. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein announced that the civil case hearing date between the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Gemini Trust Company has been postponed from the original date of January 13, 2025, to January 21, and explicitly stated that there will be no further delays.
The CFTC filed a lawsuit against Gemini in June 2022, accusing it of providing false or misleading information when applying for Bitcoin futures contracts in 2017 and seeking the return of illegal profits, civil penalties, and injunctions. The delay in the case hearing may be influenced by the incoming administration and new congressional policies.
MicroStrategy's shareholder meeting will vote on the plan to increase the stock issuance on January 21
MicroStrategy's shareholder meeting will vote on January 21 on the plan to increase the stock issuance, authorizing the number of Class A common shares to increase from 330 million to 10.3 billion, and the statutory number of preferred shares to increase from 5 million to 1 billion. Analysts expect the stock authorization plan to be approved, which could potentially increase MicroStrategy's circulating share count to exceed all companies in the Nasdaq 100 index except for the top four members (NVIDIA, Apple, Alphabet, and Amazon).
January 22 (Wednesday)
Calamos will launch the first Bitcoin ETF CBOJ with 100% downside protection
The ETF Store President Nate Geraci stated on X: "Calamos will launch the first Bitcoin ETF CBOJ that offers 100% downside protection. Holding Bitcoin during the Outcome Period will receive full downside protection, but the upside is capped."
It is expected that CBOJ will be listed on CBOE on January 22, 2025. CBOJ will combine U.S. Treasury bonds and options on the CBOE Bitcoin U.S. ETF Index. This actively managed ETF provides a regulated way to gain exposure to Bitcoin within a risk control framework.
Previous news indicated that asset management company Calamos submitted an application for a Bitcoin buffered ETF.
OKX will launch J (Jambo) spot trading
OKX will launch J (Jambo) spot trading, with the J/USDT spot trading opening at 7:00 PM (UTC+8) on January 22, 2025.
The re-staking platform Swell will open for claims on January 22
The re-staking platform Swell announced that the Wavedrop 2 checker is now online, allowing users to check the rewards they can claim in Wavedrop 2. Swell also stated that claims are expected to open on January 22, and claims for Wavedrop 1 will also be reopened on Swellchain, which has been paused for convenience in migrating from the mainnet.
January 23 (Thursday)
Upbit will delist BTG
According to an official announcement, Upbit announced that it will terminate trading support for BTG at 14:30 local time on January 23, 2025.
ANIME token will be listed on January 23
According to official news, ANIME (Animecoin) announced that the ANIME token will be listed on January 23.
January 24 (Friday)
Kenya's cryptocurrency legislation draft will be publicly solicited for opinions before January 24
According to Cointelegraph, Kenya's Finance Minister John Mbadi stated that the government is committed to establishing a legal and regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies and has drafted a proposal for the "National Policy on Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers." The draft aims to create a fair, competitive, and stable market for cryptocurrencies while addressing risks such as money laundering, terrorism financing, and consumer protection.
The draft proposes to build a comprehensive legal and regulatory framework to manage virtual asset activities and their service providers (VASP) and to establish relevant standards and procedures. Its goal is to promote the healthy development of Kenya's virtual asset market.
The proposal will accept public feedback before January 24. If approved, Kenya will join countries like South Africa and Nigeria that have implemented cryptocurrency regulations.
Coinbase International will suspend FTM-PERP trading on January 24
Coinbase International Exchange and Coinbase Advanced will suspend FTM-PERP trading around 10:30 AM (UTC) on January 24, 2025.
January 25 (Saturday)
Four Solana ETF applications will face the SEC's first review deadline on January 25
According to Bloomberg terminal data, four institutions, including VanEck, 21Shares, Canary, and Bitwise, have submitted Solana ETF applications that will face the SEC's first review deadline on January 25, 2025.
The 19b-4 applications from these four institutions were formally accepted by the SEC on November 21, 2024. According to the approval process, the SEC must make an initial decision within 45 days of acceptance, which may involve approval, rejection, or postponement.
It is worth noting that Grayscale's earlier application to convert its Solana trust fund into an ETF has an initial review deadline of January 23, 2025. The market generally expects the SEC to handle these Solana ETF applications in a unified manner.
Specific time to be determined
Jupiter: Airdrop will be open for claims
Jupiter's official account posted on X that airdrop claims will open this week, and users need to create a personal profile page first, which will later become the central hub for users to handle any matters related to Jupiter, from airdrop claims to future product releases and other community plans.
