BTC is currently trading around $103,500 and ETH around $3,300. Notable gainers in the last 24 hours are AAVE, BGB, and KCS. The global crypto market cap is $3.72T, down 3.2% over the last day. DeFi Total Value Locked is ~$126b and BTC dominance is around 59%.
Crypto prices are down small over the last day, but not before a busy weekend that featured the official releases of the TRUMP and MELANIA memecoins. Trump’s memecoin in particular, which launched on Friday evening concurrent with the Crypto Ball in Washington DC, quickly skyrocketed up the charts and now ranks as the 27th largest token with an $8b market cap ($42b fully diluted). While some criticized the move as Trump using the Presidency to profit financially and in a way that may not add a lot of utility to people’s lives, others pointed to it as further demonstration of Trump’s embracement of crypto and the continued support that may lie ahead. Also of note, the TRUMP and MELANIA memecoins were launched on Solana, which caused network revenue to surge from $5m on Thursday to a record $30m yesterday and catapulted SOL to an all-time high of $293 just yesterday.
Looking ahead and with Trump sworn in as the 47th President of the United States hours ago, the industry is now waiting on digital assets-related executive orders that may include declaring crypto a national priority and establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve. The week also features the Bank of Japan’s interest rate decision and press conference on Thursday and Friday, which some worry may dull the recent rally. Specifically, many believe the BOJ will hike rates for the first time since late July, which at the time sparked a yen carry trade unwind and caused a global market meltdown in both traditional markets and crypto.
Notable news includes: Trump did not mention crypto during his inauguration speech; Trump took credit for Bitcoin’s all-time highs during a weekend speech; SEC Chair Gary Gensler departed the SEC; the SEC filed a lawsuit on Friday against Helium Network developer Nova Labs over alleged securities violations; the SEC announced enforcement actions against DCG and Genesis for allegedly violating securities laws; Trump selected Republican Commissioner Caroline Pham to be CFTC Acting Chair; the Polymarket odds that Trump will create a strategic Bitcoin reserve within 100 days hit as high as 60% today prior to retreating; El Salvador bought 11 more Bitcoin despite IMF pressure not to; representatives from both Wyoming and Massachusetts submitted draft legislation to establish state Bitcoin strategic reserves; an Italian lawmaker urged banking foundations to buy Bitcoin; Europe’s ESMA urged crypto asset service providers to restrict non-MiCA compliant stablecoins by the end of the month; crypto.com secured a MiCA license for EU operations; Gemini selected Malta as its hub for the MiCA framework; MicroStrategy CEO Saylor and MARA executives met with the Trump administration; Bitcoin miner MARA embedded a portrait of Trump on the Bitcoin blockchain; MicroStrategy proposed to change its corporate charter to increase its authorized shares; video-sharing platform Rumble purchased its first Bitcoin; the Coinbase app ranking in the US App Store surged; Google searches for “how to buy crypto” skyrocketed; crypto investment products saw $2.2b of inflows last week; Robinhood and various notable crypto exchanges announced the listing of TRUMP; Solana DEX volumes hit 10% that of Nasdaq amidst Trump memecoin activity; various applications like Phantom and Jito saw temporarily degraded performance in the wake of skyrocketing activity; the Ethereum Foundation is exploring staking its $1b of ETH; Vitalik announced leadership changes at the Ethereum Foundation to prioritize technical expertise and strengthen collaboration with ecosystem developers; World Liberty stated it reached its goal to sell 20% of its token supply and announced plans to raise an additional $250m; and, BNB Chain introduced a new no-code solution for the creation and management of memecoins.
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Author:
Brian Rudick, Head of Research | Twitter, Telegram, LinkedIn
Carlos Guzman, Research Analyst | Twitter, Telegram, LinkedIn
Toe Bautista, Research Analyst | Twitter, Telegram, LinkedIn
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