Morning News | opBNB mainnet hard fork has been completed; Babylon has completed $15 million in financing; xAI has completed $20 billion in Series E financing
Overview of Important Market Events on January 7整理：ChainCatcher
Important News:
- Ripple reiterates no IPO plans, says it will remain private and focus on business expansion
- Financial Times: China is reviewing Meta's $2 billion acquisition of Manus
- Coinbase: Digital RMB interest rates may cause the U.S. to lose its stablecoin advantage
- CZ: opBNB mainnet hard fork completed, block time reduced to 250 milliseconds
- Elon Musk's xAI completes $20 billion Series E funding, NVIDIA participates
- Polymarket signs cooperation agreement with Dow Jones Media Group
- Bitcoin ecosystem decentralized protocol Babylon completes $15 million financing, led by a16z Crypto
What important events happened in the past 24 hours?
WisdomTree withdraws its S-1 registration application for spot XRP ETF
According to ChainCatcher, WisdomTree has officially withdrawn its proposed registration application for a spot XRP ETF. In a filing submitted on Tuesday, the company stated that it has "decided not to proceed with" the product's issuance at this time and requested the SEC to withdraw the registration statement and all accompanying exhibits and amendments.
Previously, WisdomTree submitted the S-1 registration documents related to the spot XRP ETF to the U.S. SEC in December 2024.
Prince Group founder Chen Zhi arrested and deported to China
According to ChainCatcher, Chen Zhi, founder and chairman of Prince Group, was arrested in Cambodia and has been deported back to China for investigation by relevant authorities, as reported by the Guangxi International Communication Center (Cambodia) and journalists from the Cambodia-China Times.
Polymarket signs cooperation agreement with Dow Jones Media Group
According to market news, prediction market Polymarket has signed an exclusive cooperation agreement with Dow Jones Media Group to distribute prediction data to Dow Jones outlets.
Market news: Morgan Stanley submits Ethereum ETF application to U.S. SEC
According to market news, Morgan Stanley has submitted an Ethereum ETF application to the U.S. SEC.
U.S. December ADP employment change at 41,000, expected 47,000, previous value -32,000
According to ChainCatcher, the U.S. December ADP employment change was 41,000, expected to be 47,000, with a previous value of -32,000.
Bitcoin ecosystem decentralized protocol Babylon completes $15 million financing, led by a16z Crypto
According to ChainCatcher, Babylon, a decentralized protocol in the Bitcoin ecosystem, announced that it has completed $15 million in financing, led by a16z Crypto, with specific valuation data not disclosed.
It is reported that Babylon's competitors include centralized service providers such as Coinbase, Kraken, and Tether, and it is expected to integrate its technology with the lending protocol Aave in the second quarter of this year. The company currently has over 40 employees.
Reuters: Barclays acquires stake in U.S. stablecoin settlement company Ubyx, enters stablecoin field
According to ChainCatcher, Barclays has acquired a stake in Ubyx, a U.S. stablecoin settlement company, entering the stablecoin field.
Founded in 2025, Ubyx provides a settlement system for stablecoins (cryptocurrencies pegged to traditional currencies). Barclays stated that this investment is part of its strategy to explore digital currency options, but did not disclose the scale of the investment or specific terms. Previously, Barclays had researched the possibility of issuing stablecoins pegged to G7 currencies in collaboration with banks such as Goldman Sachs and UBS.
A Barclays spokesperson stated, "This investment aligns with Barclays' strategy to explore opportunities in new digital currencies such as stablecoins." The bank did not disclose the scale of the investment or valuation. It is reported that U.S. cryptocurrency companies Coinbase and Galaxy Digital's venture capital arm had previously invested in Ubyx.
Gemini's top five predictions for the year: Bitcoin's four-year cycle has ended, digital asset reserve companies will merge to survive
According to ChainCatcher, Patrick Liou, Director of Institutional Business at Gemini, released five predictions for 2026.
The four-year cycle of Bitcoin is dead; ETFs and institutional adoption have made the market more mature, with volatility reduced from a historical 80% to 25-40%, and drawdowns only 30% instead of the past 75-90%.
Crypto will become a bipartisan issue in the 2026 U.S. midterm elections, with the CLARITY Act expected to break through.
The crypto prediction market will expand significantly, with Polymarket's growth attracting players like Coinbase.
Digital asset reserve companies will merge to survive; MicroStrategy's massive losses in Q4 last year and a 60% drop in MSTR's stock price indicate pressure.
At least one country will sell part of its gold reserves to buy Bitcoin; Germany, Sweden, and the Czech Republic have publicly discussed BTC as a reserve asset. Liou believes that 2026 will be driven by institutions, policies, and sovereign capital rather than speculation cycles.
Elon Musk's xAI completes $20 billion Series E funding, NVIDIA participates
According to ChainCatcher, xAI announced the completion of its Series E funding, raising $20 billion, exceeding the previously planned $15 billion funding scale.
Investors in this round include Valor Equity Partners, StepStone Group, Fidelity Management & Research, Qatar Investment Authority, MGX, Baron Capital Group, and others, with NVIDIA and Cisco also participating as strategic investors.
xAI stated that by 2025, the company will achieve multiple advancements in computing power and products, including the construction of the Colossus I and II supercomputing centers, with GPU scale exceeding 1 million H100 equivalent computing power; advancing the training of the Grok 4 series models, and launching products such as Grok Voice and Grok Imagine, covering applications in voice, image, and video generation. The company disclosed that its product matrix currently covers approximately 600 million monthly active users across X and Grok applications.
The official stated that this round of funding will mainly be used to accelerate the construction of computing power infrastructure, support the training of the next-generation Grok 5 model, and promote continuous development of consumer and enterprise-level products. xAI also stated that it will continue to expand its team to support subsequent R&D and product implementation.
CZ: opBNB mainnet hard fork completed, block time reduced to 250 milliseconds
According to ChainCatcher, CZ posted on the X platform that the opBNB mainnet hard fork has been completed. This upgrade reduces the block time from 500 milliseconds to 250 milliseconds.
Tempo launches TIP-20 token standard for stablecoins and payment scenarios
According to ChainCatcher, the Tempo team has released its native token standard TIP-20, aimed at stablecoin and payment token applications. The official introduction states that TIP-20 adds features such as transfer notes, compliance controls, and reward distribution on top of being compatible with ERC-20, aiming to meet the needs of real-world payments, settlements, and fund management.
Tempo stated that TIP-20 allows for the issuance of customized stablecoins for specific payment scenarios and supports high throughput and predictable fee payment transactions, while enabling trading between stablecoins on Tempo's native decentralized exchange. The standard also introduces mechanisms such as role permission management and strategy registries to support compliance and operational control.
The official disclosed that infrastructure providers such as AllUnity, Bridge, and LayerZero have begun to support TIP-20. Tempo stated that this standard is suitable for stablecoin issuers and can also be extended to other fungible assets to reduce custom development costs and enhance cross-scenario usability.
Coinbase: Digital RMB interest rates may cause the U.S. to lose its stablecoin advantage
According to ChainCatcher, Coinbase stated that the proposed amendments to the GENIUS Act may weaken the U.S.'s position in the global digital payment expansion process, while the strategic launch of interest rates for the digital RMB will bring new pressure to U.S. policymakers, as the interest rate framework may attract yield-seeking users, potentially reshaping the competitive landscape and making the digital RMB a clearer competitor to stablecoin products.
Coinbase warned that limiting stablecoin reward options may reduce the competitiveness of stablecoins, and internal lobbying activities have intensified tensions. Coinbase insists that the leading position of stablecoins supports the strength of the dollar and that policy adjustments must consider the international situation. U.S. legislators now face a decision that could impact the direction of the next phase of digital payment development.
Financial Times: China is reviewing Meta's $2 billion acquisition of Manus
According to ChainCatcher, the Financial Times reported that Chinese officials are reviewing Meta's $2 billion acquisition of the AI platform Manus to assess whether the transaction violates technology export controls. Two informed sources revealed that officials from the Ministry of Commerce have begun evaluating whether the Manus team and technology's move to Singapore and subsequent sale to Meta require export licenses under Chinese law.
Reports indicate that the review of the transaction may focus on whether the Manus team developed export-controlled technology within China. Although the review is still in its early stages, if the assessment concludes that an export license is required, the Chinese government may have the authority to intervene in the transaction, potentially leading to its termination in extreme cases.
According to ChainCatcher, Ripple President Monica Long stated that the company currently has no plans to pursue an initial public offering (IPO) and will continue to operate privately while focusing on growth through product development and acquisitions. She pointed out that Ripple's financial situation is currently robust, and there is no need to go public to gain liquidity from the capital markets, as it has the capability to continue investing in the company's development.
Monica Long's statement came after Ripple completed a round of financing of approximately $500 million in November 2025, which corresponded to a valuation of about $40 billion, with investors including Fortress Investment Group, Citadel Securities, and several crypto-focused funds. Regarding the investor protection mechanisms involved in the financing terms, she only stated that the overall structure is relatively favorable to Ripple, without further elaborating on the details of the relevant terms.
The report also mentioned that Ripple completed several acquisitions in 2025, including the prime broker Hidden Road, stablecoin payment platform Rail, treasury management system GTreasury, and digital asset wallet and custody company Palisade, with a total acquisition amount close to $4 billion. Ripple disclosed that as of November last year, its payment business had processed a cumulative transaction volume exceeding $95 billion, and related products are continuously expanding around enterprise-level digital asset infrastructure.
Shen Yu: Manus founder Xiao Hong interned at Yibite in 2013
According to ChainCatcher, Shen Yu, co-founder and CEO of Cobo, posted on social media stating that it is not surprising that Manus founder Xiao Hong is a BTC Holder. In 2013, he was one of the interns we recruited at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, working on Yibite together.
"In the past decade, from Bitcoin to AI Agent, the times have changed, and the boundaries of companies are blurring: rather than 'hiring employees,' it is better to say 'identifying vectors'—finding people with ideas, strong execution, and fast growth acceleration, and establishing connections early."
According to ChainCatcher, the Flow network suffered an attack targeting a type confusion vulnerability in the Cadence virtual machine, leading to illegal token issuance. The attacker exploited a complex "three-part vulnerability chain" to bypass resource linearity guarantees, disguising resource objects as structs for duplication. The incident caused approximately $3.9 million in actual economic losses, with funds flowing out through cross-chain bridges such as Celer and deBridge.
According to Flow monitoring, the attacker created a total of 87.96 billion FLOW and various tokens, of which 1.094 billion FLOW were transferred to centralized exchanges. Due to timely shutdowns by validators and cooperation with OKX, Gate.io, MEXC, approximately 98.7% of the illegal assets have been frozen on-chain or at exchanges, and about 484 million FLOW have been destroyed. The network has been restored through a "quarantine recovery plan" as of December 29, and comprehensive patches covering parameter verification, runtime checks, and contract deployment logic have been deployed.
Meme Hot List
According to the meme token tracking and analysis platform GMGN, as of January 8, 09:00,
The top five hot tokens in ETH over the past 24 hours are: SHIB, LINK, PEPE, UNI, ONDO
The top five hot tokens in Solana over the past 24 hours are: TRUMP, PENGU, MELANIA, Fartcoin, FO
The top five hot tokens in Base over the past 24 hours are: PEPE, BASED, BSC, SKYA, B3
What are some interesting articles to read in the past 24 hours?
Dragonfly Managing Partner Haseeb: The three top crypto investors in my eyes
Since I started working in cryptocurrency venture capital, I have always aspired to be the best. I am driven by competition, and investing itself is a pure competition. Ultimately, only one person can win a deal, and only one person can predict the winner of a cycle.
But when you take a serious look and analyze, you will find that three people have proven themselves to be the GOATs (Greatest of All Time) in the field of cryptocurrency venture capital.
This may sound a bit off-topic (it indeed is), and it may not be attractive to non-crypto investors. But I am one of them. So, this article is written for all those who dedicate their lives to investing in cryptocurrencies.
In the conversation, an important point gradually emerged: what truly limits the large-scale adoption of crypto payments is not the crypto technology itself, but the traditional financial infrastructure. Adam shared some real cases from traditional financial institutions—some banks' internal systems are technically unable to accept real-time settlements because their core architecture is designed around T+N clearing cycles.
He pointed out that if true instant settlement could be achieved, the improvement in capital efficiency would be enormous: currently, the amount of "idle" funds to cover T+N clearing cycles reaches hundreds of billions of dollars, and once this "dead money" is released, it will have a profound impact on the entire financial system.
At the beginning of 2026, we were all set up by Wintermute
At the beginning of 2026, the dramatic fluctuations in Bitcoin prices pushed crypto market maker Wintermute back into the spotlight.
During the New Year period, when global market liquidity was at its weakest, Wintermute frequently injected large amounts into Binance, raising strong suspicions in the community about "institutional secret dumping."
On December 31, New Year's Eve, Bitcoin prices hovered around $92,000. On-chain monitoring data showed that Wintermute net deposited 1,213 Bitcoins into Binance that day, worth about $107 million.
a16z Crypto in-depth analysis: Four major judgments on the development of the privacy track in 2026
Privacy is a key element in the global financial transition to on-chain, and it is also an element that almost all existing blockchains lack. For most blockchains, privacy has always been an afterthought. But now, privacy alone is enough to make a blockchain stand out among many.
Privacy also plays a more important role: it creates chain lock-in; or a privacy network effect. This is especially important in today's world, where merely competing on performance is no longer sufficient to win.
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Risk warning
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