Macro Trends

This article delves into the capital control issues of Layer 2 scaling solutions in the Ethereum ecosystem, analyzing how venture capital (VC) influences the decentralized foundation through governance and economic means, and proposes potential solutions to provide new insights for Ethereum's future development.

These views offer policymakers important considerations for how to approach crypto regulation, ensuring that the U.S. leads this critical shift toward the next generation of the internet.

Circle is developing an open technology platform powered by USDC. Building on the U.S. dollar's strength and widespread adoption, the platform taps into the internet's scale, speed, and low cost to drive network effects and practical applications for financial services.

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the past year's market performance and future development trends from four key perspectives: market overview, popular ecosystems, trending sectors, and future trend predictions. In 2024, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization reached an all-time high, with Bitcoin surpassing $100,000 for the first time. On-chain Real World Assets (RWA) and the artificial intelligence sector experienced rapid growth, becoming major drivers of market expansion. Additionally, the global regulatory landscape has gradually become clearer, laying a solid foundation for market development in 2025.

Currently, AI-related projects dominate the cryptocurrency market with over 70% of market interest, while the gaming sector follows with single-digit market share. This concentration of interest has led to an undervaluation of Web3 gaming's innovation and growth potential. This report aims to analyze in depth why many gaming companies entered the Web3 gaming market and why the sector has since lost momentum.

This article explores the evolution of blockchain interoperability, focusing on the current phase, Interop 3.0, which enables applications to implement customized cross-chain strategies. The article reviews the progression of interoperability from Interop 1.0 (Asset Transfer Era) to Interop 2.0 (Message Passing Era) and now to Interop 3.0, with an emphasis on full-chain application logic, interoperability owned by applications, and chain abstraction. As the blockchain ecosystem expands, applications need to develop multi-chain strategies to stay competitive and prepare the right scalability approach based on their specific business models.

As the global financial landscape continues to evolve, PayFi is emerging at the intersection of blockchain technology and payment systems, aiming to combine the efficiency of DeFi with the immediacy and convenience of modern payment solutions, transforming transaction methods. This article will delve into the reasons behind the rise of PayFi, provide an overview of the current state of its industry, highlight key cases, and explore its potential application scenarios.

This report reviews the key events surrounding enforcing the EU MiCA regulation and releasing U.S. economic data. MiCA provides a unified regulatory framework for the crypto asset market, enhancing market confidence and compliance. The U.S. PMI shows a rebound in manufacturing activity, while the decline in initial unemployment claims reflects improvements in the labor market. These dynamics have an impact on the global economy and investment decisions.

Gate Research Daily Report: On January 3, BTC is currently trending within an upward channel, with a 24-hour price increase of 2.51%. ETH has broken through the significant resistance level of $3,430, with a 24-hour price increase of 2.66%. Ethereum and Solana jointly host 58% of the relevant projects in the DeSci field. The number of daily active addresses on the Base network has reached 3 million, marking a new historical high. Uniswap Labs announced that the v4 version is about to be launched, which will introduce significant architectural changes. The re-staking protocol Solayer has announced the establishment of a foundation and the release of its governance token, LAYER. Blockchain game publisher Xterio revealed its tokenomics model, with a total supply of 1 billion for the core token XTER.

This year was marked by two major uplifts: the launch of spot-based Bitcoin ETPs in the United States, and the election of Donald Trump for a second, non-consecutive presidential term. Between those events, the market ranged in volatile, indecisive sideways chop for 237 days. While these events served as both catalyst and backdrop for the market in 2024, 2025 will see an expansion of market breadth and narratives. Without further ado, below are some of Galaxy Research’s predictions for 2025.

As the global digital economy rapidly advances, Africa stands at a crossroads where digital transformation is key to driving economic change and sustainable development. Financial inclusion, which aims to use digital technology to broadly address the issue of access to financial services, presents one of the biggest opportunities within Africa’s digital sector.

This article examines potential policy changes for stablecoins and cryptocurrencies in the coming year, focusing on key regulatory developments, industry trends, and their potential impact on the stablecoin ecosystem. It analyzes shifting attitudes among policymakers worldwide, highlighting challenges and opportunities posed by regulatory uncertainty. The piece also explores strategies for businesses to adapt to the evolving regulatory landscape, offering valuable insights into the future of stablecoins and the cryptocurrency industry.

Gate Research Weekly Report: This week, BTC found strong support around $92,500, with the market in a wait-and-see phase. ETH traded in a narrow range between $3,300 and $3,400, with overall trading volume declining. The AI Agent sector showed impressive performance over the New Year, with AI16Z gaining approximately 136.5% in the past 7 days. Elon Musk briefly changed his X platform account name to "Kekius Maximus" before reverting it within 48 hours. Shiba Inu plans to launch the TREAT token in early 2025. Base chain reached a new daily transaction volume record, exceeding 13.3 million on January 1st. Unichain mainnet plans to go live with permissionless fault proofs on January 6th, 2025.

This article compiles insights and predictions from major institutions such as a16z and Coinbase on the stablecoin market, alongside an analysis of the article How Stablecoins Will Eat Payments, and What Happens Next. It addresses key questions such as how stablecoins can enhance and transform traditional payment systems, create more practical applications, improve corporate balance sheets and profitability, and drive the mass adoption of stablecoins. Finally, it examines the future trajectory of the stablecoin market from a broader Web2 cross-border payment perspective, offering valuable insights for professionals in stablecoins, Web3 payments, and cross-border payment sectors.

This article provides an in-depth analysis of major public companies holding Bitcoin globally. As of December 2024, approximately 50 public companies worldwide hold Bitcoin, spanning sectors including technology, finance, and more. The article highlights four major Bitcoin-holding companies: MicroStrategy with 439,000 bitcoins, Marathon Digital Holdings with 44,394 bitcoins, and Riot Platforms with 17,429 bitcoins. These companies demonstrate their confidence in and strategic positioning towards digital currency through their various approaches to participating in the Bitcoin market.