A look at the most noteworthy industry events and project milestones to watch for in the coming week.
- The EU's MiCA regulatory framework will take effect from December 31.
- FTX's restructuring plan will officially take effect on January 3, 2025, beginning the repayment of $16 billion in cash.
- The crypto investment strategy protocol Doubler will airdrop 50% of its tokens on December 30.
- $277 million worth of SUI will be unlocked on January 1 at 8:00.
- The DeSci protocol Bio Protocol will launch its TGE on the Ethereum mainnet on January 3.
Don't miss these major Web3 events this week (December 30, 2024 - January 5, 2025). Here's a preview of the exciting highlights:
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Key Events
The EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation for crypto exchanges and other companies operating in the EU will take effect from December 31. Additionally, the European Banking Authority (EBA)'s new guidance on the "travel rule" applicable to crypto assets will come into effect on December 30, 2024.
FTX's Chapter 11 reorganization plan will officially take effect on January 3, 2025, beginning the repayment of $16 billion in cash. The initial distribution will be launched within 60 days of the effective date, targeting approved creditors in the Convenience Classes. 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 first distribution, users need to complete the following steps by January 3, 2025: log in to the FTX Debtors' Customer Portal, complete KYC verification, submit necessary tax forms, and open an account with BitGo or Kraken.
The revised Anti-Money Laundering Law of the People's Republic of China will come into effect on January 1, 2025. The Procurator-General and Secretary of the Party Group of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, Ying Yong, emphasized the need to strengthen the crackdown on money laundering crimes, accurately grasp the provisions on improving the scope of predicate crimes for money laundering in the revised Anti-Money Laundering Law, comprehensively implement the Anti-Money Laundering Law and the "crime of money laundering" in the Criminal Law, accurately apply the "Two High" Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Handling of Money Laundering Criminal Cases, deepen the three-year action to combat and govern money laundering violations and crimes, punish money laundering and related crimes according to law, and enhance the ability to crack down on money laundering crimes committed using new technologies, new products, and new businesses.
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has issued a consultation on bank disclosures of crypto-asset risks, following its finalization of prudential standards for crypto-asset exposures in December 2022. The consultation proposes a standardized disclosure template for banks to report their crypto-asset risks, with a proposed implementation date of January 1, 2025.
The Israel Securities Authority (ISA) has approved six mutual funds tracking the price of Bitcoin, which will launch simultaneously on December 31, 2024, offered by institutions such as Migdal Capital Markets, More, Ayalon, Phoenix Investment, Meitav, and IBI. The funds have management fees ranging from 0.25% to 1.5%, with one being an actively managed fund.
Global X, a US-based ETF provider, will not charge any fees on its Bitcoin and Ethereum ETPs in Europe until January 3, 2025, after which the fees will change to 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%.
Project Updates
The crypto investment strategy protocol Doubler will airdrop tokens to all addresses that participated in the Landing Site activity on December 30, and open trading.
The AO ecosystem project Apus Network plans to conduct a TGE in Q4, with the tokens being fully community-driven, with 100% of the token supply distributed to the community to ensure fair and decentralized governance.
The Base chain-based open-source software platform Tea Protocol will hold its TGE on December 31, providing incentives to open-source software contributors based on their contributions.
Kelp DAO, an Ethereum liquidity re-staking platform, will have its first airdrop season (10% of total supply) with a snapshot date of December 31, 2024. The second airdrop season (5% of total supply) will be from January 1, 2025 to April 30, 2025, with an additional 15% loyalty reward for re-staking before January 15, 2025; the remaining 5% airdrop plan is yet to be determined.
The Solana-based real estate transaction protocol Parcl will have the PRCL token airdrop claim deadline on December 31.
Swell Network's Swellchain will distribute 1.25 million SWELL tokens to users who cross-chain and hold assets on Swellchain within the first two weeks, with the deadline being 8:00 AM on December 31.
Zerebro is collaborating with a16z to publicly release the ZerePy open-source framework on December 21 at 1:00 PM.
The decentralized AI platform Nodepay's Season 2 activity will end on January 1 at 7:59 AM. Users need to obtain the Human Proof Badge and connect their Solana wallet before the deadline to ensure they receive the Season 2 allocation. The wallet connection is final and cannot be changed.
Eliza will unveil a new token economics proposal around January 1, designed by professionals from multiple teams, including an LP pairing mechanism and DeFi functionality integration. The project has also acquired a Launchpad company, which will be used for official releases going forward.
Binance will launch a BNSOL super staking activity from January 1, 2025 8:00 AM to February 1, 2025 7:59 AM. Users holding BNSOL or staking SOL to BNSOL during this period will receive OMAPR airdrop rewards.
The first XP season of the decentralized perpetual derivatives Layer2 application chain Paradex will last until January 2, 2025, with the second XP season running from January 3, 2025 to July 31, 2025.
The ZK Nation's second wave of ZK token claims will close on January 3, 2025. Protocol Guild members, external project contributors, or users nominated by ZKsync native ecosystem projects are eligible to claim.
The DeSci protocol Bio Protocol will complete its initial token generation event (TGE) on the Ethereum mainnet on January 3, 2025, and plans to subsequently launch on Solana and Base networks. It will also introduce Long COVID Labs, a new BioDAO project, and a BIO/BioDAO liquidity pool during this period.
Electra Protocol will release the mobile wallet OmniXEP on January 4.
Event Preview
The Blockchain Adventure and Security Forum (FORKS) "Chengdu Station" will be held at the Chengdu Harbour Hotel from 13:00 to 18:30 on January 3, 2025.
Token Unlocking
This week, SUI, OP, and ZETA will see large-scale one-time token unlocking, among which:
Sui (SUI) will unlock 64.19 million tokens on January 1, 2025 at 8:00, worth about $263 million, accounting for 2.19% of the circulating supply;
Optimism (OP) will unlock 31.34 million tokens on December 31, 2024 at 8:00, worth about $56.73 million, accounting for 2.32% of the circulating supply;
ZetaChain (ZETA) will unlock 53.89 million tokens on January 1, 2025 at 8:00, worth about $31.09 million, accounting for 9.35% of the circulating supply;
Kaspa (KAS) will unlock 182 million tokens on January 6, 2025 at 8:00, worth about $21.39 million, accounting for 0.72% of the circulating supply;
Cetus Protocol (CETUS) will unlock about 8.33 million tokens on January 5, 2025 at 8:00, worth about $2.7 million, accounting for 1.32% of the circulating supply;
Alephium (ALPH) will unlock about 1.88 million tokens on January 4, 2025 at 8:00, worth about $2.5 million, accounting for 1.95% of the circulating supply;
Staika (STIK) will unlock about 1.57 million tokens on January 3, 2025 at 8:00, worth about $2.2 million;
Sidus (SIDUS) will unlock about 448 million tokens on January 1, 2025 at 8:00, worth about $2.1 million, accounting for 4.05% of the circulating supply;
Everclear (NEXT) will unlock about 20.11 million tokens on January 5, 2025 at 8:00, worth about $2 million, accounting for 18.82% of the circulating supply;
DODO (DODO) will unlock about 10 million tokens on January 1, 2025 at 8:00, worth about $1.6 million, accounting for 1.38% of the circulating supply;
Manta Network (MANTA) will unlock about 1.87 million tokens on January 1, 2025 at 7:59, worth about $1.6 million, accounting for 0.49% of the circulating supply.
Proposal Voting
The Gitcoin community proposal "Hire Avantgarde for Matching Pool Strategic Asset Management" voting ended on December 24, 2024. The proposal suggests hiring the crypto-native asset management firm Avantgarde to manage assets worth nearly $24 million (mainly ETH and WETH) in the Gitcoin Matching Pool.
The Frax Finance community proposal "USTB as Collateral and Custody Asset for frxUSD" voting ended on January 1, 2025. The proposal aims to introduce USTB as a collateral asset, with an initial cap of $100 million.
The Stargate DAO proposal "Seeking Stargate DAO Approval to Establish an ETH Pool on Abstract" voting ended on January 2, 2025.
