ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra stated that allowing the trading of stablecoins and other asset-backed tokens "poses no risk," and urged regulators to legalize online gambling to increase revenue. He pointed out that the Thai government currently loses about $4 billion (100 billion baht) in online gambling tax revenue each year. The Thai Cabinet has approved the draft of the "Entertainment Complex Management Act," aimed at legalizing casinos and the gambling industry.Although Thaksin is not part of the current government, he still holds significant influence in politics through his daughter, current Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha. He suggested that the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) allow stablecoin trading and proposed Phuket as a pilot area for cryptocurrency payments. He emphasized, "This poses no risk; it's just another currency in the world."

ChainCatcher message, according to a recent report by BlackRock, the adoption rate of Bitcoin has surpassed that of past transformative technologies, including the internet and mobile phones.The report emphasizes that since its launch in 2009, Bitcoin has rapidly evolved from a niche innovation to a globally recognized asset, attributing this evolution to demographic trends, economic changes, and the ongoing digital transformation of finance.Compared to Generation X and the Baby Boomers, the younger generation (often referred to as "digital natives") is more inclined to embrace Bitcoin. Their familiarity with technology and preference for digital-first solutions make them the leading demographic for cryptocurrency adoption.Regarding economic shifts, trends such as rising inflation, geopolitical tensions, and concerns about the traditional banking system highlight the value of Bitcoin as a decentralized asset. As the global economy digitizes, BTC is becoming an indispensable part of the evolving financial landscape.

ChainCatcher news, according to Bitcoin.com, the globally renowned banking group Santander has highlighted the significant growth of El Salvador's tourism industry in a report, which is closely related to the country's acceptance of Bitcoin.The report details the process of El Salvador adopting BTC as legal tender in 2021 and how it has transformed the country into a unique destination for travelers, especially cryptocurrency enthusiasts.According to Salvadoran authorities, the country welcomed 3.9 million tourists in 2024, a 22% increase from the previous year. The influx of tourists is primarily driven by American visitors, many of whom are attracted by the novelty of experiencing Bitcoin transactions in their daily lives.Santander's analysis links this growth to improvements in safety, noting that the number of homicides in the country has dropped to just 114 in 2024, a significant decrease from the peak of 6,656 in 2015. The combination of declining crime rates and curiosity about Bitcoin has helped El Salvador stand out in the global tourism market.

ChainCatcher news, Raafi Hossain, co-founder and CEO of the Middle Eastern fintech company Fasset, which intends to enter the stablecoin space, introduced several examples of customers using stablecoins, including the sale of a $8 million Dubai property, a Tanzanian buyer purchasing Indonesian cooking oil, renting a villa on Palm Jumeirah for $100,000, and private yacht rentals. Fasset is a Dubai-based "super app" focused on markets from Morocco to Malaysia.Dubai's Careem Networks FZ LLC, which provides taxi, food, and financial services, and Abu Dhabi's Astra Tech, which operates the communication app Botim, are also exploring the launch of payment tools supported by stablecoins.Hossain stated that stablecoins provide users with a way to "bypass geographical and institutional barriers to efficiently and quickly execute high-value transactions."Careem Pay Vice President Mohammad El Saadi mentioned that the technology "has the potential to reduce costs, speed up processing times, and improve working capital management for cross-border transfers." The company has opened 8 new fiat payment channels in the UAE over the past 11 months.Meanwhile, Astra Tech's Vice President of Products Rishabh Singh stated that Botim has been experimenting with the AE Coin, which is pegged to the dirham and has been approved by the Central Bank of the UAE.According to data from DeFi Llama, the total market capitalization of all circulating stablecoins has grown from less than $140 billion at the end of 2023 to over $200 billion today.So far, the dominant stablecoin is USDT, whose issuer, Tether Holdings Ltd., recently stated that it expects to achieve over $10 billion in net profit in 2024. According to CoinGecko, the total circulating supply of USDT is close to $140 billion.The use of USDT is concentrated in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa time zones, particularly in the Middle East. (Bloomberg)

ChainCatcher news, according to Globenewswire, the publicly traded company SUNation Energy, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNE) announced that its board of directors has approved the inclusion of Bitcoin in the company's asset management plan. As part of this strategy, SUNation plans to allocate 30% of its excess cash for purchasing BTC based on its projected six-month operating expenses. This allocation will depend on factors such as market conditions and the operational requirements of the company, including supporting its planned expansion strategy.It is reported that SUNation Energy is a provider of sustainable solar and backup power solutions for homes, businesses, and municipal authorities.

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, as interest in digital assets continues to grow, the corporate adoption of Bitcoin seems to be entering a new phase, with several publicly traded companies following MicroStrategy's lead by incorporating Bitcoin into their balance sheets.In 2024, multiple companies began to emulate and adopt Bitcoin financial strategies, such as Metaplanet (3350), Semler Scientific (SMLR), and MARA Holdings (MARA). The first company in the second wave is KULR Technology Group (KULR), which is listed on the NYSE.As of January 7, it seems that some publicly listed companies have announced Bitcoin financial strategies but have not yet made any Bitcoin purchases. First is Acurx Pharmaceuticals (ACXP), listed on NASDAQ. Its board approved a Bitcoin purchase plan of up to $1 million on November 20. Since November 19, its stock price has dropped by 35%, but it has risen by 30% year-to-date.Similarly, NASDAQ-listed Hoth Therapeutics (HOTH) also had its board approve a $1 million Bitcoin purchase plan on November 20, but it has not completed the purchase. However, since November 19, its stock price has increased by 2%.The third company is NASDAQ-listed LQR House (YHC). The company announced on November 19 that it would accept cryptocurrency payments and retain up to $10 million in Bitcoin payment funds through policy. To date, its stock price has risen by 56% since November 19.The last one is NYSE-listed SOS Limited (SOS), which approved a $50 million Bitcoin purchase plan on November 27. At the time of the announcement, the price of Bitcoin was $93,000 each. Since November 19, its stock price has dropped by 30%.

ChainCatcher message, according to the latest monthly market insights report from Binance Research, the crypto market is expected to continue growing in 2025, driven by accelerated institutional adoption, evolving regulatory frameworks, and the expansion of the DeFi ecosystem.The Binance report emphasizes that Bitcoin's dominance in global assets has increased, and despite a significant pullback in late December last year, the overall market still shows strong fundamentals.December last year was a significant milestone for the cryptocurrency market, as the Federal Reserve decided to reduce the planned interest rate cuts for 2025 from four to two, leading the cryptocurrency market cap to rise to a record $3.91 trillion before falling to $3.41 trillion.This pullback wiped out $500 billion in market cap, but Bitcoin remains firmly in the seventh position among global assets (by market cap), surpassing Saudi Aramco and silver.Bitcoin's market cap grew by 123.4% last year, driven by the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs and their subsequent record growth, as well as MicroStrategy's inclusion in the Nasdaq 100 index and continued adoption by institutional investors. This year's growth made Bitcoin the second-best performing asset among the top ten global assets, only behind Nvidia.The report points out that speculation around the U.S. potentially adopting Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset further fueled Bitcoin's momentum. As capital shifts from altcoins to Bitcoin, its dominance continues to strengthen, solidifying its position as a leading asset class.Although the market has experienced volatility, Bitcoin's strong fundamentals and the increasing adoption in traditional finance may pave the way for continued growth in 2025.The report indicates that if current trends continue, Bitcoin could challenge higher positions in the global asset rankings, coming closer to gold.The DeFi sector has also witnessed significant growth, with decentralized spot and perpetual contract trading volumes reaching new highs of $326 billion and $356 billion in December, respectively.Hyperliquid is a major driver of this surge, accounting for over 60% of the total trading volume in decentralized perpetual contracts. Meanwhile, lending and liquid staking protocols also set historical highs of $55 billion and $71 billion, respectively.The stablecoin market has undergone a significant shift, with Ethena's USDe surpassing USDS to become the third-largest stablecoin by market cap at $5.9 billion.Additionally, Binance Research highlights the emerging role of AI agents in the crypto ecosystem. Leading AI agent tokens now have a market cap in the billions, with increasing adoption rates in trading and entertainment sectors.Despite adjustments at the end of the year, the report concludes that favorable regulatory developments, rising institutional participation, and technological advancements in DeFi and AI will enable the cryptocurrency market to continue expanding in 2025.

ChainCatcher news, ai16z co-founder Shaw mentioned in an offline interview with BlockBeats about "DeFi agents": "ai16z is collaborating with Orca to develop an agent, which is an automated bot that can automatically manage Orca's liquidity pools. Users only need to deposit tokens into it; if the pool does not exist, it will automatically create a new pool; if the pool already exists, it will place the tokens into the existing pool. Next, it will continuously monitor these pools, and once it detects situations that may lead to impermanent loss, such as price divergence of tokens, it will automatically withdraw funds from the pool. Because what most people are concerned about is the issue of impermanent loss. Users can also program the control of token price spreads or adjust the pairing of tokens."Shaw further stated: "In fact, this method can be extended to other DeFi products, such as yield farming. This will lead to a new DeFi Summer. The reason there is currently no DeFi Summer is that not enough people understand how to use DeFi, but the infrastructure for DeFi is already there, waiting to be fully utilized."

ChainCatcher message, Dune founder @hagaetc stated on the X platform, "In 2024, on-chain adoption reached the levels of 2021, while surpassing previous historical highs in transaction volume and transaction counts. Overall on-chain adoption is nearly back to the peak levels of 2021. The costs associated with blockchain have significantly decreased.From a certain perspective, this could be interpreted as a decrease in demand, but it may actually be a good thing. Most technologies have deflationary characteristics, so lower costs can drive greater transaction volumes. After a few years of stagnation or decline, on-chain transactions in 2024 are experiencing exponential growth. This clearly illustrates how the decrease in fees has driven an increase in usage.Despite the regulatory resistance and uncertainty faced by the entire industry in 2024, this year remains a breakthrough year for on-chain adoption, with most metrics surpassing the peaks of 2021."

ChainCatcher news, according to Cryptonews, merchants in the Dongdaemun market of South Korea have denied reports of large-scale adoption of USDT payments. Previously, it was reported that merchants in this market, particularly wholesalers targeting Chinese customers, were using USDT for international transactions. However, several merchants stated that cash remains the primary payment method, and the actual use of stablecoins is not widespread.

ChainCatcher message, Ethereum has averaged over 21,000 blobs per day in the past two months, a trend that highlights users' growing preference for L2 scaling solutions.At the same time, the cost of the blob publishing process fluctuates based on network demand. According to data from GrowthePie, the fees associated with blobs on Ethereum reached approximately $4 million in the past month. These fees paid in ETH are burned, permanently removing these tokens from circulation and affecting their supply.Essentially, the popularity of blobs has had a significant impact on the Ethereum ecosystem, particularly its ETH burn rate. According to data from Ultrasound.money, in the past week, blobs became the primary source of ETH burn on Ethereum, burning 453.24 ETH, surpassing the amount burned by the largest DEX on Ethereum, Uniswap, during the same period (396 ETH).However, in the past 30 days, Uniswap remains the largest ETH burner, contributing 4,681 ETH, while burning 1,068 ETH through blobs.

ChainCatcher news, former a16z partner and Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan posted on the X platform that cryptocurrency represents international capitalism. Currently, both BTC and artificial intelligence have entered the vertical phase of the adoption curve. He shared performance result charts of OpenAI's large language model and the net asset management scale of the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF, and pointed out that in terms of the trajectory of mass adoption, Bitcoin's growth rate may be faster than that of the internet.

ChainCatcher news, QCP Capital's latest analysis points out that BTC spot has shown a significant gap due to thin liquidity, with recent rebounds limited by persistent selling pressure.Since December 19, net outflows from spot ETFs have reached $1.8 billion, and MicroStrategy's BTC purchases have noticeably slowed down, reflecting the weak trend in the crypto market consistent with overall market sentiment, as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq have fallen more than 1% for the third time in eight trading days. Despite a lackluster year-end performance, BTC has risen 120% by year-end, surpassing global stocks and gold.Looking ahead to 2025, despite an optimistic outlook on crypto-friendly policies after the Trump administration, adjustments in institutional asset allocation may become a key catalyst. The widespread adoption of BTC among various institutions is expected to strengthen its dominance, stabilize spot volatility, and drive an increase in demand for hedging and selling call options.

ChainCatcher news, VanEck's Head of Digital Asset Research Matthew Sigel stated in the Coin Stories podcast that by 2025, the price of Bitcoin could reach as high as $180,000, noting that key indicators such as funding rates, unrealized profits, and retail speculation are the basis for this prediction. Sigel mentioned that VanEck has been "bullish on Bitcoin" since 2017. However, he believes that there is still a long way to go for corporate adoption of Bitcoin.He said that many traditional asset management firms (such as Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch) are owned by banks and brokers, and their progress in incorporating BTC into financial strategies has been slow. They are constrained by a heavily regulated structure and reliance on traditional asset allocation models (such as the 60-40 portfolio), which have yet to adjust to accommodate BTC ETFs.Sigel noted that this also indicates that about 80% of BTC ETF holders are retail or high-net-worth investors, who either diversify their investments from self-custody or expand existing positions. He added that institutional asset management firms have not yet made significant moves into this space.

ChainCatcher news, Binance announced a strategic partnership with USDC stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group Inc. This collaboration aims to expand the adoption of USDC and support the development of the global digital asset and broader financial services ecosystem.Circle will provide Binance with the necessary technology, liquidity, and other tools to ensure that users benefit from the trust and innovation that Circle has established for USDC. As mainstream companies worldwide seek to benefit from crypto infrastructure and stablecoins for an increasingly broad range of use cases, Circle will also collaborate with Binance to establish key relationships in the global financial and business sectors.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cryptoslate, Cardano (ADA) founder Charles Hoskinson has once again called for social media platforms to implement a "verified tweet" feature after the official X account of the Cardano Foundation was hacked. On December 8, hackers used the stolen account to post false information about the ADASOL token and spread misinformation about the SEC lawsuit leading to the suspension of support for ADA.Hoskinson suggested enhancing platform security using technologies such as public key encryption and biometric authentication, and stated that members of the Cardano community would cooperate with law enforcement to conduct an investigation. This proposal dates back to 2020, aiming to verify user identities through biometric technologies such as fingerprint or facial recognition.ChainCatcher previously reported that, according to Aggr News, the Cardano Foundation's X account was hacked and misused.It is reported that the account posted content claiming "a lawsuit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was received on December 8, 2024, and a difficult decision was made to stop all support for the ADA token to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements," but the information is false.

ChainCatcher message, according to BlockchainGamer, Sky Mavis has launched a new service aimed at attracting new players to its flagship game Axie Infinity. The new Axie Adoption Center serves as an entry point for players without any Axies, allowing users to obtain delegated Axies that can be used in the game. By completing a certain number of tasks within 30 days to earn points, players can exchange these points for Axies. Users who refer friends to the Axie Adoption Center, facilitating actual delegations, will receive a 0.5 AXS reward.It is important to note that to join the Axie Adoption Center and receive delegated Axies, users must first create a wallet on Ronin and connect to the game's Discord. Only accounts without any Axies are eligible to use this service.