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Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk's weekly wrap-up of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. In this week’s issue of the Protocol newsletter:Trump’s crypto teamAptos' leadership shake-upTikTok meets tokensKraken scales upThis article is featured in the latest issue of The Protocol, our weekly newsletter exploring the tech behind crypto, one block at a time. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Wednesday.Network NewsTRUMP CRYPTO APPOINTMENTS: President-elect Donald Trump continues to make high-profile appointments embracing cryptocurrency and emerging technologies in his second term. 1) Stephen Miran, tapped as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, is a pro-crypto advocate who aims to integrate blockchain and decentralized finance into the U.S. economy. 2) Bo Hines, a former college football player, will head the newly formed Crypto Council. Hines is tasked with balancing innovation and consumer protection as he builds a regulatory framework for digital assets. 3) David Sacks, a veteran of Silicon Valley and vocal blockchain supporter, is stepping in as AI and Crypto Czar. Sacks plans to merge blockchain with AI while bolstering U.S. dominance in both sectors. These appointments signal a clear shift from Trump’s earlier skepticism of digital assets. The big question now is how these moves translate into meaningful policy amid regulatory gridlock and political friction.APTOS LEADERSHIP SHIFT: Aptos Labs CEO and co-founder Mo Shaikh has stepped down, with co-founder Avery Ching taking over as CEO. Shaikh, who will remain a strategic adviser, highlighted the company's achievements, including raising $400 million in venture funding and building a thriving ecosystem supported by partners like BlackRock, Google, Mastercard, and PayPal. Known for its layer-1 blockchain leveraging the Move programming language from Facebook's Diem project, Aptos Labs is expanding into finance and AI applications with the help of advisers like former Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein and OpenAI’s Kevin Weil. The leadership transition underscores the company’s ongoing focus on scalability, security, and innovation in blockchain technology.SONIC TO AIRDROP TIKTOK: Sonic, a Layer 2 solution on the Solana blockchain, has announced plans to airdrop its native token, SONIC, to TikTok users. This initiative aims to introduce TikTok's vast user base to decentralized finance (DeFi) by integrating blockchain technology with social media platforms. The airdrop is part of Sonic's strategy to enhance user engagement and promote the adoption of Layer 2 solutions for improved scalability and reduced transaction costs on the Solana network. By targeting TikTok users, Sonic seeks to bridge the gap between mainstream social media audiences and the DeFi ecosystem, fostering broader participation in decentralized financial services.ALSO:MicroStrategy added 5,262 BTC to its holdings as its stock secures a spot on the Nasdaq 100, reinforcing its long-standing Bitcoin strategy.Nokia enters the crypto world with a patented technology for encrypting digital assets, signaling its move into blockchain innovation.Ripple's legal chief urges Congress to focus on regulating crypto practices rather than stifling innovation by targeting the technology itself.Feature: Kraken’s Ink Layer-2 Goes LiveKraken, the seventh-largest crypto exchange, said its layer-2 rollup network, built on top of the Ethereum blockchain, has gone live.The network, called Ink, is based on the OP stack, a customizable framework that lets developers build their own rollups using Optimism’s technology. The team had originally planned for Ink to go live in early 2025, so the launch of its main network is ahead of schedule.Kraken agreed to receive 25 million OP tokens (worth about $58 million) as part of a deal to build on the OP Stack. Optimism has acknowledged that handing out developer grants for participants building on the stack is part of its strategy, which in turn contributes back to the wider “Superchain” ecosystem.Kraken competitor Coinbase said in August 2023 that it would build a layer-2 network with OP Stack.The product, called Base, is now the second-largest rollup network according to L2beat. At the time, Optimism said the Base team would receive up to 118 million OP tokens and, in return, would contribute the higher of 2.5% of its sequencer revenue or 15% of its profits to the Optimism Collective.Read the full story by Margaux Nijkerk hereMoney CenterFundraisingAvalon Labs has secured $10 million in a Series A funding round to expand its Bitcoin-backed stablecoin, aiming to enhance liquidity and stability in the cryptocurrency market. The investment reflects growing interest in Bitcoin-collateralized financial products as a bridge between traditional finance and digital assets.Deals & GrantsTether has announced a $75 million deal to acquire a stake in Rumble, a video-sharing platform. The investment aims to support decentralized media and aligns with Tether's commitment to fostering open communication technologies.Data & TokensBonk (BONK) surged 30%, leading a rebound among dog-themed meme tokens, with Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Dogecoin (DOGE) also experiencing gains. Additionally, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) classified Floki (FLOKI) as a utility token, potentially influencing its regulatory status.Data Corner: 60M USDC Outflows Hit Hyper LiquidHyper Liquid, a cryptocurrency exchange focused on perpetual contracts, has reported a record outflow of $60 million in USDC amid speculation that North Korea is investigating the platform. The sudden exodus of funds raises questions about the exchange’s liquidity and the stability of its operations. This highlights the growing tension of crypto markets with geopolitical issues, as regulatory scrutiny and potential misuse of platforms by state actors come into focus. The incident underscores the vulnerabilities in crypto markets, particularly for exchanges dealing with high-risk financial products like perpetual contracts. Hyper Liquid’s situation may prompt further scrutiny of similar platforms, emphasizing the need for stronger safeguards in the face of increasing global regulatory pressure.Get the full scoop by Omkar Godbole hereCalendar Jan 9-12, 2025: CES, Las VegasJan. 15-19: World Economic Forum, Davos, SwitzerlandJanuary 21-25: WAGMI conference, Miami.Jan. 24-25: Adopting Bitcoin, Cape Town, South Africa.Jan. 30-31: PLAN B Forum, San Salvador, El Salvador.Feb. 1-6: Satoshi Roundtable, DubaiFeb. 19-20, 2025: ConsensusHK, Hong Kong.Feb. 23-24: NFT ParisFeb 23-March 2: ETHDenverMarch 18-19: Digital Asset Summit, LondonMay 14-16: Consensus, Toronto.May 27-29: Bitcoin 2025, Las Vegas.... Read more

Web3 is drowning in metrics, most of which paint an unclear picture. Transaction volumes, token prices and flashy headlines often mask what really matters: the quality of user engagement and the potential for organic, exponential growth. As the industry moves beyond the hype, reliable, data-driven signals of success are no longer optional — they’re essential.Here’s the good news: the tools to cut through the noise already exist. By combining multiple on-chain metrics into a single “health index” score indicating the depth and quality of overall user engagement, we can identify which chains are truly thriving and poised for long-term growth. With 2024 coming to a close, let’s dig into what these signals reveal about today’s leading chains, and what we can expect in 2025.Assessing user quality using aggregated, not isolated, dataWhen creating a sustainable on-chain ecosystem, it doesn’t make sense to optimize any single user action. What’s needed is context — a way to quantify not just everything users are doing, but how and why it matters. One promising approach to achieve this is to aggregate user behaviors into five core categories:Transaction Activity, ranging from spot trades to smart contract interactions.Token Accumulation in the medium-to-long-term, and other “investment” behaviors.DeFi Engagement for activities like staking, lending and liquidity provision.NFT Activity such as minting, trading and utility-driven interactions.Governance Participation to quantify DAO or protocol governance contributions.Crucially, these metrics should not be treated equally. A better approach is to weigh and combine them using a Bayesian model to generate a single top-line “score.” Unlike traditional scoring systems that rely on static thresholds or simple averages, this lets us incorporate both prior knowledge (what we expect from an “average” wallet) and new evidence (actual activity observed on-chain). These dynamic, multi-variate scores are much harder to game and therefore more likely to reveal accurate, actionable insights.What the data tells us about 2024The above approach provides a fresh perspective on each chain’s user activity through 2024. Let’s zoom in on some of the more surprising findings.Solana (the top light blue line that peaks at ~2.75) attracted a huge share of high-quality users between February and mid-March, but engagement quality has fallen since. Interestingly, this downslide coincided with SOL’s first price and trading volume spike of 2024, and has continued through the current memecoin mania. Repetitive actions have diminishing returns when assessed using a Bayesian model, meaning multiple token swaps yield smaller score improvements than engagement across multiple types of activities, for any given wallet. This suggests most Solana users are currently engaged in a narrow range of on-chain activities that aren’t contributing to Solana’s multi-sector growth.As for Ethereum supporters (the bottom orange line that begins at just above 1) who expected this year’s ETH ETFs to be a game-changer, the numbers paint a different picture. Ethereum’s low and stable user score through H1 2024 suggests that this year’s bullish developments did not spur broader ecosystem participation such as DeFi activity and protocol governance.It’s also worth noting that Axelar (the dark blue lines that begins at 2.5) had the most active users across the broadest range of on-chain activities relative to its total user base, according to the data. While Axelar is currently much smaller by TVL than the legacy chains dominating today’s headlines, this is an intriguing signal that warrants closer inspection — and would have been missed if we were looking at market cap or trading volume alone.The takeaway here isn’t that Solana is doomed and Axelar will inevitably become the world’s biggest chain. There is limited value in comparing these types of scores across chains, since each score is proportional to the user quality of its corresponding chain. In other words, a Solana user with a score of “4” may be very different from a “4” on Axelar, given the differences in each chain’s baseline activity. As such, these scores are most useful when tracking changes in the quality of a chain’s overall user activity over time, not cross-chain comparisons.Predictions for 2025With that said, what does each chain’s user quality track record tell us about next year?For starters, it’s clear that Solana faces significant challenges and opportunities entering 2025. The chain’s trajectory depends on its ability to retain its massive casual user base and expand their range of on-chain interactions. Failure to do so could result in a significant slump once memecoins cool off — although data from early 2024 suggests the chain has a large contingent of quality users that will endure regardless of what happens short-term.2024 demonstrated Axelar’s ability to attract a concentrated user base engaged in diverse, sustained on-chain activities, rather than speculative surges. Now, Axelar’s challenge will be upscaling its ecosystem without diluting the quality of its user base. This may involve prioritizing high-profile partnerships to unlock new audiences while creating more newbie-friendly onramps across its dApp ecosystem.Ethereum’s fragmentation has shifted many active users to its faster, cheaper L2 ecosystem, and so we may see mainnet activity increasingly consolidate around core features protocol staking and governance. These activities are critical for the broader EVM ecosystem, but this trajectory may be penalized by scoring systems that reward diverse on-chain engagement.This dynamic underscores a challenge for scoring systems: prioritizing wide-ranging user activity can present an incomplete picture when applied to task-specific networks (or general purpose chains that are evolving into something more specialized). As a result, it’s important to clearly define what success means for whatever chain is being evaluated and use a scoring system that captures the corresponding user actions.A better way to define, and drive, on-chain growthWeb3 has spent too long chasing the wrong metrics and failing to view the data in aggregate. In 2025, the winners will be those who find multivariate ways to measure — and act on — what matters most: user quality.By incorporating new scoring methods into their dashboards, on-chain intelligence platforms can provide more meaningful insights to investors and industry observers. At the same time, Web3 builders can use these scores to clarify top priorities and drive user engagement and value creation. Ultimately, this will help the entire industry shift away from hype-driven narratives to data-backed strategies that unlock the full potential of Web3 in 2025 and beyond.... Read more

Solana-based gaming-focused layer-2 blockchain Sonic will airdrop its SONIC token to all its users onboarded through social-media platform TikTok.Sonic built its SonicX game natively inside TikTok, attempting to replicate the success of mini apps that were built on theTON blockchain inside messaging platform Telegram.The game has over 2 million users onboarded using TikTok, which Sonic attributed to the app's seamless experience and reach in an emailed announcement that didn't give further details of the token release.Blockchain-based games have often suffered from a clunky experience which has made user retention difficult. By working through Web2 apps such as Telegram or Tiktok, developers can make use of existing procedures for onboarding and building an easy user experience. TikTok has 1 billion monthly active users. The number is predicted to rise to over 2.3 billion by 2029, according to Shopify.Read More: Telegram's Tap-to-Earn Games Will Drive Web3 Gaming's Success in 2025... Read more

Investment advisers will probably overtake hedge funds as the biggest holders of U.S.-listed spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) next year, CF Benchmarks said Monday.A total of 11 spot BTC ETFs debuted in the U.S. on Jan. 11, providing a way for investors to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency without personally having to hold and store it. Since their inception, they have accumulated over $36 billion in investor funds.Demand has been dominated by hedge-fund managers, who own 45.3% of the ETFs. Investment advisers, the gatekeepers to retail and high-net-worth capital, are a distant second at 28%.That's set to change in 2025, according to CF Benchmarks, which predicts investment advisers' share will rise above 50% in both the BTC and ether (ETH) ETF markets. CF Benchmarks is a U.K.-regulated index provider behind several key digital asset benchmarks, including the BRRNY, referred by many ETFs."We expect Investment advisor allocations to rise beyond 50% for both assets, as the $88 trillion U.S. wealth management industry begins to embrace these vehicles, eclipsing 2024's combined record-breaking $40 billion in net flows," CF Benchmarks' said in an annual report shared with CoinDesk."This transformation, driven by growing client demand, deeper understanding of digital assets, and product maturation, will likely reshape the current ownership mix as these products become staples in model portfolios," the index provider said.Investment advisers are already in pole position in the ether ETF market and are likely to extend their lead next year. Ether's parent blockchain, Ethereum, is expected to benefit from the growing popularity of asset tokenization while rival Solana could continue to gain market share on potential regulatory clarity in the U.S. "We expect the trend towards asset tokenization to accelerate in 2025, with tokenized RWAs topping $30B," the report said, referring to real-world assets. In stablecoins, new entrants like Ripple's RLUSD and Paxos' USDG are expected to challenge the dominance of tether's USDT, whose market share has increased from 50% to 70%.The scalability of blockchains will also be tested, and the expected increase in active user adoption due to regulatory clarity under President-elect Donald Trump's administration may require on-chain capacity to double to over 1600 TPS.Last but not least, the Federal Reserve is seen turning dovish, employing unconventional measures like yield curve control or expanded asset purchases to address the toxic mix of higher debt servicing costs and a weak labor market."Deeper debt monetization should elevate inflation expectations, bolstering hard assets like Bitcoin as hedges against monetary debasement," the report said.... Read more

CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.The CoinDesk 20 is trading at 3319.53, down 2.9% (-98.37) since 4 p.m. ET last Friday.Three of the 20 assets are trading higher.Leaders: LTC (+2.5%) and UNI (+2.2%).Laggards: APT (-14.8%) and AVAX (-6.0%).The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.... Read more

Avalon Labs, the issuer of the BTC-backed stablecoin USDa, has raised $10 million to grow its Bitcoin decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.The Series A funding round was led by Framework Ventures and included contributions from UXTO Management, Presto Labs and Kenetic Capital, according to an announcement shared with CoinDesk on Monday.Avalon aims to evolve BTC from a digital store of value to a more active financial instrument that can serve a range of different purposes. Users can unlock the value stored in their BTC by collateralizing it for USDa it at a fixed borrowing rate of 8%. The token reached $700 million in total value locked (TVL) earlier this month.Along with its stablecoin, Avalon offers bitcoin-backed lending, yield generating savings accounts and a credit card.Stablecoins are a type of digital token whose value is pegged to that of another currency, normally the U.S. dollar. Their purpose is to give users the option of protecting their funds from volatility associated with cryptocurrencies without having to remove them from the crypto ecosystem altogether.Read More: Stablecoin Market Cap Hits $200B Milestone, Could Double in 2025 as Adoption Accelerates... Read more

Several popular memecoins were added to a number of Chainlink services over the weekend, allowing them to be offered on other networks or as data streaming services.In the past few days, Shiba Inu (SHIB) and its ecosystem tokens, Turbo (TURBO) and Apu (APU), adopted the Chainlink Cross-Chain Token (CCT) standard to become available across 12 blockchains, making them accessible on networks other than where they were originally issued.On Sunday, tokens Simon’s Cat (CAT), Coq Inu (COQ), goat (GOAT), Hamster Kombat’s HMSTR and mog coin (MOG) joined a list of assets on Chainlink’s decentralized data streams.These streams use an oracle model where market data is continuously available off-chain. Such data can be accessed and then cryptographically verified on-chain when needed.CCTs are cross-chain assets offered and protected by Chainlink’s security. A lock-and-mint mechanism enables token transfers from Ethereum to other chains, while the burn-and-mint mechanism facilitates cross-chain transfers across all other networks.Offering on various networks increases visibility and distribution for a token, helping drive investment and usage among network users.Chainlink’s LINK tokens rose Monday, beating a 2% drop in bitcoin (BTC) in the past 24 hours.... Read more

Disclaimer: The analyst who wrote this piece owns shares of MicroStrategy (MSTR)MicroStrategy (MSTR), the software developer that has made acquiring bitcoin (BTC) a core value, added to its holding for a seventh week in a row.The company bought 5,262 BTC for a total of $561 million in the week ended Dec. 22 to take its total holdings to 444,262 BTC it said. The purchase, at an average price of $106,622 per bitcoin, was teased by Executive Chairman Michael Saylor in a Sunday post on X. It brings the value of MicroStrategy's holdings to $42.2 billion at current market prices and raises the average cost to $62,257 per bitcoin. The latest acquisitions were funded by share sales under the company's at-the-market program (ATM). MicroStrategy has $7.08 billion left on the ATM program. The announcement comes the same day that MicroStrategy starts trading as a member of the Nasdaq 100 equity index. The share price is little changed in pre-market trading, over $364.2.... Read more

XRP dropped 3% in the past 24 hours, leading losses among major tokens as bitcoin (BTC) started the festive week in the red and Japanese bitcoin accumulator Metaplanet (3350) announced its biggest purchase.The Tokyo-listed company said it bought a record 619.70 BTC for 9.5 billion yen ($61 million) in a move that lifted its BTC holdings by 54%.BTC is still 1.5% lower over 24 hours, CoinGecko data shows, with ether (ETH), Cardano’s ADA, Solana’s SOL and dogecoin (DOGE) all down as much as 2%. Chainlink’s LINK and Tron’s TRX gained, while the broad-based CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index fell 1.39%.Metaplanet has now acquired 1,762 BTC for 20.87 billion yen ($133.2 million), with an average purchase price of 11.85 million yen. Between Oct. 1 and Dec. 23, the company achieved a BTC yield of 309.82%, up from the 41.7% for Jul. 1-Sep. 30.Metaplanet experimented with novel ways of funding its bitcoin buys since it first started the strategy in April. As of Dec. 20, the company issued a $5.0 billion yen 5th Series of Ordinary Bonds to EVO FUND, a zero-coupon bond maturing June 16, 2025 with early redemption possible linked to the 12th series stock acquisition rights.In total, the company has made 19 separate bitcoin purchases using capital market activities and operating income. The shares have skyrocketed 2,100% this year, and the company has become the 15th-largest publicly traded bitcoin holder.Meanwhile, market watchers are cautious ahead of the holiday period with a short-term bearish bias.“Markets continue to digest the Fed's tougher tone, reinforced by the accumulated urge to lock in profits after a strong year,” Alex Kuptsikevich, FxPro chief market analyst, told CoinDesk in an email. “Bitcoin is trading around $95.5K, receiving support near the 50-day moving average on Friday and Monday. While we expected to see the market decline here, it's too early to say this is the end of the correction.”“Further declines in the stock market, of which there are many in Bitcoin and Ethereum, could trigger institutional investors, launching a deeper pullback. Reduced holiday liquidity has the potential to amplify this amplitude with a potential dip into the $70K area,” Kuptsikevich said, adding that the $90,000 level could present an “attractive level” for buyers to stop the sell-off.... Read more

HyperLiquid, a layer-1 blockchain and decentralized exchange for perpetual futures (perps), has experienced a notable outflow of the USDC stablecoin amid speculation North Korean hackers are interacting with the platform, according to a post on X by pseudonymous observer Tay, known for tracking threats posed by to crypto protocols by the country. A record $60 million of USDC fled the exchange by 10:00 UTC Monday, according to Hashed Official's Dune-based tracker. USDC, the world's second-largest dollar-pegged stablecoin, is used as collateral on HyperLiquid. The deposit bridge still holds $2.2 billion in USDC. Addresses associated with hackers from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) have accrued losses exceeding $700,000 while trading on HyperLiquid, Tay said. The transactions indicate the hackers are potentially familiarizing themselves with the platform's inner workings to launch a malicious attack. "DPRK doesn't trade. DPRK tests," Tay said.CoinDesk contacted HyperLiquid on X for comments on the USDC outflows and potential threat from North Korea.Tay said they reached out to the platform two weeks ago, offering help in countering a potential threat. "I really want to emphasize that these are the most sophisticated and rapidly evolving of all of the DPRK threat groups. They are very creative and persistent. They also get their hands on 0days (such as the one Chrome patched today," Tay's message to the platform said.HyperLiquid is the leading on-chain perpetuals exchange, commanding over 50% of the total on-chain perpetuals trading volume, which tallied $8.6 billion in the past 24 hours.The platform debuted its token HYPE on Nov. 29. Since then, it has surged over 600% to $28.6, briefly topping $10 billion in market capitalization. As of writing, HYPE was the 22nd largest digital asset in the world, according to Coingecko.... Read more

Bitwise's Europe head of research, who has been accurately bullish on bitcoin (BTC) for months, has turned cautious after last week's 8% dip, warning of deeper losses in the coming weeks.Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency by market value, fell 8.8% to nearly $95,000 last week, the biggest percentage drop since August, according to data source TradingView and CoinDesk Indices. The losses came as the Federal Reserve signaled fewer rate cuts for next year while stressing that it prohibited from holding BTC and doesn't seek a change in the law to do so.The so-called hawkish rate projections also roiled sentiment in traditional markets, leading to a 2% drop in the S&P 500 and a 0.8% gain in the dollar index, lifting it to the highest since October 2022. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, the so-called risk-free rate, rose 14 basis points, breaking out bullishly from a technical pattern.The risk-off mood may persist for some time, according to Andre Dragosch, director and head of research Europe at Bitwise."The big macro picture is that the Fed is stuck between a rock and a hard place as financial conditions have continued to tighten despite 3 consecutive rate cuts since September. Meanwhile, real-time measures of consumer price inflation have re-accelerated over the past months to new highs as well judging by truflation‘s indicator for U.S. inflation," Dragosch told CoinDesk.Dragosch is one of the few observers who correctly predicted a massive BTC price rally in late July when the sentiment was hardly bullish. BTC put in lows near $50,000 around that time and recently topped $100,000 for the first time on record."So, it’s quite likely that we will see more pain in the coming weeks, but this could be an interesting buying opportunity given the ongoing tailwinds provided by the BTC supply deficit," Dragosch added.The hardening of the Treasury yields, representing higher borrowing costs and relative attractiveness of fixed-income investments, typically leads to outflow from riskier assets like cryptocurrencies and stocks. A stronger dollar also makes USD-based assets expensive, discouraging capital inflows.Inflation following the 1970s model?If you have been following financial markets for a while, you have likely encountered discussions that price pressures in the U.S. economy are on the same inflation rollercoaster ride as the 1970s. Back then, the second wave was more intense than the first.Dragosch notes that the sticky CPI inflation readings in recent months have raised concerns at the Fed about a potential second wave, leading to a more cautious stance on rate cuts."They are probably scared of the double hump scenario and a revival of the 70s twin peak in inflation which is why they are probably too reluctant to cut rates more aggressively," Dragosch said. "They risk a significant acceleration in inflation if they cut rates aggressively, if they do little, the economy may suffer."Eventually, however, the financial tightening caused by rising yields and the dollar index would force the Fed to take action, Dragosch added, stressing BTC's supply scarcity as a major bullish factor over the long run.... Read more

President-elect Donald Trump announced over the weekend that he is appointing Stephan Miran, a former Treasury official from the first Trump White House, and current economist with Hudson Bay Capital Management, to chair the Council of Economic Advisors (CEA). The CEA's role is to advise the president on economic issues, including evaluating the effectiveness of federal policies and programs, analyzing economic trends, and crafting recommendations to foster growth and stability.Miran has long been an advocate for crypto, recently appearing on Blockworks' Forward Guidance podcast. He has previously tweeted about how crypto regulations need to be reformed in the U.S. to allow for innovation to flourish.Miran has previously criticized Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell as "wrong politically and economically" for urging Congress to pass a stimulus bill in October 2020.This appointment comes as Trump himself has pledged to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the planet” and earlier floated the idea of a strategic bitcoin reserve.Recently, Trump announced he was appointing crypto advocate Paul Atkins as Securities and Exchange Commission chair. Atkins had previously served as a Commissioner at the SEC during the George W. Bush administration.Trump also appointed former congressional candidate Bo Hines as Executive Director of the Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets.In a post on Truth Social, Trump said Hines would collaborate with David Sacks, the incoming "Crypto Czar," to advance the administration's crypto agenda.While Trump endorsed Hines in his Congressional run, Hines does not have a history of crypto advocacy.... Read more

Solana-based bonk (BONK) led growth among dog-themed memes Saturday as bitcoin staged a recovery rally to above $98,000, a day after Friday’s bloodbath that pushed it near $93,000.BONK surged 30%, CoinGecko data shows, with dogecoin (DOGE), shiba inu (SHIB), dogwifhat (WIF) and floki (FLOKI) surging as much as 20%. The dog-themed token category gained 8% on average in the past 24 hours, beating a market-wide jump of 4.5% as tracked by the broad-based CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index.Memecoins are known for their high volatility and tend to outperform major tokens during price rallies, serving as a leveraged bet on the overall crypto market sentiment.However, in this case, fundamentals are helping back gains and sentiment among some memecoins. FLOKI was named alongside ether (ETH) and Avalanche’s AVAX as a utility token in a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) meeting last month.The derivatives regulator proposed in a Global Markets Advisory Committee (GMAC) a new class of assets termed utility tokens, which fulfill six criteria that include providing their holder “immediately available, non-incidental consumptive use” in a crypto platform without including “governance and voting abilities.”"FLOKI was recently highlighted by the CFTC's Global Markets Advisory Committee as a case study of a utility token, which is a big deal and validates Floki's utility-first approach,” Floki lead developer B told CoinDesk in a Telegram message. “Floki's Valhalla metaverse game will go live in early Q1 2024, and the recently released Floki Trading Bot has generated over a million dollars in fees.“This puts Floki on an entirely different level from other memecoins, especially when the market turns and people start to pay attention to fundamentals again,” B added.Elsewhere, interest in BONK comes as a host of activities intend to deflate token supply gain traction among users — a move that has historically contributed to higher prices.BonkDAO, a decentralized group of bonk believers that maintain the token, burned 100 billion tokens from the circulating supply in November and targeted a trillion token burn in December. This could increase the token's value due to scarcity. The feat could meet its target in the weeks ahead, observers say.... Read more

YouTube competitor Rumble (RUM) is in a deal for a $775 million strategic investment from stablecoin giant Tether.Rumble will use $250 million of the money to support operations and the remainder to fund a tender offer for up to 70 million shares of its common stock at a price of $7.50, according to a Friday evening press release. That $7.50 is the same price per share Tether is paying for its stake."I truly believe Tether is the perfect partner that can put a rocket pack on the back of Rumble as we prepare for our next phase of growth," said Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski."Legacy media has increasingly eroded trust, creating an opportunity for platforms like Rumble to offer a credible, uncensored alternative," said Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino. "Beyond our initial shareholder stake, Tether intends to drive towards a meaningful advertising, cloud, and crypto payment solutions relationship with Rumble."RUM shares have rocketed higher by 41% in after hours action to $10.13.It is not known if any of the proceeds will be used to put bitcoin (BTC) on the Rumble balance sheet. Pavlovski in November had teased an interest in his company possibly buying bitcoin.... Read more

There's been a change of guard at the rankings of the $3.4 billion tokenized Treasuries market.Asset manager Hashnote's USYC token zoomed over $1.2 billion in market capitalization, growing five-fold in size over the past three months, rwa.xyz data shows. It has toppled the $450 million BUIDL, issued by asset management behemoth BlackRock and tokenization firm Securitize, which was the largest product by size since April.USYC is the token representation of the Hashnote International Short Duration Yield Fund, which, according to the company's website, invests in reverse repo agreements on U.S. government-backed securities and Treasury bills held in custody at the Bank of New York Mellon.Hashnote's quick growth underscores the importance of interconnecting tokenized products with decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and presenting their tokens available as building blocks for other products — or composability, in crypto lingo — to scale and reach broader adoption. It also showcases crypto investors' appetite for yield-generating stablecoins, which are increasingly backed by tokenized products.USYC, for example, has greatly benefited from the rapid ascent of the budding decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Usual and its real-world asset-backed, yield-generating stablecoin, USD0.Usual is pursuing the market share of centralized stablecoins like Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC by redistributing a portion of revenues from its stablecoin's backing assets to holders. USD0 is primarily backed by USYC currently, but the protocol aims to add more RWAs to reserves in the future. It has recently announced the addition of Ethena's USDtb stablecoin, which is built on top of BUIDL."The bull market triggered a massive inflow into stablecoins, yet the core issue with the largest stablecoins remains: they lack rewards for end users and do not give access to the yield they generate," said David Shuttleworth, partner at Anagram. "Moreover, users do not get access to the protocol’s equity by holding USDT or USDC.""Usual’s appeal is that it redistributes the yield along with ownership in the protocol back to users," he added.The protocol, and hence its USD0 stablecoin, has raked in $1.3 billion over the past few months as crypto investors chased on-chain yield opportunities. Another significant catalyst of growth was the protocol's governance token (USUAL) airdrop and exchange listing on Wednesday. USUAL started trading on Binance on Wednesday, and vastly outperformed the shaky broader crypto market, appreciating some 50% since then, per CoinGecko data.BlackRock's BUIDL also enjoyed rapid growth earlier this year, driven by DeFi platform Ondo Finance making the token the key reserve asset of its own yield-earning product, the Ondo Short-Term US Government Treasuries (OUSG) token.... Read more