Good Morning,

Biden’s Administration prepares for their final week ahead of Trump’s inauguration next Monday, including some final agenda’s for crypto regulation. Crypto has continued to dip to start 2025, with many predicting a new pro-crypto cabinet could make a major difference.

Here's a quick preview of today’s content: Crypto community awaits to see if Trump will fulfill his many pro-crypto promises, Pump.fun analysis shows very few users have made over $10k, crypto venture stays hot in the first 2 weeks of 2025, Mango Markets is winding down operations, and much more.

A new week is here. Happy Monday - Let’s dive in.

Market Snapshot

• XRP sees major daily jump up 10%, contrary to the rest of the crypto market

  • The SEC faces a January 15th deadline for filing an appeal in the Ripple case

  • Gary Gensler’s exit could be a signal for a huge Ripple win & positive signal for crypto

  • XRP memecoins PHNIX & UFD explode with 100%+ pumps

• Bitcoin struggles to hold $95k price point while Ethereum slows due to $69M net outflows for ETFs

Market Predictions

• Traders on Kalshi are currently predicting if (and at what rate) their will be inflation in 2025

• You can trade this market by checking out Kalshi

• Get a $20 bonus when you deposit $100 or more with code “LIT” on signup

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

• Trump’s inauguration is one week away, but his crypto promises may take more time than expected (CT)

• BlackRock has built a $50B Bitcoin stash in 12 months (DH)

• A video of rapper Nipsey Hussle advocating Bitcoin 8 years ago (at $2,800 a coin) has resurfaced online that you can see here

• 0.4% of memecoin platform Pump.fun users have made over $10K (DC)

• Authors allege that Zuckerberg approved using pirated books to train Meta AI (DC)

• Sam Altman’s World project surpasses 10M human verifications (TB)

• Family of dead OpenAI whistleblower raises $140K for an independent investigation (DC)

• US will not immediately sell its $6.5B seized Bitcoin stash (BW)

• Circle makes $1M donation to President Trump’s Inaugural Fund (BN)

• Tether is expanding into AI filmmaking (TB)

• Standard Chartered secured a license to offer EU crypto custody services (TB)

• Crypto data site Messari lays off 15% of its staff (TB)

• A UK judge blocks man’s $729M Bitcoin hard drive treasure hunt in landfill (BT)

• Enforcement Director Ian McGinley is leaving the CFTC (CD)

• Hong Kong launches supervisory incubator to assist banks with blockchain risk (TD)

• Usual protocol’s liquid staking derivative USD0++ loses parity with USD0 stablecoin (BW)

• Synthetix ends its v3 perpetual markets on Arbitrum to focus on Coinbase's Base (TB)

• US-listed Bitcoin miners accounted for 25.3% of the global network in December (CD)

• Aiccelerate DAO will implement a vesting structure after insiders sold allocations after launch (TB)

Venture Capital

• Blockchain venture investments totaled $190M in the second week of 2025 (CN)

• Movement Labs looks to raise its newest round at a $3B valuation (NG)

• 0G Foundation sold 85,000 nodes to raise $30M (NG)

• Privasea AI announces $10M Series A for decentralized network infrastructure (BI)

• Oh, a Web3 x AI startup for creators, raises $4.5M (CR)

• Decentralized energy network startup Starpower closes fresh $2.5M round from Framework Ventures (TD)

Regulation

• Kenya is preparing to legalize crypto (CD)

• UK exempts crypto staking from rules governing collective investment schemes (TB)

• Singapore bans prediction marketplace Polymarket (TB)

• North Dakota is considering adding Bitcoin to its balance sheet (DC)

• Bybit temporarily restricts its services to Indian users (TB)

Cybersecurity

• Oklahoma man pleads guilty to fraud charges related to $9.4M crypto investment scam (TB)

• New York suing crypto scammers who stole $2.2M using fake remote work offers (TB)

• Russia will sell a $10M Bitcoin stash seized from a cybercrime gang (CP)

• K-pop company Cube Entertainment’s co-CEO is accused of a crypto scam (TB)

• Arbitrum DAO is voting on implementing the BoLD protocol to enhance security (TB)

• Mango Markets, which suffered a $110M exploit in 2022, will wind down after its SEC settlement (TB)

• X account hijacks continue for crypto companies like Litecoin, Foresight Ventures, and others (TB)

• Three Russians are facing money laundering charges due to operating sanctioned crypto mixing services (CD)

Extra Reads

• A Biden Administration appointee looks to make final Hail Mary move by targeting crypto wallet makers like MetaMask and Phantom

Read more on Biden Administration’s final crypto moves

Chart of the Day

Bitcoin is closely tracking the 2016-2017 cycle

Meme Dump

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