South Korea’s Jeju Island plans to attract millennial and Gen Z tourists by issuing NFT-powered “tourist cards” and said it hopes to start issuing tokens “in the second half of this year.” Jeju Island will name the card and NFT “Tao,” which tourists can use to get discounts and “travel subsidies.” It expects to pilot the Tao card in the coming months and plans to start rolling out its NFT to “domestic tourists” later in 2025.

According to Odaily, the new session of the United States Congress is set to conduct the official counting and certification of the 2024 presidential election results on January 6. In this election, Republican candidate Donald Trump emerged victorious. The process is expected to be overseen by Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, who was the losing candidate in the election.

According to Odaily, Goldman Sachs has released a report forecasting that the S&P 500 index will rise to 6500 points by the end of this year, driven primarily by corporate earnings growth. The report estimates an 11% increase in earnings per share for this year and a 7% increase for the next year, with the price-to-earnings ratio expected to remain around 21.5 times by year-end. Goldman Sachs noted that last year, the S&P 500 achieved a total return of 25%, marking the second consecutive year with returns exceeding 20%. The last occurrence of such consecutive high returns was in 1998 and 1999. Nearly half of last year's annual returns were attributed to five stocks: Nvidia, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, and Broadcom.

According to Cointelegraph, a Bitcoin rally led by former President Donald Trump is anticipated to occur in the days leading up to his January 20 inauguration. However, this momentum might diminish towards the end of the month as the Federal Reserve is set to announce its first interest rate decision of the new year. Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, forecasts a "positive start" in early January, followed by a slight pullback before the release of Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation data on January 15. Thielen suggests that a favorable CPI result could reignite optimism, potentially fueling a rally into Trump's inauguration. Nonetheless, he warns that this momentum may wane, with the market likely retreating ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on January 29. The CME Group’s FedWatch tool indicates an 88.8% probability that the US federal target rate will remain between 425 and 450 basis points following the FOMC’s January 29 meeting. Previously, Bitcoin experienced a nearly 15% drop to around $92,800 after the FOMC meeting on December 18, where the number of projected interest rate cuts for 2025 was reduced from five to two. Thielen identifies the Federal Reserve's communication as the "primary risk" to a Bitcoin rally in 2025, noting that while lower inflation is anticipated this year, it may take time for the Federal Reserve to formally acknowledge and respond to this shift. Another significant factor will be the pace at which institutional investors return to the crypto market, as reflected through stablecoin minting and spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund inflows. Thielen projects Bitcoin to be in the $97,000 to $98,000 range by the end of January. Meanwhile, John Glover, chief investment officer at crypto lending firm Ledn, predicts Bitcoin could pull back to $89,000 before rebounding to $125,000 by the end of the first quarter. Glover further anticipates that Bitcoin may retrace to $100,000 before making a push towards $160,000 in late 2025 or early 2026. His $160,000 estimate is more conservative compared to the $180,000 and $200,000 predictions by asset management firms VanEck and Bitwise. Despite the bearish short-term outlooks, the Crypto Fear and Greed Index, which gauges market sentiment for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, returned to the "Extreme Greed" zone with a score of 76 out of 100 on January 5 as Bitcoin rose to $98,850. It had previously exited the Extreme Greed zone on December 27, 2024, remaining in the "greed" zone for the last ten days.

According to BlockBeats, Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, has forecasted a promising beginning for the cryptocurrency market in early January. In a report dated January 5, Thielen anticipates a slight pullback before the release of the Consumer Price Index inflation data on January 15. Following this, the market is expected to rise again ahead of the inauguration of Donald Trump. However, a decline is predicted before the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on January 29.

According to Odaily, Placeholder partner Chris Burniske recently expressed optimism about the cryptocurrency market on X, stating that Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Solana (SOL) appear robust across various time frames and are likely to rise again soon. He also noted that, similar to previous trends, meme coins have served as a good indicator of increased risk appetite in recent weeks.

South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb will transform its defunct subsidiary Bithumb Meta into Bithumb Partners and change its main business to investment, similar to the investment institution Bithumb tried to establish when it sought a spin-off last year. Industry insiders revealed that Bithumb carried out this name change in the fourth quarter of last year and increased its capital to 30 billion won. In the past, Bithumb Meta was established with capital of 29 billion won, and the new capital invested this time is 1 billion won. Bithumb owns 100% of the shares. Affiliates LGCNS, CJ Olive Networks and SK Square, which invested about 10 billion won in Bithumb Meta three years ago, liquidated their shares late last year. During this period, Bithumb Meta has been engaged in NFT, Metaverse and other businesses, but failed to produce significant results and lost most of its investment. Bithumb Partners will be mainly responsible for using Bithumb’s own funds to make short-term debt investments such as stocks and bonds to distinguish it from Bithumb Investment, a subsidiary that is mainly responsible for investing in external companies. Industry insiders pointed out: "When Bithumb officially implemented its personnel reorganization, it proposed a surviving legal person system centered on the exchange and a new investment legal person system, so the establishment of the investment subsidiary seems to be related to this. Given that Bithumb has publicly announced this year An IPO will be held, and the market is highly concerned about how it will proceed with its establishment of subsidiaries and other initiatives.” (BizWatch)

According to Odaily, Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley has made predictions regarding tokenization, emphasizing its potential impact on the supply side rather than the demand side. While much attention has been on democratizing the use of money market funds, Horsley believes the true revolutionary potential lies in enabling a large number of untapped small businesses to access capital markets. Edwin Mata, founder and CEO of Brickken, also highlighted the significance of Real World Asset (RWA) tokenization. He suggested that by 2025, RWA tokenization could become a pivotal narrative in the crypto sector. This process involves digitizing assets such as real estate, debt, and equity, allowing them to be traded on blockchain platforms, thereby transforming traditional markets.

According to Foresight News, data from SoSoValue indicates that during the trading week from December 30 to January 3 (Eastern Time), Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a net outflow of $388 million. The Fidelity Bitcoin ETF (FBTC) recorded the highest weekly net inflow of $275 million, bringing its total historical net inflow to $12.11 billion. Following closely, the ARK & 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) had a weekly net inflow of $202 million, with a total historical net inflow of $2.69 billion. Conversely, the Grayscale Bitcoin ETF (GBTC) experienced the largest weekly net outflow of $167 million, with its total historical net outflow reaching $21.52 billion. As of the time of reporting, the total net asset value of Bitcoin spot ETFs stands at $111.46 billion. The net asset ratio of ETFs, which compares market value to the total market value of Bitcoin, is at 5.72%. The cumulative historical net inflow has reached $35.91 billion.

Hunter Horsley says merger deregulation, tokenization of real-world assets and artificial intelligence are all likely to accelerate the growth of cryptocurrencies in 2025.

2024년 DEX 선물 거래량이 2,850억 달러에 도달하며 시장 성장이 두드러졌다. Hyperliquid는 78.8%의 점유율로 시장을 주도했으며, CEX는 여전히 거래량 우위를 유지하지만 점유율 감소가 관찰됐다. DEX의 장기적 성장 가능성이 주목된다. source: https://inteliview.kr/crypto/article-12429/

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