ChainCatcher news, Ripple's stablecoin Senior Vice President Jack McDonald revealed that the company plans to launch its USD-pegged stablecoin RLUSD on more exchanges, including Coinbase in the United States.McDonald stated that the process of getting RLUSD listed on exchanges involves complex technical procedures, including support for different blockchains and their assets. He mentioned that some exchanges have economic partnerships with specific stablecoins, such as Coinbase with USDC and Binance with FDUSD, but he believes that Coinbase may gradually expand the range of supported stablecoins. Currently, Coinbase supports various stablecoins, including USDC, PAX, GUSD, PYUSD, and USDT.McDonald expects that by the end of 2025, more exchanges will support RLUSD. He also pointed out that the stablecoin market in the future will be dominated by issuers with institutional support and compliance capabilities, while smaller issuers will face challenges due to high compliance costs.

ChainCatcher message, CertiK Alert posted that the Hologram team has confirmed that the Holoworld AI X account has been compromised. Users are advised to be cautious about security and not to interact with this account.

ChainCatcher news, the Financial Services Commission of South Korea has announced that it will promote the legalization of Security Token Offerings (STO) and fractional investment platforms as one of the core economic tasks for this year. STO converts assets such as real estate and artworks into digital tokens through blockchain technology, supporting small investors to participate in high-value asset investments. Financial authorities have begun revising the Capital Markets Act and the Electronic Securities Act, and are preparing the relevant infrastructure for this purpose.The industry expects that the legislation of STO will significantly boost the growth of South Korea's digital asset market, with the STO market size in South Korea projected to reach 119 trillion won by 2026 and increase to 367 trillion won by 2030, nearly quadrupling.

ChainCatcher news, according to a report by Reuters last week citing unnamed sources, the cryptocurrency industry has been lobbying Trump to issue an executive order within his first 100 days in office to establish a U.S. Bitcoin reserve, ensure the industry can access banking services, and create a cryptocurrency advisory committee. The report also stated that the industry expects at least one order to be issued on January 20.An analyst told MarketWatch that Bitcoin could rise to a historic high of over $125,000 in the first quarter of this year, or it could drop to $77,000—the key factor being whether Trump will quickly fulfill his promises to the cryptocurrency industry after taking office. These promises include his intention to make the U.S. the "capital of internet cryptocurrency" and the "world's Bitcoin superpower."

ChainCatcher news, Sonic SVM (SONIC) and Galaxy Interactive announced the joint launch of the G.A.M.E. (Game, AI, Meme, Ecosystem) Fund No. 1, aimed at promoting the development of Web3 games, AI Agents, and TikTok Web3 application layers within the Sonic SVM ecosystem.The first round of funding has been confirmed for mobile casual gaming giant Gomble Games, which plans to become the first large casual game to expand into the Sonic TikTok application layer. Gomble Games has received support from Binance Labs and Animoca Brands, and in 2023, it ranked first and fifth in global mobile game downloads in South Korea and worldwide, respectively, with over 110 million unique users globally.

ChainCatcher news, APRO Oracle has reached a strategic partnership with ai16z. The core of this strategic cooperation is to integrate APRO Oracle's innovative AgentText Secure Transmission Protocols (ATTPs) into ai16z's ElizaOS framework, which is expected to set a new industry standard for the AI Agent ecosystem infrastructure.APRO Oracle's ATTPs protocol aims to provide secure, verifiable, and real-time data transmission support for AI Agents. By integrating with the ElizaOS framework supported by ai16z, ATTPs will enable developers to build various types of AI Agents more efficiently and facilitate collaboration between AI Agents. As part of this integration, APRO Oracle will provide four dedicated source agents to support the ai16z ecosystem built on the Eliza framework.

ChainCatcher message, Virtuals Protocol posted on X: "The Virtuals Discord server has been compromised. Please ignore all posts and private messages from administrators until further notice. The team is actively investigating this issue and will provide updates as soon as possible."

ChainCatcher message, Act I: The AI Prophecy announced on X that the ACT community will provide funding to GNON to support the development of a decentralized communication network called Echo Chambers. This network aims to provide a censorship-free, ban-free peer-to-peer real-time communication platform, allowing developers to freely deploy, test, and optimize models, fostering innovation and collaboration.

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, the Financial Office of the Guangzhou Municipal Committee recently issued the "Action Plan for Further Promoting the Digital Renminbi Work in Guangzhou" (referred to as the "Digital Currency 2.0 Plan"). The "Action Plan" clarifies the main tasks of the pilot work from seven aspects.Further leverage the functional roles of the member units of the Guangzhou Digital Renminbi Work Leading Group. Each unit will formulate work plans for innovating and promoting digital renminbi application scenarios in their respective fields, implementing no less than one application scenario in their areas of responsibility.Explore promoting the use of digital renminbi as a payment method for prepaid services citywide.Vigorously create various digital renminbi application demonstration zones.Further enrich and improve application scenarios for digital renminbi in the transportation sector.Promote innovative digital renminbi application scenarios in the port and shipping sector.Actively advance the application of digital renminbi in cross-border payment and other businesses. Actively promote the participation of digital renminbi operating institutions and related enterprises in the pilot testing of the multilateral central bank digital currency bridge in the Guangzhou area. The Guangzhou Commodity Exchange's commodity trading platform and the Guangzhou Shipping Exchange's digital renminbi application will be implemented.Vigorously enhance the foundational strength of the digital renminbi industry.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, the Digital Sovereignty Alliance (DSA) was officially established today. This alliance is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing emerging technologies, public policy, research, and education, including decentralized technologies, blockchain, cryptocurrency, Web3 innovations, and artificial intelligence.DSA Director Adrian Wall stated, "The purpose of establishing the DSA is to lead important bipartisan dialogue and advocate for policies that ensure emerging technologies benefit society as a whole. The rapid development in fields such as blockchain and artificial intelligence brings tremendous benefits to society, and therefore public policy must keep pace to address ethical and social impacts. We are committed to bringing together experts, policymakers, and the public to advocate for thoughtful, forward-looking policies."

ChainCatcher news, Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley posted on X: "The Trump administration may unfreeze merger and acquisition (M&A) deals. Large companies (like the Big Seven) may ultimately be able to leverage their market value. Amazon could acquire Instacart, Google could acquire Uber, and so on.Big companies may become bigger, while medium-sized companies may shrink. If this happens, I believe it will accelerate the development of cryptocurrency. The premise of cryptocurrency is the distrust that large institutions will act in your best interest. The growing size of big companies underscores this point. 2025 will be fascinating."

ChainCatcher message, lmk.fun (formerly Scopescan) has released a reminder on the X platform stating that the X account of the Web3 knowledge graph protocol 0xScope (@ScopeProtocol) has been compromised. Please do not click on any links or trust the content they post. Investigation and recovery are underway.

ChainCatcher news, according to Morningstar, investors seeking to continue the cryptocurrency bull market will closely monitor any regulatory changes in 2025, as well as whether Trump's commitments to the crypto industry will materialize. Trump has repeatedly vowed to support the crypto industry during his campaign and has received backing from several key figures in the sector.Fundstrat's head of digital assets, Sean Farrell, explained, "The first 100 days of Trump's term will be very, very important, as analysts often use the 'first 100 days' as a benchmark for measuring the efficiency and influence of an incoming U.S. president." Although the incoming president has yet to outline any specific plans, investors will be watching to see if Trump fulfills his promise to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve in the U.S., which primarily includes:Clear guidelines on which cryptocurrencies should be classified as securities;Whether Trump will fulfill his commitment to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve in the U.S.;Any changes to the SAB121 bill, which establishes accounting standards for companies that custody cryptocurrencies, requiring publicly traded companies, including banks, to recognize the cryptocurrencies they hold in custody as liabilities on their balance sheets;Whether the Federal Reserve will significantly lower its key policy interest rates in 2025.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, the smart contract of the blockchain company Virtuals Protocol was accidentally found to have vulnerabilities by security researcher Jinu (pseudonym) during a review. Virtuals Protocol quickly released a fix and restarted its bug bounty program. On December 3, Jinu stumbled upon the issue while reviewing the contract and immediately reported it to Virtuals Protocol, only to learn that the company did not have an active bug bounty program, which meant his discovery did not qualify for a reward. According to Jinu, the Virtuals Protocol team also closed the Discord group specifically for reporting the vulnerability.In a post on the X platform, Jinu stated, "This vulnerability could impact the Virtuals ecosystem; if exploited, it would prevent the generation of AgentTokens until the contract is fixed." After making this information public on the X platform, Virtuals Protocol contacted Jinu and promptly released a fix. Despite the timely release of the fix, Virtuals Protocol has not yet announced a bug bounty reward for Jinu. In the message to the researcher, the company thanked Jinu for reporting the issue and apologized for the previous communication breakdown.

ChainCatcher news, DuckChain announced a strategic partnership with Mind Network to explore innovative possibilities in on-chain governance and jointly promote the deep integration of AI and Web3.At the core of this collaboration, Mind Network will provide DuckChain with a secure and efficient decentralized governance voting solution based on Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) technology, fully ensuring user privacy. This solution will significantly enhance the efficiency and security of on-chain governance, laying a solid foundation for DuckChain's AI-driven blockchain ecosystem. DuckChain will leverage Mind Network's technological advantages to promote the large-scale application of the AI+Web3 ecosystem globally, especially targeting the 1 billion Telegram user base.As the first FHE project to launch on the mainnet, Mind Network is committed to becoming the infrastructure of the HTTPZ era, promoting the widespread application of FHE technology in the fields of Web3 and AI, and addressing key issues such as data privacy protection, quantum resistance, and decentralized consensus.

ChainCatcher news, the UAE is actively promoting the Web3 gaming industry as part of its economic diversification strategy to reduce dependence on oil.The country's gaming market is valued at $420 million, with 90% of the adult population participating in gaming. Dubai's "2033 Dubai Gaming Plan" aims to contribute $4 billion to GDP by 2030 and create 27,000 jobs. The plan focuses on developing an integrated gaming ecosystem with virtual reality (VR), artificial intelligence (AI), and Web3 technologies.The Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) has become the core of the Web3 gaming ecosystem, attracting over 100 gaming companies. DMCC supports industry innovation and growth through collaboration with the gaming and cryptocurrency sectors, providing funding, incubation, and talent recruitment.

ChainCatcher news, Xu Youxi, the president of the Financial Investment Association, stated in his New Year's address that he will promote the expansion of the digital asset market as a future growth driver for the capital market by advancing token securities legislation and virtual asset ETFs. He will also strive to innovate financial infrastructure to help financial investment companies find new growth opportunities in the digital asset market.He committed to supporting the business expansion and capability enhancement of financial investment companies, assisting large securities firms in becoming top securities companies in Asia, and promoting the expansion of comprehensive financial investment companies into overseas markets. In addition, the president also stated that he will actively promote policy reforms, including corporate payment and settlement, and support measures such as the BDC system and expanding financing channels for small and medium-sized securities companies.