News Preview:
- The "Regulation on Markets in Crypto-assets (MiCA)" will come into effect on December 30;
- Optimism (OP) will unlock about 31.34 million tokens at 8 AM Beijing time on December 31, 2024, which is 2.32% of the current circulating supply, worth about $58.6 million;
- a16z will publish a new token economics proposal around January 1;
- Sui (SUI) will unlock about 64.19 million tokens at 8 AM Beijing time on January 1, 2025, which is 2.19% of the current circulating supply, worth about $270 million;
- ZetaChain (ZETA) will unlock about 53.89 million tokens at 8 AM Beijing time on January 1, 2025, which is 9.35% of the current circulating supply, worth about $32 million;
- FTX claims processing will begin on January 3 next year, with $16 billion in cash to be repaid;
- Binance plans to list BIO at 6 PM Beijing time on January 3, 2025.
December 30
Policy and Regulation:
The EU's new regulations require crypto exchanges to comply with the Travel Rule guidelines, and strengthen anti-money laundering measures from December 30
The European Banking Authority (EBA) has taken important steps to strengthen anti-money laundering (AML) measures, announcing that the Travel Rule guidelines will be extended to crypto service providers and their intermediaries. From December 30, crypto exchanges operating in the EU will be subject to Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 (the Travel Rule guidelines), which requires reporting information on fund and crypto asset transfers.
Therefore, according to the definition of MiCAR, Crypto Asset Service Providers (CASPs) will be subject to the EU's AML/CFT regime. Once the regulation comes into effect, Payment Service Providers (PSPs), intermediary PSPs, CASPs and intermediary CASPs will have a two-month grace period to declare compliance with the new requirements. Some general provisions include collecting user information to transfer funds or crypto assets, determining whether a transaction is related to the purchase of a service, and detecting seemingly related transfers. In addition, crypto service providers and intermediaries need to declare their policies on multiple intermediaries and cross-border transfers.
The EBA acknowledges that compliance with the EU Travel Rule guidelines will put financial pressure on crypto exchanges and service providers. However, the regulator expects that in the long run, the overall benefits will outweigh the costs.
EBA issues guidelines on restrictive measures for crypto providers, the guidelines will take effect from December 30, 2025
The European Banking Authority (EBA) issued new guidelines for Payment Service Providers (PSPs) and Crypto Asset Service Providers (CASPs) on November 14, clarifying the restrictive measures that these institutions need to comply with when making transfers under EU and member state laws. The EBA pointed out that these guidelines will help financial institutions effectively implement restrictive measures within their governance and risk management frameworks, in order to avoid operational and legal risks.
The EBA emphasized that if the controls, internal policies and procedures of financial institutions have loopholes, it may lead to legal and reputational risks, undermine the effectiveness of EU restrictive measures, and even affect the stability of the EU financial system. The new guidelines require PSPs and CASPs to use reliable screening systems to prevent users or entities from circumventing restrictive measures. These guidelines will take effect from December 30, 2025.
The "Regulation on Markets in Crypto-assets (MiCA)" will come into effect on December 30
The EU's specific regulation for the crypto currency industry, the "Regulation on Markets in Crypto-assets (MiCA)", aims to take effect in the 27 member states on December 30. However, some countries have not yet enacted legislation to implement MiCA. The Bank of Portugal said on Monday that as the legislation has not yet been passed, it is not yet clear which national authority will be responsible for these rules. Industry associations said that one of the reasons for the delay in national authorities is the short time interval between ESMA's publication of the final technical standards and the implementation date in October.
Exchanges:
Bloomberg: EU crypto exchanges must delist USDT by December 30
According to Bloomberg, the EU's crypto asset regulation is set to take full effect by the end of the year, and to comply with the "Regulation on Markets in Crypto-assets (MiCA)", several crypto exchanges in the EU have already delisted the mainstream stablecoin Tether's USDT. This move is impacting the market for such tokens, with new issuers trying to fill the gap, while investors are defaulting to using euros for crypto trading. Tether's main competitor Circle obtained such a license in July. However, Tether has not yet obtained such a license, but has not ruled out the possibility of trying to obtain one in the future. In the absence of Tether's licensing, regulated exchanges must delist the token by December 30.
Previously, Coinbase planned to delist USDT and other non-compliant stablecoins in Europe.
Tether CEO retweets posts: USDT will not be deemed illegal in Europe on December 30
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino retweeted posts by weRate co-founder and JAN3 CEO, which mentioned that there is a lot of "FUD information" in the market about USDT, but the reality is that USDT will not be deemed illegal in Europe on December 30, 2024. The MiCA rules need to be complied with, but stablecoin service providers have a 6-18 month transition period, and some exchanges are waiting for clear information.
Binance Futures will delist OMGUSDT perpetual contract on December 30
Binance Futures will postpone the auto-deleveraging and trading pair delisting of the OMGUSDT perpetual contract to 5 PM (UTC+8) on December 30, 2024. Users are advised to close their positions themselves before the trading stops to avoid forced liquidation.
Token Unlocks:
Beldex (BDX) will unlock about 330 million tokens at 8 AM Beijing time on December 30, 2024, which is 4.78% of the current circulating supply, worth about $26.1 million.
Tribal Token (TRIBL) will unlock about 22.07 million tokens at 8 AM Beijing time on December 30, 2024, which is 15.38% of the current circulating supply, worth about $6.3 million.
Slash Vision Labs (SVL) will unlock about 605 million tokens at 8 AM Beijing time on December 30, 2024, which is 12.25% of the current circulating supply, worth about $3.9 million.
December 31
Exchanges:
Kraken plans to delist Monero in the European Economic Area due to regulatory requirements, users need to withdraw assets by December 31
Affected by Kraken's announcement to stop supporting Monero (XMR) in the European Economic Area (EEA) by the end of October, the price of Monero has fallen by more than 5% in the past 24 hours to $144. Kraken stated that this move is due to regional regulatory changes, and will cease all XMR market trading and deposits on October 31. Users need to withdraw their assets by December 31, 2024, and any remaining Monero will be automatically converted to Bitcoin and distributed to users on January 6, 2025.
Policy and Regulation:
Israel will launch six Bitcoin mutual funds on December 31
The Israel Securities Authority (ISA) has approved six mutual funds that track the price of Bitcoin, which will be launched simultaneously on December 31, 2024, and will be offered by institutions such as Migdal Capital Markets, More, Ayalon, Phoenix Investment, Meitav and IBI. The fund management fees range from 0.25% to 1.5%, with one fund being actively managed with the goal of outperforming Bitcoin's performance. Initially, these funds will only trade once a day, but may achieve continuous trading in the future.
Token Unlocks:
Optimism (OP) will unlock about 31.34 million tokens at 8 AM Beijing time on December 31, 2024, which is 2.32% of the current circulating supply, worth about $58.6 million.
Delysium (AGI) will unlock about 34.38 million tokens at 8:00 am Beijing time on December 31, 2024, accounting for 2.57% of the current circulating supply, worth about $5 million.
January 1
Policy and Regulation:
Russia will ban cryptocurrency mining in 10 regions starting from January 1, 2025
According to local Russian media TASS, the Russian government has approved a ban on cryptocurrency mining in 10 regions starting from January 1, 2025, which will last until March 15, 2031. These regions include Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, North Ossetia, Chechnya, as well as the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. The ban applies to mining pool activities and individual mining. In addition, Russia will also implement seasonal mining restrictions in three Siberian regions of Irkutsk, Buryatia and Transbaikal during the winter energy peak season. In 2025, these restrictions will last from January 1 to March 15, and then be extended from November 15, 2025 to March 15 of the following year.
Project Dynamics:
a16z to release new token economics proposal around January 1
An Eliza team member revealed in a community discussion that the project team plans to release two important announcements. First, the project team will officially publish the list of all partners to improve project transparency and help the community better understand the cooperation relationships and their specific scope. Secondly, regarding token economics, a16z will release a brand new token economics proposal around January 1. The proposal was jointly designed by professionals from multiple teams, and will include content such as LP pairing mechanism and DeFi function integration. In addition, the project team also revealed that they have acquired a Launchpad company, which will be used for official releases in the future.
Kelp DAO releases KERNEL token economics, second airdrop to start on January 1, 2025
Ethereum liquidity re-staking platform Kelp DAO has announced the details of the KERNEL token economics, in which 55% will be allocated to community rewards and airdrops (20% for airdrops, 35% for future community rewards), 5% to the ecosystem and partners, 20% for private sales, and 20% to the team and advisors (with a 6-month lock-up period for the team and private sale tokens, unlocked within 24 months).
In addition, 20% of the KERNEL tokens will be distributed through three rounds of airdrops:
- First airdrop: 10% of the total supply, snapshot date on December 31, 2024;
- Second airdrop: 5% of the total supply, from January 1 to April 30, 2025; an additional 15% loyalty reward for re-staking before January 15, 2025;
- Subsequent airdrops: 5% of the remaining, plan to be determined.
KERNEL tokens will be used for governance, economic security through re-staking, liquidity mining, and ecosystem revenue buybacks. The token generation event (TGE) is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2025.
MANTRA updates OM token economics, on-chain inflation rate to drop to 3% from January 1, 2025
The Layer1 blockchain MANTRA, which focuses on RWA assets, recently passed a vote to update the OM token economics proposal.
While the proposal suggests adjusting the token release schedule, the individual allocations obtained through various activities will remain unchanged. The specific contents of the proposal include:
- Adjusting the vesting schedule of OM upgrade rewards, with the cliff period ending on March 18, 2025, followed by a linear vesting period until October 16, 2028.
- 10% of the initial airdrop allocation will be unlocked from March 18, 2025, followed by a 6-month cliff period until September 18, 2025. After that, the remaining rewards will begin to vest linearly until March 18, 2027. In addition, it is proposed to conduct a second stage of anti-sybil check on all wallets. The vesting period for airdrop rewards will not be extended further after this.
- The cliff and vesting periods for team and core contributors' incentives are extended, with the cliff period ending on April 23, 2027 and the vesting period ending on October 22, 2029.
- The token cliff period for Pre-Seed round investors ends on October 23, 2025, and the vesting period ends on October 23, 2027; the token cliff period for Seed round investors ends on April 23, 2025, and the vesting period ends on April 23, 2026.
- The ecosystem allocation will remain unchanged, and the on-chain inflation rate will be reduced from 8% to 3% starting from January 1, 2025.
Meme trading tool ABOT announced that it will gradually shut down its business, with the following arrangements: service fees will be reduced to 0; the Meme function will be removed on January 1, 2025; non-meme functions will be shut down and the website will be closed on January 7, 2025; new feature development will continue until December 31, and the website will remain responsive to real-time issues until it is closed.
Governance Voting:
The Snapshot page shows that the Frax Finance community has initiated a vote on adopting BlackRock BUIDL as the reserve asset for the proposed stablecoin Frax USD (frxUSD). The vote will end on January 1, and the proposal currently has a 100% approval rate.
In addition, the Frax community has also initiated a proposal vote on using USTB as collateral and custody asset for frxUSD. The proposal aims to introduce USTB, providing stability, liquidity and treasury bond yields as reserves for the stablecoin. USTB will be used as a collateral asset, with an initial cap of $100 million. USTB is currently being evaluated as a PoS Bridge Asset on Polygon and a reserve asset for Sky's USDS. The vote will end on January 1, 2025.
Token Unlocks:
Sui (SUI) will unlock about 64.19 million tokens at 8:00 am Beijing time on January 1, 2025, accounting for 2.19% of the current circulating supply, worth about $270 million.
ZetaChain (ZETA) will unlock about 53.89 million tokens at 8:00 am Beijing time on January 1, 2025, accounting for 9.35% of the current circulating supply, worth about $32 million.
Sleepless AI (AI) will unlock about 23.21 million tokens at 8:00 am Beijing time on January 1, 2025, accounting for 17.85% of the current circulating supply, worth about $14.6 million.
dydx (DYDX) will unlock about 8.33 million tokens at 8:00 am Beijing time on January 1, 2025, accounting for 1.17% of the current circulating supply, worth about $12.8 million.
Ethena (ENA) will unlock about 12.86 million tokens at 3:00 pm Beijing time on January 1, 2025, accounting for 0.44% of the current circulating supply, worth about $12.1 million.
Maverick Protocol (MAV) will unlock about 36.2 million tokens at 8:00 am Beijing time on January 1, 2025, accounting for 7.86% of the current circulating supply, worth about $7.8 million.
Eigenlayer (EIGEN) will unlock about 1.29 million tokens at 3:00 am Beijing time on January 1, 2025, accounting for 0.61% of the current circulating supply, worth about $4.4 million.
Sidus (SIDUS) will unlock about 448 million tokens at 8:00 am Beijing time on January 1, 2025, accounting for 4.05% of the current circulating supply, worth about $2.1 million.
DODO (DODO) will unlock about 10 million tokens at 8:00 am Beijing time on January 1, 2025, accounting for 1.38% of the current circulating supply, worth about $1.6 million.
Manta Network (MANTA) will unlock about 1.87 million tokens at 7:59 am Beijing time on January 1, 2025, accounting for 0.49% of the current circulating supply, worth about $1.6 million.
January 2
None
January 3
Exchanges:
FTX Announcement: Court-approved Chapter 11 Reorganization Plan to Take Effect on January 3, 2025
According to the FTX announcement, its court-approved Chapter 11 reorganization plan will take effect on January 3, 2025, and will be set as the record date for the initial distribution. The initial distribution is expected to be completed within 60 days after the effective date and will apply to the approved claims in the convenience category. FTX has collaborated with BitGo and Kraken to assist in the distribution of recovery funds to customers and creditors. The distribution requirements include completing KYC verification, submitting tax forms, and interfacing with the designated service providers. FTX reminds users to be wary of phishing emails and fraudulent websites, and will announce the distribution dates for other claim categories in the future.
Additionally, HODL15Capital tweeted that FTX will repay $16 billion in cash, and claim processing will begin on January 3 next year.
Binance plans to launch BIO on January 3, 2025 at 18:00
Bio Protocol (BIO) has become Binance's 63rd Launchpool project. Binance plans to launch BIO on January 3, 2025, at 18:00 (Beijing time) and open trading pairs of BIO/USDT, BIO/BNB, BIO/FDUSD, and BIO/TRY. The seed label will be applied to BIO.
Token Unlocks:
Staika (STIK) will unlock approximately 1.57 million tokens, worth about $2.2 million, at 8:00 am Beijing time on January 3, 2025.
January 4
Token Unlocks:
Alephium (ALPH) will unlock approximately 1.88 million tokens, representing 1.95% of the current circulating supply, worth about $2.5 million, at 8:00 am Beijing time on January 4, 2025.
January 5
Token Unlocks:
Cetus Protocol (CETUS) will unlock approximately 8.33 million tokens, representing 1.32% of the current circulating supply, worth about $2.7 million, at 8:00 am Beijing time on January 5, 2025.
Everclear (NEXT) will unlock approximately 20.11 million tokens, representing 18.82% of the current circulating supply, worth about $2 million, at 8:00 am Beijing time on January 5, 2025.
Specific Time to be Determined
Project Dynamics:
Bounce Brand: Perpetual Contract Exchange BounceX to Launch Next Week
Bounce Brand tweeted that BounceX will launch next week, supporting the platform's native token AUCTION as a margin asset.
Previous news indicated that Bounce Brand announced the launch of the perpetual contract exchange BounceX in the fourth quarter of 2024.
US stocks fell on Friday, dashing investors' expectations of a "Santa Claus rally". With the New Year's holiday approaching, the global financial market may also tend to remain calm in the coming week. The US ISM Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) may be the only focus of economic data next week, but any headline news related to Trump's policies could also trigger market volatility. If the economic data surprises the Fed, the US dollar's uptrend may subside, and the initial jobless claims next week may also be a major driver of the dollar's movement. Any data indicating that the Fed is too cautious about inflation and too optimistic about the labor market could lead to the recent US dollar rally unraveling.
