Tether Brings USDT to Bitcoin Lightning Network
Tether has expanded the presence of its USDT stablecoin in the Bitcoin ecosystem by integrating it both on the mainnet and on the Lightning Network. This integration was made possible by the innovative Taproot Assets protocol developed by the Lightning Labs team. Now users can take advantage of high-speed and scalable payments with the ability to conduct microtransactions, remittances, and cross-border settlements, providing stability and convenience on multiple levels.
Tether and Lightning Labs intend to continue working together to improve the functionality of the ecosystem and provide support to the crypto community. As of October 2024, the USDT stablecoin was active in 330 million cryptocurrency wallets and on-chain accounts. At the beginning of the last quarter of 2024, the number of USDT owners was 109 million, which is twice as many as Bitcoin and close to Ethereum.
Plomin Hard Fork in Cardano Network Takes Place
On January 29, the Cardano network will undergo the Plomin upgrade, which will usher in an era of fully decentralized blockchain governance. This was announced by the Cardano Foundation. Now ADA holders will have real voting rights on network parameter changes, treasury withdrawals, hard forks, and future protocol changes. This is an important milestone for blockchain governance.
The upgrade introduces a new decision-making mechanism through the Cardano constitution, which includes three key components: the Constitutional Committee, dReps, and staking pool operators. ADA holders will be able to vote directly or through representatives, influencing the development of the network. Plomin was conceived as part of the Chang upgrade, but eventually expanded. The hard fork is named after Matthew Plomin, a Cardano community member who tragically passed away.
Tether: $13 Billion in Net Profit for 2024
Tether, the company that issues the popular stablecoin USDT, announced a record net profit of $13 billion for 2024. CEO Paolo Ardoino clarified that the profit in the last quarter alone was $6 billion. The company also reached a record for investments in US Treasury bonds - $113 billion. In the fourth quarter, Tether issued USDT worth $23 billion, which increased the total issuance to $45 billion by the end of the year, equaling the capitalization of Circle's USDC. Excess reserves of stablecoins increased by 36% and amounted to more than $7 billion. The report was verified by independent auditing company BDO.
TON Presents Roadmap for 2025
The developers of The Open Network (TON) have presented a plan for updates to the network and ecosystem for the first half of 2025. Among the key changes:
- Accelerator upgrade for the main network, aimed at improving stability under high loads and reducing the resource intensity of interactions.
- New tools for validators, simplifying the work of node operators.
- Updated version of Toncenter API with improved transaction tracing and the ability to emulate transactions to evaluate the result.
- Improvements to the interface with the participation of projects such as DeDust, MyTonWallet, TonScan.org, ton.diamonds and Stakee.
- Launch of a second-level payment network designed for 500 million active users.
- Research of sidechains - specialized chains with a limited set of validators for specific applications.
- Release of the TOLK 1.0 programming language with new structures and templates for smart contracts.
- Improvements to development tools, including TOLK support in IntelliJ IDEA and VS Code Plugin, as well as integration with Blueprint.
- Support for RSquad's TON BTC Teleport cross-chain solution for transferring bitcoins to and from the TON ecosystem.
Additional initiatives include a series of developer competitions, standardization of mnemonics for TON wallets, and the introduction of pre-compilation of Jetton FunC contracts with a unified test suite for libraries.
CZ on Ethereum, Solana, and Prospects
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) spoke to Colin Wu about the exchange's development, Ethereum's problems, the reasons for the growth of meme tokens on Solana, and the prospects for the crypto industry.
Recently, criticism of the Ethereum Foundation and Vitalik Buterin has been actively spreading on social networks, and CZ believes that this is primarily due to the PR crisis. He noted that Ethereum remains a strong project, second only to Bitcoin in market capitalization. Despite Solana's rapid growth, its market value is still significantly behind.
Zhao was also skeptical about the advice to Buterin from Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, believing that the recommendations look unconvincing. He emphasized that Sun is known for his ability to use hype and PR. At the same time, CZ acknowledged Buterin's significant contribution to the development of Ethereum, noting that his influence cannot be ignored.
Trump Media Plans to Invest $250 Million in Cryptocurrencies
Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), the company that operates the social platform Truth Social, intends to invest $250 million in exchange-traded funds, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and stocks of companies in the relevant industries.
The board of directors approved an expansion strategy into the financial services sector, which includes the creation of a new division, Truth.Fi. The funding will be allocated from the company's reserves, which amount to more than $700 million as of December 31, 2024. Truth.Fi products and services are expected to launch by the end of 2025, depending on new agreements, funding levels, and regulatory approvals.
