ChainCatcher news, a woman in her 40s was arrested by the police for stealing another person's phone and embezzling virtual currency worth approximately 700 million Korean won.The suspect stole the phone of a man she met in a public social networking (SNS) chat room in Jeju City, and then used personal information obtained in advance to transfer the virtual currency into her own account. The police launched an investigation based on the victim's report and successfully arrested the suspect in an emergency in Gimcheon, North Gyeongsang Province. The suspect confessed that she planned this crime to repay her debts.

ChainCatcher news, according to Coindesk, Indian telecom and technology company Jio Platforms (JPL) announced a partnership with the Polygon development team Polygon Labs to launch Web3 and blockchain services in India. Jio Platforms is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries, owned by Asia's richest man Mukesh Ambani.According to the announcement, the partnership will leverage Polygon's blockchain technology to add innovative Web3 features to Jio Platform's existing applications and services, serving over 450 million users.

ChainCatcher news, CeDeFi infrastructure BounceBit has received investment from Laser Digital, a subsidiary of Japan's Nomura Group.Laser Digital is a digital asset company that, supported by Nomura Securities, provides scalable and robust opportunities in trading, asset management, and venture capital.

ChainCatcher news, according to Jinshi reports, Trump's Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Basset stated in his Senate testimony preparations that the U.S. must ensure supply chain security and prioritize effective investments that promote economic growth rather than wasteful spending. He also emphasized that the U.S. should exercise caution in implementing sanctions and mentioned that Trump has the opportunity to unleash "a new economic golden age," creating more jobs and wealth for Americans.However, according to Politico, Democrats are circulating a memo accusing Basset of improperly declaring nearly $2 million in tax losses and owing nearly $1 million in taxes related to his hedge fund.

ChainCatcher message, according to Whale Alert monitoring, 652 WBTC ($64,872,809) was transferred from Wintermute to an unknown wallet.

ChainCatcher news, according to the official announcement, Binance has now completed the integration of FDUSD on the Solana network and has opened deposit and withdrawal services.In addition, from January 16, 2025, 08:00 to April 17, 2025, 07:59 (UTC+8), users can deposit and withdraw FDUSD tokens from the Solana network without any fees.

ChainCatcher news, Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley posted on X that there are national governments inquiring about Bitcoin ETFs and considering shifting some investments from foreign government bonds to Bitcoin.

ChainCatcher message, according to Whale Alert monitoring, 20,000,000 XRP ($60,549,568) was transferred from Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen's address to an unknown wallet.

ChainCatcher news, according to Bloomberg, Bitcoin has recorded its largest gain of the year, breaking the $100,000 mark again. The latest U.S. inflation data has reignited bets on further interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, boosting global markets.Now, the focus shifts to the policy offensive expected from President-elect Trump after his inauguration on January 20, which may include measures to support the cryptocurrency industry. Speculators are weighing the risks of inflation tariffs and immigration policies against Trump's commitment to making the U.S. a global hub for digital assets, which also supports the idea of establishing a national Bitcoin reserve.A key question is whether Bitcoin will experience a "sell the news" profit-taking after rising 50% since Trump's victory on November 5, when he actually takes office. Pantera Capital portfolio manager Cosmo Jiang stated, "Our understanding is that Trump is prepared to issue a large number of executive orders shortly after taking office next week, some of which are particularly favorable to digital assets. In the short term, we may see some sell-the-news behavior, but those doing so are missing the forest for the trees."

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, the UK government has appointed Emma Reynolds to replace Tulip Siddiq, who resigned due to a corruption scandal, as the new Chancellor of the Exchequer. She will be responsible for overseeing digital assets, central bank digital currencies (CBDC), and broader financial sector matters.

ChainCatcher news, Vitalik commented on the incident where Soneium blacklisted some Meme coins on its social platform, stating that Soneium's situation vividly demonstrates the benefits of launching Ethereum L2 for businesses and users. Businesses can make very detailed choices about how much control to retain and give to users. But whatever rules they choose, those are the rules. Everything is on-chain, transparent, and can be audited by third parties.Developers can also create a system that lets users know they can send transactions on L2 when needed, but there is a significant barrier - the sequencer can restrict but not censor. This is essentially what Sony has done. This is all the free market at work. As an ecosystem, it is important to ensure that:A large amount of financial activity occurs in a completely open environment;There are enough tools for users to understand the properties of the on-chain environment they are in.Previous news, Soneium, a Layer2 project by Sony, sparked controversy by blacklisting some Meme coins suspected of infringing intellectual property on the day of its mainnet launch. This led to some tokens being restricted from trading and not being supported on the official block explorer.

ChainCatcher news, asset management company VanEck submitted an application for the "Onchain Economy" exchange-traded fund (ETF) to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on January 15. According to the documents, the fund will invest in cryptocurrency companies across the entire industry, including software developers, mining companies, cryptocurrency exchanges, infrastructure builders, payment companies, and other businesses in the cryptocurrency space.The asset manager defines these companies as "digital transformation companies" and wrote: "The selection of digital transformation companies is based on fundamental analysis, market trends, the company's strategic positioning within the digital asset ecosystem, and valuation." The fund will also invest in digital asset tools such as commodity futures contracts, but will not invest directly in digital assets by holding cryptocurrencies.

ChainCatcher news, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas posted on the X platform: "We have heard that the S-1 application for the Litecoin ETF has received a response from the SEC, which seems to confirm our prediction that Litecoin is most likely to be the next approved cryptocurrency ETF. That said, the new chairman of the SEC has not yet taken office, which is a huge variable."

ChainCatcher news, according to Bitcoin Magazine, Oklahoma State Representative Cody Maynard has proposed a bill to establish a Bitcoin strategic reserve in the state.

ChainCatcher news, Cannes Mayor David Lisnard stated that as part of the Web3 strategy, the city government will encourage and train local merchants to accept cryptocurrency payments in order to attract high purchasing power customer groups. The training session will be held on February 4, 2025, at 14:30 in the Palais des Festivals, where experts will explain practical content related to technology, law, taxation, and more.In addition, Cannes will host the 8th EthCC conference from June 30 to July 3, 2025, which is expected to attract 10,000 participants and bring new business opportunities to merchants. The city government will also launch a "crypto-friendly" map listing merchants that support crypto payments, making it convenient for participants and the public to use.

ChainCatcher News, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Chief Economist and Director of the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis (DERA) Jessica A. Wachter will be leaving on January 17.SEC Chairman Gary Gensler stated, "I am grateful for Jessica's leadership of the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis, her judgment, and her thoughtful economic analysis. As Chief Economist, she has skillfully led this division, which plays a key role in all of the SEC's critical decisions, whether in policy-making, enforcement, or market oversight. Working with Jessica has been immensely beneficial to me; she is one of my closest advisors. As she returns to academia, I wish her all the best."