Good Morning,

Here's a quick preview of today’s content: Crypto venture capital explodes with numerous massive raises in the past 24 hours, BTC jumps above $100k, XRP at 7 year high while overtaking BTC in Google trends, Bitfinex looks to get back 80% of hacked BTC, Texas & Oklahoma introduce BTC reserve bill, and more

Happy Friday! Let’s dive in.

Market Snapshot

As of 1/16/2024. Data per CoinMarketCap.

  • The price of Bitcoin rose above $100,000 late Thursday evenings as Trump’s comments 'rippled' throughout the space

    • At one point BTC reached $102,071 a coin

  • On top of this, the recent CPI data released Wednesday indicated that inflation is slowing down

    • The core consumer price index data, excluding food and energy, was 3.2% in December, coming in lower than expected and down from November’s 3.3%

  • Litecoin continues to surge (+36% in the past 5 days) as ETF speculation continues to heat up

Market Predictions

  • Traders on Kalshi are currently predicting if TikTok will be banned in the US before May

  • 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 plans to use an executive order to designate crypto as a national priority (BBG) 

  • Famous activist short selling firm Hindenburg Research, who targeted Tether and Block, closes up shop (DL)

  • Trump is open to creating a strategic reserve including US-based cryptocurrencies (CT) 

  • Litecoin rallies 20% on analyst speculation of SEC ETF approval (TD) 

  • Treasury nominee Scott Bessent opposes a US CBDC (CD) 

  • RWA platform Tradable tokenizes $1.7B in private credit on ZKsync (CT) 

  • South Korea's largest crypto exchange Upbit receives suspension notice (CCN) 

  • Sonic L2 surges 28% following Binance listing announcement (DH) 

  • Sui Foundation partners with Chainalysis to boost its ecosystem’s security  (CN) 

  • Jito Labs hires crypto veteran Rebecca Rettig as its chief legal officer (TB) 

  • XRP millionaire invests $500K in Ethereum token DTX Exchange (CD) 

  • eToro confidentially files for a US IPO, seeking a $5B valuation (TB) .

  • XRP surpasses ATH as futures open interest hits a record of $7.7B (TB) 

  • 30% of Ethereum validators signal support for increasing the block gas limit (TB) 

  • Majority crypto investors are described as young, educated males investing under $10K and favor Binance (CT) 

  • Helium partners with DAWN to create a 'last-mile internet solution' (BW)

M&A Announcements

  • Self-custody wallet provider Ctrl Wallet is exploring a sale (TB)

Launches

  • Keynode launches its new staking platform with an improved liquidity pool (MT) 

  • AI agent battle platform Monsters.fun launches its waitlist (TD) 

  • Ronin Network launches $10M grant program to support blockchain development (CT) 

  • Solana ETFs unlikely to launch in 2025 (CT)

Venture Capital

  • Crypto wallet Phantom Technologies raises $150M at a $3B valuation in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital and Paradigm (BBG)

  • Digital asset custodian Komainu raises $75M in strategic investment from Blockstream Capital Partners (BW) 

  • L1 stablecoin payments network 1Money raises a $20M seed round (CT) 

  • Decentralized exchange Global Token Exchange raises $10M across 3 funding rounds (TB) 

  • Web3 consumer discovery platform EarnOS raises a $5M seed round (FN)

  • Social graph protocol Tapestry raises $5.8M in a Series A co-led by Union Square Ventures and Fabric Ventures (TB) 

  • Web3 gaming firm Hyve Labs raises $2.8M in a pre-seed led by Framework Ventures (TB) 

  • Web2.5 infrastructure firm Torram raises a $710K pre-seed round (FN)

  • U.S. crypto startups secured 46% of directed venture capital investment in Q4 (CT)

Regulation

  • Gary Gensler makes final remarks on crypto regulation, AI, and personal legacy (YF)

  • Trump’s new administration plans to make a complete crypto overhaul (RT)

  • DeFi platforms believed to benefit from stricter tax laws on crypto (CT)

  • South Korea once again delays corporate crypto investment regulation decisions (CCN)

Extra Reads

Chart of the Day

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