TL;DR

• BTC and ETH continue to battle between bulls and bears, with no clear short-term direction.
• Bitcoin mining difficulty hits a new all-time high, reaching 110.45T.
• Arbitrum and Azuki have jointly launched an anime project called Animecoin.
• Virtuals Protocol and Animoca Brands have launched a joint initiative to invest in AI-based games.
• Tether is hiring AI filmmakers and has already onboarded 30 staff members for its AI platform.

Market Analysis

• BTC — The price of BTC has dropped by 0.37% in the past 24 hours, currently priced at $94,264. Recently, BTC has been fluctuating within a consolidation range, with its price moving between $92,000 and $95,600. It has not yet broken through key resistance or support levels. The current moving averages show a relatively flat trend, indicating an unclear short-term direction. Both bulls and bears are in contention[1].

• ETH — The price of ETH has dropped by 0.76% in the past 24 hours, currently priced at $3,258.72. ETH has been maintaining a range-bound trend recently, with its price fluctuating between $3,150 and $3,340. It has not yet formed a clear breakout trend. ETH is attempting to test the upper end of its consolidation range, but after encountering resistance, it quickly retraced, indicating strong resistance at the top. The MACD indicator shows that the current momentum is relatively weak, and there has been no significant change in trading volume, suggesting a cautious overall market sentiment[2].

• ETF — On January 10, Bitcoin ETFs saw a net outflow of $149 million[3], while Ethereum ETFs had a net outflow of $68.5 million[4].
• Altcoins — The Perpetuals, Crypto-backed Stablecoins, and Bitcoin Fork sectors saw changes of +4.4%, +1.8%, and +0.7%,respectively[5].
• US Stock Indices — The S&P 500 index fell by 1.54%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by 1.63%, and the Nasdaq index decreased by 1.57%[6].
• Spot Gold — Spot gold prices stood at $2,689.67 per ounce, with a daily drop of 0.03%[7].
• Fear and Greed Index — The Fear and Greed Index is at 61, indicating that the market is in a state of greed[8].

Top Performers

Based on Gate.io market data [9], the top-performing altcoins over the last 24 hours, measured by trading volume and price changes, are as follows:

HONEY (Hivemapper) — A daily increase of approximately 12.72%, with a circulating market value of 245 million USD. Hivemapper is a decentralized mapping network that constructs and updates global maps through crowdsourcing. It relies on user contributions of real-time map data and rewards participants with the HONEY token to incentivize the continuous provision of up-to-date geographical information.

Recently, Hivemapper has made significant breakthroughs in its global map network. According to the official announcement, the decentralized map network has successfully covered 30% of global roads, nearly one-third of the world’s road network. As the core incentive mechanism of the Hivemapper ecosystem, the HONEY token’s rise is also driven by the network’s expansion. With more contributors uploading real-time map data, the demand for HONEY tokens continues to grow[10].

PROM (Prometeus) — A daily increase of approximately 22.07%, with a circulating market value of 121 million USD. Prom is a high-performance scalable network built on the Polygon CDK, focused on providing efficient and secure dApp support. This network is not only competitive for daily use but also serves as a powerful framework that provides underlying support for various Web3 applications.

Recently, Prom announced a partnership with Xraders to launch the G2E event, where users can predict the price trend of $PROM and share a 3,000 USD reward, while also earning additional $XR rewards. This event has significantly boosted market attention and user engagement. In addition, as a Layer 2 solution with efficient transaction capabilities, Prom has attracted more capital inflows amid the overall trend of increasing liquidity[11].

WUF (Wuffi) — A daily increase of approximately 10.35%, with a circulating market value of 49.98 million USD. WUFFI is a next-generation meme token designed specifically for gamers, aiming to provide more interaction and use cases for gamers while expanding its ecosystem through multi-chain compatibility, forming a decentralized crypto project driven by the community and serving the community.

Recently, WuffiArcade entered its fourth season, introducing new gameplay, enhanced reward mechanisms, and a continuous deflation model for WUF tokens. The reward pool for the fourth season reached 80 billion $WUF, with the top 100 players each receiving 160 million WUF, attracting a large number of players and driving up the price of WUF[12].

Data Highlights

Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Hits New High, Reaching 110.45 T
The Bitcoin network has undergone its latest mining difficulty adjustment at block height 878,976, with difficulty increasing by 0.61% to a record high of 110.45 T. This change indicates intensified competition among Bitcoin miners and reflects the steady growth of the network’s overall hash rate, which currently averages 771.28 EH/s.

Bitcoin’s mining difficulty adjustment mechanism automatically recalibrates approximately every 2,016 blocks (about every two weeks) to ensure that block production time remains stable at around 10 minutes. The recent difficulty increase means miners must provide more computational power to mine new blocks, placing greater operational pressure on miners with lower hash rates or higher operating costs[13].

Sonic TVL Surpasses $100 Million
The Total Value Locked (TVL) in the Sonic protocol has risen significantly since early 2025, currently reaching $115 million. Its 24-hour trading volume stands at $3.99 million and continues to show an upward trend. Meanwhile, the Sonic Labs community recently voted to approve the “Incentive Package for Sonic” proposal, which is expected to further boost TVL growth.

The proposal highlights that Uniswap has been successfully deployed within the Sonic ecosystem and suggests that the Uniswap DAO provide $250,000 worth of UNI tokens as liquidity mining rewards over the next six months. Given Uniswap’s significant influence in the DeFi sector, this incentive is likely to attract more liquidity providers (LPs), leading to stronger capital inflows and greater trading depth for Sonic[14].

USDS Market Cap Exceeds $1.7 Billion
The market capitalization of USDS has reached $1.761 billion, reflecting a 24-hour increase of 0.72% and a 7-day growth of 3.78%, surpassing USD0 to become the fifth-largest asset in the stablecoin market. USDS’s circulating supply has seen steady growth recently, with a noticeable increase in early 2025. This suggests rising market confidence in USDS, likely driven by its advantages as an emerging stablecoin in areas such as transparency, Real-World Asset (RWA) backing, and integration within the DeFi ecosystem[15].

Spotlight Analysis

Arbitrum and Azuki Collaborate to Launch Anime Project “Animecoin” and Release Tokenomics
The total supply of ANIME tokens is 10 billion, with an initial circulating supply of 7.69 billion. ANIME will launch on Ethereum and Arbitrum in January, with 50.5% allocated to the community. Detailed information on token claims for communities such as Hyperliquid (HYPE stakers), Kaito Yappers, and the Arbitrum community will be announced soon—stay tuned. Of the total token distribution, 37.5% will be allocated to the Azuki community, 13% will be used by AnimeDAO to fund community incentives and initiatives, 24.44% will be distributed to the Animecoin Foundation, 2% will be allocated to partner communities, 15.62% will go to the team and advisors (with a one-year lockup period, after which 33.33% will be unlocked, followed by linear unlocking of the remainder), and 7.44% will be allocated to the Azuki company (also subject to a one-year lockup and linear unlocking schedule). The launch of the Animecoin project injects new energy into the long-dormant NFT sector. Following this announcement, the floor price of Azuki NFTs has risen to 13.96 ETH, a 24-hour increase of 13.3%. [16]

Virtuals Protocol and Animoca Brands Launch Joint Initiative to Invest in AI Games
Virtuals Protocol announced on X that it has launched a joint initiative with Animoca Brands through Agentstarter, aimed at investing in and accelerating next-generation projects. The focus will be on empowering dynamic gaming worlds and providing funding for selected projects to drive the integration of agent-driven technology and gaming. Key areas of focus include: perceptive AI NPCs, AI-powered games, and AI avatars. Virtuals Protocol is a significant distribution platform for AI Agents on the Base chain, while Animoca Brands is one of the world’s leading blockchain gaming companies. The collaboration between the two is expected to bring higher-quality AI gaming content to users in the future[17].

Tether Is Hiring AI Filmmakers, Has Hired 30 Employees for Its AI Platform in Recent Months
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino recently stated in an email to Bloomberg: “AI-based positions, particularly in filmmaking, offer unique advantages that align with Tether’s vision for innovation and efficiency, from scale to speed and cost, among other examples.” Artificial intelligence is a “key area of focus” for Tether, he said, adding that “organizations must adapt to this ever-changing reality and reflect it in the types of positions they seek to hire.” However, Ardoino declined to provide further details on the final product. He mentioned that Tether has a relatively streamlined workforce and has hired 30 employees in recent months to focus on designing and building its AI platform. According to online job postings, the company plans to hire filmmakers in regions such as Asia-Pacific, Europe, Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia. As reported earlier, Tether plans to double its total workforce to 200 employees by mid-2025[18].

Funding News

According to RootData, from January 11 to January 13, 2025, the blockchain and Web3 sectors saw two major funding rounds[19]. The specific details of the financings are as follows:

Metya — The Web3 social platform Metya has completed a strategic funding round, supported by investors such as Click Capital, Cryptogram Venture, and Tido Capital. Metya is an innovative Web3 platform that integrates DePIN infrastructure, AI Agent technology, and on-chain social protocols. By combining AI and blockchain technologies, the platform offers personalized social experiences and value-driven interactions. The upcoming AI Agent feature will further enhance the intelligence and fun of user interactions on-chain.

Interstate — The Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) network Interstate has completed strategic funding, with Axelar co-founder Sergey Gorbunov as the investor. The Interstate Network aims to make Ethereum transactions nearly instantaneous while allowing applications to self-sort, all while maintaining full composability with Ethereum Layer 1 (L1). Essentially, it is a more powerful L2 that matches its decentralized sequencer set with Ethereum L1’s sequencer set.

Airdrop Opportunities

Lily — Lily is a Web3 interactive platform that combines live streaming, blockchain reward mechanisms, and DAO, offering creators and users with a new and innovative interaction experience. The platform integrates live streaming, social e-commerce, fan interactions, and more to build a decentralized creator economy ecosystem. $LIY is the native token of the Lily platform,which is primarily used to support various economic activities and transactions within the platform. As the core of the Lily ecosystem, $LIY allows users to purchase physical or digital goods, as well as access premium content and additional services. Furthermore, $LIY encourages user participation through a decentralized economic incentive mechanism, promoting content creation and interaction to facilitate the healthy development of the platform[20].

How to Participate:

1. Follow lilynhaper on X.
2. Follow BlockChain_CK on X.
3. Join the official Telegram group.
4. Complete tasks or invite friends to earn rewards.
5. Subscribe to participate in the airdrop via Gate.io Startup.

Note:
The airdrop plan and participation methods may be updated at any time. It is recommended that users follow Lily’s official channels for the latest information. Additionally, users should participate with caution, be aware of risks, and conduct thorough research before getting involved. Gate.io does not guarantee the distribution of subsequent airdrop rewards.


Reference：

1. Gate.io,https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT
2. Gate.io,https://www.gate.io/trade/ETH_USDT
3. Farside Investors,https://farside.co.uk/btc/
4. Farside Investors,https://farside.co.uk/eth/
5. CoinGecko,https://www.coingecko.com/en/categories
6. Investing,https://investing.com/indices/usa-indices
7. Investing,https://investing.com/currencies/xau-usd
8. Gate.io,https://www.gate.io/bigdata/homeindex
9. Gate.io,https://www.gate.io/price
10. X,https://x.com/SolanaFloor/status/1877329280142614678
11. X,https://x.com/prom_io/status/1877296202942673405
12. X,https://x.com/WUFFI_Inu/status/1876799821819814073
13. Cloverpool,https://explorer.cloverpool.com/zh-CN/btc/insights-difficulty
14. Defillama,https://defillama.com/chain/Sonic
15. Defillama,https://defillama.com/stablecoin/sky-dollar
16. Anime,https://www.anime.xyz/tokenomics
17. X,https://x.com/agentstarter/status/1877701961249882512
18. Bloomberg,https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-01-09/crypto-company-tether-wants-to-hire-ai-filmmakers-bloomberg-crypto
19. Rootdata,https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Fundraising
20. X,https://x.com/lilynhaper/status/1878269899362979962

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