1. Top CEX Coins
Top 10 CEX Trading Volume and 24-Hour Price Changes:
BTC: + 3.04%
ETH: + 5.41%
XRP: + 11.11%
DOGE: + 4.8%
SOL: + 9%
ADA: + 4.83%
XLM: + 8.9%
BNB: + 1.1%
SUI: + 3.65%
LTC: + 11.96%
24-Hour Gainers (Data from OKX)
AIXBT: + 35.6%
PHA: + 25.3%
MORPHO: + 21.1%
OL: + 15.8%
ALGO: + 15%
X: + 14%
SUSHI: + 13.14%
PRCL: + 12.8%
WIF: + 12.8%
LDO: + 12%
2. Top Solana Meme Coins (Data from GMGN):
sora
SOLFUNMEME
LUMO
ORION
CatTax
3. 24-Hour Trending Coins
CatTax: Concept from Xiaohongshu, with a large number of TikTok users posting cat pictures, dubbed the "cat tax".
XRP: Reached a new all-time high, with a market cap exceeding $180 billion.
Headlines
SendAI Announces Solana AI Hackathon Results: Over 400 Projects Participated, 21 Projects Selected
SendAI Announces Solana AI Hackathon Results:
1st Place: The Hive (@askthehive_ai)
2nd Place: FXN (@joinFXN)
3rd Place: JailbreakMe (@jailbreakme_xyz)
Within 15 days, over 400 projects competed for a prize pool of over $275,000, with 21 projects selected.
Jupiter: JUPuary Airdrop Checker is Now Live
Solana ecosystem decentralized exchange Jupiter announced on X platform that the JUPuary airdrop checker is now live.
Previously, Jupiter announced a 700 million JUP airdrop in January, with approximately 2.3 million eligible wallets.
Industry News
VanEck Files for Onchain Economy ETF with US SEC
Asset management firm VanEck filed an application with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on January 15 for an "Onchain Economy" exchange-traded fund (ETF). According to the filing, the fund will invest in crypto companies across the industry, including software developers, mining companies, crypto exchanges, infrastructure builders, payment companies, and other enterprises in the crypto 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 strategic positioning of companies in the digital asset ecosystem, and valuation." The fund will also invest in digital asset tools such as commodity futures contracts, but will not directly invest in cryptocurrencies by holding them.
The newly elected Republican Senator Tim Scott, the new chair of the US Senate Banking Committee, announced that developing a regulatory framework for digital assets will be one of the top priorities for the 119th Congress. In a notice on January 15, Tim Scott stated that the Banking Committee plans to focus on "policies that create opportunity for America" in financial inclusion. The committee's priorities include affordable housing, economic national security, regulation, and digital assets. He said: "Under Chair Gensler's leadership, the SEC has refused to provide clear guidance to the crypto industry, forcing projects to go overseas. Looking ahead, the committee will work to establish a regulatory framework that carves out a tailored path for the trading and custody of digital assets."
US Core CPI Unexpectedly Declines, DXY Dollar Index Drops Over 40 Points
The US December non-seasonally adjusted core CPI year-over-year rate was 3.2%, a new low since August 2024, versus the market expectation of 3.3%. After the CPI data release, the DXY dollar index dropped over 40 points to 108.74. (Jinshi)
Project Updates
Sonic Labs: S Token Airdrop Linked to Rewards Program, 3 Ways to Earn
Sonic Labs (formerly Fantom) posted on X platform to explain the Sonic rewards program in detail, mentioning that users need to hold and use whitelisted assets in various DeFi applications to earn Sonic rewards, which are divided into three types:
Passive Rewards: Earned by holding whitelisted assets in Web3 wallets (e.g., Rabby or MetaMask, including hardware wallets). Note: Assets held on centralized exchanges do not count.
Active Rewards: Earned by providing liquidity with whitelisted assets to participating DApps.
The two ways to earn rewards are independent of the applications used. As long as you hold whitelisted assets or provide liquidity as a participant, you can earn rewards.
DApp Rewards
The airdrop also includes a separate portion for developers, where DApps will compete for an allocation of "Sonic Gems" that can be redeemed for S tokens, and then distributed to users through their custom rewards programs.
As a user, the main task is to find the DApp with the best rewards program to increase your liquidity earnings and potential rewards on that platform. The official has also emphasized the details of the whitelisted assets multiple times.
Gravity G Token Stakers Can Now Claim $SEI Token Airdrop
Gravity announced on Twitter that G token stakers can now go to the airdrop claim window to receive the $SEI token. The first round airdrop pool is 345,000 $SEI. Gravity calculates the airdrop reward amount based on the user's staking balance at the snapshot time.
The first $SEI token snapshot time was 10 PM Beijing time on December 20.
The airdrop claim time is 10 PM Beijing time on January 15. The claim window will be open for 1 month. G token stakers can go to the staking page to claim the rewards.
Binance Alpha Adds AIMONICA, VITA and GRIFT Tokens
The official page shows that Binance Alpha has added AIMONICA, VITA and GRIFT tokens.
AI Agent Development Framework arc to Collaborate with Abstract Chain for EVM Compatibility
The Rust-based AI agent development framework arc announced on X that it will collaborate with Abstract Chain to bring EVM compatibility to rig (arc's framework name). The two parties will jointly cultivate new developers and build AI applications on Abstract.
Investments and Financing
1 Money Raises $20 Million in Seed Funding, Kraken Ventures Among Investors
1 Money announced the completion of a $20 million seed funding round, with participation from F-Prime Capital, Galaxy Ventures, Hack VC, Kraken Ventures, MoonPay Ventures, and Bankless Ventures. The new capital will be used to launch the 1 Money Network, a next-generation payment network aimed at becoming an inexpensive, compliant Layer 1 protocol dedicated to stablecoin payments. (TheBlock)
Reown (Formerly WalletConnect) Raises $13 Million in Series B Funding, Led by USV and 1kx
Reown (formerly known as WalletConnect) announced the completion of a $13 million Series B funding round, led by Union Square Ventures (USV) and 1kx, with participation from Global Digital Asset Holdings (a joint venture between SC Ventures and SBI Holdings), Shopify Ventures, Kraken Ventures, Crypto.com Capital, Figment, Kiln, Everstake, BitGo Ventures, and Fenbushi. The company has now raised a total of $38 million, with the new funds intended to be used for the development of its SDK - Reown AppKit and Reown WalletKit - to further enhance the on-chain user experience platform, addressing issues such as enabling crypto subscription payments without the need for custodial accounts. Reown's crypto solutions clients include the financial infrastructure platform Stripe and the gift card giant Raise.
Regulatory Updates
Judge orders BitMEX to pay $100 million fine for violating U.S. Bank Secrecy Act
A U.S. federal judge sentenced HDR Global Trading Limited (also known as the parent company of the cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX) to two years of unsupervised probation and a $100 million fine. On January 15, in a hearing held at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge John Koeltl handed down the sentence to BitMEX. About six months ago, the cryptocurrency exchange had admitted to violating the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) by failing to have a "meaningful" anti-money laundering program in place during its operations. In July 2024, the crypto company had claimed that these charges were "old news" and hinted that no further fines were expected. In a statement to users following the sentencing, BitMEX reiterated that its BSA charges were old news and added: "While we are disappointed by the additional monetary penalty, the amount is significantly less than the fines levied by the DOJ over the past few years."
U.S. regulators fine Block and Cash $80 million for violations
According to the official announcement, in a coordinated enforcement action by financial regulators from 48 U.S. states, Block, Inc. will pay an $80 million fine and take corrective actions to address violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and anti-money laundering (AML) laws, which protect the financial system from illicit use. It is reported that over 50 million consumers use Block's mobile payment service Cash App to spend, remit, store, and invest. In the multi-state settlement agreement signed this week, Block agreed to pay the fines to state government agencies, hire an independent consultant to review the comprehensiveness and effectiveness of its BSA/AML program, and submit a report to the states within 9 months. After the report submission, Block will have 12 months to rectify any deficiencies found during the review.
Voices
Delphi Digital has released 10 predictions for 2025 on its platform, specifically:
1. BTC will have more upside potential in 2025, with monthly RSI between 70-90 indicating a bull market, driven by institutional and regulatory catalysts.
2. Solana will surpass Ethereum, with better user experience and content narratives, and SVM being the fastest-growing alt-VM ecosystem, contributing to network effects.
3. NFTs will make a comeback, with airdrops from projects like Bored Ape Yacht Club, Milady, and Azuki potentially inspiring imitation by other NFT projects.
4. DeFi will evolve into DeAI, changing the way users interact with DeFi.
5. AI Agents will become first-class VCs, with PvP between users being replaced by agent-based interactions, and at least 3 agent frameworks becoming unicorns by 2025.
6. High-throughput chains will drive innovation, with a focus on Hyperliquid, Sui, Monad, Berachain, and MegaETH.
7. DePIN will make a comeback, with a successful large-scale DePIN project leading to an overall increase in the DePIN sector's valuation, with Helium, Doublezero, and Hivemapper worth watching, as well as healthcare and grid operations.
8. 2025 will be the year of zkVM revolution, with zkVM improving interoperability between rollups and expanding the developer market.
9. AI will bring new opportunities to GameFi, such as AI-driven development tools, AI NPCs, and the integration of Virtual Game Framework and Eliza with Unreal and Unity, potentially changing the rules of AI-powered games.
10. Consumer DeFi will be the next frontier, with zkTLS allowing Web2 data to be on-chained, and the alignment of issuer and distributor incentives leading to the scaling of revenue-sharing stablecoins.
