ChainCatcher news, according to official sources, OKX has now launched the PENGU trading competition. During the event, users who recharge and trade PENGU will have the chance to share a total prize pool of 100,000,000 PENGU. Meanwhile, users participating in the PENGU trading photo activity on OKX's Chinese official Twitter and completing designated tasks will have a chance to be randomly selected, with 10 eligible users receiving 3000 PENGU each.

ChainCatcher message, Bitget's first LaunchX project Fuel Network (FUEL) token FUEL has been fully distributed and will be listed for trading on the FUEL/USDT pair at 18:00.

ChainCatcher news, according to SoSoValue data, the cryptocurrency market sector is experiencing a widespread decline, with nearly half of the sectors dropping over 10%. Specifically, BTC and ETH fell by 5.14% and 6.11% respectively in the last 24 hours. The CeFi sector dropped by 5.17%, while the NFT sector, which rose over 20% yesterday, fell by 6.01%.In addition, the Layer 1 sector declined by 8.14%, the Layer 2 sector by 9.37%, the DeFi sector by 10.55%, the Meme sector by 11.33%, and the DePIN and PayFi sectors dropped by 11.48% and 11.69% respectively.Despite the overall market decline, some projects performed well, such as the NFT sector Pudgy Penguins (Pengu) which rose by 9.54%, Moca Coin (MOCA) which increased by 10.25%, and AI Agents' AI Rig Complex (ARC) which surged by 54.22%.SoSoValue analysts suggest that the widespread decline in the cryptocurrency market may be influenced by today's Federal Reserve meeting, which adjusted the pace of interest rate cuts for next year (from 4 times to 2 times), the upward revision of future core PCE inflation rates and GDP growth, as well as Powell's more hawkish statements than the market expected, leading to panic regarding liquidity expectations.

ChainCatcher news, ARK Invest reduced its holdings of 13,780 shares of Coinbase stock yesterday (December 18), worth approximately $3.856 million.On the previous trading day, it reduced its holdings of 5,646 shares of Coinbase stock, worth approximately $1.76 million.

ChainCatcher news, on-chain data shows that the digital asset technology company Marathon Digital has increased its holdings by 1,627 BTC (worth $166 million) in the past 8 hours.

ChainCatcher message, on-chain data shows that Marathon Digital has increased its holdings by 1,627 BTC ($166 million) in the past 8 hours.

ChainCatcher news, according to Fortune, the team of Sun Yuchen pressured its new owner Bullish to remove related articles due to dissatisfaction with the report published by CoinDesk. The article detailed Sun Yuchen's behavior of purchasing an artwork banana for $6.2 million and consuming it, while also mentioning his legal disputes with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and controversies surrounding the Tron blockchain. After the article was deleted, the CoinDesk editorial team expressed concerns about independence.Bullish acquired CoinDesk for $75 million last year and promised that it would operate as an independent subsidiary. However, this incident has intensified the tension between the media and its owner. CoinDesk's editorial board chair Matt Murray has resigned, and Bullish has not commented on the incident.

ChainCatcher news, according to Decrypt, the temporary spending bill announced by U.S. congressional leaders on Tuesday aims to avoid a government shutdown and includes measures related to cryptocurrency.The bill will extend government funding until March 14, 2025, and currently includes the "Deploying American Blockchains Act." This act will enable the U.S. Department of Commerce to propose policy recommendations and establish a government-supported group of industry experts on Capitol Hill.The bill requires the Department of Commerce to support the U.S. leadership in blockchain technology and to establish a new "National Blockchain Deployment Advisory Committee" to assess the application of blockchain technology and tokenization in federal agencies, promoting the U.S. leading position in global blockchain technology competitiveness.

ChainCatcher news, Placeholder partner Chris Burniske posted on X: "If you feel frustrated that you didn't sell before the market pullback after the Fed FOMC meeting, understand that you actually don't have much of an edge in predicting market reactions. Take this experience as an opportunity to slow down. Don't overtrade. In the long run, as long as you're patient, you'll be fine."

ChainCatcher news, the crypto AI startup Fraction AI has completed a $6 million Pre-seed funding round, led by Spartan and Symbolic, with participation from Borderless Capital, Anagram, Foresight Ventures, and Karatage, as well as angel investors Sandeep Nailwal from Polygon and Illia Polosukhin from NEAR Protocol. The funding round is structured as a Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE), with attached token warrants.Fraction AI's public testnet is expected to launch next month, with the mainnet anticipated to be released by the end of Q1 or early Q2 of 2025.Founded in February, Fraction AI is a crypto AI startup aimed at decentralizing data labeling. Data labeling involves tagging raw data (such as images, text, or audio) with meaningful labels to train AI models to recognize patterns and make accurate predictions. Fraction AI employs a hybrid data labeling approach that combines human insights with AI agents. The platform will have three main participants: stakeholders, builders, and judges.

ChainCatcher news, FOX Business reporter Eleanor Terrett posted on X that during a meeting this week with staff from SEC commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda, the Token Alliance of the Digital Chamber pointed out that addressing the 2018 Hinman speech is a priority for the Corporation Finance division on its first day, citing its lack of relevance to the Howey test, which has caused market confusion and "improperly created a winner/loser dynamic."Other items marked as "key" priorities for the first day include:Initiating a review of all existing crypto-related investigations, Wells notices, and ongoing litigation, and seeking to pause those cases that do not involve actual fraud or investor harm;Rescinding SAB 121 and publishing a rescission order in the Federal Register;Formally withdrawing and reconsidering the proposed amendment to Rule 3b-16, which proposed to expand the definition of "exchange" to include DeFi protocols;

ChainCatcher news, according to The Hill, U.S. House Speaker Johnson, a Republican, is considering a "Plan B" to fund the government before the Friday deadline for a government shutdown, as Republicans both inside and outside Congress, including those from Trump's team, are criticizing his spending plan.Trump earlier also expressed to a Fox News host that he is completely opposed to the continuing resolution spending bill. This aligns with Musk's view, who stated that any lawmaker supporting the bill should be ousted. Two insiders indicated that the alternative Johnson is considering is a "clean" continuing resolution bill. This would require abandoning the additional provisions included in the initial 1500-page spending package negotiated by congressional leaders, including disaster relief and economic aid for farmers.

ChainCatcher news, according to on-chain data, Trump's crypto project World Liberty has increased its holdings by over 230,000 ENA.

ChainCatcher news, according to Trader T's monitoring, BlackRock IBIT's trading volume reached 50 million dollars before today's opening, with 49% being active buy orders and 33% being active sell orders.

ChainCatcher news, according to official data, as of December 17, BlackRock's Ethereum spot ETF (iShares Ethereum Trust ETF) has reached an ETH holding of 1,025,378 coins, with a market value of approximately $4.04 billion.

ChainCatcher news, according to IntoTheBlock data, long-term ETH holders have shown the conviction of this group this year, as their collective balance continues to increase. Approximately 110 million ETH is held by long-term holders.

ChainCatcher news, Hong Kong virtual asset exchange EX.IO (Thousand Whales Technology (BVI) Limited) has obtained approval from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) to operate a virtual asset trading platform under Type 1 (Securities Trading), Type 7 (Providing Automated Trading Services) licenses, and in accordance with the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (AMLO).

ChainCatcher news, according to Fortune, tokenization startup Plume has completed a $20 million financing round led by Brevan Howard Digital, Haun Ventures, Lightspeed Faction, and Galaxy Ventures. With this, Plume's total financing has reached $30 million. The company is building the first financial ecosystem for real-world assets (RWAfi), supporting the tokenization of diverse assets ranging from Pokémon cards to oil reserves.Plume CEO Chris Yin stated that there are currently 180 projects being developed on its network, including the decentralized private credit platform Credbull. The blockchain is set to open to users in early 2025, offering features such as asset yield acquisition, verification of physical collectibles trading, and real-time data-based asset price predictions. The financing will be used to expand coverage from crypto-native users to traditional financial institutions and optimize customized features for developers.According to Web3 asset data platform RootData, [Plume](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/Plume Network?k=MTA0ODA= "RWA platform") is a fully integrated modular chain focused on RWAfi. They have built the first modular, composable EVM-compatible chain centered on RWA, aiming to simplify the onboarding of all types of assets and capital through native infrastructure and unified RWAfi-specific features across the entire chain. Plume is building a composable DeFi ecosystem around RWAfis, featuring an integrated end-to-end tokenization engine and a network of financial infrastructure partners for builders to plug and play.

ChainCatcher news, according to the official announcement, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has announced the issuance of licenses to four virtual asset trading platforms under the fast-track licensing procedure, including Cloud Account Greater Bay Area Technology (Hong Kong), DFX Labs, Hong Kong Digital Asset Trading Group, and Thousand Whales Technology.These platforms must complete rectifications and pass independent third-party vulnerability assessments and penetration tests before they can operate within a restricted scope. The Securities and Futures Commission will supervise the second phase of the assessment through a tripartite agreement, and business restrictions will be lifted upon completion of the assessment. The Commission plans to release more licensing procedure guidelines in early 2025 to promote the development of Hong Kong's virtual asset ecosystem.