Please Make It Stop! 😢
Plus, 🎨 Doodles token teased, ⛽ Gassing up Ethereum, 🏗️ L1 leadership changes, and more!
I’m Juan Aranovich, managing editor of Unchained.
In today’s edition:
📉 BTC pulls market down
🎨 Doodles co-founder hints at token launch
⛽ Ethereum validators push for 36M gas limit
🚪 Sui and Aptos see leadership shifts
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What’s Poppin’?
By Tikta
$840M Liquidated From Crypto Markets as Bitcoin Retreats
Bitcoin dropped below $96,000 on Thursday, sending the broader crypto market into an even sharper decline and setting off thousands of liquidations across major crypto exchanges.
In the 24 hours to press time, 238,892 traders had liquidated a total of $837 million, according to data from crypto futures trading and information platform CoinGlass. Bitcoin accounted for most of that, with $215 million of liquidations, while Ethereum liquidations topped $181 million.
The market-wide decline comes after the U.S. Federal Reserve forecast only two interest rate cuts next year, a prognosis to which most risk-assets — including U.S. equities — reacted with negative price action.
Amid the broader decline, spot bitcoin and ether ETFs ended a streak of 15 and 18 consecutive days of positive flows, respectively.
Data show that spot BTC ETFs saw $671.9 million in net outflows, while ETH funds saw $60.5 million melt away, less than 10% of BTC’s drain.
Doodles NFT Floor Price Surges After Co-founder Hints at Token Launch
Scott Martin, perhaps better known by the pseudonym “Burnt Toast” and as a co-founder of the Doodles NFT collection, teased an impending token launch by the project in the near future.
“Take ownership, keep evolving new ideas, shape communities, open minds, inspire new growth,” Martin posted on X. For those that looked closer, the first letter of each word in that sentence read: “Token is coming.”
In the 24 hours to press time, the floor price of Doodles NFTs surged 75% to 7.3 ETH ($24,760). Trading volume for the collection was up 1,494% to 4,759 ETH during the same period.
The Doodles team’s hint of a token launch comes after the creators of the Pudgy Penguins NFT series airdropped the PENGU token to their community of users. Despite being launched only this week, PENGU is already trading at a market cap of $1.75 billion.
Ethereum Validators Get Behind Higher Gas Limit
Ethereum validators are showing increasing support for raising the network's gas limit.
As of Thursday, 15.4% of validators were signalling support for an increase beyond the current 30 million gas limit, according to data shared by Ethereum Foundation researcher Toni Wahrstätter.
That is a significant jump from fewer than 1% before Dec. 2.
The proposed gas limit increase would boost network capacity, with more transactions included per block, and potentially reduce transaction fees by 15% to as much as 33%.
Wahrstätter proposed increasing the gas limit to 36 million to start with in order to monitor the network’s response and prevent instability.
Coinbase-run validators are in the camp of those following that recommendation, and are among those showing support for a higher limit.
“This system of signaling allows validators to democratically influence the gas limit with each block they propose,” the Coinbase Developer Platform posted on X.
Sui and Aptos See Changes at the Top
Two up-and-coming layer 1 blockchains have announced management changes at their respective foundations. Sui has welcomed a new managing director, and Aptos has announced the departure of a co-founder and CEO.
The Sui Foundation appointed Christian Thompson as its new managing director to lead the blockchain’s next growth phase. Thompson’s previous roles include chief information security officer at Web3 infrastructure company Mysten Labs, and also deputy chief information security officer at Meta, where he was an early member of the now-defunct Diem/Libra project.
Another early member of Diem, Mo Shaikh, announced a surprise exit from his role as CEO of Aptos, a project he co-founded with fellow Diem contributor Avery Ching in 2021.
Ching will assume the CEO role, while Shaikh will stay on as a strategic advisor.
Shaikh said he was stepping away “to start a new chapter” and that he will be taking “some much-needed time to reflect on where the world is headed” over the next few months.
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Daily Bits… ✍️✍️✍
🎥Bitfinex hacker Ilya Lichtenstein released a statement denying speculation about possible accomplices in the 120,000 BTC theft, expressing remorse, and saying he’s planning a cybersecurity career once he’s released from prison.
👁️ German regulators have ordered Worldcoin to implement GDPR-compliant data deletion protocols by Jan. 19, highlighting ongoing concerns over the project's handling of biometric data.
📉💔 Curve Finance founder Michael Egorov faced another $882,000 liquidation as CRV dropped 12%, attributed to unresolved fallout from the UwU hack and ongoing market challenges.
⛏️ Bitcoin miners Marathon Digital and Hut 8 acquired 15,574 BTC and 990 BTC, respectively, using convertible note proceeds to bolster reserves amid post-halving adjustments.
💵 Stablecoin issuer Usual partnered with M^0 to launch UsualM, leveraging U.S. Treasury-backed reserves and multi-chain capabilities to redefine digital dollar utilities.
Today in Crypto Adoption...
📊 The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commision approved the first hybrid Bitcoin-Ethereum ETFs by Hashdex and Franklin Templeton, marking a regulatory milestone as the funds prepare for January launches with an initial 80:20 BTC-ETH allocation.
What Do You Meme?
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is down 8%, trading at $94,073
ETH is down 12.1%, trading at $3,244
BTC dominance: 55.38%
Crypto market cap: $3.36T
*All data as of today, 08:00 am ET. Source: CoinGecko
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Bloomberg: Tether Removal Puts Europe at Risk of Missing Trump Crypto Boom
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