Macroeconomics and Crypto Market Dynamics

Inflation slowdown boosts market sentiment

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) in the United States for December 2024 shows that inflationary pressures continue to ease. The year-on-year CPI increased by 2.9%, and the core CPI rose by 3.2%. Price increases in key areas such as housing, healthcare, and rent have effectively suppressed the overall inflation level. This data has boosted market expectations that the Federal Reserve may cut interest rates within the year, although most analysts believe the likelihood of a rate cut before June is low.

As a result, both the U.S. stock and bond markets rose. The S&P 500 index increased by nearly 2%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged by more than 700 points. The crypto market also strengthened, with Bitcoin reclaiming the $100,000 mark, demonstrating sensitivity to the macroeconomic situation.

New Regulations on the U.S. Crypto Trading Report

Starting in 2025, the United States will implement new reporting requirements for cryptocurrency transactions. All transaction information conducted on mainstream trading platforms will be directly reported to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This regulation covers custodial trading platforms, digital asset wallet providers, cryptocurrency ATM operators, and payment processors.

The specific implementation timeline is as follows:

• 2026: Start reporting encryption asset cost benchmark information
• 2027: Decentralized platform trading report takes effect, only requiring total trading volume to be reported.

In addition, the newly launched Bitcoin spot ETF trading will also report to the IRS through specific forms, including share transactions and taxable events generated within the fund.

Global pension funds begin allocating Bitcoin

Pension funds in multiple countries are gradually venturing into Bitcoin investments. Pension funds in Wisconsin and Michigan, USA, have become major holders of certain cryptocurrency ETFs. Some pension management institutions in the UK and Australia have also made small allocations to Bitcoin through funds or derivatives.

Although investments in cryptocurrencies are still a minority in the pension industry and most advisors are cautious about it, an increasing number of pension funds are beginning to pay attention to this emerging asset class, reflecting a growing interest among institutional investors in digital assets.

South Korea Strikes Against Unfair Trading in the Crypto Market

The South Korean Financial Services Commission ( FSC ) announced the first case of unfair trading following the implementation of the "Virtual Asset User Protection Law." This case involves the "pump and dump" manipulation technique, where the suspects artificially raised the price of a certain encryption currency through concentrated buying within a short period, followed by a quick sell-off for profit. This case marks an important step for South Korea in regulating the crypto market.

XRP price surges surpassing BlackRock's market value

XRP price broke through the $3 barrier, reaching a nearly 6-year high, with a 40% increase in just 15 days. Its market capitalization exceeded $170 billion, briefly surpassing asset management giant BlackRock. This surge was mainly driven by expectations of favorable policies towards encryption and the reform of digital asset regulation in the United States.

Analysis suggests that the surge of XRP is attributed to new partnerships, the launch of the stablecoin RLUSD, and expectations for a potential spot XRP ETF. Continuous accumulation by large holders has also supported this increase. Google Trends data shows that the search interest for XRP has surpassed that of Bitcoin, reflecting the market's high attention to this crypto asset.

Sora Labs: An AI project focused on the Solana ecosystem

Sora Labs is an artificial intelligence organization dedicated to the Solana ecosystem, primarily developing the following projects:

• Zen: An open-source AI dialogue framework that simplifies the development of proxy chat systems.
• Hana: Twitter AI agent based on Zen framework
• Toolkit: A set of tools for managing AI model collaboration
• Solana Toolkit: An extension toolkit providing specific functionalities for Solana.

In terms of token economics, the development team purchased 100 million tokens, of which 99.2% have been locked until March 12th, with 24.75 million tokens being unlocked linearly every two weeks. The top 100 holders account for 61.95% of the total, with the largest holder accounting for 9.92% being the locked portion. Currently, the average buying price of the top 100 holders has doubled.