Solana Prepared for 2025 Rally, Fetch.ai Launches $10M Fund: Financing Redefined

Crypto analysts are predicting a bumper financial year for Solana, which is set to see more adoption from new retail investors, partly due to Solana's exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US.

Investment in the artificial intelligence industry is rebounding as interest in autonomous AI agents grows. Fetch.ai has launched a $10 million accelerator to support AI agent and quantum computing developments.

Solana poised for gains fueled by US ETFs and retail adoption – Analyst

Solana is set for another year of significant growth in 2025, with increased interest from retail investors and anticipation of a US-based Solana exchange-traded fund (ETF).

Solana (SOL) fell below the key $200 psychological mark on January 9 after registering a weekly decline of more than 7%, Cointelegraph Markets Pro data shows.

Despite the current correction, Solana is poised for high returns for the year, driven primarily by the profitability of retail investors, Nansen Research Analyst Nikolay Sandergaard told Cointelegraph in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the Emergence Prague 2024 event.

“[Solana’s appeal] It is the expected profit function. Solana looks cheap. If you're looking at a unit, you think this is cheaper to buy,” Søndergaard said.

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Fetch.ai Launches $10 Million Fund for AI Agent Startups

Fetch.ai, the crypto-artificial intelligence company built on Cosmos, has announced a $10 million round of funding to support startups developing solutions focused on AI agents, quantum computing, and high-performance technology.

Working through Fetch.ai's Innovation Lab, the immediate goal is to connect research to real-world applications. The lab, with centers in San Francisco, London and India, will provide funding, mentoring and support to help Fetch.ai's agent-based technologies startups scale globally, according to a news release shared with Cointelegraph.

“Agents are not only how we run software, but they serve as an execution layer for modern technologies,” Humayun Shaikh, CEO of Fetch.ai and chairman of the ASI Alliance, told Cointelegraph.

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MiCA may attract more crypto investment despite regulatory risk.

European markets are being hailed as a major step forward for the cryptocurrency industry, despite concerns that the Crypto-Assets Regulation (MCA) could be over-regulated upon its initial release.

The MCA is the world's first comprehensive regulatory crypto framework, fully operational for crypto-asset service providers on December 30, 2024.

While concerns about regulatory overcrowding remain, the regulation is expected to be a net positive for the cryptocurrency industry in the long term, said Dimitri Radin, co-founder and chief technology officer of Fideum, an institutional-focused regulatory and blockchain infrastructure firm.

“long term, [MiCA is] Absolutely positive. Each regulation helps us to develop the market. It costs more money and more users,” Radin told Cointelegraph in an interview at Emergence Prague.

Still, the regulation seeks to identify “weak regulatory points” in the crypto space, which could mean more scrutiny for retail investors and end users of crypto platforms, Radin said.

Fedium Dmitry Radin, interview with Zoltan Vardai of Cointelegraph. Source: YouTube

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Suspected insider pockets of Solana's Focai memecoin startup have earned $20 million

At least 15 blockchain wallets suspected of insider trading turned an initial $14,600 investment into $20 million, raising concerns about transparency and fairness in cryptocurrency markets.

The 15 insider wallets have made more than $20 million in profits on Focai.fun (FOCAI), a memecoin recently launched on Solana's (SOL) memecoin launchpad Pump.fun.

The suspects made more than 136,000 times their initial investment of $14,600, which bought them more than 60.5% of the total token supply, according to onchain analytics firm Lookonchain. “They then sold all Fokai for $94,175 SOL($20.5M), netting $94,108 SOL($20.48M).”

The concentration of such a large share of tokens in small wallets has led to criticism from blockchain analysts. The situation highlights the potential dangers of decentralization, a key principle in cryptocurrency.

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Ripple partners with Chainlink to promote RLUSD stablecoin in DeFi markets.

Ripple has partnered with the Chainlink decentralized network to improve the adoption and utility of the Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin in decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, a blockchain-based payment protocol.

The collaboration, announced on January 7, will provide price feeds for RLUSD on the Ethereum and XRP Ledger, supporting cost-effective transactions and DeFi use cases for enterprise-level stablecoins.

RLUSD is pegged to the US dollar and receives decentralized and accurate data from Chainlink using decentralized nodes. The combination is designed to reduce the risks of fraud or undermining.

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Overview of the DeFi market

Most of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization ended the week in the red, according to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView.

Among the top 100, the THORChain (RUNE) token was the biggest loser of the week, falling more than 29%, followed by the Virtual Protocol (VIRTUAL) token, which fell more than 22% on the weekly chart.

Thanks for reading this week's roundup of the most impactful DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and lessons about this dynamic and evolving space.