Catégorie : Non classé

Welcome to Dubaï. La plus grande ville des Émirats arabes unis s’impose de plus en plus comme un des centres financiers mondiaux incontournables et ses responsables ont bien compris l’intérêt de miser sur les nouvelles technologies pour se projeter dans un futur qui s’annonce radieux. Initiatives et projets blockchain se multiplient dans l’Émirat sous l’impulsion d’un cadre règlementaire ultra-favorable aux cryptomonnaies et aux entreprises qui travaillent dans le secteur. Mais Dubaï restera toujours Dubaï, et si la ville est connue dans le monde entier, c’est aussi pour ses buildings au design novateur et une nouvelle tour va prochainement voir le jour dans ce paysage urbain remarquable : la Crypto Tower.

Dubaï fait ce qu’il sait faire de mieux : des buildings et du business, mais à la sauce blockchain et crypto

On retrouve aux manettes de ce nouveau projet des acteurs bien connus de la sous-région que sont DMCC – Dubai Multi Commodities Centre – un centre d’affaires international et REIT development qui propose des solutions software pour les grandes entreprises. Tous deux ont conjointement annoncé le lancement de la Crypto Tower dans le quartier de Jumeirah Lakes Towers qui affichera 17 étages et qui sera tout entièrement dédiée à la cryptomonnaie, au Web3 et à la DeFi.

Avec plus de 4500 m² à louer, la tour comportera 9 étages de bureaux pour des startups et des entreprises crypto et trois étages pour incuber les futurs projets de l’industrie, alors qu’un étage sera tout entier sera tourné vers l’intelligence artificielle. À noter que l’organisation interne même du projet sera basée sur des mécanismes liés à la blockchain qui permettront « de rationaliser les interactions, les transactions, la gouvernance et le partage des ressources ».

Pour le Président exécutif et directeur général de DMCC, ce projet exprime tout l’esprit pionnier de la ville :

« La Crypto Tower est un développement novateur qui se trouve à l’interface de la blockchain, du Web3 et de l’immobilier. (…) Le lancement de la Crypto Tower est à la fois une démonstration de l’avenir du Web3, où la transparence et la propriété sont assurées par la technologie blockchain, ainsi qu’une preuve de notre volonté de consolider la position de leader mondial de Dubaï dans le secteur de l’innovation. »

Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Président Exécutif et Directeur Général, DMCC – Source : Emirates247.com

En plus de ces installations à destination des professionnels, on retrouvera dans cette Crypto Tower une galerie d’art exposant essentiellement des NFT, un concessionnaire de voiture – et oui, c’est Dubaï ! – et un espace sécurisé pour stocker les objets de valeur et les cold wallet des travailleurs de l’immeuble. La construction devrait être achevée début 2027 et les premières sociétés emménageront dans la foulée. Dubaï a compris ce que voulaient les entreprises et les professionnels du secteur et la ville cosmopolite est en train de prendre une sacrée longueur d’avance sur d’autres anciennes places fortes de la finance mondiale.

L’article Cryptomonnaies : Une Crypto Tower de 17 étages va être construite à Dubaï est apparu en premier sur Journal du Coin.

A fellow at crypto think tank Coin Center filed suit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday, seeking a judge’s guarantee that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will not be able to prosecute his forthcoming crypto project for violating money transmitting laws in the future.

The lawsuit, filled by blockchain entrepreneur Michael Lewellen, claims that the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) criminal prosecution of software developers who publish noncustodial cryptocurrency software – including the ongoing prosecutions of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm and Samourai Wallet co-founder Keonne Rodriguez – is unconstitutional, and violates the First and Fifth Amendments.

In addition to being unconstitutional, the suit claims, the DOJ’s prosecution of crypto developers “betray[s] its own representations to the public,” that, unless developers have “total independent control over the value” being moved, they are not acting as money transmitters.

Lewellen’s suit comes amidst growing concerns about government persecution of crypto privacy software developers, both in the U.S. and abroad. Tornado Cash’s Storm is facing up to 45 years in prison if convicted on all counts tied to his work with the crypto mixing service; Rodriguez faces a 25 year maximum sentence for creating Samourai Wallet. Both men have pleaded not guilty, and will go to trial this year.

In the absence of a clear regulatory and legal framework for cryptocurrencies, preemptive lawsuits like Lewellen’s are becoming increasingly common. Last year, two NFT artists filed suit against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seeking a similar declaratory judgment protecting them from civil penalties from the SEC.

Read more: Does the SEC Really Have Jurisdiction Over NFT Art? Two Artists Sue SEC to Get an Answer

Through his suit, Lewellen is trying to avoid Rodrigez and Storm’s fate. His forthcoming project, Pharos, is essentially a crypto-based Kickstarter. Built on Ethereum, his crowdfunding platform will use a type of smart contracts he calls “assurance contracts” to ensure that donors will automatically get their money back if the project is not fully funded. The project will also have privacy features that prevents a project’s donors from being publicly identifiable.

As the creator and publisher of the Pharos software, Lewellen will only receive a predetermined fee from projects that are successful. According to his suit, “he will never have control over the cryptocurrency that goes through Pharos.”

Garland, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, will soon depart the DOJ. Incoming President Donald Trump’s pick to replace Garland as Attorney General, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, is currently undergoing nomination hearings. Garland’s successor will be automatically replaced as the named defendant of the suit upon his departure from the DOJ.

Dear President-Elect Trump,

In your keynote address at the Bitcoin conference in Nashville last year, you pledged to make the United States the crypto capital of the world if re-elected for a second term. As you return to the presidential office this Monday, we write to you as practicing members of the crypto law bar to recommend regulatory policies that will help you to achieve that goal.

The United States, which rests on the same foundation of personal liberty as crypto, is naturally positioned to lead the world in its development. Unfortunately, U.S. regulators have until now refused to adapt existing laws to digital assets and the blockchains that underpin them (or even to explain why not), and created an unfavorable business environment that has driven many entrepreneurs and developers abroad.

To unleash American ingenuity and remedy this neglect of the blockchain industry, we propose that you pursue the below forward-looking policies across three areas: supporting U.S. companies; promoting crypto values such as privacy, disintermediation, and decentralization; and cultivating a favorable business environment domestically.

Supporting U.S.-Based Businesses

The crypto industry has produced a range of established and emerging use-cases, including digital gold, stablecoins, permissionless payments, decentralized finance, real world assets, decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN), and many more. Many of them are being responsibly advanced in the United States by businesses such as Coinbase, Circle and Consensys, and by developers contributing to crypto’s open-source, decentralized infrastructure. To continue competing against their international rivals, these parties need clear rules of the road and proper regulatory guidance.

General Rules of the Road

Token issuance and secondary sales, which lie at the heart of the crypto economy, are subject to confusing and overlapping regulatory authority from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Market structure legislation should clearly delineate the scope of jurisdiction among primary regulators and lay out when assets enter and exit that jurisdiction.

Here, Congress should resist giving the U.S. securities laws an overbroad application, as the SEC has done. Tokens powered by open-source software and consensus mechanisms that are otherwise minimally dependent on centralized actors are not securities because there is no legal relationship between token owners and an “issuer,” as understood by the securities laws. Similarly, crypto assets such as art NFTs (which are simply digital artwork) and non-investment activities, like staking and lending bitcoin, fall outside the securities laws.

Congress should be bold. That means not feeling bound by prior legislative efforts like FIT21 that were forged in an earlier political environment that have unintended consequences. It also means leveraging the regulatory experience of other nations, such as the European Union with its MiCA framework, while avoiding their pitfalls and charting a unique and dauntless path forward for the United States.

Specific Sectors

Besides advocating for general rules, your administration should urge Congress and the relevant agencies to address specific sectors due to their strategic importance to the crypto industry and the nation.

Stablecoins. Stablecoins, with a current market cap in excess of $200 billion, are the lifeblood of the digital asset ecosystem. Increasingly recognized under frameworks like the Stablecoin Standard and by state regulators, they warrant comprehensive legislation for their issuance and management, ensuring that they are transparently backed and do not threaten financial stability. Aside from benefitting consumers, regulatory support of stablecoins furthers national interests. Similar to Eurodollars, stablecoins, which are usually denominated in U.S. dollars, reinforce the dollar’s status as the global reserve currency and increase demand for U.S. treasuries, which issuers hold in reserve.

TradFi Integration. The unprecedented success unprecedented success of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs demonstrates that crypto has begun integrating with traditional finance. Regulatory policy should ensure a safe and orderly integration by giving consumers access to trusted custody services. This requires amending or rescinding prejudicial SEC accounting guidelines (for instance, SAB 121) and custody rules. But it should not stop there. Pro-innovation policy in this area should also promote the tokenization of securities representing traditional financial assets like stocks, bonds, or real estate as blockchain-based tokens. The resulting benefits, which include improved liquidity, fractional ownership, and faster settlement, would strengthen U.S. capital markets, ensuring they remain the most developed and innovative in the world.

DeFi. Decentralized finance has the potential to modernize the global financial system and to return value to ordinary Americans by removing costly financial intermediaries. You should not allow entrenched interests and alarmism to stop the United States from becoming the world’s leader in DeFi. In this regard, regulations aimed at centralized actors, such as exchanges and issuers, must be crafted in ways that avoid inadvertently capturing and paralyzing the still-nascent DeFi ecosystem.

Fostering Innovation through a Commitment to Crypto Values

If it is to promote crypto innovation, regulatory policy must show respect for crypto values, including privacy, disintermediation, and decentralization. Two key regulatory principles arise from this commitment. First, regulation should not impose greater burdens on crypto where traditional analogs exist. Second, regulation should evolve where traditional analogs are absent.

When To Treat Crypto the Same as Traditional Assets and Tools

The first principle impacts products like self-custody wallets, which enable users to hold and manage their own private keys. Because these tools are analogous to physical wallets used for personal asset management, they should not be treated any differently — namely, as financial intermediaries for purposes of regulatory surveillance and monitoring. You are not required to complete KYC before you can place cash in a physical wallet; the same should be true for storing tokens in your digital wallet.

Similar logic applies to the taxation of block rewards. Americans mining or validating blockchain transactions are creating new property, just like farmers growing crops in their fields. And yet, the IRS currently taxes them on that income. This differential treatment should be abolished.

When To Treat Crypto Differently

The second principle demands regulators resist placing crypto actors and activities into legacy frameworks that are incompatible with crypto. Doing so damages the crypto ecosystem, pushes the industry abroad, and erodes the Rule of Law.

Regrettably, this is the path that many U.S. regulators have chosen. The IRS

has begun treating crypto front-ends as “brokers” absent statutory authority. The Department of Justice has begun charging non-custodial wallet developers with unlicensed money-transmission violations despite its longstanding policy to the contrary. And the U.S. Treasury has sanctioned the smart contract of privacy mixer Tornado Cash even though it is neither a foreign person nor property, but merely code. (An appellate court overturned the sanction.)

Without diminishing the importance of the governmental interests at play (tax evasion, money laundering, and national security), we submit that the government’s approaches in each case are wrong as a matter of innovation policy, and we encourage your administration to reverse them.

Instead of regulating digital asset and blockchain businesses like traditional companies, we urge regulators to collaborate with this new technological paradigm and with our industry. For example, if government surveillance (KYC) in a decentralized environment is actually justified in certain instances, regulators can leverage blockchain-based credentials that are portable across protocols, give users control of their data (a benefit of Web3 architecture), and are aligned with the frictionless blockchain ecosystem. Similarly, they can marshal the programmability of tokens and smart contracts to exclude sanctioned parties from parts of the crypto economy.

Attracting Top Talent With a Welcoming Business Environment

To become the leading destination for top crypto talent, the U.S. must cultivate a favorable business environment. Your administration can begin this process on Day One.

End de-banking of crypto companies. Your administration should direct the FDIC and all other agencies involved with Operation Chokepoint 2.0 to immediately cease their unaccountable campaign aimed at de-banking the crypto industry.

Improve SEC rule-making and enforcement. You should instruct your SEC chair to overhaul that agency’s approach to crypto. Over the past four years, the SEC has consistently exceeded its authority by pursuing good faith industry leaders such as Coinbase and Consensys, regulating individual developers and users (in its exchange redefinition rulemaking), and launching enforcement actions against wallet providers. It is time for the SEC to correct this pernicious approach and begin engaging constructively with the crypto industry while focusing its efforts on preventing fraud rather than curbing financial speculation, which has benefits for innovation.

Roll back punitive tax rules. Your administration should roll back punitive tax rules that push entrepreneurs and developers abroad while leaving well-meaning taxpayers uncertain about how to calculate their tax bills. Low-hanging fruit improvements include the adoption of current expensing for software development; tax deferral for validation rewards and airdrops; a safe harbor for de minimis consumptive transactions (e.g. less than $5,000); a mark-to-market election for crypto investors and a repeal of IRS reporting regulations that treat websites as brokers. Congress should also repeal amendments to Section 6050I, which impose burdensome (and likely unconstitutional) reporting requirements on crypto transactions over $10,000.

Reduce unnecessary red tape. Consistent with the mission of the Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.), we urge your office to work with Congress and government agencies to reduce the unnecessary red tape restraining crypto and fintech. This includes simplifying or eliminating registration and reporting requirements for digital asset offerings that meet certain conditions, including providing essential investor disclosures. Congress should also consider legislating a unified federal framework for money transmission licensing that would bring clarity and efficiency to the broader fintech ecosystem.

***

In pursuing the above forward-looking policies, we encourage your administration to consult with industry leaders and remain sensitive to the transnational scope of the digital asset ecosystem. (We view your formation of a Crypto Council as a positive step in this direction.) We also recommend leveraging devices, such as regulatory sandboxes, that limit the risk of unintended regulatory consequences.

The time is ripe for the United States to begin asserting its global regulatory leadership. By ensuring that it does, your administration will be contributing to the country’s future economic prosperity and endorsing a technology that rests on deeply held American values and freedoms. You should seize the moment.

Sincerely,

Ivo Entchev, Olta Andoni, Stephen Rutenberg, Donna Redel

The following members of the Crypto Law Bar also signed this letter: Mike Bacina, Joe Carlasare, Eli Cohen, Mike Frisch, Jason Gottlieb, Eric Hess, Katherine Kirkpatrick, Dan McAvoy, John McCarthy, Margaret Rosenfeld, Gabriel Shapiro, Ben Snipes, Noah Spaulding, Andrea Tinianow, Jenny Vatrenko, Collin Woodward, and Rafael Yakobi.

The views represented and reflected upon herein are those of the signatories and not necessarily of their employers.

Le marché des NFT (jetons non fongibles) a enregistré en 2024 sa pire performance depuis 2020, avec une chute de près de 20% des volumes d’échanges et des ventes, selon le dernier rapport de DappRadar. Cette contreperformance survient paradoxalement dans un contexte de hausse générale du marché crypto.

L’article Le marché des NFT face à son pire effondrement en quatre ans est apparu en premier sur Cointribune.

Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk’s weekly wrap-up of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. I’m Ben Schiller, CoinDesk’s Opinion and Features editor.

In this issue:

Sony’s blockchain faces memecoin controversy

Bubblemaps readies BMT and new intel desk

Babylon enhances Bitcoin’s interoperability

Prosecutors seek 95k BTC Bitfinex return

This article is featured in the latest issue of The Protocol, our weekly newsletter exploring the tech behind crypto, one block at a time. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Wednesday. Also please check out our weekly The Protocol podcast.

Network news

SONY EMBRACES BLOCKCHAIN, BATTLES MEMES: Sony, the 78-year-old Japanese electronics giant, is the latest legacy megacorp to explore blockchain technology. On Tuesday, the company announced that it is officially launching « Soneium, » its general-purpose blockchain platform built on Optimism’s OP Stack. The chain is aimed towards « bridging the gap between Web2 and Web3 audiences, especially for the creators, fans and community,” the team behind the network told CoinDesk’s Margaux Nijkerk in a statement. Like similar general-purpose blockchains, the network is built to support a wide variety of use cases, from decentralized finance apps to entertainment and gaming services. While Sony’s blockchain tech has attracted eyeballs over the past week, not all the attention has been positive. Within the first couple of hours of Soneium’s launch, some X users complained that the network was blocking memecoin trading, leading to allegations that the (ostensibly decentralized) network was « censoring » certain kinds of transactions, a big no-no for some crypto adherents. The controversy underscored the unavoidable tension between hardline blockchain ideals and traditional corporate interests. But the incident also showcased crypto’s resilience: Some savvy blockchain users found a workaround allowing them to « force through » transactions to the base Ethereum network, rendering Sony’s alleged transaction-blocking moot. Read more.

BUBBLEMAPS WANTS MORE CRYPTO SLEUTHS: Bubblemaps, the blockchain analytics service, announced on X this week that it will be launching a token, BMT, and a new « Intel Desk » that will give holders a voice in driving investigations. Bubblemaps recently introduced the V2 of its platform, which helps crypto sleuths suss out who really owns the supply of a given token. The platform sorts closely related blockchain addresses into clusters, and its easy-to-read visuals have become a common sight on crypto Twitter, where they’ve been used to demonstrate suspicious supply patterns among popular memecoins and DeFi tokens. Bubblemaps V2, which started rolling out to users in November, added new AI-clustering features and made it easier to examine token distributions over time. Bubblemaps just-announced token, BMT, will be airdropped to users of the V2 platform. Holders will be given a role in the platform’s « Intel Desk, » where community members can propose investigations and vote on how Bubblemaps allocates in-house investigators and resources.

BABYLON BRINGS ZK MOMENTUM: Babylon Labs, developer of the largest BTC staking protocol, is building a trust-minimized Bitcoin bridge with the Cosmos network to enhance the world’s oldest blockchain’s interoperability. In partnership with developers Fiamma, Babylon is using the BitVM2 computing paradigm, which is designed to allow Ethereum-style smart contracts on Bitcoin, which then paves the way for zero-knowledge (ZK) technology. ZK computations allow different parties to verify that information is accurate without actually revealing to each other what the information is. In this sense, it is foundational to bridging digital assets between different blockchains. Developers like Babylon Labs and Fiamma are aiming to unlock the deep wells of value stored in BTC to finance other ecosystems and allow it to be transacted on blockchains that are free of some of Bitcoin’s limitations of speed and scale. Read more.

BITFINEX: U.S. prosecutors have asked a federal judge to green-light the return of nearly 80% of the 119,754 bitcoins stolen in the 2016 hack of crypto exchange Bitfinex. In a Tuesday court filing, prosecutors said the 94,643 bitcoins recovered by the government from the original wallet used by the hacker, Ilya Lichtenstein, can be paid to Bitfinex as restitution in-kind once the court gives the go-ahead. The Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Satoshi Vision and Bitcoin Gold generated via several hard forks following the hack will also be sent to Bitfinex. Last November, Lichtenstein was sentenced to 5 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in 2023. His wife, Heather Morgan – better known by her rap moniker Razzlekhan – received an 18-month sentence for helping Lichtenstein to launder a portion of the hack proceeds. Both agreed to forfeit the stolen cryptocurrency as part of their plea agreements. Read more.

Money Center

You Ain’t Seen Nothing

Bitcoin ETFs had record debuts in 2024. Analysts say the best is yet to come.

Treasuries multiply

Four new U.S.-listed companies have added bitcoin treasuries recently.

Regulatory and policy

U.S. banks should loosen rules for crypto companies, new FDIC chair says

Judges ask SEC to “explain itself” over rules refusal

Calendar

Jan. 20-24: World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland

January 21-25: WAGMI conference, Miami.

Jan. 24-25: Adopting Bitcoin, Cape Town, South Africa.

Jan. 30-31: PLAN B Forum, San Salvador, El Salvador.

Feb. 1-6: Satoshi Roundtable, Dubai

Feb. 19-20, 2025: ConsensusHK, Hong Kong.

Feb. 23-24: NFT Paris

Feb 23-March 2: ETHDenver

March 18-19: Digital Asset Summit, London

May 14-16: Consensus, Toronto.

May 27-29: Bitcoin 2025, Las Vegas.

Elroy Cheo, co-founder and architect of influential Web3 collective ARC, is on a mission to redefine the dynamics of digital communities.

Cheo and fellow entrepreneur Kiat Lim, the son of billionaire businessman Peter Lim, have made ARC into a hub for collaboration for the global Asian diaspora, enabling members to use a Stellar NFT and a Soulbound Token called Fyrian to get access to the ARC app, as well as exclusive events and merchandise. Cheo’s vision is to build a meritocratic network rooted in shared goals and collective action.

This series is brought to you by Consensus Hong Kong. Come and experience the most influential event in Web3 and Digital Assets, Feb.18-20. Register today and save 15% with the code CoinDesk15.

Here, Cheo discusses his vision for ARC, how his background in property development and music has influenced his approach and why Asia is uniquely positioned to lead the next phase of NFT innovation. Cheo will be a speaker at Consensus Hong Kong in February.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

How have your personal experiences shaped your approach to creating and building ARC?

My journey is a bit unconventional — I started in commodities and property development. Before crypto, my last big project was overseeing a mega-city development in China. When I first arrived, it was barren land, just fields and farmers. We bought the land, built infrastructure and now it’s a bustling city with a high GDP. That experience stuck with me — seeing how you can bring people together to create something meaningful out of nothing.

In 2016, I got into crypto thanks to my uncle — a 73-year-old software developer. We worked on a blockchain-based music copyright project to tackle siloed databases. Disputes over ownership are so common in the music industry and blockchain felt like the perfect solution to consolidate ownership records. Even today, that project’s still alive, and I’m proud it never relied on a token to survive.

That foundation as a builder shaped how I view crypto — it’s not just about investing or speculation; it’s about creating value. That led to ARC, a Web3 collective inspired by Balaji Srinivasan’s network state theory. While Srinivasan talks about these communities becoming nation-states (something we’re not doing), we are focused on building a digital-first institution driven by alignment and collective action.

The word “community” gets thrown around a lot in Web3, often losing its meaning. How does ARC create genuine connections and stay grounded in principles?

Community isn’t just about numbers or floor prices; it’s about relationships. Without bonds between members, you’re building an audience, not a community. We realized that members value four things. First, access to professional networks, which means curated connections with builders and investors. Second, opportunities to make money, such as token allocations to investments. Third, lifestyle experiences, such as meeting someone like soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, or engaging in exclusive brand partnerships. Finally, growth, whether it’s through finding a job or receiving personal mentorship.

We also promote a “give value to receive value” ethos. This idea is drawn from the concept in Chinese culture of guanxi and emphasizes mutual support. Members aren’t just here to “ask for alpha.” They support one another.

What sets Asian Web3 communities apart from their Western counterparts?

One big difference is how vocal Western communities are. They dominate crypto Twitter, while Asians tend to be more reserved. Culturally, platforms like Twitter aren’t as widely used here — Chinese users, for instance, are more active in private WeChat or Telegram groups.

Despite that, Asian liquidity is massive. A small Chinese community can drive $1 billion in DeFi protocol TVL in a day, which is rare in the West. At ARC, we recognize this strength but also encourage members to engage more publicly. Asia is a Web3 powerhouse, and it’s time we capture mindshare, not just liquidity.

How do NFTs evolve, especially with respect to digital identity and utility?

The shift toward pseudonymity excites me. People are moving from polished profiles on Facebook or LinkedIn to avatars. It’s empowering — kids can hide behind a PFP, yet their skills and knowledge shine through. At ARC, we’re exploring NFTs as status symbols. Imagine walking into a hotel or event, and your NFT gives you instant recognition. Beyond collectibles, NFTs can represent expertise or achievements, like badges on Stack Overflow. It’s about creating digital identities with real-world impact.

With ARC’s membership capped at 888, how can the organization’s exclusivity and status-driven model continue to scale?

Exclusivity works when it’s tied to brand value and proper community management. We’ve kept ARC small — 888 members — because it allows us to focus on quality over quantity. But scaling is possible with the right frameworks. Look at Reddit: one community manager oversaw millions of users by leveraging guidelines and moderation tools.

The key is maintaining brand prestige. For example, we partnered with the luxury boutique chain Edition Hotel before the opening of its Singapore location. When I asked their director why they gave us special treatment like exclusive hospitality rates to our members, he said, “You’re ARC.” That’s the power of brand equity. It’s about scarcity, reputation and delivering consistent value. Also, ARC uses contributor systems to incentivize active participation. For example, top contributors get access to deals, events and unique experiences, ensuring that value flows to those who add to the community.

What misconceptions do you see about NFTs, particularly in Asia?

One common mistake is viewing NFTs purely as revenue streams. Many Asian IPs and brands still approach NFTs as transactional rather than as tools for community building. I believe NFTs can move beyond speculation to foster community-driven growth. For example, imagine a boba shop using NFTs to transition customers into members. Instead of a traditional marketing funnel, the NFT creates a non-linear experience where members stay engaged and help promote the brand organically. It’s about creating advocates, not just customers. 

What excites you about Web3 innovation in Asia right now?

Talent. Asia is brimming with brilliant developers — Vietnamese, Chinese, Singaporean. The challenge is internationalizing their projects because of language barriers. But as infrastructure improves, I believe Asia will cement itself as a leader in the space. AI is another exciting frontier. Overall, I’m thrilled to see Southeast Asia leading innovation in DeFi and NFTs.

Having launched during a bear market in January 2022, what advice do you have for builders in the Web3 space?

Build with passion. Narratives in crypto change quickly, and without passion, it’s easy to give up. A lot of founders burn out because they lose sight of their purpose. My advice: stay hungry, stay curious and treat your projects as social experiments. Rapid execution with clear goals is key.

Lastly, what are you most excited to share on-stage in HK?

I’d love to talk about what I know best — using NFTs to build communities. NFTs are a great way to create a brand, a culture and a strong community. Then, down the line, a fungible token can coordinate those members toward a shared goal. It’s about starting with a community-first approach, which I call a Web3 social product.

At ARC, we’re trying to build a digital-first institution with a highly aligned community. This concept of digital communities has only really flourished post-COVID, thanks to tools like Zoom and Google Meet bringing people together online.

By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)

The market is about to be hit with the first big U.S. economic event of 2025: December CPI data.

With hawkish Fed fears in the air and bitcoin strengthening its correlation with tech stocks, Wednesday’s report becomes even more significant for the digital assets market. The stalled liquidity inflows through stablecoins have also raised question marks on the sustainability of price recovery from under $90K, and traders are preparing for potential downside volatility by adding short-dated puts.

Here’s what experts are saying about the upcoming event:

QCP Capital

« In crypto, cautious sentiment is evident in BTC options flows, with puts rolled below the key $90k support. Front-end vols and flies remain elevated, while the VIX stays high at 18.68 – suggesting volatility to persist through January. »

Geoffrey Chen, author of the Fidenza Macro blog

« The rising markets in November and the lifting of election uncertainty pushed business confidence higher, resulting in stronger data. The frontloading of goods imports and the raising of prices to get ahead of tariffs may have also contributed to higher PMIs. On top of that, oil has woken up and rallied over 10% from its December levels, reinforcing the stagflation regime. None of this bodes well for CPI tomorrow [Jan. 15] and the FOMC later this month. These risk events may surprise towards hawkish and stagflationary outcomes, putting more pressure on risk assets.”

Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research

« Bitcoin continues to trade within a narrowing wedge, with several critical catalysts on the horizon. Expectations for a higher CPI number have risen, creating a scenario where a softer-than-expected inflation reading could trigger a bitcoin rally. »

Focus on XRP and AI

XRP surged to $2.90 early today, matching the December high with technical analysis suggesting a continued run higher. Meanwhile, according to Wintermute, dip buyers have been active in AI coins, namely FAI, GRASS, VIRTUAL, Ai16z and TAO.

These coins, therefore, could chalk out bigger gains in case the CPI spurs renewed risk-taking in financial markets.

What to Watch

Crypto

Jan. 15: Degen liquidity mining airdrop; the last snapshot was taken at the end of Jan. 14 (UTC).

Jan. 15: Mintlayer version 1.0.0 release. The mainnet upgrade introduces atomic swaps, enabling native BTC cross-chain swaps.

Jan. 17: Oral arguments at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in KalshiEX LLC v. CFTC, where the CFTC is appealing the district court’s Sep. 12, 2024 ruling favoring Kalshi’s Congressional Control Contracts.

Jan. 23: First deadline for a decision by the U.S. SEC on the proposal filed on Dec. 3, 2024 by NYSE Arca to list and trade shares of Grayscale Solana Trust (GSOL), a closed-end trust, as an ETF.

Jan. 25: First deadline for decisions by the U.S. SEC on the proposals for four new spot solana (SOL) ETFs: Bitwise Solana ETF, Canary Solana ETF, 21Shares Core Solana ETF, and VanEck Solana Trust, which are all sponsored by Cboe BZX Exchange.

Macro

Jan. 15, 2:00 a.m.: The U.K.’s Office for National Statistics released December 2024’s inflation data.

Core Inflation Rate MoM Act. 0.3% vs. Prev. 0%.

Inflation Rate MoM Act. 0.3% vs. 0.1%.

Core Inflation Rate YoY Act. 3.2% vs. Prev. 3.5%.

Inflation Rate YoY Act. 2.5% vs. Prev. 2.6%.

Jan. 15, 8:30 a.m.: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases December 2024’s Consumer Price Index Summary.

Core Inflation Rate MoM Est. 0.2% vs. Prev. 0.3%.

Core Inflation Rate YoY Est. 3.3% vs. Prev. 3.3%.

Inflation Rate MoM Est. 0.3% vs. Prev. 0.3%.

Inflation Rate YoY Est. 2.8% vs. Prev. 2.7%.

Jan. 16, 2:00 a.m.: The U.K.’s Office for National Statistics November 2024’s GDP estimate.

GDP MoM Est. 0.2% vs. Prev. -0.1%.

GDP YoY Prev. 1.3%.

Jan. 16, 8:30 a.m.: The U.S. Department of Labor releases the Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report for the week ending on Jan. 11. Initial Jobless Claims Est. 214K vs. Prev. 201K.

Jan. 17, 5:00 a.m.: Eurostat releases December 2024’s Eurozone inflation data.

Inflation Rate MoM Final Est. 0.4% vs Prev. -0.3%.

Core Inflation Rate YoY Final Est. 2.7% vs. Prev. 2.7%.

Inflation Rate YoY Final Est. 2.4% vs. Prev. 2.2%.

Token Events

Governance votes & calls

Compound DAO is discussing strategies to grow its treasury. The proposal seeks $9.5M of ETH and $5M of COMP, which would be used to generate a yield and boost its USDC holdings.

Balancer DAO is discussing deploying the v3 version of its platform on layer-2 network Base. If approved, Balancer expects deployment by the end of January.

Unlocks

Jan. 15: Connex (CONX) to unlock 376% of its circulating supply, worth $84.5 million.

Jan. 16: Arbitrum (ARB) to unlock 2.2% of its circulating supply, worth $68 million.

Jan. 18: Ondo (ONDO) to unlock 134% of its circulating supply, worth $2.19 billion.

Token Launches

Jan. 15: Derive (DRV) will launch, with 5% of supply going to sENA stakers.
Jan. 16: Solayer (LAYER) to host token sale followed by five months of points farming.

Jan. 17: Solv Protocol (SOLV) to be listed on Binance.

Conferences:

Day 10 of 14: Starknet, an Ethereum layer 2, is holding its Winter Hackathon (online).

Day 3 of 12: Swiss WEB3FEST Winter Edition 2025 (Zug, Zurich, St. Moritz, Davos)

Jan. 17: Unchained: Blockchain Business Forum 2025 (Los Angeles)

Jan. 18: BitcoinDay (Naples, Florida)

Jan. 20-24: World Economic Forum Annual Meeting (Davos-Klosters, Switzerland)

Jan. 21: Frankfurt Tokenization Conference 2025

Jan. 25-26: Catstanbul 2025 (Istanbul). The first community conference for Jupiter, a decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator built on Solana.

Jan 30-31: Plan B Forum (San Salvador, El Salvador)

Feb. 3: Digital Assets Forum (London)

Feb. 18-20: Consensus Hong Kong

Token Talk

By Oliver Knight

Toshi, a memecoin on layer-2 network Base, has risen by more than 70% in the past 24-hours after it was added to Coinbase’s future listing roadmap. TOSHI’s market cap has now topped $100 million.

Non-fungible token (NFT) trading volume fell by 19% in 2024 compared to the previous year, making it the worst performing year since 2020, a DappRadar report shows.

The Ondo community are bracing for mammoth $2.2 billion token unlock this week as circulating supply is set to jump by 134%. The majority of supply has been allocated to « ecosystem growth, » however $377 million will be distributed to participants of a private sale. Unlocks of this magnitude typically heap pressure on the underlying asset, although a significant increase in short positions could spur a short squeeze, a trend that has been seen since 2023.

Binance Alpha has posted a new batch of projects that are being considered for listing on the exchange. These include VITA, GRIFT, VITA Aimonica, the latter two are AI agent tokens.

Derivatives Positioning

XLM has seen a 27% surge in perpetual futures open interest, the highest among major tokens, with cumulative volume delta pointing to net buying pressure. The combination supports an extension of the past 24 hours’ 11% price rise.

Large positive dealer gamma is seen at $97K, according to Deribit’s options market. Positive gamma means market makers will likely trade against the market direction, arresting price volatility.

In ETH’s case, a large negative gamma is seen closer to its going market rate, suggesting potential for increased price turbulence.

Front-dated risk reversals continue to show bias for BTC, ETH puts.

Notable block flows include a long BTC straddle, involving $97K options expiring on Jan. 24. The strategy profits from a volatility explosion.

Market Movements:

BTC is up 0.51% from 4 p.m. ET Tuesday to $96,951.13 (24hrs: +0.4%)

ETH is down 0.24% to $3,207.75 (24hrs: -0.37%)

CoinDesk 20 is up 1.88% to 3,546.65 (24hrs: +2.35%)

Ether staking yield is unchanged at 3.12%

BTC funding rate is at 0.0059% (6.49% annualized) on Binance

DXY is down 0.23% to 109.02

Gold is up 1.28% to $2,646.45/oz

Silver is up 2.16% to $30.78/oz

Nikkei 225 closed on Tuesday unchanged at 38,444.58

Hang Seng closed +0.34% at 19,286.07

FTSE is up 0.74% to 8,262.35

Euro Stoxx 50 is up 0.34% at 4,997.65

DJIA closed +0.52% at 42,518.28

S&P 500 closed +0.11% at 5,842.91

Nasdaq closed -0.23% at 19,044.39

S&P/TSX Composite Index closed +0.21% at 24,588.60

S&P 40 Latin America closed +0.69% at 2,207.79

U.S. 10-year Treasury is down 2 bps to 4.77%

E-mini S&P 500 futures are up 0.16% to 5,891.50

E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are up 0.22% to 20,965.25

E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are up 0.2% at 42,836.00

Bitcoin Stats:

BTC Dominance: 58.21

Ethereum to bitcoin ratio: 0.033

Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 790 EH/s

Hashprice (spot): $55.2

Total Fees: 6.54 BTC/

CME Futures Open Interest: 177,355 BTC

BTC priced in gold: 36.1 oz

BTC vs gold market cap: 10.26%

Technical Analysis

The above chart shows privacy-focused cryptocurrency’s weekly price changes in a candlestick pattern since late 2020.

XMR recently broke out of a prolonged consolidation/basing pattern and has validated the same with the bullish re-test of the breakout point.

Now, the market may unleash the energy built during consolidation, taking prices higher to resistance at $289, the April 2022 high.

Crypto Equities

MicroStrategy (MSTR): closed on Tuesday at $342.17 (+4.19%), down 0.51% at $340.44 in pre-market.

Coinbase Global (COIN): closed at $255.37 (+1.66%), down 0.17% at $254.93 in pre-market.

Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY): closed at C$26.6 (+2.15%)

MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $17.36 (+0.99%), unchanged in pre-market.

Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $12.24 (+3.99%), down 0.25% at $12.21 in pre-market.

Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $13.91 (+2.2%), up 1.51% at $14.12 in pre-market.

CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $10.35 (+1.57%), down 0.39% at $10.31 in pre-market.

CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $23.07 (+3.83%).

Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $54.93 (+4.23%), up 0.31% at $55.10 in pre-market.

Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $33.07 (-1.52%), down 1.66% at $32.52 in pre-market.

ETF Flows

Spot BTC ETFs:

Daily net flow: -$209.8 million

Cumulative net flows: $35.71 billion

Total BTC holdings ~ 1.131 million.

Spot ETH ETFs

Daily net flow: -$39.4 million

Cumulative net flows: $2.41 billion

Total ETH holdings ~ 3.540 million.

Source: Farside Investors, as of Jan. 14

Overnight Flows

Chart of the Day

Cryptocurrency whales continue to run down their holdings of wrapped bitcoin (WBTC), an Ethereum token intended to represent bitcoin on the Ethereum-based DeFi applications.

The balance held by whales has dropped to 70.33K WBTC, the lowest in over four years.

While You Were Sleeping

Stalled Stablecoin Supply Casts Doubt on BTC’s Bullish Recovery As U.S. Inflation Report Looms (CoinDesk): Bitcoin’s recovery above $90,000 hints at bullish potential. However, declining stablecoin inflows signal weaker liquidity, increasing the likelihood of volatility following today’s U.S. retail inflation (CPI) data release.

Thailand Mulls Allowing First Bitcoin ETF in Bid to Boost Sector (Bloomberg): Thailand’s SEC is considering allowing Bitcoin ETFs to boost its digital-assets hub ambitions. Its secretary-general said the country must adapt to growing global cryptocurrency adoption while ensuring investor protections.

Crypto Hedge Funds Had a Great 2024, but Failed To Beat Bitcoin (Bloomberg): Crypto hedge funds gained 40% in 2024, according to the VisionTrack Composite Index, but trailed Bitcoin’s 120% surge to over $100,000. Investor sentiment was boosted by optimism around Trump’s pro-crypto stance.

U.K. Inflation Eases in Boost to Rate-Cut Chances (The Wall Street Journal): U.K. consumer inflation eased to 2.5% year-over-year in December, down from 2.6% in November. The slowdown boosts expectations for further BOE rate cuts, though inflation remains above the 2% target.

South Korean Investigators Arrest Impeached President Yoon in Insurrection Probe (Reuters): Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, the first sitting president arrested, was taken into custody Wednesday on insurrection charges. The Constitutional Court is deliberating whether to uphold his impeachment or reinstate him.

Emerging Market Stocks Slide on Trump Tariff Threats and Strong Dollar (Financial Times): The MSCI Emerging Markets Index, tracking $7.6 trillion in stocks, is down over 10% since Oct. 2, as fears of Trump’s inflationary policies, higher trade tariffs, and rising U.S. Treasury yields drive investor exits.

In the Ether

The runaway success of Base, the Coinbase-owned Ethereum overlay blockchain designed for faster, cheaper transactions, has prompted the creation of a market linked to the fluctuating cost of the total gas needed to power the network, allowing speculators to bet on recurring utility spikes on the layer 2 system.

Taking a cue from the way traders speculate and hedge in traditional energy markets, Alkimiya, a startup backed by Coinbase Ventures as well as firms like Dragonfly and Castle Island Ventures, enables users to go long or short on the cost of transactions being included in blocks, or “blockspace” – a representation of the storage and computational capacity of a blockchain.

“Paying for blockspace is like paying for other energy sources, such as cars paying for petrol or aeroplanes paying for jet fuel,” said Alkimiya founder Leo Zhang in an interview. “Traditional energy markets have developed that allow airlines to hedge against their jet fuel price, for example, and we think there should be a better price discovery mechanism for how people price and use this core energy resource, which is blockspace.”

Launched in August 2023, Base has outperformed its layer 2 rivals, generating over $14 million in the last month. Increased activity on Base means the cumulative gas paid to the network can fluctuate dramatically, from as low as 10 ETH to as high as 200 ETH in a single day.

Unlike many other blockchains, Base does not have a token and has no plans to issue one. Alkimiya’s smart contracts allow users to bet on how the cost of Base blockspace might fluctuate thanks to the introduction of AI agents, for instance, or on-chain events like the arrival of a particular memecoin, NFT or airdrop.

Under the hood, Alkimiya uses a very common decentralized finance (DeFi) architecture where an oracle tracks the gas being consumed by users on Base, and a system of smart contracts facilitate the accounting and logic, Zhang explained.

“A user can purchase this contract that tracks the total amount of gas paid to the Base roll up itself,” Zhang said. “And the reason this is doable is because it’s entirely transparent. There’s no centralized exchange where everything is in a black box.”

En 2024, nous avons vu se multiplier les projets de layers-2 et autres rollups sur Ethereum. Parmi eux, le géant Sony s’était lui aussi lancé dans l’aventure en dévoilant en août dernier Soneium. Désormais, le L2 made in Sony passe à la vitesse supérieure avec un déploiement sur le mainnet.

Sony ouvre les portes du mainnet de Soneium

Comme nous venons de l’aborder, Soneium est un layer-2 d’Ethereum développé par l’entreprise Sony. Sous le capot, celui-ci se base sur le code de l’OP Stack, la pile technologique d’Optimism.

Lancé en août dernier, le testnet de Soneium a été couronné de succès. En effet, il a enregistré 14 millions de wallets actifs et 47 millions de transactions.

Ce mardi 14 janvier, les équipes de Soneium ont annoncé l’ouverture du mainnet du réseau.

« Aujourd’hui, c’est le jour. Le mainnet de Soneium est LIVE ! Lancé par Sony Block Solutions Labs (Sony BSL), Soneium est un layer-2 qui permet aux créateurs, aux fans et aux communautés de protéger leurs droits, de se connecter à l’échelle mondiale et de construire un internet ouvert qui transcende les frontières. »

En parallèle du lancement, Sony a dévoilé deux projets majeurs. D’une part, une plateforme de marketing à destination des fans. Celle-ci utilise les NFT pour récompenser les fans et optimiser les stratégies marketing. D’autre part, la S.BLOX, un service d’échange de cryptomonnaies.

Premier drama pour le L2 de Sony

Il n’aura pas fallu attendre bien longtemps après le lancement pour que Soneium se retrouve sous le feu des critiques communautaires.

Ainsi, de nombreux internautes accusent la plateforme d’avoir blacklisté certains memecoins dès le premier jour. C’est ce qu’a par exemple révélé l’internaute @a1lon9 sur le réseau social X : 

« Le nouveau L2 Ethereum de Sony met activement sur liste noire les memecoins qu’il n’aime pas, réduisant instantanément à 0 la position de chacun. Qu’est-ce qui vous fait penser que d’autres L2 centralisés ne feront pas la même chose en cas de besoin ? »

Le problème ? Cette stratégie de Sony a engendré de larges pertes pour les utilisateurs. En effet, certains contrats et jetons ont été mis sur liste noire, empêchant les utilisateurs de les échanger. De ce fait, ils se retrouvent bloqués avec des jetons qu’ils ont achetés, mais qu’ils ne peuvent pas revendre. Comme l’explique l’internaute Kawz :

« Soneium a rug les utilisateurs de plus de 100k$ en ETH le jour du lancement. Je n’ai jamais rien vu de tel. Vous voulez être une chaîne autorisée ? Très bien. Au lieu de mettre les développeurs sur liste blanche, ils ont choisi de geler les contrats (ce qui revient à mettre les utilisateurs à rude épreuve). »

Une très mauvaise première impression pour Sony et son L2. En effet, les utilisateurs sont à la recherche de décentralisation et de résistance à la censure. Du fait de ces gels, Sony a clairement démontré que son L2 n’avait ni pour objectif la décentralisation, ni la lutte contre la censure.

Et nous savons qu’il n’est jamais bon de frustrer la communauté. En 2024, de nombreux L2 ont réalisé des airdrops jugés comme insuffisants ou mal menés par la communauté. Résultat, les stats de ces L2 se sont effondrées, montrant la fuite massive des utilisateurs. Une situation à laquelle Sony va devoir se préparer.

L’article Crypto : Sony ouvre les portes du mainnet de Soneium sous le feu des critiques est apparu en premier sur Journal du Coin.

OpenSea est l’une des plateformes leaders dans l’achat et la vente de NFT. Malheureusement, en 2022, celle-ci a été victime d’une impressionnante fuite de données. Désormais, ces données semblent refaire surface sur internet.

Fuite de donnée chez OpenSea

Souvenez-vous, à la fin du mois de juin 2022, la plateforme OpenSea s’est retrouvée au cœur de la tourmente dans une affaire de fuite de données. En effet, la plateforme avait dévoilé qu’une partie des adresses mail de ses utilisateurs avaient fuité.

Dans les faits, cette fuite avait été orchestrée par un employé de Customer,io, le service mail utilisé par OpenSea. Ainsi, cet employé avait alors « abusé de son accès pour télécharger et partager des adresses e-mail ».

Les adresses refont surface

Plus de deux ans après les faits, ces adresses mail refont parler d’elle. En effet, ce lundi 13 janvier, l’internaute @im23pds a tiré la sonnette d’alarme. Ainsi, ce chercheur de chez SlowMist, l’entreprise spécialisée dans la sécurité des blockchains a dévoilé que les adresses mail issues de la fuite de données venaient de refaire surface. Parmi-elles, nous retrouvons même les adresses de certains acteurs eminent de l’industrie, tel que Changpeng Zhao dit CZ, l’ancien CEO de Binance.

Adresses issues du leak disponible sur internet.

« Vous vous souvenez de l’attaque contre le fournisseur de services de messagerie OpenSea en 2024 qui a entraîné la fuite d’e-mails ? Les adresses électroniques ayant fait l’objet d’une fuite ont été rendues publiques après de multiples diffusions. Soyez conscients des risques associés aux courriels d’hameçonnage et aux autres cyberattaques potentielles ! »

Ainsi, les données de mails dérobés ont été rendues publiques sur internet.

Attention aux attaques de phishing : comment s’en prémunir ?

La fuite massive des adresses mail associées à OpenSea représente un risque majeur pour les utilisateurs. En effet, ces données seront inévitablement exploitées par des cybercriminels dans le cadre d’attaques de phishing.

Pour rappel, le phishing est une technique qui vise à tromper les utilisateurs en les redirigeant vers un faux site imitant parfaitement l’original (ici, OpenSea). L’objectif est d’inciter la victime à renseigner ses identifiants ou à signer une transaction malveillante qui videra son portefeuille crypto.

Si vous avez déjà utilisé votre adresse e-mail pour créer un compte OpenSea, restez extrêmement vigilant : vous pourriez recevoir des e-mails frauduleux prétendant provenir de la plateforme.

Ce n’est pas une menace à prendre à la légère. En effet, les attaques de type phishing font des ravages dans notre industrie. En octobre dernier, Soneium, le L2 développé par Sony a été la cible d’une telle attaque.

L’article OpenSea dans la tourmente : les mails volés réapparaissent, menace de phishing en vue ! est apparu en premier sur Journal du Coin.