Good Morning,

If you’re SEEKing for the best crypto news, we bring a DEEP list.

Here's a quick preview of today’s content: Overview of Trump’s first week as president, crypto prices drop Sunday, A16Z is closing UK office, Jupiter announces 2 acquisitions, crypto venture capital investing stays hot, and much more.

Happy Monday – Let’s dive in.

Market Snapshot

As of 1/26/2025. Data per CoinMarketCap.

  • The top 3 cryptocurrencies by market cap (BTC, ETH, XRP), fall 4% Sunday evening

    • Investors are connecting the drop to market sentiment with concerns of OpenAI’s new & popular Chinese competition, DeepSeek

    • Some concerns are also believed to be tied to pushback of Trump’s imposed tariffs

  • $MLG reclaims $100M market cap after influencer Adin Ross announces purchase

Market Predictions

  • Traders on Kalshi are currently predicting when GTA 6 will be released (we’ve been waiting forever)

  • 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 signs an executive order promoting the growth of dollar-backed stablecoins, including USDT and USDC (BBG) 

  • Elon Musk is exploring using blockchain technology at the Department of Government Efficiency (BBG) 

  • Kidnapped Ledger co-founder David Balland had his hand mutilated after being kidnapped (RT)

  • Ripple CTO claps back on crypto community concerns about XRPL forking and decentralization (UT)

  • European Central Bank board member pitches digital euro in response to Trump’s stablecoin push (RT) 

  • a16z is closing its UK office to focus on the US crypto market (TB) 

  • Nasdaq files to allow BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF to process in-kind redemptions (TB) 

  • DeFi network Thorchain prevents users from withdrawing crypto assets amid a $200M insolvency (DC) 

  • Solana-based stablecoin supply surpasses $10B for the first time (TB) 

  • MicroStrategy will redeem $1.05B of 2027 convertible notes (TB) 

  • Seized Bitcoin from criminals worth €5B now belongs to UK government accounts (T)

  • $31M-listed real estate firm Fathom Holdings will allocate up to half of excess cash reserves to Bitcoin (DC) 

  • $7.8B worth of Bitcoin options are set to expire at the end of January on Deribit (CD)

  • Memecoin launchpad Pump.fun generated $15.4M in fees on Jan. 24, its highest ever (TB) 

  • Solana DEX aggregator Jupiter jumps 40% after announcing that 50% of fees will go to token buybacks (TB)

M&A Announcements

  • Solana DEX aggregator Jupiter acquires a majority stake in memecoin platform Moonshot (TB) 

  • Jupiter also announces acquisition of portfolio tracking platform, SonarWatch (CS)

  • Agora, a blockchain governance startup, is acquiring a competitor, Boardroom (CD)

Launches

  • Real estate firm Propy is launching crypto-backed loans to homebuyers (CD)

  • NFT project Azuki’s Animecoin surpasses $350M market cap one day after launch (TB) 

  • SVM L1 Fogo raises $8M on angel inverter platform Echo at a $100M token valuation (TB) 

  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art launches a blockchain-powered game with TRLab (TB) 

Venture Capital

  • Crypto derivatives infrastructure provider SignalPlus raises a $11M Series B led by AppWorks and OKX Ventures (TB)

  • Ethereum rollup enabler Radius raises $7M in a seed round led by Pantera Capital (TB)

  • Breez raises $5M from Entreè and ego death capital for bitcoin payments (CC)

  • AI agent collaboration platform Swarm Network raises $3M in a seed round led by  ZeroStage and Y2Z Ventures (FN)

  • Memecoin launchpad Printr raises $2.5M in a pre-seed funding round (TB) 

  • RockawayX leads $1.9M round for Ranger (R)

  • Lattice, Maven 11 and others invest $1.6M in cross-border payments startup Accrue (CH)

  • Hybrid announces fundraise from Outlier Ventures, NxGen, and others (CC)

  • Solana DEX aggregator Jupiter partners with Eliza Labs to launch a $10M fund for open-source AI development (TB) 

Regulation

  • Trump signs executive order to ban Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) (IE)

  • Eric Trump allegedly confirms zero capital gains tax on U.S.-based crypto projects (TS)

  • Brazil bans Worldcoin from giving crypto eye scans (CT)

  • Africa looks to follow U.S. lead in crypto regulations (NB)

Cybersecurity

  • ZachXBT discovers $29M SUI hack where funds were quickly moved to Ethereum and Tornado Cash (CP)

  • Crypto trading platform NoOnes confirms it suffered an $8M security breach earlier this month (TB) 

  • Breaking Bad actor has X account hacked for second time to promote a pump & dump (DL) 

  • On-chain investigator alleges Vitalik Buterin connection to Gatecoin $500M hack in 2016 (BST)

Extra Reads

Chart of the Day

75% of the Total Value Locked onchain is concentrated in only 4 blockchains

Meme Dump

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