Login Now

Email/username

Password

Create an account

Home
Blackmarketplace
Groups
Game
Watch
Jobs
Bridge token

Login
Register

Crypto Whale Data

Crypto Whale Data

@0x1d7a9641dcccfe07c722bede8b3c2221cc19d4ca

Active 20 hours, 41 minutes ago

Activity
Profile
Shop
Friends 1
Groups
Forums
Media 612

1
Friends
0
Groups

My photos

All612
Albums1
Photos612
Videos0
Music0

Create an Album

Album Title :

Album Description :

Please login

You need to be logged in to upload Media or to create Album.

Click HERE to login.

Media Gallery

Kanye West claims he'll launch 'Swasticoin' token next week in erratic crypto posts Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, seemingly teased the launch of a token called "Swasticoin" next week in a series of erratic posts about cryptocurrency on Saturday. Ye plans to launch a token "next week," according to one post, a reversal of the artist's recently-stated opinion that such projects "prey on the fans with hype." The token will apparently be called "Swasticoin," according to Ye's posts, furthering a series of offensive posts about the Jewish community Ye has published over recent weeks. "I’m going to open the CA [contract address] for my Swasticoin to Jewish people and my friends and family first," Ye said in one post. "Let’s see if stereotypes exist for a reason." Ye also asked his following about blockchain networks like Ethereum, "Solona," BNB Chain, Hyperliquid, and others, while apparently trying to get in touch with Binance co-founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, according to one post with several offensive slurs. Ye had reposted one of CZ's posts complaining that decentralized exchanges are harder to use than their centralized counterparts, and currently follows only CZ and memecoin trader Tall on X. In response to a screenshot showing his post at the top of Ye's X feed, CZ said, in apparent mock surprise, "That one retweet got him to 33.2m followers? wow," adding a thinking face emoji. Three sources close to Ye reportedly told crypto news outlet Coindesk that Ye plans to launch a token next week, reserving 70% of the supply for himself, and that the token will be used to get around Shopify's censorship of his Yeezy store. However, the report says the token will be called YZY, which could indicate it's a different project than the "Swasticoin" he discussed on Saturday. This is not Ye's first attempt to monetize the symbol of Nazi Germany's fascist government. Ye recently began selling shirts on his website titled HH-01, apparently short for "Heil Hitler," featuring a Swastika on a plain white tee. A commercial aired during the Super Bowl directed viewers to the website, but did not mention the shirts. The website was later taken down. Though Ye said he would launch the token "next week," it's possible the erratic artist can still change course — or abandon the project entirely. "Time to launch my own blockchain," he said in his most recent post at publication time.

Crypto Whale Data
mETH Protocol announces $43 million recovery from Bybit hack, while Tether freezes $181,000 Mantle's liquid restaking protocol, mETH Protocol, announced on Saturday the recovery of 15,000 cmETH tokens, worth about $43 million at current prices, from the Lazarus Group attackers responsible for the $1.4 billion hack of centralized exchange Bybit on Friday. "The 8-hour withdrawal delay built into the protocol provided the team with critical response time to temporarily pause the contract, effectively stopping unauthorized withdrawals," the protocol said on X. "15,000 cmETH were recovered from the exploiter's address to a recovery address." Early reports mistakenly suggested that the 15,000 tokens were burned. The recovery was initiated by Mudit Gupta, chief information security officer at Polygon, and assisted by rapid-response security team SEAL, according to Gupta's post on X. "I saw the recovery possibility soon after the hack and SEAL connected me with Mantle/mETH team who made it happen," Gupta said. The recovery could be subject to a $4.3 million recovery bounty under the terms of Bybit's recently-announced program. Bybit was unable to be immediately reached for comment regarding the recovery. The $43 million recovery already surpasses the $30 million salvaged from the North Korean state-sponsored Lazarus Group's attack on the Ronin Bridge associated with crypto project Axie Infinity. That recovery, spearheaded by blockchain security firm Chainalysis and assisted by U.S. law enforcement, took nearly six months. Tether freezes $181,000 Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino likewise announced Saturday that 181,000 USDT tokens connected to the hack were frozen in another early recovery. "Might not be much but it's honest work," Ardoino said on X. "We keep monitoring." Tether was one of four stablecoin issuers to freeze $5 million worth of tokens in September 2024 from wallets linked to the Lazarus Group by pseudonymous security researcher ZachXBT, alongside Paxos, Techteryx, and Circle. The funds were stolen in 25 separate exploits on numerous different blockchains, and cashed out using peer-to-peer exchanges

Crypto Whale Data
North Korea's Lazarus Group responsible for ByBit hack resulting in losses of over $1.5 billion: Arkham Arkham Intelligence said Lazarus Group hacked ByBit for over $1.5 billion on Friday, citing information provided by online sleuth ZachXBT. "At 19:09 UTC today, ZachXBT submitted definitive proof that this attack on ByBit was performed by the LAZARUS GROUP," Arkham said in a post to X. "His submission included a detailed analysis of test transactions and connected wallets used ahead of the exploit, as well as multiple forensics graphs and timing analyses. The submission has been shared with the ByBit team in support of their investigation." Earlier in the day ByBit confirmed it had suffered a massive security breach that led to the loss of over $1.5 billion in crypto assets. The company's co-founder and CEO Ben Zhao later said that all client withdrawals will be processed, even if they are under review." The hack is being considered the largest single theft in crypto's history.

Crypto Whale Data
Bybit CEO says firm secured almost 80% of lost ETH as bridge loan from partners to ease liquidity crunch following $1.4 billion hack Bybit Co-Founder and CEO Ben Zhou responded to audience questions about how the firm will move forward with customer withdrawals following its $1.4 billion hack Friday morning. Zhao said in an X Space livestream that all client withdrawals will be processed, even if they are under review. The firm will not buy Ethereum but instead rely on a bridge loan, or a type of short-term loan to aid an entity's transition period, from its partners to facilitate the endeavor. "For immediate sake, we are currently reaching out to our partners to give us a bridge loan," Zhou said in a Friday livestream. "So, currently, we are not buying [Ethereum]. And even if we did want to buy, it is too big of amount to be moving around." "But we are getting help, support, from our partners," Zhou continued. "We actually already secured almost 80% of the Ethereum that's been stolen as a bridge loan to give us that liquidity, to help us with the liquidity crunch, so we can pass this crucial period." Bybit confirmed it lost $1.4 billion in funds after a hacker gained access to the firm's multisig cold wallet, which one expert called "the largest crypto theft of all time," The Block had previously reported. Bybit is a centralized exchange based in Singapore. The firm recorded $233.36 billion in spot market volume in January, The Block's Data Dashboard shows.

Crypto Whale Data
WalletConnect Foundation secures $10 million in oversubscribed token sales, including 11-second sellout on Echo The WalletConnect Foundation, steward of the communications protocol WalletConnect, has raised a total of $10 million from four consecutive oversubscribed public and private token sales. The fundraising took place this month on Bitget's LaunchX platform, CoinList, Echo and a further private sale, attracting tens of thousands of participants and generating significantly more interest than the target amounts. "The strong demand for the WalletConnect Token (WCT) underscores the growing need for seamless onchain connectivity and proven product market fit centric token with real fundamentals," the foundation said in a statement shared with The Block. The Bitget LaunchX community round reached its $4 million target within two hours. Some 40,000 investors committed over $170 million, way beyond the allocation. Token distribution took place on Friday. A further community round on CoinList was oversubscribed fourfold, attracting 18,000 participants from more than 100 countries. Investors pre-funded the sale with $15.5 million, far exceeding its $4 million target. Meanwhile, a private sale hosted on Echo, a platform founded by crypto trader Jordan Fish (aka Cobie), saw its $500,000 target sell out in just 11 seconds. That sale was led by a group known as the Tea Club, WalletConnect Foundation founder and director Pedro Gomes told The Block. An additional private sale conducted directly between the foundation and long-term supporters and strategic partners of WalletConnect raised a further $1.5 million. "It was a busy month to say the least," Gomes said. Nearly 90,000 users registered across the sales collectively, expanding the WalletConnect ecosystem following Season 1 of its airdrop in November. The airdrop distributed 50 million of the total 1 billion WCT supply to 160,000 early adopters, including builders, contributors and users. All WCT tokens are currently non-transferable, though users can stake them for periods ranging from one week to two years. No plans for further token sales "The response from the WalletConnect and broader crypto community has been incredible. Every round was oversubscribed, reaching its target in hours, if not seconds," Gomes said. "As the Network scales towards full permissionlessness, our community is growing alongside it. In a space crowded with vaporware, people are rallying behind real projects with true utility. We’re excited for the next chapter in the WalletConnect journey." Despite the oversubscribed demand, the WallectConnect Foundation currently has no plans for further token sales, Gomes confirmed. "The oversubscribed demand is a clear signal that the crypto community wants projects who prove they can truly deliver on their product roadmap and bring real value to the ecosystem," he said. "They are growing tired of the memecoin casino and vapourware, people want to support projects that they can firstly, actually use and secondly, that they can trust." The funds will enable the WalletConnect Foundation to expand operations, grow its team and support ecosystem initiatives — benefiting developers, node operators and strategic partners, Gomes explained. "As the network advances toward full permissionlessness, these resources will play a vital role in facilitating adoption and engagement, particularly as more of tradfi and the broader internet comes onchain," he said. WCT token transferability anticipated 'soon' Participants in the CoinList and Bitget LaunchX rounds acquired 1 WCT for $0.20, with a minimum purchase of $100 and a maximum of $10,000. There are no vesting periods, and the tokens will become liquid after a community vote on their transferability, the foundation explained. The date for the community vote is dependent on reaching five specific milestones, four of which have already been completed, Gomes told The Block. "The last milestone, which is currently underway, is open sourcing WalletConnect Network’s Service Node source code," Gomes said. "Once this is complete the community vote for transferability will be submitted. We’re expecting this to happen soon." Once the vote concludes and the WCT token becomes transferable, it can also be listed on exchanges, Gomes added. While a true fully diluted valuation cannot be calculated until transferability is enabled and the token is trading on exchanges, the $0.20 CoinList price implies an FDV of $200 million. What is WalletConnect? WalletConnect is an open-source protocol that allows users to connect their crypto wallets to decentralized applications using a QR code or deep link. Once the connection is established, the dApp can request approval for transactions or other actions from the user’s wallet. The main advantage is that it allows mobile users to connect their wallets to dApps on their desktops or other devices, eliminating the need to switch between devices or copy and paste addresses. The protocol claims to have facilitated over 220 million connections from more than 35 million global users since 2018. Last month, WalletConnect builder Reown, formerly WalletConnect, Inc., announced it had secured $13 million in a Series B funding round led by Union Square Ventures and 1kx, with participation from Shopify Ventures and Kraken Ventures, among others — bringing its total fundraising to $38 million. Reown intends to use the fresh capital to further develop its onchain UX platform through its SDKs — Reown AppKit and Reown WalletKit — with a rise in traditional financial services offering crypto payments increasing the demand for a better onchain user experience, the company said. It aims to abstract away blockchain complexities, removing barriers such as gas fees and seed phrases for mainstream participants. The WalletConnect Foundation introduced the WCT token in September, based on Optimism’s OP Mainnet Ethereum Layer 2 network, to facilitate governance and incentivize participation.

Crypto Whale Data
Ethereum transaction fees plummet 70%, hitting lowest levels since 2020 The 7-day moving average (7DMA) of transaction fees on the Ethereum network fell to $0.77 on Feb. 15. This figure stood at $2.57 just a week prior, marking a 70% week-over-week drop. This drop pushed transaction costs to their lowest levels in dollar terms in over four years, which means the last time it was this cheap to transact on Ethereum was July 2020. Meanwhile, Bitcoin network activity recently hit a 12-month low as transactions dropped 55% from their peak. The median gas price on Ethereum, measured in Gwei, further confirms this trend. Over the past week, the daily median gas price averaged 1.61 GWEI, with its lowest figure coming in at 1.19 GWEI on Saturday, Feb. 15, the lowest reading since The Block began tracking this metric in January 2020. Moreover, this is just one of two instances where this figure has stooped this low since January 2020, with the other occurring in September 2024. While falling fees typically encourage user activity, the extent of this drop, represented by a prolonged decline, suggests a broader lack of demand rather than improved network efficiency, as seen with a recent slowdown in Ethereum’s onchain activity. The 7DMA of Ethereum’s onchain volume fell to just $4.19 billion on Saturday, a 46% decline from the previous week. This represents Ethereum’s lowest daily volume since Nov. 7, right after the U.S. presidential election. We’ve talked about Ethereum’s woes extensively in recent weeks, and just when you thought things could not look any worse from the perspective of the blockchain’s activity, these unpleasant surprises continue to display themselves every week. This is an excerpt from The Block's Data & Insights newsletter. Dig into the numbers making up the industry's most thought-provoking trends.

Crypto Whale Data
Fluent Labs raises $8 million in funding led by Polychain Capital to build blended execution network Blockchain developer Fluent Labs has raised $8 million in seed and seed extension rounds led by Polychain Capital to build out its Ethereum Layer 2 blended execution network. Primitive, dao5, Symbolic Capital, Builder Capital, Nomad Capital and Public Works also participated. The rounds included notable angel investors such as Balaji Srinivasan, Mustafa Al-Bassam, Jason Yanowitz, Santiago Santos, Dingaling, Cristian Manea and Will Price. The $8 million figure represents Fluent Labs' total fundraising to date, though it declined to disclose a valuation. The company intends to use the capital to grow its existing team of 17 core contributors — specifically on the engineering side — to support the Fluent ecosystem and deploy the necessary infrastructure for its testnet and beyond, Fluent's pseudonymous co-founder and CEO Dino told The Block. What is Fluent's blended execution network? Fluent Labs argues that current onchain execution environments are constrained by the virtual machines, programming languages and tooling they support — limiting what developers can build. Fluent's Ethereum Layer 2 aims to address this by "blending" WebAssembly (Wasm), Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) applications into a unified execution environment — enabling developers to create applications leveraging multiple blockchain ecosystems without compatibility concerns. Wasm is used by several blockchains, including Polkadot, Near Protocol and Cosmos. While it hasn't decided which virtual machine to add next, as it depends on market demand and developer needs, Fluent's extensible design allows it to add any VM, according to Dino. "Fluent is creating an expressive playground for developers by blending the best features of EVM, SVM and Wasm into one chain," Dino said. "The best web2 apps use the different programming languages and programming tools for different tasks, and Fluent brings this paradigm to web3." "Today's blockchain execution environments are constrained by the VMs they support and their limited functionalities," Polychain Capital General Partner Luke Pearson said. "Designed from the ground up to be maximally expressive, Fluent lets devs use the best tools for each task when building applications without worrying about compatibility." What does it mean for end users? Developers are already building a range of applications on Fluent, with over 60 projects being developed in its ecosystem, the firm claimed. This includes onchain quant protocol Thales, web3 Product Hunt-style platform Floodlight and Solidity-based DeFi projects incorporating Rust components to improve performance and efficiency. For users, Fluent will allow access to applications from different virtual machine ecosystems in the same place without switching wallets. Fluent Labs also plans to parallelize the blended environment, enabling high-performance and low-cost app usage across all its supported VMs. "What fundamentally transforms user experience is the enablement of true cross-VM composability," Dino explained. "Imagine a decentralized exchange, written in Solidity like Uniswap, that can support Solana SPL tokens, allowing users to swap ERC-20 tokens for SPL tokens. Or a user being able to do a flash loan requiring atomic composability between ERC-20s and SPL tokens. These two use cases, along with many others, can exist with blended execution." Dino argued that when developers are provided with more expressive design space, they use it, and most often, the result is higher-quality apps and unique experiences that weren't previously possible. "So, how does this impact the end user? They simply get better, more innovative applications. Blended execution realizes the original web3 vision." An app-led abstracted future Asked about the prospect of a future where applications dominate the crypto landscape with the complexities of various blockchain protocols abstracted away from the user experience under the hood, the Fluent co-founder agreed. "Absolutely. We aim to create an environment where blockchain's technical complexity becomes invisible to end-users," Dino said. "The ideal end state is a user experience so seamless that users simply interact with applications without considering the underlying blockchain infrastructure." Today's internet users don't think about TCP/IP or HTTP when browsing websites. Similarly, blockchain users should not focus on what VM an application is built on and how it's technically implemented, Dino noted. "We're working to make onchain interactions as intuitive as using a smartphone app — where sophisticated technology allows users to enjoy the service," Dino added. "This means creating applications that feel familiar, responsive and frictionless, regardless of the complex cross-chain, cross-VM mechanics happening behind the scenes."

Crypto Whale Data
Cardex exploit compromised $400,000 worth of ether across 9,000 wallets: Abstract Layer 2 chain Abstract released an initial post-mortem on a security incident affecting thousands of wallets that interacted with Cardex, a blockchain-based game operating on the network. The incident, which came to light on Tuesday, was described as a “session key hack,” in which a malicious actor gained access to wallets that had interacted with Cardex and drained funds. Abstract's pseudonymous contributor Cygaar noted in the report that the exploit involved a compromised session signer wallet shared by all Cardex users, facilitated by a leaked key in Cardex’s frontend code. The incident compromised $400,000 in users' funds, affecting 9,000 wallets, according to Abstract. This means the attacker could make transactions on behalf of the users — transferring and then selling shares to steal ETH. The exploit did not pose a risk to users’ ERC20s and NFTs. The post-mortem clarified that the issue was not a widespread problem with the Abstract Global Wallet (AGW) or the core network itself but rather an isolated incident caused by Cardex mishandling critical wallet credentials, such as session keys. AGW uses session keys to allow apps to create limited and scoped sessions for improved user experience. These keys delegate access to specific wallet functionalities to third parties. Session keys must be carefully managed to prevent permissions from being granted to malicious entities. The attack exploited vulnerabilities in Cardex's management of session keys, which are used to grant applications temporary access to wallet functions. The Abstract team had previously urged users to avoid interacting with Cardex and to revoke any active sessions with the app to mitigate further risk. All projects using session keys in the Abstract portal are expected to undergo auditing. Abstract is a consumer-focused Layer 2 blockchain developed by Igloo Inc., the parent company behind Pudgy Penguins.

Crypto Whale Data
SEC seeks public feedback on approving options trading for Grayscale, Bitwise Ethereum ETFs The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is asking the public to weigh in on whether the agency should approve options trading on a trio of spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds. The SEC asked for those comments on whether to allow the Cboe Exchange, Inc. to list and trade options on the Grayscale Ethereum Trust ETF, the Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust ETF and the Bitwise Ethereum ETF, according to a regulatory filing posted on Tuesday. Comments are due in 21 days after being published in the Federal Register. Next, the SEC could decide to approve, disapprove or "institute proceedings." The agency has not yet approved options trading on spot Ethereum ETFs. Several spot Ethereum ETFs were approved in May 2024 by the SEC, and firms have since been vying for options trading to be allowed. The SEC also greenlit spot bitcoin ETFs over a year ago and later allowed options trading for those products later in 2024.

Crypto Whale Data
Hyperliquid launches HyperEVM on mainnet to bring ‘general-purpose programmability’ The Hyperliquid EVM (or HyperEVM) has gone live, a move the Hyper Foundation describes as "bringing general-purpose programmability" to the network. HyperEVM is a component of the Hyperliquid ecosystem, specifically designed to integrate an Ethereum Virtual Machine into its Layer 1 blockchain. It enables developers to run Ethereum-compatible smart contracts with enhanced performance. The Hyper Foundation announced today that the initial mainnet release of HyperEVM, Hyperliquid’s execution environment, includes blocks built as part of Layer 1 execution that inherit “all security from HyperBFT consensus.” "This is a major step toward the vision of housing all finance by bringing general-purpose programmability to Hyperliquid’s performant financial system," the foundation said. With the launch, spot transfers are also available between native spot HYPE and HyperEVM HYPE. HYPE serves as a native gas token on HyperEVM. “Tooling and analytics around mainnet HyperEVM may not be polished on day one,” the Hyper Foundation added, adding that raw HyperEVM block data is “streamed real-time to S3 so that running a node is not required to index the HyperEVM.” The project also offered a bug bounty program that aims to pay mainnet bounty amounts for qualifying reports. Specifically, reports about bugs on the mainnet that would cause an outage or logical error on nodes or API servers would be eligible for the bounty program. The team said it is still collecting feedback on general ERC 20 native transfers and precompiles on testnet and will enable these features in a future network upgrade. Hyperliquid is a decentralized perpetual trading platform and Layer 1 chain. In January, its perpetual swap trading volume reached $197.88 billion, much larger than Jupiter’s $36.28 billion and Synfutures’ $16.21 billion. HYPE rose 0.8% in the past 24 hours to trade at $26.1, with a market capitalization of $8.8 billion

Crypto Whale Data
Dave Portnoy reveals new details on $LIBRA launch, says he returned 6 million tokens to project's founder Bartool Sports founder Dave Portnoy revealed new details surrounding the launch of the $LIBRA token project that has ensnared Argentinian President Javier Milei, sparking calls for an impeachment trial from political rivals. Portnoy, who has recently embraced memcoin trading, addressed the launch in an X Space on Sunday. Portnoy said he was prepared to join the project as an advisor, and bought the token upon launch, but later returned a gift of around 6 million tokens after the project's advisor, Hayden Davis, told him not to disclose the gift. "I'm not going to tweet about this f---ing launch and act like I'm just, 'Oh, Milei's the f---ing best'...and not mention that they have given me coins," Portnoy said. "And by the way, I bought a shit-ton of it...they never gave me the coins before the launch." Portnoy said he had trusted Davis because of his past experience in crypto, and that he hoped his involvement in the project would help him gain access to Milei. Portnoy said Davis floated the idea of an interview between Portnoy and Milei to "introduce the world" to the Argentinian president. Portnoy said he was moments away from posting his endorsement of the project when Davis told him not to disclose the gift. "[Davis said] 'You can't say that we gave you the coins'...I can't accept coins if you don't f---ing let me say you gave me coins and I'm part of the project, so I literally sent the coins back." A wallet linked to Portnoy has no record of receiving the tokens, but Portnoy said on the space he has other wallets. "Yes, I have other wallets that I have created...I just like trading, seeing what's going up." According to Portnoy, Davis seemingly "changed his tune" once Milei pulled his endorsement. "I swear he thought it was the real deal...I've known him for two to three weeks, so what do I f---ing know," Portnoy said. Portnoy offered a noncommittal defense of Davis, saying that he trusted him, but also acknowledging that Davis may deserve blame. "I think Milei f---ed him...none of it makes any sense to me." Hayden Davis responds to launch controversy Davis had posted his own version of events Saturday night, before Portnoy's space. In a video and a statement posted to X, Davis defended his actions and announced he would use the funds collected from "fees, farming, everything" to buy back and burn the token. "I was responsible for ensuring liquidity for the project and still maintain control over all associated fees and treasury funds," Davis said. "I want to make it unequivocally clear that I have not, nor will I, take any of these funds for my personal benefit." Davis said Milei's statement distancing himself from the project sparked a wave of panic selling that caused a "catastrophic impact" on the token's price. "When Milei and his team deleted their posts, investors who had purchased the token based on their trust in his endorsement felt betrayed." Milei's post revoking his endorsement was published at 10:38 pm EST, at which time the token's market capitalization had fallen from its peak around $4.5 billion to around $500 million. The first wave of selling was seemingly sparked by reports that $LIBRA insiders were cashing out the token. "As the custodian—not the owner — of these funds, I do not feel comfortable transferring them to Milei's associates or the KIP team," Davis continued. "Instead, after consulting with experts, I am proposing to reinvest 100% of the funds under my control, as much as $100 million, back into the Libra Token and burn all bought supply." The token's market cap is currently around $350 million, according to Dexscreener. Milei faces political backlash Milei's involvement in the project has led to stern condemnation from his political rivals; one center-left opposition coalition called it an "unprecedented scandal." "Our bloc of National Deputies decided to move forward with filing a request for impeachment against the President of the Nation," a translation of its Spanish-language post states. Milei's government has announced an investigation into the token's launch. "Given the facts, President Javier Milei has decided to immediately involve the Anti-Corruption Office (OA) to determine whether there was improper conduct on the part of any member of the National Government, including the President himself," a translation of the announcement states.

Crypto Whale Data
Bitcoin network activity hits 12-month lows as transactions drop 55% from peak The 7-day moving average of Bitcoin network transactions has declined to 330,000, hovering around 12-month lows, a significant drop from the peak of 730,000 transactions observed earlier in the network's history. This represents a roughly 55% decrease in network activity from peak levels, suggesting a notable shift in how the Bitcoin network is being utilized. Transaction fees have stabilized around $500,000 in the last month, down from higher levels seen during periods of increased network activity before the end of 2024. The decline appears particularly pronounced when examining the trajectory of Bitcoin-based protocols like Runes and Ordinals, which initially drove speculative attention and network activity. These protocols, which function somewhat similarly to ERC-20 tokens and NFTs on Ethereum, now account for approximately 1% of total transactions. Fee generation from Runes has dropped to less than $20,000 in the last 30 days compared to the $60 million it generated on its launch day. Market dynamics have shifted speculative trading activity toward other blockchain ecosystems. Trader mindshare has notably gravitated toward networks like Solana, particularly for memecoin trading. Similarly, Base has been the primary home for AI agent tokens over the past months. This migration of activity indicates that while Bitcoin remains the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, other networks are capturing specific onchain niches and trading volumes. The current transaction levels could begin to raise questions about Bitcoin network utilization and fee sustainability. With reduced protocol activity and stabilized transaction fees, the network appears to be returning to primarily monetary transfer use cases. The sustainability of this trend may depend on whether new Bitcoin-based protocols can attract sustained user engagement once more. It is key for building out a robust ecosystem over the long term as block rewards continue to diminish.

Crypto Whale Data
Michigan joins wave of US states proposing investments in crypto Michigan's state representatives, Bryan Posthumus and Ron Robinson, proposed House Bill 4087, which, if approved, could allow Michigan to invest in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. “Michigan can and should join Texas in leading on crypto policy by signing into law my bill creating the Michigan Crypto Strategic Reserve,” Posthumus said on X. This comes amid a trend in which an increasing number of U.S. states are exploring how to incorporate crypto into their financial strategies. House Bill 4087 aims to diversify investment options for Michigan’s state funds, potentially increasing yields by including crypto in the state’s investment portfolio. The bill proposes that Michigan’s treasurer invest up to 10% of the state’s "general" and "economic stabilization" funds into crypto. It also includes a provision permitting the state treasurer to loan out cryptocurrencies without increasing financial risk, aiming to generate additional returns for the state. Michigan had previously shown interest in cryptocurrency by creating a "blockchain and crypto commission" in 2022 to support the sector's growth in the state. The latest development makes Michigan the latest US state to propose legislation involving state investments in crypto. So far, around 20 states have proposed or are actively considering crypto reserve-related legislation, including North Carolina, Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Oklahoma. The interest in bitcoin as an investment project among state lawmakers grew especially after pro-crypto Donald Trump took office in January.

Crypto Whale Data
Plume Network and Brazil's Mercado Bitcoin to tokenize $40 million worth of RWAs Real world asset startup Plume Network has partnered with Latin American trading platform Mercado Bitcoin as part of a plan to tokenize $40 million worth of Brazilian "asset-backed securities, consumer credit, corporate debt, and accounts receivable," according to a statement released Wednesday. "The initiative creates a direct bridge between global capital and emerging market investments, providing users direct access to yield opportunities in Brazil, Latin America's largest economy," the two companies said in their statement. Mercado Bitcoin plans to leverage Plume Network's infrastructure and Layer 1 blockchain, allowing the crypto exchange to offer customers worldwide the opportunity to invest in tokenized Brazilian assets. Led by the asset classes of government securities and commodities, the overall tokenized RWA market has been steadily growing, nearly doubling over the past 12 months, according to The Block Data Dashboard. This week, the DeFi platform supported by U.S. President Donald Trump, World Liberty Financial, partnered with real-world asset tokenization firm Ondo Finance in hopes of advancing the adoption of RWAs. According to the statement, Mercado Bitcoin has 4 million users. Brazil, thanks to its large population, economy and widespread adoption of digital payments, is considered a strong growth market for digital assets. "On one hand, we’re providing small and medium-sized businesses ... with a direct path to funding through tokenization," Mercado Bitcoin's New Business Development SVP Fabrico Tota said in a statement. "On the other hand, we’re empowering local and global investors with access to innovative financial instruments that were once out of reach." Plume Network has been actively adding to its portfolio of real-world assets since raising $10 million last year in a seed funding round led by Haun Ventures. The startup then closed a $20 million Series A funding round, which included the participation of Brevan Howard Digital, Galaxy Ventures and Haun Ventures. Plume Network was originally meant to be a Layer 2 on Arbitrum Orbit, according to a spokesperson.

Crypto Whale Data
The Daily: Fed Chair Powell 'struck' by crypto debanking prevalence, Unichain goes live on mainnet and more The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons. Happy Tuesday! It's eerily quiet in the crypto market as participants await a fresh catalyst, giving you the perfect opportunity to catch up on the industry's latest. In today's newsletter, Unichain goes live on mainnet, Fed Chair Jerome Powell calls for a 'fresh look' at crypto debanking, Binance and the SEC file a joint motion to halt their legal dispute and more. Meanwhile, the Trump-supported DeFi project World Liberty Financial partners with Ondo Finance to expand tokenized RWA adoption. Let's get started. Uniswap Labs releases Unichain on mainnet Uniswap Labs, the development team behind the largest Ethereum-based decentralized exchange, Uniswap, has launched its Layer 2 Unichain on mainnet, marking its second major product release in two weeks following Uniswap V4. Unichain aims to improve network security, minimize maximal extractable value (MEV) and accelerate Ethereum's rollup-centric roadmap. "For us, just having the most used onchain protocol and one of the most popular front-end interfaces, I think that over the years we've learned a lot," Uniswap founder Hayden Adams told The Block. Innovations include a new block-building system developed together with Flashbots called Rollup-Boost for faster block times and a fair priority gas auction system to reduce MEV activity like the frontrunning of transactions. Unichain also allows users to stake UNI tokens and run nodes to verify network transactions for enhanced security. Adams said 65% of Unichain's net chain revenue will go to validators and stakers, with ongoing UX improvements set for release throughout the year. Fed Chair Powell 'struck' by crypto debanking Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said he and his colleagues are "struck" by the increasing prevalence of debanking in the crypto industry, sometimes referred to as "Operation Chokepoint 2.0," and a "fresh look" at the issue was required. "We don't intentionally do these things, but sometimes regulation leads things to happen and we need to be working on that," Powell said. During a press conference last month, Powell said banks can serve crypto customers as long as they can manage the risk. Debanking concerns have been brought back into the spotlight in Washington recently, with hearings and investigations examining the issue in more detail. Binance and SEC halt legal dispute for 60 days Binance and the SEC have filed a joint motion to pause their legal case for 60 days in consideration of the agency's new crypto task force and its impact on the regulatory landscape. "The work of this task force may impact and facilitate the potential resolution of this case," the filing stated. The SEC originally filed a complaint in June 2023 against Binance, alleging it operated as an unregistered exchange, broker-dealer and clearing agency for financial securities. However, under the new temporary leadership of Mark Uyeda, the SEC plans to scale back enforcement and clarify which crypto assets are securities, shifting from a "regulation by enforcement" approach. President Trump's nominee for permanent SEC Chair, crypto-friendly former regulator Paul Atkins, is still awaiting confirmation by the Senate. OpenSea refutes 'false' KYC rumors for token airdrop NFT marketplace OpenSea denied rumors that it would require a KYC identification process for users to participate in a potential token airdrop following outrage from some community members. The social media frenzy was sparked by terms of service stated on a test website apparently linked to the OpenSea Foundation, hinting at an airdrop. However, OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer responded that none of the rumors were true and the information was merely "boilerplate language," not reflective of the actual rules or policies that would govern any potential airdrop. OpenSea has not confirmed any plans for a token airdrop despite growing speculation over its new points system and platform updates. CAR memecoin collapses 97% from peak The Central African Republic's official memecoin, CAR, has collapsed around 97% from its peak less than two days after its launch, dropping from a market cap of $894 million to around $29 million on Tuesday. CAR's launch on Sunday was met with severe skepticism, though the country's President Faustin-Archange Touadéra has continued to post about the token. The memecoin sector has been particularly affected by recent market volatility following U.S. President Trump's tariff announcements, including his own token. In the next 24 hours The latest U.S. CPI inflation data is released at 8:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday. Est. MoM 0.3%; Core 0.3%. Est. YoY 2.9%; Core 3.1%. U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell testifies on the economic outlook and recent monetary policy actions before the Joint Economic Committee again at 10 a.m. U.S. FOMC member Raphael Bostic will speak at 12 p.m. Ethena is set to unlock 7.93 million ENA tokens worth $3.6 million, representing 0.25% of the circulating supply. Aethir will release 630 million ATH tokens worth $24.4 million, 10.21% of its circulating supply. World Web3 Expo kicks off in Dubai.

Crypto Whale Data
Kanye West, after disclosing he was offered $2 million to launch a token, asks to speak with Coinbase CEO 'concerning crypto' Rapper Kanye West is seemingly looking to get in touch with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong for something “concerning crypto,” according to a cryptic post he made on social media Friday. The move follows a day of erratic posts by West, including some suggesting that he has taken a recent interest in crypto. “WHEN PEOPLE MAKE ALL THAT MONEY WITH A COIN IS THAT CASH OR CONCEPT,” Kanye wrote Friday. The post was sandwiched between a series of posts where West praised Adolf Hitler amid other anti-semitic and sexist remarks. Despite the obscenity of Kanye’s recent tweet-storm, many cryptocurrency advocates and companies pleaded for the rapper to “launch a coin.” This included a long post from streamer Faze Banks, who said West was “one of maybe 5 humans on earth” that could “successfully launch a coin.” Notably, Pump.fun’s official X account responded to West goading him to launch a token. “I was proposed 2 million dollars to scam my community,” Kanye posted, including a screenshot of a direct message from an unnamed contact and undocumented time. “Those left of it. I said no and stopped working with their person who proposed it.” Prediction market Polymarket noted that West’s “odds” of launching a token “just shot up to 46%.” The odds on the market tracking the likelihood of West’s memecoin have been erratic all day, though have largely stayed under 30%, with about $52,000 worth of bets placed. West would hardly be the first celebrity to enter crypto. Just today, David Portnoy promoted what he called a “sh*tcoin” to his sizable social media audience in his first serious return to crypto since promoting the SafeMoon project in 2021. During the Biden administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission Enforcement Division went after a number of celebrities for unpaid endorsements of crypto, including Kanye West’s ex-wife Kim Kardashian for advertising “Ethereum MAX.”

Crypto Whale Data
Florida senator files bill to allow state to invest in bitcoin Florida Republican Senator Joe Gruters filed a bill on Friday proposing that the be allowed to state invest in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In the bill, the senator suggests Florida's chief financial officer be allowed to use public funds to "make investments in bitcoin and other digital assets for a certain purpose," according to the filing. Last October, Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis said the state held about $800 million in “crypto-related” investments. He also said the amount of state funds invested in crypto could grow if Donald Trump became president. Trump took office last month after winning the election in November. The U.S. government investing in bitcoin, specifically a strategic reserve, has been a hot topic of conversation since Trump mentioned the possibility when on the campaign trail last year. Gruters's bill outlines that Florida's CFO's investments "in Bitcoin may not exceed 10% of the total funds in any account." Some of the sources of public funds referenced in the bill, from which capital can be allocated into bitcoin, include the General Revenue Fund, the Budget Stabilization Fund, trust funds "and all agency funds of each state agency and of the judicial branch." The bill also proposes "authorizing the Trustees of the State Board of Administration to invest and reinvest available funds of the System Trust Fund in Bitcoin ... providing that investments of public funds in Bitcoin are exempt from certain security requirements."

Crypto Whale Data
SEC weighs proposal to change BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF to allow in-kind redemptions The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is weighing a proposal to change BlackRock's spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund to allow in-kind redemptions. In a filing posted on Thursday acknowledging the proposal, the SEC asked for comments to be sent in 21 days after its filing is published in the Federal Register. The agency could then decide to approve, disapprove or "institute proceedings," according to the filing. Nasdaq, on behalf of BlackRock, posted an amended rule filing last month that would allow for redemptions and creations in kind for the iShares Bitcoin Trust, according to the Form 19b-4 filing. Over a year ago when the SEC was considering whether to approve spot Bitcoin ETFs, firms were hashing out technical details over how the redemption process would work for such a product. The SEC favored a cash model that required BlackRock to move bitcoin out of storage, sell it right away, and then give the cash back to the investor. The agency later approved BlackRock's spot ETF proposal, alongside others in January 2024. Changing the redemption and creation process won't mean that individual investors will be able to do in-kind transactions, just the authorized participants involved, said James Seyffart, Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst, in a post on X.

Crypto Whale Data
MicroStrategy ends weekly bitcoin buying streak, keeps total holdings at 471,107 BTC Business intelligence firm and corporate bitcoin holder MicroStrategy has ended its latest bitcoin buying streak after twelve consecutive weeks of acquisitions. The firm did not sell any shares of class A common stock under its at-the-market equity offering program, and did not purchase any bitcoin between Jan. 27 and Feb. 2, according to an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. The company's total bitcoin holdings stand at 471,107 BTC, worth over $44 billion. MicroStrategy’s total holdings were bought at an average price of $64,511 per bitcoin, a total cost of around $30.4 billion, including fees and expenses, according to the company's co-founder and executive chairman, Michael Saylor. To put that in perspective, MicroStrategy holds more than 2.2% of bitcoin’s total 21 million supply. As of Jan. 26, the company said it had approximately $4.35 billion billion worth of shares that remained available for sale as part of its “21/21 plan” targeting a total capital raise of $42 billion in equity offerings and fixed-income securities for bitcoin acquisitions. On Friday, MicroStrategy also saw strong demand for its additional preferred stock plan, raising $563.4 million to fuel more bitcoin purchases. Despite the recent Trump tariff-fueled sell off, Mizuho Securities believes the price of bitcoin has room to run another 30% in the next three years, rating MicroStrategy as outperform with a price target of $511 as it is on an “accelerated track” to exceed its capital raise targets. $20 billion acquisition streak MicroStrategy's latest announcement ends a 12-week streak of acquisitions following news last Monday that it had purchased another 10,107 BTC for roughly $1.1 billion in cash at an average estimated price of $105,596 per coin and $1.1 billion worth of bitcoin the week before. MicroStrategy has acquired around $20 billion worth of bitcoin over the past few months alone, and its $84.1 billion market cap trades at a significant premium to its bitcoin net asset value, with some investors airing reservations about the firm's premium to NAV valuation and its equity and debt-funded bitcoin acquisition program in general. MicroStrategy shares closed down 1.6% at $334.79 on Friday, having gained more than 567% over the past year, according to TradingView. MSTR is currently trading down 7.3% in pre-market trading on Monday.

Crypto Whale Data
Elon Musk's father hopes to raise up to $200 million from memecoin he now endorses: Fortune In the wake of President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump’s recent official token launches, Elon Musk’s father, Errol Musk, is the latest to jump on the memecoin bandwagon. In an interview with Fortune, Errol Musk and his business partner, tech consultant Nathan Browne, said they hoped to raise between $150 million and $200 million from a memecoin project called “Musk It.” Errol Musk, who reportedly has a strained relationship with his billionaire son and other family members, is the son of a military cryptographer who studied electromechanics before working as an engineer and property developer, building office spaces and retail centers. He also pursued a career in politics, serving on Pretoria’s city council, and acquired rights to emerald mines in Zambia. “I’m the head of the family,” Errol Musk told Fortune. “It really started with me in our family—I’ve been ‘Musking It’ for years,” he said, adding that he intends to use the proceeds to fund the Musk Institute, a new for-profit think tank he is establishing to pursue his own scientific interests, including flying vehicles. However, Errol Musk and Browne did not create the Musk It coin, which was quietly launched by a Middle Eastern-based crypto company in December, the outlet reported. Instead, Errol Musk explained that they approved the name and chose to collaborate on the token after conceiving the idea for the Musk Institute late last year. Errol Musk told Fortune he is now prepared to publicly endorse the Solana-based, Pump.fun launched MUSKIT token. However, there remains very little public information about the project’s tokenomics, aside from its 1 billion total and circulating supply, and he seemed somewhat in the dark on the details too. Meanwhile, Browne reportedly said that a condition for joining the project was that “this cannot be a pump and dump.” The MUSKIT token had persistently fallen in value since its launch on Dec. 9 but skyrocketed from $0.01 to $0.07 following Errol Musk’s endorsement on Thursday before retracing. The memecoin is currently trading for $0.035, according to CoinGecko, with a market cap of $35 million. While Errol Musk claimed he had recently spoken to his famous son about the project earlier this month, he emphasized Elon Musk had nothing to do with it. However, the project’s website heavily draws on Elon Musk’s endeavors, depicting a Mars base scene with a SpaceX rocket and Tesla Cybertruck, simply adding that the “Mars Musk It base” is “opening soon.” Elon Musk and President Trump’s memecoin advocacy As for Elon Musk, while he has been a long-time advocate for the largest memecoin, Doge, and many third parties have created tokens using his name, he has not launched an official token of his own. “I make Dogecoin jokes and stuff because I just kind of like Dogecoin,” Musk said last year. “Because it’s got the best sense of humor, and it has dogs and memes, and I love all those things.” DOGE is currently trading for $0.33 at a market cap of $48.4 billion, according to The Block’s Dogecoin Price Page. Elon Musk, who already runs Tesla, SpaceX and X, recently took charge of President Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), designed to streamline federal operations and slash spending costs. The high-profile and controversial launch of Trump’s official Solana-based memecoin came during the premiere Crypto Ball in Washington on the Friday night before his inauguration as President. A frenzy of trading activity subsequently lifted the TRUMP token to a fully diluted valuation of more than $75 billion at one point, briefly surpassing DOGE. That was until the launch of returning First Lady Melania Trump's own memecoin, MELANIA, saw a 50% correction for the TRUMP token. Melania's memecoin hit a peak fully diluted valuation of around $13 billion before it also swiftly collapsed in price. TRUMP is currently trading for $25.77 at a market cap of $5.1 billion, and MELANIA is changing hands for $2.06 at a $308 million market cap, per The Block’s Prices Page.

Crypto Whale Data
El Salvador passes bill to revise bitcoin adoption strategy per IMF deal: Reuters El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly approved a bill to revise and potentially scale back the country’s bitcoin adoption strategy — to comply with the requirements of the $1.4 billion deal with the International Monetary Fund. According to Reuters, the bill was approved by Congress with 55 votes in favor and two votes against, only minutes after President Nayib Bukele sent it to the assembly. The bill changes the regulations on the private sector’s acceptance of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin from mandatory to voluntary Last month, El Salvador reached a deal with the IMF that included a $1.4 billion loan to support the country’s reform agenda and address its balance of payments. The IMF’s fund facility, which will last 40 months, is expected to support El Salvador with an estimated $3.5 billion. In exchange for the fund facility, the IMF deal required El Salvador to limit various bitcoin-related activities. This includes making bitcoin acceptance voluntary for the country’s private sector, which is stipulated in the recently approved bill, according to Reuters. “Transparency, regulation, and supervision of digital assets will be enhanced to safeguard financial stability, consumer and investor protection, and financial integrity,” the IMF said in a previous statement regarding the deal with El Salvador. El Salvador became the first country to formally adopt bitcoin as a legal tender in 2021 to promote financial inclusion, following Bukele’s proposal. The government led by Bukele has also embraced bitcoin as a reserve asset, currently holding 6,049 BTC, valued at around $636 million, according to Arkham Intelligence data. Last August, however, President Bukele acknowledged mixed results from the country's bitcoin experiment, citing slower-than-expected adoption of bitcoin.

Crypto Whale Data
Czech National Bank Governor Aleš Michl is set to submit a plan to allocate as much as 5% of its €140 billion ($146 billion) of reserves to bitcoin, according to The Financial Times. Michl told the FT he will present the bitcoin investment plan to the central bank’s board on Thursday to diversify its reserves. If approved, the CNB would become the first central bank known to hold the foremost cryptocurrency. The governor acknowledged bitcoin’s volatility and limited record but highlighted increased investor interest since BlackRock and other asset managers launched U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds and President Trump’s campaign pledges on crypto deregulation and the creation of a bitcoin strategic stockpile. “For the diversification of our assets, bitcoin seems good,” Michl told the FT in an interview. “Those [Trump] guys can now kind of create some bubble for bitcoin, but I think the trend would be an increase without those guys as well, because it’s an alternative [investment] for more people.” Michl noted he had a “totally different philosophy” on bitcoin compared to most of his counterparts. “Of course, if you compare my position with other bankers, then I’m the one entering the jungle, or the pioneer,” Michl told the outlet. “I used to run an investment fund, so I’m a typical investment banker I would say, I like profitability.” More central banks could follow The CNB chief added that more central banks could follow his lead over the next five years, but also warned that the investment could end up proving worthless. “It’s possible to have a big range of outcomes, that bitcoin will have a value of zero or an absolutely fantastic value . . . but in our history we have also had some stocks like Enron or the payment company Wirecard, so we have some experience with bad investments, so, yes, I’m ready [for a possible bitcoin collapse],” he said. The CNB estimated that holding 5% of its foreign reserves in bitcoin over the past decade would have boosted annual returns by 3.5% but also doubled their volatility. Escalating plans The news follows reports earlier this month that Michl was considering bitcoin for potential reserve asset allocation. However, speaking with local media company CNN Prime News on Jan. 6, the central bank chief said there were no concrete plans to acquire cryptocurrency. "Sure, I consider bitcoin, but there are seven of us on the board," Michl said at the time, adding that discussions would continue. "Bitcoin is an interesting option for diversification against other assets." "I was thinking of acquiring just a few bitcoin, but I never intended to make a significant investment," Michl added. However, if his plan is approved, the potential 5% allocation could see as much as $7.3 billion worth of the digital asset acquired. The bank also plans to increase its gold reserves to approximately 5% of total assets by 2028. The CNB’s potential bitcoin allocation marks the latest step in the country’s increasingly crypto-friendly stance, following the passage of a law on Dec. 6 exempting bitcoin holdings of over three years from capital gains tax. This legislation, which was unanimously approved by the Czech parliament, took effect on Jan. 1. In 2021, El Salvador became the first country to roll out an official bitcoin treasury program, though the funds are held by the government, managed by a state development bank rather than its central bank. President Trump also recently issued an executive order establishing a task force to explore a strategic digital asset reserve in the U.S.

Crypto Whale Data
Cboe BZX files again on behalf of firms for a spot Solana ETF in an attempt to get SEC's sign-off Cboe BZX Exchange Inc. filed a fresh set of filings for firms vying for a spot Solana exchange-traded fund. The exchange on Tuesday posted 19b-4 filings for the Canary Solana Trust, Bitwise Solana ETF, 21Shares Core Solana ETF and the VanEck Solana Trust. A 19b-4 filing is a document filed by exchanges on behalf of issuers and once filed, and after acknowledgment from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and when published on the Federal Register, starts the clock on the agency's approval process. Applications for those were rejected last year. One potential issuer, who asked to remain anonymous said that "all of them were pulled at the request of the SEC," according to The Block's previous reporting. Many have been hopeful that a SOL ETF could be approved in 2025 given that the Trump administration has taken a friendlier stance toward crypto. During the last administration under SEC Chair Gary Genser, the agency approved the listing of Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024 and, later that year, Ethereum ETFs. One hurdle for a SOL ETF will be whether it is classified as a commodity or security and could be viewed differently by the agency when compared to Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Crypto Whale Data
Tuttle Capital files for 10 leveraged crypto ETFs, including TRUMP and MELANIA memecoins Tuttle Capital Management filed Monday afternoon for 10 different leveraged crypto exchange-traded funds, including the newly-launched memecoins from U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump. Tuttle filed for 2x leveraged funds to track XRP, Solana, Litecoin, Cardano, Chainlink, Polkdaot, BNP, Bonk, TRUMP and MELANIA. These are believed to the be first exchange-traded product filings of any kind to track for Chainlink, Cardano, Polkadot, BNP and Melania, Bloomberg intelligence analyst James Seyffart said on X. A leveraged ETF uses financial derivatives and debt to amplify the daily returns of an underlying security. Traditional ETFs typically track the securities in their underlying index one-to-one, while a leveraged fund may aim for a 2:1 (or higher) ratio. "To be very clear here," Seyffart said on X, "This is a case of issuers testing the limits of what this SEC is going to allow. I'm expecting the new crypto task force (led by @HesterPeirce) to likely be the lynchpin in determining what's gonna be allowed vs what isn't." Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted this is a 40 Act filing, which means "in theory" these products could be out and trading by April unless the SEC disapproves them. "Will be interesting to see where the SEC draws line (if at all) and why," Balchunas said on X. "I will say it’s been a week since Doge/Trump filing and it hasn’t been withdrawn. That’s something." Last fall, Tuttle Capital Rex Shares launched the first ETFs to offer 200% leveraged exposure and -200% inverse exposure to the daily price movement of MicroStrategy, the largest corporate holder of bitcoin. Last week, Osprey and Rex Shares filed to list non-leveraged ETFs tracking President Trump's memecoin, XRP, BONK and other tokens. “We definitely think there is a demand for it,” Matthew Tuttle told Bloomberg last July, when speaking on highly-levered ETFs. “There's a whole bunch of degens out there who love to trade this stuff.”

Crypto Whale Data
Pump.fun set single-day revenue record, raking in $15.5 million in fees following anniversary Pump.fun launched just over one year ago on January 19, 2024, yet in its short history, the platform has managed to usher in a new era of memecoins — or what the New York State Department of Financial Services calls "sentiment-based virtual currencies." Pump.fun, which launched on Solana, rapidly grew in popularity, becoming the fastest crypto app in history to generate $100 million in revenue, achieving the feat in just 217 days. The viral memecoins it birthed, from Moo Deng to Fartcoin, seek to capitalize on an essential moment in popular internet culture, fund a special cause, or, in some cases, scam their investors, though Pump.fun's novel mechanics to promote legitimate launches formed one core component of its success. Recently, the platform set a new record, racking up $15.38 million in fees on Friday, Jan. 24, according to The Block's data, its highest sum for a single day. The record was achieved due in part to the hype around Vine Coin, a new memecoin launched by Rus Yusupov, one of three co-founders of the defunct looping video platform of the same name. X owner Elon Musk has hinted at reviving the defunct brand on the X platform, and an X software engineer said on Saturday that there's internal excitement at the company around the idea of renaming the app's video tab to Vine. (Twitter acquired Vine in 2012 before shuttering the platform in 2017.) Vine Coin quickly grew to a market cap of nearly $425 million before retreating slightly, but its viral success helped Pump.fun set its one-day revenue record. Pump.fun has seen over $4 billion in volume over the past 2 weeks, and will soon cross the threshold of 2.5 million SOL tokens in volume, according to Dune. Though stories of memecoin-fueled success have captivated the crypto sphere, many investors have lost money in the trading arena. A US law firm is even seeking legal action against the exchange on behalf of investors who have experienced losses trading memecoins on the platform. Meanwhile, Solana DEX aggregator Jupiter's acquisition of memecoin platform Moonshot could threaten Pump.fun's dominance, though it has a long way to climb if Pump.fun's recent record-breaking volume is any indicator

Crypto Whale Data
MicroStrategy to redeem $1.05 billion in convertible notes amid crypto tax uncertainty The business software firm MicroStrategy opted to redeem $1.05 billion worth of 2027 convertible notes and to use the firm's shares to settle all conversion requests, according to a Friday press release. The move could be an attempt to mitigate the firm's debt and entice noteholders to convert to company equity. A note will be converted at a rate of 7.0234 shares of MicroStrategy's class A common stock (MSTR) for every $1,000 of principal amount, the release continues. In other words, that's $142.38 per share of MSTR for a convertible note, nearly half of MSTR's current share price of $374.36. MicroStrategy is the largest corporate holder of bitcoin. The firm owns 461,000 BTC worth valued at around $48 billion, most recently purchasing an 11,000 bitcoin lot for $1.1 billion. Due to provisions under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, MicroStrategy may have to pay up to $18 billion in realized bitcoin gains despite the firm never selling a token, according to reporting from The Wall Street Journal. Taxation rule changes from the Internal Revenue Service, influenced by the Trump administration's pro-crypto agenda, could free MicroStrategy from the requirement. The agency had previously cleared the U.S.-based holding company Berkshire Hathaway from having to pay unrealized gains taxes for its securities. Tax analyst Robert Willen tells the WSJ that "there's no real different in the accounting" between crypto assets and stocks for the unrealized gains tax exemptions, and so he expects the IRS to rule in MicroStrategy's favor.

Crypto Whale Data
Solana-based stablecoin supply hits new peak, surpassing $10 billion The total stablecoin supply on Solana has reached new all-time highs, exceeding $10 billion for the first time. According to DeFiLlama data, the value of stablecoins on the Solana network has soared by nearly 110% since the beginning of January, climbing from $5.1 billion to $10.8 billion. In comparison, Ethereum currently holds $116 billion in stablecoins, BNB Chain has $7 billion, Base contains $3.8 billion, and Arbitrum holds $3.1 billion. This growth has been dominated by the issuance of Circle's USDC (USD Coin) on the network. According to The Block's data dashboard, nearly 80% of Solana's stablecoin supply (about $8 billion) consists of USDC, which has nearly doubled since the start of this month, going from $4.2 billion to $8.2 billion. Tether’s USDT makes up $1.96 billion of stablecoins on the network. This surge in Solana’s stablecoin supply aligns with broader trends of stablecoin usage on the network’s DeFi protocols and increasing trading volume around memecoins over the last year, further buoyed by the rollout of Trump family memecoins on the network. “The recent increase in Solana’s stablecoin supply signals rapid adoption growth, primarily driven by retail interest in the TRUMP memecoin,” said Eden Au, research director at The Block. The launch of these high-profile Trump memecoins has had a broader impact on the Solana ecosystem, with the price of Solana’s native token surging to a record-high level above $260. Solana’s daily transaction fees reached a record high of over $33 million last week amid a large volume of trading activity surrounding memecoins.

Crypto Whale Data
Harry Jung selected to lead CFTC's engagement on crypto under Trump's interim chief Pham U.S. Commodity and Futures Trading Commission Acting Chair Caroline Pham has appointed Harry Jung as Acting Chief of Staff to lead the agency’s engagement on crypto, DeFi and digital assets. Jung joined the CFTC in 2023 as Counselor and Senior Policy Advisor to then-Commissioner Pham. He previously held roles at Citigroup, including in the CEO's Office and as Capital Markets Regulatory Lead, where he led digital asset engagement with U.S. regulators. He also held stints at Morgan Stanley and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Beyond Jung’s appointment, Republican Pham made sweeping changes to the agency’s leadership team under her Democrat predecessor Rostin Benham on Wednesday after being tapped by President Donald Trump for interim chief earlier this week. The CFTC's five members subsequently voted to confirm her as Acting Chair. Pham’s additional appointments on Wednesday include her former Chief of Staff Meghan Tente as Acting General Counsel, Taylor Foy as Acting Director of the Office of Public Affairs and Nicholas Elliot Acting Director of the Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs, who also previously worked in then-Commissioner Pham’s office. “I’m pleased to announce CFTC leadership changes with the beginning of the new Administration, and I want to recognize and thank former Chairman Behnam and his staff,” Pham said in a statement on Wednesday. “I am grateful for their combined many decades of faithful service to the CFTC, and I appreciate our talented CFTC staff who will be assuming these roles on an interim basis.” Trump yet to name permanent CFTC Chair Pham has led multiple digital asset initiatives at the CFTC, including the creation of a Digital Asset Markets subcommittee to make recommendations around governance and risk. Pham also called for a regulatory sandbox in 2023 to create a framework for new technologies and later start a pilot program for digital assets. In a statement on Monday, Pham said she looked forward to leading the CFTC as Acting Chair. “I want to thank President Trump for his confidence in me, and I’m grateful to my colleagues and the CFTC staff for their support," Pham said. "I’m looking forward to engaging with all stakeholders in this new capacity as we focus on the CFTC’s mission to promote well-functioning markets that support economic growth and the competitiveness of the United States.” However, the Trump administration has yet to name a permanent replacement for Behnam, who stepped down on Inauguration Day, with his last day at the CFTC set for Feb. 7. Former CFTC Commissioner Brian Quintenz is reportedly among the top contenders for the role.

Crypto Whale Data
US court rules against Tornado Cash sanctions, TORN cryptocurrency surges 140% A U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas has ordered that a previous court decision supporting sanctions on crypto mixer Tornado Cash be reversed. “It is ordered and adjudged that the judgment of the District Court is reversed, and the cause is remanded to the District Court for further proceedings,” the document said. TORN, the crypto mixer’s native cryptocurrency, surged 140 % following the news — going from $9.5 to over $23 at the time of writing. In August 2022, the Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Tornado Cash a sanctioned entity, citing North Korea’s use of the mixer to commit cybercrimes, such as laundering stolen cryptocurrencies. Its developer, Alexey Pertsev, was sentenced to over five years in prison for money laundering charges. Following the sanction, Tornado Cash user Joseph Van Loon and five other plaintiffs sued the Treasury, Secretary Janet Yellen, OFAC and OFAC Director Andrea Gacki, claiming they overstepped their authority with the sanction. The concept at issue lies within the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which gives the President the authority to block any “property” that a foreign country or a nation has an interest in. While U.S. authorities have used the IEEPA to support their sanctions against Tornado Cash, the term “property,” which is linked to everything that may be the subject of ownership, has been debated. Loon and the plaintiffs argued that Tornado Cash should not be sanctioned because it is software rather than a person or entity. An Appeals Court ruling in November sides with the plaintiffs, stating that the immutable nature of Tornado Cash’s smart contracts makes the mixer an exception from the definition of “property” indicated by the IEEPA. “In theory, should Tornado Cash developers choose to comply with sanctions on mutable smart contracts, those developers could disconnect those mutable smart contracts to make them inaccessible and unusable by anyone on the Ethereum blockchain,” the Appeals Court ruling said. “But they cannot discard, change, disconnect, or control smart contracts that are immutable—like the ones currently listed on OFAC’s SDN list and at issue in this appeal.” Tornado Cash described as not "ownable" The court explained that even with OFAC sanctions, Tornado Cash’s immutable smart contracts remain accessible to anyone with an internet connection, thus making it not “ownable.” While OFAC expanded the definition of a property to include “contracts of any nature,” the Appeals Court found that immutable contracts are not actual contracts that require an agreement between two or more parties. “Immutable smart contracts have only one party in play,” the filing said. It added that Tornado Cash, free of any human effort in execution, also does not qualify as a service, as made in another argument by the Treasury Department. “IEEPA grants the President broad powers to regulate a variety of economic transactions, but its language is not limitless,” the filing said. “Mending a statute’s blind spots or smoothing its disruptive effects falls outside our lane.”

Crypto Whale Data
Crypto market maker CLS Global admits to wash trading on Uniswap after FBI investigation Dubai-based crypto market maker CLS Global has agreed to plead guilty to charges related to wash trading on decentralized trading platform Uniswap, the U.S. prosecutors for the District of Massachusetts announced Tuesday. Upon court approval of the guilty plea, CLS Global will pay $428,059 to the government, including seized cryptocurrency and a fine, and will be prohibited from taking part in crypto transactions on platforms available to U.S. investors, the official statement said. The company was indicted in September last year for one count of conspiracy to commit market manipulation and wire fraud and one count of wire fraud. These charges stem from an undercover FBI investigation into wash trading — a manipulative market practice that artificially inflates the trading volume of a certain asset to attract other investors. In its undercover probe, the FBI created NexFundAI, an Ethereum-based token that traded on the Uniswap exchange. This helped chase down CLS and two other market making companies. The law enforcement has since disabled the crypto project. According to the authorities, CLS admitted to providing wash trading services for NexFundAI, as evidently documented in several video conversations between July and August 2024. “During several video conferences … a CLS Global employee explained that the company could ‘help with volume generation’ so that NexFundAI could meet cryptocurrency exchange listing requirements and attract purchasers of the NexFundAI token,” the prosecutors said. The CLS employee allegedly said that the company used an algorithm that does self-trades, buying and selling from multiple wallets to make it less visible, organic and hard to track. CLS employed traders who bought and sold NexFundAI on Uniswap using the company’s trading wallets, according to the statement. "I know that it's wash trading, and I know people might not be happy about it," the CLS employee allegedly said during one of the video meetings. Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission is also pursuing a related civil enforcement action against CLS Global for alleged securities law violations.

Crypto Whale Data
World Liberty Financial buys $112.8 million in crypto on Trump's first day in office

Crypto Whale Data
Trump's World Liberty buys $25 million of tokens, including Link, Tron, Aave and Ethena World Liberty, a crypto project affiliated with President-elect Donald Trump, has continued to diversify its treasury holdings away from stablecoins and into more speculative tokens. The treasury swapped around $24.6 million of the stablecoin USDC for Ether (ETH), Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), Tron (TRX), Link (LINK), Aave (AAVE) and Ethena (ENA), according to blockchain data platform Arkham. It has purchased $4.7 million of each of the tokens except for Ethena, where it has only bought $2.3 million worth so far, according to block explorer Etherscan. The treasury has been buying Ether on a constant basis over the last few months and currently owns 43,000 ETH with a current value of $143 million — its largest holding, even above stablecoins. It holds $96 million of the stablecoin Tether (USDT) and $56 million of the stablecoin USDC. Beyond this, the project's treasury now holds roughly $6.5 million of Wrapped Bitcoin, Aave and Link, plus $4.6 million of Tron and $3 million of Ethena. The project has not yet bought any of the official Trump memecoins, such as Donald Trump's Official Trump and Melania Trump's MELANIA. In November, Tron founder Justin Sun bought $30 million of WLFI tokens and then was swiftly appointed as an advisor to the project. Sun is now also associated with Wrapped Bitcoin after his firm BiT Global recently became a key stakeholder in the project.

Crypto Whale Data
World Liberty Financial sees surge in token sales following Donald and Melania Trump memecoin launches World Liberty Financial, the DeFi project associated with President-elect Donald Trump, saw surges in governance token sales after Donald and Melania Trump launched their respective memecoins ahead of Trump’s inauguration on Monday. The project announced late Sunday night on X that it has “completed” its mission and sold 20 billion tokens or 20% of the 100 billion token supply. The project has now opened up the sale of an additional 5 billion tokens or 5% of the supply. “Due to massive demand and overwhelming interest, we’ve decided to open up an additional block of 5% of token supply,” the project said. World Liberty Financial’s governance token WLFI saw its cumulative sales reach $254 million late Sunday, up from around $91 million a day earlier, according to Dune Analytics data. Onchain data shows the WLFI token has over 34,000 holders among over 44,500 transactions. Notably, Tron Founder Justin Sun said in an X post on Sunday that Tron DAO has invested an additional $45 million in WLFI, bringing the total investment to $75 million. Sun became an advisor to World Liberty Financial in November after his project poured a $30 million investment into WLFI. The Sunday surge in WLFI token sales followed the launches of Donald Trump’s and Melania Trump's memecoins. Over the weekend, the President-elect launched an “Official Trump” memecoin, with Melania Trump soon following suit with her memecoin “MELANIA.” The Official Trump token quickly surged to a high of around $72 and is trading at $44 at the time of writing. Its market cap currently stands at $8.8 billion, with a $44.1 billion fully diluted valuation (FDV). The MELANIA token’s FDV reached $7.6 billion as it continues to see wild fluctuations in price, according to DEXscreener.

Crypto Whale Data
Trader who spotted Trump memecoin early turned $1 million into $90 million When President-elect Donald Trump posted about the launch of a memecoin on the final business day before his inauguration, many feared that he had been hacked and it was fake. But one trader aped in regardless. Within two minutes of the post going out on Truth Social, this trader swapped 1.09 million USDC for 5.7 million TRUMP tokens on the Meteora market, as highlighted by onchain analysts LookOnChain. They also paid an $85,000 tip to Jito, a Solana infrastructure company focused on MEV, a practice where blockchain users can pay more money to get their transactions through faster or at the top of blocks. Shortly afterwards, this trader sent the TRUMP tokens to another wallet, known by its Solana name ff.sol. Then the funds were split up across many other wallets. In the hours that followed, a portion of the tokens were sold for the stablecoin USDC in some of the wallets, a few also featuring other Solana names. In one wallet, some of the stablecoins were used to buy back TRUMP tokens before selling them again. LookOnChain estimates the trader sold 1.35 million TRUMP for $3.65 million in total. This leaves 4.62 million TRUMP tokens, which are currently worth $87 million, bringing the trader's total holdings of TRUMP tokens and proceeds above $90 million. The TRUMP memecoin has been on a huge rally since its launch just hours ago. The token has already reached a $4 billion market cap and broken into the top 40 tokens on CoinGecko. With a lot of the supply locked up, its fully diluted valuation is currently at $21 billion, which would rank it in the top 10 tokens if that was its current market cap. Solana-based exchange Jupiter and Meteora have both made statements confirming the legitimacy of the Trump memecoin.

Crypto Whale Data
Trump posts send 'official' $TRUMP memecoin to $9 billion market cap President-elect Donald Trump launched a Solana-based memecoin Friday night via posts on his social media accounts, three days before he takes the oath of office to become the 47th president of the United States. The memecoin quickly reached a market cap of over $9 billion, overtaking established memecoins such as Pepe and Bonk. “My NEW Official Trump Meme is HERE!” the messages read on Trump’s official Truth Social and X accounts. “It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING! Join my very special Trump Community. GET YOUR $TRUMP NOW.” Though some crypto investors initially suspected a hack, the project appears to be associated with the same entity that launched Trump's collectible NFT trading cards, CIC Digital LLC. CIC Digital LLC is fully owned by The Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust and is the entity through which Trump entered into a licensing agreement for the sale of his Trump-branded NFTs, earning more than $7 million according to a financial disclosure form. "CIC Digital LLC and Celebration Cards LLC, the owners of Fight Fight Fight LLC, will receive trading revenue derived from trading activities of Trump Meme Cards," the token's website states. The website refers to the tokens as "Trump Memes," and states the tokens "...are not intended to be, or to be the subject of, an investment opportunity, investment contract, or security of any type." Trump also used his Truth Social account Friday night to announce the appointment of 'Peggy Schwinn' as the Deputy Secretary of Education and to share a personal message rallying his fans as his inauguration on Monday approaches. (Trump apparently meant to announce the appointment of Penny Schwinn, but mistyped.) The token's website says there are 200 million $TRUMP tokens available on day one, with the supply growing to a total of one billion over three years. "Creators and CIC Digital" are set to receive 80% of the token over three years of tranched unlocks, with 10% allocated for "Public Distribution" and a final 10% set aside for "Liquidity." “I don't like to tweet about coins, and in no way shape or form is this a promotion,” a Jupiter Exchange dev posted on X. “But to keep people safe, this is the real Trump coin. We have approved it to the Jupiter strictlist.” Representatives for Trump could not be immediately reached for comment. Just three hours after launch, the token rocketed to a market cap of nearly $9 billion, before retreating slightly, according to on-chain data. Coincidentally, crypto firms are hosting an inaugural "Crypto Ball" Friday night in downtown Washington. The President-elect's son, Donald Trump Jr., showed up at the event, which sold tickets for $2,500 per person. Snoop Dogg also performed. "The event, which is set to feature Snoop Dogg as a musical guest, is being put on in part by David Bailey, who runs a bitcoin conference that Trump spoke at last summer," Politico reports. "Other sponsors include the Coinbase-backed advocacy group Stand With Crypto and the digital asset firms Exodus, Anchorage Digital and Kraken." Trump’s token shift A former crypto-skeptic, Trump championed himself as “the crypto president” throughout his ca campaign in 2024. He plans to issue an executive order making crypto a "national policy priority" after his inauguration on Monday, according to Bloomberg sources. The executive order aims to enhance collaboration between the government and the crypto industry through a new crypto advisory council. Notably, Trump supported the debut of World Liberty Financial, a DeFi protocol that counts former that counts the President-elect as its "chief crypto advocate. Pundits decried World Liberty Financial's lackluster sales, with Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan calling it “a meme masquerading as a utility project.” "Everything this man touches is a grift, and his newfound policy stance is no different," crypto-friendly Democratic Rep. Wiley Nickel of North Carolina told The Block last September. "For those of us who have worked to advance crypto innovations through real bipartisan action, Trump’s involvement does nothing but harm serious efforts to build a secure and regulated future for digital assets." Memecoins inspired by Trump had been surging higher over the past few weeks but were selling off Friday night, with several down between 20-50%.

Crypto Whale Data
Digital Currency Group agrees to pay $38 million to settle with SEC over negligence Global investment firm Digital Currency Group agreed to settle and pay $38 million to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday over allegations that it misled investors via crypto lender Genesis Global Capital, LLC. The SEC said that one of Genesis' largest borrowers was asset hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and said on June 13 that the fund "failed to meet a margin call." "In mid-June 2022, a large borrower defaulted on a margin call, which compromised GGC’s business," the SEC said in a filing on Friday. "Yet, Digital Currency Group negligently engaged in conduct that misleadingly downplayed the impact of that default and overstated what Digital Currency Group did to help GGC in the aftermath." Former Genesis CEO Soichiro "Michael" Moro also agreed to settle with SEC and pay $500,000 over charges involving negligence. DCG has been in the crosshairs of regulators for years. The New York State Attorney General The NYAG sued crypto exchange Gemini, crypto lender Genesis and its parent company DCG in October over the Gemini crypto lending program. At the time, James said the three entities defrauded more than 29,000 New Yorkers of more than $1 billion. James also said DCG and Genesis "disguised $1.1 billion in losses through a months-long campaign of misstatements, omissions, and concealment." Genesis filed for bankruptcy in 2023 and completed its bankruptcy restructuring in August 2024. When filing for bankruptcy, Genesis disclosed it had over 100,000 creditors and had as much as $10 billion in liabilities. It owed approximately $3 billion to its top 50 creditors, including Gemini, asset manager VanEck and trading firm Cumberland.

Crypto Whale Data
Wintermute sees OTC volume quadruple due to ‘unprecedented’ institutional demand Crypto market maker Wintermute said its over-the-counter trade volumes quadrupled in 2024, largely driven by the increase in institutional demand for crypto. The company said in its year-end report that its OTC volumes rose by 313% last year, which exceeds the 142% yearly growth seen in the overall crypto exchange market. The number of trades jumped 250% compared to 2023, the report added. According to Wintermute, a single-day high for OTC trade volume last year was worth $2.24 billion. This marked a significant increase from the $2 billion record set over an entire week in 2023. The growth signifies increased participation from institutional investors, as key developments — such as the approval of spot crypto ETFs and growing political support for clearer regulations — helped lower the barriers for traditional players, according to the report. “This regulatory clarity catalyzed unprecedented institutional engagement and capital inflows, fostering a rapidly growing trading ecosystem that increasingly interconnects with traditional finance,” Wintermute said. Wintermute’s report also found that the OTC derivatives volume rose by 300%, as institutions sought more sophisticated instruments for yield and risk management. Meanwhile, Wintermute said traditional finance players are showing more interest in memecoins, which saw a meteoric rise in 2024. The share of memecoins in Wintermute’s OTC spot volume grew to 16.2% last year from 7.3% in 2023, while the share of major cryptocurrencies fell 58.7% from 67.9%. Bitcoin reserves and memecoin ETFs “Looking ahead to 2025, we anticipate even greater momentum as crypto integrates deeper into global financial infrastructure through ETFs, corporate holdings, tokenization, and the rise of structured products,” said Evgeny Gaevoy, CEO of Wintermute Group. The market maker’s end-of-year report predicted that 2025 would see a decline in price volatility driven by greater market participation and trade volume. It also forecasts the normalization of call skews with the rise of bitcoin and ether ETF options and other products. As pro-crypto President-elect Donald Trump takes office the coming Monday, Wintermute said it expects the new administration to reduce regulatory uncertainty for crypto by potentially classifying them as commodities. One of Trump’s more prominent crypto policy promises, establishing a national strategic bitcoin reserve, may force China, UAE and Europe to follow, Wintermute said. The company also predicted more crypto ETF products to be launched this year, including multi-asset crypto ETFs and products that mirror specific categories of crypto such as DeFi tokens and memecoins. “In 2025, a core asset manager will launch a memecoin ETF,” said Wintermute, adding that the launch of a Dogecoin ETF would be likely. On Thursday, Nasdaq filed a 19b-4 form on behalf of Canary Capital for its spot Litecoin ETF, following the issuer’s amended S-1 form filing on Wednesday. This indicates that Litecoin would likely become the first altcoin ETF of this year. “Litecoin ETF now has all the boxes checked,” Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas wrote on X. “I don't see any reason why this would be withdrawn either given [the] SEC gave comments on the S-1, litecoin is seen as [a] commodity and there's [a] new SEC sheriff in town.” Disclaimer: Evgeny Gaevoy, the founder and CEO of Wintermute, previously sat on The Block’s board of directors from April 2023 to early November 2023 and remains a minority shareholder

Crypto Whale Data
30% of Ethereum validators signal higher block gas limit, data shows Over 30% of Ethereum validators are signaling their support for an increase in the block gas limit — a critical parameter that dictates the network’s capacity to process transactions — data compiled by Ethereum Foundation researcher Toni Wahrstätter shows. Currently, the Ethereum gas limit is 30 million and one-third of validators have indicated that the Ethereum block gas limit should be raised from 30 million to 40 million gas units. Validators proposing and validating blocks can modify their node configurations to signal their support for a higher limit without requiring a hard fork. Once more than 50% of validators approve, the block gas limit will automatically adjust to the next agreed-upon level, targeted at 40 million. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin also recommended this 33% increase last year. Recognizing the need for increased capacity, an initiative known as “Pump the Gas” emerged last year, advocating an increase in the gas limit. Led by Ethereum developer Eric Connor and former MakerDAO head of smart contracts Mariano Conti, it aims to educate the Ethereum community about the gas limit and its role in improving Ethereum scaling. In the Ethereum blockchain, “gas” is the fundamental unit to measure the computational effort required to execute transactions or smart contracts. Every operation performed on the Ethereum network, from simple token transfers to complex smart contract interactions, consumes a certain amount of gas. This mechanism ensures that users pay for the resources they consume and prevents malicious actors from overloading the network. As such, the gas limit defines the maximum amount of gas all transactions can consume within a single block. This limit is a critical safeguard against network congestion and potential denial-of-service attacks. The timeline for this gas limit increase is unclear. Following the implementation of proto-danksharding (blobs) in last year's Dencun upgrade, the urgency to raise the gas limit has somewhat decreased. The addition of blobs has eased some scalability issues by offering a new approach to data storage and management, which is particularly useful for Layer 2 rollups. Nonetheless, if Ethereum's demand for decentralized applications grows over time, an increase in the gas limit will become necessary.

Crypto Whale Data
Trump's return to Washington kicks off flurry of crypto-related activity, IRS challenges and focus on crypto debanking The next few days and weeks are shaping up to be a whirlwind as the Trump administration returns to Washington, D.C. with plans to issue digital asset-related executive orders and as lawmakers are set to focus on crypto debanking. Multiple crypto organizations are also hosting parties in Washington over the next week to embrace the incoming administration and lawmakers. BTC Inc. and Stand with Crypto are hosting the Inaugural Crypto Ball on Friday, where partygoers can "enjoy cocktails and hors d'oeuvres" while celebrating Trump's inauguration. Coinbase, Solana, MetaMask and Robinhood Crypto are sponsoring the event, according to its website. The week of Trump's inauguration, The Digital Chamber and the Constellation Network are hosting a "Crypto Welcome: The 119th Congress Kickoff." After the parties wrap up, expect a flood of hearings, executive orders and nominations involving crypto. Here's how the first part of 2025 is likely to shake out: New challenges First up, lawmakers will likely challenge a controversial tax rule in the coming days that requires brokers in decentralized finance to report on gross proceeds from digital asset sales. The Internal Revenue Service finalized that rule in late December and received pushback from some in the crypto industry who argue that crypto differs from traditional assets as it's not always obvious in DeFi who or what entity would collect and disseminate user data. In a letter to the Treasury in December, some lawmakers slammed the ruling, calling it an "attack on digital assets. " There will be an update from Congress this week on that, likely a resolution under the Congressional Review Act to overturn the rule, said Ron Hammond, senior director of government relations at the Blockchain Association, in an interview with The Block. The Congressional Review Act, or CRA, was enacted in 1996 and can be used by lawmakers to "overturn certain federal agency actions," according to the Congressional Research Service. That process was used last year in an attempt to overturn the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Staff Accounting Bulletin 121, or SAB 121, and was later vetoed by President Joe Biden. That bulletin requires firms that custody cryptocurrencies to record their customers' crypto holdings as liabilities on their balance sheets, and brought concerns among those in the crypto industry. Executive orders Trump is poised to issue executive orders on his first day that could include creating a crypto council and ensuring that firms have access to banks, according to Reuters. The Washington Post reported on Monday that Trump could also issue executive orders that encompass repealing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's controversial crypto accounting guidance, SAB 121. It is unclear whether a crypto executive order will come to fruition on Jan. 20, the day of Trump's inauguration, or within the first week, Hammond said. That executive order is likely to include the establishment of a crypto council that could have anywhere between 10 and 100 members. Those members will presumably be crypto executives, but those decisions will be up to the firms to pick who will represent them in the council, Hammond said. "It's unclear at the moment what that's going to look like, but the EO will be important for that," he said. Hearings With both the Senate and the House having a Republican majority, crypto is expected to come into focus as lawmakers gear up for hearings on crypto debanking, stablecoins and regulating the industry at large. Debanking is likely to be the hot topic, Hammond said. Some in the crypto industry have accused the Biden administration of blocking crypto from banking services, labeling the move "Operation Choke Point 2.0. " This moniker alludes to Operation Choke Point 1.0, a 2013 U.S. Department of Justice Initiative that sought to limit banking services for industries considered high-risk for fraud and money laundering, including payday lenders and firearm dealers. Federal agencies asserted that they do not discourage financial institutions from working with crypto. In the 2024 Risk Review report, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and other agencies "continue to emphasize that banking organizations are neither prohibited nor discouraged from providing banking services to customers of any specific class or type." Newly picked House Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) has vowed to investigate debanking and said his committee would take a "strong position." Hill plans to focus on crypto debanking, market structure and stablecoins, a source familiar with the House Financial Services Committee told The Block. Hearings around stablecoin and crypto market structure bills could start to crop up closer to March, Hammond said. Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) laid out his committee's priorities on Wednesday. These include bolstering access to capital and creating a regulatory framework for digital assets. "The committee will also foster an open-minded environment for new, innovative financial technologies and digital asset products, like stablecoins, that promote financial inclusivity," Scott said in a statement. Both the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee are integral in starting hearings, discussions and potential votes on future crypto legislation. Nominations Nominations for Trump's picks to lead key agencies are starting this week and will continue garnering attention. Hedge fund manager Scott Bessent's nomination hearing to become the U.S. Secretary of Treasury is slated for Thursday. Bessent, tapped by Trump in late November, has spoken positively about crypto. Bessent told Fox Business in July that he was "excited about the president's embrace of crypto." Trump later picked crypto-friendly former regulator Paul Atkins to lead the SEC. The agency is likely to look very different following a shakeup in leadership and the departure of Chair Gary Gensler, who had a tense relationship with key players in the crypto industry. The announcement of Atkins' nomination hearing could come in the next few weeks and then take place in March, depending on floor time, Hammond said. "It's kind of hard to predict," Hammond said

Crypto Whale Data
Base memecoin Toshi surges over 130% upon Coinbase listing roadmap addition Toshi, a memecoin on the Base network, surged 133% in the past 24 hours after Coinbase announced Tuesday that it is adding the token to its future listing roadmap. The price of Toshi, named after Coinbase co-founder Brian Armstrong’s cat and Bitcoin’s creator Satoshi Nakamoto, jumped 160% at one point, reaching a high of $0.00036788 shortly after the announcement. It has since retraced part of its gains and is currently trading at around $0.000305, according to CoinGecko data. Toshi currently holds a market capitalization of $129.8 million, and saw over $49 million traded in the past 24 hours. The token's inclusion on Coinbase's listing roadmap generated buzz on social media platform X, with some members of the crypto community viewing this as a major step toward wider recognition for memecoins built on the Base blockchain. Once listed, Toshi would become the second Base-native memecoin to be listed on Coinbase, Rishi Prasad, who works on product at Coinbase, wrote on X. In spite of Base being a blockchain incubated by Coinbase, the exchange has only listed one Base-native memecoin, Degen, back in October, according to Prasad. Coinbase remains one of the world's largest crypto exchanges, with its monthly trading volume reaching $191.9 billion in December from $175.8 billion in November.

Crypto Whale Data
Gensler says the SEC has 'never said' that bitcoin and ether are securities The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has "never said" that bitcoin and ether are securities, outgoing Chair Gary Gensler told Yahoo Finance on Tuesday. That assertion follows back and forth on whether the world's second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is a security following litigation and pointed questions from lawmakers on whether the token falls under the SEC's jurisdiction. Gensler said neither he nor his predecessor, former chair Jay Clayton, has said that bitcoin is a security. "We haven't said Ethereum is a security," he said on Yahoo Finance. "I think investors in Bitcoin and Ethereum, the masses as you said, had access to these prior to the exchange-traded funds and products." When asked to clarify by Yahoo Finance that bitcoin and ether are not securities, Gensler got granular. "I said that we, the SEC, have never said they're securities," Gensler said, adding that he can't say outright that both tokens are not securities due to the nature of his job. Gensler's assertion comes less than a week before he plans to step down from his post, just ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration. During his time leading the SEC, the agency issued subpoenas to firms that dealt with the Ethereum Foundation, according to reports from Fortune in March 2024. A month later, Consensys sued the SEC and said the agency's former director of the division of enforcement approved an initiative called the “Formal Order of Investigation in the matter of “Ethereum 2.0” in 2023. Lawmakers have also asked Gensler for clarification on whether ether is a security. Former House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry pressed Gensler for more clarity during a hearing in April 2023. “Give me a break, come on,” said McHenry following repeated attempts to get Gensler to provide further detail on ether. “There’s a lack of clarity here, can you at least agree with that?" In January 2024, the SEC approved the listing of Bitcoin ETFs and, later, Ethereum ETFs. Investors received better protections with exchange-traded products, such as lower fees, surveillance and disclosures, Gensler said on Tuesday. "Over 70%, maybe 80% of the crypto market is related to Bitcoin and Ethereum," Gensler said on Yahoo Finance. "I really take a look at the other part, these 10,000 to 15,000 other tokens, which can only really persist because investors are investing, in essence, betting on a project. They need the proper disclosure. The law says you're supposed to get that disclosure and they're not currently compliant." Earlier on Tuesday on CNBC, Gensler pointed to bitcoin as potentially different from the thousands of other cryptocurrencies. "Bitcoin is a highly speculative, volatile asset, but with seven billion people around the globe, seven billion people want to trade it just like we do have gold for 10,000 years, we have bitcoin – it might be something else in the future as well," Gensler said.

Crypto Whale Data
New crypto VC Sigma Capital targets $100 million fund, with $40 million pre-committed Sigma Capital, a new crypto venture capital firm founded by former Cypher Capital executive Vineet Budki, has announced its first fund. The fund aims to raise $100 million and has around $40 million in pre-commitments, Budki told The Block. He added that the first close is expected on June 30, with the final close anticipated 18 months later. Budki said the pre-commitments are from crypto funds, high-net-worth individuals and angel investors. He declined to name the investors but said they have previously collectively backed over 200 startups, such as Manta Network, Humanity Protocol and Casper Labs. Sigma Capital's debut aligns with a bullish crypto market, marked by bitcoin's recent surge above $100,000 and growing investor activity. The firm aims to capitalize on this favorable climate with its first fund. "Crypto hasn't even started yet; we are too early," Budki said. "It's not about money made in the next 10 years, but the control and wealth that real investors will have are the keys." Aims to be 'Sequoia/SoftBank of crypto' Sigma Capital aims to become a Sequoia or SoftBank of the crypto market, Budki said, citing his and his team's track record of notable early-stage investments at Cypher Capital, Phoenix VC and other firms. These include TON, Solana, Sui, Sei and Berachain, Budki said. Sigma's planned fund will allocate its investments after the first close across three categories: 50% to early-stage startups, 40% to liquid tokens and high-yield DeFi strategies and 10% to fund-of-funds over the next three years, according to Budki. The portfolio is expected to feature up to 100 early-stage venture deals with a median check size of $500,000, up to 25 liquid deals ranging from $2–3 million each and up to 10 fund-of-funds deals averaging $1 million each, Budki added. As for verticals, Sigma plans to invest across DeFi, blockchain infrastructure, real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, gaming and the metaverse. Budki said he prefers a founder-driven investment approach, prioritizing strong founders over specific sectors due to the likelihood of pivots. Investment timing is also critical — down markets favor infrastructure and large capital raises, while bullish markets bring attention to consumer-facing products like gaming, DeFi and RWA tokenization — he added. Sigma will be based in Dubai and Singapore and regulated in the Cayman Islands, Budki said, adding that the firm plans to have a headcount of about 30 people.

Crypto Whale Data
Tether poised to relocate to El Salvador after securing DASP license Tether said it's "about to complete all formalities" required to relocate to El Salvador following the successful acquisition of a Digital Asset Service Provider (DASP) license. "El Salvador is rapidly establishing itself as a global hub for digital assets and technology innovation," Tether said Monday in a post. "With its forward-thinking policies, favorable regulatory environment, and a growing Bitcoin-savvy community, the country has become an ideal destination for companies leading the digital finance revolution." The news comes a week after Bitfinex Derivatives said it is relocating its operations to El Salvador following its acquisition of a DASP license. El Salvador became the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender in 2021. The country plans to ease a policy that required businesses to accept bitcoin as legal tender as part of a deal with the IMF, according to a December report from Financial Times. Tether, the issuer of the world's largest stablecoin by market cap, said its move to El Salvador positions it to further scale its efforts in supporting financial inclusion by leveraging bitcoin and stablecoin adoption in underserved regions. "This decision is a natural progression for Tether as it allows us to build a new home, foster collaboration, and strengthen our focus on emerging markets," said Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino. "El Salvador represents a beacon of innovation in the digital assets space. By rooting ourselves here, we are not only aligning with a country that shares our vision in terms of financial freedom, innovation, and resilience but is also reinforcing our commitment to empowering people worldwide through decentralized technologies." El Salvador owns 5,750 bitcoin as of May 2024, which is worth about $530 million at publication time. Tether's USDT stablecoin has a market cap of $137 billion

Crypto Whale Data
CoinShares says 'post-US election honeymoon is over' as macro and monetary policy weigh heavy on crypto fund flows Global crypto funds run by asset managers such as BlackRock, Bitwise, Fidelity, Grayscale, ProShares and 21Shares registered modest net inflows of $48 million last week as macro and monetary policy reasserted themselves, according to CoinShares. While the week got off to a good start, with global crypto investment products attracting nearly $1 billion, the release of new macroeconomic data and the Federal Open Market Committee’s latest meeting minutes suggested a stronger U.S. economy and a more hawkish Fed, leading to outflows of $940 million in the latter half, CoinShares Head of Research James Butterfill noted in a Monday report. “This suggests that the post-US election honeymoon is over, and macroeconomic data is once again a key driver of asset prices,” Butterfill said. Bitcoin and ether’s mixed fortunes Bitcoin-based investment products led last week’s net inflows globally, adding $214 million despite witnessing the largest net outflows later in the week. They remain the best-performing crypto funds this year so far, clocking $799 million worth of net inflows. The U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds represented $312.8 of the overall net inflows, according to data compiled by The Block, though U.S. markets were also closed on Thursday in observance of a national day of mourning for former President Jimmy Carter. Ethereum-based funds suffered the most, experiencing net outflows of $256 million for the week. “We believe [this] is attributed to the broader tech sell-off rather than any specific issue with the asset,” Butterfill said, reflecting on the Nasdaq 100’s 3.5% decline over the period. U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs accounted for $186 million of those net outflows last week, according to The Block's data dashboard. However, XRP-based products managed to generate $41 million in net inflows last week amid heightened optimism ahead of the Jan. 15 Securities and Exchange Commission appeal deadline in the Ripple case, Butterfill said. Solana-based funds also saw net inflows of $15 million. Despite poor price performance during the week, other altcoin-based products, including Aave, Stellar and Polkadot, also witnessed net inflows, Butterfill noted. Bitcoin fell 7.8% over the past week and is currently trading for $90,897, according to The Block’s Bitcoin Price Page. Ether has dropped 14.8% and is now changing hands for $3,063. Meanwhile, the GMCI 30 index, which represents a selection of the top 30 cryptocurrencies, is down 12.5% over the past week to 176.64.

Crypto Whale Data
String of X hijacks continues as hackers access accounts of Litecoin, Foresight Ventures, and others A recent string of X account hijacks has continued over the weekend as several more accounts belonging to prominent individuals or companies in the crypto space were commandeered by hackers and used to promote scams. Litecoin's X account was compromised on Saturday and used to promote a memecoin scam to its 1.1 million followers. After regaining control over the account, Litecoin apologized for the incident. "Litecoin's X account was briefly compromised today and posts that were not authorized were published," Litecoin's X account posted. "These were live only for a matter of seconds before being deleted. We're still investigating the issue, but immediately found a delegated account that was compromised and removed it. We apologize for any confusion caused." Also affected on Saturday was the X account of Foresight Ventures and its 28,000 followers, and on Sunday, the X account of LayerZero Labs co-founder and CTO Ryan Zarick was likewise compromised and used to promote a scam to his 12,500 followers. The X account of Holoworld AI, which boasts over 150,000 followers, was also compromised last week. A typical scam post from a hijacked X account. Screenshot: Zack Abrams. Scam posts, such as the above, generally entice users with promises of a newly-launched memecoin or airdrop, and restrict replies to prevent users from calling out the scam. Though account owners often regain control of the account quickly, some fast-moving crypto traders often fall victim to the scheme. X account hijacks in recent weeks have also affected musicians Drake and Wiz Khalifa, the Cardano Foundation, AI startup Anthropic, and more. Security researcher ZachXBT said in November that a series of related X account compromises led to the theft of over $3.5 million through memecoin scams. How to protect your X account Security researcher Taylor Monahan, when asked for advice on how users can protect themselves from such attacks, recommended users conduct a self-audit using a guide published by Security Alliance, also known as SEAL Org. The guide recommends users remove their phone number from their X account, configure two-factor authentication, and review the list of accounts with delegate access. "I strongly recommend everyone takes the steps included there, even if they think they have done it before," Monahan said. "Twitter has updated certain settings over time and encouraged users to re-add their phone number." If a user's X account is hijacked, Monahan said notifying SEAL through its SEAL-911 Telegram bot can help security professionals contain the damage. "We can very quickly block the malicious URL in MetaMask and a lot of other wallets and crypto security providers. Doing so dramatically reduces the impact of these account takeovers," Monahan said.

Crypto Whale Data
Mango Markets to wind down in wake of SEC settlement, DAO battle Solana-based decentralized exchange Mango Markets will wind down its operations on Monday in the wake of an SEC settlement that required Mango's governance DAO and development organization to destroy their MNGO tokens and delist them from all exchanges. "Mango v4 & Boost are winding down," the protocol's X account posted on Saturday. "Most borrowing on Mango will be economically unviable going forward." Proposals to modify Mango Markets' interest rates and collateral requirements in order to dissuade borrowing and lending will become executable on Monday, Jan. 13, at 8 p.m. UTC; both proposals currently show unanimous support and have reached the threshold needed for passage. Mango's tumultuous history Mango Markets was infamously exploited by Avraham "Avi" Eisenberg in October 2022 in what Eisenberg claimed was a "highly profitable trading strategy," which saw Eisenberg drain $110 million from the platform after manipulating the price of its native MNGO token on other exchanges. Eisenberg was convicted on fraud charges related to the exploit by a New York jury in April of this year, though he has since requested a new trial. In September of 2024, Mango's governance DAO agreed to settle an SEC lawsuit that charged Mango DAO, Mango Labs, and a Panama entity dubbed Blockworks Foundation (no relation to the similarly-named media organization) with selling unregistered crypto assets and acting as an unregistered broker. Late in 2024, Mango's DAO became embroiled in another controversy as some of its co-founders and core contributors filed lawsuits against each other in a spat over a tranche of locked MNGO tokens purchased from the FTX estate. "I believe that all active contributors by now have expressed a desire to stop working on Mango in general or specifically on Mango v4 & Boost," Mango co-founder Maximilian Schneider wrote in the protocol's Discord on Jan. 3, calling for a discussion and opinion vote on the topic of a "graceful shutdown" for Mango Markets. After other team members agreed, Mango Markets announced its intent to wind down. Mango Markets did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Block

Crypto Whale Data
Alleged Blender and Sinbad crypto mixer operators charged in money laundering case A Northern District of Georgia federal grand jury charged three Russian nationals for alleged crimes connected to operating two crypto mixers. The defendants, Roman Vitalyevich Ostapenko, Alexander Evgenievich Oleynik and Anton Vyachlavovich Tarasov, allegedly operated two mixers called Blender.io and Sinbad.io, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Justice on Friday. They have been charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. Crypto mixers, services used to obfuscate cryptocurrency transactions, are a common target for law enforcement due to their alleged use by criminals. For instance, in 2022, the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned the Ethereum-based mixer Tornado Cash, asserting it helped launder hundreds of millions of dollars worth of crypto from bad actors, including the North Korean state-sponsored Lazarus Group. The United States sanctioned Blender in May 2022, after finding that North Korean hackers used the mixer to launder $20.5 million from the roughly $600 million Axie Infinity hack. Blockchain forensics firm Elliptic noted in 2023 that Sinbad appeared to be a rebranded version of the mixer as it was nearly identical and likely operated by the same group, The Block previously reported. “By allegedly operating these mixers, the defendants made it easier for state-sponsored hacking groups and other cybercriminals to profit from offenses that jeopardized both public safety and national security." Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brent S. Wible said in a Jan. 10 statement. He added that mixers serve as "safe havens" for laundering funds derived from criminal means like ransomware and fraud. Blender maintained a "no logs policy" and deleted user transaction details. It operated from 2018 to 2022 with successor mixer Sinbad emerging a few months after Blender's closure. A law enforcement action shut Sinbad down on Nov. 27, 2023. The indictment charged Ostapenko with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and two counts related to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. Oleynik and Tarasov recieved one count each for the same purported illicit actions. If convicted, the defendants could receive up to 20 years in prison for the money laundering count and five years for each charge of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. Ostapenko and Oleynik were arrested on Dec. 1, 2024. Tarasov remains at large.

Crypto Whale Data
Coinbase subpoenaed by CFTC in Polymarket investigation, alerted users via email Coinbase has received a subpoena from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission seeking information related to Polymarket, sources familiar with the matter told The Block. The U.S. exchange has reportedly been sending emails to clients alerting them of an ongoing investigation, according to several screenshots posted on social media. Decrypt was the first to report on the news. “We write to inform you that Coinbase has been served with a subpoena in the above-referenced matter seeking general customer information that includes information related to your account(s),” according to a screenshot shared by prominent Ethereum commentator Eric Conner. The email subject line reads “CFTC Subpoena to Coinbase In The Matter Polymarket (C9453) Customer Notice.” It was sent from the civil.subpoenas@coinbase.com address and notes that action is not required from users and that Coinbase may not be required to send customer information. “In some cases, we may be required by law to share necessary data lawfully sought after by the government,” a Coinbase spokesperson told The Block. “Where necessary, we will seek to narrow requests that are overly broad or vague in order to provide a more appropriately tailored response, and in some cases, we object to producing any information at all (such as if the request is legally insufficient). Polymarket emerged as a standout blockchain-based app during the lead-up to the U.S. election in November. Despite being geofenced to prevent U.S. users from placing bets, the platform recorded a cumulative trading volume exceeding $9 billion in 2024, according to data from The Block Research. Regulatory scrutiny and CFTC enforcement actions In 2022, Polymarket settled with the CFTC for allegedly offering illicit binary options contracts. In return, It agreed to pay a $1.4 million fine, wind down its non-compliant markets and take preventative steps to block U.S. users on an ongoing basis. The CFTC has taken a strict line in regulating betting markets. For instance, Kalshi, one of the few platforms approved to operate in the U.S., fought a long court battle for the right to list contracts related to U.S. elections due to CFTC concerns that it may unfairly sway outcomes. Prediction markets, long the purview of academic economics, offer a way for users to bet on the likelihood of future events and, therefore, help aggregate the “wisdom of the crowd.” In theory, because users have skin in the game, their predictions will be less likely to suffer from bias. This is not the first inquiry Polymarket has received from the U.S. government. In November, the Federal Bureau of Investigation seized Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan's phone and electronics in a raid of his New York City apartment. Coplan is reportedly facing a Department of Justice probe over alleged U.S. users, which Coplan has suggested is politically motivated. Polymarket also voluntarily blocked users in France after the country’s gaming regulator began examining its operations and compliance initiatives. Anecdotal reports of U.S. users bypassing the platform using VPNs have long plagued Polymarket, which surged in popularity during the election season. In all, Polymarket gamblers spent more than $3.7 billion placing bets on the presidential election. Active Polymarket traders reached a new peak of 314,500 in December

Crypto Whale Data
Bitcoin pulls back as Fed’s December minutes signal slower rate cuts in 2025 Bitcoin has retreated from its early-week high of over $102,000 as global markets reacted to the Federal Reserve's December meeting minutes. The minutes revealed that Fed officials anticipate slowing the pace of interest rate cuts in 2025, citing concerns about persistently high inflation and potential economic challenges, including tariffs and other policy shifts under the new Trump administration. The minutes from the Dec. 17-18 meeting noted that “recent higher-than-expected readings on inflation, and the effects of potential changes in trade and immigration policy, suggested that the process could take longer than previously anticipated." Additionally, the minutes highlighted that there were divisions among policymakers over whether to cut rates at the December Federal Open Market Committee meeting. While the decision to cut rates by 25 basis points was ultimately approved, it was a closely debated issue within the Fed. Amid ongoing concerns about inflation, the CME FedWatch tool suggests the central bank will likely hold rates steady at its next FOMC meeting on January 29, maintaining the federal funds rate at 4.25%-4.50%. Over 93% of interest traders see a likelihood of a rate pause at the next meeting. On Wednesday, the yield on the 10-year Treasury bond—a critical benchmark for global financial markets—rose above 4.7%, its highest level since April. This increase in yield reflects a drop in the prices of existing bonds, as bond prices and yields move inversely. Additionally, U.S. stocks experienced a mixed session on Wednesday, with volatility driven by fluctuations in Treasury yields. U.S. markets will be closed on Thursday in observance of a National Day of Mourning for former President Jimmy Carter. Crypto markets react to macro uncertainty QCP Capital analysts highlighted that crypto markets continue to face headwinds from broader macroeconomic trends. "The Fed indicated they will slow the pace of rate cuts, given the risks of inflation," the analysts noted. "Meanwhile, yesterday’s ADP employment survey showed a slowdown in private sector hiring, which contrasted with Tuesday’s stronger-than-expected JOLTS job openings report." In the derivatives market, QCP Capital observed increased activity, with steepening across all tenors. "The desk continues to observe selling pressure on front-end volatility, with 17 January ATM options priced 3 vols lower than last night," the analysts added. With U.S. markets closed today, bitcoin is expected to consolidate in the $92,000 to $95,000 range. However, a break below $92,000 could expose the $90,000 level, QCP Capital warned. Omni Network CEO Austin King commented on the political landscape, highlighting the impact that crypto-friendly policies under the new Trump administration. “The Republican Party’s pro-crypto stance likely attracted voters holding digital assets,” King told The Block. “However, markets will rise if Trump actively pursues pro-crypto policies or fall if investors perceive a lack of follow-through.” Bitcoin's price is now hovering above the $93,400 mark, posting a slight decrease of around 1.4% over the past 24 hours

Crypto Whale Data
The Scoop: Rising political risks and renewed macro uncertainty soften crypto's post-election surge This column was co-written by Frank Chaparro, director of special projects at The Block, and Laura Vidiella of MNNC Group. The views expressed in this column are their own and do not reflect the opinions of their employers. Risk is reemerging in the crypto market. If you missed my interview with Milk Road, I outlined the key factors driving crypto markets over the past year. For long-time readers of this newsletter, you might be tired of hearing about these factors: macroeconomics, politics and market flows. Typically, when all three are negative, crypto prices struggle. The post-Trump victory rally was largely fueled by the belief that the president-elect would alleviate the anti-crypto stance of SEC Chair Gary Gensler. However, recent market jitters have led some to reassess whether political risk is resurfacing. After all, the former president is known for his unpredictability, shifting focus week to week—sometimes even eyeing territorial acquisitions in the Western Hemisphere. Despite this, based on my conversations with people in Washington, even if crypto remains a low priority for the incoming administration, any shift away from Gensler’s approach is seen as a positive change. While a national Bitcoin reserve is unlikely, there is potential for regulatory agencies to adopt a more cooperative stance towards the crypto industry. This would represent a significant shift, as agencies like the SEC have the authority to make exceptions and create rules more suited to crypto, fostering innovation. At the very least, there will likely be more openness to dialogue between companies and regulators. According to Kristin Smith of the Blockchain Association, this shift is unlikely to reverse. If political risk diminishes, the focus returns to macroeconomic factors, which are closely tied to market flows. When investors sense macroeconomic risk, they may hesitate to invest in spot Bitcoin ETFs. And macro risk is indeed mounting. Goldman Sachs issued a note Wednesday morning indicating an increased probability of an equity market drawdown, rising to nearly 30%. While this is above the unconditional probability, it remains below previous peaks, with the most severe outcomes historically occurring after the probability crosses 35%. Inflation, which seemed under control, is resurfacing. If this trend continues, the Federal Reserve might slow its rate-cutting cycle, reducing the positive impact on global risk assets that many anticipated at the end of last year. Additionally, concerns about Trump's tariff policies could exacerbate inflationary pressures. I think it’s also worth mentioning that we are dealing with an expectations issue. Investors might adopt a risk-off stance leading into the inauguration, especially after the post-election pump, considering how equities have traded. Despite maintaining a "modestly pro-risk" stance for early 2025, Goldman Sachs is advising clients to consider hedging their positions.

Crypto Whale Data

Load More

Recent activity

Crypto Whale Data posted an update
20 hours, 39 minutes ago
Crypto Whale Data posted an update
1 days, 13 hours ago
Crypto Whale Data posted an update
2 days, 10 hours ago
Crypto Whale Data posted an update
2 days, 11 hours ago
Crypto Whale Data posted an update
2 days, 17 hours ago

Email/username

Password

Create an account