CZ: Focusing on Web3 and other investments, Tencent is still hesitant about whether to increase its stake in Ubisoft

Golden Weekly is a weekly blockchain industry summary column launched by Golden Finance, covering the week's key news, mining information, project dynamics, technological progress and other industry dynamics. This article is one of the news weekly, taking you to a glance at the major events in the blockchain industry this week.

Headlines

▌CZ: Currently focusing on investments in the three fields of Web3 blockchain, AI and biotechnology

In a small-scale conversation recently, CZ said that he is currently focusing on two things, one is the Web3 education platform Giggle Academy, and the other is investment. In the investment field, he mainly focuses on three sub-fields, namely Web3 blockchain, AI and biotechnology (biotech).

▌Ubisoft acquisition talks are still going on, Tencent is reportedly hesitant to increase its stake in the company

According to Reuters, Ubisoft acquisition talks are still going on, and Ubisoft's owner, the Guillemot family, is still discussing the acquisition of the company with Tencent and other investors. Tencent is still hesitant to increase its stake in the company, but Tencent's negotiations are designed to prevent "any potential hostile takeover of Ubisoft by other investors." Earlier news said that Ubisoft intends to be privatized after being acquired by Tencent. Tencent is Ubisoft's second largest shareholder, with a 10% stake. Tencent currently refuses to comment on the matter. It is reported that Ubisoft has entered the field of blockchain games. Its first Web3 game "Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles" has been launched. It has also discussed cooperation with the Arbitrum Foundation and Sequence to build Web3 games, and has invested in the chain game studio Cometh.

▌BlackRock IBIT, Microstrategy, and Fidelity FBTC currently rank in the top three in Bitcoin holdings

According to HODL15Capital monitoring, as of December 7, the top 15 entities in Bitcoin holdings include IBIT, Grayscale GBTC and BTC, MSTR, FBTC, ARKB, BITB, MARA, HODL, Tesla, Coinbase, HUT, BRRR, SQ, Tether, CLSK, etc., among which the top three are: BlackRock IBIT: holds 523,735 BTC; Microstrategy (MSTR): holds 402,100 BTC; Fidelity FBTC: holds 212,385 BTC.

▌Analyst: Bitcoin may soar to $120,000 in Q1 next year

Nigel Green of financial services consulting firm deVere Group predicts that Bitcoin may experience a short-term sell-off after breaking through the psychological barrier. "With such a sharp rise in such a short period of time, it is natural for some investors to lock in profits. This sell-off may be only temporary, after which Bitcoin's momentum will further increase, soaring to $120,000 as early as the first quarter of next year." "Bitcoin's extraordinary performance comes as the market expects Trump 2.0 to create a more favorable regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies. Investors are betting on the US president-elect's support for cryptocurrencies."

▌David Sacks, the Trump administration's crypto chief, is a Solana supporter and an investor in Multicoin Capital

December 6, according to Cointelegraph, David Sacks, the newly appointed crypto chief of the Trump administration, is a staunch supporter of Solana and an investor in crypto investment company Multicoin Capital. In October 2021, David Sacks publicly disclosed in the 50th episode of the "All-In" podcast that he bought a large amount of Solana (SOL) at a discount. He also said that he did not sell SOL after the collapse of FTX. He also mentioned that Solana has the potential to replace Ethereum and become the preferred blockchain platform. Earlier news, Trump appointed David Sacks as the head of the encryption field. The VC founded by David Sacks has invested in encryption projects such as dYdX and Lightning Labs.

Policy

▌Coinbase Chief Policy Officer: Trump will choose someone with the same vision as SEC Chairman

Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad said that although he could not predict who Trump's SEC Chairman would be, President-elect Trump "is very good at choosing people who have the same vision as him, and he has a very comprehensive platform in cryptocurrency." He added: "I think as long as he chooses someone who can promote change and has a common vision with him, it will be good for the United States, society, and people who own cryptocurrencies." (CNBC)

▌The Wall Street Journal: Once Trump returns to the White House, the U.S. SEC may relax its legal proceedings against crypto exchanges

▌People's Court Daily: The act of stealing virtual currency constitutes theft and illegal acquisition of computer system data

People's Court Daily published an article "Criminal Characterization of Illegal Theft of Virtual Currency", which pointed out that the act of stealing virtual currency constitutes theft. As economic property, it must have value, including utility, scarcity and disposability. Scarcity is reflected in the constant total amount of virtual currency, which is not infinitely supplied. Disposability is reflected in the fact that virtual currency uses asymmetric encryption technology, which exists in the "wallet" (ie address), and virtual currency can be controlled after obtaining the address and private key. Utility is reflected in the fact that virtual currency, as a specific data code, must be generated through "mining", and "mining" condenses social abstract labor. The article also pointed out that stealing virtual currency constitutes the crime of illegally obtaining computer system data. Virtual currency has data nature, and the illegal theft of virtual currency constitutes the crime of illegally obtaining computer system data. For the determination of the amount of stolen virtual currency, it is more reasonable to calculate the amount of virtual currency involved in the case as the time when the defendant committed the crime rather than when the victim purchased the virtual currency.

▌The UK FCA issued a warning to Pump.fun, saying that it provided financial services or products without permission

According to the official website, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued a warning to Pump.fun, saying that "the company may provide or promote financial services or products without our permission. You should avoid dealing with the company and be wary of scams." Previously, Pump.fun banned British users from using the platform due to local laws and regulations.

▌Trump: David Sacks will work to establish a legal framework for encryption to ensure that the encryption industry thrives in the United States

In his appointment letter to David Sacks, Trump said that Sacks will work to establish a legal framework that will give the cryptocurrency industry the clarity it has always demanded and enable it to thrive in the United States. Analysis pointed out that David Sacks is expected to help take the lead in achieving Trump's campaign promise to relax regulations on the cryptocurrency industry. This position is expected to provide cryptocurrency advocates with a direct channel to the White House and serve as a liaison between Trump, Congress and federal agencies related to digital assets, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. In terms of artificial intelligence, David Sacks will help Trump put his own stamp on an emerging technology whose use has exploded in recent years. David Sacks will be at the forefront of determining how the federal government adopts artificial intelligence and regulates its use, as advances in AI technology and consumer adoption bring both broad benefits and risks involving national security, privacy, employment and other areas.

Blockchain Applications

▌Ripple CTO: Still Hope to Launch Stablecoin RLUSD by the End of the Year

Ripple Chief Technology Officer David Schwartz said he still hopes to launch its stablecoin RLUSD by the end of the year. But the upcoming holiday may delay the launch.

▌Cadenza, an investment institution focusing on blockchain and AI, has raised $50 million for its early AI venture capital fund

Cadenza, a venture capital company focusing on blockchain and artificial intelligence, announced that its early AI venture capital fund has raised $50 million. The new fund will focus on pre-seed and seed stage investments, with a focus on infrastructure and enterprise applications. Cadenza's current investment portfolio in the Web3 field includes: Web3 infrastructure Validation Cloud, Malaysian digital asset exchange Hata, Web3 API platform Uniblock, L1 blockchain Linera, encrypted wallet application Zulu, etc.

▌a16z's 2025 Crypto Trends: Decentralized Chatbots, On-Chain Government Bonds

a16z lists key areas for the cryptocurrency industry in the coming year, emphasizing tokenized use cases and the integration of artificial intelligence with blockchain technology as potential growth drivers. According to a16z's report, applications based on artificial intelligence and running on the chain are expected to bring at least three emerging trends across the industry: wallets driven by artificial intelligence agents, decentralized autonomous chatbots, and identity solutions. The company believes that decentralized chatbots can be used for social media content and asset management through trusted execution environments: "By running a group of permissionless nodes and coordinated by a consensus protocol, chatbots can even become the first truly autonomous billion-dollar entity." Another trend expected to emerge in 2025 is related to stablecoins. In the past few months, the industry has established a market suitable for global remittances, with multiple companies and protocols launching new stablecoins pegged to the US dollar. a16z predicts that stablecoins will gradually replace everyday credit card transactions starting next year. In addition, as the infrastructure matures, more "unconventional assets" are expected to be on-chain by 2025, enabling cross-sector tokenization. The report predicts that previously overlooked assets such as biometric data will generate new sources of revenue. "Individuals can tokenize their biometric data; the information can then be rented out to companies through smart contracts," the report states, adding that the collection of medical data through decentralized scientific protocols has become possible, enabling users to profit from previously untapped resources. On-chain trading of government bonds is another prospect for 2025 and beyond. The market for tokens backed by government securities began to flourish in 2024, supported by institutional adoption of digital assets. Looking ahead, a16z expects governments themselves to explore the benefits of issuing debt on-chain. Coinbase integrates Apple Pay into its deposit and withdrawal services According to developer documentation, US crypto exchange Coinbase is integrating Apple Pay into its fiat-to-cryptocurrency deposit and withdrawal services. The product, called Coinbase Onramp, offers a one-click purchase feature designed to reduce the cumbersome procedures users need to go through when recharging their self-hosted wallets. Coinbase said in a statement that using cryptocurrencies often involves "a lot of friction, so users give up." Formerly known as Coinbase Pay, Onramp is essentially a software development kit (CDK) and a series of APIs that enable programmers to embed fiat-to-cryptocurrency conversion functions into their mobile or web applications and browser extensions.

▌201st Ethereum ACDE Meeting: EIP-7691 approved for inclusion in Pectra hard fork agenda

Christine Kim, Vice President of Galaxy Research, summarized and shared the 201st Ethereum Core Developer Executive (ACDE) conference call. Ethereum (ETH) is one step closer to formulating the final agenda for Pectra (Prague-Electra), which is the most important update to Ethereum since The Merge. It is reported that this Ethereum ACD consensus meeting also approved a key EIP-7691 for blobs, which means that the increase in blob throughput will be included in the 2025-2026 Ethereum hard fork Pectra agenda. If all goes well, the number of blobs in Ethereum blocks will increase from 6 to 9. In addition, EIP-7639 and EIP-4803 have also been submitted for further discussion, and these two proposals may still be included in the Pectra roadmap. According to the developers, the problems previously encountered by the Mekong testnet have been resolved, and the testing process will be signed to Devents 5 and 6.

Cryptocurrency

▌Cryptocurrency trading volume exceeded $10 trillion for the first time in November

Cryptocurrency trading volume climbed to an all-time high in November, with digital asset trading volume on centralized spot and derivatives exchanges exceeding $10 trillion for the first time. Total trading volume doubled last month, according to data compiled by CCData. The cryptocurrency market soared on optimism that the newly elected Trump administration would provide a friendlier regulatory environment for the industry, with market bellwether Bitcoin jumping 38% to a record high of nearly $100,000. "This sentiment is clearly reflected in the increased demand for assets such as Ripple, which has historically faced stricter regulatory scrutiny," said Jacob Joseph, senior research analyst at CCData. "Optimism on the institutional side is also evident, with CME volumes rising sharply over the past month and spot Bitcoin ETFs seeing large inflows." ▌ President of The ETF Store: Nine of the top ten ETFs by asset management are related to cryptocurrencies Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store, said that 670 ETFs had been launched by 2024, and nine of the top ten ETFs by asset management were related to cryptocurrencies, completely dominating the market (given that GBTC is on the list, the top 11 ETFs are included here).

▌PEPE's market value surpasses Litecoin and rises to 25th place in the cryptocurrency market value ranking

The market shows that as PEPE's price broke through $0.000026 this morning to hit a record high, its market value also rose to the $11 billion range at one point and is now reported at $10.68 billion, surpassing Litecoin and rising to 25th place in the cryptocurrency market value ranking.

▌Except for Satoshi Nakamoto, the top five Bitcoin holders currently control nearly 10% of the circulating Bitcoin supply

According to timechainindex data, in addition to Satoshi Nakamoto, the top five Bitcoin holders currently control 9.9% of the circulating Bitcoin supply: 1. Coinbase is the largest single holder, holding 1,123,520.49 BTC, worth more than $112 billion; 2. In second place is the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, which held 686,997.40 BTC as of December 7, worth as much as $68.9 billion; 3. The next one is BlackRock, which ranks third with 520,861 BTC, worth about $52.2 billion; 4. In fourth place is the listed company Microstrategy, which holds 402,099.99 BTC, worth $4 billion; 5. Following closely behind is the centralized cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, which ranks fifth with 350,262.05 BTC, worth about $35.04 billion. The 6th to 10th Bitcoin holding entities are: Grayscale, Fidelity, the US government, "Individual X 01 - HTX Origin" and Kraken. In addition to Satoshi Nakamoto, the top ten Bitcoin holdings now hold about 14.82% of the total Bitcoin circulation.

▌This week, the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF had a net inflow of $2.744 billion, setting a record for the second largest weekly inflow since its launch

According to Spot On Chain statistics, the inflows of funds into U.S. spot cryptocurrency ETFs this week (December 2-6, 2024) are as follows: $2.744 billion flowed into BTC and $844.9 million flowed into ETH; These inflows marked the second largest weekly inflows for the BTC ETF since its launch and the largest weekly inflows ever for the ETH ETF; Both BTC and ETH ETFs experienced a full week of inflows; BlackRock IBIT and ETHA increased their holdings by 26,833 BTC ($2.65 billion) and 150,900 ETH ($581 million) this week, and currently hold approximately 523,687 BTC ($52.38 billion) and 846,123 ETH ($3.38 billion).

Important Economic Dynamics

▌Grayscale: US employment data shows that interest rates may be cut in December, and the rise of cryptocurrencies can continue into the new year

Zach Pandl, head of research at Grayscale Investments, said that non-farm payrolls in November were higher than expected. However, the data also showed that the unemployment rate rose, which may force the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates later this month. He said: "Today's jobs report may solidify the Fed's case for another rate cut at its upcoming meeting. All else being equal, lower official interest rates tend to weigh on the value of the dollar and benefit other currencies, including Bitcoin. Despite BTC's retreat from above $100,000 yesterday, Grayscale Research believes that the cryptocurrency's rally can continue into the new year." Saxo Bank: Trump tariffs may be good for cryptocurrencies, and the market may quadruple to over $10 trillion Saxo Bank strategist John Hardy said that if the trade tariffs proposed by US President-elect Trump prompt other countries to look for alternatives to the dollar, the cryptocurrency market and gold may benefit. Tariffs would have a terrible impact on global trade because it would cut off the supply of needed dollars. The BRICS countries may use methods such as digital currencies backed by gold to conduct transactions. Crypto stablecoins pegged to gold may also be used. The crypto market may quadruple to over $10 trillion, while the dollar may depreciate by 20% against major currencies and 30% against gold. (Jinshi)

▌Fed Goolsby: Firmly stick to 2% inflation target, job market stabilizes

Fed Goolsby said the US is moving towards a 2% inflation target and stressed that changing this target should not be considered. He believes that the improvement in overall inflation is encouraging, and the recent productivity growth is concentrated in the high-tech field, showing long-term potential. At the same time, the job market has gradually returned to balance from overheating, the recent new employment population has remained strong, and the ratio of job vacancies to unemployment rate shows a sustainable state. Goolsby expects interest rates to fall slightly in the future, but specific decisions still need to focus on inflation and consumption data.

▌Fed Hammack: It may be time for the Fed to slow down the pace of interest rate cuts

Fed Hammack said on Friday that it may be time for the Fed to slow down the pace of interest rate cuts. She believes that the Fed's policy rate may not be much higher than the neutral level. Hammack noted that financial markets expect the Fed to cut interest rates only once in the next two meetings, and said that expectation is consistent with her views. She said inflation, economic growth and the labor market are still stronger than the Fed expected in September. Hammack's speech is one of the clearest hints in recent speeches by Fed officials, suggesting that the Fed's policy stance may no longer be very determined to cool inflation and economic growth.

▌Grayscale: US employment data shows that interest rates may be cut in December, and the rise of cryptocurrencies can continue into the new year

Zach Pandl, head of research at Grayscale Investments, said that non-farm payrolls in November were higher than expected. However, the data also showed that the unemployment rate rose, which may force the Fed to cut interest rates later this month. He said: "Today's employment report may strengthen the Fed's case for another rate cut at its upcoming meeting. All other things being equal, lower official interest rates tend to put pressure on the value of the dollar and benefit other currencies, including Bitcoin. Although BTC fell back from above $100,000 yesterday, Grayscale Research believes that the cryptocurrency's rally can continue into the new year."