Good Morning,

With the (extremely short) TikTok ban, millions of eyes went from doom-scrolling to memecoin buying with Donald Trump launching his own memecoin, dominating headlines.

Here's a quick preview of today’s content: Donald Trump to be inaugurated tonight at the 47th president, Donald and Melania Trump launch memecoins ahead of tonight’s inauguration, Solana transactions skyrocket as applications struggle to keep up with high volume, Solana hits new all time high, Details for Ethereum Pectra upgrade released, and much more.

Important Monday today, so let’s dive in.

Market Snapshot

• Bitcoin regained $106k Sunday midday before tumbling below $100k Sunday night

• Ripple stays hot with XRP nearing $200B market cap, staying above $3

• Solana reaches new all time high of $277.99 due to massive inflow of capital for Trump memecoins

• $TRUMP took the world by storm this weekend, hitting a $15B+ market cap in less than 48 hours

  • This means it reached the top 13 cryptocurrencies by market cap

  • 525+ Millionaires were minted from this token

Market Predictions

• Traders on Kalshi are currently predicting if Trump will issue a crypto executive order today

• 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 official Solana memecoin TRUMP surges to a fully-diluted market cap of $24B, here’s a full breakdown of all the madness

• Trader turns $1M into $90M with Trump memecoin (TB) 

• First-lady-in-waiting Melania Trump launches her own memecoin MELANIA (AX) 

• Solana hits fresh ATH of $275 thanks to success of Trump’s memecoin (CD)

• Spot trading volumes surged to $6.5T in Q4 of 2024 (TD) 

• XRP surges to a record market cap of $192B (TD) 

• Centralized exchanges reached record trading volumes of $11.3T in December (TD) 

• JPMorgan sees Bitcoin continuing to dominate Ether and altcoins in 2025 (TB) 

• SEC's General Counsel Megan Barbero steps down (CD) 

• Ethereum unveils timeline for its Pectra upgrade (CD) 

• Former Genesis CEO Michael Moro settles SEC fraud charges for $38.5M (CD) 

• Coinbase’s L2 Base is seeking $100B in assets and 25M users in 2025 (TD) 

• VanEck files for new ETF targeting companies building digital asset infrastructure (DC) 

• Vitalik Buterin announces ‘large changes’ to Ethereum Foundation leadership (TB) 

• Helium founder Nova Labs promises strong defense against SEC lawsuit (TB)

• Malaysia is seeking to promote blockchain innovation (BTN) 

• Pump.fun sued by PNUT memecoin trader who lost $231 (DC)

• Crypto.com obtains "in-principle" license to operate under EU's MiCA framework (DH) 

• Aave community considers entering Bitcoin mining to boost revenues (CT)

• Mara Holdings immortalizes Trump’s portrait on the Bitcoin blockchain (TB) 

Launches

• Coinbase partners with Morpho to launch Bitcoin-backed loans in the US (TD)

• AGIXT token soars to $100M market cap hours after launch (TD) 

• AI16z launches development of a $420K physical robot (TD) 

• Donald Trump launches $TRUMP memecoin ahead of inauguration (FB)

• Melania Trump launches memecoin following Donald’s successful launch (TH)

Venture Capital

• Komainu raises $75M in a Series B led by Blockstream Capital Partners (CD) 

• WalletConnect builder Reown raises $13M in Series B led by Union Square Ventures and 1kx (TB)

• Attribution protocol developer Merit Systems raises $10M in a seed round led by a16z and Blockchain Capital (TB) 

• Reppo raises $2.2M spinning out of Protocol Labs venture studio (DT)

• Crypto price prediction game developer Bitblox secures an investment from VC YOLO Investments (iGF) 

Regulation

• Senator Ted Cruz to introduce resolution to overturn tax rule on DeFi broker reporting requirements (TB) 

• Russia and Iran look to abandon SWIFT and build own payment system (WG)

• Wyoming and Massachusetts are considering Bitcoin reserves  (DC) 

• Arkansas considering banning Bitcoin mining within 30 miles of a military facility (AO)

Cybersecurity

• FBI foils a plot to kidnap jeweler and steal $2M in crypto (DC)

• More than half of the $2.3B crypto assets stolen in 2024 belonged to Ethereum based projects (CN)

• WazirX freezes $3M+ related to last year’s $230M hack (DH)

• List of scams, hacks, and vulnerabilities that have been tracked in 2025 (CCN)

Extra Reads

• ‘Trump’ and ‘Solana’ internet searches reach astounding high at record pace

  Charts, Graphs, & Trend Data Here

• Donald Trump to be inaugurated tonight as the 47th President of the United States

  Everything to Know & Expect Tonight

Chart of the Day

Solana 24hr volume spiking to $40B+ with Trump memecoin frenzy

Meme Dump

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