Good Morning,

Bitcoin is still a big deal. Don’t mind the recent price action.

Here's a quick preview of today’s content: BlackRock makes a bold statement comparing crypto’s growth to the internet & mobile phone, Donald Trump and his administration plan to host a 'Crypto Ball' on inauguration night (potentially this has crypto czar David Sacks’ fingerprints all over it), Third Circuit Court checks SEC’s vague reasonings in Coinbase case, MoonPay kicks off 2025 with a huge acquisition, and much more.

Happy Tuesday, let’s dive in.

Market Snapshot

• Bitcoin started the new week on a negative note as major investment banks reassessed their expectations for Federal Reserve rate cuts following Friday's strong jobs report

  • Bitcoin fell as low as $89,800 Monday, slipping below $90,000 for the first time since mid-November

• Data released Friday showed nonfarm payrolls increased by 256,000 in December, surpassing expectations for 160,000 job additions

  • The jobless rate declined to 4.1% from 4.2%, and the average hourly earnings came in slightly lower than expected at 0.3% month-on-month and 3.9% year-on-year

• The CoinDesk 20 Index, a broader market gauge, was down over -3%, with major coins like XRP, ADA, and DOGE posting bigger losses in the day

Market Predictions

• Traders on Kalshi are currently predicting what crypto currency (Bitcoin, Ripple, and others) will perform best this year

• 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}}

• CEO of JPMorgan Jamie Dimon was on CBS ripped into Bitcoin (again) saying that it has 'no intrinsic value' but he’s 'not against crypto', see full clip here

• Trump expected to sign crypto-related executive orders on day one of presidency (BZ) 

• Trump admin plans to hold a VIP ‘Crypto Ball’ with six-figure ticket price (CP)

• Donald Trump Jr. joins prediction market Kalshi as an advisor (DC) 

• The crypto OTC market surged 106% in 2024 (TB) 

• Treasury Secretary pick Scott Bessent will divest assets to prevent conflicts of interest (DC) 

• Tether plans to relocate its headquarters to El Salvador (CD) 

• MicroStrategy acquires another $243M of Bitcoin (CD) 

• Indian exchange Mudrex suspends crypto withdrawals (PN) 

• Trump is expected to pardon Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht (BM) 

• Supreme Court denies Binance's petition to review a ruling applying US securities laws to the exchange (TB) 

• Pump.fun rival 'Pumpkin Pump' launches and rugs a memecoin to make $800K (DC)

• AI agents suffer a 44% decline in market cap (BW) 

• 56% of financial advisors are more inclined to invest in crypto after Trump’s victory (CT) 

• NYDFS launches an exchange program with the Bank of England on crypto expertise (CT) 

• L1 Sui delivers a 542% one-year return in 2024, outpacing competitors (TB) 

• Anonymous trader transfers $8.5M of Pepe meme coin to Kraken (DH) 

VaultCraft closes the year with $100M+ TVL

VaultCraft levels up: Launches V2 and lands $100M+ Bitcoin partnership

• VaultCraft partners with Safe & Matrixport

• OKX Web3 rolls out Safe Smart vault with $250K rewards

Start Earning

Launches

• Fire Token launches the presale for a Canadian tokenized Bitcoin mining program (CD) 

• NFT project Azuki announces the launch of its native token ANIME (CD)

Regulation

• US court orders SEC to explain why it denied Coinbase's request for crypto-specific rules (TB) 

• Coinbase founders take to X thoughts on Third Circuit Court announcement in case against SEC (X)

Cybersecurity

• 7 million email addresses were leaked in OpenSea’s 2022 data exploit (CP) 

• UniLend Finance loses $200k in ‘Redeem Process’ vulnerability (BN)

• Gmail being utilized in a new version of a crypto private key cyber attack (FB)

Extra Reads

• Bitcoin Mining Difficulty: What it is and why it’s measured

  Learn More Here

• Why is Tether relocating to El Salvador?

  Here are the Pros and Cons

Chart of the Day

Bitcoin mining difficulty is rapidly increasing, reaching new peak difficulty at block 879,172

Meme Dump

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