Weekly Market Highlights - Crypto Marches On Towards Institutionalization

10 January 2025Macro/TradFiU.S. job openings jumped to 8.1 million in November from 7.8 million in October, indicating strong worker demand despite a cooling labour market.Bitcoin miner MARA recently deployed 16% of its BTC holdings, 7,377 BTC worth nearly $730 million, in short-term third-party loans to generate a single-digit yield.MicroStrategy has acquired an additional 1,070 BTC for approximately $101 million, bringing its total holdings to 447,470 BTC.Tokyo-listed investment firm Metaplanet plans to raise its BTC holdings to 10,000 BTC by the end of 2025. It currently holds 1,761.98 BTC.CryptoL1/L2:Sol Strategies Inc., a Canadian public company investing in the Solana ecosystem, announced a CAD$25M unsecured revolving credit facility exclusively for purchasing SOL tokens.Arbitrum awarded its largest-ever developer grant to South Korea’s Lotte Group for blockchain integration in the Caliverse metaverse gaming platform. Amount undisclosed.San Francisco-based Movement Labs, developing a layer-2 solution on Ethereum, announces a $100M Series B funding round led by CoinFund and Brevan Howard's Nova fund, valuing the company at around $3B.Sonic, the first gaming-focused Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) L2 network, launched the G.A.M.E. Fund 1 to boost Web3 games, AI agents, and social media tools.ZKsync's TVL surged after launching its Ignite program, allocating 300 million ZK tokens (US$60M) over nine months for liquidity incentives.ZKcandy, a gaming Layer 2 on the ZKsync stack, raised $4 million in a private round led by Wemix, with Animoca Ventures and Spartan Group participating.DeFi:CeDeFi platform Bouncebit will integrate select Plume RWA assets, offering users more options for real-world yields.Pyth Network partners with neobank Revolut to integrate digital banking data into DeFi.Stablecoins:Ripple partners with Chainlink to integrate their RLUSD stablecoin into DeFi, with Ripple President Monica Long expecting its imminent listing on major exchanges.Others:South Korea’s Jeju Island is launching NFT-based tourism cards to attract and retain young tourists, Yonhap reported on Jan. 6.Thailand will pilot crypto payments in Phuket, enabling tourists to easily use digital assets for purchases.Backpack, formed by the original FTX team, acquired FTX EU for $32.7 million, aiming to become Europe's sole regulated perpetual futures provider.Pump.science and Hedgehog Markets partner to launch prediction markets for live mouse longevity experiments.Latest Binance Research Publications Check out our latest publications:Monthly Market Insights - January 2025Navigating Crypto: Industry MapThe Future of Crypto WalletsExplore our Binance Research website for more project and macro research.For more frequent market updates and insights, follow us on Twitter @BinanceResearch.That’s a wrap!Binance ResearchAbout Binance Research: Binance Research is the research arm of Binance, the world's leading cryptocurrency exchange. 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