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Here's a quick preview of today’s content: New Trump tariffs send all markets spinning, SEC to drop their lawsuit against Kraken and their investigation into Yuga Labs, China looks to be the top crypto competition for US, Gary Gensler’s team may have spent ungodly amounts in crypto investigations, Uphold staking makes a comeback, and rumors swirl around about Friday’s White House crypto announcements. So much more below.

Hoping for a green Tuesday 🙏

Before we jump into today’s newsletter: Crypto media giant Blockworks has officially relaunched The Drop. This web3 newsletter and media company was founded three years ago by Gannon Breslin (co-founder of Crypto Sum).

The Drop is a daily newsletter, diving deep into the most important trending apps, NFT collections, games, memecoins, token launches, and more. It’s free to subscribe and written by the incredibly talented crypto veteran journalist Kate Irwin.

Subscribe to The Drop here

Market Snapshot

As of 3/3/2025. Data per CoinMarketCap.

  • Bitcoin is trading $87,600, now barely higher than its level prior to Trump's Sunday crypto reserve posting

  • Ether has more than given up its Sunday gains, hitting a new five-year low relative to bitcoin

  • Macro: U.S. stocks have turned solidly lower as investors mull tomorrow’s 25% tariffs against Mexico and Canada

    • Trump also reaffirmed that he will increase tariffs on all Chinese imports to 20% from the previous 10% levy to punish Beijing for failing to halt shipments of fentanyl to the US

    • See full macro breakdown here

Headline Roundup
The major headlines driving crypto markets

  • SEC agrees to drop lawsuit against crypto exchange Kraken (TB) 

  • Yuga Labs the next company to report SEC dropping investigation (CT)

  • Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong supports Bitcoin-only approach for Trump's crypto reserve (TB) 

  • AI and crypto czar David Sacks responds to US crypto reserve conflict of interest allegations (CD)

  • China rumored to fast-track Bitcoin reserve amid US crypto regulation shift (CB)

  • SEC offers $50,000 incentive for retiring and resigning employees (DC) 

  • Ethereum-based card game Parallel plans to expand into mobile-gaming sector (DC) 

  • Trader uses 50x leverage to net $6.8M gain on $200M Bitcoin position following Trump's crypto reserve announcement (CD)

  • Bitcoin mining firm Hut 8 reports $331M net income while expanding its AI infrastructure (CD)

  • Tether appoints Simon McWilliams as new CFO amid financial audit (CD)

  • Coinbase requests expense insights into crypto investigations under Gary Gensler (CN)

  • Analysts believe approval for spot Solana ETF could be as early as March or extended to Q4 2025 (PA)

  • Nasdaq files 19b-4 to list and trade Grayscale Hedera ETF (PA)

Blockworks Launches The Drop

  • A daily newsletter, diving deep into the most important trending apps, token launches, NFT collections, games, memecoins, and more

  • Written by Kate Irwin, who has years of experience covering video games, crypto, the creator economy and AI

  • See full history of the The Drop acquisition and relaunch here

Subscribe Here

Launches

  • Zora announces airdrop of their own memecoin on Optimism-based Base network  (TB)

  • Cronos proposes reissuing 70 billion CRO tokens to restore original supply (TB)

Venture Capital

  • ACID Labs secures $8M from a16z speedrun and NFX for instant social games (CT)

  • NYC-based startup Ligero announces $4M seed funding co-led by Galaxy Ventures and 1kx (FS)

  • Lantern Finance raises $1M pre-seed round from OrangeDAO, Supermoon Ventures, and other backers (FS)

  • Crypto venture capital funding rebounds with 14.4% increase in February 2025 (CS)

Regulation

  • Binance to delist nine stablecoins in EEA, including Tether, over MiCA compliance (DC)

  • Uphold relaunches U.S. staking services following improved regulatory outlook (CT)

  • Vietnam's Prime Minister requests cryptocurrency legal framework proposals by end of month (BIC)

  • House Majority Whip Tom Emmer announces creation of first-ever congressional crypto caucus (DC)

Cybersecurity

  • Popular streamer Amouranth claims to be robbed off $20M in crypto (CT)

  • India police uncover crypto fraud, duping $2.4M in losses (DC)

  • City of Tacoma X account allegedly hacked with suspicious announcement on X promoting crypto (TNT)

  • Safe Wallet implements security upgrades to multi-sig solution after Bybit cyberattack (CN)

  • February crypto hacks total $1.53B, with Bybit being 99% of amount stolen (CP)

Extra Reads

Chart of the Day

Daily ETF flows begin to stabilize in 2025, with February 28 snapping an 8-day outflow streak

Meme Dump

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