ChainCatcher news, according to Forbes reporter Eleanor Terrett, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee will vote to approve the chairs and members of its various subcommittees (including the Digital Assets Subcommittee) on Thursday at 10 AM Eastern Time (January 23 at 11:00 PM Beijing Time).

ChainCatcher news, Trump stated in his inauguration speech that a few months ago he faced threats to his freedom and even his life, but he expressed his commitment to the goal of "making America great again." He emphasized his determination to rebuild America and achieve national prosperity and strength.

ChainCatcher news, according to Politico, since election day, cryptocurrency companies including Ripple, Coinbase, Kraken, Robinhood, and Circle have invested at least $10 million in Trump's inauguration fund. These donations will be used to finance the grand official events held during the inauguration, and executives are flocking to Washington to prepare for the new president's swearing-in on Monday.One target of interest for participants in the crypto space is the digital asset advisory committee that Trump has vowed to create, which will be led by incoming White House crypto and AI expert David Sacks and former North Carolina congressional candidate Bo Hines. A Washington cryptocurrency lobbyist, who wished to remain anonymous, stated that almost everyone in the crypto space is currently vying for a seat on the committee.

ChainCatcher news, according to a report by Jinshi, multiple sources indicate that most members of the Bank of Japan's policy committee may be inclined to raise interest rates again at the monetary policy meeting held next Thursday and Friday, which would raise the Bank of Japan's policy rate to 0.5%, a new high in 17 years.Sources say that some of the 9 committee members are cautious, and the final decision will need to be made after U.S. President-elect Trump is inaugurated and makes a statement on Monday, which could impact the market. However, sources estimate that a majority of committee members will support further tightening of monetary policy by the central bank.

ChainCatcher news, U.S. Congressman Tom Emmer, who supports the cryptocurrency industry, stated: "I am honored to be selected as the Vice Chair of the Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Inclusion.With President Trump in the White House and Gary Gensler locked in the Washington dumpster, we have a tremendous opportunity to ensure that the future of digital assets is guided by Americans and aligned with American values. I look forward to working with Chairman French Hill, Chairman Bryan Steil, and other colleagues to create an environment where digital asset innovation can thrive."Previous news, U.S. House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill has appointed Tom Emmer as the Vice Chair of the Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Inclusion. He also nominated other Republican members to the committee.

ChainCatcher news, FOX Business reporter Eleanor Terrett posted on X that U.S. House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill has appointed Tom Emmer as the vice chairman of the Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Artificial Intelligence Subcommittee. He also nominated other Republican members of the committee.

ChainCatcher news, the lawyer of suspended South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, Shin Dong-hyun, stated that Yoon is negotiating with the South Korean High-ranking Officials Crime Investigation Office (SPO) and will voluntarily attend the SPO investigation. The advance vehicle of the SPO has left the presidential residence and is heading to the SPO office located in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province.Just now, suspended South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol will voluntarily walk out of the residence to accept the arrest warrant and head to the Gwacheon SPO.

ChainCatcher news, according to Hong Kong News Network, National Committee member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and consulting expert of the Ministry of Finance, Luo Zhuojian, published an article calling for the active development of stablecoins to maintain Hong Kong's financial center advantages. He pointed out that Hong Kong can collaborate with financial institutions in other regions on the application of stablecoins, exploring their potential in international settlement and cross-border application models. It can also encourage cooperation among traditional financial institutions, payment platforms, and technology companies to jointly promote the application of stablecoins.In addition to cross-border and payment uses, stablecoins can also be utilized in fundraising and asset management, further expanding their application scope. Moreover, it is necessary to broaden the participation in the sandbox, relax application conditions, and allow more startups and innovative projects to test new products in a low-risk environment.

ChainCatcher news, according to Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett's post on the X platform, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, led by Senator Tim Scott, will establish its first subcommittee dedicated to cryptocurrency. This subcommittee will be modeled after the Republican Financial Services Subcommittee established by Patrick McHenry in 2023.Senate aides have confirmed that Senator Cynthia Lummis has been preliminarily selected as the chair of the subcommittee, pending a vote by the full committee. It is reported that the vote to approve Cynthia Lummis and the new Republican and Democratic members (still under consideration) may take place next Thursday, during which a nomination hearing for Trump-nominated Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner will also be held.

ChainCatcher news, Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett disclosed on social media that U.S. Congressman French Hill announced that the Financial Services Committee has identified several key positions, including:Vice Chair of the Committee: Bill Huizenga (MI-04)Chair of the Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Artificial Intelligence Subcommittee: Bryan Steil (WI-01)Chair of the National Security and Illicit Finance Subcommittee: Warren Davidson (OH-08)

ChainCatcher news, Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire announced on the X platform that Circle has donated $1 million to President Trump's inauguration committee.He also stated that the Trump inauguration committee accepts USDC payments.

ChainCatcher message, Kye, the developer behind AI Agent swarms, posted on platform X: "Every artificial intelligence should be open source. Every single one. I am not a die-hard fan of the AI safety community, but non-open-source AI is very dangerous. With open source, people can make changes to align AI with humanity. If it's closed source, that's impossible. We should encourage everyone to open source their AI, or we will face unimaginable consequences.At @swarms_corp, all our work is open source. Everything is on our GitHub, and we commit to always open sourcing all our work."

ChainCatcher news, according to Jinshi reports, Federal Reserve's Barkin stated that the Federal Reserve is highly committed to achieving the 2% inflation target, and businesses affected by tariff changes must respond flexibly.

ChainCatcher news, according to official sources, the Ethereum Layer 2 network Optimism has released its 2024 review:The Superchain built on the OP Stack has seen significant growth, with nearly 50% of L2 transactions on Ethereum now supported by the Superchain ecosystem;Permissionless fault proofs have been launched, paving the way for the first phase of decentralization for OP Stack Chains;Interoperability has been enhanced;Optimism has strengthened its support for ERC-7683 and developed ERC-7802;The Optimism Collective continues to innovate in the direction of scalable Ethereum;Through two airdrops, over 20 million OP have been distributed to users making meaningful impacts;Four major initiatives have driven user engagement, with over 3.3 million OP distributed to winners.At the same time, Optimism has made projections for 2025, focusing on interoperability in the coming year and aiming to make Superchain the best DeFi platform while attracting more developers through developer tools.It is reported that Optimism aims to become a simpler and more valuable platform for building and guiding applications through comprehensive development tools, and to unite Ethereum through interoperability and other means.

ChainCatcher news, according to Decrypt, in November 2024, a U.S. court ruled that 21-year-old Berman Jerry Nowlin helped orchestrate a $400,000 NFT "Rug Pull" incident, with charges including telecommunications fraud and money laundering. According to Nowlin's family, Nowlin has since committed suicide.Berman Jerry Nowlin, along with 25-year-old Devin Alan Rhoden, sold two collections of Solana NFTs in 2022, the first series being "Undead Apes," the second series being "Undead Lady Apes," and the sale of the third series "Undead Tombstone" was halted. The two earned nearly $400,000 in total from these sales before being convicted.A report from the U.S. Department of Justice explains that the success of these projects was due to "completely false statements," including collaborations with "well-known companies" and promises of utility for holders. Additionally, the Department of Justice defined the canceled third series as a "Rug Pull," as the team deleted their Discord and Twitter accounts after collecting payments.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon has been hit with a new charge: conspiracy to commit money laundering. This new charge was added in the superseding indictment unsealed by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on January 2. The indictment states that Do Kwon conspired with others, knowing that transactions exceeding $10,000 involved illegal proceeds, yet still facilitated these financial transactions.Previously, Kwon had been charged with eight felonies for his role in the collapse of the Terra ecosystem in 2022 and was arrested in Montenegro in 2023 for forging travel documents. After a dispute over extradition between the U.S. and South Korea, Kwon was transferred to the U.S. in December 2024. Currently, Kwon pleaded not guilty to all charges during his court appearance on January 2 and agreed to be detained. It remains uncertain whether a plea agreement will be reached or if he will enter a criminal trial.This case bears similarities to that of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who faced additional charges after extradition and was ultimately sentenced to 25 years in prison.

ChainCatcher message, MIRA token's largest holder Siqi Chen (@blader) issued an apology to the community regarding the test token zero: "I messed up, I apologize, I take responsibility. But I am committed to ensuring my and MIRA's reputation, making up for every wallet lost due to my actions.I will use my personal funds to do this, not the MIRA wallet. I don't know the specifics yet, but I will try to figure out the details in the coming days. I need the community's help to accomplish this, but I am committed to doing the right thing."

ChainCatcher message, the NEAR Infrastructure Committee has released the 2025 plan. It mentions:Continuing to support last year's infrastructure and ongoing commitments, including but not limited to the aforementioned wallets, Fast NEAR, and NEARBlocks;Establishing working groups to manage accounts, actively respond to proposals, seek innovations, and draft tenders;From NEAR wallet to Solana applications with NEAR single sign-on, on-ramps, and off-ramps; supporting the development of tools and services to make NEAR more accessible and interoperable with other blockchain ecosystems (multi-chain resource explorers, oracles, Omnitoken, Omnibalance support);Investing in infrastructure.

ChainCatcher news, the Financial Services Commission of South Korea announced that the decision on whether to allow companies to open cryptocurrency accounts will be postponed until 2025, with a decision expected to be made after the virtual assets committee meeting in January. Previously, the Financial Services Commission planned to gradually allow non-profit entities such as government departments, public institutions, and universities to open real-name accounts, but the final plan has not yet been determined.The prohibition on corporate investment in crypto assets was decided by the Cabinet through an emergency administrative directive in December 2017. Industry insiders are calling for the early allowance of legal entities and institutional investors to enter the market to promote market stability and healthy development, and point out that the delayed decision may affect South Korea's competitiveness in the global cryptocurrency market.

ChainCatcher News, the summary of opinions from the Bank of Japan's December meeting shows that policymakers are divided into two camps: one favors taking more time to carefully study the data, while the other believes the conditions for raising interest rates are ripe. "Although there is still uncertainty in the overseas economy, the Japanese economy is in a position to adjust the degree of monetary easing," one committee member said. "The central bank may decide to raise the policy interest rate in the near future. But at this point, it is necessary to remain patient and monitor the uncertainties in the U.S. economy until these uncertainties dissipate," another committee member stated. (Jin Shi)