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Good Morning,

Here's a quick preview of today’s content: Grayscale files for XRP ETF, cruise ships are going to accept Bitcoin payments, South Korea martial law possibly stopped Bitcoin from reaching 100k, Trump might have a pro crypto SEC chair pick and much more

Happy Wednesday, let’s dive in.

Market Snapshot

• Bitcoin recovers chunk of early morning decline, rising back above $96k and above 0.5% for the day

• Tron’s TRX catapulted to a record high early Wednesday, nearly 7 years after its initial release

  • TRX jumped 76% to over $0.4, reaching a $34B market capitalization, with trading volumes exploding from $2B on Monday to over $16B in the past 24 hours

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

• Former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky to plead guilty in fraud case (WG)

• President-elect Donald Trump has interviewed former pro crypto SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins to lead the SEC (CD)

• Enron announced a relaunch of its brand with a vision to 'solve' the global energy crisis (and hinted at potentially launching a digital token) (Enron)

• Coinbase cuts ties with anti-crypto law firms (CS)

• Polymarket users skeptical over Microsoft’s Bitcoin acquisition (CD)

• South Korea temporarily declares martial law, causing chaos in crypto markets (TB) 

• Grayscale files for Solana ETF with NYSE (CB)

• Mara Holdings to mine Bitcoin through re-usable energy sources (CT)

• Bitcoin miner Foundry to sack 16% of its employees (CT)

• Retail users can buy uranium directly through blockchain via Tezos (CT)

• Users rotating from Solana to Ethereum, on-chain volume hits yearly highs in November (TB)

• Cruise company Virgin Voyages to accept Bitcoin payments (CT)

• Cash App ends its support for peer-to-peer Bitcoin transactions (DC)

• Memecoin launchpad PumpFun reaches new revenue high in November, racking in over $93M (TB)

• Binance leads the race in Bitcoin deposits in 2024 (CT)

• BlackRock’s ETF IBIT now holds 2.38% of Bitcoin supply, worth over $48B (CT)

• Coinbase to list popular memecoin 'MOG' (CT)

• Roger Ver claims his tax evasion case is unconstitutional (CT)

• Developers working on the XRP Ledger have agreed on major changes to the XRPL in response to the blockchain’s recent surge in popularity (DH)

• Ripple Chairman Chris Larsen’s net worth surges by $6B since election day (CT)

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Launches

• Centralized exchange Bitget launches new crypto-trading platform in Vietnam (CT)

• Streamr teams up with JDI to transform home mining through a new mining product (DH)

Venture Capital

• Bitcoin miner Hive Digital expands its endeavors in Paraguay through a $60M raise (DC)

• Pantera Capital to raise $20M to support TON’s development (CC)

Cybersecurity

• Hackers stole almost $1.5B worth of crypto assets in 2024 (SW)

• Celsius founder Mashinsky to plead guilty for 2 of 7 accusations (DC)

• DMM Bitcoin, a Japanese crypto exchange, is being liquidated several months after a $320M hack targeted the platform (BC)

Chart of the Day

Negative sentiment spilled over to the crypto markets in the minutes following. Bitcoin, XRP — two of the most traded tokens by volumes on local exchanges — plunged as low as 30% on Upbit before quickly recovering. BTC fell from $96,000 to $63,000 in U.S. dollar terms, assuming current exchange rates.

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