🎆 Analysts Predict Bullish 2025 for Crypto

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And happy last day of 2024, the year of the BTC halving, of the proliferation of Ethereum L2s, of Solana’s memecoin-fueled surge, of the rise of AI. As the year's final hours wrap up, everyone’s sights are already well on 2025, and for that, we have Grayscale and Galaxy’s predictions of what the next few months will bring — spoiler: it’s bullish. DEXs ended 2024 with a bang, doing record monthly volume. And so did Jito with record revenue in Q4. We also have news from Hyperliquid, FRAX, ai16z and Michael Saylor. Grab a coffee or maybe a glass of bubbly and enjoy the last NL of ‘24.

✍️ In today’s newsletter:

Grayscale and Galaxy 2025 predictions
DEXs do record monthly volume in December
Michael Saylor closes out 2024 buying the BTC top
Solana LST Jito had record revenue in Q4, beating Lido
HYPE staking is now live
FRAX holders vote to add BUIDL as collateral
ai16z’s token blows past $1B market cap

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DIA Lasernet is live on testnet: the first Layer-2 rollup designed for oracle infrastructure, built in collaboration with Conduit, OP Stack, Celestia & Hyperlane.

Impossible Cloud Network (ICN) is a revolutionary cloud platform that connects enterprise-grade hardware with cloud service providers. ICN is building an open cloud that is more performant than typical web2 providers while being more cost-effective so that the largest companies in the world will run their operations in it.

What would you build better? That's what Stellar asks in their new initiative. Share your vision of better futures for finance, creativity, access and more for a chance at a $30K USD prize pool. The top submissions will be used for inputs for the Stellar developer community to build products with real-world impact.

🚀 Galaxy Says Bitcoin to Hit $185K, ETH $5,500 in 2025

Bitcoin will hit $185,000 in 2025. Ether will hit $5,500, and Dogecoin will finally hit $1. These are just some of the 23 predictions Galaxy Research unloaded in a Dec. 27 thread on social media platform X.

🔮 Grayscale Says Tokens Including Hyperliquid, Ethena and Virtuals Will Have Great Q1

Grayscale predicts tokens includig newcomers Hyperliquid, Ethena and Virtuals Protocol have the potential to outperform in the first quarter of 2025, according to a report published Dec. 30.

🟠 Michael Saylor Closes 2024 Still “Buying the Top”

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the tax and revenue enforcement agency of the U.S. government, finalized its broker rule, which will require know-your-customer (KYC) for DeFi front-ends by 2027.

📈 DEX Trading Volume Hits Record $451 Billion Amid Memecoin Frenzy

DEXs did a record $451 billion in trading volume this month, a 19% increase from $380 million in November and a 236% increase from a year ago, according to DeFiLlama data Uniswap, built on Ethereum, led the pack and PancakeSwap, which operates on the BNB Chain, followed.

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Stellar has launched Build Better, a new initiative intended to bridge the gap between Web3's ambitious visions and making an impact in the real world. The campaign invites community members to share their ideas for improving the worlds of finance, creativity, and access, with the best concepts being developed at an upcoming hackathon in Prague.

Over eight weeks, the initiative will collect community input through polls, questions, and video submissions, focusing on the central question: "What would you build better?" These ideas will shape hackathon tracks where developers will then work to bring them to life. Participants can win from a $30K USD prize pool.

🔥 Solana Liquid Staking Platform Jito Surpasses $400M in Revenue in Q4

Jito made $402 million in fees and revenue in Q4, according to DeFiLlama, more than any previous quarter and a 504% increase from Q3. The Solana platform surpassed Lido revenue for the first time ever.

🥩 Hyperliquid Opens Staking with HYPE Token in Top 25 by Market Cap

The Hyper Foundation announced today that staking of its native HYPE token is now live on its mainnet. Validators must stake at least 10,000 HYPE of their own, and can charge commissions that cannot be raised more than 1%, according to the Hyper Foundation.

🤝 Frax Community Votes on Using BlackRock’s BUIDL as Stablecoin Collateral

Voting to onboard Blackrock’s BUIDL as the first backing asset for Frax Finance’s upcoming frxUSD stablecoin has begun, according to a Dec. 26 X post from the Frax Finance X account. The vote is live on Snapshot and will end on Jan. 1.

🤖 AI16z Surpasses $1 Billion Market Cap as it Considers Memecoin Launchpad

Ai16z, an AI-led DAO, surpassed a $1 billion market capitalization. The Ai16z community is considering various proposals to expand its ecosystem in 2025, including creating a memecoin launchpad and making a Layer 1 blockchain.

🌍 ELSEWHERE

Montenegro says it extradites Terraform Lab co-founder Do Kwon to US (Reuters)
Elon Musk changes X profile to 'Kekius Maximus' with Pepe the Frog image (CNBC)
Franklin Templeton predicts Bitcoin reserves to expand globally in 2025 (Cointelegraph)