Good Morning,

Here's a quick preview of today’s content: Iran accepts crypto payments for advanced weapons, Hundreds of crypto wallets drained across EVM chains, Russia cracks down on illegal crypto miners, Crypto ETF issuers brace for crowded year, Crypto rich threaten California exit after new tax proposal, and so much more

Happy Monday - Let’s dive in.

Market Snapshot

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• Crypto markets kick off the new year higher as ETF inflows return and memecoins steal the spotlight

  • BTC reclaimed the $90K zone, holding firm amid geopolitical headlines as traders look for a pattern shift

  • Spot BTC ETFs snap a 7-day outflow streak, while BTC and ETH ETFs pulled in $646M on the first trading day of 2026, lifting sentiment

  • Memecoins led the rally: DOGE jumped +4%, while PEPE and BONK surged double digits, adding $3B in market cap in a day

  • ETH strength reemerged with daily transactions hitting an ATH, surpassing the 2021 NFT boom

• Sentiment improved with the Fear & Greed Index flipping to “neutral” for the first time since October

Prediction Markets

• Bettors on Polymarket are predicting College Football Champion 2026?

• Track and trade live odds on any event, only on Polymarket

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

• Crypto billionaires rank among 2025’s biggest losers (CT)

• Iran accepts crypto payments for advanced weapons (CD)

• Judge dismisses crypto class action against Mark Cuban (TB)

• Bitcoin advocate Machado runs to replace Venezuela's Maduro (CT)

• Crypto rich threaten California exit after new tax proposal (CT)

• Strategy hit with massive Q4 loss as Bitcoin tumbles (BBG)

• Bitfinex hacker credits Trump for early prison release (CD)

• Trump Media distributes tokens to DJT shareholders (CD)

• Tom Lee urges shareholders to approve share increase (CD)

• Cathie Wood’s Ark ETF defies crypto slump, jumps +30% (BBG)

• Tether adds $800M in BTC (CD)

• Coinbase pauses local fiat rails in Argentina (CT)

• Wallets tied to TRUMP memecoin pull $94M (CT)

• Crypto exchange volume sinks to 15-month low (TB)

• Hut 8 expands Coinbase-backed credit facility (CT)

• Crypto ETF issuers brace for crowded year (TB)

• Bitfarms exits Paraguay, sells mining site for $30M (CD)

• Perp DEX trading nearly triples in 2025 (CT)

• $110B in crypto exits South Korea in 2025 (CD)

• Strategy shares register first six-month losing streak (CD)

• BitMine stakes $259M more ETH (CT)

• NFT supply balloons to 1.3B as sales plunge -37% (CT)

• Ethereum L1 activity hits 2.2M transactions per day (CT)

• Base creator coin push sparks favoritism backlash (CD)

• Aave eases DAO tensions with new revenue-sharing plan (TB)

• Bithumb flags $200M in dormant crypto (CT)

• $250M exits Lighter within 24 hours of airdrop (CD)

• Ethereum co-founder pitches DApps as Cloudflare outage fix (CT)

Venture Capital

• AI-native Web3 security startup Block Security Arena closes undisclosed seed round at $30M valuation from Hotcoin Labs, Starbase, Onebit Ventures, and Apus Capital (AI)

• Layer-2 startup Bitcoin Hyper secures $30M token presale from undisclosed investors to fund its Bitcoin scaling solution (IB)

• Haven, an on-chain RWA fixed-income marketplace, raises $30M seed round from Candaq, Apus Capital, ZC Capital and BlockPulse Digital Asset Management (PM)

• Web3 gaming aggregator RuneSoul raises $30M strategic investment round from undisclosed investors to fund its platform build-out (MF)

• Self-custodial neobank Tria closes $20M funding round from undisclosed investors to advance its blockchain-based banking platform (CT)

• Reental, a real-estate tokenization fintech, raises $4.9M through blockchain-based tokenized financing from individual investors (BP)

• Blockchain-enabled savings and credit card startup Moto Finance raises $1.8M pre-seed equity round from Cyber Fund and Eterna Capital (GN)

• Rocket, a continuous prediction-market layer, raises $1.5M pre-seed round from undisclosed investors (NE)

Access the complete VC deal flow on Fundable.

Launches

• Bitwise files for 11 new crypto ETFs (CD)

• Riot Platforms opens $500M stock offering (BM)

• KuCoin launches AI analysis for crypto users (CD)

• Fedi releases full software stack as open source (BM)

• BitVentures launches US-based crypto mining operation (CT)

Regulation

• Rep. Torres targets prediction market insider trading (TB)

• SEC’s Caroline Crenshaw departs (TB)

• Japan and South Korea lead Asia's stablecoin push (TB)

• Russia cracks down on illegal crypto miners (CT)

• Lawmakers expected to address market structure markup (CT)

• India urges countries to prioritize CBDC (CT)

• Crypto tax data collected in 48 countries (CT)

Cybersecurity

• Hundreds of crypto wallets drained across EVM chains (TB)

• Trader exploits glitch on Binance for $1.5M (CS)

• Flow exploit leaves NFT loan borrowers in limbo (TB)

• Binance delists and flags token pair after exploit (CT)

• Crypto exploit group SEAL sees uptick in tickets (TB)

• Korbit fined $1.9M for customer verification breaches (CD)

• Losses from crypto hacks down 60% in December (CT)

Extra Reads

• The crypto industry delivered some of the most baffling, surreal, and downright degenerate moments in its history in 2025 - Here’s 13 WTF moments of the year

• A divorced investor’s tragic loss reveals how emotional manipulation, combined with AI technology, has weaponized crypto scams into a billion-dollar crime - Here’s how a romance scam drained a Bitcoin retirement fund

Chart of the Day

Wrench attacks on crypto holders are rising and growing more violent

Meme Dump

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*DISCLAIMER: Investment advice provided by Autopilot advisers LLC, an SEC registered investment advisor. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investing carries risks including the risk of the loss of principal. Performance doesn’t include fees. See more here.