Morning News | Grayscale submits BitTensor spot ETF application; Meta acquires Manus AI for billions; BNB Chain releases 2026 technology roadmap
Overview of Important Market Events on December 30整理：ChainCatcher
Important News:
- Acquired by Meta for billions, Manus founder Xiao Hong is a seasoned BTC holder
- Two Chinese companies make it to the top 20 BTC holders in 2025, with different accumulation paths
- Grayscale: Privacy coins dominate the best-performing crypto assets in Q4 2025
- PeckShield: Unleash Protocol hacked, with losses of about $3.9 million
- Grayscale submits BitTensor spot ETF application
- BNB Chain releases 2026 technology roadmap: aiming for transaction speeds exceeding 20,000 TPS
- South Korea plans to limit major shareholders of crypto exchanges to 15% to 20%, Upbit and others may face equity adjustments
What important events happened in the past 24 hours?
According to ChainCatcher, the Federal Reserve will release the minutes of its monetary policy meeting tomorrow (Wednesday) at 3 AM. During this period, the probability of a 25 basis point rate cut in January on CME's "FedWatch" has continued to rise, currently reported at 18.3% (up from 15.5% last week).
The probability of a 25 basis point rate cut in January on Polymarket remains at 13%.
He Yi: Each generation has its own egg strategy, Binance Alpha may be the egg of this era
According to ChainCatcher, Binance co-CEO He Yi gave an interview today and shared thoughts on "Binance Alpha breaking out in 2025": "Eggs and toilet paper do not have gray hair; similar to supermarket promotions that give out some toilet paper and eggs, each generation has its own egg strategy, and perhaps our generation's strategy is Binance Alpha. The original intention of Alpha is to provide more opportunities and resources to those willing to help others and share returns with users."
BNB Chain releases 2026 technology roadmap: aiming for transaction speeds exceeding 20,000 TPS
According to official news from ChainCatcher, BNB Chain achieved zero downtime and a historical high of 31 million daily transactions in 2025, with a stablecoin market cap reaching $14 billion. The 2026 technology roadmap will focus on performance upgrades, aiming to achieve over 20,000 TPS and sub-second finality.
Specific plans include: continuing to implement a dual-client strategy based on Geth and Reth; achieving conflict-free parallel execution through EIP-7928; launching a trading framework that supports compliant privacy and an AI Agent payment abstraction layer. Additionally, BNB Chain is planning the next-generation trading chain, aiming to achieve approximately 1 million TPS and 150 milliseconds near-instant confirmation between 2026 and 2028.
Data: Solana's spot DEX trading volume reached $4.13 billion yesterday, the highest level in the past 38 days
According to ChainCatcher, data from DefiLlama shows that Solana's daily spot DEX trading volume reached $4.13 billion, the highest level in the past 38 days.
South Korea plans to limit major shareholders of crypto exchanges to 15% to 20%, Upbit and others may face equity adjustments
According to ChainCatcher, KBS reported that the South Korean Financial Services Commission proposed in the "Digital Asset Basic Law" submitted to the National Assembly to limit the shareholding ratio of major shareholders of the four major virtual asset exchanges in the country to between 15% and 20%, aiming to prevent a few founders and shareholders from controlling the operation of exchanges.
If this proposal is implemented, Upbit's parent company Dunamu's chairman Song Ji-hyung may be forced to sell about 10% of his shares. Platforms like Bithumb and Coinone will also face significant changes in governance structure, raising concerns in the industry about excessive government regulation.
New York Stock Exchange launches Truth Social-related ETF
According to ChainCatcher, the New York Stock Exchange has launched a Truth Social-related ETF.
Grayscale submits BitTensor spot ETF application
According to ChainCatcher, Grayscale has submitted an S-1 filing to the U.S. SEC to launch a spot ETF product tracking BitTensor (TAO), further expanding its crypto asset ETF product line.
Grayscale: Privacy coins dominate the best-performing crypto assets in Q4 2025
According to ChainCatcher, Grayscale's latest research report indicates that despite an overall negative trend in the crypto market in Q4 2025, privacy tokens performed outstandingly, with ZEC (Zcash) leading all the best-performing crypto assets.
"1011 insider whale" deposits 112,894 ETH into Binance again, worth $332 million
According to ChainCatcher, monitoring by Lookonchain shows that the "1011 insider whale," holding $749 million in BTC, ETH, and SOL long positions, has deposited 112,894 ETH (worth $332 million) into Binance again.
SlowMist Annual Security Report: Total losses from security incidents throughout the year amount to approximately $2.935 billion
According to ChainCatcher, based on incomplete statistics from SlowMist, there were a total of 200 security incidents throughout the year, resulting in losses of approximately $2.935 billion. Compared to 2024 (410 incidents, losses of approximately $2.013 billion), although the number of incidents has significantly decreased, the amount of losses has increased by about 46% year-on-year.
From an ecological distribution perspective, Ethereum remains the most frequently attacked and severely affected ecosystem, with annual losses of approximately $254 million, significantly leading the others; BSC follows closely with related losses of about $21.93 million; Solana ranks third with annual losses of approximately $17.45 million.
By project track, DeFi projects are the most commonly attacked area: in 2025, there were a total of 126 security incidents, accounting for about 63% of the total for the year, causing losses of approximately $649 million, a decrease of about 37% compared to 2024 (339 incidents, losses of $1.029 billion). There were only 12 incidents on trading platforms, but they caused losses as high as $1.809 billion, with Bybit suffering a single loss of about $1.46 billion, the most severe incident of the year.
In terms of the reasons for the attacks, contract vulnerabilities were the main cause, with a total of 61 incidents; X account hacks followed closely with a total of 48 incidents.
The report points out that with the accelerated popularization of generative AI in the past two years, attackers have also begun to incorporate it into their fraud and attack chains. Compared to traditional tools, AI's capabilities in text, voice synthesis, image, and video generation have significantly reduced the cost of fraud, making attacks no longer reliant on crude scripts or obviously abnormal behaviors, but rather through highly realistic content, coherent interactions, and precise target selection, making it psychologically harder for victims to detect risks.
PeckShield: Unleash Protocol hacked, with losses of about $3.9 million
According to ChainCatcher, PeckShieldAlert monitored that Unleash Protocol on Story Protocol suffered unauthorized fund loss, with losses of about $3.9 million. The attacker subsequently transferred the stolen funds across chains to the Ethereum network and deposited 1,337.1 ETH into the Tornado Cash protocol.
According to ChainCatcher, Dragonfly managing partner Haseeb Qureshi published a prediction for the trends in crypto and AI in 2026, expecting Bitcoin to break $150,000 by the end of the year, but with a declining dominance; Ethereum and Solana will continue to perform strongly, while several fintech public chains will fall short of expectations; at least one Big Tech company will launch or acquire a crypto wallet, and more Fortune 100 companies will launch blockchain initiatives, benefiting ecosystems like Avalanche and OP.
In terms of DeFi, Haseeb predicts that perpetual DEXs will consolidate into about three leading platforms, with stock perpetual trading accounting for over 20%, and potential insider trading scandals may arise. Regarding stablecoins, total supply may grow by 60%, with USDT's share dropping to about 55%, and the stablecoin bank card business may grow by 1000%, becoming the main way for stablecoins to enter and expand in emerging markets.
On the regulatory front, he expects the Clarity Act to pass in 2026; predicts that prediction markets will continue to expand strongly; and that AI will be applied more in development and security, with the number of security incidents possibly increasing but individual losses decreasing.
Data: 70% of traders on Polymarket are losing, the top 0.04% of addresses account for 70% of profits
According to ChainCatcher, reports from CryptoNews indicate that blockchain analysis company DeFi Oasis shows that among the more than 1.7 million trading addresses on Polymarket, about 70% of addresses have incurred losses, while only 30% of addresses have achieved profits.
The survey results show that less than 0.04% of addresses accounted for over 70% of the total realized profits, totaling $3.7 billion.
The most profitable traders earned returns between $0 and $1,000, accounting for 24.56% of all addresses, but only 0.86% of total profits. To earn more than $1,000, one needs to be among the top 4.9% of participants.
Two Chinese companies make it to the top 20 BTC holders in 2025, with different accumulation paths
According to ChainCatcher, among the top 20 BTC holders in 2025, two Chinese companies made the list: Cango (CanGu) ranked 16th with 7,419 BTC, and Next Technology Holding ranked 18th with 5,833 BTC. Both are U.S.-listed Chinese companies that have allocated Bitcoin through overseas entities under a strict regulatory environment in China.
Cango was originally an auto finance company that transformed into Bitcoin mining in 2024, achieving a hash rate of 50EH/s after acquiring mining machines from Bitmain, becoming the second-largest mining company in the world. After the acquisition, control was transferred to Bitmain, with Antalpha founder Jin Xin serving as the chairman of the board.
Next Technology is a Nasdaq shell company of the Weishang Group, a micro-business SaaS platform, with only 8 full-time employees. The company's founders include Dai Zheng, co-founder of Qunar, with investors including Yao Jinbo, Tencent, JD.com, and others.
Meta acquires Manus AI for billions
According to ChainCatcher, Meta has acquired the company Butterfly Effect, which develops the AI application Manus, for billions of dollars. This is Meta's third-largest acquisition since its establishment, following WhatsApp and ScaleAI.
We learned that before Meta's acquisition, Manus was in a new round of financing with a valuation of $2 billion. "It was so fast that I even doubted whether it was a fake offer," said Liu Yuan, a partner at ZhenFund and an angel investor in Butterfly Effect. The acquisition negotiations were completed in an extremely short time, lasting only a little over ten days.
Acquired by Meta for billions, Manus founder Xiao Hong is a seasoned BTC holder
According to ChainCatcher, Meta announced the acquisition of the Chinese AI star project Manus's company Butterfly Effect for billions of dollars.
It is reported that the founder and CEO Xiao Hong's personal profile on the instant messaging app carries the "btc holder" label. Public information shows that he started buying BTC as early as 2013 and significantly increased his investment in BTC after the 2017 bull market, holding it long-term as a hedge against entrepreneurial risks and as a faith asset.
Meme Popularity Rankings
According to the meme token tracking and analysis platform GMGN, as of December 31, 09:00,
The top five popular tokens on ETH in the past 24 hours are: SHIB, LINK, PEPE, UNI, ONDO
The top five popular tokens on Solana in the past 24 hours are: TRUMP, PENGU, MELANIA, Fartcoin, FO
The top five popular tokens on Base in the past 24 hours are: PEPE, MINKY, BASED, NATO, SKYA
What are some great articles worth reading in the past 24 hours?
Paradigm's Moment of Stalling: When "Research-Driven" Meets Reality
For a long time, Paradigm has been a landmark venture capital institution in the crypto industry, representing the top investment style and aesthetics in the field, with research-driven crypto VCs being highly praised. However, affected by the cyclical nature of the industry, Paradigm has not been spared during the current general downturn among VCs, one manifestation of which is an unprecedented wave of executive departures, with at least seven employees leaving since April this year, including several partners.
This wave of departures is extremely rare among first-line VCs, reflecting that Paradigm has fallen into quite a difficult phase. From the publicly available investment portfolio and trading frequency, Paradigm's investment frequency has significantly decreased in the past two to three years, lacking "representative works" with industry consensus, and missing many high-return projects, which may be the main sources of Paradigm's predicament.
Hacker Attack Causes Flow to Plummet, Rollback Plan Sparks Internal Ecosystem War
Last Saturday afternoon, a sudden hacker attack threw the Flow network into chaos. This Layer 1 network built by the Dapper Labs team, originally tailored for next-generation applications, games, and digital assets, watched helplessly as $3.9 million worth of assets were transferred off-chain due to an exploited execution layer vulnerability. Following the attack, its token FLOW plummeted from $0.173 to $0.079 in a short time, and the current price has slightly rebounded to around $0.107.
3 Auditors Changed in 6 Weeks, Alt5 Sigma Faces Financial Reporting Chaos and Delisting Crisis
"Trump Coin Circle Asset" Alt5 Sigma is facing financial reporting chaos and potential delisting risks, having changed auditors three times in six weeks, with company executives also leaving one after another recently.
On Tuesday, according to the Financial Times, the auditing firm Victor Mokuolu CPA PLLC, which Alt5 Sigma hired earlier this month, had its license expire in August. After the Financial Times inquired about this issue, Alt5 Sigma dismissed the auditing firm on Christmas Day and appointed LJ Soldinger Associates as its third auditing firm.
After 4 Years of Web3 Entrepreneurship, I Learned 7 Painful Lessons
As a novice founder, I poured several years of effort into three ultimately failed infrastructure projects. In 2025, I began building a consumer-grade product that people truly want to use. Here, I share insights gained from painful lessons in user acquisition and financing.
I have been in this industry for about 4 years.
In 2023, when "account abstraction" was still the hottest topic in the circle, I began developing in the EVM ecosystem. At that time, everyone was developing SDKs (software development kits) for account abstraction wallets. Rollup scaling solutions were also hot—Optimism, Arbitrum, and various RaaS (Rollup as a Service) dominated the scene.
Risk warning
