ChainCatcher news indicates that according to the Messari 2025 Crypto Theses report, Solana may experience strong growth in 2025. The report states that in the third quarter of 2024, Solana's ecosystem financing reached $173 million, setting a record high since the second quarter of 2022. With the gradual possibility of launching a spot SOL ETF, a more favorable regulatory environment is expected to attract more institutional participation, driving explosive market growth. Some analysts even predict that the price of SOL could break through $4,000.In addition, the Firedancer client has been deployed on the Solana mainnet this year. Developed by Jump Trading, it is a high-performance validator client designed to enhance the transaction speed and scalability of the blockchain. The initial version will be rolled out in phases, focusing primarily on improvements at the network layer, while future versions will further expand functionality to enhance Solana's overall performance and reliability. Firedancer plans to be fully deployed in 2025, which is expected to enhance client diversity on the SOL network, increase activity and security, and reduce reliance on a single client codebase. However, Messari notes that its short-term impact may be limited, as the deployment of other clients still faces bottlenecks, and the full potential of Firedancer may take more time to be fully realized.

According to ChainCatcher news and Lookonchain data, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Hyperliquid topped the list of mainstream blockchains with the highest TVL (Total Value Locked) growth in the past 7 days, increasing by $3.09 billion, $2.22 billion, and $1.87 billion, respectively. Following closely are Sui (+$232 million), Base (+$215 million), and BSC (+$135 million), Solana (+$68.97 million), Arbitrum (+$63.23 million), and Polygon (+$57.32 million).In addition, the TVL of Tron, CORE, and PulseChain decreased by $286 million, $152 million, and $41.93 million, respectively.

ChainCatcher news, Pudgy Penguins CEO Luca Netz confirmed that users with the Elite role in the Abstract Discord group will be eligible for the PENGU token airdrop.In addition, the Abstract Chain community administrator confirmed in the Discord community that community members who have obtained the Elite role and completed the form (submission window has closed) will receive the PENGU airdrop and will gain corresponding rights after the Abstract Chain mainnet launch.

ChainCatcher news, according to News.bitcoin, the growth of crypto developers is slowing down in 2024, but the long-term trend remains strong. While new developers are entering the crypto space, the total number of developers working in the industry in 2024 has slightly decreased compared to the previous year. Asia has replaced North America as the region with the highest concentration of crypto developers, with India gradually becoming a key player in this space. Additionally, the number of senior crypto developers (those with two years or more of experience) has significantly increased, indicating that the ecosystem is maturing.

ChainCatcher message, xAI announced that Grok is now available for free to everyone. It stated: "Our AI assistant is faster, sharper, and includes all new image generation features. It is available for free on X starting today."

ChainCatcher news, Interface News reported that Musk's xAI announced on December 13 local time that it will begin to roll out the new Grok-2 model for free to all users on the X platform.In the past few weeks, the company has been testing the new version of the Grok-2 model, which has tripled its speed and improved accuracy, instruction following, and multilingual capabilities.

ChainCatcher news, according to Jinshi reports, Citigroup's economist team elaborated on their views for 2025, expecting that companies will shift from reducing hiring to outright layoffs. This, in turn, will lead to a decline in consumer spending and business investment. They stated that even if their view on layoffs is incorrect, the slowdown in income growth that comes with the hiring slowdown still poses risks to spending. A loose labor market will alleviate inflationary pressures in the service sector, while weak global conditions will suppress commodity prices.They indicated that this will lead the Federal Reserve to take aggressive actions, expecting a 25 basis point rate cut at every meeting until July next year, bringing the federal funds rate down to between 3% and 3.25%. Meanwhile, market expectations anticipate that the federal funds rate will reach around 4% by then.Economists noted that if long-term interest rates decline, it will help the severely impacted real estate and manufacturing sectors, but the effect will not be significant. They stated, "If the labor market develops as we expect, with the unemployment rate about to rise sharply, then the weakness in consumer health will offset any demand boost from lower interest rates."

ChainCatcher news, Layer1 blockchain and smart contract platform Sui announced a partnership with Ant Group and its Web3 technology brand ZAN, aiming to accelerate the integration of RWA (Real World Assets) into the Web3 ecosystem globally. The two parties will introduce the tokenization of real-world assets in the ESG field to the Sui blockchain platform, better supporting the development of the real economy through RWA. In August of this year, Chinese new energy company Langxin Group completed approximately 100 million RMB in "charging pile" RWA.Industry insiders believe that RWA connects assets and the supply-demand sides of funds, helping to activate high-quality existing assets of small and medium-sized enterprises, enhance the liquidity of heavy assets, and empower the real economy.

ChainCatcher news, according to Jinshi reports, a nonpartisan fiscal oversight organization, the "Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget" (CRFB), warns in its latest analysis that extending the tax cuts set to expire next year will have almost no benefit for economic growth.The CRFB's findings are based on an assessment by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which found that allowing the tax cuts to expire would significantly increase public revenue, reducing the cumulative fiscal deficit by $3.7 trillion over ten years. This potential revenue growth would mean less public borrowing, which in turn would stimulate private investment.In the CBO's analysis, this would help offset the reduction in the labor force caused by the expiration of the tax cuts. The CBO stated, "Overall, these two effects largely offset each other, resulting in very little change in Gross Domestic Product (GDP)."This means that, in the view of the CRFB, extending the tax cuts would also have a similar, modest net effect on economic growth.

According to ChainCatcher news, monitored by Spot on Chain, since November 1, Mt. Gox has transferred a total of 6,900 BTC (approximately $588 million) to B2C2 Group.It is worth noting that these transfers were divided into multiple small transactions, with each amount ranging from 8.5 BTC to 281 BTC, occurring daily.Recently, Mt. Gox transferred 2,220 BTC ($220.4 million) to a new wallet in the past 6 hours, of which 300 BTC ($29.8 million) may eventually end up in B2C2 Group. Currently, Mt. Gox still holds 38,004 BTC ($3.81 billion).

ChainCatcher news, according to a report by PR Newswire, the decentralized derivatives protocol Symmio has announced the completion of a $3.1 million funding round, with investment firms such as Spartan Group, Orbs, MCLB, and Blockchain Founders Fund contributing approximately $2.1 million, while MS2 Capital, GMoney, and Prime Ventures are early investors in the company.Symmio is an intent-driven derivatives clearing layer aimed at addressing the liquidity and fragmentation issues in DeFi, currently supporting four networks: Arbitrum, Base, BSC, and Mantle. The project revealed plans to launch its token TGE on December 16, with the token debuting on the Base blockchain, and initial liquidity will be provided through the SYMM / ETH trading pair on Aerodrome Finance.

ChainCatcher news, Nasdaq-listed company Canaan Creative Technology announced that its Singapore subsidiary Canaan Creative Global Pte. Ltd. has signed a mining machine purchase agreement with AGM Group Holdings Inc., initially providing 2,000 Bitcoin mining machines. Additionally, it has agreed to offer an option to purchase approximately 30,000 additional BTC mining machines.

ChainCatcher news, according to a report by The Block, a developer report released by the venture capital firm Electric Capital found that Solana is the preferred blockchain for new developers. The report found that among the 39,148 new developers exploring cryptocurrency this year, 7,625 are developing on Solana, indicating that the number of developers on this network has increased by 83% year-over-year.The report states that this is the first time since 2016 that the growth rate of the Solana blockchain ecosystem has surpassed that of Ethereum. However, in terms of total developers, Ethereum remains the largest blockchain in North America, South America, Asia, Europe, and Africa. Solana ranks second in the same regions based on the number of developers.Electric Capital's report also found that in 2024, Aptos, Base, Bitcoin, Internet Computer, NEAR, Polkadot, Polygon, Starknet, and Sui each added over 1,000 new developers. Additionally, BNB, Optimism, Scroll, Stellar, and TON also added 500 new developers.

ChainCatcher news, Musk posted on the X platform that his artificial intelligence service Grok can explain Meme jokes.

ChainCatcher news, the cryptocurrency venture capital firm Digital Currency Group (DCG) has decided to split its Foundry mining business into two independent entities, Fortitude Mining and Foundry.Fortitude Mining will house Foundry's previous self-mining operations and physical infrastructure. On the other hand, Foundry will maintain its pool operations and other Bitcoin mining service lines.DCG noted in a shareholder letter that it is adjusting its business to accommodate future growth. The letter stated, "We believe that (Fortitude) will be stronger as an independent company, so we are spinning it off as a wholly-owned subsidiary of DCG."To ensure a smoother transition, DCG will bring some of Foundry's leadership into the new subsidiary. To gain further support and raise funds, DCG plans to recruit additional staff from outside. Fortitude has already requested its hosting service providers to invoice the new entity, which has been ongoing for at least a month. (Blockspace)Previously, sources disclosed that the world's largest Bitcoin mining pool, Foundry, is laying off 27% of its workforce during the planned restructuring, affecting 16% of Foundry's employees in the U.S. and parts of the team in India.