Over the past 7 days, significant capital inflows have been observed in several protocols, leading to notable increases in their TVL:

• Bitcoin's TVL: by $3.09B
• Ethereum's TVL: by $2.22B
• Hyperliquid's TVL: by $1.87B

Ethena has finally launched its new stablecoin, USDtb.

USDtb is fully backed by institutional-grade tokenized U.S. treasury fund products to ensure stability. Initially, it will be supported by BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund Token, BUIDL.

Earlier this month, a16zcrypto released their list of big ideas for 2025.
Which protocols are already building in these key areas?

My watchlist for 2025 ↓

Read on Substack

Pudgy Penguins continue to gain momentum following the airdrop claim announcement:

• Floor price: $73.3K
• Daily volume: $27.4M
• Buyers: 162

AI Agents coins are once again proving to be some of the top performers of this cycle among the recently listed assets on Binance.

CryptoRank shared data showing that $ACT delivered a performance of 2,247%. Only one memecoin made it into the top ten, despite the surge in this sector.

The Taiko ecosystem has experienced a significant TVL increase over the past month, currently reaching $422M.

The top projects include Avalon Labs, TakoTako, and iZiSwap.

I finally started yapping on Kaito.

Yap to earn as a new meta?

Here's my ref link in case you're not yet on board.

Over the past decade, Bitcoin has grown by more than 26,900%.

That’s cooler than gold, the S&P, and all these dudes who doubted it.

The most interesting insights of the week are compiled in a new research roundup! ↓

General
➖ Cryptorank: Tokenized AI Agents: A New Foundation or Just a Fancy Wrapper?
➖ Crypto.com: 2024 Year Review & 2025 Year Ahead
➖ Cointelegraph: HTX Ventures 2024 Year-In-Review
➖ Galaxy: Ethereum All Core Developers Consensus Call #147 Writeup
➖ Galaxy: Weekly Top Stories - 12/13
➖ Galaxy: 2024 Review, 2025 Outlook, New Absolute Return Fund

Market
➖ CoinShares: Quantum Securing Bitcoin Really Isn’t That Hard
➖ CoinGecko: Bitcoin Outperformed Traditional Assets by Over 26,000% in the Last Decade
➖ CoinGecko: Crypto Recorded 'Santa Claus Rally' 8 Times in Last 10 Years
➖ Coinbase: Weekly: Festive Spirits
➖ Coinbase: 2025 Crypto Market Outlook
➖ Glassnode: Time is Money: How Coin Age Shapes Bitcoin’s Spending Patterns
➖ Galaxy: Crypto Public Markets are About to Open

DeFi
➖ The Defiant: Why Hyperliquid is the Exception to the Death of Airdrops

Blockchains & networks
➖ Binance: The ETH Value Debate

Tokens & currencies
➖ Binance: Vana (VANA)

Ripple has launched its stablecoin RLUSD.

RLUSD is issued on the XRPL and Ethereum networks to ensure high-speed, cost-effective transactions with broad functionality.

Following the announcement, the price of XRP increased by 10% to $2.56, but some investors began selling the token amid the news.

The search query "Bitcoin" is repeating the pattern of the previous bull run.

In December 2021, a decline followed by a surge in interest was observed during the first two weeks. The same is happening now. The $100K mark is just the beginning.

The Bitcoin DeFi sector has seen exponential TVL growth this year, becoming the 4th largest chain by TVL. It has overcome programmability and scalability limitations thanks to the innovative efforts of Web3 teams.

BTCFi is poised to remain a dominant narrative in 2025.

However, a major issue with Bitcoin DeFi and interoperability remains: custody risks and the lack of integration with native Bitcoin (as the case of cross-chain infrastructure from L0 and Wormhole).

This is precisely the niche Portal to Bitcoin is targeting.

Here’s my deep dive to Portal, that actually captures the growth of the entire BTCfi landscape).

Enjoy reading!

Approximately 25k users on OpenChat have submitted proof of unique personhood via DecideAl.

This means that around 10% of OpenChat's users have been confirmed to be unique humans.

The NFT market continues to surprise users. Here are some interesting insights from recent times:

• In December, the 10 largest NFT projects increased their market capitalization by $2.5B within 30 days.

• Pudgy Penguins rose in value by 345% ahead of the $PENGU airdrop, while Azukis increased by 170%. They are now among the top 12 sales, with prices ranging from $500K to $175K.

• Mad Lads' market share on Solana NFTs grew by 10%, reaching 15%.

• The trading volume of Solana-based NFTs increased by 100% over the past month.

More insights available here.

New Year gifts are on the way.

I have a great offer from Nansen to share with my fam.

• Use promo code stacymuurEOY25 for 25% off for Annual Pioneer Subscriptions.
• If you prefer to test the waters, use this link for a 10% discount on any subscription you choose: https://nsn.ai/stacymuur

Here are some reasons to consider Nansen:
You'll love it if you:
• Copy trade (access 10K+ smart money addresses with high PNL)
• Actively trade on-chain (benefit from deep data on tokens, including holder analysis and smart money flows)

Bonus update for anyone worried about today's market dip: DeWhales purchased $27M worth of ETH today. If you know, you know.

10% of Ethereum validators have signalled support for a gas limit above 30 million, up from just over 1% before December.

This shift follows calls from the Ethereum community to increase the gas limit to 36 million.