Good Morning,

If you’re not stockpiling crypto, someone else will - like the United States!

Here's a quick preview of today’s content: The Trump Administration announced an executive order to stockpile digital assets (not entirely what the space was hoping for but still incredibly bullish), crypto accounting rule SAB 121 has already been revoked, Solana’s decentralized exchange ecosystem hits record volume, OKX announces 7 new crypto projects, Ledger founder released from ransom situation, and much more!

Finally Friday 😎 Let’s dive in.

Market Snapshot

• To end the third week of January, Bitcoin hovers $103k while Ethereum stabilizes near $3.3k

• $VINE makes the trending chart as the memecoin takes meteoric ride to $500M market cap 🚀

  • Elon Musk has hinted at potentially bringing the short-form video application back due to TikTok complications

  • The memecoin was launched by Vine co-founder Rus Yusupov, and has promised that the developers’ tokens will be locked until April

• S&P 500 broke through all time highs and ended the day with a new record

Market Predictions

• Traders on Kalshi are currently predicting what price range the S&P 500 will close at the end of 2025

• 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}}

• A ‘national digital asset stockpile’ is being explored by The Trump administration (CNBC) 

• SEC withdraws accounting rule SAB 121 requiring banks to list customer crypto assets as liabilities on their balance sheets (CD) 

• Ross Ulbricht, founder of Silk Road that was recently pardoned by Donald Trump, releases heartfelt note via X that you can watch here

• Morgan Stanley is working with regulators to expand its crypto offerings (CT) 

• Trump signs executive order creating a working group to design federal pro-crypto policy (AX)

• XRP rallies as institutional interest for Ripple jumps with regulatory clarity visible (FX)

• Bank of America’s CEO forecasts aggressive crypto adoption by banks after regulatory clarity (CD)

• Coinbase requests court to declare that crypto is not a security (CN) 

• Solana’s DEX ecosystem surpasses $200B in trading volume (CS) 

• Ethereum partners with Vivek Raman for institutional expansion (DC) 

• Bitwise files for a Dogecoin ETF (DC) 

• Trump’s World Liberty Financial buys $2.6M of TRON and $9.8M of Wrapped Bitcoin (CD) 

• Ethereum L2’s, led by BASE, achieve record transaction processing speed (CD) 

• TON becomes exclusive chain for Telegram mini-games (CN)

• Trump's team buys $104K worth of Solana (TD) 

Launches

• NFT project Azuki’s Animecoin launches with a $1.2B fully-diluted volume (CD) 

• Blockstream launches two institutional Bitcoin investment funds (CT)

• John McAfee’s wife launches AIntivirus memecoin, briefly hitting a $100M market cap (CS) 

• $VINE memecoin skyrockets with recent launch by co-founders and hype of a potential comeback (PR)

• Barstool founder Dave Portnoy announces interest to test out his own memecoin rugpull (DP)

• CEO of streaming platform Rumble announces a Rumble Wallet is imminent (CP)

Venture Capital

• OKX Ventures announces 7 startups selected for $10M Telegram Growth Hub program (OKX)

• Gate Ventures makes $8.5M strategic investment into BugsCoin for crypto education (GN)

• Swarm Network brings in $3M from ZeroStage and Y2Z Ventures (GN)

• Ranger Labs raises $1.9M to develop AI crypto investment products (CD)

• Binance founder CZ is set to take an active role in VC YZi Labs, rebranded from  Binance Labs (TB) 

Regulation

• OKX to receive MiCA pre-authorization to offer crypto offerings to 400M Europeans (CT)

Cybersecurity

• North Korea’s Lazarus Group suspected to be behind Singapore exchange Phemex $70M hack of its hot wallet (TB)

• Nasdaq’s X account was hacked to promote a fraudulent memecoin (TB)

• Ledger co-founder David Balland was freed after being kidnapped for ransom (TB)

• WazirX receives backing from Singapore court for popst-hack revival plans (CS)

Extra Reads

• Is there a correlation between Bitcoin price and crypto venture activity?
  This Report Breaks it Down

• Ethereum dominates blockchain annual transaction fees in 2024

  Check out the Other Blockchains Trying to Catch Up

Chart of the Day

Solana becomes the first chain in history to break $200 Billion monthly DEX volume

Meme Dump

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