🚀 $100K in Sight!
Plus, 🎉 Memecoin mania in full swing, 🎥 TikTok turns memes into millions, 🔥 A crypto policy first? And more!
Happy Thursday! I’m Juan Aranovich, managing editor of Unchained.
In today’s edition:
🚀 Bitcoin blasts past $98K
🤨 Treasury pick raises questions in crypto circles
🎉 Pump.Fun’s record fees
🐕 BONK beats the big names
🍿 Memecoins meet virality
💡 Binance’s massive volume
🏛️ Crypto czar in the White House?
👋 BTC leaves ETH behind
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What’s Poppin’?
By Sage D. Young, Veronica Irwin and Tikta
Bitcoin Hits New All-Time High Above $98,000
Bitcoin rallied to a new record of $98,310 during the early hours of trading in Asian markets on Thursday, as the options market for BlackRock's BTC spot ETF IBIT continued to see strong momentum.
As bitcoin inched closer to the price target of $100,000, traders who had been betting on both higher and lower short term prices were subject to large scale liquidations.
Data from CoinGlass shows that $454 million worth of liquidations were triggered across major crypto exchanges over the last 24 hours. Bitcoin alone accounted for $119 million liquidations, of which $93 million came from short positions.
It was a different story for traders of ETH and SOL. The number of long positions being liquidated for both assets was nearly double the amount of short positions, which were liquidated over the same period.
Treasury Secretary Contender Kevin Warsh Was an Early Investor in Crypto Startups
The crypto community has not reacted well to reports indicating that former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh is a top contender for Treasury Secretary.
Prominent crypto figures have called out the fact that Warsh, who is expected to meet with President-elect Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago this week, has previously stated support of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) rather than stablecoins and other private cryptocurrencies. Yet he may not be as unfriendly to crypto as those in the industry believe due to his early investments in crypto startups.
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Solana-Based Memecoin Generator Pump.Fun Shatters Adoption, Usage Records
Solana memecoin incubator Pump.Fun is achieving unprecedented levels of user adoption, solidifying its position as the breakout star of the 2024 crypto market cycle.
With more than $27.7 million in monthly fees for November, Pump.Fun is on track to break its all-time high in fees generated. If activity continues at its current pace, Pump.Fun’s projected fees at month’s end will exceed $41.6 million, representing a 36% jump from the current record of $30.5 million in fees set last month, data from blockchain analytics firm DefiLlama shows.
BONK Near All-Time High as 24-Hour Volume on Coinbase Exceeds That for XRP, SOL, and ADA
Dog-inspired memecoin BONK continues to set new all-time highs in price, and has also generated a 24-hour trading volume on Coinbase that is exceeding the volumes of tokens with substantially higher market caps such as XRP, SOL, and ADA.
Coinbase’s trading volume for the Solana-based BONK over the last 24 hours currently stands at roughly $256 million, making up 4.2% of the exchange’s total volume. That’s more than that generated for XRP ($253 million), SOL ($239 million), and ADA ($106 million), data from CoinGecko shows.
Chill Guy Meme Shows TikTok’s Growing Role in Fueling Rise of Memecoins
Memecoins are getting an added boost of virality as promotion of these tokens has moved beyond simply X and onto other social networks, notably TikTok, the short-form video-based app with a huge following among Gen Z, or those born between 1997 and 2012.
Nowhere is this dynamic clearer than in the case of Chill Guy, a very popular meme on X, TikTok, and Instagram that’s based on a dog cartoon and associated with the CHILLGUY cryptocurrency. The token was launched on Pump.Fun two months ago, but has seen exponential growth recently. The memecoin’s price has rocketed 251% in the last 24 hours and an astounding 482,270% in the past seven days, data from trading platform DexTools shows, although it has a liquidity level of just $4.7 million.
Binance’s 30-Day Trading Volume Exceeds Nasdaq, NYSE
The U.S. stock market rally has attracted plenty of interest, but data compiled by news outlet Wu Blockchain suggests that the world’s largest crypto exchange drew more activity than Wall Street.
In the last 30 trading days, Binance’s total trading volumes across spot and derivative markets came in at $3.5 trillion, outpacing the Nasdaq and NYSE, which each accounted for $3.2 trillion and $1.7 trillion over the same period.
Crypto research platform Live Coin Watch noted that there have been significant spikes in volume recorded on almost all exchanges since the beginning of November.
“In 2021, Binance's 24h volume peaked at a high of just over $105 billion…Last week, it hit $65 billion,” said Live Coin Watch.
Trump Considers Creating White House Crypto Role: Report
President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly mulling the creation of a White House’s first-ever role solely focused on crypto policy.
Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that Trump’s team was in the process of screening candidates to serve in the role, but it is unclear whether the role would be a White House staff position or a point person to oversee policy and regulation across the federal government.
People familiar with the matter said crypto industry advocates are pushing for the role to have a direct line to Trump.
Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong had a sit down meeting with Trump to discuss crypto policy.
ETH/BTC Drops to Lowest Level Since 2021
The Ethereum/Bitcoin (ETH/BTC) ratio has dropped to the lowest level since March 2021 as the second-largest digital asset by market cap continues to be left out of the rally led by the industry’s oldest cryptocurrency.
Data from TradingView shows that ETH/BTC declined 1.41% over the last 24 hours to 0.032.
The metric, which measures market sentiment and relative performance of Ethereum compared to Bitcoin, has dropped 40% since the start of the year.
Nine months ago, when bitcoin was trading at around $50,000, ether was trading at $3,000. Now bitcoin is trading at more than $97,000, while ether remains at $3,100.
“It has been unprofitable to hold ETH over BTC for 2,113 days, which is 62% of its trading history,” noted onchain analyst Checkmate.
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Bits + Bips: Will Rate Cuts and Trump’s Policies Spark a Bitcoin Supercycle?
Will rate cuts and a strategic Bitcoin reserve cause Bitcoin and equities to rise indefinitely? Is Ethereum on the verge of a comeback? And how will regulation shape the next bull run?
Bitcoin and SOL are flirting with all time highs, Ethereum is lagging behind, and the next six months could define the trajectory of crypto markets.
In this episode of Bits + Bips, James Seyffart, Alex Kruger, and guest David Grider unravel the key stories driving the space: What could a meeting between Trump and Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong mean for crypto policy? Could a new Treasury Secretary pick become the industry’s biggest ally? And is Ethereum’s underperformance hiding a major comeback?
Plus, what crypto categories might be winners in the near future.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.
Daily Bits… ✍️✍️✍
⚖️ Gary Wang, FTX’s co-founder, avoided jail time after cooperating with prosecutors in their case against Sam Bankman-Fried, earning praise for aiding in uncovering fraud.
💸 The SEC began distributing $4.6 million to BitClave ICO investors following the startup’s 2020 settlement with the agency over unregistered securities violations related to its 2017 token sale.
🍌 Justin Sun purchased Maurizio Cattelan’s iconic duct-taped banana artwork “Comedian” for $6.4 million, citing its cultural significance within art, memes, and crypto.
📈 MicroStrategy increased its convertible senior note offering to $2.6 billion to buy more Bitcoin, continuing its aggressive strategy of leveraging debt for bitcoin accumulation.
💵 Coinbase Wallet introduced a 4.7% APY reward for USDC holders, aiming to attract more users to its layer 2 network Base through monthly payouts.
Today in Crypto Adoption...
📱 Crypto wallet Phantom ranked ninth among free iPhone apps, outperforming Instagram and WhatsApp as it gains popularity for supporting multiple blockchain ecosystems.
The $$$ Corner…
💱 Valantis Labs raised $7.5 million across two funding rounds to develop its modular decentralized exchange (DEX) protocol, promising enhanced liquidity and functionality compared to Uniswap V4.
What Do You Meme?
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is up 4.8%, trading at $97,888
ETH is up 7.1%, trading at $3,307
BTC dominance: 58.01%
Crypto market cap: $3.34T
*All data as of today, 07:48 am ET. Source: CoinGecko
Recommended Reads
Kairos Research on Jito’s latest proposal
Cumberland Labs: From Rugs to Riches: An Analysis of Memecoin Market Structure
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