Good Morning,

Here's a quick preview of today’s content: The S&P 500 has its 8th best performance in history for a single day, Grayscale picks up Blocktower exec, New York is looking into blockchain elections, Magic Eden makes strategic acquisition, Paul Atkins to be confirmed, the FBI ran a crypto sting operation, and so much more below.

Praying for more market movement like yesterday. Let’s dive in.

Market Snapshot

• U.S. equities and cryptocurrencies experienced significant gains following President Trump's announcement of a 90-day delay on reciprocal tariffs for all countries except China

  • Stock Market Surge: The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by +2,600 points, while the S&P 500 rose +9.1%, marking their largest intraday rallies in five years - the Nasdaq jumped nearly +12%, achieving a daily gain not seen since 2008

  • Tariff Adjustments: The administration postponed tariffs for most countries but increased the levy on Chinese imports from 104% to 125%

  • Other cryptocurrencies, including Cardano's ADA, BNB Chain's BNB, Solana's SOL, and Dogecoin (DOGE), saw price increases of up to +10%

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

• Stocks, tradFi, and crypto markets fly after Trump pauses reciprocal tariffs for almost all countries previously named - you can read a full rundown of the insane market day here

• Senate confirms Paul Atkins to take over as SEC Chairman with an elaborate pro-crypto agenda (TB)

• China and Russia have been confirmed to use bitcoin for energy trading according to VanEck research

• Argentinian lawmakers open probe into Milei’s LIBRA scandal (BT)

• OpenAI countersues Elon Musk and accuses billionaire of 'bad-faith tactics' (DC)

• New York bill proposes research for blockchain election results (CT)

• SEC Approves options trading for BlackRock's ETH ETF (BK)

• Dogecoin gets biggest institutional backing with fully backed Swiss ETP from 21 Shares (DT)

• Diana Zhang joins Grayscale as COO after serving as Blocktower executive (TB)

• Options trading of Blackrock’s Ether ETF approved by the SEC (CD)

• XRP ETF volume hits $5.4M first day trading (DF)

• Solana introduces ‘Confidential Balances’ zero-knowledge tech upgrade (BT)

• Swiss fintech firm launches interbank digital asset network for settlements and collateralization (TB)

• World Food Program now accepts donations through 80+ cryptocurrencies following funding cuts (DT)

• Former Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith released from prison after serving 63 month sentence (DF)

• OpenSea asks SEC for clarity on NFT marketplace rules (DC)

• PancakeSwap proposes V3 of tokenomics model (BW)

• 2025 roadmap for FUN token unveiled including a rewarding digital economy (CD)

• Major Autralian bank apologizes for freezing customer’s account after crypto transfer (DC)

Venture Capital

• Wunder.Social announces $50M raise led by Rollman Management for a bot-free social media with blockchain verification (CD)

• Interest-bearing stablecoin startup Cap raises $11M from Franklin Templeton and other major investors (FT)

• Octane Security raises $6.75M out of stealth for smart contract security solution (SW)

• Sats Terminal secures $1.7M seed from Coinbase Ventures for bitcoin DeFi (GN)

• Ayre Ventures increases total investment in Libraro to £1M (PN)

Launches

• Jack Dorsey’s Block launches open source bitcoin dashboard and API for corporate treasuries (BM)

• Blockchain based game Kamigotchi prepares for mainnet launch (BT)

• M^0 stablecoin platform expands to include Solana (BW)

Regulation

• Ukraine floats 23% tax on some crypto income, exemptions for stablecoins (CT)

• South Korea looks for relaxed regulation on crypto partnerships (TB)

• Illinois lawmakers are working on legislation to protect residents from crypto fraud (YF)

Cybersecurity

• The FBI secretly funded and ran a crypto laundering scheme as part of a sting operation (DT)

• Crypto CEO says crypto market still small enough to be manipulated (TS)

• WazirX repayment plan greenlit by 93%+ of victims (DT)

Extra Reads

• The US tariff war with China could potentially be good for bitcoin mining

  
  Read the breakdown of why here

• The memes surrounding Ethereum’s performance this past year have been relentless in the crypto space

  
  Here’s 3 reasons why Ethereum price keeps falling

Meme Dump

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

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