PA Daily | Ethereum PoS network exit queue nearly emptied of ETH; China's central bank says it will strengthen regulation of virtual currencies.

Today's top news highlights:

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) stated that it will strengthen the regulation of virtual currency transactions and steadily develop the digital yuan in 2026.

The US crypto market structure bill may be delayed until 2027 for passage and 2029 for implementation.

The number of ETH leaving the Ethereum PoS network has almost reached zero, and the waiting period for re-entry has been extended to over 20 days.

Tom Lee: Predicts Ethereum's future price will reach $250,000

Jupiter officially launched JupUSD, a stablecoin built on Ethena technology.

Strategy disclosed that it increased its holdings of Bitcoin by 1,287 and increased its dollar reserves by $62 million.

Bitmine increased its holdings by 32,977 ETH last week, worth $104 million.

Bitcoin spot ETFs saw net inflows of $697 million yesterday, with BlackRock's IBIT leading the way.

Macro & Regulatory

The People's Bank of China: In 2026, it will strengthen the regulation of virtual currency transactions and steadily develop the digital yuan.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) held its 2026 Working Conference on January 5-6. The conference summarized the work of 2025, highlighting the bank's efforts in actively promoting global financial governance reform and improvement, further enhancing financial management and services, and advancing precise governance of "money chains" involved in fraud and gambling. It also emphasized strengthening the supervision of virtual currency transactions, enhancing cash supply guarantees, and optimizing the digital RMB management system. Key tasks for 2026 include: improving the infrastructure for cross-border RMB use, strengthening virtual currency supervision, and continuously cracking down on related illegal and criminal activities. The conference also stressed deepening technological management and innovative applications, and steadily developing the digital RMB.

South Korea's Financial Services Commission plans to introduce a "payment freeze" mechanism to freeze accounts suspected of manipulating virtual assets.

According to Yonhap News Agency, South Korea's Financial Services Commission is actively considering introducing a "payment suspension" mechanism into the "Second Phase Legislation on Virtual Assets," allowing the freezing of accounts suspected of manipulating virtual assets before criminal sentencing to prevent the concealment or withdrawal of unrealized profits. This mechanism references the freezing mechanism already applied to stock market manipulation cases in 2023 and aims to strengthen accountability and property protection for improper virtual asset transactions.

The US crypto market structure bill may be delayed until 2027 for passage and 2029 for implementation.

According to an analysis by TD Cowen cited by The Block, political divisions may delay the passage of US crypto market structure legislation until 2027, with implementation in 2029. The Democratic-driven restrictions on conflicts of interest involving President Trump and his family are a major obstacle. If compromises are reached to postpone the enactment of these clauses, the overall legislation may also be delayed.

The US Department of Justice's sale of the Samourai wallet and the seizure of Bitcoin by its developers are accused of violating an executive order.

According to Bitcoin Magazine, on November 3, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice instructed the U.S. Marshals Service to sell 57.55 bitcoins, worth approximately $6.367 million, through Coinbase Prime. This may violate Executive Order 14233 signed by President Trump, which requires that bitcoins obtained by the government through criminal forfeiture be added to the "National Strategic Bitcoin Reserve" and cannot be sold. Currently, the bitcoin address has a zero balance, indicating that the assets may have been liquidated.

Later reports indicated that U.S. Representative Cynthia Lummis questioned the Justice Department's decision to sell Bitcoin despite the presidential order .

Project Updates

Binance: BREV's Alpha airdrop requires a minimum of 245 points and will launch tonight at 20:00.

According to Binance's official Chinese Twitter account, Binance Alpha will list Brevis (BREV) tokens on January 6th at 20:00 (UTC+8). Users holding at least 245 Alpha points can claim a BREV airdrop of 175 tokens on the event page. The airdrop uses a "decrease-deduction" model, consuming 30 points in the first minute and decreasing by 5 points every minute, down to a minimum of 10 points. The airdrop must be confirmed within 24 hours, otherwise it will be considered a forfeiture.

Upbit has listed ZKsync token ZK, supporting trading pairs for KRW, BTC, and USDT.

According to an Upbit announcement, starting at 18:30 (local time) on January 6th, trading of ZK, the native token of the ZKsync Era network, will be supported, and trading markets for KRW, BTC, and USDT will be opened. Users must ensure that transfers are made through the ZKsync Era network.

Telegram has fewer than 100 full-time employees, and its IPO plans have been stalled due to a lawsuit in France.

According to the Financial Times, Telegram currently has fewer than 100 full-time employees. Despite having over 1 billion users, the company maintains an extremely lean team structure. Telegram's revenue for the first half of 2025 reached $870 million, a year-on-year increase of over 65%, with nearly a third (approximately $300 million) coming from an "exclusivity agreement" related to Toncoin. Advertising revenue reached $125 million, and paid subscription revenue reached $223 million, a year-on-year increase of 88%. Although operating profit was close to $400 million, the company still recorded a net loss of $222 million due to the devaluation of Toncoin. Telegram aims to achieve $2 billion in revenue by 2025. Its IPO plans have been stalled due to a lawsuit in France.

Earlier reports indicated that Telegram's $500 million in Russian bonds were frozen due to Western sanctions .

Virtuals Protocol introduces three proxy launch models: Pegasus, Unicorn, and Titan.

According to Virtuals Protocol's announcement, to address the launch needs of AI agent projects at different stages, three new launch mechanisms have been introduced: Pegasus focuses on rapid experimentation and fair distribution, suitable for early-stage projects (Pegasus does not reserve team shares, does not require fundraising, and almost all supply goes into the liquidity pool, automatically migrating to Uniswap after reaching a threshold); Unicorn focuses on linking capital formation with performance, strengthening transparency and incentive mechanisms (Pegasus does not reserve team shares, does not require fundraising, and almost all supply goes into the liquidity pool, automatically migrating to Uniswap after reaching a threshold); Titan is for mature teams with scale, reputation, and capital, providing a structured market access path (requiring a minimum valuation of $50 million USD, pairing ≥500,000 USDC equivalent in $VIRTUAL, and a fixed 1% transaction tax). These three mechanisms together construct a unified framework adapted to the evolution of the agent economy.

Jupiter officially launched JupUSD, a stablecoin built on Ethena technology.

According to official news, Jupiter has officially launched its stablecoin JupUSD, a reserve-backed, USD-pegged stablecoin built on Ethena Labs technology, "aimed at powering the next chapter of finance." Initially, 90% of its reserves will consist of the licensed, GENIUS-compliant stablecoin USDtb, secured by BlackRock's BUIDL fund, with a 10% USDC liquidity buffer. While JupUSD does not generate yield, it can be integrated with Jupiter Lend for deposits, lending, or leveraged operations, enjoying exclusive benefits. By depositing funds into Lend's yield vault, users will receive jlJupUSD and enjoy unique promotional offers, providing additional liquidity and utility for JupUSD.

Brevis: The BREV token airdrop application will begin tomorrow at 9 PM, and the claim period is 30 days.

Brevis announced on the X platform that the BREV token airdrop will begin on January 6th at 21:00 (UTC+8) and will be available for collection for 30 days.

Starknet is back online and running fully.

According to official sources, Starknet has resumed operation and is running fully. Transactions submitted between 9:24 AM and 9:42 AM UTC may not have been processed correctly. A retrospective report will be released later, including a complete timeline of events, root cause analysis, and long-term preventative measures.

Previously, it was reported that Starknet was experiencing an outage, and the team was actively investigating the problem .

The Tie, a crypto data platform, acquires staking service provider Stakin.

According to The Block, crypto data platform The Tie announced its acquisition of staking service provider Stakin, which manages over $1 billion in entrusted assets, through a cash-and-equity deal. This marks The Tie's first acquisition and signifies its official entry into the crypto infrastructure sector. Estonia-based Stakin operates non-custodial staking services across more than 40 blockchains. The team will be fully integrated into The Tie, while the business will continue to operate independently.

The parent company of cryptocurrency exchanges Gemini and Crypto.com donated $21 million to the pro-Trump Super PAC.

According to FinanceFeeds, Gemini and Crypto.com's parent company, Foris Dax, recently donated a total of $21 million to MAGA Inc.'s Super PAC, which supports Trump. Of this, Gemini contributed $1.5 million in USDC, while Foris Dax donated $10 million in cash in two separate donations.

Polymarket will launch a real estate forecasting market in partnership with Parcl.

According to GLOBE NEWSWIRE, Polymarket and on-chain real estate platform Parcl have announced a partnership to launch a real estate prediction market driven by the Parcl index.

WOOFi: The proposal to "permanently burn 300 million WOO tokens" has entered the voting stage.

WOOFi, the DEX protocol for the WOO ecosystem, announced on the X platform that a proposal to permanently burn 300 million locked WOO tokens (approximately 15% of the total supply) is now in the voting stage. This move will bring the circulating supply to 100% FDV, with no further dilution expected. If the proposal passes, the "matching + burning" mechanism will also be terminated. The distribution of proceeds will remain unchanged: 40% will be distributed to token holders through WOO staking; 40% will be used for buybacks and burning; and 20% will be used for foundation expenses. Voting will be based on staking experience points (XP) earned through WOO staking. The voting period is 7 days, starting at 21:30 UTC on January 5th.

Infinex: Public offering removes $2,500 cap, retains priority allocation rights for sponsors.

Infinex has acknowledged problems with its sales mechanism and announced major adjustments: 1. The investment cap of $2,500 per user will be removed, allowing users to decide their own investment amount; 2. The allocation will be changed from random to a "maximum-minimum fair allocation" to ensure equal distribution for all participants until the supply is exhausted, at which point any excess contributions will be refunded; 3. Sponsors will retain priority allocation rights, with the specific priority method to be determined after the sale ends.

Grayscale will distribute ETH staking rewards to ETHE holders, with each holder receiving $0.083178.

According to official news, Grayscale announced that its Grayscale Ethereum Staking ETF (ticker symbol: ETHE) has distributed staking yields earned through staking between October 6, 2025 and December 31, 2025 to existing shareholders. This marks the first time a U.S. spot crypto asset trading product has distributed staking yields to its holders. Under this distribution plan, ETHE holders will receive $0.083178 per share, reflecting the proceeds earned through staking and subsequently sold during the corresponding period. The distribution will take place on January 6, 2026 (the distribution date), and will be made to investors who held ETHE shares as of January 5, 2026 (the record date).

A user claiming to be a PNUT Dev has been accused of secretly releasing a large number of RUG disks and raking in millions of dollars in illicit funds.

According to GoPlus's investigation, user @ShittymikeSoll, posing as a PNUT Dev, gained attention by falsely claiming he earned $18 million from $1,000 in a month. He then publicly revealed a large wallet address and boasted that he would turn $860,000 into $100 million during a live stream, successfully hyping up the market. However, he secretly issued a large number of RUG disks, raking in millions of dollars in illicit funds.

Ledger suffers another data breach linked to payment processor Global-e.

According to crypto detective ZachXBT, hardware wallet provider Ledger has suffered another data breach due to payment service provider Global-e leaking customers' personal data (names and contact information). Earlier today, some users received an email notification from Global-e stating: "Global-e's cloud system experienced unusual activity. Although measures have been taken to control and harden the system, the investigation confirms that some Ledger customers' personal information was improperly accessed. The incident is still under further investigation."

Manus founder Xiao Hong was also an early Bitcoin evangelist, having written popular science articles in 2013.

According to user @Lyangminn, Manus founder Xiao Hong is not only a BTC holder but also an early evangelist. In November 2013, Xiao Hong, then a freshman in college, wrote a long popular science article on "Otherworld Software World": "What is Bitcoin? How to Use It? Bitcoin Wallet Client Software Download". He left his Bitcoin address at the end of the article, and had received 0.02231 BTC in donations 11 years ago, which is currently worth $2,000.

MANTRA: All ERC20 versions of OM will be deprecated on January 15th. Please migrate as soon as possible.

MANTRA, a Layer 1 blockchain focused on RWA assets, reminded users on its X platform that currently, less than 8% of the total OM token supply is in the ERC20 version. All ERC20 OM tokens will be officially deprecated on January 15th; please migrate as soon as possible.

Opinions & Analysis

Arthur Hayes: US "colonization" of Venezuela will drive a surge in Bitcoin prices.

In his latest long article, "Suavemente," Maelstrom founder Arthur Hayes argues that the US's geopolitical actions—"detaining" Maduro and effectively controlling Venezuela's oil resources—are aimed at lowering oil prices, curbing inflation, and providing President Trump with room for continued loose monetary and fiscal expansion, thereby maintaining voter support in the midterm elections. He believes that in an environment of "money printing stimulus + controlled energy prices," rising nominal GDP will push up risk assets, especially inflation-hedging assets like Bitcoin. He explicitly states that the current strategy should be to "go long on BTC and high-quality crypto assets." Maelstrom is almost fully invested in 2026 and is optimistic that privacy narratives (such as ZEC) will become the next major theme.

Vitalik: Ethereum needs to carve out a unique value track with "resilience"

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin wrote that in the existing system, optimizations in efficiency and convenience are merely minor improvements, but Silicon Valley giants have already monopolized this game, and we cannot compete with them. Ethereum must find a different path—resilience. Resilience is not about pursuing higher returns, but about avoiding devastating blows: when faced with bans, the disappearance of developers, cloud service crashes, or cyberwars, the system can still maintain a latency of 2000ms; when anyone in the world connects to the network, they can become an equal sovereign participant. This resilience is not a UN seat or a Davos handshake of "sovereignty," but digital sovereignty—granting autonomy to the world's computers and their users by eliminating arbitrary dependence on external forces. It makes equal interdependence possible, rather than becoming a vassal of multinational corporations. This is the track where Ethereum can win; in a turbulent world, the value it provides is increasingly needed by many. Web2 technology is unrelated to resilience; the resilience of traditional finance is only for specific risks. While blockchain space is abundant, decentralized, permissionless, and resilient blockchain space is scarce. Ethereum must first become such a space before achieving scalability.

Tom Lee: Predicts Ethereum's future price will reach $250,000

According to DL News, Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee recently predicted in a letter to shareholders that the price of Ethereum will surge by 8000%, reaching $250,000 per token. This surge would propel Ethereum's market capitalization to approximately $30 trillion, exceeding the combined market capitalization of Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Tesla. When he made this bold prediction, Ethereum was trading slightly above $3,100, less than half of his predicted price of $7,500 by the end of 2025. Recently, Bitmine proposed a 100-fold increase in authorized shares through a stock split. Tom Lee believes this split is necessary because "Bitmine's stock price follows Ethereum's price," and expects the company's stock price to reach $5,000 per share when Ethereum reaches $250,000. He did not provide a timeline for achieving any of these targets.

Bloomberg: Options traders regain bullish stance on Bitcoin, which rose to $100,000 by the end of January.

According to Bloomberg, the Bitcoin options market shows traders are refocusing on the $100,000 price level. As market optimism rises, investors are expected to return to crypto assets after a potential crash in the fourth quarter of 2025. According to Deribit data, the number of open contracts in the Bitcoin options market is most concentrated on contracts expiring on January 30th with a strike price of $100,000. Their total notional value is more than double that of the second most popular options contract (a put option expiring on the same day with a strike price of $80,000). Jake Ostrovskis, head of OTC trading at Wintermute, stated that while the size isn't large, the direction is consistent, and this situation builds on the large open interest at the $100,000 strike price last week. The current curve still shows a put premium, but it has weakened significantly; the market no longer seems to anticipate the most pessimistic downside, and the situation is stabilizing slightly. Rails CEO Satraj Bambra stated that a retest of the $100,000 to $106,000 range is possible, which is common in bearish structures; for Bitcoin to turn bullish, it needs to recover and hold above $106,000 on the weekly chart before attempting to challenge its all-time high again.

mechanism

Strategy disclosed that it increased its holdings of Bitcoin by 1,287 and increased its dollar reserves by $62 million.

According to official sources, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) disclosed that it increased its holdings by 1,287 bitcoins, bringing its bitcoin reserves to 673,783, while also increasing its dollar reserves by $62 million, bringing the total to $2.25 billion.

Bitmine increased its holdings by 32,977 ETH last week, worth $104 million.

According to OnchainLens monitoring, Bitmine purchased 32,977 ETH last week (worth $104 million). Currently, they hold a total of 4,143,502 ETH, with a total value of $13.08 billion.

Previously, BitMine disclosed that it currently holds over 3.43% of the ETH token supply, with total assets reaching $14.2 billion. Later, it was reported that BitMine added 186,000 ETH to its staked inventory, bringing the total staked inventory to 779,000 ETH .

Strive acquired approximately 101.8 bitcoins between November 10th and December 31st.

Bitcoin treasury company Strive disclosed on the X platform that between November 10, 2025 and December 31, 2025, Strive purchased approximately 101.8 bitcoins at an average cost of approximately $94,525 per bitcoin. As of December 31, 2025, Strive held approximately 7,626.8 bitcoins, with an average purchase cost of approximately $113,153.

American Bitcoin has increased its total Bitcoin reserves to approximately 5,427 BTC.

According to official sources, American Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency mining company backed by the Trump family, has increased its total Bitcoin reserves to approximately 5,427 BTC and achieved a Bitcoin yield of approximately 105.0% between its Nasdaq listing on September 3, 2025 and January 2, 2026.

Strategy faces a projected loss of $17.44 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025.

According to Walter Bloomberg, Strategy Inc., led by Michael Saylor, reported a fourth-quarter unrealized loss of $17.44 billion, impacted by the decline in Bitcoin prices. Its stock price has fallen nearly 70% from its 2024 peak, raising concerns about the sustainability of its Bitcoin-dominated corporate finance model. The company sold shares last December to build cash reserves amid declining investor confidence.

Important data

sUSDe topped the list of dividend-paying tokens for 2025, followed by sUSDS, BUIDL, and others.

According to Stablewatch data, the highest-paying yield token in 2025 was Ethena's sUSDe, which paid out $253.6 million throughout the year. This was followed by Sky's sUSDS with $139.3 million, and Securitize's BUIDL in third place with $85.5 million. The top five also included Maple's syrupUSDC ($43 million) and Circle's USYC ($28.4 million).

The Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Index has finally turned positive after 22 days, currently trading at 0.01%.

According to Coinglass data, the Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Index has finally turned positive after 22 days, currently at 0.01%. This indicates increased buying activity on US market platforms and signs of dollar capital inflows, potentially reflecting a recovery in institutional risk appetite and improved short-term sentiment.

The number of ETH leaving the Ethereum PoS network has almost reached zero, and the waiting period for re-entry has been extended to over 20 days.

According to data from the validatorqueue website, as of now, the number of ETH in the Ethereum PoS network exit queue has decreased to 32, with a queuing time of approximately 1 minute. During the same period, 1,186,397 ETH are waiting to enter the network, with an estimated activation delay of approximately 20 days and 14 hours.

Hyperliquid 2025 in Review: Over 1.4 Million Users, TVL Reaches $6 Billion

According to Hyperliquid's official announcement, its ecosystem achieved leapfrog growth in 2025, with key milestones including the launch of HyperEVM, the opening of the validator mechanism, native USDC integration, and the launch of HIP-3. The highest single-day trading volume reached $32 billion, open interest reached $16 billion, TVL reached $6 billion, daily protocol revenue reached $20 million, and the number of users exceeded 1.4 million, all representing significant growth compared to 2024. The official statement emphasizes that the platform has no external financing, all protocol fees belong to the community, and it is committed to building a fair, permissionless crypto-financial system.

Bitcoin spot ETFs saw net inflows of $697 million yesterday, with BlackRock's IBIT leading the way.

A trader bought 114,514 tokens for $321 and made a profit of $2.18 million in 11 days.

A whale deposited 1,000 BTC back into Binance, realizing a profit of $3.42 million.

Currently, Strategy's Bitcoin holdings have a floating profit of $11.975 billion, while Bitmine's Ethereum holdings have a floating loss of $2.983 billion.

An address deposited 500,000 LINK tokens into a Binance deposit address linked to GSR Markets, worth approximately $6.77 million.

A whale has pledged 33,499 ETH, equivalent to approximately $106 million.