Compiled by: Fairy, ChainCatcher
Key News:
- OKX Jumpstart will launch ANIME (Animecoin) staking mining on January 20
- Trump will be officially sworn in as the President of the United States at 1 am Beijing time on January 21
- South Korean financial regulatory authorities have issued a business suspension order to Upbit, and the final details of the punishment will be determined on January 21
- MicroStrategy's shareholder meeting will vote on the plan to increase the issuance of shares on January 21
- Four Solana ETF applications will face the SEC's first review deadline on January 25
- Orbiter Finance token (OBT) TGE will be held on January 20
January 20 (Monday)
SEC General Counsel Megan Barbero will leave office on January 20
According to CoinDesk, SEC General Counsel Megan Barbero will leave office on January 20, after SEC Enforcement Director Gurbir Grewal left in October 2024 and Accounting Director Paul Munter announced his upcoming departure this week. Barbero has served as General Counsel since February 2023, guiding the SEC's legal battles with crypto firms in federal courts.
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler will step down on January 20
According to the official announcement, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler will step down on January 20.
The announcement mentions that in the last full fiscal year, although the cryptocurrency market accounted for less than 1% of the US capital market, 18% of the reports, complaints and recommendations received by the US Securities and Exchange Commission were related to cryptocurrencies. All courts have supported the Commission's actions to protect investors and rejected all arguments that the Securities and Exchange Commission cannot enforce the law regardless of the form of securities issuance.
It is reported that Trump's presidential term will also begin on January 20.
CFTC Chairman to step down on January 20, the day of Trump's inauguration
According to the Financial Times, CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam will resign as chairman on January 20, the day of President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration, and will officially leave office on February 7.
Behnam is concerned that regulation of digital assets, including Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, is still insufficient. Behnam said: "There is still a large part of the digital asset space that is unregulated in the US regulatory system, and given the huge demand we are seeing from retail and institutional investors for these products, it is very important to fill this gap."
He stated that the CFTC remains "in a favorable position to become the regulator of the spot digital commodity asset market".
Orbiter Finance token (OBT) TGE will be held on January 20
The Layer2 cross-chain protocol Orbiter Finance has announced the launch of the OBT token on the X platform, with the TGE scheduled for January 20, 2025. OBT is the ERC-20 governance and utility token of the protocol, which will be launched on Ethereum, Arbitrum and Base, with a total supply of 10 billion and an initial circulating supply of 2.8 billion (28%) at TGE.
Regarding token allocation, the community allocation accounts for 40%, of which 22% will be distributed as an initial airdrop to Orbiter users, with a monthly airdrop of 3% to eligible users for 6 months. The ecosystem and growth allocation accounts for 20%, of which 2.5% will be unlocked at TGE. The Orbiter Foundation allocation accounts for 15%, of which 3.5% will be unlocked at TGE, with the remaining portion vesting monthly over 23 months. The team and contributors allocation accounts for 15%, and the investor allocation accounts for 10%. In addition, on-chain governance will be opened in February 2025.
Orbiter Finance is a decentralized cross-rollup bridge for transferring native assets on Ethereum. In Orbiter Finance, there are two roles: Sender and Maker. When a Sender initiates a transfer, the Maker provides liquidity for it. Smart contracts ensure the safety of this process. If the Maker misbehaves and causes the transfer to fail, the Sender can file an arbitration request with the contract and receive over-compensation.
OKX Jumpstart will launch ANIME (Animecoin) staking mining on January 20
The OKX Jumpstart staking mining activity will be launched at 14:00 (Beijing time) on January 20, 2025. OKB and BTC holders can stake OKB and BTC to mine ANIME tokens as a reward. The activity will last until 14:00 on January 23.
The total OKB reward pool for this activity is 53,333,334 ANIME, and the total BTC reward pool is 26,666,666 ANIME. There is no minimum limit for individual staking, with a maximum limit of 600 OKB for OKB staking and 0.3 BTC for BTC staking, supporting flexible staking and unstaking. ANIME tokens are expected to be listed for trading on January 23, with the specific time to be announced later.
January 21 (Tuesday)
Trump will be officially sworn in as the President of the United States at 1 am Beijing time on January 21
According to BBC News, Donald Trump will be officially sworn in as the 47th President of the United States at 12:00 pm Eastern Time (1:00 am Beijing time) on January 20.
Inauguration Day includes the formal swearing-in ceremony, musical performances, a celebratory parade, and a series of formal balls. Vice President-elect J.D. Vance will also be sworn in, taking the stage with Trump to officially begin the new administration.
Trump's second inauguration will first hold a ceremony at the historic Lafayette Square St. John's Church in Washington, D.C., followed by a tea reception at the White House. Musical performances and opening remarks will begin at 9:30 am Eastern Time (10:30 pm Beijing time) on the main stage at the West Lawn of the US Capitol. Subsequently, Trump and Vance will hold the inauguration ceremony, and the President will deliver his inaugural address outlining the goals for the next four years. Afterward, Trump will proceed to the President's office near the Senate to sign important documents. He will then attend a luncheon hosted by the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. The parade will then proceed from the Capitol along Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.
Later that evening, Trump will attend three inaugural balls - the Commander-in-Chief's Ball, the Liberty Inaugural Ball, and the Starlight Ball. He is expected to deliver speeches at these three events.
South Korean financial regulatory authorities have issued a business suspension order to Upbit, and the final details of the punishment will be determined on January 21
According to the Korean media NAVER, the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) issued a business suspension notice to Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange Upbit on January 9, mainly due to violations of the Special Financial Transactions Information Act's anti-money laundering obligations such as customer identification (KYC). The FIU found about 700,000 cases of improper KYC implementation and business dealings with unregistered foreign virtual asset service providers during the inspection.
Once the punishment is determined, Upbit will be restricted from new user-related business for up to 6 months. Upbit currently accounts for over 70% of the Korean cryptocurrency trading market, and this punishment may impact its business license renewal. The FIU will hold a sanction committee meeting on January 21 to finalize the details of the punishment.
Court postpones CFTC vs Gemini trial to January 21
The U.S. court has postponed the CFTC vs Gemini case to January 21, 2025. New York District Judge Alvin Hellerstein announced that the civil case between the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Gemini Trust Company has been postponed from the original January 13, 2025 to January 21, and he explicitly stated that there will be no further delays.
In June 2022, the CFTC filed a lawsuit against Gemini, alleging that it provided false or misleading information when applying for a Bitcoin futures contract in 2017, and is seeking the return of ill-gotten gains, civil penalties, and injunctions. The delay in the case hearing may be affected by the policies of the incoming government and the new Congress.
MicroStrategy shareholders to vote on stock issuance plan on January 21
MicroStrategy's shareholder meeting will vote on a stock issuance plan on January 21, authorizing an increase in the number of Class A common shares from 330 million to 10.3 billion, and increasing the authorized number of preferred shares from 5 million to 1 billion. Analysts expect the stock authorization plan to be approved, which would make MicroStrategy's potential outstanding shares potentially exceed all Nasdaq 100 companies except the top four (Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet and Amazon).
January 22 (Wednesday)
Calamos to launch 100% downside protection Bitcoin ETF CBOJ
The President of The ETF Store, Nate Geraci, stated on X: "Calamos will launch the first Bitcoin ETF CBOJ with 100% downside protection. If you hold Bitcoin during the Outcome Period, you will get full downside protection, but the upside is capped."
It is reported that CBOJ is expected to be listed on CBOE on January 22, 2025. CBOJ will combine the use of U.S. Treasuries and options on the CBOE Bitcoin U.S. ETF Index. This actively managed ETF provides a regulated way to gain exposure to Bitcoin within a risk control framework.
Previous news showed that asset manager Calamos has filed for a Bitcoin buffer ETF.
OKX to list J (Jambo) spot trading
OKX will list J (Jambo) spot trading, with the J/USDT spot trading opening at 7:00 PM (UTC+8) on January 22, 2025.
Swell staking platform to open claims on January 22
The Swell staking platform announced that the Wavedrop 2 checker is online, allowing users to check the rewards they can claim from Wavedrop 2. Swell also stated that claims are expected to open on January 22, and Wavedrop 1 claims will also reopen on the Swellchain, which have been temporarily suspended to facilitate the migration from the mainnet.
January 23 (Thursday)
Upbit to delist BTG
According to the official announcement, Upbit will terminate trading support for BTG at 14:30 local time on January 23, 2025.
ANIME token to launch on January 23
According to official information, ANIME (Animecoin) has announced that the ANIME token will be launched on January 23.
January 24 (Friday)
Kenya's crypto bill draft to be open for public feedback before January 24
According to Cointelegraph, Kenyan Finance Minister John Mbadi stated that the government is working to establish a legal and regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies, and has drafted a "National Policy on Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers" proposal. The draft aims to create a fair, competitive and stable market for cryptocurrencies, while addressing risks such as money laundering, terrorist financing and consumer protection.
The draft proposes to build a comprehensive legal and regulatory framework to manage virtual asset activities and their service providers (VASPs), and to establish relevant standards and procedures. Its goal is to promote the healthy development of Kenya's virtual asset market.
The proposal will be open for public feedback before January 24. If approved, Kenya will join countries like South Africa and Nigeria that have implemented cryptocurrency regulations.
Coinbase International to suspend FTM-PERP trading on January 24
Coinbase International Exchange and Coinbase Advanced will suspend FTM-PERP trading around 10:30 AM (UTC) on January 24, 2025.
January 25 (Saturday)
Four Solana ETF applications to face SEC's first review deadline on January 25
According to Bloomberg Terminal data, the Solana ETF applications submitted by VanEck, 21Shares, Canary and Bitwise will face the SEC's first review deadline on January 25, 2025.
The 19b-4 applications of these four institutions were officially accepted by the SEC on November 21, 2024. According to the approval process, the SEC needs to make an initial decision within 45 days of acceptance, which may be to approve, reject or delay.
It is worth noting that Grayscale's previous application to convert its Solana trust fund into an ETF had an earlier review deadline of January 23, 2025. The market generally expects the SEC to adopt a unified approach in reviewing these Solana ETF applications.
Timing unspecified
Jupiter: Airdrop to open for claims
Jupiter official posted on X that the airdrop claims will be opened this week, and users need to first create a personal profile page, which will later become the central hub for users to handle any Jupiter-related matters, from airdrop claims to future product releases and other community initiatives.
