1. Sonic Labs Mainnet Officially Launches link

The Layer 1 blockchain project Sonic Labs (formerly Fantom) has officially launched its mainnet. Sonic boasts the capability to process up to 10,000 transactions per second, features sub-second finality, and offers a native decentralized gateway to Ethereum. FTM holders can now utilize the upgrade portal to convert their tokens to S on the Sonic network at a 1:1 ratio, unlocking access to a variety of applications within the Sonic ecosystem.

2. HashKey Chain Confirms Mainnet Deployment link

On December 18, HashKey Group announced the official launch of its public blockchain, HashKey Chain. The mainnet aims to establish a compliance-friendly yet innovation-driven on-chain financial infrastructure. During the testnet phase, which opened to developers and users on November 11, HashKey Chain recorded over 24.72 million transactions and saw the registration of more than 860,000 wallet addresses. The chain achieved an average block time of 2 seconds, a gas fee as low as 0.1 Gwei, the successful deployment of 50 projects, and active participation from 300,000 community members.

3. Aptos Appoints Avery Ching as CEO, Signaling a New Growth Phase link

Avery Ching, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Aptos, will assume the role of Chief Executive Officer to lead the company into its next phase. Aptos has introduced an innovative supercomputing blockchain featuring technologies like dynamic parallelism, shared state, and storage sharding. The company aims to launch a new infrastructure initiative in 2025 to further expand its global ecosystem, with a particular focus on regions such as India, South Korea, Vietnam, Japan, and China. Former CEO and Aptos Labs Co-Founder Mo Shaikh has stepped down from his position but will remain with the company as a strategic advisor. Shaikh expressed his intention to dedicate time to reflecting on the future of blockchain and financial systems.

4. Opensea Hints at Potential Token Launch in Recent Tweet link

OpenSea’s recent tweet referencing the OpenSea Foundation has sparked speculation about a potential token launch in the future. Previously, Mike Dudas, former founder of The Block, shared an image suggesting that OpenSea registered the OpenSea Foundation in the Cayman Islands on August 20 this year.

Following the launch of the OpenSea Foundation’s official Twitter account, the floor price of OpenSea’s official NFT, *Gemesis*, surged to 0.76 ETH, reflecting a 56% increase over the past 16 hours. Additionally, the NFT recorded 698 sales in the last hour, with trading volume reaching 48.62 ETH.

5. Global NFT Marketplace Volume Reaches $117 Million, Highest Since February 2023 link

According to @sealaunch_ data, NFT marketplace trading volume across all platforms reached $117 million on December 17, marking the highest level since February 23, 2023. Blur accounted for 73.6% of the volume, amounting to $86 million. However, the number of transactions and active users remain significantly below previous peaks.

This surge is likely driven by speculative activity following Pudgy Penguins’ token airdrop, with users rapidly flipping assets through Blur’s bid pool.

6. Kelp DAO Unveils KERNEL Tokenomics, Allocating 20% for Airdrops link

Ethereum’s third-largest liquidity re-staking protocol, Kelp DAO, has unveiled the tokenomics for its KERNEL token. The allocation is as follows: 55% for community rewards and airdrops (20% for airdrops, 35% for future community rewards), 5% for ecosystem initiatives and partnerships, 20% for private sales, and 20% for the team and advisors.

The 20% allocated for airdrops will be distributed over three airdrop seasons:

1. First Airdrop Season: 10% of the total supply, with the snapshot date set for December 31, 2024.

2. Second Airdrop Season: 5% of the total supply, spanning January 1 to April 30, 2025. Users who re-stake by January 15, 2025, will receive an additional 15% loyalty bonus.

3. Remaining 5%: Details of the final airdrop plan are yet to be announced.

7. Peanut Mascot’s Owner Issues Cease-and-Desist to Binance Over Alleged IP Infringement link

Mark Longo, the owner of the viral squirrel Peanut, has announced through his law firm that a cease-and-desist letter has been sent to Binance. The letter accuses Binance of unauthorized use of multiple intellectual properties, including the PNUT trademark and the cowboy-hat-wearing squirrel image. According to the letter, Longo has been using the PNUT-related trademark in the U.S. since April 2017, primarily for educational and charitable projects related to animal protection, wildlife, and environmental conservation. If the infringement is found to be willful, compensation could reach up to $150,000 per infringement. The lawyer has demanded that Binance respond and cease all infringing activities by December 31.

8. Binance HODLer Airdrop Adds CAT and PENGU to the Lineup link

Binance has announced the launch of its Binance HODLer airdrop program featuring Simon’s Cat (CAT) and Pudgy Penguins (PENGU). Users can participate in the airdrop by staking BNB, with the event running from 12:00 UTC on December 18, 2024, to 11:59 UTC on December 19, 2024. CAT and PENGU are community tokens inspired by the famous illustrated character Simon’s Cat and the penguin theme. Binance will list CAT and PENGU on December 17, 2024, at 09:00 UTC, and they will be tagged with the “seed” label.

9. Pudgy Penguins Toys Face Widespread QR Code Theft link

Suji Yan, the founder of Mask Network, stated that on Tuesday, many Pudgy Penguins toy products in stores in New York were torn open and their QR codes stolen. The sudden token airdrop caused a rush of people to Walmart, stealing QR codes from products that could potentially lead to an airdrop. He emphasized that the crypto community should condemn such actions.

10. OKX Launches Integrated Ordinals Platform, ‘Ordinals Launchpad’ link

OKX has announced the launch of Ordinals Launchpad, an integrated platform that allows creators to directly mint, inscribe, and trade collectibles on Bitcoin. The platform officially debuted “Geminions,” the first Ordinals series launched by JRNE, a community-driven Web3 jewelry brand that pioneers NFC authentication on Bitcoin. Since the inception of Ordinals, Bitcoin has seen a total of 72,552,175 inscriptions, costing 6,940 BTC.

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