On January 17th, Bitcoin mining service provider Blockware Solutions submitted a governance proposal to Aave, suggesting adding new sources of revenue to the protocol through Bitcoin mining business. The proposal is currently in the preliminary discussion stage, and plans to use Aave funds to purchase the latest S21XP mining machine, which is expected to achieve a net annualized return rate of 33.03%.

Crypto developer Michael Lewellen, a member of Coin Center, has filed a lawsuit against US Attorney General Merrick Garland, seeking a ruling that his non-custodial crypto software, Pharos, is legal and to prevent any future prosecution. Lewellen's lawyers argue that the Department of Justice's interpretation of money-transmitting laws extends beyond the limits of the Constitution, violating the First and Fifth Amendments. Coin Center is supporting the suit, which comes amid heightened concern in the crypto industry over the prosecution of software developers. Lewellen has asked the court to declare that his business does not violate money-transmitting laws and to block the DOJ from using those laws to prosecute him.

Binance CEO Richard Teng stated in a post on X that according to Triple-A data, currently over 562 million people worldwide own cryptocurrency.

the overnight index swap on Friday showed that the probability of the Bank of Japan taking action at the January 23-24 meeting was as high as 99%, a significant increase from Wednesday's 71%. Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda reinforced market expectations on Wednesday, and his comments pushed the yen higher. He said that the central bank will make a decision on raising interest rates next week and expressed confidence in wage growth.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has stated that the company may expand its presence in the US, but is proceeding with caution until there is regulatory clarity. Ardoino believes that an improved regulatory landscape for crypto companies in the US would be beneficial for Tether and similar firms. Tether recently moved its operations from the British Virgin Islands to El Salvador, where it was granted a digital asset service provider license. The company is predicted to exceed its previous forecast of $10 billion in profit for 2024.

According to a report by Galaxy Digital, almost half of all venture capital funding in Q4 2024 went to cryptocurrency startups based in the US, with Hong Kong coming in second at 16%. The US also led in the number of venture capital deals, with 36% of all deals involving a US-based company. The report suggests that the incoming pro-crypto administration could further increase the dominance of the US in the crypto industry. Industry experts predict that the US government may become the most pro-crypto in history, leading to a potential surge in crypto venture capitalist activity.

 Lookonchain monitoring shows that a trader bought 46.5 million AGiXT for $1,756 but sold it prematurely for $6,284, only making a profit of $4,529 and missing out on potential gains worth over $4.4 million. Currently, the value of this batch of AGiXT has exceeded $4.4 million.

According to a report on cryptocurrency and blockchain venture capital submitted by Galaxy Digital's research department on January 15th, 46% of investment funds went to startups based in the United States, with Hong Kong coming in second with a 16% share. The United States also leads in transaction volume, with 36% of all venture capital (VC) transactions involving US companies, followed by Singapore (9%) and the United Kingdom (8%).

Citigroup analysts said that South Korea's GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2024 may slow down slightly, which could pave the way for the South Korean central bank to cut interest rates again next month. Citigroup expects that after the third quarter GDP increased by 0.1% quarter-on-quarter and 1.5% year-on-year, the fourth quarter GDP is expected to increase by 0.1% quarter-on-quarter and 1.3% year-on-year. Citigroup pointed out that the fourth quarter GDP data to be released next week may show weak consumer, service, and construction data, but strong export and manufacturing data. Citigroup expects that after the dovish pause in rate cuts in January, the South Korean central bank will cut interest rates by 25 basis points again in February. (Jinshi)

On January 16th, Abcoin exchange officially launched the ai16z token. As an important token in the AI Agent field, ai16z promotes technological innovation and leads investment opportunities in the AI field by managing funds through AI Agent.

On January 16th, according to official sources, Megabit officially launched the CAKE USDT perpetual contract with a maximum leverage of 75x at 20:00 (UTC+8).

CryptoQuant, a cryptocurrency data analysis platform, has released a global survey report on cryptocurrency users. The main survey results are as follows:

 Scam Sniffer issued an alert last December about Telegram malware scams, but said that since then, criminals have begun using various means to lure new victims. The number of these scams has now exceeded traditional phishing - growing by 2,000% since November.

On January 16th, it was announced that Avalon Labs, an issuer of stablecoins for Bitcoin, has added support for the uniBTC asset. Users can use it as collateral to borrow other assets or use uniBTC for leveraged re-collateralization.

 WBTC recently released its annual review, stating that in 2024, WBTC's market capitalization reached a peak of $14.3 billion (December 18), with a daily transaction volume exceeding $1.01 billion (December 5), and a daily transaction count of 1.0299 million, accounting for 75.8% of the Ethereum Bitcoin token market. Its transaction fees are as low as $0.03, and more than 10 new projects have been added, expanding to seven new chains such as Base and zkSync, achieving a multi-chain ecological layout. Since its launch in 2019, WBTC has maintained zero security incidents and has been a leading Bitcoin tokenized asset in the DeFi ecosystem. In 2025, it will continue to focus on promoting cross-chain interoperability and DeFi innovation applications.

Shaw, founder of ai16z, posted on the social platform x that Eliza v2 is currently being developed in a private repository, and some users have been granted access. After perfecting the details, it will be merged back into the main repository and begin migrating all clients and plugins. Due to the need for extensive testing and community feedback, it is expected to replace the current branch in about 2 months. Unlike the v1 version, which was mainly developed by individuals, the core version of v2 is developed jointly by internal and external teams.

 Lookonchain monitoring shows that a whale spent $1.84 million (approximately 1.84 million USDC) in the past two days to purchase 4.45 million ARC tokens at a price of $0.41 per token.

on January 16th that according to @EmberCN monitoring, a whale/institutional address transferred 20,000 Ethereum (approximately $67.59 million) to Kraken 30 minutes ago.

On January 14th, according to an announcement by the Eigen Foundation, the Protocol Council has officially launched and the Foundation has completed the final locked transaction to transfer control to the council. The Protocol Council is the core decision-making body for EigenLayer governance, responsible for reviewing and approving EigenLayer Improvement Proposals (ELIPs) to ensure all protocol upgrades meet security requirements and support the sustainable development of the ecosystem. Council members are composed of diverse representatives from the Eigen ecosystem, aiming to promote decentralized governance of the protocol.