Good Morning,

Here's a quick preview of today’s content: Jerome Powell gives banks green light to offer crypto, Trump Media launches new vehicle for investments Truth.Fi, Gary Gensler goes back to school, memecoin scammers are getting scammed, $jellyjelly absolutely moons, new crypto ETFs near with SEC decision deadlines, and much more.

Happy Thursday, Let’s dive in.

Market Snapshot

• The Federal Reserve kept its benchmark fed funds rate range steady at 4.25%-4.50%, in line with market expectations

• The accompanying policy statement was hawkish, with the central bank saying inflation remains "somewhat elevated."

• The crypto market finds itself slightly up, ~3%, in the last 24hrs as Fed announces no plans to adjust rates

• Tokens Onycoin, $XCN, and JellyJelly, $jellyjelly, hit the top of the trending tokens list, jumping 35% and 200,000%+ in the last 24hrs, respectively

  • A trader turned 35 SOL (~$8.1k) into $2M in less than 3 hours trading $jellyjelly 🤯

Market Predictions

• Traders on Kalshi are currently predicting if Trump will create a National Bitcoin Reserve 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}}

• Fed Chair Jerome Powell said banks can serve crypto customers as long as they can manage the risk (TB) 

• The head of the Czech National Bank wants the the central bank to hold up to 5% of its $146B of reserves in Bitcoin (FT) 

• Trump Media plans to expand into financial services, including ETFs and crypto with a board approved an investment of up to $250M at major asset manager Charles Schwab (CNBC) 

• Alibaba debuts Qwen 2.5-Max AI model that reportedly 'Outperforms' DeepSeek (DC)

• D.E. Shaw joins Starboard Value in pushing Riot Platforms to make changes (TB)

• Tesla marks up the valuation of its 9.7K Bitcoin to record a $600M gain in its Q4 earnings (CD) 

• Robinhood launches futures trading for Bitcoin and other assets (CT)

• Trump’s 2024 co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita joins Coinbase’s advisory council (CT) 

• Proof-of-stake blockchain Cardano will switch to decentralized governance after its Plomin hard fork takes effect (CD) 

• SEC is getting closer to a decision on Litecoin ETF from Canary (TB)

• Former SEC Chair Gary Gensler returns to MIT as a professor (CT) 

• D.E. Shaw has built a position in Riot Platforms and may push the Bitcoin miner to make changes (RT)

• The Solana NFT marketplace Tensor will now split revenue from its social trading app, Vector, between the TNSR treasury and Tensor’s developer shop (BW)

• OpenSea has launched the OS2 platform, featuring a redesigned user interface and a new experience points (XP) system (TB)

• Robinhood CEO warns lack of U.S. regulation stifles security tokenization efforts (CT)

Launches

• Cardano activated its highly anticipated “Plomin” upgrade on Wednesday (CD)

• DCG has launched a venture mining business as the digital asset firm explores new ways to bolster its revenue (DC)

• The CME Group is preparing to list options tied to Bitcoin Friday futures (CT) 

• Venture Capital firm DCG launches a bitcoin mining operation (DT)

• GMCI launches USA Select Index, an index tracking U.S. create cryptocurrencies (TB)

• Trump Family launches Truth.Fi fintech with crypto ambitions (TB)

Venture Capital

• Bluwhale AI announces $100M raise - split into $10M Series A, $8M grant, and $75M token sale - for decentralized AI agents from Cointelegraph, DWF Labs, and many others (SA)

• Sei Foundation has launched Sapien Capital, a $65M venture fund to back DeSci startups building on its Layer 1 Sei blockchain (TB)

• New Layer 1 network developer Pod raises $10M in seed funding (TB)

• Newly launched crypto exchange Freedx secures $50M in funding (FN) 

• DomainFi infrastructure company D3 raises $25M in a Series A led by Paradigm (FN)

• Crypto accounting platform Cryptio raises $15M in a Series A extension led by existing investor Alven (CD) 

• Mevvy, an execution platform for MEV searchers, raises $2.8M in a seed round led by MultiCoin Capital (TB)

• SOL Global doubles down with strategic investment in McQueen Labs (ST)

Regulation

• Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick announces state strategic Bitcoin Reserve as 2025 legislative priority (CT)

Cybersecurity

• DogWifTools loses $10M in a scam against memecoin scammers (CCN)

• Hackers promote fake memecoin plans in UFC Instagram takeover (MJ)

Extra Reads

• A crypto trader made $1M+ by creating 17,000 solana memecoins

  Here’s His 3 Month Journey

• Blockchain won’t replace banks, but will improve them

  PayPal VP Discusses TradFi x DeFi

Chart of the Day

For the first time in history, bitcoin is decoupling from other major cryptocurrencies

Meme Dump

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