In the coming week from February 24, 2025 to March 2, 2025, here are some notable blockchain news worth your attention.
News Preview:
- Ethereum plans to activate the Pectra upgrade on the Holesky testnet on February 24.
- $FX will be renamed to $PUNDIAI and implement a 100:1 supply reduction on February 25.
- VitaDAO plans to launch a new token on Pump Science on February 25.
- The U.S. Senate Banking Digital Assets Subcommittee will hold its first hearing on February 26, discussing "Exploring a Bipartisan Legislative Framework for Digital Assets".
- Optimism (OP) will unlock about 31.34 million tokens at 8 AM Beijing time on February 28, accounting for 1.93% of the current circulating supply, worth about $36.7 million.
- Arkham Exchange will start providing spot trading services to users in 17 U.S. states from March 1.
- Sui (SUI) will unlock about 22.97 million tokens at 8 AM Beijing time on March 1, accounting for 0.74% of the current circulating supply, worth about $77.6 million.
- Kanye stated that all the coins in the current market are fake, and he will launch his own coin next week.
February 24
Exchanges:
Binance will delist AMB, CLV, STMX and VITE on February 24
Binance announced that it will delist and stop trading the following spot trading pairs: AMB/USDT, CLV/BTC, CLV/USDT, STMX/TRY, STMX/USDT and VITE/USDT starting from 11:00 AM (Beijing time) on February 24, 2025. All outstanding orders will be automatically canceled after the trading stops. Deposits of the relevant tokens will no longer be credited to user accounts starting from 11:00 AM (Beijing time) on February 25, 2025, and withdrawal services will continue until 11:00 AM (Beijing time) on April 24, 2025.
Bithumb: Plans to suspend service for about 6 hours on February 24 due to internal system upgrades
Bithumb announced that it will conduct internal system upgrade work from 1:00 AM to 7:00 AM (a total of 6 hours) on Monday, February 24, 2025, during which all Bithumb services (Bithumb APP / mobile website / PC / API) will be temporarily suspended. The maintenance time may be shortened or delayed. To protect customers with outstanding orders, orders may be canceled, so please cancel buy/sell orders as much as possible before the service check.
CME plans to launch cash-settled options on Bitcoin Friday futures on February 24
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group (CME) announced that it plans to launch cash-settled options linked to its Bitcoin Friday futures on February 24, subject to regulatory approval. Giovanni Vicioso, CME's Global Head of Crypto Products, stated that the smaller size and daily expiration design of these new option contracts provide market participants with more capital-efficient tools to adjust their Bitcoin exposures. Since its launch in September last year, the Bitcoin Friday futures contract, with a size of 1/50 of a Bitcoin, has traded over 775,000 contracts with an average daily volume of around 9,700 contracts.
Project Dynamics:
Latest Ethereum ACDE meeting: Plans to activate the Pectra upgrade on the Holesky testnet on February 24
Christine Kim, Vice President of Research at Galaxy, summarized the 203rd Ethereum Core Developers Execution (ACDE) conference call, where developers confirmed the timeline for upgrading Ethereum's public testnets, planning to activate the Pectra upgrade on the Holesky and Sepolia testnets on February 24 and March 5, respectively. If the public testnet upgrades go smoothly, Pectra is expected to launch on the Ethereum mainnet around April 8. Additionally, developers discussed Beiko's proposal to lock the scope of the Fusaka upgrade before the Pectra upgrade is deployed, and Beiko also suggested extending the deadline for developers to submit EIP proposals to ensure thorough discussion and integration of various opinions.
February 25
Project Dynamics:
CoinList will launch the Obol token sale on February 25
CoinList announced that it will launch the Obol token sale on February 25 at 1:00 AM (Beijing time), with a 30% discount compared to the previous VC investment round. Obol is the base token for L1 blockchains and decentralized infrastructure networks. For regular users, the FDV is $125 million, the token price is $0.25, and 33% will be unlocked 6 months after TGE, followed by a 12-month linear unlock. For wstETH or weETH holders, the FDV is $115 million, the token price is $0.23, and 33% will be unlocked 6 months after TGE, followed by a 12-month linear unlock. Users need to hold at least $20 worth of wstETH or weETH on CoinList from March 4, 1:00 to March 11, 1:00 to enjoy the lower price and FDV. The purchase limit is a minimum of $100 and a maximum of $250,000. Unallocated users will receive their funds in their CoinList wallets before 1:00 AM on March 13. This public sale is not available to users in the U.S., China, Canada, and certain other jurisdictions.
$FX will be renamed to $PUNDIAI and implement a 100:1 supply reduction on February 25
$FX will officially be renamed to $PUNDIAI at 10:00 AM (GMT+8) on February 25, 2025. This upgrade will be automatically or manually performed based on the blockchain the token is on. $FX on the Pundi AIFX Omnilayer (formerly f(x)Core) will be automatically upgraded, including staked and non-staked tokens. $FX on the Base chain and Ethereum network will need to be manually upgraded, and the upgrade page will be provided later, allowing users to bridge $FX back to the Pundi AIFX Omnilayer for automatic upgrade. Centralized exchanges participating in this upgrade will provide automatic upgrades, and users should follow the specific timelines provided by the exchanges.
BNB Chain: Plans to conduct the Pascal hard fork on the testnet on February 25, and on the mainnet in mid-March
BNB Smart Chain (BSC) will undergo the Pascal hard fork. The fork is planned to take place on the testnet on February 25, 2025, and on the mainnet in mid-March 2025. The Pascal hard fork integrates key features from the Ethereum Pectra upgrade, enhancing the compatibility between BSC and Ethereum.
VitaDAO: Plans to launch a new token on Pump Science on February 25
The longevity research decentralized autonomous organization VitaDAO posted on the X platform that it plans to launch a new compound experimentation token on the Pump Science platform on February 25, with a supplement pre-purchase and market launch on March 25.
Token Unlocks:
AltLayer (ALT) will unlock about 240 million tokens at 6:00 PM Beijing time on February 25, accounting for 9.41% of the current circulating supply, worth about $11.6 million.
February 26
Policy and Regulation:
The U.S. Senate Banking Digital Assets Subcommittee plans to hold its first hearing on February 26
The U.S. Senate Banking Digital Assets Subcommittee announced that it will hold its first hearing next Wednesday (February 26) to discuss "Exploring a Bipartisan Legislative Framework for Digital Assets".
February 27
Exchanges:
Upbit: Plans to suspend NFT services for 2 hours on February 27
The South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit announced that due to planned database maintenance tasks, its NFT services will be suspended for 2 hours from 06:00 to 08:00 on February 27. During this time, the deposit and withdrawal of Ethereum and Polygon-based NFTs on Upbit will not be possible. The check may be postponed or canceled depending on market conditions.
Kraken will fully shut down its NFT marketplace on February 27 and shift focus to other projects
Kraken, a crypto exchange, announced in a statement that the company will close its NFT marketplace to redirect resources to upcoming projects. After November 27, 2024, users will no longer be able to list, bid, or sell items on Kraken's NFT marketplace; they can only withdraw their assets. The marketplace will be fully closed on February 27, 2025. A Kraken representative said: "We've decided to shut down our NFT marketplace to dedicate more resources to new products and services, including some unannounced initiatives in development. Customers have been notified of these changes, and our team will support them in transferring their NFTs to their Kraken wallets or self-custody wallets of their choice."
ZK Nation posted on the X platform, announcing that since the required quorum has been reached, the voting period for ZIP-6 is planned to end at 18:15 UTC on February 27. The proposal will upgrade the governance contracts, redeploying all governance contracts, including the contract related to the ZKSYNC protocol upgrade mechanism, the UpgradeHandler contract, which is responsible for executing Ethereum protocol upgrades approved by the Token Assembly.
February 28
Policy and Regulation:
The Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) has published a regulatory proposal to prohibit centralized exchanges from allowing users to withdraw stablecoins to self-custody wallets. According to the public consultation notice, in the context where Brazilian law already allows payments in foreign currency, the transfer of stablecoins (referred to as "tokens denominated in foreign currency") between residents will be restricted. This is part of Brazil's crypto regulation law passed in December 2022, which designates BCB as responsible for establishing rules for the country's crypto industry. The public consultation will continue until February 28, 2025, and market participants can share their opinions with the regulator. However, BCB can override the opinions and act according to the document.
Project Dynamics:
Teleport, a decentralized ride-hailing app on the Solana blockchain, announced on the X platform: "The platform is about to shut down, this is not the desired outcome, but we are very grateful to this community and all the passionate people who believed in the vision, unfortunately we couldn't find a way to keep the business running normally. More detailed analysis will be released in the future, explaining the reasons behind this decision, but for now we are focused on an orderly shutdown. The Teleport app will support the transfer of any remaining USDC balance and the export of user private keys until February 28, 2025."
Metaplanet to be included in the MSCI Japan Index on February 28
Simon Gerovich, CEO of the Japanese listed company Metaplanet, stated that Metaplanet will be officially included in the MSCI Japan Index after the market close on February 28, 2025. The MSCI Japan Index, compiled by Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI), covers large and mid-cap Japanese companies and is an important reference indicator for global institutional investors.
Token Unlocks:
Optimism (OP) will unlock approximately 31.34 million tokens on February 28 at 8:00 am Beijing time, accounting for 1.93% of the current circulating supply, valued at approximately $36.7 million.
March 1
Exchanges:
Arkham Exchange to offer spot trading to users in 17 U.S. states starting March 1
Arkham Intelligence announced that its Arkham Exchange will start offering spot cryptocurrency trading to users in 17 U.S. states from March 1. Arkham had announced this move last November, after previously launching a USDT-based perpetual contract exchange. The spot trading will be available to users in Colorado, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Wyoming, Wisconsin, California, Massachusetts, and Montana.
11.2 million SOL from FTX bankruptcy auction to be unlocked on March 1, worth about $2.06 billion
According to monitoring by @ai_9684xtpa, 11.2 million SOL (worth about $2.06 billion) from the FTX bankruptcy auction will be unlocked on March 1, 2025. Previously, FTX had sold a total of 41 million SOL through three auctions, with the main buyers and their returns as follows:
- Galaxy purchased 25.52 million at $64 per SOL, with a return of 187%;
- Pantera and others purchased 13.67 million at $95 per SOL, with a return of 93%;
- Figure and others purchased 1.8 million at $102 per SOL, with a return of 80%.
Token Unlocks:
Sui (SUI) will unlock approximately 22.97 million tokens at 8:00 am Beijing time on March 1, accounting for 0.74% of the current circulating supply, valued at approximately $77.6 million.
ZetaChain (ZETA) will unlock approximately 44.26 million tokens at 8:00 am Beijing time on March 1, accounting for 6.48% of the current circulating supply, valued at approximately $15 million.
dYdX (DYDX) will unlock approximately 8.33 million tokens at 8:00 am Beijing time on March 1, accounting for 1.14% of the current circulating supply, valued at approximately $6.7 million.
Sleepless AI (AI) will unlock approximately 18.21 million tokens at 8:00 am Beijing time on March 1, accounting for 14.01% of the current circulating supply, valued at approximately $5.1 million.
March 2
Exchanges:
OKX to delist GFT spot trading pairs, suspend GFT withdrawal service on March 2
OKX platform announced that it plans to officially delist the GFT/USDT and GFT/USDC trading pairs on December 3, 2024, from 5:00 pm to 5:30 pm (UTC+8). The deposit service for GFT will be suspended on December 2, 2024, at 4:00 pm (UTC+8), and GFT withdrawal service will be suspended on March 2, 2025, at 4:00 pm (UTC+8). Users are advised to process their assets before March 4, 2025, at 4:00 pm (UTC+8) to avoid any losses.
Timing to be determined
DeepSeek to open-source 5 code repositories next week
DeepSeek announced today that it will open-source 5 code repositories over the next week, with new content unlocked daily, further sharing its latest progress. DeepSeek explained that the modules for the current online service have been tested and deployed, ready for production. The company defines itself as a small company and stated that each sharing will become a powerful momentum to accelerate the industry's innovative journey. It also mentioned that there is no ivory tower in this field, only the pure garage entrepreneurial spirit and the innovative power built by the community.
Kanye (Ye): All the coins on the current market are fake, will launch his own coin next week
American producer and rapper Ye (Kanye West) tweeted that all Ye-related Memes on the current market are fake, and he will launch his own coin next week. He later tweeted, "YEEZY is committed to creating a true currency, and no matter what field I enter, I will learn from the best and treat their life's work with the utmost respect."
According to X user @afhasbara, Kanye sold the publishing rights to his X account for $20 million to @barkmeta before the cryptocurrency launch, with his agent John Monopoly taking a 15% fee. The Kanye cryptocurrency tweets we see now are obviously not posted by him personally.
OpenAI's GPT-4.5 expected to launch as early as next week, GPT-5 may be released in late May
Microsoft is preparing for OpenAI's latest model, with GPT-4.5 expected to be released as early as next week, and Microsoft anticipating the release of GPT-5 by the end of May. The updated GPT-5 will make significant improvements to the use of ChatGPT, unifying OpenAI's o-series and GPT-series models, and reducing user confusion in selecting models.
