Gate Daily (January 15): BitMine raises an additional $625 million in Ethereum funding; OpenSea announces TGE and airdrop

Bitcoin (BTC) short-term surge sharply, currently around $96,790 on January 15. OpenSea’s Chief Marketing Officer revealed that the NFT platform is about to launch a Token Generation Event (TGE) and community airdrop. BitMine has injected an additional $625 million into Ethereum, with total funding before shareholder voting exceeding $5 billion.

Macro Events & Crypto Hotspots

1. According to the latest information from OpenSea’s project management team, the world’s largest NFT trading platform OpenSea is about to launch a Token Generation Event (TGE) and community airdrop. Recently, OpenSea’s Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) publicly announced the project’s future development direction, confirming that OpenSea is accelerating the final steps to issue its own token, which has been highly anticipated by the NFT community for years. OpenSea may prioritize airdrops to wallets that have conducted NFT transactions on the platform, especially those with higher trading volumes.

2. Listed company BitMine Immersion Technologies deposited 186,560 ETH, bringing its total staked ETH to 1.53 million, worth over $5.1 billion, accounting for approximately 3.45% of Ethereum’s total supply. Under the leadership of Chairman Thomas Lee, the company is transitioning from Bitcoin mining to other sectors by mid-2025. It currently holds cryptocurrencies and cash worth $14 billion, with an expected annual staking yield of $130 million to $160 million. This aggressive move occurred the day before the shareholder meeting on January 15 at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas, where investors will vote on whether to expand authorized shares to buy more ETH without taking on debt.

News Highlights

1. Solana Mobile: SKR airdrop distribution query is now live, open for claiming and staking from January 21.

2. 25 million ONDO tokens transferred from Ondo’s multisig wallet to 5 exchanges six hours ago.

3. DFINITY Foundation released a new white paper “Mission 70,” with ICP rising over 30% in 24 hours.

4. “Strategy Opponent” increased long positions in BTC, ETH, and SOL, with a total value of $471 million.

5. Lighter will launch LIT token staking on its platform.

6. Zcash Foundation states that the US SEC has concluded its multi-year investigation.

7. Sui network has resumed and is fully operational.

8. Federal Reserve Beige Book: moderate economic recovery, stable employment, tariffs beginning to be passed on to consumers.

9. BitMine again stakes over 150,000 ETH, worth approximately $520 million.

Market Trends

1. Latest Bitcoin news: $BTC short-term surge sharply, currently around $96,790, with $174 million in liquidations in the past 24 hours, mainly short liquidations;

2. US stock markets closed lower across the board on January 15, with NVIDIA and other chip stocks falling, dragging the Nasdaq Composite to its worst single-day performance in nearly a month. Concerns over regulation re-emerged, with investors shifting funds from recently high-flying tech giants to defensive stocks and value stocks, accelerating market rotation. Nasdaq fell 238.12 points, down 1.00%, closing at 23,471.75, the largest single-day decline since December 17 last year. S&P 500 dropped 37.14 points, down 0.5%, closing at 6,926.60, marking its first back-to-back decline since 2026. Dow Jones Industrial Average slightly down 42.36 points, down 0.1%, closing at 49,149.63.

(Source: Gate)

3. Gate BTC/USDT liquidation map indicates that at the current price of $96,558.70, if it drops to around $96,024, total long liquidations exceed $319 million; if it rises to around $97,777, total short liquidations exceed $169 million. Short liquidations are significantly lower than longs, so it is advisable to control leverage ratios reasonably to avoid large-scale liquidations during market fluctuations.

(Source: Coinglass)

4. In the past 24 hours, spot inflow of $3.75 billion and outflow of $3.56 billion, net inflow of $190 million.

(Source: Coinglass)

5. In the past 24 hours, net outflows in contracts trading for $BTC, $RIVER, $DASH, $XMR, $ZEC , indicating trading opportunities.

Top KOL Insights

Phyrex Ni (@Phyrex_Ni): “Today is another day where US stocks fall while Bitcoin rises. The decline in US stocks is likely due to multiple factors. If the past two days were driven by banking stocks, today Visa and Mastercard showed signs of rebound. The first tier of credit card damage should be these two. Then, banks reporting earnings with profits below expectations—financials and tech often rise and fall together. Tech valuations inflated, driving the overall market, while financial stocks benefited from increased lending and investment banking activities. I personally think this decline isn’t due to the AI narrative or the AI bubble bursting, but rather a balancing of earnings expectations, with low losses in financial stocks, interest spreads, and low net asset stocks.”

“Meanwhile, the strength of Bitcoin indicates that the market hasn’t entered a full risk-off phase. As the market re-evaluates bank profits, credit expansion, and corporate earnings uncertainty, assets like BTC that don’t rely on cash flow, don’t need credit backing, and are highly liquid, naturally become safe havens for capital. The last time this happened was during the Silicon Valley Bank collapse in 2023, when US financial stocks were under pressure, tech stocks were volatile, but Bitcoin became a hedge against systemic credit uncertainty. However, such divergences may not last long.”

“Looking at Bitcoin data, rising prices have increased turnover rates, which was expected. Coinbase’s trading volume has surged for two consecutive days, and today’s volume exceeds yesterday’s. Over the past year, such high volume has occurred less than 20 times. How long this can last is uncertain. From the perspective of market structure, it remains very stable, with strong absorption at high levels. However, there isn’t much turnover below $90,000, leading to dense trading between $85,000 and $95,000. Most of these are short-term investors, so some consolidation is needed.”

“Overall, the current narrative and monetary policy haven’t changed fundamentally.”

Today’s Outlook

1. China December M2 money supply (annual rate), previous value 8.0%

2. UK November Goods Trade Balance (million GBP), previous -22,542

3. UK November Industrial Production (annual rate), previous -0.8%

4. France December Consumer Price Index (monthly), final, previous 0.1%

5. Eurozone November Seasonally Adjusted Trade Balance (billion euros), previous 14.0

6. US Weekly Initial Jobless Claims (thousand), as of 0110, previous 208