Cryptocurrency Market Performance

Currently, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization is $3.45 trillion, with BTC accounting for 57.03%, which is $1.97 trillion. The stablecoin market capitalization is $205.8 billion, with a 7-day increase of 0.7%, of which USDT accounts for 67.82%.

This week, the price of BTC has shown range-bound fluctuations, with the current price of BTC at $96,782; ETH has also shown range-bound fluctuations, with the current price of ETH at $3,426.

CoinMarketCap's top 200 projects, most have declined, and a small portion have increased, among which: ZEN has a 7-day increase of 100.34%, FAX has a 7-day increase of 66.62%, and BGB has a 7-day increase of 92.56%.

This week, the net outflow of the US Bitcoin spot ETF was $457 million; the net inflow of the US Ethereum spot ETF was $329.1 million.

The "Fear & Greed Index" on December 27 was 74 (the same as the previous week), and the sentiment this week was "Greed" for 7 days.

Market forecast: Due to the Federal Reserve's statement last week about reducing interest rate hikes next year, coupled with the Christmas holiday, the overall market performance this week has been general, with a large net outflow of the US Bitcoin spot ETF, and a slight increase in stablecoin issuance recently. The overall market is expected to continue to consolidate, and the AI Agent sector can be focused on as a hot track.

Understanding the Present

Review of the Week's Major Events

1. On December 23, Securitize, the broker-dealer for BlackRock's BUIDL tokenized money market fund, has submitted a governance proposal calling for the addition of BUIDL tokens as a reserve asset for the soon-to-be-relaunched Frax USD stablecoin by Frax;

2. On December 23, former college football player and Republican House candidate Bo Hines was appointed by former President Trump as the executive director of the Presidential Digital Assets Advisory Council, which Trump referred to as the "Crypto Council";

3. On December 23, according to official information, stablecoin issuer Usual completed a $10 million Series A funding round, led by Binance Labs and Kraken Ventures, with participation from OKX Ventures, IOSG Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, GSR, and Amber Group;

4. On December 23, Justin Sun, the founder of TRON and a member of the HTX Global Advisory Council, posted on social media that the "AI token issuance function of the TRON network MEME coin issuance platform SunPump" has been launched;

5. On December 25, according to official information, Sonic Labs (formerly Fantom) announced the launch of its Sonic Gateway, allowing users to bridge USDC, EURC, WETH, and FTM from Ethereum to Sonic;

6. Greeks.live: Option market data shows a significant decline in market activity, with participants' optimism for January weakening;

7. On December 25, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Wednesday that Russian companies have started using Bitcoin and other digital currencies in international payments, which is the result of legislative changes allowing such use to circumvent Western sanctions;

8. On December 25, according to a report by Yonhap News Agency, data from the Bank of Korea showed that as of the end of November, the number of cryptocurrency investors in South Korea reached 15.59 million, accounting for 30% of the total population (about 51.23 million), an increase of 610,000 from the previous month;

9. On December 26, Pump Science officially announced on social media that BIO Protocol will airdrop BIO tokens to holders of URO and RIF.

Macroeconomic

1. On December 24, according to market news, Grayscale has filed an 8-K form with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the Grayscale Horizen Trust (ZEN);

2. On December 26, according to CME's "Fed Watch" data, the probability of a 25-basis-point rate cut by the Federal Reserve in January 2023 is 8.6%, and the probability of no change is 91.4%;

3. On December 27, Bitwise has filed with the SEC to list the "Bitcoin Standard Corporations ETF".

ETF

According to statistics, during the period from December 23 to December 27, the net outflow of the US Bitcoin spot ETF was $457 million; as of December 27, GBTC (Grayscale) has a total outflow of $21.306 billion, and currently holds $19.521 billion, while IBIT (BlackRock) currently holds $52.018 billion. The total market value of the US Bitcoin spot ETF is $108.99 billion.

The net inflow of the US Ethereum spot ETF was $329.1 million.

Envisioning the Future

Event Preview

1. CoinDesk will hold Consensus Hong Kong from February 18 to 20, 2025 in Hong Kong.

Project Progress

1. The snapshot date for the first airdrop season (10% of the total supply) of the Ethereum liquidity re-staking platform Kelp DAO is December 31, 2024;

2. The deadline for claiming the PRCL token airdrop of the Solana ecosystem real estate transaction protocol Parcl is December 31;

3. The re-staking protocol Swell Network will allocate 1.25 million SWELL tokens to users who cross-chain and hold assets on Swellchain within the first two weeks, and users need to complete the cross-chain by 8:00 on December 31 to receive their share;

4. The second XP season of the decentralized perpetual derivatives Layer2 application chain Paradex will be from January 3, 2025 to July 31, 2025.

Important Events

1. The European Banking Authority (EBA)'s new guidelines on the "travel rule" for crypto assets will take effect on December 30, 2024;

2. The European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, providing guidance for crypto currency exchanges and other companies operating in the EU, will take effect from December 31;

3. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has issued a consultation on bank crypto asset risk disclosures, to align with its prudential standards for crypto asset risks finalized in December 2022. The consultation proposes a standardized disclosure template for banks to disclose their crypto asset risks, with a proposed implementation date of January 1, 2025;

4. The Bitcoin and Ethereum ETPs launched in Europe by US ETF provider Global X will be fee-free until January 3, 2025, after which the fee will be 0.29%. These two products were initially listed on the Xetra exchange in Frankfurt and the SIX Swiss Exchange in Zurich in March 2022, with a total expense ratio of 0.65%;

5. FTX and its affiliated debtors have announced that the court-approved Chapter 11 reorganization plan will become effective on January 3, 2025. The initial distribution will commence within 60 days of the effective date, targeting the Convenience Classes of allowed creditors. FTX has reached agreements with crypto custodian BitGo and exchange Kraken to provide asset distribution services for retail and institutional clients. To be eligible for the initial distribution, users need to complete the following steps by January 3, 2025: log in to the FTX Debtors' customer portal, complete KYC verification, submit required tax forms, and open an account with BitGo or Kraken.

Token Unlocks

1. COTI (COTI) will unlock 2 billion tokens on January 1, worth approximately $244 million, accounting for 45.12% of the circulating supply;

2. Orbler (ORBR) will unlock 37.41 million tokens on January 2, worth approximately $8.61 million, accounting for 1.87% of the circulating supply;

3. TARS AI (TAI) will unlock 28.89 million tokens on January 2, worth approximately $10.16 million, accounting for 2.89% of the circulating supply.