Today's news tips:
1. Next week's macro outlook: CPI and "horror data" may overturn expectations of rate cuts, and the Fed will shift to a cautious stance
2. New York Attorney General summons scammer who stole $2.2 million in cryptocurrency through airdrop NFT
3. Trump’s nominee for Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent plans to divest dozens of assets, including crypto ETFs, to avoid conflicts of interest
4. Aiccelerate DAO will increase token vesting in response to criticism of the startup
5. Polymarket was defined as an illegal gambling website in Singapore and was blocked
6. Litecoin official X account was hacked and posted fake token tweets
7. The ETF Store President Releases 10 Crypto-Related ETF Predictions for 2025
8. In the past week, NFT transaction volume increased by 10.7% month-on-month to US$155.4 million, and the number of buyers and sellers both decreased by more than 70% month-on-month
Regulatory/Macro
This week was full of big events. The first non-farm payrolls report at the beginning of the year exceeded expectations and triggered sharp market fluctuations. The report showed that the United States added 256,000 jobs in December last year, far higher than the expected 165,000. The number of jobs in the past two months was revised down by 8,000. The unemployment rate fell from 4.2% to 4.1%, while the expectation is that the unemployment rate will remain at 4.2% or may rise to 4.3%. Wages increased by 0.3% month-on-month, and year-on-year wage growth slowed from 4% to 3.9%. This data led to a sell-off in the US stock market. The strong non-farm payrolls report triggered new concerns about inflation in the market and made people think that the Federal Reserve will be more cautious in cutting interest rates this year. The S&P 500 index fell to a one-week low. Bank of America has said that they currently expect the Federal Reserve to not cut interest rates in 2025. Next week, the United States will release a number of heavy data, including PPI, CPI and "terror data", which will continue to bring volatility to the market. Here are the key points that the market will focus on in the new week:
- Tuesday 00:00, US New York Fed 1-year inflation expectations for December;
- At 21:30 on Tuesday, the US December PPI data will be released;
- At 23:00 on Tuesday, 2025 FOMC voting member and Kansas Fed President Schmid will deliver a speech;
- At 04:00 on Wednesday, FOMC permanent voting member and New York Fed President Williams delivered an opening speech at an event;
- At 21:00 on Wednesday, Barkin, 2027 FOMC voting member and Richmond Fed President, will deliver a speech;
- At 21:30 on Wednesday, the US December CPI data and the US January New York Fed manufacturing index will be released;
- At 23:00 on Wednesday, Kashkari, 2026 FOMC voting member and President of the Minneapolis Fed, delivered a welcome speech and participated in a fireside chat at the online regional economic conference hosted by the Minneapolis Fed;
- At 00:00 on Thursday, FOMC permanent voting member and New York Fed President Williams delivered a speech;
- At 01:00 on Thursday, Goolsbee, 2025 FOMC voting member and president of the Chicago Fed, will deliver a speech;
- At 03:00 on Thursday, the Federal Reserve will release the Beige Book on economic conditions;
- At 21:30 on Thursday, the number of initial jobless claims in the United States for the week ending January 11 and the monthly retail sales rate in December will be released.
As the Fed shifts to a more cautious stance, there were some encouraging signs in the November CPI report that price increases in housing and broader service categories, the biggest contributors to inflation stickiness, have begun to moderate. This leaves the CPI data due next Wednesday with the potential for a downside surprise, but any deceleration is more likely to occur in the first few months of 2025 than in December. Before the CPI data, investors will focus on the U.S. PPI data for December, due next Tuesday, while on Thursday, all eyes will be on the retail sales data, known as the "horror data."
New York Attorney General Subpoenas Scammer Who Stole $2.2 Million in Crypto via NFT Airdrop
New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit alleging that a cryptocurrency scam ring stole at least $2.2 million from New Yorkers through fake remote work opportunities. James plans to serve the lawsuit on the alleged scammers by airdropping NFTs into wallets controlled by the scammers. “NFT’s service will provide the scammers with notice of the lawsuit, providing them with a link to the [Attorney General’s Office] website containing all of the pleadings,” according to a press release from the Attorney General’s Office. “No other state or federal regulator has previously brought a lawsuit using this method.”
President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will resign from Key Square Group and sell his stake in the partnership to avoid a conflict of interest if he is approved by the Senate, Bloomberg reported.
Scott Bessent disclosed at least $521 million worth of assets in his personal financial disclosure. Scott Bessent listed nine top-level assets, all tied to his hedge fund. These included two tranches of U.S. Treasury bills, two Invesco funds, and open positions in the U.S. dollar against foreign currencies. He also listed a personal investment of no more than $500,000 in an iShares exchange-traded fund tied to the price of Bitcoin. Like the assets he holds through Key Square Capital, Bessent will divest the cryptocurrency-based ETF. According to his disclosure, Key Square Group will be closed at the end of March.
Some of Bessent's potential conflicts of interest will take longer to resolve. He has invested at least $250,000 in three funds that allow him to withdraw no more than 25% of his holdings each quarter. He has until the end of September to fully exit his holdings, which is much longer than the typical 90-day disclosure window. Bessent said he will recuse himself from specific decisions that will have a predictable impact on the value of stocks. Bessent also listed residential real estate worth at least $5 million in the Bahamas and a collection of art and antiques worth at least $1 million.
Project News
Usual, the issuer of RWA stablecoin, announced on the X platform that it has realized that its staked stablecoin USD0++ has caused a huge reaction from the community due to its significant decoupling from $1, so it will launch a series of measures to address user concerns and stabilize the ecosystem. It is reported that its "Revenue Switch" function is planned to be launched on January 13, allowing Usual Protocol to share its revenue from real-world assets and protocol operations with the community. The team expects monthly revenue to be approximately US$5 million, with an annual return rate of more than 50% under current conditions. These distributions will be made weekly to consolidate the actual value of USUAL, balance its economic model and the revenue generated by the protocol. (Note: Usual's revenue switch function will be officially enabled when more than 50% of USUAL tokens are staked as USUALx. If the requirements are not met, it will be automatically activated on February 1, 2025. Once enabled: 100% of the revenue (up to US$5 million per month) will flow to USUALx stakers in the form of USD0.)
In addition, the Usual Protocol team also stated that it will launch the “1:1 early unstaking” function next week, allowing users to redeem USD0++ at an exchange rate of 1 US dollar, but requiring them to give up part of their accumulated rewards as a penalty.
Aiccelerate DAO will increase token vesting in response to criticism of startup
The launch of the crypto-AI-focused Aiccelerate DAO (AICC), which is currently valued at around $150 million, has sparked community criticism. The project distributed 100% of its tokens to 245 advisors and insiders, some of whom sold their allocations after the tokens skyrocketed.
Aiccelerate, which is listed on the startup platform Daos.fun, has previously raised 943 SOL from invitees of the pre-sale round, worth about $175,000 at current prices. About $75,000 came from "VIPs," the project's co-founders and advisors, including the founder of Eliza Labs, VCs from companies such as Coinbase Ventures, etc. The remaining $100,000 or so came from other insiders, who each contributed up to 2 SOL.
Co-founded by Markus Jun, Ejaaz Ahamadeen, and the pseudonymous X-user Ropirito, Aiccelerate DAO has rapidly soared in value, with its market cap currently sitting at around $150 million, nearly 1,000 times its initial funding. However, controversy soon arose when some X-users noticed that some insiders appeared to have quickly sold their initial allotments.
Bankless Ventures sold 10% of its allocation shortly after AICC launched. The organization later bought back the tokens after X was criticized. "I agree that Bankless Ventures should not have sold the tokens, this was an impulsive mistake," Bankless co-founder David Hoffman tweeted. "We have bought back all the tokens sold to the original level and are discussing a self-imposed vesting schedule."
Some X users noticed that certain users invited to the presale had little activity or following on X. However, technical issues with Daos.fun's invitation system caused some users to create temporary accounts to receive allocations.
“I know a lot of people who moved their funds to more secure wallets instead of keeping them in hot wallets,” Ejaaz Ahamadeen wrote on X. Another insider described issues with his original account “syncing.”
AICC responded to the controversy in a post on its X account, which was suspended on Saturday for unknown reasons. In the post, the DAO said it would “implement token vesting for individuals and is in discussion with advisors.” The DAO also reiterated its intention to build for the long term.
Amid the controversy, Eliza Labs founder Shaw Walters posted on X that he donated half of his allocation to the ai16z DAO and 20% to other contributors. “I hope Daos.fun will do some form of vesting or lock-in in the future so it feels a little fairer to launch.”
Litecoin official X account was hacked and posted fake token tweets
The Litecoin (LTC) official X account was briefly hacked, and the hacker promoted a fake Litecoin token based on the Solana network on the account, with a contract address and a scam link. The Litecoin team later announced that it had regained control of the account and deleted the post, saying that the attack was due to the compromise of a delegated account, which has now been removed.
Polymarket is defined as an illegal gambling website in Singapore and blocked
According to the screenshot taken by X user @alexzuo4, Polymarket was defined as an illegal gambling website and blocked when logged in in Singapore. The page prompts: "You are trying to access an illegal gambling website hosted by an unlicensed gambling service provider. Singapore Pools is the only licensed online gambling operator in Singapore. Those convicted of gambling with unlicensed gambling service providers will be fined up to $10,000 or imprisoned for up to 6 months."
Viewpoint
In response to a community user saying that "everyone in the tech world underestimates the importance of efficient capital formation for building the future", Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said: What really matters to me is creating a funding structure that durably incentivizes open source, open standards and security, curbs closed mentality and extractiveness, and generally promotes becoming a positive-sum participant in the broader ecosystem.
TF Securities: Bitcoin is Plan B when AI fails
Tianfeng Securities stated in the report that AI represents Plan A to maintain the hegemony of the US dollar, and cryptocurrency represents Plan B to hedge against the unchallenged status of the US dollar. However, whether it is Bitcoin or AI, energy is a core element that cannot be bypassed. Therefore, the essence of currency is credit, the essence of credit is order, the essence of order is technological competition, and the essence of technological competition is energy efficiency. In the past two years, gold has become a favorite of investors as a beneficiary of de-dollarization. However, MAGA cannot tolerate the monetary hegemony of the US dollar being shaken, so Trump needs an alternative plan to maintain the status of the US dollar. This alternative plan must be one that the United States can control and influence. Gold is likely to be out of the options, and cryptocurrencies represented by Bitcoin may still have a chance. But the essence of currency is credit. If there is no credit, then inject credit.
The ETF Store President Releases 10 Crypto-Related ETF Predictions for 2025
Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store, released 10 predictions for crypto-related ETFs in 2025, and believes that the Trump administration will adopt significantly different policies on cryptocurrencies than the Biden administration, which may make 2025 the "first year of cryptocurrency ETFs." The main predictions are as follows:
- The assets of the spot Bitcoin ETF exceed those of the physical gold ETF (this is obvious unless the Bitcoin price crashes);
- Spot Ethereum ETF options trading approved
- Spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs allow physical creation/redemption
- Spot Ethereum ETF staking approved
- Bitwise Bitcoin Standard ETF launched, asset management scale exceeds $1 billion
- At least 50 other crypto-related ETFs have been listed, including options-based products (covered call ETFs, certain outcome ETFs, etc.), Bitcoin-denominated stock ETFs, and “Bitcoin bond” ETFs
- Spot Solana ETF approved
- Spot XRP ETF approved
- Bitwise and Grayscale crypto index ETFs approved
- Vanguard Allows Customers to Invest in Bitcoin and Ethereum Spot ETFs Through Brokerage Accounts
Important data
According to @ai_9684xtpa monitoring, three addresses suspected to belong to the same person or organization have sold a total of 26.52 million SWARMS in the past three days, worth about 8.08 million US dollars. It is suspected to be the main driving force behind the recent decline in the price of the currency. In the past three days, SWARMS has fallen by 28.82%. The corresponding dumping events are as follows:
1. The address HikmG...S2Yat sold 16.52 million tokens (about 5.16 million US dollars) in the past three days. One of the addresses from which the funds came has sold 75% of its positions and made a profit of 3.73 million US dollars. The remaining 5 million tokens still have a floating profit of 1.256 million US dollars, and the cost is as low as 0.02291 US dollars;
2. Address 384zS...g8RUL sold 5 million tokens in the past 11 hours, about $1.4 million;
3. Address BqbfX...k6pd1 sold 5 million tokens in two days, about 1.52 million US dollars.
According to Onchain Lens, an insider spent 4.92 SOL ($930) to buy 25.85 million AIOS on pump.fun. The insider has not sold any tokens yet, and the current value is more than $3.05 million.
CryptoSlam data shows that NFT transaction volume increased by 10.7% this week, from $132.7 million last week to $155.4 million. The increase in total transaction volume was accompanied by a significant decline in market participants, indicating that trading volume increased while buyers decreased. The number of NFT buyers fell by 81.79% to 122,806; the number of NFT sellers fell by 73.24% to 104,090; and the number of transactions rose slightly by 0.16% to 1,483,044.
Ethereum network NFT transaction volume increased by 13.09% to $61.9 million, but the number of buyers decreased by 65.62% to 24,836. Bitcoin network NFT increased slightly, with transaction volume increasing by 1.97% to $30.8 million, and the number of network buyers decreased by 87.15% to 8,665.
Pudgy Penguins’ transaction volume reached $9.2 million, up 82.32% from the previous month. BRC-20 NFT ranked second with a transaction volume of $8.2 million, up 40.78% from the previous month. DMarket ranked third with a transaction volume of $7.2 million, up 8.06% from the previous month.
This week’s top-selling NFTs include:
- SuperRare #37380: $474,710 (474,710 USDC)
- CryptoPunks #4757: $453,894 (125 ETH)
- SuperRare #37380: $396,000 (108.7469 WETH)
- CryptoPunks #3698: $277,876 (82 ETH)
- Abstract Being: $222,680 (2.3681 BTC)
According to Lookonchain monitoring, a certain ai16z whale spent 1,328 SOL (US$250,000) yesterday to purchase 12.19 million AIOS (currently worth US$1.28 million), with a floating profit of over US$1 million.
A smart money spent $7.84 million to buy 29.7 million SWARMS
According to Lookonchain monitoring, 4 days ago, a smart investor sold all SWARMS and made a profit of $8.42 million. In the past 20 hours, this smart investor spent another $7.84 million to buy 29.7 million SWARMS at an average price of $0.26.
26 of 31 publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies have seen their stock prices rise so far this year
According to News.bitcoin, while miners are still struggling with revenue constraints associated with Bitcoin prices below the $100,000 threshold, the stocks of these publicly listed BTC mining companies are rising, suggesting a good start to the new year. According to Bitcoinminingstock.io data, the combined market value of 31 publicly listed Bitcoin mining companies is $44.09 billion. Among them, 26 companies have witnessed an appreciation in their stock value relative to the US dollar. Among the top ten companies by market value, Riot Platforms (NASDAQ: RIOT) topped the list with a 17.53% increase in 2025. It was followed by Hut 8 (NASDAQ: HUT), which rose 14.2%.
