Today's top news highlights:
Macro
According to a report by the Financial Times cited by Jinshi, Trump Mobile, the phone company launched by the Trump Organization, has delayed its planned shipment of a gold smartphone originally scheduled for the end of this year. The company initially promised to launch a US-made, $499 smartphone this year to compete with mainstream devices from Apple and Samsung, but has since lowered its target. Trump Mobile's customer service team stated that the previous US government shutdown caused delays in phone deliveries. The team added that the device is "very likely" unable to ship this month. The "T1" device, announced in June, along with a $47.45 monthly plan, is one of several initiatives launched by the Trump family business in response to his return to the White House.
Binance customer service representative Sisi disclosed a new type of scam on the X platform and reminded users to be vigilant about their funds. A user complained that they were scammed out of money by someone claiming to be a "Binance executive." The person promised to help resolve the issue, but disappeared after the money was transferred. Further investigation revealed several suspicious points: First, the scam was very simple; chat screenshots and transfer records provided by the user showed that the "executive" did not verify any details, yet the user "absolutely trusted" him and transferred the money directly. Second, the transfer records were abnormal; the address the user claimed was the scam address, which, upon investigation, was likely their own. Third, the chat history "disappeared"; the user claimed the other party had enabled privacy mode and could only provide screenshots of "post-incident questioning." Fourth, the user questioned a real executive account, but the executive was unaware of this. The investigation revealed this to be a self-directed scam targeting Binance and its users. The user forged chat and transfer records (using a certain escrow platform), then claimed the chat history had been deleted, and then contacted the real executive account to question him, creating two sets of "executive" screenshots. Next, he contacted customer service with the chat logs from the genuine executive's account, requesting verification, attempting to induce a response, and threatening to exert pressure through social media if they didn't help resolve the issue. Sisi stated that the purpose of sharing this publicly was to raise awareness and prevent various new types of scams. She also warned scammers and speculators that any attempts to frame Binance or mislead the public through forgery or deception will be resolutely exposed and prosecuted according to law. Binance reminds users that the platform will not proactively contact them through unofficial channels, nor will it request users to transfer funds to designated addresses or pay any fees.
According to Gelongbao, Delin Holdings (01709.HK) issued an announcement stating that on December 29, 2025, its 70% owned subsidiary, Delin Securities (Hong Kong) Limited ("Delin Securities"), received conditional approval from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) to provide virtual asset trading services under a consolidated account arrangement. This approval is subject to Delin Securities accepting certain conditions of its existing Type 1 (Dealing in Securities) regulated activity license. On December 29, 2025, Delin Securities accepted the aforementioned conditions and will commence virtual asset trading services upon receiving formal approval from the SFC. The company is committed to upgrading Delin Securities' Type 4 (Advising on Securities) regulated activity license, which is currently undergoing final approval by the SFC. The company will make appropriate announcements upon receiving the relevant approval from the SFC.
According to Jinshi News, based on the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting held on December 9-10, most Federal Reserve officials believed that further interest rate cuts were appropriate as long as inflation declined over time. However, the minutes revealed that officials remained divided on when and by how much to cut rates. The minutes highlighted the difficulties policymakers faced in their most recent decision. The decision slightly reinforced market expectations that the Fed would keep interest rates unchanged when it meets again in January 2026. The minutes stated, "Some officials who supported lowering the policy rate at this meeting said that the decision was a 'delicate balance,' or that they could have supported maintaining the target range for the interest rate." The minutes showed that some officials believed that "it would likely be appropriate to keep the target range unchanged for some time after lowering the rate range at this meeting." While the median official rate forecast released after the meeting pointed to a 25-basis-point rate cut in 2026, individual forecasts were very wide-ranging. Investors expect at least two rate cuts in the coming year. Furthermore, the minutes noted considerable disagreement among policymakers regarding whether inflation or unemployment posed a greater threat to the U.S. economy. The minutes noted, "Most participants pointed out that moving toward a more neutral policy stance would help prevent the possibility of a serious deterioration in labor market conditions." However, the minutes also stated, "Several participants pointed to the risk of high inflation becoming entrenched and suggested that further reductions in policy rates against a backdrop of high inflation readings could be misinterpreted as a sign of weakened commitment by policymakers to achieving the 2% inflation target." With the government shutdown lasting throughout October and nearly half of November, officials lacked the usual levels of economic data. However, policymakers noted that new data could help them in the coming weeks. Since the meeting, newly released data has done little to resolve the divisions within the Federal Reserve. The unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in November, the highest level since 2021, while consumer price increases were lower than expected. Both of these figures provided arguments for those supporting a rate cut. But the third-quarter annualized economic growth rate of 4.3%, the fastest pace in two years, could fuel inflation concerns among officials opposed to a December rate cut.
Opinion
Arthur Hayes: Crypto market liquidity may have bottomed out in November; it's time to start rising.
BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes stated that liquidity in the crypto market may have bottomed out in November and is slowly recovering, making it time for cryptocurrencies to start rising.
In a recent interview, Strategy Executive Vice President Andrew Kang stated, "If we continue to increase our Bitcoin holdings, it will benefit our shareholders. We are looking for untapped capital and areas that can drive growth in demand for digital credit. Bitcoin still has a long way to go."
Tom Lee, co-founder of Fundstrat and chairman of BitMine, stated on the X platform, "Typically, during these final holiday trading sessions, many institutional investors exit the market, and algorithmic and bot trading programs begin to dominate. There's also tax-avoidance selling, which constitutes the market dynamics in the last few days of December." Previously, in BitMine's announcement of acquiring 44,463 ETH last week, Tom Lee mentioned that market activity tends to slow down as the year enters its final holiday weeks. Year-end tax-avoidance selling depresses cryptocurrency and cryptocurrency-related stock prices, and this effect is often most pronounced between December 26th and December 30th; therefore, they are adjusting their market strategy accordingly. Earlier today, it was reported that BitMine pledged another 118,944 ETH and acquired an additional 32,938 ETH.
Project Updates
The two core founders of NEO clashed publicly today, fiercely exchanging blows over issues of project fund control and governance. Da Hongfei initiated the attack, accusing co-founder Erik Zhang of long-term personal control of the vast majority of NEO/GAS assets. He claimed Zhang not only violated his promise to transfer assets to a multisignature wallet but also abused his financial advantage to act arbitrarily, "hijacking" protocol governance. Da Hongfei stated that his previous silence was to maintain community confidence, but he now felt compelled to go public and promised to release a financial report in the first quarter of 2026, vowing to regain control of the treasury through all means. Zhang quickly countered, claiming the core issue was a financial "black box." He pointed out that all foundation assets, except for NEO/GAS, had long been controlled by Da Hongfei alone, and no auditable financial disclosures had ever been provided to the community or any third party. Zhang emphasized that his insistence on holding NEO/GAS was precisely for "minimum risk control," preventing these core assets from being drawn into Da Hongfei's opaque operating structure, which he feared would have disastrous consequences.
Binance will remove spot trading pairs such as ARKM/BNB and BARD/BNB.
According to an official announcement, based on recent review results, Binance will remove and cease trading the following spot trading pairs on January 2, 2026 at 11:00 AM (UTC+8): ARKM/BNB, BARD/BNB, EGLD/RON, LISTA/FDUSD, SCR/FDUSD, and ZKC/BNB.
Bitwise filed applications with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on December 30 for 11 cryptocurrency ETFs, including Bitwise AAVE Strategy ETF, Bitwise UNI Strategy ETF, Bitwise ZEC Strategy ETF, Bitwise CC Strategy ETF, Bitwise ENA Strategy ETF, Bitwise Hyperliquid Strategy ETF, Bitwise NEAR Strategy ETF, Bitwise STRK Strategy ETF, Bitwise SUI Strategy ETF, Bitwise TAO Strategy ETF, and Bitwise TRX Strategy ETF. Trading codes and fees have not yet been announced. These ETFs will invest 60% of their assets directly in the underlying cryptocurrency and 40% in ETPs that invest in that cryptocurrency, and may also use derivatives to gain investment exposure.
Open-source cryptography company Zama announced that its Zama protocol has launched on the mainnet and completed its first cUSDT transaction on Ethereum. Previously, in June, Zama completed a $57 million Series B funding round at a $1 billion valuation, led by Pantera Capital and others. Earlier this month, Zama announced that it will launch a public auction on January 12, 2026, to sell 10% of its ZAMA tokens.
Stable pre-deposit program Phase 2 withdrawals are now open.
Hourglass announced early this morning that the second phase of its Stable pre-deposit program has ended, and deposits are now available for withdrawal. All users who received allocations in the second phase can now withdraw their funds through Merkl, and users with excess refunds can also withdraw through the Merkl dashboard. Users who were not approved to participate in the second phase can withdraw their USDC at any time through the application or directly from the underlying smart contract.
According to Cryptobriefing, Grayscale announced that it has filed an S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to convert its Bittensor Trust into an ETF. If approved, this fund will become the first TAO ETP in the U.S. Grayscale launched the Grayscale Bittensor Trust last August. The company firmly believes that Bittensor will be a key driver of the development of decentralized artificial intelligence. Grayscale intends to list the product on the New York Stock Exchange's Arca platform under the ticker symbol GTAO and rename it as an ETF. The trust is designed to reflect the value of TAO, but staking is prohibited unless future conditions are met.
Coinbase will launch spot trading of Lighter (LIT)
According to an official announcement, Coinbase will launch spot trading of Lighter (LIT). If liquidity conditions are met, the relevant trading pairs will be listed in supported regions. Lighter (LIT) will be available on the coinbase.com website, the Coinbase app, and Coinbase Advanced. Institutional users can access Lighter (LIT) directly through the Coinbase exchange. Note: Coinbase's announcement uses "LIGHTER" as the token name for Lighter, but the official token name announced by Lighter is "LIT".
Important data
According to AiYi's monitoring, Arthur Hayes received another 4.85 million ENA tokens from Galaxy Digital, worth approximately $985,000. Since December 20th, Hayes has accumulated a total of 10.905 million $ENA tokens, with a total value of approximately $2.227 million, and an average cost price of approximately $0.2042 per token.
According to SoSoValue data, Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a total net inflow of $355 million yesterday (December 30th, Eastern Time). The BlackRock ETF IBIT saw the largest single-day net inflow, at $144 million, bringing its total historical net inflow to $62.192 billion. Following closely were Ark Invest and 21Shares' ARKB ETF, each with a net inflow of $110 million, bringing its total historical net inflow to $1.71 billion. As of press time, the total net asset value of Bitcoin spot ETFs was $114.439 billion, with an ETF net asset value ratio (market capitalization as a percentage of total Bitcoin market capitalization) of 6.52%, and a cumulative historical net inflow of $56.961 billion.
PANews reported on December 31 that, according to Lookonchain monitoring, three whales/institutions withdrew $15.9 million worth of Solana ecosystem DeFi tokens from exchanges in the past two days, including: 7.39 billion PUMP (worth $13.77 million); 8.02 million CLOUD (worth $621,000); 9.06 million KMNO (worth $539,000); 1.33 million JTO (worth $521,000); and 3.05 million DRIFT (worth $479,000).
According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin, over the past three weeks, Trump's Meme token, Trump, deployment address, transferred 94 million USDC to Coinbase. This USDC originated from their one-way liquidity sales on Meteora (adding only Trump without USDT, then selling the Trump for USDT at a set price range). Their primary method of cashing out Meme tokens (TRUMP and MELANIA) is through one-way liquidity sales, ultimately converting them into USDC which flows into Coinbase. This suggests the same operational team may be behind it all.
Institutional holdings
Trump Media received 260 BTC from Coinbase, worth $21 million.
According to Emmett Gallic, Trump Media received 260 BTC (worth $21 million) from Coinbase between last night and early this morning. Last week, they deposited 560 BTC into Coinbase.
Bitmine pledged another 118,944 ETH and increased its holdings by 32,938 ETH.
According to Onchain Lens monitoring, Bitmine has further staked 118,944 ETH, worth $352.16 million. To date, they have staked a total of 461,504 ETH, with a total value of $1.37 billion. In addition, a newly created wallet received 32,938 ETH from FalconX, worth $97.8 million; this wallet likely belongs to Bitmine.
Prenetics Global, backed by David Beckham, announces it is abandoning its Bitcoin buying strategy.
According to The Block, Prenetics Global, a health supplement brand backed by football legend David Beckham, has cancelled its plans to accumulate Bitcoin less than three months after raising $48 million to build a cryptocurrency reserve. The company announced on Tuesday that it is abandoning its Bitcoin acquisition strategy and instead refocusing on "the rapid growth opportunity of its consumer health brand IM8." In October, the Nasdaq-listed company raised $48 million in an oversubscribed equity financing round to accelerate its Bitcoin reserve strategy and expand its IM8 brand. Besides Beckham, other investors included Kraken, Exodus, GPTX, DL Holdings, and American Ventures. Prenetics Global currently holds 510 Bitcoins and more than $70 million in cash and cash equivalents.
According to an announcement by Cypherpunk Technologies Inc., the company recently purchased 56,418.09 ZEC tokens for approximately $29 million, at an average price of $514.02, increasing its total holdings to 290,062.67 ZEC tokens, representing approximately 1.76% of the total circulating supply of Zcash. Cypherpunk stated that its goal is to accumulate 5% of the network's ZEC supply to advance its privacy technology strategy.
According to Sentora (formerly IntoTheBlock), there are currently 368 entities holding crypto asset vaults, with a total size exceeding $185 billion. Of these, publicly traded companies account for 59.3%, private companies for 13.7%, totaling 73%, while government agencies hold 25.6%. DAOs, non-profit organizations, and other categories represent a smaller proportion.
