Important information last night and this morning (January 9th - January 10th)
Reprinted from panewslab
01/10/2025·1M
Fed Governor Bowman: Supports December interest rate cut as "final step" in policy readjustment
According to King Ten reports, Federal Reserve Governor Bowman said on Thursday that she supported last month's interest rate cut, believing it to be the "final step" in the Fed's monetary policy adjustment. Due to rising inflation risks, caution must be exercised in the future. “We should also avoid prejudging the future policies of the new administration,” Bowman said in prepared remarks to the California Bankers Association. "Instead, we should wait for more clarity and then seek to understand the impact on economic activity, the labor market and inflation." This is the first time Bowman has made these remarks since becoming the favorite to be the Federal Reserve's next top bank regulator. Barr announced this week that he would step down as the Fed's vice chairman for supervision by the end of next month. "This year will see a change in leadership at banking institutions, which I expect will translate into a shift in priorities and approaches," Bowman said. She reiterated her consistent calls for more targeted regulation and a Adopt a more “pragmatic” approach to policy making.
Cynthia Lummis prepares to lead new U.S. Senate Digital Assets Subcommittee
The U.S. Senate Banking Committee plans to appoint cryptocurrency-friendly Senator Cynthia Lummis to lead the newly formed Digital Assets Subcommittee to fulfill the commitments of the new chairperson, The Block reported. Some Republican members of the Senate Banking Committee have initially selected the subcommittee's leaders and members, but the committee still needs to vote to confirm them. Senate aides revealed that Lummis will lead a digital assets subcommittee that includes pro-cryptocurrency Senator Bill Hagerty and newly elected Senator Bernie Moreno. Incoming committee chairman Tim Scott said earlier that if elected, he would establish a subcommittee focused on digital assets. The current chairman, Sherrod Brown, is critical of the cryptocurrency industry and calls for a crackdown on related illegal activities. The leadership of the Senate Banking Committee is also critical, as the chair holds the financial power of legislation, including the crypto bill.
Prior to yesterday’s news, the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee appointed Bryan Steil as chairman of the Digital Assets Subcommittee.
With Trump’s inauguration less than two weeks away, crypto industry executives are vying for access to Trump himself and a seat on a planned cryptocurrency advisory committee that is expected to take place before Trump takes office, according to Bloomberg was established shortly thereafter. According to people familiar with the matter, industry insiders intend to use the committee, which may be composed of about two dozen CEOs and founders, to influence the new government’s digital asset policy. Most potential appointees have developed relationships with Trump and have visited him in recent months, people familiar with the matter said. Trump and his inner circle, including incoming White House artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency expert David Sacks, are still weighing potential appointees. Since Trump was re-elected in November, Mar-a-Lago has hosted a large number of people in the crypto industry, including Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and others. In addition, Circle, Coinbase, Kraken, Ondo and other companies have pledged to donate to Trump’s inauguration.
Google donates $1 million to Trump inaugural fund
Google donated $1 million to President-elect Trump's 2025 inaugural fund, becoming the latest technology company to try to build a good relationship with the new administration, CNBC reported. Karan Bhatia, Google's head of global government affairs and public policy, said the company will also provide a livestream of the inauguration on YouTube and provide a direct link on its homepage. In addition, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Meta, Amazon, and Apple CEO Tim Cook each announced or reportedly donated $1 million to the fund. The donations show that major technology companies are seeking to maintain and improve relationships with the new administration ahead of it taking office.
Circle has donated $1 million USDC to President Trump’s inaugural committee
According to Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire’s Twitter message, Circle has donated $1 million in USDC to President Trump’s inaugural committee.
At the "Boao Forum for Asia New Year Outlook 2025" event, Zhou Xiaochuan, former governor of the People's Bank of China, said that the world will face profound changes and challenges in 2025: the international environment continues to be full of uncertainty, competition among major powers intensifies, and economic globalization is frustrated; The economic recovery is unpredictable, and the industrial chain is forced to be reshaped due to the "decoupling and disconnection" of trade and technology; the rapid development of general artificial intelligence brings opportunities and risks; the climate change crisis intensifies, and sustainable development faces a huge test. At the same time, he emphasized that there are several major changes that will remain unchanged in 2025: the trend of accelerating growth of countries in the Global South will not change, the direction of Asian countries in promoting inclusive economic globalization will not change, and China's determination to reform and open up will not change. Zhou Xiaochuan pointed out in his speech that global public debt is about to exceed 100 trillion US dollars, which will increase external financing costs and exchange rate depreciation pressure on emerging markets and developing countries. Debt will pose challenges to the fiscal sustainability of developed countries. The impact of digital encrypted assets on global financial stability and financial security requires vigilance. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) wrote in its October 2024 Fiscal Monitor Report that global public debt is already at a very high level (the size of U.S. debt has exceeded US$36 trillion). By the end of this year (2024), the size of global public debt is expected to exceed $100 trillion (93% of global gross domestic product); by 2030, it will be close to 100% of GDP. This is 10 percentage points higher than the rate in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Grok iOS version is now available on the App Store
The official APP of the artificial intelligence model Grok developed by Musk's xAI company has been launched on the iOS platform and is currently available for download in the Apple App Store in the United States and the Philippines. It can be downloaded through the link or search for X.AI, but there has been no official launch announcement yet.
As reported by Cryptoslate, team members from Coinbase, Google, ai16z, and other major players have joined forces to launch Aiccelerate, a new decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) designed to accelerate the integration of cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence (AI). The announcement on January 9 showed that the DAO will focus on promoting decentralized, open-source AI development and supporting high-potential projects in different ecosystems. In addition, Aiccelerate positions itself as a DAO that pays equal attention to investment and development. Its main mission is to drive innovation in what it calls "agent AI." This DAO aims to build a collaborative community of top developers across multiple frameworks. These experts will contribute to a range of agents and tools designed to advance organizational goals. Additionally, Aiccelerate will unify its initiatives through a token called AICC. The DAO will use part of the profits to buy back its native tokens. The list of development consultants includes ai16z founder Shaw, Virtuals Protocol core contributor EtherMage, EigenLayer developer relations director Nader Dabit, and Story Protocol co-founder Jason Zhao. On the investment side, Aiccelerate’s advisors include Mechanism Capital’s Andrew Kang and Marc Weinstein, Coinbase Ventures’ Justin Lee, and Delphi Digital’s Anil Lulla.
Standard Chartered Bank obtains Luxembourg license to provide digital asset custody services
Standard Chartered Bank has announced that its new Luxembourg entity will serve as a regulatory entry into the EU market, providing cryptocurrency and digital asset custody services to EU clients. Luxembourg meets the growing needs of the EU market due to its balanced regulatory and financial environment. Previously, Standard Chartered has launched digital asset custody services in the UAE. Laurent Marochini, who previously served as head of innovation at Societe Generale, has been appointed CEO of the Luxembourg entity. Standard Chartered said that this move will help its institutional clients enter the digital asset ecosystem and provide strong support for the transformation of traditional finance.
InfiniGods plans to launch native token GOD, 17% will be distributed to its NFT holders
According to The Defiant, crypto game InfiniGods is currently preparing to launch its native token GOD. GOD tokens will be distributed among NFT holders in the ecosystem, with 4.25% allocated to InfiniPass holders, 3.25% allocated to Elder Gods NFT, and 9.5% allocated to God Vault NFT holders. TGE has yet to set a date, however, InfiniGods chief marketing officer Bry DiSanto hinted that the airdrop is coming, posting on It raised $9 million in seed funding led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Framework Ventures and Animoca Brands. The company raised an additional $8 million in April 2024 and completed a $1.3 million strategic round led by Arete Capital in December.
VanEck executive: Block is expected to become the first company in the S&P 500 to hold Bitcoin
Matthew Sigel, director of digital asset research at VanEck, posted on the X platform that financial technology company Block is expected to become the first company in the S&P 500 to hold Bitcoin. To be included in the index, a stock must meet six main criteria, including: 1) a market capitalization of more than $18 billion; 2) public float of more than 10%; 3) earnings in the most recent quarter should be positive, and The sum of GAAP earnings for the first four quarters should also be positive; 4) High liquidity; 5) Listed for more than 12 months; 6) The company is headquartered in the United States. Block met the last criterion (earnings) following the release of its first-quarter 2024 earnings. However, inclusion in the S&P 500 Index does not strictly follow a formula but is left to the discretion of the Index Committee. Historically, companies that meet all requirements have been included within 3 to 21 months (with the exception of LULU, which took 65 months). Industry diversity is one of the factors considered by the Index Committee, who aim to maintain an industry composition that is generally consistent with industry economics. The term "consistent with industry economics" is not clearly defined, so the S&P Total Market Index can be used as a guide: Financials currently make up 13.9% of the S&P 500 and 14.6% of the broader index, which is It shows that there is still room for growth in the financial industry.
Coinbase International Station will launch AERO, BEAM and DRIFT perpetual contracts
Coinbase International Station announced on the Open on or after 17:30 on January 16th.
Binance will list spot trading pairs such as PHA/USDC and PLN/USDC
Binance will launch PHA/USDC, PLN/USDC, STEEM/USDC and USUAL/USDC spot trading pairs at 16:00 on January 10, 2025 (Eastern Eighth District time). And the trading robot service will be launched simultaneously.
According to Metis official news, in the past few hours, the Metis network has experienced intermittent downtime due to the surge in mainnet transaction volume, which has caused L1DTL (Layer 1 Data Transaction Layer) to freeze. Currently, the team is upgrading L1DTL memory to solve the problem and perform recovery work.
MANTRA Blockchain to partner with DAMAC Group to tokenize at least $1 billion in assets
MANTRA Blockchain has reached an agreement with UAE-based real estate giant DAMAC Group to tokenize at least $1 billion in assets by early 2025, CoinDesk reported. DAMAC's asset portfolio covers real estate development, hotel management and data centers. Through tokenization, DAMAC aims to simplify the traditional investment process and increase accessibility for retail and institutional investors. Specific tokenized assets and product details will be announced in the coming weeks. The MANTRA mainnet will be launched in October 2024 and is committed to introducing traditional financial assets to the blockchain. It has reached an agreement with other Dubai developer MAG Group to tokenize US$500 million in assets. DAMAC has started accepting Bitcoin and Ethereum payments as early as 2022.
BIO Protocol extends to Solana chain with bridging service provided by Wormhole
According to the official announcement of BIO Protocol, its DeSci (decentralized science) project has now been launched on the Solana main network and supports cross-chain functions through the Wormhole protocol. Users can transfer BIO tokens between the Ethereum mainnet and Solana through the officially provided bridge service (bridge.bio.xyz) (contract address: bioJ9JTqW62MLz7UKHU69gtKhPpGi1BQhccj2kmSvUJ). Officials stated that this move laid the foundation for BIO Protocol to move towards a multi-chain ecosystem, and revealed that more plans will be launched in January and February.
CleanSpark Bitcoin Inventory Breaks 10,000 Coin Mark
Mining company CleanSpark Inc. (Nasdaq: CLSK) announced that the company has mined 10,097 Bitcoins in its domestic mining operations in the United States, and its inventory exceeded the 10,000 mark for the first time. CEO Zach Bradford said that every Bitcoin is backed by American energy and generated in the United States, reflecting the company's commitment to sustainable growth and global Bitcoin ecological innovation.
According to Lookonchain monitoring data, 10 Bitcoin ETFs experienced a total net outflow of 4,964 BTC (approximately US$458.3 million) in the past day. Among them, the iShares (Blackrock) ETF had a net outflow of 1,319 BTC (approximately US$121.8 million), and it currently holds 557,882 BTC (approximately US$51.51 billion). In addition, 9 Ethereum ETFs recorded a total net outflow of 4,701 ETH (approximately US$15.21 million). Among them, Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust had a net outflow of 3,298 ETH (approximately US$10.67 million) and currently holds 471,912 ETH (approximately US$1.53 billion).
Jump Trading transferred more than $20 million in stablecoins to CEX in the past hour
On-chain data shows that in the past hour, Jump Trading transferred more than $20 million in stablecoin transactions to multiple centralized exchanges (CEX), including USDT and USDC. The details are as follows: • Transferred 2.107 million USDT to Binance, worth approximately US$2.11 million; • Transferred a total of US$18 million in USDC to Coinbase, including a transfer of US$10 million and another transfer of US$8.913 million.
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