Bitcoin's surged to attain an all-time high of $107,487 on Monday after President-elect Donald Trump announced his plans to create a U.S. bitcoin strategic reserve similar to its strategic oil reserve - then crashed by the end of the week
The Avalanche Foundation has unveiled Avalanche9000, its largest upgrade to date, designed to lower blockchain deployment costs and enhance efficiency.
Binance announced the delisting of WRX, AKRO, and BLZ, resulting in price declines of up to 40%.
XRP’s price dropped 5.3% to $2.57 after reaching a high of $2.73, likely due to profit-taking following a Tuesday rally spurred by Ripple's announcement of its new stablecoin RLUSD.
This week brought new records in the crypto market as Bitcoin surged to a new all-time high of $107,487 due in part to the President-elect Donald Trump who plans to introduce a U.S. Bitcoin Strategic Reserve. MicroStrategy joining Nasdaq-100 Index also drew attention to the institutional impact on Bitcoin. Additionally, Avalanche introduced its biggest update- Avalanche9000 focused on lowering deployment costs while Binance announced the delisting of three altcoins: AKRO, BLZ, and WRX.
Then of course BTC crashed, currently standing at just over $97,000
Michael Saylor's MicroStrategy Joins the Nasdaq-100 Index
Nasdaq has announced that MicroStrategy (MSTR), led by Bitcoin advocate Michael Saylor, will be added to the Nasdaq-100 Index starting Dec. 23, joining Palantir Technologies and Axon Enterprise. MicroStrategy, a software firm turned Bitcoin hedge fund, will now rank among Nasdaq's top 100 stocks by market capitalization. The inclusion means MSTR will be part of the Invesco QQQ Trust ETF, which has around $322 billion in assets. Meanwhile, Illumina, Inc. (ILMN), Super Micro Computer, Inc. (SMCI), and Moderna, Inc. (MRNA) will be removed from the index. Analysts predict that this move will increase Bitcoin exposure for large institutional investors, and Saylor recently pitched the idea of Microsoft investing in Bitcoin to boost its market cap.
Bitcoin Hits New All-Time High of $107,000 Amid Speculation on U.S. Reserve
On Dec. 16, Bitcoin surged to a new ATH, extending a rally that has seen the cryptocurrency's price surge by over 50% since Donald Trump's election win in the 5 November election and approximately 150% year-to-date. The world's largest cryptocurrency briefly surpassed $107,487, before dropping back to $105,000 during the Asian trade on Monday.
According to data from Euronews, this rally is fueled by speculation of the U.S. establishing a Bitcoin Strategic Reserve, following the Treasury's reference to Bitcoin as digital gold. The incoming Trump administration is viewed as significantly more friendly to cryptocurrencies as compared to Biden’s administration. The US president-elect stated on Thursday his intention of creating a national stockpile of the digital currency, similar to the country's strategic oil reserve.
Then it crashed - currently standing at just over $97,000.
Avalanche Launches Avalanche9000 Upgrade to Reduce Deployment Costs
The Avalanche Foundation has announced the launch of its Avalanche9000 mainnet upgrade on December 17, including the Etna upgrade, which significantly lowers deployment costs. By lowering staking and validator costs to only the gas needed to initiate and update a contract, C-Chain fees are reduced over 90% and layer1 deployment expenses by 99.9%. This means that independent layer1 chains will not need to validate onto the primary network and can set up their own onchain validators. This change streamlines the process of new project validation, allowing for quicker market entry, and gives developers more control over their layer1 customizations.
One of Avalanche9000’s key features is the built in Interchain Messaging, allowing communication between C-chain and Layer1s for cross-chain data transfer, including tokens and NFTs. According to Crypto.news, the upgrade is seen as the "biggest network upgrade since the protocol launched," contributing to improved metrics during Q3 2024.
Binance Announces Delisting of WRX, BLZ and AKRO
On Dec. 18, Binance, one of the largest crypto exchanges, announced its plan to delist three altcoins: AKRO, BLZ, and WRX, effective on December 25 at 03:00 UTC. According to Coinpedia, this move aims to boost market quality by reviewing traded pairs based on factors like project commitment, development activity and liquidity. After delisting, AKRO/USDT, BLZ/BTC, BLZ/USDT and WRX/USDT will be removed from trading pairs and the respective tokens will be removed from user wallets. Users are asked to withdraw their tokens by February 25, 2025. Following the announcement, AKRO, BLZ, and WRX saw their prices drop by a whopping 11% to 48%, as is usually the case for delistings.
XRP Price Tumbles After Profit-Taking Amidst Stablecoin Launch
Ripple’s (XRP) price dropped by 5.3% to trade at $2.57 after rising to $2.73 on Tuesday. This drop was likely caused by investors taking profits. The price surge came after Ripple introduced its RLUSD stablecoin, which could be directly compared to USDT and USDC tokens. The CEO of B2BinPay, Arthur Azizo, believes that Ripple could hit a price of $5-$7 by mid-2025 if RLUSD solidifies Ripple’s position in the market. However, concerns remain since XRP's use case is limited to the Ripple platform, raising questions about its $147 billion market value. Additionally, similar to previous challenges with Tether, RLUSD may find it difficult to maintain its dollar peg.
dorsaVi Partners with Secret Network for Blockchain Privacy Enhancement
On Dec. 17, Blockleaders published an article on dorsaVi Ltd (ASX: DVL) partnership with Secret Network to integrate privacy-preserving blockchain technology with its wearable movement analysis devices. This collaboration seeks to improve data privacy by allowing users to control access to their movement data for injury prevention, rehabilitation, and performance enhancement. According to Jillian Godsil, the partnership consists of the technical feasibility testing of encrypted smart contracts and Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) for secure data sharing. This initiative focuses on highly regulated sectors like healthcare and workplace safety, with a focus on securing, consent-driven data sharing and building trust and innovation.
Metaverse Platforms Upland, Decentraland, and The Sandbox Spread Holiday Cheer with Festive Contests and Exclusive Prizes!
Lisa Gibbons also wrote another interesting piece on how to celebrate Christmas in the Metaverse for 2024. This year, the focus is on Tokyo for the Winter Wonderland Contest where Upland invites players to transform San Francisco plaza into a magical winter village. Participants can get valuable rewards if they decorate their property with the holiday themed assets; registration is open till the 23rd of December. Meanwhile, The Sandbox also holds a VoxEdit Festival Contest to have players make winter themed assets such as Santa surfing and whimsical snowmen, for 20,000 SAND prizes. Submissions are open until January 2nd, with categories including: 'The Grinch' on best non Christmas entry and 'A Toy Story' on top toy character.
Claive.AI: Transforming AI with Unmatched Privacy and Trust
The artificial intelligence landscape is evolving at lightning speed, with AI agents revolutionizing everything from financial modeling to real-time sentiment analysis. Yet, as these capabilities grow, the demand for privacy, security, and trust has never been greater. Enter Claive.AI, an innovative, privacy-first AI platform powered by Secret Network, designed to redefine how AI agents are built, deployed, and trusted.
“Claive.AI embodies the next evolution of AI—one where privacy, trust, and innovation converge seamlessly,” says Lisa Loud, Executive Director of Secret Network Foundation.
So that’s a wrap
Have a very happy Christmas and holidays and we'll see you all in the New Year.
