Headlines
▌Trump May Be Sentenced Before Taking Office as US President
On January 7, local time, Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the New York Court of Appeals rejected the latest request by President-elect Trump to postpone the sentencing in his "hush money" case. Trump's lawyers argued that as the President-elect, Trump enjoys the same criminal prosecution immunity as the President, but this view was rejected by the court. With less than two weeks before Trump's inauguration, if the sentencing is not completed before the start of his second term on January 20, the presidential immunity may delay the case until his departure. The court's ruling means that Trump's sentencing is still scheduled for January 10. However, Trump and his legal team have stated that they will continue to seek legal avenues to postpone or cancel the sentencing.
▌Sol Strategies Secures $25 Million Credit Facility to Invest in SOL Tokens and Staking
Listed holding company Sol Strategies (tickers: CYFRF, HODL.CN) announced that it has secured a $25 million credit facility to invest in SOL tokens and staking operations.
Sol Strategies has drawn down $4 million in principal from the credit facility and plans to use the "remaining funds to aggressively purchase Solana tokens to support its staking operations and acquisitions". The statement said the company must use the entire facility by January 6, 2027.
As of December 31, 2024, Sol Strategies had staked over 1.5 million SOL tokens (worth around $450 million CAD) in its validator operations, including over 140,000 SOL owned by the company.
Market
As of the time of writing, according to Coingecko data:
BTC last traded at $97,001.38, with a daily change of -5.0%;
ETH last traded at $3,397.72, with a daily change of -7.8%;
BNB last traded at $700.64, with a daily change of -3.9%;
SOL last traded at $202.68, with a daily change of -7.2%;
DOGE last traded at $0.3512, with a daily change of -9.5%;
XPR last traded at $2.30, with a daily change of -5.1%.
Policy
▌US Senator Cynthia Lummis Meets SEC Nominee Paul Atkins to Discuss Digital Asset Legislation and Regulatory Reform
On January 8, US Senator Cynthia Lummis met with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair nominee Paul Atkins to discuss digital asset legislation and regulatory reform. She hinted at potential changes, joking that she wants to put the SEC on the "Atkins diet".
Previously reported, on August 1, 2024, Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis formally introduced the Bitcoin Monetary Reserve Act, which would direct the US government to establish a reserve fund for this scarce decentralized asset. The bill also sets a long-term goal of accumulating 1 million bitcoins over time, about 5% of the total bitcoin supply. The bill plans to use existing US Treasury funds to purchase bitcoin in an amount corresponding to the US Treasury's gold allocation.
▌Trump Holds Press Conference Proposing Shocking Strategies, Prompting Responses from Multiple Countries
At a press conference held at Mar-a-Lago, President-elect Trump made multiple stunning statements in just one hour, escalating his rhetoric on sovereignty issues with countries like Canada. He called for economic means to absorb Canada as part of the US, and did not rule out using force to seize the Panama Canal and Greenland, while demanding NATO countries increase their defense spending to 5% of GDP. He also vowed that if Hamas does not release Israeli hostages before he takes office, "the Middle East will descend into chaos". Additionally, Trump promised to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the "American Gulf". Besides threatening tariffs on uncooperative countries (including Denmark), he did not explain how these seemingly impossible commitments would be achieved. In response, various parties commented on Trump's statements. Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau said Canada could not become a US state, with the Foreign Minister stating they would not back down in the face of threats; the Danish Prime Minister reiterated that Greenland is not for sale; and the Panamanian President responded that he would not pre-judge Trump's comments on the Panama Canal before his inauguration. Foreign media commentators noted that Trump's rhetoric aligns with a bolder posture, as he believes he has been (popularly and electorally) empowered to speak and act with near impunity.
▌Coinbase Wins Interlocutory Appeal, Will Appeal SEC Securities Charges to Second Circuit
Coinbase Chief Legal Officer paulgrewal.eth posted on X platform that Judge Failla has granted Coinbase's motion for interlocutory appeal and stayed the district court proceedings. This is a major legal victory for Coinbase, as it means Coinbase will be able to appeal the SEC's charges against it to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
The SEC had previously alleged that Coinbase violated federal securities laws by operating as an unregistered exchange and broker-dealer, as well as illegally selling unregistered securities through its staking program.
Blockchain Applications
▌Ripple Partners with Chainlink to Drive Adoption of Stablecoin RLUSD
Ripple and Chainlink have partnered to further expand the use and utility of the Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin within decentralized finance (DeFi).
Cryptocurrencies
▌TD Cowen: Trump Administration Expected to Relax Rules on Bank Use of Cryptocurrencies, but Caution Remains Warranted
Investment bank TD Cowen stated that the Trump administration may bring positive changes for crypto entities working with banks, but expectations for this new regulatory environment should be "within reason".
The TD Cowen Washington research team (led by Jaret Seiberg) wrote in a report that banks have obligations to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) and Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) rules, and manage risks like liquidity and concentration. The analysts said: "Even if Trump's regulators are less concerned about the growing linkages between traditional finance and cryptocurrencies, this may still lead some banks to remain cautious, which is why some banks may still view the risks as too great while others seize the opportunity. Additionally, some crypto entities may resist any government oversight. This could limit the comfort level of banks in partnering with them." Nevertheless, Jaret Seiberg stated that under Trump's leadership, the connections between traditional finance and cryptocurrencies will be "inevitable".
▌Arbitrum Foundation Grants Largest-Ever Developer Bounty to Korean Giant Lotte
Offchain Labs, the developer behind Arbitrum, announced at CES 2025 that the Arbitrum Foundation has awarded the largest-ever developer bounty to the South Korean Lotte Group. Lotte Group is a multi-billion dollar South Korean conglomerate known for its vast shopping malls, media companies, and entertainment assets.
A representative of the company declined to disclose the "current stage" grant amount, but Offchain Labs said the bounty solidifies Arbitrum's position as the primary blockchain infrastructure provider for Lotte's Caliverse metaverse gaming platform.
▌CryptoQuant: Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Turns Positive for the First Time Since December 17, 2024
Here is the English translation:CryptoQuant's analysis shows that the Coinbase Bitcoin premium has turned positive for the first time since December 17, 2024, which is a signal of rising demand for Bitcoin among US investors. CryptoQuant analyst Burak Kesmeci said: "Since the approval of the spot Bitcoin ETF in the US, the behavior of US investors has been a leading indicator of the cryptocurrency market. The data indicates that the behavior of US investors is once again dominated by buying pressure."
In addition, the analyst added that Bitcoin's recent breakthrough of the $10,000 mark was due to the weakening of miner selling pressure and the improvement of miner profitability.
▌Analyst: The correlation between Bitcoin and US stocks reappears
Bitwise's European research head Andre Dragosch said that after the election of Donald Trump, Bitcoin and the S&P 500 index began to diverge, but these two asset classes have recently begun to move more in sync. Bitcoin and the S&P 500 index are once again closely correlated, with a correlation of 0.88 on the recent 20-day moving average (0 represents no correlation, 1 represents absolute correlation).
Dragosch summarized: "While on-chain factors are likely to provide significant momentum at least until mid-2025, the deterioration of the macroeconomic situation could also pose short-term risks to Bitcoin, especially given its still relatively high correlation with the S&P 500 index."
▌CME Group executive: ETH's performance will outperform BTC this year
Payal Shah, Director of Equity and Cryptocurrency Research and Product Development at CME Group, wrote that ETH's performance will outperform BTC this year.
The article states that Ether rose about 53% in 2024, while Bitcoin rose 113%; however, Ether's recent performance shows promising prospects. Since the announcement of the US election results, Ether has risen 39%, outpacing Bitcoin's 35% gain, and this suggests that the market's optimism about the expected pro-cryptocurrency policy of President-elect Donald Trump has driven Ether's potential recovery, and other key factors driving this optimism include strong staking activity, stable transaction fees, and growing institutional interest, especially through ETFs.
Important Economic Dynamics
▌The probability of the Fed keeping rates unchanged in January is 95.2%
According to the CME "Fed Watch", the probability of the Fed keeping rates unchanged in January is 95.2%, and the probability of a 25 basis point rate cut is 4.8%. The probability of keeping the current rate unchanged by March is 60.9%, the probability of a cumulative 25 basis point rate cut is 37.3%, and the probability of a cumulative 50 basis point rate cut is 1.7%.
▌The US dollar index rose 0.26% on the 7th
The US dollar index, which measures the dollar against six major currencies, rose 0.26% that day, closing at 108.549 in the foreign exchange market. As of the close of the New York foreign exchange market, 1 euro was exchanged for 1.0355 US dollars, lower than the previous trading day's 1.0388 US dollars; 1 British pound was exchanged for 1.2490 US dollars, lower than the previous trading day's 1.2513 US dollars. 1 US dollar was exchanged for 157.78 Japanese yen, higher than the previous trading day's 157.54 Japanese yen; 1 US dollar was exchanged for 0.9086 Swiss francs, higher than the previous trading day's 0.9045 Swiss francs; 1 US dollar was exchanged for 1.4347 Canadian dollars, higher than the previous trading day's 1.4337 Canadian dollars; 1 US dollar was exchanged for 11.1091 Swedish kronor, higher than the previous trading day's 11.0528 Swedish kronor.
▌Bostic: Inflation is expected to gradually decline to 2% this year, but the Fed should still make decisions cautiously
Federal Reserve's Bostic said that given the uneven progress in reducing inflation, officials should be cautious in decision-making and lean towards keeping rates at high levels. Bostic also said in a podcast recorded on December 9 and released on Tuesday that he expects the inflation rate to continue to gradually decline to the Fed's 2% target this year. He said that price pressures are expected to subside, although at times it may appear that progress is stagnating or inflation is becoming more aggressive. "I want to make sure we're getting the right signals and making sure our policy is calibrated based on the right signals. If we have to err, I'd rather err on the good side," Bostic said in the podcast. "I hope to ensure - of course, to ensure - that inflation reaches 2%, which means we may have to keep the policy rate at a higher level than people expect."
Jinse Encyclopedia
cNFT is a relatively new non-fungible token that uses state compression technology to store data more efficiently on Solana. Unlike traditional NFTs that either store all token metadata directly on-chain or store it through external links (such as IPFS), cNFT uses Merkle trees to optimize data storage.
Disclaimer: Jinse Finance, as a blockchain information platform, publishes articles solely for informational reference, and does not provide actual investment advice. Please everyone establish the correct investment concept and improve risk awareness.
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