⏳ The Final Countdown 👋
Plus, 🤯 $100K frenzy, 🌟 SOL shines bright, 👀 Schwab eyes crypto’s future, and more!
Happy Friday! I’m Juan Aranovich, managing editor of Unchained.
In today’s edition:
🕴️ Gensler to step down
👔 Who will be Trump’s “crypto czar”?
🤑 $100K BTC looms
🚀 New ATH for SOL!
⏳ FTX to repay users
🤔 Will Schwab dive into crypto?
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SEC Chair Gary Gensler to Resign on Inauguration Day; Trump Down to 4 Finalists
Gary Gensler will resign from his role as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Jan. 20, the day of president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. Trump has repeatedly promised to “fire” Gensler on his first day in office, but it appears Gensler plans to remove himself first.
According to two people familiar with the deliberations, the Trump administration plans to announce a nominee to replace Gensler as SEC Chair either today or on Monday.
Trump’s Plans for a ‘Crypto Czar’ and a Crypto Advisory Council: Here’s What We Know
Recent reports that president-elect Donald Trump’s team is actively vetting candidates for a new “crypto czar” position at the White House have led to rampant speculation in the crypto community about who Trump might choose for the role.
But details about who might be eligible for the position and how it might relate to a new crypto advisory council, which Trump had earlier promised to create, are still sparse.
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Almost $400 Million Liquidated as Bitcoin Nears $100,000
Crypto traders saw $376 million liquidated over the last 24 hours as the price of bitcoin inched closer to the $100,000 mark.
Data from Coinglass shows that $198 million of those liquidated positions came from traders in short positions, with the largest single liquidation order taking place on the BTC/USDT pair on Binance valued at $10.63 million.
At the time of writing, 7:26 a.m. ET, bitcoin was trading at $98,799. The digital asset had a trading volume of $92.4 billion in the past 24 hours.
Market intelligence tracker Santiment noted that social media speculation had become “rampant” across channels like X, Reddit, Telegram, 4Chan, and BitcoinTalk — all collectively mentioning “$100K BTC price levels” at the highest rate in history.
Solana Hits New All-Time High
SOL, the native token of high speed layer 1 blockchain Solana, has rallied to a new record high of $263.7. The token gained 11% over the last 24 hours and 160% since the start of the year.
The altcoin’s rally comes amid four 19b-4 filings from Bitwise, VanEck, 21Shares, and Canary Capital as they seek to list a spot Solana exchange-traded fund.
The asset managers appear to have seized the moment after U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler — associated with a “regulation by enforcement” approach toward crypto firms — set a resignation date.
SOL was a top performer in the previous crypto bull market, but lost most of its value after the collapse of FTX. This market cycle, memecoins and high network activity have been big contributors to hype around Solana.
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FTX Plans to Reimburse Creditors in Early 2025
The FTX estate has announced plans to begin reimbursing users by March, following the completion of its bankruptcy proceedings and reorganization, which are expected to wrap up early next year.
The firm aims to start distributions to creditors and customers once the process is finalized, according to a statement released on Thursday.
FTX CEO John J. Ray III highlighted that the timeline reflects the efforts of the team managing the estate, which has already recovered billions for creditors and customers.
To be eligible for reimbursement, customers must set up an approved account with a distribution agent, complete KYC verification, and submit tax forms before the distribution date.
FTX estimates that customers will recover between 129% and 146% of their claims in fiat.
Charles Schwab Might Soon Offer Direct Crypto Investments: Report
Retail crypto investors might not be the only ones gearing up for the departure of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler.
Major investment firm Charles Schwab plans to offer clients direct crypto investments when regulations improve, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
“We will get into spot crypto when the regulatory environment changes, and we do anticipate that it will change. We’re getting ready for that eventuality,” said Charles Schwab incoming CEO Rick Wurster.
Currently, the firm’s involvement in crypto is limited to products such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and futures contracts, which provide indirect exposure to the crypto market.
Daily Bits… ✍️✍️✍
⚖️ A Texas judge struck down the SEC's expanded "dealer" rule that sought to regulate market liquidity providers, including crypto firms, calling it an overreach of the agency's authority.
💰 MicroStrategy completed a $3 billion debt offering to buy more bitcoin, raising its BTC holdings to 331,200 coins, worth over $30 billion at current prices.
Today in Crypto Adoption...
🔗 Crypto liquidity provider B2C2 issued its first onchain corporate bond using Ethereum, denominated in USDC.
The $$$ Corner…
💡 Truemarkets raised $4 million through NFT sales, attracting Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin as a major buyer, highlighting continued interest in prediction market platforms.
What Do You Meme?
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is up 1%, trading at $98,937
ETH is up 2.6%, trading at $3,353
BTC dominance: 56.91%
Crypto market cap: $3.44T
*All data as of today, 07:28 am ET. Source: CoinGecko
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