A Degen in Congress 🐶🐾
Plus, 🏦 U-turn at the SEC?, ⛓️ F**k around and find out, 🛡️ A listing lift, and more!
Welcome to our Wednesday edition! I’m Juan Aranovich, managing editor of Unchained.
In today’s edition:
🤝 Pro-crypto Paul Atkins tipped to lead SEC
👨💼 Rep. Collins embraces memecoin mania
⛓️ Celsius’s Mashinsky fesses up to fraud
📈 Grayscale targets Solana ETF
💵 Gov’t shifts seized FTX crypto
🇰🇷 Panic selling in South Korea
Earn 20%+ APR on ETH with High Growth Vault by Kelp
High Gain is your tokenized solution for generating the highest rewards on ETH in 1 click– while keeping you liquid with hgETH.
What’s Poppin’?
By Sage D. Young, Veronica Irwin and Tikta
Trump Taps Paul Atkins as Next SEC Chair
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has selected pro-crypto former Securities and Exchange Commissioner Paul Atkins to chair the regulator, according to three sources familiar with the discussions.
One source said Trump had reached out to Atkins but was waiting on him to accept the offer.
By selecting Atkins, who has co-chaired crypto industry advocacy group Token Alliance since 2017, Trump is delivering on a promise he made to the crypto community during his campaign.
The team vetting candidates for the position reached out to crypto industry leaders two weeks ago asking for their preferences, demonstrating how much Gensler’s unpopularity has played a role in Trump’s latest nomination.
Does U.S. Rep. Michael Collins Have Memecoin Fever?
Memecoin holders can add a lawmaker to their club: Republican Rep. Michael Collins, who represents Georgia’s 10th congressional district.
On Monday, Collins submitted his sixth financial disclosure of the year, revealing three purchases involving cryptocurrencies made in the previous two days.
One entailed acquiring between $1,001 and $15,000 of AERO, the native currency of decentralized exchange Aerodrome.
The remaining two, each in the same value range, included ski mask dog (SKI), according to the periodic transaction report filed with the clerk of the House of Representatives.
Ex-Celsius CEO Pleads Guilty to Fraud
Alex Mashinsky, former CEO and founder of now-bankrupt crypto lender Celsius Network, has pleaded guilty to two of the seven counts of fraud, conspiracy and market manipulation he was initially charged with, according to multiple media reports.
In a hearing on Tuesday, Mashinsky pleaded guilty to one count of commodities fraud and one count of securities fraud.
Each of those counts carries a maximum prison sentence of 30 years. Mashinsky has agreed not to appeal the charges.
Federal prosecutors alleged that Mashinsky had artificially inflated the value of Celsius’s CEL token and have estimated that he personally made $42 million from sales of his holdings of the asset.
Mashinsky’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 8, 2025.
Grayscale Files for Spot Solana ETF
Crypto investment manager Grayscale Investments has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a spot Solana exchange-traded fund.
According to a 19b-4 filing lodged on Dec. 3, the proposed Grayscale Solana Trust would trade under the ticker “GSOL” and would essentially be a conversion of Grayscale’s existing Solana trust into an ETF.
Coinbase Custody would serve as the fund’s custodian, while BNY Mellon Asset Servicing would be the administrator and transfer agent.
The Grayscale Solana Trust is currently the biggest SOL investment fund by assets under management, with assets worth around $134.2 million, representing 0.1% of all SOL in circulation.
SOL rallied 6% following news of the filing. At press time, the token was changing hands for $235 on a daily trading volume of $10 billion.
U.S. Moves $33M of Seized FTX-Alameda Funds
Wallets linked to the U.S. government have moved around $33 million of crypto from an “FTX Alameda Seized Funds” wallet to two unknown addresses, according to data from blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence.
The transfers included around $18 million of ETH, $1.5 million of memecoin SHIB, and a host of other tokens including WBTC, COMP, and BUSD.
U.S. government wallets also made a series of transfers of more obscure tokens with lower market caps, such as AERGO and POWR.
The transfers are likely part of an ongoing process of managing and potentially liquidating assets seized from FTX and Alameda Research following their collapse and the subsequent legal action pursued against former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.
Kimchi Premium Tanks in South Korea Selloff
The so-called “kimchi premium” — the higher prices of cryptocurrencies on South Korean exchanges versus those of crypto on U.S. exchanges — plummeted to an all-time low following the short-lived, unilateral imposition of martial law by the country’s president late on Tuesday night.
Data shared by Colin Wu, the founder of crypto media outlet WuBlockchain, on X show that Bitcoin briefly dropped to $79,167 on major South Korean exchange Upbit, while the XRP/KRW pair fell to $1.89.
CryptoQuant data show that the kimchi premium dropped to a low of -40% during the early hours of Wednesday in South Korea.
Market participants attributed the price instability to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s sudden declaration of martial law at 10:23 p.m. on Tuesday, a decree he reversed six hours later after both his party and opposition parties forced their way into parliament to vote it down.
Since South Korean exchanges are largely dominated by retail investors, market-wide panic likely triggered the dramatic selloff.
At its peak in January 2018, the kimchi premium stood at a sky-high 55%.
Unlock zero trading fees, up to 5.1% APY on USDC, boosted staking rewards and more with Coinbase One.
Try it free for a month with code UNCHAINED.
Daily Bits… ✍️✍️✍
🤝 President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly considering crypto-friendly figures Perianne Boring and Caroline Pham to lead the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, signaling potential regulatory shifts in favor of digital assets.
⚡ Foundry, the world's biggest bitcoin mining pool, reduced its workforce by 60%, trimming it to 80-90 employees as part of a restructuring effort despite forecasting revenue of $80 million this year.
The $$$ Corner…
💸 Pantera Capital raised $20 million from 29 investors to bolster Telegram-linked TON blockchain investments, reaffirming its commitment to the platform, despite the legal troubles its CEO, Pavel Durov, is facing in France.
🔗 Union Labs secured $12 million in series-A funding, led by Gumi Cryptos Capital and Longhash Ventures, to enhance blockchain interoperability between the Ethereum, Cosmos, and Bitcoin ecosystems.
🤖 Crypto-AI startup GAIB raised $5 million in pre-seed funding, led by Hack VC, to develop tokenized graphics processing unit solutions, highlighting investor interest in AI-driven blockchain technologies.
What Do You Meme?
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is up 1.6%, trading at $96,278
ETH is up 3.8%, trading at $3,737
BTC dominance: 51.06%
Crypto market cap: $3.74T
*All data as of today, 07:08 am ET. Source: CoinGecko
Recommended Reads
What I would love to see in a wallet by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin
The Cure by BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes
Paradigm’s Dan Robinson on Succint’s new design: proof contests
We Are Hiring!
A Part-Time Sponsorships Manager to generate and manage sponsorships across Unchained’s platforms. See the details and apply here.
A Bitcoin Reporter to cover all things Bitcoin. See the details and apply here.
An Audience Development Director to broaden the reach of the publication’s content, whether through the web, social media, newsletters, podcast platforms, or videos. See the details and apply here.
🔝 Are you hiring and want to promote the postings in the Unchained newsletter? Let us know!