Golden Weekly is a weekly blockchain industry summary column launched by Golden Finance. The content covers key news of the week, market and contract data, mining information, project dynamics, and technological progress. and other industry trends. This article is a project weekly, giving you an overview of the progress of mainstream projects and star projects this week.

Bitcoin mining difficulty reaches a record high, the eighth consecutive positive adjustment

Bitcoin mining difficulty ushered in the eighth consecutive positive adjustment, hitting a record high of 110.45T, indicating that the current mining difficulty is approximately 110.45 trillion times that of the Bitcoin creation block. The Bitcoin network adjusts difficulty every 2016 blocks to maintain an average block production rate of every 10 minutes. This is another consecutive series of positive corrections following the 2018 bear market and the 2021 bull market. After the ban on mining in 2021 caused a significant drop in computing power, the mining difficulty was adjusted nine times in a row, finally peaking in November 2021 when the price of Bitcoin reached $69,000. When the Bitcoin price entered the bear market from a high of $20,000 in 2018, it also experienced 17 consecutive positive adjustments, finally bottoming out at $3,000. Currently, Bitcoin’s 7-day moving average hash rate reaches 775 EH/s and is on track to break the 1 ZH per second milestone before the next halving. Although there is no clear trend direction for multiple consecutive adjustments, they are usually accompanied by the emergence of cyclical tops or bottoms, demonstrating the continued strength of the Bitcoin network.

Bitcoin’s correlation with the Nasdaq 100 reaches its highest point since 2022

The correlation between Bitcoin and a gauge of U.S. tech stocks hit a two-year high, suggesting stock market reaction to U.S. inflation data due later on Wednesday could set the tone for digital tokens. Data compiled by Bloomberg show that the largest cryptocurrency’s 30-day correlation coefficient with the Nasdaq 100 is about 0.70. A correlation coefficient of 1 means the assets move in the same direction, while a negative 1 means the assets move in opposite directions. The inflation report is expected to show solid price pressures just as markets worry about the Fed's room to cut interest rates further amid a strong U.S. economy and uncertainty about the impact of Donald Trump's agenda. Against this backdrop, bond yields and the U.S. dollar rose, while stocks and cryptocurrencies came under pressure. As of 9:21 a.m. Singapore time on Wednesday, Bitcoin was changing hands at $96,900, about $11,500 below last month’s all-time high.

Market news: Thailand may allow Bitcoin ETFs to be listed on local exchanges for the first time

Market news: Thailand may allow Bitcoin ETFs to be listed on local exchanges for the first time Listed.

Survey: 52% of Americans have sold traditional assets such as stocks or gold to invest in Bitcoin

A recent survey by Chainplay and Storible revealed that 52% of Americans have sold traditional assets such as stocks or gold to invest in Bitcoin, and one in five U.S. residents will now exceed 30% Investment funds are allocated to cryptocurrencies, with 68% of Americans owning cryptocurrencies. The survey shows that cryptocurrency adoption will surge after November 5, 2024. 64% of Americans who own cryptocurrencies have recommended cryptocurrencies to family members, and 60% expect to double their holdings in 2025. Additionally, 77% plan to purchase more cryptocurrencies, indicating that cryptocurrency adoption is growing.

Bitcoin mining company MARA embeds Trump's portrait into the Bitcoin block to commemorate his upcoming inauguration

According to Bitcoin Magazine, Bitcoin mining company MARA has embedded President Trump’s portrait in the Bitcoin block to commemorate his upcoming inauguration. It is reported that Trump will become the first president of the United States to support Bitcoin.

Bitcoin infrastructure Alpen Labs completes $8.5 million in strategic financing, Cyber Fund and others led the investment

Alpen Labs, the financial infrastructure on the Bitcoin chain, announced the completion of strategic financing of US$8.5 million. DBA and Cyber ​​Fund jointly led the investment, Ribbit Capital, Castle Island Ventures and Geometry were the largest investors in its seed round and have again backed Alpen in this round of funding, which will help it accelerate the Bitcoin ZK Rollup. Development of "Strata" and releasing it to the mainnet in 2025

Ethereum developers plan to upgrade the Pectra mainnet in March

Ethereum developers plan for 2025 MarchLaunch the Pectra upgrade of the network in March and set specific milestones before the mainnet fork. New clients for upgrades and hard forks for the Ethereum test networks Sepolia and Holesky are expected to be released in February, following coordination with the client software team, according to a core developer conference call on Thursday. If the testnet fork goes as planned, the mainnet will launch next month.

Swiss state-owned bank PostFinance launches Ethereum pledge business

Swiss state-owned bank PostFinance AG introduced Staking has expanded its digital asset offerings, allowing holders of Ethereum to earn passive income. PostFinance will add staking for other tokens “in the near future,” according to a statement on Thursday.

Vitalik: To ensure that a large number of financial activities occur in a completely open environment

Vitalik Buterin Posted on the rule. Everything is on-chain, transparent, and auditable by third parties. Vitalik added: You can create a system where users know they can send transactions on L2 if they want, and the sequencer can limit but not censor. As an ecosystem, we need to pay attention to ensuring that a large number of financial activities occur in a completely open environment and that there are sufficient tools for users to understand the properties of the on-chain environment in which they operate.

Ethereum Foundation researcher Alex Stokes announced that he will serve as co-head of the Ethereum Foundation with barnabe.eth

Ethereum Foundation researcher Alex Stokes announced that he will serve as the co-head of the Ethereum Foundation with barnabe.eth. He also introduced the launch of the research department of the Ethereum Gold Foundation. Ethereum Foundation Research will consist of five teams, namely : 1. Applied Research Group (ARG): Helps translate theory into practice; 2. Consensus R&D: A lot of interest is focused on improving the consensus layer; 3. Cryptography: Using interesting math to reduce trust in every part of the stack; 4. Protocols Security: Use a variety of tools and bug bounty programs to ensure the software and specifications behind your network are secureSecurity; 5. RIG: The economic/game theory perspective strengthens the special mechanism of Ethereum.

The Ethereum Foundation has launched a new official X account and will focus on releasing important information about the foundation

The Ethereum Foundation announced the launch of a new official X account @ethereumfndn and a comprehensive upgrade of its social media strategy. According to the official announcement, the new account will focus on publishing important information about the foundation, including team dynamics, project and funding updates, and treasury fund changes. At the same time, the original @Ethereum account will be transformed into a comprehensive information platform for the ecosystem, focusing on innovative projects, builder stories and global adoption cases on Ethereum. The foundation is also simultaneously deploying new strategies on decentralized social platforms such as Farcaster, Lens and Bluesky to achieve cross-platform synchronization of content. The foundation stated that this is a new starting point for its social media strategy and will continue to be optimized and adjusted according to the needs of the ecosystem in the future.

Merit Systems, an open source economic infrastructure, completed a US$10 million seed round of financing, led by a16z crypto and others

Open source economic infrastructure Merit Systems completed a US$10 million seed round of financing, led by a16z crypto and Blockchain Capital. Solana co-founder Toly, Not Boring Capital founder Packy McCormick, and Farcaster co-founder Dan Romero and Framework Ventures co-founder Vance Spencer also participated in the investment. The funds raised will be used to accelerate the development of the open source economy.

1Money completed a $20 million seed round of financing, with participation from Galaxy Ventures and others

1Money Completed a $20 million seed round with participation from F-Prime Capital, Galaxy Ventures, Hack VC, Kraken Ventures, MoonPay Ventures and Bankless Ventures. Funds will be used to launch 1Money Network, a next-generation payments network dedicated to stablecoin payments.

Sigma Capital launches $100 million fund to accelerate Web3 innovation

According to CoinDesk, early Venture capital firm Sigma Capital has launched a $100 million fund focused on Web3 startups. The Dubai-based company is seeking to capitalize on the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) reputation as a cryptocurrency hub, according to an emailed announcement on Tuesday. The fund will focus on decentralized finance (DeFi), tokenization and blockchain infrastructure by managing a liquid token portfolio.

The Bank of England will set up a digital pound laboratory to explore innovative applications of CBDC

The Bank of England ( BoE announced that it will set up a "Digital Pound Lab" in 2025 to carry out CBDC innovation experiments in a sandbox environment. According to the central bank’s latest Digital Pound Progress Report, the laboratory will provide the private sector with a CBDC API testing platform to explore innovative application scenarios and business models. The Bank of England stated that it has deeply understood user needs through surveys and working groups, and the laboratory will focus on solving the pain points of the existing payment system. In addition, the technical forum will cease operations and relevant discussions will be led by the Digital Pound Lab.

MoonPay acquires Helio for $175 million to expand crypto payment infrastructure

MoonPay for $1.75 It acquired Helio for US$100 million to expand its crypto payment infrastructure. This acquisition of Helio will integrate its technology into MoonPay to enable crypto transactions on e-commerce platforms such as Shopify and Discord.