Morning News | Polymarket is developing a multilingual version; Standard Chartered plans to establish a cryptocurrency prime brokerage; South Korea ends 9-year ban on corporate cryptocurrency
Overview of Important Market Events on January 12整理：ChainCatcher
Important News:
- Cryptocurrency content views on YouTube drop to the lowest level since January 2021
- South Korea ends 9-year corporate crypto ban, allowing listed companies to invest 5% of capital in cryptocurrencies
- Vitalik: Open-sourcing the X platform algorithm is a very good move; algorithms need to be verifiable and reproducible
- Spot gold breaks $4600/ounce for the first time, gold and silver hit historical highs today
- Polymarket is developing a multilingual version, including a Chinese version
- Standard Chartered plans to establish a cryptocurrency prime brokerage business to expand its digital asset layout
- Helius CEO: Solana's programming model has security advantages over EVM in AI development
What important events happened in the past 24 hours?
Helius CEO: Solana's programming model has security advantages over EVM in AI development
According to ChainCatcher, Helius CEO Mert posted on the X platform stating that AI gives Solana a significant competitive advantage. Solana's programming model is more secure for AI compared to the EVM's interface model. On Solana, most operations (especially core functions like token creation, exchange, and movement) do not require writing new contracts, which means developers can reuse existing pipelines on the client side without needing new security audits, thus speeding up development.
Developers can integrate existing pipelines, exchanges, and Token Hooks with a small set of prompts. Additionally, the previous disadvantage of Solana due to the low abstraction level of the Rust language, which made contract writing difficult, has been effectively mitigated by AI. It is expected that several startups valued between $1 billion and $10 billion will emerge on Solana this year.
According to ChainCatcher, Bloomberg reported that the Trump family's crypto project, World Liberty Financial, has launched a platform called "World Liberty Markets" that allows users to lend digital assets to each other.
The service will officially launch on Monday and will support Ethereum, stablecoins USDC and USDT, as well as the company's own token WLFI and stablecoin USD1.
According to ChainCatcher, Bloomberg reported that Standard Chartered plans to establish a cryptocurrency prime brokerage business through its venture capital arm, SC Ventures, covering services such as custody, financing, and market access, which is still in the early preparation stage.
This move helps it avoid Basel III capital requirements of up to 1250% for unlicensed crypto assets. Standard Chartered has previously been involved in crypto projects like Zodia Custody and Zodia Markets and aims to become the first globally systemically important bank to offer spot crypto trading by 2025.
Polymarket is developing a multilingual version, including a Chinese version
According to ChainCatcher, Polymarket's Chinese business representative posted on the X platform stating that Polymarket is developing multiple language versions, including one tailored for Chinese.
Pump.fun: Introducing creator fee sharing feature
According to ChainCatcher, Pump.fun announced on the X platform that the creator compensation system needs reform, and several reform measures will be introduced soon. The creator fee sharing feature has already been implemented, allowing sharing of fees with up to 10 wallets, transferring token ownership, and revoking update permissions. More updates are coming soon.
Trump states Powell's lawsuit is unrelated to interest rates, claims he is not involved
According to ChainCatcher, NBC reported that Trump denied colluding with the U.S. Department of Justice to file criminal charges against Federal Reserve Chairman Powell, stating that the subpoena sent to Powell by the federal court is unrelated to whether the Fed will cut interest rates.
Tether freezes $182 million USDT in a single day, stablecoins dominate illegal crypto fund flows
According to ChainCatcher, Whale Alert data shows that on January 11, Tether froze over $182 million in USDT within 24 hours, targeting five Tron chain wallets, with individual amounts ranging from $12 million to $50 million.
Although cryptocurrencies are designed to be censorship-resistant, stablecoins, which account for 60% of the market, are highly centralized. Tether has the ability to instantly freeze funds at the smart contract level and frequently collaborates with the U.S. Department of Justice, FBI, and Secret Service for enforcement.
Chainalysis data shows that by the end of 2025, stablecoins will account for 84% of all illegal transaction volumes. An AMLBot report indicates that Tether froze approximately $3.3 billion in assets from 2023 to 2025 and blacklisted 7,268 wallet addresses. Nevertheless, USDT's market capitalization still reaches $187 billion, accounting for 60% of the stablecoin market.
Spot gold breaks $4600/ounce for the first time, gold and silver hit historical highs today
According to ChainCatcher, market data shows that spot gold has broken $4600/ounce for the first time, continuing to set new highs, with a daily increase of 1.92%.
Spot silver has surpassed the high point from two weeks ago, reaching a historical high of $83.9/ounce.
According to ChainCatcher, the Chinese high-tech startup Variable Robot (X Square Robot, abbreviated as X²) focusing on embodied intelligence announced that it has completed 1 billion A++ round financing, with this round led by top investment institutions and various local platforms including ByteDance, Sequoia China, Beijing Information Industry Development Fund, Shenzhen Capital Group, Nanshan New Investment, and Xichuang Investment.
It is reported that this is also the first investment since the establishment of the Shenzhen Capital AI Fund. Notably, in addition to ByteDance, Variable Robot has also received investments from Meituan and Alibaba in previous financing rounds, making it the only embodied intelligence company in China to be invested in by all three major internet giants.
According to ChainCatcher, Ethereum founder Vitalik commented on "Musk stating that the new X platform algorithm will be open-sourced within 7 days, including how to determine recommended search content for users, with this process repeating every four weeks," saying, "If done properly, this will be a very good move. I hope it can be verified and reproduced. While this won't solve all problems, it can effectively address concerns about algorithm transparency raised by myself and many other public members."
"Additionally, I actually think four weeks might be a bit optimistic, as this means the algorithm needs to be updated frequently to prevent exploitation. Algorithms do need to be verifiable and reproducible so that users who feel they are being shadowbanned or downgraded can check the execution code of the algorithm to understand why their posts are not being seen."
Trump posts a picture claiming to be the interim president of Venezuela
According to ChainCatcher, on the evening of January 11, Eastern Time, Trump posted on social media, claiming to be the "interim president of Venezuela."
According to ChainCatcher, local media reported that the South Korean Financial Services Commission (FSC) has finalized guidelines allowing listed companies and professional investors to trade cryptocurrencies, ending a 9-year corporate crypto investment ban.
Eligible companies can invest up to 5% of their capital each year in the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization on South Korea's five major exchanges. About 3,500 entities (including listed companies and registered professional investment institutions) will gain market access, potentially releasing hundreds of trillions of Korean won in funds.
Despite welcoming the policy shift, the industry criticizes the 5% cap as overly conservative. The U.S., Japan, Hong Kong, and the EU have not imposed such restrictions on corporate crypto holdings. Critics warn that this may hinder South Korea from developing a digital asset treasury company similar to Japan's Metaplanet.
The FSC plans to release the final guidelines in January-February, with corporate trading expected to begin by the end of the year.
Cryptocurrency content views on YouTube drop to the lowest level since January 2021
According to ChainCatcher, Cointelegraph reported that cryptocurrency content views on YouTube have dropped to the lowest level since January 2021, while a record 11.6 million crypto projects failed in 2025, with Memecoins being the hardest hit.
Analysts pointed out that the market crash on October 10, which led to $19 billion in crypto leverage liquidations, was a key catalyst.
According to ChainCatcher, "1011 Insider Whale" Garrett Jin posted on the X platform stating that the Nasdaq 100 index is underperforming, while the Russell 2000 index continues to hit new highs. Funds are clearly rotating to small and mid-cap stocks, indicating an expanding risk appetite. BTC and ETH, as high-beta risk assets, will be the next targets for capital inflows.
Data: RWA market cap excluding stablecoins surpasses $20 billion, continues to set historical highs
According to ChainCatcher, tokenized digital securities platform Securitize cited data from rwa.xyz on the X platform showing that the market cap of RWA (real-world assets) excluding stablecoins has surpassed $20 billion, continuing to set historical highs, reflecting investors' ongoing interest in the blockchainization of traditional assets.
The tokenized U.S. Treasury market has performed particularly well, with a market cap exceeding $8.87 billion. Additionally, BlackRock's BUILD fund currently has a market cap of $1.73 billion.
Meme Popularity Rankings
According to meme token tracking and analysis platform GMGN, as of January 13, 09:00,
The top five popular ETH tokens in the past 24 hours are: SHIB, LINK, PEPE, UNI, ONDO
The top five popular Solana tokens in the past 24 hours are: TRUMP, PENGU, Fartcoin, ME, PUMP
The top five popular Base tokens in the past 24 hours are: PEPE, BASED, BSC, SKYA, B3
What are some noteworthy articles to read in the past 24 hours?
Trump "means business": Powell faces criminal investigation, interest rate dispute escalates
On January 11, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell released a rare video statement publicly accusing the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) of threatening criminal charges to force the Fed to comply with Trump's interest rate policy demands. This incident quickly became the focus of global financial markets, raising widespread concerns about the Fed's independence.
In his statement, Powell emphasized that such threats are a "consequence" of the Fed setting interest rates based on public interest rather than presidential preferences, calling it a blatant attack on central bank autonomy. This incident is not isolated but rather the latest manifestation of the intertwining of politics and economics during Trump's second term.
Following the incident, U.S. stock index futures quickly fell, with S&P 500 futures dropping over 0.5%, and Dow futures retreating by 150 points during the Asian session. Spot gold rose by 1.88%, while spot silver surged about 4%, and the crypto market saw BTC still hovering around $91,000.
Bitcoin ETF two-year review: From breaking the ice to the confluence of financialization
In 2025, the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF captured the majority of net inflows in the cryptocurrency ETF market, significantly outperforming Ethereum ETFs, further solidifying Bitcoin's dominant position in the crypto ETF space.
If the approval of the Bitcoin ETF symbolizes Bitcoin's formal entry into the mainstream financial system, then these data points prove that it has become a structurally significant asset in institutional portfolios. Behind these numbers lies not only a leap in scale but also recognition at the institutional level: Bitcoin is integrating into the conventional operational framework of the global financial system at an unprecedented pace.
a16z insider's lengthy article interpretation: The story behind successfully raising $15 billion
Managing over $90 billion in assets, a16z has transcended the traditional VC realm, evolving into a power broker that integrates capital, media influence, and political lobbying. They are no longer just betting on the future but are actively "manufacturing reality" through policy interventions and public opinion guidance.
Yesterday, Solana announced on the X platform that it will collaborate with X, stating, "X is becoming an all-encompassing application, and soon Solana will be integrated within it."
Previously, X platform product head Nikita Bier stated that X is currently developing Smart Cashtags, allowing users to specify specific assets (or smart contracts) when posting on X.
Bier explained that Smart Cashtags directly address the ambiguity of traditional tags, especially in the cryptocurrency space, where multiple asset or token names may use the same ticker, leading to user confusion and misdirection.
Risk warning
Risk warning
