Trump may be sentenced before taking office; Sol Strategies gets huge credit line

Headline

▌Trump may be sentenced before taking office as US President

On January 7, local time, Judge Allen Gesmer of the New York Court of Appeals rejected President-elect Trump's latest request to postpone the sentencing process for his "hush money" case. Trump's lawyer said that as the president-elect, Trump enjoys the same immunity from criminal prosecution as the president, but this view was rejected by the court. It is less than two weeks before Trump takes office as president. If the sentencing is not completed before the start of his second term on January 20, the presidential immunity may postpone the case until he leaves office. The court's ruling means that Trump's sentencing is still scheduled for January 10. However, Trump and his legal team said they will continue to seek legal means to postpone or cancel the sentencing.

▌Sol Strategies Receives $25 Million Credit Line to Invest in SOL Tokens and Staking

Publicly traded holding company Sol Strategies (ticker: CYFRF, HODL.CN) announced that it has received a $25 million credit line to invest in SOL tokens and staking.  

Sol Strategies has drawn down $4 million in principal from the credit line and plans to use “the remaining funds to make large-scale purchases of Solana tokens to support its staking operations and acquisitions.” The company must use the entire line by January 6, 2027, the statement said.  

As of December 31, 2024, Sol Strategies has staked more than 1.5 million SOL tokens (valued at approximately $450 million CAD) in its validator operations. This includes more than 140,000 SOLs owned by the company.

Market

As of press time, according to Coingecko data:

BTC's latest transaction price is $97,001.38, with a daily increase or decrease of -5.0%;

ETH's latest transaction price is $3,397.72, with a daily increase or decrease of -7.8%;

BNB's latest transaction price is $700.64, with a daily increase or decrease of -3.9%;

SOL's latest transaction price is $202.68, with a daily increase or decrease of - style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">-7.2%;

DOGE's latest transaction price is 0.3512 yuan, with a daily increase or decrease of -9.5%;

XPR's latest transaction price is 2.30 US dollars, with a daily increase or decrease of -5.1%.

Policy

▌U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis meets with Paul Atkins, nominee for chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to discuss digital asset legislation and rule reform

On January 8, U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis met with Paul Atkins, nominee for chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to discuss digital asset legislation and rule reform. She hinted that there may be changes in the future, joking that she would put the SEC on the "Atkins diet."

As previously reported, on August 1, 2024, U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming formally proposed the "Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Act," which would instruct the U.S. government to establish a reserve fund for this scarce decentralized asset. The bill also sets a long-term goal of accumulating 1 million bitcoins over time, about 5% of the total supply of bitcoin. The bill plans to use existing U.S. Treasury funds to purchase Bitcoin in an amount corresponding to the U.S. Treasury's gold allocation.

▌Trump's press conference proposed a number of surprising strategies, and many countries responded

At a press conference held at Mar-a-Lago, U.S. President-elect Trump made a number of shocking statements in just one hour and escalated his remarks on sovereignty issues against Canada and other countries. He called for economic means to absorb Canada as part of the United States, and did not rule out the use of force to seize the Panama Canal and Greenland, and asked NATO countries to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP. He also vowed that if Hamas did not release Israeli hostages before he took office, "the Middle East will fall into chaos." In addition, Trump also promised to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the "American Gulf." In addition to threatening to impose tariffs on uncooperative countries (including Denmark), he did not explain how these seemingly impossible promises would be achieved. In response, many parties responded to Trump's remarks. Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau said that Canada could not become a state of the United States, and the country's foreign minister said that it would never back down in the face of threats; the Danish Prime Minister reiterated that Greenland was not for sale; the Panamanian president responded that he would not comment on Trump's remarks on the Panama Canal before Trump took office. Foreign media commented that Trump's remarks were consistent with a bolder posture, that is, Trump believed that he was authorized (by the people and the electoral college) to speak and act almost at will. Coinbase won permission for interim appeal and will appeal to the Second Circuit Court for SEC securities charges Coinbase Chief Legal Officer paulgrewal.eth posted on the X platform that U.S. Judge Failla approved Coinbase's interim appeal motion and suspended the local court lawsuit. This is a major legal victory for Coinbase, which means that Coinbase will be able to appeal to the Second Circuit Court for the charges brought against it by the SEC.  

The SEC previously claimed that Coinbase violated federal securities laws by operating as an unregistered exchange and broker-dealer, and illegally selling unregistered securities through its staking program.

Blockchain Applications

▌Ripple Partners with Chainlink to Drive Adoption of Stablecoin RLUSD

Ripple and Chainlink have partnered to further expand the use and utility of the Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin in decentralized finance (DeFi).

Cryptocurrency

▌TD Cowen: Trump administration expected to relax rules for banks using cryptocurrencies, but caution is still needed

The Trump administration may bring positive changes for crypto entities working with banks, but expectations of this new regulatory environment should be within "reasonable ranges," said investment bank TD Cowen. Banks have a responsibility to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) and Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) rules and manage risks such as liquidity and concentration, TD Cowen's Washington research team (led by Jaret Seiberg) wrote in a report. "Even if Trump's regulators are less concerned about the increased connection between traditional finance and cryptocurrencies, this will cause some banks to remain cautious, which is why some banks may still think the risks are too great while others will seize the opportunity," the analyst said. In addition, some cryptocurrency entities may resist any government oversight. This may limit banks' comfort level in working with them. "Nevertheless, Jaret Seiberg said that the connection between traditional finance and cryptocurrencies will be "inevitable" under the Trump administration.

▌Arbitrum Foundation awards largest developer grant ever to South Korean giant Lotte

Offchain Labs, the developer behind Arbitrum, announced at CES 2025 that the Arbitrum Foundation has awarded the largest developer grant ever to South Korea's Lotte Group. Lotte Group is a multi-billion dollar South Korean conglomerate known for its massive portfolio of shopping malls, media companies and entertainment assets.  

A representative for the company declined to disclose the specific amount of the grant “at this stage,” which, according to Offchain Labs, solidifies Arbitrum’s position as the primary blockchain infrastructure provider for Rakuten’s metaverse gaming platform Caliverse.

▌CryptoQuant: Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Turns Positive for the First Time Since Dec. 17, 2024

In a sign of rising demand for Bitcoin among U.S. investors, the Coinbase Bitcoin premium turned positive for the first time since Dec. 17, 2024, CryptoQuant’s analysis shows. "The behavior of U.S. investors has been a leading indicator for the cryptocurrency market since the U.S. approved a spot Bitcoin ETF," said Burak Kesmeci, an analyst at CryptoQuant. "The data suggests that the behavior of U.S. investors has once again shifted to a dominant buying pressure." In addition, the analyst added that Bitcoin's recent break above the $100,000 mark was due to a reduction in miners' selling pressure and increased profitability. Analyst: The correlation between Bitcoin and U.S. stocks is re-emerging Analyst: Bitcoin and U.S. stocks are once again showing a correlation Bitcoin and the S&P 500 began to diverge after the election of Donald Trump, but the two asset classes have recently begun to move more in sync, said Andre Dragosch, head of European research at Bitwise. Bitcoin and the S&P 500 are once again closely correlated, with a correlation of 0.88 (0 indicates no correlation and 1 indicates absolute correlation) on their recent 20-day moving average.  

Dragosch concluded: "While on-chain factors may provide significant impetus until at least mid-2025, a deterioration in the macro situation may also pose short-term risks to Bitcoin, especially given that its correlation with the S&P 500 remains relatively high."

▌CME Group executive: ETH will outperform BTC this year

Payal Shah, director of equity and cryptocurrency research and product development at CME Group, wrote that ETH will outperform BTC this year.  

The article stated that Ethereum rose by about 53% in 2024, while Bitcoin rose by 113%; however, Ethereum's recent performance showed good prospects. Since the results of the US election were announced, Ethereum has risen 39%, surpassing Bitcoin's 35% gain and signaling a potential recovery driven by market optimism about President-elect Donald Trump's expected pro-cryptocurrency policies, in addition to other key factors driving this optimism, including strong staking activity, stable transaction fees and growing institutional interest, especially through ETFs.

Important Economic Dynamics

▌The probability of the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates unchanged in January is 95.2%

According to CME's "Fed Watch", the probability of the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates unchanged in January is 95.2%, and the probability of a 25 basis point rate cut is 4.8%. The probability of maintaining the current interest rate unchanged by March is 60.9%, the probability of a cumulative 25 basis point rate cut is 37.3%, and the probability of a cumulative 50 basis point rate cut is 1.7%.

▌The US dollar index rose 0.26% on the 7th

The US dollar index, which measures the US dollar against six major currencies, rose 0.26% on the day and closed at 108.549 at the end of the foreign exchange market. As of the end of the New York foreign exchange market, 1 euro was exchanged for 1.0355 US dollars, lower than 1.0388 US dollars on the previous trading day; 1 pound was exchanged for 1.2490 US dollars, lower than 1.2513 US dollars on the previous trading day. 1 US dollar was exchanged for 157.78 Japanese yen, higher than 157.54 Japanese yen on the previous trading day; 1 US dollar was exchanged for 0.9086 Swiss francs, higher than 0.9045 Swiss francs on the previous trading day; 1 US dollar was exchanged for 1.4347 Canadian dollars, higher than 1.4337 Canadian dollars on the previous trading day; 1 US dollar was exchanged for 11.1091 Swedish kronor, higher than 11.0528 Swedish kronor on the previous trading day.

▌Bostic: Inflation is expected to gradually fall to 2% this year, but the Fed should still make cautious decisions

Federal Reserve Chairman Bostic said that given the uneven progress in reducing inflation, officials should be cautious in making decisions and would rather prefer to keep interest rates high. Bostic also said in a podcast recorded on December 9 and released on Tuesday that he expects inflation to continue to gradually fall to the Fed's 2% target this year. He said he expects price pressures to subside, although there may be times when it looks like progress is stalling or inflation is becoming more aggressive. "I want to make sure we're getting the right signals and that our policy is calibrated to the right signals. If we have to make mistakes, I'll make them on the good side," Bostic said in the podcast. “I want to make sure — of course, make sure — that inflation reaches 2%, which means we may have to keep the policy rate higher than people expect.”

Golden Encyclopedia

▌What is Compressed NFT?

CNFT is a newer non-fungible token that uses state compression technology to store data more efficiently on Solana. Unlike traditional NFTs that store all token metadata directly on the chain or through external links such as IPFS, cNFT uses Merkle trees to optimize data storage.

Disclaimer: As a blockchain information platform, Golden Finance publishes articles for information reference only and is not intended as actual investment advice. Please establish a correct investment concept and be sure to increase risk awareness.

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