Happy Friday! Binance Bytes is an initiative by the Research team to provide a quick round-up of the week.

Highlights 🧵:

1/ BNB Chain released its 2024 annual report, highlighting achievements such as network consolidation under the 'One BNB' multichain strategy, advancements in opBNB and Greenfield for scalability and storage, and a focus on enabling BNB Chain as an AI-first chain. TVL grew by 58.2%, and unique addresses rose by 17.7% in 2024.

2/ Rumble announced a US$775M investment from Tether, significantly boosting its stock. Tether will purchase 103.3M shares at US$7.50 each. Of the total funds, Rumble plans to allocate US$250 million for growth initiatives, with the remainder designated for a self-tender offer of up to 70M Class A shares. The deal is expected to close in Q1 2025.

3/ Deutsche Bank launched Project Dama 2, an asset-servicing pilot utilizing a Layer 2 solution on Ethereum to tackle regulatory challenges faced by financial institutions. Announced in November, the solution employs zero-knowledge proof technology to enhance transaction efficiency and privacy, advancing institutional blockchain adoption.

In our latest report, we provide an overview of the crypto industry by highlighting projects across multiple sectors.

We spotlight themes such as Payments, AI, Memecoins, and others in this report.

Check it out 🔽
https://www.binance.com/en/research/analysis/industry-map-dec24

Happy Friday! Binance Bytes is an initiative by the Research team to provide a quick round-up of the week.

Highlights 🧵:

1/ A proposal to add Bitcoin to Switzerland’s national reserves has been submitted to the Swiss Chancellery. Led by a coalition of ten crypto advocates, the initiative seeks to amend Switzerland's constitution, requiring the Swiss National Bank to hold Bitcoin alongside gold in its reserves. If successful, the proposal will proceed to the Swiss Federal Assembly for review.

2/ In December 2024, China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) introduced new regulations requiring banks to monitor and report risky foreign exchange activities, including cryptocurrency transactions. The regulations aim to curb illegal activities like underground banking and cross-border gambling, making it harder for mainland investors to engage in digital asset trading.

3/ Bitwise, a leading US asset manager, has applied for approval to launch the Bitwise Bitcoin Standard Corporations ETF. The fund would track companies holding over 1,000 BTC as a reserve asset. It plans to invest at least 80% of its net assets plus borrowings in the shares included in the index, providing focused exposure to Bitcoin-heavy firms.

Time to look at January's market insights!

Discover the current market landscape and key insights on:

🔸 Bitcoin Performance
🔸 USDe Growth
🔸 DEX Volumes
🔸 AI Agent Narrative

…and more.

Read here ⬇️
https://www.binance.com/en/research/analysis/monthly-market-insights-2025-01

Happy Friday! Binance Bytes is an initiative by the Research team to provide a quick round-up of the week.

Highlights 🧵:

1/ Pump.science partners with Hedgehog to launch Solana-based prediction markets for betting on the results of longevity experiments on mice. Mice injected with longevity compounds are tested against a control group on a rotarod, assessing motor skills. Users, equipped with data on how the compound previously performed on flies, bet on which mice will excel, with trials livestreamed.

2/ Thailand is set to trial cryptocurrency payments in Phuket, a popular tourist destination, as part of a pilot program offering foreign visitors an alternative payment option. The initiative seeks to integrate digital currencies into everyday transactions, enabling tourists to register Bitcoin through a Thai exchange, verify their identities, and make purchases seamlessly.

3/ Revolut has joined the Pyth Network as one of over 100 data publishers, providing high-quality financial data to enhance decentralized applications across 80+ blockchains. By delivering real-time price updates, this partnership leverages Pyth's advanced oracle technology for low-latency, reliable data aggregation. Since May 2021, Chainlink’s share of price data feeds has decreased from 69% to 52%, while Pyth’s has increased from 0.08% to 11%, highlighting Pyth’s rapid growth and influence.

#Binance Research is pleased to release our full-year report for 2024!

Dive into the most significant developments in the past year and check out what we are excited about for 2025.

Read the full report here 🔽
https://www.binance.com/en/research/analysis/full-year-2024-and-themes-for-2025

Happy Friday! Binance Bytes is an initiative by the Research team to provide a quick round-up of the week.

Highlights 🧵:
1/ President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing a cryptocurrency working group to draft new digital asset regulations and explore creating a national cryptocurrency stockpile. The order also mandates protection of banking services for crypto companies, bans the creation of a U.S. central bank digital currency, and rolls back SEC guidance that had hindered crypto adoption.

2/ Telegram, with more than 950 million monthly users, has chosen The Open Network (TON) as its exclusive blockchain partner. TON will power Telegram’s mini-app platform and via the TON Connect wallet protocol for seamless blockchain transactions. This deepened partnership establishes Toncoin as the sole cryptocurrency for payments on Telegram, including ads, subscriptions, and rewards. Telegram also plans to tokenize digital assets, like emojis and NFTs, exclusively on TON.

3/ Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan supports integrating crypto payments into the U.S. financial system, pending regulatory approval. Speaking at the World Economic Forum, he emphasized the potential of stablecoins to streamline payments. Once skeptical, the bank now invests heavily in blockchain, holding patents and partnering with platforms like Paxos to enhance efficiency.

Decentralized Science is a fairly nascent sector that gained steam towards the end of 2024.

In our latest report, we examined the challenges in traditional science research and where DeSci could be a solution.

Check out our findings here 🔽
https://www.binance.com/en/research/analysis/from-challenges-to-opportunities-how-desci-reimagines-science

Happy Friday! Binance Bytes is an initiative by the Research team to provide a quick round-up of the week.

Highlights 🧵:

1/ Chinese AI startup DeepSeek dethroned OpenAI’s ChatGPT as the most-downloaded free app on Apple’s U.S. App Store, triggering a major sell-off in global tech stocks, with Nvidia falling 17% and the Nasdaq dropping over 3%. Investors were shocked by DeepSeek’s ability to develop a highly competitive AI model at a fraction of the cost of U.S. rivals, raising concerns about China’s growing AI dominance despite U.S. chip export restrictions.

2/ Czech National Bank governor Aleš Michl proposed investing up to 5% of the country's €140B foreign reserves into Bitcoin, potentially making Czechia the first Western central bank to hold crypto assets. Michl acknowledged Bitcoin's volatility but highlighted growing investor interest and political support, particularly in the U.S., where major financial firms have launched Bitcoin ETFs. While the Czech cryptocurrency market is rapidly expanding, Michl cautioned that any large-scale central bank investment in Bitcoin could significantly impact its price.

3/ Igloo Inc., the team behind Pudgy Penguins, has launched Abstract Chain, a layer-2 blockchain on Ethereum built with ZKsync’s ZK Stack to enhance Web3 accessibility. Through The Portal, users can access over 100 apps with just an email, blending Web2 ease with Web3 technology via features like account abstraction and social logins. Focused on “consumer crypto,” Abstract aims to integrate blockchain into daily life, beginning with gaming and entertainment and expanding into broader financial applications.

Time to look at February's market insights!

Discover the current market landscape and key insights on:
🔸 Crypto ETF Filings
🔸 Token Creation Trend
🔸 DEX Volumes
🔸 DeFAI
…and more.

Read here ⬇️
https://www.binance.com/en/research/analysis/monthly-market-insights-2025-02

Happy Friday! Binance Bytes is an initiative by the Research team to provide a quick round-up of the week.

Highlights 🧵:

1/ Trump's tariffs on Canada, Mexico, China, and other key partners risk igniting a global trade war. Intended to exert economic pressure on Mexico, Canada, and China to fulfill their commitments to halt illegal immigration and stop the flow of fentanyl and other drugs into the US, these tariffs could strain NATO and G7 relations, threaten the US-Canada-Mexico Agreement (USMCA), and disrupt industries such as North American auto manufacturing. Retaliatory tariffs and higher inflation are likely. Additionally, allies shifting trade toward Latin America, India, and the Gulf could weaken US influence, reshape global trade, and destabilize the international monetary system if these aggressive policies continue.

2/ The Berachain Foundation launched its proof-of-liquidity layer-1 blockchain mainnet on February 6, accompanied by a US$632M airdrop of 79 million BERA tokens to eligible users. The BERA token, which initially fell from US$15, is currently trading at around US$8 and will serve as both a gas and staking token. The largest airdrop allocations are designated for holders of Bong Bears NFTs and related projects. Berachain's proof-of-liquidity consensus mechanism aims to enhance network security by reinvesting revenues back into the ecosystem, with 34.3% of tokens reserved for institutional investors and 20% allocated for ecosystem research and development.

3/ The U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, introduced on February 5 by Senator Bill Hagerty (with bipartisan support), aims to regulate payment stablecoins and ensure financial stability by allowing state regulators to oversee stablecoins with assets under US$10B and setting strict reserve requirements for conservative assets like short-term Treasuries and bank deposits. The Federal Reserve can intervene in systemic risk situations, though issuers can challenge such actions in court. Larger non-bank stablecoin issuers will be regulated by the Comptroller of the Currency, whilst banks can issue tokenized deposits and use distributed ledger technology for intrabank transactions, though interbank DLT use is not explicitly allowed.

Happy Friday! Binance Bytes is an initiative by the Research team to provide a quick round-up of the week.

Highlights 🧵:

1/ BNB Chain has unveiled its 2025 roadmap, introducing sub-second block times, gasless transactions, and AI-driven smart wallets, aiming to process 100 million transactions per day. Following the announcement, BNB surged 8.1%, surpassing SOL in market capitalization to become the fifth-largest cryptocurrency. The upgrade also enhances security by addressing Maximal Extractable Value attacks and improving validator coordination.

2/ Central African Republic (‘CAR’) President Faustin-Archange Touadéra has launched a meme-coin, $CAR, as an "experiment" to raise the country's global profile and support national development. Announced on his X account, the coin saw an initial surge but later dropped by 95% in value. This follows CAR’s 2022 adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender, a move that failed to attract the expected investment, with its associated "Sango" project now defunct.

3/ Franklin Templeton has expanded its OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund (FOBXX) to the Solana blockchain, allowing investors to access tokenized shares via the Benji Investments app. The US$594M Nasdaq-listed fund offers exposure to U.S. government securities, cash, and repurchase agreements, with its BENJI token functioning like a yield-bearing stablecoin. This move strengthens Franklin Templeton’s position in the tokenized asset market, competing with BlackRock’s $637 million BUIDL fund on ETH.

Happy Friday! Binance Bytes is an initiative by the Research team to provide a quick round-up of the week.

Highlights 🧵:

1/ Nansen Research reported significant losses among traders of the LIBRA token, which briefly surged following endorsements from high-profile figures, including Argentine President Javier Milei. On-chain data revealed that 86% of traders incurred losses totaling $251 million, as the token's market capitalization plummeted 95% from $4 billion.

2/ Nearly two years after suspending USD services, Binance.US has resumed fiat deposits and withdrawals. The platform halted these functions in June 2023 but has now restored USD transactions, allowing customers to make zero-fee deposits and withdrawals via ACH bank transfers. The move comes amid a shifting regulatory landscape and renewed optimism in the crypto industry.

3/ Google is working on integrating Bitcoin wallets into its ecosystem to simplify crypto adoption, according to Kyle Song, a Web3 specialist at Google Cloud. Speaking at the Hong Kong Bitcoin Tech Carnival, he revealed plans to embed Bitcoin wallets directly into Google accounts, making crypto payments as seamless as Web2 transactions.

Blockchains democratized finance. Now, they may be doing the same for artificial intelligence.

Dive into the future of technology with our latest report on the fundamentals of decentralized AI

Read it here ⬇️
https://www.binance.com/en/research/analysis/fundamentals-of-decentralized-ai