BlockBeats will summarize the key industry news content of the week (1.13-1.19) in this article, and recommend in-depth quality articles to help readers better understand the market and learn about industry trends.
Important News Review
The newly appointed US President Trump issues a meme coin TRUMP named after himself, with a market value of $70 billion in 48 hours
On January 18, the official social media account of US President Trump announced the launch of the Trump-named meme coin TRUMP, followed by tweets from Trump's personal account and his son Eric Trump confirming the "legitimacy" of TRUMP. TRUMP was listed on top trading platforms such as OKX, Coinbase, and Binance within 24 hours of its launch, setting a record for the shortest time for a token to be listed on the spot market. It also surged without any pullback, breaking through $7 billion in single-coin price and $140 billion in market cap within 48 hours, with the total market value once exceeding $700 billion. At the same time, as the token was issued on Solana, it also directly boosted SOL to a new high in this cycle.
According to the official website of the "authentic Trump Meme Coin" TRUMP, the Trump Meme is not political and is not related to any political campaign or any political office or government agency. It is worth noting that CIC Digital LLC and Fight Fight Fight LLC, subsidiaries of the Trump Organization, jointly own 80% of TRUMP, but are subject to a 3-year unlocking plan. CIC Digital LLC and Celebration Cards LLC, the owners of Fight Fight Fight LLC, will receive the transaction revenue generated by TRUMP trading activities.
Korean regulatory agency issues business suspension order to Upbit, but existing users can still trade normally
On January 16, the Korean Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) issued a business suspension order to Upbit, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Korea, for violating the customer verification system (KYC) and failing to fulfill anti-money laundering obligations. If the punishment is finalized, Upbit will be restricted from conducting new customer-related business during the business suspension period (up to 6 months). However, existing users' transactions can still be carried out normally.
On the same day, Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, responded that the regulatory agency's punishment plan has not yet been finalized, and it will clarify the issues raised through subsequent procedures including the Sanction Review Committee. Dunamu also emphasized that even if the punishment is ultimately implemented, it will not affect the cryptocurrency trading services for existing and new users. The punishment measures will only restrict the withdrawal of virtual assets from the Upbit platform by new users within a specific time period. Related reading: Korean regulatory agency issues business suspension order to Upbit, but existing users can still trade normally
LTC, SOL and XRP are popular token types in the US ETF approval list this year; Nasdaq has submitted an LTC ETF application
On January 16, according to market news, Nasdaq has submitted a Canary Litecoin ETF 19B-4 file application, initiating the regulatory review process. Regarding this, Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart posted on social media that "the Litecoin ETF has now met all the conditions, and the countdown to the first Altcoin ETF in 2025 has begun. I don't see any reason for the SEC to withdraw this application, especially since the SEC has commented on the S-1 filing, Litecoin is seen as a commodity, and there is new leadership at the SEC."
He also believes that the approval of Solana or XRP ETFs by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is just a "matter of time", not a "whether" issue, but the Litecoin ETF may be the first to pass - mainly because the SEC has not accused Litecoin of being a security.
This week, GoPlus, Solv protocol, and Jambo projects announced TGE and were listed on multiple trading platforms
The Bitcoin staking protocol Solv Protocol announced the launch of the airdrop eligibility check page on January 16 and the opening of airdrop claims on January 17; its token SOLV has a maximum supply of 9,660,000,000 SOLV (which may be increased through a BTC reserve fundraising plan approved by governance voting); the initial token supply is 8,400,000,000 SOLV (86.96% of the maximum supply); the airdrop accounts for 7.5%. SOLV was listed on Bitget, Binance Megadrop, and Gate platforms.
On January 15, the GoPlus Foundation, a Web3 user security network, released detailed information on the GPS token airdrop and eligibility criteria, with the first season distributing 3% of the total, and the airdrop query and claim opening on January 16 at 15:00. The total supply of GPS tokens is 10 billion, with 10% allocated to the airdrop; GPS was subsequently listed on Bybit, Bitget, and Gate trading platforms.
On January 7, the Web3 mobile Jambo launched its native token J, issued on the Solana network with a total supply of 1 billion. Jambo has built the largest on-chain mobile ecosystem to date, having sold over 650,000 JamboPhones; distributed in 128 countries; and created 4.5 million wallets. J was listed on Bybit, Bitget, OKX, and Gate trading platforms.
A New York law firm plans to take legal action against Pump.fun on behalf of losing investors
Burwick Law, a law firm based in New York, has revealed that it plans to take legal action against the Solana-based Meme coin issuance platform Pump.fun on behalf of investors, citing the platform's suspicious sell-off activities for months. The law firm alleges that "over the past few months, pumpdotfun has collected hundreds of millions of dollars in fees, while the platform has displayed illegal drug use, self-harm, racism, anti-Semitism, obscenity and other antisocial behavior." The company is calling on individuals affected by Pump.fun's actions to come forward and participate in potential legal proceedings to seek compensation. Burwick Law stated that this announcement was made after months of collaboration with some individual investors who have lost a significant amount of money due to investments in Meme coins, Rug incidents, and unfulfilled promises. The community currently considers this statement to be a "lawyer's business advertisement", and whether an appeal will ultimately be filed remains uncertain.
The results of the Solana AI Hackathon are out, with askthehive ai (BUZZ) taking the top prize
According to the official news from SendAI on January 16, the winners of the Solana AI Hackathon have been announced. The Hive (BUZZ) was awarded the best project of this hackathon and received a $60,000 prize. FXN and JailbreakMe were ranked 2nd and 3rd respectively in the overall evaluation. Over 400 projects participated in this hackathon, with 21 projects standing out and sharing a $275,000 prize pool. Related reading: 21 new AI projects, a full analysis of the four major tracks of the Solana AI Hackathon
Sonic (formerly Fantom) and Monad founders engage in a heated online debate, as Layer 1 competition intensifies
On January 13, the two popular Layer 1 networks Sonic (formerly Fantom) and Monad suddenly started exchanging barbs, with even the founders of the two sides joining the fray. As representatives of the two Layer 1 tracks with the highest community anticipation, there is indeed a certain natural competitive relationship between them. The trigger for this confrontation was that Monad's core team member tunez criticized the TVL amount of the Sonic network, which was almost the same as the loss amount of the previous cross-chain bridge Multichain hack. This then prompted a counterattack from the Sonic community, with Sonic (formerly Fantom) co-founder AC personally hitting back: "Monad has no cross-chain bridge, no technology, nothing at all..." This farce was eventually calmed down with a relatively peaceful response from the Monad side. Related reading: With founders personally involved, why did Sonic and Monad, the two popular L1s, engage in a heated online debate?
TikTok banned, Xiaohongshu sees influx of "TikTok refugees"
Due to the Biden administration's ban on TikTok, the "spiritual homeland" of many Western trendsetters has suddenly collapsed. To resist the US government's ban on TikTok, millions of creators, fashion influencers and content consumers have flocked to Xiaohongshu, like a digital Exodus. This "cultural migration" from the West has propelled Xiaohongshu to the top of the App Store overnight, making it the hottest free app globally. Crypto professionals with keen senses have also joined this trend, and Xiaohongshu-related concept meme coins like "momo", "xiaoya", and "Shu Captain" have emerged, sparking a short-term frenzy.
Web3 game development and operation platform Xterio's TGE triggers community dissatisfaction, investors generally suffer losses
On January 8th, Xterio launched a Token Generation Event (TGE), and the rising discontent of investors due to losses has led to the formation of various Xterio protest groups. Xterio had previously completed a $40 million financing round at a $300 million valuation, and Binance Labs later injected $15 million in 2023. However, after the TGE, the airdrop fell short of expectations, and the official NFT issuance plummeted, causing investment users to suffer heavy losses.
Base announces 2025 strategic goals: 25 million users, $100 billion in platform assets
On January 17th, Base published its 2025 strategic goals, aiming to achieve 25 million users, 25,000 developers, and $100 billion in platform assets. To this end, Base will focus on five key areas: supporting developers in building on-chain applications, driving ecosystem development, optimizing user ownership management, expanding capital market liquidity, and achieving low-cost global on-chain transactions through decentralization and scaling.
AI resurgence, DeFAI track rises, multiple related concept tokens see significant gains
DeFAI (DeFi + AI) is rapidly emerging as a popular track recently. Current DeFAI can be broadly categorized into AI abstraction, autonomous DeFi agents, and market analysis and prediction. Related concept projects such as Griffain (GRIFFAIN), The Hive (BUZZ), and Hiero (HTERM) have seen good price increases.
MicroStrategy acquires 2,530 bitcoins for approximately $240 million
On January 13th, MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor announced that the company had acquired 2,530 bitcoins at an average price of $95,972, for a total of approximately $240 million. As of January 12, 2025, MicroStrategy holds 450,000 bitcoins, with a total purchase cost of approximately $28.2 billion and an average purchase price of $62,691 per bitcoin.
This Week's Popular Articles
《TikTok refugees flock in, time to find memes on Xiaohongshu?》
《Wildfires in Los Angeles, anxious crypto leaders and endangered mansions》
《Which tokens will bear the massive selling pressure from FTX's repayment?》
《After nearly four years of silence, the Ethereum official account is finally going to take action?》
《Tether issues a "new stablecoin", what's the difference between USDT0 and USDT?》
《Can Solana's proposed changes to its inflation model further boost the SOL price?》
This week, Solana's market capitalization surpassed BNB, making it the fifth largest Altcoin. At the same time, Solana's early investor Multicoin Capital released a governance proposal aimed at adjusting the network's inflation model, reducing its inflation rate by dynamically adjusting the issuance rate of SOL. The proposal sets a 50% target staking rate to ensure network security and enhance decentralization. The proposal aims to reduce excessive SOL issuance through market-driven means to improve the network's economic efficiency and reduce the burden on stakers. Although this change may lead to a decrease in staking rewards, its purpose is to avoid the issues of network centralization and selling pressure caused by high inflation rates. The community is divided on this proposal, with some seeing it as a sign of Solana network's maturity, while others are concerned that it may impact the network's security and participants' incentives.
《Agent Market, On-Chain Ownership, A Quick Overview of Base's 2025 Strategic Goals》
Base plans to drive the development of the global on-chain economy through five core pillars: supporting developers, optimizing applications, enhancing ownership management, building a global market, and ensuring easy access for everyone. The goal is to achieve 25 million users, 25,000 developers, $1 billion in asset value, and accelerate the application of blockchain technology globally by 2025. Base's mission is to build an open, innovative, and free internet created by the global community.
《Why I Choose to Mint an On-Chain Meme on Worldchain?》
Worldcoin provides universal basic income (UBI) to global users through iris scanning identity verification. Users can earn WLD tokens through mini-apps like Poop and Uno, and participate in trading and investment. Although the ecosystem faces complex market models and risks, if successful, it may become a new giant in the crypto industry. The Meme coin ecosystem is growing rapidly, with users earning tokens by downloading mini-apps and having investment opportunities. While the WLD economic model is complex, if successful, Worldcoin has the potential to become an important platform that changes the crypto industry landscape.
Burwick Law is representing investors who suffered losses from the Meme platform Pump.fun on the Solana blockchain, alleging fraud and manipulation. Victims can participate in the investigation and provide information to support the case through the law firm's website. The lawsuit stems from investors' allegations of losses from memecoin investments, particularly the platform's "rug pull" behavior. Although the platform has collected a large amount of fees since its launch, its returns are extremely low, and the platform's operations lack transparency. The law firm also pointed out that Pump.fun had to shut down its live streaming function due to inappropriate content, and the UK regulator has also banned the platform from operating in the UK.
《21 New AI Projects, A Full Analysis of the Four Major Tracks of the Solana AI Hackathon》
The results of the Solana AI Hackathon have been announced, with 21 projects out of more than 400 participants sharing over $275,000 in prizes. The champion project BUZZ is a DeFi proxy tool that enables complex trading operations through simple chat commands, quickly gaining market attention with a market capitalization exceeding $100 million. The runner-up FXN addresses the problem of isolated AI agents through a decentralized AI resource sharing network, improving efficiency and collaboration possibilities. The third-place JailbreakMe focuses on AI security, testing AI model vulnerabilities through an open-source platform, becoming a dark horse in the security field. In addition, several innovative projects have achieved outstanding results in various fields, demonstrating Solana's great potential in the integration of AI and blockchain.
《Launched and Immediately Sued, Did the "Sony Chain" Lock Up the Degens?》
The blockchain network "Sony Chain" launched by Sony has immediately sparked controversy due to the banning of tokens. Two tokens themed around Sony characters - $Toro and $aibo - were banned from trading on DYORSwap on the first day of launch and marked as "prohibited". The official response stated that the bans were to protect the intellectual property rights of the creators and required the tokens to be rectified before they could be restored. However, this action has raised questions from Web3 players about the spirit of decentralization, as they believe the direct banning goes against the principles of decentralization.
《AI+Gaming Track is Gaining Momentum, Which Projects are Worth Watching?》
The application of AI in the crypto world is developing rapidly, and the gaming sector is also becoming a hotspot. Several AI-driven gaming projects have emerged, such as Parallel Colony, a survival game that combines AI agents, allowing players to interact with and assign tasks to AI. Smol Worlds integrates AI for on-chain battles, while Eternum uses AI autonomous consciousness to change the gaming experience. AI Arena provides an AI-led competitive arena, and Super Champs enhances gaming interactivity through AI commentary. These projects not only demonstrate the potential of AI in gaming, but also drive innovation in gaming mechanisms.
This article discusses how blockchain technology, particularly stablecoins and asset tokenization, is enhancing the global dominance of the US dollar. The US is pushing for stablecoin legislation, which is expected to make progress by 2025. The tokenization of real-world assets is driving the development of DeFi, integrating traditional assets into the blockchain and continuously strengthening the importance of the US dollar in the global financial system.
《GRIFT Doubles, Why is DeFAI the Best Rebound Target After the Crash?》
DeFAI has performed outstandingly in the AI agent sub-sector, especially during the market downturn. Orbit and HeyAnon are the most prominent projects, driving market development through unique features and innovations. Orbit provides cross-chain trading and DeFi operation support, while HeyAnon focuses on data and multi-step trading, while also strengthening the developer community. Although Griffain is the largest market cap abstract layer project, its market performance has been volatile. Overall, despite the challenges, the vision of DeFAI still attracts investors, especially in the areas of automated trading agents and abstract layers, and is expected to lead the growth when the market rebounds.
《Comprehensive Analysis of aixbt: How Does It Perform as a CT KOL?》
As a social media agent, aixbt has gained widespread attention in the crypto community through its rapidly growing fan base and highly consistent operations. It not only has an excellent personality and IP potential, but has also established market credibility through prudent token promotion. aixbt's financial performance is also outstanding, particularly in driving the surge of low-market-cap AI tokens. Technically, aixbt's responses are almost entirely autonomous, using large language models (LLMs) for real-time social data processing, although this also raises concerns about manipulation and transparency. Regarding its token $AIXBT, the current market capitalization reflects the market's recognition of its technical capabilities, but how to enhance its value through token economics remains a key challenge.
《Whales Add $380 Million, Trading Volume Exceeds Bitcoin, How High Can XRP Go?》
XRP broke through $3 this week, reaching its highest level since 2018, and continues to lead the 2025 cryptocurrency market. The recent rally is driven by expectations of crypto-friendly policies and US digital asset regulatory reform, as well as the launch of the stablecoin RLUSD and the prospect of a spot XRP ETF. Analysts point out that the XRP rally is mainly driven by spot investors, while "whales" holding large amounts of the token are also continuously increasing their holdings. In addition, XRP's Google search popularity has surpassed Bitcoin, indicating strong market attention, and technical analysis suggests it may break through its historical high.
《AI Agent Rebounds, What New Projects Are Worth Noting in the Past Week》
Recently, due to reduced expectations of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, the US stock and Bitcoin markets have experienced a significant decline, and the AI Agent sector has also been affected, with its market value once shrinking to around $11.5 billion. However, Bitcoin quickly rebounded, boosting market sentiment, and emerging AI Agent projects such as AIOS and SORA have quickly attracted capital attention and rebounded. AIOS focuses on developing an artificial intelligence agent operating system, SORA provides an AI dialogue framework based on the Go language, while AICC has experienced a high-low process and faces market controversy. These changes reflect the volatility of the AI Agent market and the focus of investor attention.
《Deconstructing AI Agents, How to Open Up a New Era of DeFAI?》
AI Agents are gradually attracting market attention, although they face challenges such as insufficient research tools and user guidance. This article discusses the potential applications of AI Agents in DeFi, including automated fund management, yield optimization and risk control, and also looks forward to the broad prospects of future Agent collaboration and innovation.
《Amid the DeFi + AI Boom, A Panoramic View of the Four Major Areas of DeFAI》
DeFAI is in the early stages of development, and has already demonstrated its huge potential in the blockchain ecosystem, especially in improving user experience, automating transactions and optimizing returns. Through intelligent agents (AI Agents), the DeFi ecosystem can automate complex financial operations, improving transaction efficiency and accuracy. Currently, DeFAI mainly covers areas such as abstracted AI tools, yield optimization, market analysis and infrastructure platforms, among which platforms such as Griffain and Anon have already shown relatively mature applications. In the future, with the continuous progress of technology, the integration of DeFi and AI is expected to drive the DeFi ecosystem into a more intelligent and efficient stage through directions such as intelligence, decentralization and privacy protection.
《What is the Impact of Virtuals' Large-Scale Buyback?》
Virtuals announced that it will use over 12 million $VIRTUAL tokens obtained through late staking transactions to repurchase and burn the relevant proxy tokens, which is expected to be completed within the next 30 days. The buyback will adopt a time-weighted average price (TWAP) model, and the post-staking tax distribution mechanism has also been updated, with 30% allocated to proxy creators, 20% to the proxy alliance, and 50% to the proxy sub-DAO. This buyback plan aims to avoid market panic, reduce platform tax burden, and incentivize some tokens. Although some community members have expressed dissent over this strategy, believing that it may bring selling pressure, others believe that this strategy will not cause direct selling, and the indirect pressure is limited.
《How to Continue Catching Large MC Memecoins in the Crypto AI Market with Cookies?》
This article analyzes the Cookies.fun platform to discuss how to efficiently track the trends of agents and AI in the crypto field. To improve the low efficiency of information input and the inability to keep up with the latest developments, the integration of the Cookies platform can be used to track the heat and market performance of agent projects. The platform provides various tools, such as agent heat analysis and market capitalization comparison, to help identify potential projects. Using these tools can more effectively screen out projects worth paying attention to, and avoid missing important trends due to information overload.
《Q1 Crypto Market Focus: Summary of 11 Top Project Dynamics》
In the first quarter of 2025, multiple crypto projects may launch their mainnets or conduct TGEs, including Berachain, Monad and Nillion. Although the launch time of some projects is subject to community rumors or lacks official confirmation, projects like Berachain and Monad have already released related activities, attracting a large amount of capital and participants. Nillion and Abstract have also clearly stated their launch times and are currently conducting testnet or other interactive tasks. In addition, some major projects like OpenSea and Story are also progressing continuously.
《Outgoing, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler Responds to 11 Key Crypto Market Issues》
This week, US SEC Chairman Gary Gensler gave a media interview before his resignation, discussing cryptocurrencies, capital market reforms and the future of the SEC. He emphasized the responsibility for the capital markets, stating that even with changes in leadership, the SEC will continue to fulfill its duties, protect investors and ensure market compliance with the law. He reviewed some of the reforms during his tenure, such as shortening the settlement cycle and strengthening privacy protection, believing that these measures have helped improve market integrity. He also talked about the regulation of cryptocurrencies, believing that Bitcoin and Ethereum should not be viewed as securities, but other crypto projects need more transparency and disclosure. In addition, he also mentioned market risks including policy uncertainty, leverage use and the potential impact of artificial intelligence.
Welcome to join the official BlockBeats community:
Telegram subscription group: https://t.me/theblockbeats
Telegram discussion group: https://t.me/BlockBeats_App
Twitter official account: https://twitter.com/BlockBeatsAsia
