As we move into the new year, the cryptocurrency world remains as dynamic as ever.
Here are the top 5 crypto news stories you don’t want to miss from December 30 to January 5.
#1 – Bitcoin’s Birthday
On January 3, 2009, the genesis block in the Bitcoin blockchain was generated. The first 50 BTC were received by the creator of the cryptocurrency, Satoshi Nakamoto.
In the genesis block’s hash, Satoshi included the headline of a newspaper article, The Times Chancellor on the brink of second bailout for banks.
#2 – Venture Deal Volume in the Crypto Industry in 2024
According to journalist Colin Wu, the total volume of venture deals in 2024 amounted to $9.33 billion, just 0.5% higher than the 2023 figure ($9.28 billion).
The largest acquisition in crypto history was the purchase of the Web3 company Bridge by payment service Stripe in October 2024.
#3 – Do Kwon pleads not guilty in US court to fraud charges
Do Kwon, co-founder of Terraform Labs, appeared in a U.S. court on Jan. 2, 2025, where he pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the collapse of the Terra ecosystem, which led to a loss of $40 billion.
Kwon faces nine charges, including wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering. These charges relate to the downfall of TerraUSD (UST), an algorithmic stablecoin, and its linked cryptocurrency, LUNA, which crashed in May 2022.
#4 – The Focus of Crypto Investors in 2024
According to Kaito, since the beginning of 2024, the community's attention level to AI concepts has increased by 116%, hype around DeSci surged by 2640%, and network abstraction grew by 160%.
Over the year, interest from users decreased in:
- Liquid restaking tokens – down by 82%
- Account abstraction – down by 71%
- GameFi – down by 41%
- ETFs – down by 63%
- L2 – down by 58%
#5 – Seven Predictions For Crypto In 2025
Forbes made 7 predictions for the cryptocurrency market in 2025.
- A major G7 or BRICS nation will establish and announce a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
- Stablecoin growth will continue, doubling to exceed $400B.
- Bitcoin DeFi enabled by L2s will be a dominant growth trend.
- Bitcoin ETFs will continue their surge, and new crypto-focused ETFs will emerge.
- A “Magnificent Seven” company will add Bitcoin to its balance sheet (beyond Tesla) (Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Nvidia, Tesla, and Meta—together hold over $600 billion in cash reserves).
- Total crypto market cap will exceed $8T ($3.3T now).
- A renaissance for crypto startups, the US will return as the global crypto powerhouse.
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