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Good Morning,

Here's a quick preview of today’s content:

Bitcoin flies past $80,000 over the weekend (now at $81,000), FTX wants $1.8 Billion from Binance, Snowden gives his harsh opinion on Solana, one of the largest crypto prediction markets in the world hints at a coin launch, venture capital is opening its wallets to crypto startups like never before, and more

Happy Monday, let’s dive in.

Market Snapshot

• Bitcoin price tops $80,000 for the first time, as Donald Trump’s election win is seen as a strong positive signal for the crypto market

  • Trump has made crypto a key part of his campaign this year, promising to protect and boost the industry in America and end the SEC’s crypto crackdown (bye bye Gensler)

• Other major cryptocurrencies have marked big gains, such as Cardano ADA, Doge DOGE, and Ethereum ETH - ADA is up over 60% in the past 5 days

• SOL broke above its March-April cycle highs touching $212 for the first time since the 2021 crypto bull market peak.

  • The token has gained 34% over the week, leading BTC's 18% move. SOL's all-time record currently still stands at $260.

Before the Bell

Headline Roundup
^{_{The major headlines driving crypto markets}}

• FTX filed a lawsuit against Binance and its former CEO Changpeng Zhao, seeking to claw back almost $1.8B (BBG)

• Decentralized prediction market Polymarket is teasing a token airdrop (TB)

• Magic Labs and Polygon Labs announced a cross-chain smart wallet to address liquidity fragmentation

• FTX affiliate Alameda Research is seeking to recover over $11M from a Crypto.com account (CT)

• On election day, BlackRock's Spot Bitcoin ETF Set Record-Breaking $4B in trading volume (BKL)

• The founder of crypto mixer Bitcoin Fog was sentenced to 12.5 years in federal prison for money laundering (BBG)

• Edward Snowden called for decentralization in crypto and criticized Solana’s heavy VC funding, noting that it may not be able to operate independently (CT)

• Layer-1 blockchain Flare and decentralized cloud infrastructure company Red Date Technology announced trials that will allow mainland Chinese residents to buy stablecoins (CD)

• Ethereum Foundation’s treasury shrunk over 39% over 2 ½ years to $970M (CD)

• FTX co founder Gary Wang hopes to avoid prison, unlike SBF and Caroline Ellison(DC)

• Coinbase brings its wrapped Bitcoin to Solana (DC)

• ‘Nifty Island’ ends play-to-airdrop push, here’s when to expect the ISLAND Token (DC)

• Solana upgrades software as validators see fortunes shift (BW)

• Jack Dorsey’s Block doubles down on Bitcoin Mining, while scaling back his ‘Web5’ initiative (BKL)

• Ethereum Foundation reveals $1B treasury and new conflict of interest policy (BKL)

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Launches

• WalletConnect Foundation and Reown launched WalletGuide, a set of UX standards for across the blockchain wallet ecosystem (CT)

• Magic Labs and Polygon Labs launched Newton, described as a “chain unification network." (DC)

Venture Capital

• Binance Labs invests in BIO Protocol through its $10B venture arm (BW)

• Almost $500M was deployed to support ecosystem projects in 2022 and 2023 (CT)

• Stablecoin giant Tether enters oil trade by financing $45M middle eastern crude deal (CD)

• VC firm a16z believes that regulations legitimizing crypto and tokens are coming (TB)

Regulation

• The Polish Financial Supervision Authority issued a warning to Crypto.com regarding its operations in Poland (BC)

• French gambling regulator regulators says it’s ‘examining’ polymarket (CD)

• Scammer tried to hijack Kraken crypto account wearing rubber mask of victim (DC)

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Extra Reads

• Dune, the crypto analytics platform, made three major announcements at DuneCon in Bangkok on Monday morning:

  1) The launch of its Echo platform with real-time multi-chain analytics

  2) The acquisition of blockchain simulation company smlXL
  3) The launch of a new metric designed to track meaningful blockchain adoption.

  Here’s the full scoop.

Chart of the Day

The Coinbase app now ranks 61 on the Apple App Store (top free charts) which is the first time breaking top 100 since March.

Meme Dump

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