In partnership with

Good Morning,

Here's a quick preview of today’s content: former FTX and Alameda Research employees buy back FTX EU, the world’s second largest crypto exchange launches a credit card in Brazil, Dogecoin futures are exploding higher, penguin NFTs crossed $100,000 USD, and more

Happy Wednesday, Let’s dive in.

Market Snapshot

• The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 3701.1, down -1.1% (-39.29) since 4PM ET on Monday

  • Leaders: APT (+4.6%) and ADA (+2.2%)

  • Laggards: POL (-3.1%) and LINK (-3.1%)

• Bitcoin fell more than -4% with major altcoins including ETH and SOL dropping -6% to -9%.

  • Behind the move were renewed cycle highs in U.S. bond yields following stronger than expected economic data

  • Investors continued to roll back their hopes for further Federal Reserve rate cuts, now pricing in only one rate reduction for the entire year

• Crypto markets stumbled with Bitcoin losing the $100,000 level on Tuesday U.S. morning as two stronger-than-expected U.S. economic data prints threw cold water on digital assets' bright early-year momentum

Market Predictions

• Traders on Kalshi are currently predicting if when Bitcoin will hit $150k

• 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}}

• AI firm Anthropic is in talks to raise $2B at a ~$60B valuation in a funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners (CT) 

• CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam will step down and ex-CFTC commissioner and current head of policy at a16z, Brian Quintenz, is a top contender (BL) 

• Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs attracted $1.1B of combined inflows on Monday (TB) 

• Merchant crypto payment adoption rises 8% following Bitcoin's $100K milestone (DC)  

• Dogecoin futures hit a new record for open interest (CD) 

• Solana is exploring lattice-based scalability solutions and quantum-resistant security (CS) 

• Coinbase Premium Index turns positive, indicating rising demand from US investors (TB) 

• Ethereum game Illuvium plans to enhance its NPCs using AI agents (DC) 

• Former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes believes crypto markets will top out in mid-March (DC) 

• Trader makes $17.6M from four AI-related Solana altcoins (DH) 

• Ethereum L2 Arbitrum will integrate with South Korean conglomerate Lotte Group’s metaverse gaming platform (CD) 

• Bitcoin miner GoMining expands to Solana (TB) 

• Aave community opposes a proposal to peg Ethena’s USDe price to USDT (TD) 

• Pudgy Penguins crossed the floor price of $100,000 USD per penguin

Experience the all-new Decentraland

Explore the future of Decentraland with the new Desktop client, now available on Mac and Windows. Enjoy smoother performance, more immersive environments, upgraded avatars, new social features, daily quests with mini-games, and more. Dive in to unlock new badges and experience Decentraland like never before.

Download Decentraland to start exploring.

Launches

• Calamos Investments launches Bitcoin ETF with 100% downside protection (CS) 

• Bybit launches debit card for Brazilian users (CD) 

• Mayan Finance announces that the Hyperliquid bridge is now live (X)

Venture Capital

• The UK is set to rank third in Global AI VC investment behind the US and China (BT)

• DNA Holdings Venture launches DNA AI Compute Fund to support LLMs in Web3 (MT)

Regulation

• Czech National Bank governor recently considered Bitcoin as a foreign exchange reserve strategy (CT) 

• HashKey Group receives regulatory approval to offer trading and wallet services in Ireland (TB)

Cybersecurity

• Indian exchange CoinSwitch launches $70M recovery fund for hacked competitor WazirX’s victims (CT)  

Extra Reads

• Jack Mallers, founder of Strike a Bitcoin payments platform, gives an incredible explainer of what exactly Bitcoin is in plain english (well worth the share to someone you know)
  
  This seriously is one of the best videos I have ever watched about Bitcoin

Watch full video here

Chart of the Day

A snapshot of yesterday’s red day - mid day yesterday the total crypto market cap was down -7.7% to $3.50T

Meme Dump

Pls send us crypto memes to be featured in the newsletter 🤝

🐦 Follow Us: Visit our X account for constant updates on all things web3, DeFi, and crypto.

💵 Litquidity Ventures: Accredited investors & qualified purchasers within the Litquidity community can gain access to alternative investments such as venture, late-stage growth, and private equity through Litquidity Ventures. Interested? Fill out this form.

☎️ Book a call with Lit: Want to pick Litquidity’s brain on business advice, insights, or just chat to say what’s up? Buy his time here.

📧 Launch your own newsletter: Have great content ideas and looking to launch your own publication? We highly recommend Beehiiv to get started.