PA Daily News | Trump Media Group to distribute digital tokens to DJT shareholders; Trader profits millions of dollars during BROCCOLI714 market anomaly.

Today's top news highlights:

1. International gold and silver prices both recorded their largest annual gains since 1979, with gold surging over 64% and silver over 147%.

2. NEO co-founder Zhang Zhengwen announced NEO's governance structure and financial status, and decided to return to mainnet management.

3. A Binance account was suspected of being hacked. Hackers attempted to manipulate the price of BROCCOLI714 to transfer funds, but trader Vida intercepted the attack and profited millions of dollars.

4. Binance releases its 2025 year-end report: platform's annual trading volume reaches $34 trillion.

5. Trump Media Group: Will issue digital tokens based on the Cronos blockchain to DJT stockholders.

6. Tether's BTC reserves reached 96,185, with a floating profit of $3.524 billion, making it the fifth largest BTC wallet.

Macro

The six major state-owned banks announced that starting tomorrow, interest will be accrued on the balance of their real-name digital RMB wallets; the current demand deposit rate is 0.05%.

Six major state-owned banks—Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, and Postal Savings Bank of China—issued announcements today stating that starting January 1, 2026, interest will be paid on the balance of digital RMB wallets opened with their banks at the banks' current deposit rate, with the interest calculation and settlement rules consistent with current deposit rates. The current current deposit rate is 0.05%. Currently, digital RMB wallets are divided into four categories. Category I, II, and III wallets are registered wallets, while Category IV wallets are anonymous wallets. Category IV wallets are not included in the banks' "registered wallet" interest calculation category.

ICBC states that wallet operators will legally withhold and pay interest tax (if applicable). ICBC reminds users that interest is settled on the 20th of the last month of each quarter and credited to their accounts on the 21st. If the account is closed before the interest settlement date, interest will be calculated at the current account interest rate posted on the closure date until the day before closure.

International gold and silver prices both recorded their largest annual gains since 1979, with gold surging over 64% and silver over 147%.

According to CLS (China Lianhe Securities), both international gold and silver prices recorded their largest annual gains since 1979. COMEX gold futures fell 1.24% to $4,332.1 per ounce, with a cumulative increase of over 2% in December and a cumulative increase of approximately 55% by 2025. Spot gold closed down 0.46%, with a cumulative increase of over 2% in December and a cumulative increase of over 64% by 2025.

COMEX silver futures fell 8.91% to $70.98 per ounce, up about 28% in December and over 128% by 2025. Spot silver closed down 6%, up about 27% in December and over 147% by 2025. Spot platinum fell about 6%, up over 23% in December and over 126% by 2025. Spot palladium rose slightly, up over 12% in December and about 76% by 2025.

The three major U.S. stock indexes have recorded double-digit gains for three consecutive years.

According to CLS News Agency, the three major U.S. stock indexes closed slightly lower, marking the third consecutive year of double-digit gains. The Nasdaq fell 0.76%, down 0.53% in December, but up 20.36% year-to-date in 2025; the S&P 500 fell 0.74%, down 0.05% in December, ending a seven-month winning streak, but up 16.39% year-to-date in 2025; and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.63%, up 0.73% in December, marking an eight-month winning streak, but up 12.98% year-to-date in 2025.

The US CFTC has appointed Amir Zaidi as its new chief of staff. Zaidi previously oversaw the CFTC's Bitcoin futures certification and deployment.

According to an announcement on the CFTC's official website, CFTC Chairman Mike Selig announced that Amir Zaidi will serve as the CFTC's Chief of Staff. Amir Zaidi previously held various positions within the CFTC from 2010 to 2019, including Head of Market Oversight. During his tenure, he oversaw the certification and deployment of Bitcoin futures contracts (the first federally regulated cryptocurrency product). Prior to returning to the CFTC, Amir Zaidi was the Global Head of Compliance for a major broker-dealer and introducing broker. Before 2010, Amir Zaidi held various financial, legal, and regulatory positions in New York and Washington, D.C. He has decades of experience in the financial services industry.

More than 40 countries, including the UK, implemented new cryptocurrency tax rules on January 1, requiring exchanges to collect and report user transaction records.

According to the Financial Times, the UK and more than 40 other countries implemented new tax regulations for crypto assets starting January 1. Under the Crypto Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), major crypto exchanges are required to collect complete transaction records for UK users and report user transaction information and tax residency status to HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs).

Opinion

A Binance account was suspected of being hacked, and the hacker attempted to manipulate the price of BROCCOLI714 to transfer funds. Trader Vida precisely intercepted the attack and profited millions of dollars.

According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi, a large Binance account appears to have been hacked. Due to risk control mechanisms, the hacker was unable to withdraw funds directly and attempted to transfer them through wash trading. The hacker chose the illiquid and small-cap meme coin BROCCOLI714 as the underlying asset, placing massive buy orders to violently drive up the spot price. Trader Vida noticed the abnormal price through alerts and quickly determined it was an anomaly (abnormal market manipulation). After the contract circuit breaker ended, he precisely opened long positions and closed them, repeatedly intercepting the hacker's operations and profiting approximately $1 million. Subsequently, Binance's risk control intervened, preventing the hacker from placing further orders. He then attempted to manipulate SOL but failed and ultimately withdrew his order.

Binance responds to BROCCOLI714's cryptocurrency volatility: System checks show risk control is normal, and no hacker attack has been detected.

Binance issued a statement saying it is aware of the recent discussions surrounding the price fluctuations of BROCCOLI714 and has immediately launched an internal investigation. According to the current system investigation, the platform's risk control and circuit breaker mechanisms are operating normally. Furthermore, based on the current internal data review, no clear signs of a hacker attack have been found, and the platform has not received any feedback regarding stolen accounts through customer service or major client communication channels. Binance is currently conducting a comprehensive review of order and transaction data related to this incident, and the investigation is ongoing.

NEO co-founder Zhang Zhengwen announced the NEO governance structure and financial status, and decided to return to mainnet management.

In response to the recent accusations between NEO's two founders, Da Hongfei and Zhang Zhengwen, regarding each other's monopolization of financial power and lack of transparency, Zhang Zhengwen (Erik Zhang) told PANews that he will return to the Neo mainnet for full management and to defend the core rights of NEO/GAS holders. At the same time, he will disclose the current NEO governance structure and the status of its accounts.

• On-chain transparent assets (NEO/GAS):

  • Protocol-level transparency: Currently, the vast majority of the Neo Foundation's NEO and GAS assets are publicly distributed across 21 initial node addresses and one multisignature wallet. These addresses are the cornerstone of the Neo protocol's operation, and the global community can conduct real-time audits at any time.

  • Asset Flow Explanation: Previously, during the period when Da Hongfei requested Erik to withdraw from the foundation's management, at Da Hongfei's request, approximately 8 million NEO/GAS tokens were transferred to multiple multi-signature addresses designated by Da Hongfei.

  • Internal Payment Standard Operating Procedure (SOP): To ensure the compliance of core asset usage, a strict four-step process has always been implemented: (1) NGD submits a budget request; (2) Da Hongfei approves the request; (3) Erik is responsible for the technical payment execution; and (4) the financial records are entered into. This process exists to ensure procedural justice for every core expenditure.

• Opaque assets (risks associated with non-NEO/GAS assets):

  • Single-person control: Apart from the aforementioned transparent NEO/GAS, all auxiliary assets held by the Neo Foundation (including but not limited to BTC, ETH, and other ecosystem project tokens) are currently under the actual control of Da Hongfei.

  • Audit deficiencies: Zhang Zhengwen stated that these assets have remained in a "black box" state for many years, and Da Hongfei has yet to provide any verifiable financial statements, asset lists, or audit certificates.

Zhang Zhengwen previously stated on the X platform that Da Hongfei decided to use the resources and funds of the Neo Foundation (NF) to launch an independent new project, EON, and issue new tokens. Zhang Zhengwen believes that this move poses a significant conflict of interest, not only diluting the value of the Neo ecosystem but also directly leading to the withdrawal of Neo mainnet resources.

Related reading: Da Hongfei and Zhang Zhengwen accuse each other of monopolizing financial power and lacking transparency. The Neo Foundation stated that the founder dispute will not affect the daily operations of the foundation and NGD, and the financial report will be released in Q1.

Analysts: Ancient ETH tokens will not be locked up indefinitely; ETFs and DAT companies are facing selling pressure of 12.05 million tokens in this cycle.

Regarding the price distribution of ETH, will ancient tokens with a cost below $400 be locked up indefinitely and not actually enter circulation? Analyst Murphy, in an article on the X platform, analyzed that ETFs and DAT companies absorbed 12.05 million ETH selling pressure in this cycle. Without them, ETH's price performance would have been even worse. Ancient tokens held for more than 5 years with a cost below $400 still have high "activity," especially when the price is close to or above $4,000. Currently, there are still 20 million of these tokens, accounting for 17% of the total circulating supply. Similarly, there are 3.79 million BTC tokens with a cost below $1,000, accounting for 18.9% of the total circulating supply. However, unlike ETH, 1 million of these belong to Satoshi Nakamoto, and most of the rest have been lost. Coupled with higher community consensus, the "activity" of these ancient BTC tokens is significantly lower than that of ETH.

Personally, I believe that if we can add some new narratives and innovations to the existing ETF + DAT allocation, and try to consume half of the remaining 20 million ancient tokens, then the price of ETH is expected to experience a qualitative leap.

Project Updates

Binance releases its 2025 year-end report: annual trading volume reaches $34 trillion.

Binance co-CEOs Yi He and Richard Teng released their annual open letter, revealing that Binance's total product trading volume reached $34 trillion in 2025, user assets verified via PoR reached $162.8 billion, and the total number of users exceeded 300 million. The letter mentioned that the platform's institutional trading volume increased by 21% year-on-year, and on-chain and off-chain products are becoming increasingly integrated, with Binance Wallet handling over 60% of mainstream on-chain transactions. The official statement emphasized continued strengthening of compliance and security, assisting in the recovery of $11.7 million in stolen assets throughout the year, and looking ahead to 2026, a new growth cycle driven by "sovereign-grade funds" and "enterprise-grade applications" is expected.

Over the past year, Binance has intercepted $6.69 billion in risky funds through risk control and AI models, and reduced the success rate of phishing attacks to 0.4%. Furthermore, Binance has obtained 29 compliance and security certifications globally, and its compliance team comprises 1,280 people.

Sonic Labs extends the maturity of bonds linked to SonicStrategy to advance its Nasdaq listing process.

Sonic Labs has released an update announcing its investment in SonicStrategy through convertible bonds, representing 126 million S tokens, with an initial valuation of $40 million. This investment aims to support validator operations and ecosystem growth. If a Nasdaq listing is not achieved, the tokens will be returned and burned. Due to market downturn, the bond term has been extended by three years. SonicStrategy has already raised $9 million and has never sold any S tokens. This model aims to bridge traditional capital markets with on-chain participation, drawing on precedents such as SOL Strategies to create a compliant and sustainable market access path.

Trump Media Group: Will issue digital tokens based on the Cronos blockchain to DJT stockholders

Trump Media has announced that it will soon be issuing a new digital token to DJT stockholders. Each DJT share held will earn one token and entitle holders to benefits and perks on platforms such as Truth Social and Truth+. The token is issued on the Cronos blockchain in partnership with Crypto.com . It may be non-transferable, non-exchangeable for cash, and does not represent ownership of the company.

Flow: An exchange exhibited abnormal trading activity during the FLOW security incident, shifting the risk to users.

The Flow Foundation issued a statement regarding its coordination with exchanges following the December 27th vulnerability incident. The foundation stated that it has collaborated with forensic agencies and multiple global exchanges to protect users and restore network operations. The foundation said that shortly after the incident, a single account on one exchange deposited approximately 150 million FLOW tokens (about 10% of the total supply) and exchanged a significant portion of them for BTC. Subsequently, in the hours before the network outage, over $5 million was withdrawn. This process exposed flaws in the AML/KYC process and shifted financial risk to unsuspecting users who purchased fraudulent tokens. Forensic analysis also revealed significant trading anomalies in the exchange's FLOW market before and after the incident, inconsistent with normal trading patterns. The foundation's requests for clarification regarding these trading patterns through operational channels went unanswered.

Vitalik changed his X avatar to an image related to Milady Maker.

Vitalik changed his X profile picture to one related to Milady Maker.

Market news: Turkish cryptocurrency exchange BTCTurk suffers another hacker attack, losing $48 million.

According to market sources, Turkish cryptocurrency exchange BtcTurk has suffered another $48 million hack.

On August 14th last year, it was reported that the BTCTurk exchange was hacked, resulting in a loss of approximately $49 million.

Important data

Tether's BTC reserves have reached 96,185, with a floating profit of $3.524 billion, making it the fifth largest BTC wallet.

According to on-chain analyst Ember, USDT issuer Tether should have purchased 9,850 BTC (worth $876 million) in Q4 2025: 961 BTC ($97.18 million) withdrawn from Bitfinex on November 7, 2025, and 8,888.8 BTC ($778 million) withdrawn on the first day of 2026 to their BTC reserve address.

Since May 2023, Tether has announced its decision to regularly use 15% of its profits to purchase Bitcoin for reserves. It typically withdraws the quarterly purchases to its on-chain wallet on the last day of each quarter or the first day of the following quarter. Currently, its BTC reserve address holds 96,185 BTC ($8.42 billion), making it the fifth largest BTC wallet. Based on the price at which it withdrew from Bitfinex, the average price of these BTC is approximately $51,117, currently representing a floating profit of $3.524 billion.

Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a net outflow of $348 million yesterday, with none of the twelve ETFs experiencing net inflows.

According to SoSoValue data, Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a total net outflow of $348 million yesterday (December 31, Eastern Time).

The Bitcoin spot ETF with the largest single-day net outflow yesterday was BlackRock ETF IBIT, with a net outflow of $99.048 million. Currently, IBIT's total historical net inflow has reached $62.093 billion.

The second largest outflow was from Ark Invest and 21Shares' ETF ARKB, with a net outflow of $76.5336 million in a single day. ARKB's total historical net inflow has reached $1.634 billion.

As of press time, the total net asset value of Bitcoin spot ETFs was $113.293 billion, with an ETF net asset ratio (market capitalization as a percentage of Bitcoin's total market capitalization) of 6.47%, and a historical cumulative net inflow of $56.613 billion.

Ethereum spot ETFs saw a net outflow of $72.0586 million yesterday, with none of the nine ETFs experiencing net inflows.

According to SoSoValue data, the Ethereum spot ETF saw a total net outflow of $72.0586 million yesterday (December 31, Eastern Time).

The Ethereum spot ETF with the largest single-day net outflow yesterday was the Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust ETF (ETH), with a single-day net outflow of $31.9838 million. Currently, ETH's total historical net inflow has reached $1.488 billion.

The second largest outflow was from the BlackRock ETF ETHA, which saw a net outflow of $21.5082 million in a single day. ETHA's total historical net inflow has reached $12.568 billion.

As of press time, the Ethereum spot ETF has a total net asset value of $17.948 billion, with an ETF net asset ratio (market capitalization as a percentage of Ethereum's total market capitalization) of 5%, and a historical cumulative net inflow of $12.328 billion.

According to CLS (China Lianhe Securities), both international gold and silver prices recorded their largest annual gains since 1979. COMEX gold futures fell 1.24% to $4,332.1 per ounce, with a cumulative increase of over 2% in December and a cumulative increase of approximately 55% by 2025. Spot gold closed down 0.46%, with a cumulative increase of over 2% in December and a cumulative increase of over 64% by 2025.

COMEX silver futures fell 8.91% to $70.98 per ounce, up about 28% in December and over 128% by 2025. Spot silver closed down 6%, up about 27% in December and over 147% by 2025. Spot platinum fell about 6%, up over 23% in December and over 126% by 2025. Spot palladium rose slightly, up over 12% in December and about 76% by 2025.