Trump Bump ⬆️
Market moves, OpenSea tries again, and memecoin mortality.
Welcome to Wednesday! I’m Juan Aranovich, managing editor of Unchained.
In today’s edition:
📈 Up, up, and away
🤔 Did Stand With Crypto mean stand with Republicans?
🗳 Elizabeth Warren’s latest win
🚢 OpenSea: Collectible comeback?
💀 Memecoins: Live fast, die young
🪫 How low can you go? Ether’s fickle fortunes
With over 20 licensed or regulated assets on-chain and a global ecosystem of 400k+ ramps, Stellar is the network of choice for real-world asset tokenization.
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.
What’s Poppin’?
Bitcoin Hits All-Time High of $75,300
Bitcoin soared to an all-time high of $75,300 on Tuesday as election odds increasingly favored Donald Trump securing the U.S. presidency.
The rally was driven by the expectation that a Trump victory would usher in a more crypto-friendly administration, sending BTC up almost 10% over a 24-hour period.
After reaching its peak, bitcoin briefly dipped, but once major media outlets — including AP, Fox, and NBC — confirmed Trump’s win, with AP reporting 277 electoral votes to Kamala Harris's 224, bitcoin regained momentum, rising again to $74,400.
The trading activity spurred $569 million in liquidations in a 24-hour period as leveraged traders betting against bitcoin’s rise were caught off guard.
The Coinbase Premium Index, which measures the price difference between Coinbase and Binance, hit its highest positive value in two months, signaling strong U.S. demand.
On decentralized betting market Polymarket, trading volumes hit $3.5 billion as the election produced a result that will see Trump enter the Oval Office for a second time.
Dogecoin Surges on Election Day Hype
It’s not only bitcoin! Dogecoin (DOGE), the largest memecoin by market cap, has hit a seven-month high, spiking 25% to $0.21 on Election Day, driven by playful pre-election nods from Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s campaign.
Musk’s teasing of a “Department of Government Efficiency” (D.O.G.E.) and Trump’s pro-crypto comments fueled excitement, leading to an 82% rise in DOGE over the past month.
It’s clear that even in 2024, dogecoin still has a unique ability to rally on internet culture and political buzz.
Stand With Crypto's Election Picks Raise Eyebrows
Stand With Crypto (SWC), a nonpartisan organization tracking key elections for crypto, has sparked some debate over its methods.
While SWC claims to support candidates on both sides of the aisle, insiders suggest some of its listed races are more about political strategy than crypto relevance. Specifically, some of the “critical” races feature candidates with little to no track record on crypto, suggesting that party politics might be influencing SWC’s selections.
With swing-state contests potentially deciding control of the Senate, SWC's role in shaping the narrative around “crypto-friendly” candidates raises questions about how impartial these endorsements really are.
Bernie Moreno's Senate Is a Big Win for Fairshake
In a victory with potential crypto implications, Bernie Moreno defeated Senator Sherrod Brown in Ohio. Moreno, who campaigned on a strong pro-crypto platform, including a promise to block a central bank digital currency (CBDC), replaces Brown—an outspoken critic of the industry and the Senate Banking Committee chair.
Backed by $34 million in support from the crypto-focused Fairshake-associated super PAC Defend American Jobs, Moreno’s win is a significant shift that could lead to more favorable crypto legislation in the Senate.
“BYE BYE Sherrod Brown 👋 Another anti-#crypto one bites the dust…” wrote Custodia Bank founder Caitlin Long on X.
Elizabeth Warren Defeats Crypto Advocate John Deaton
Senator Elizabeth Warren, who once proposed to build an "anti-crypto army," has won her third term in the U.S. Senate, defeating pro-crypto lawyer John Deaton with 74% of the vote. Known for her critical stance on crypto, Warren’s victory reinforces her push for strict regulations, including her Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act introduced in 2023.
Deaton, backed by high-profile crypto figures like Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, campaigned as a strong advocate for digital assets but ultimately couldn’t overcome Warren’s established support. For the crypto industry, Warren’s win signals more regulatory challenges ahead.
New OpenSea Platform to Set Sail Next Month
A new version of NFT marketplace OpenSea is set to launch next month, according to its co-founder and CEO, Devin Finzer, who said on X that the platform had been rebuilt from the ground up.
“We’ve been quietly cooking at OpenSea,” Finzer said. “To really innovate, sometimes you have to take a step back and reimagine everything.”
OpenSea was one of the key players in the NFT segment during its 2021-22 boom. Data from Dune, curated by Hildobby, shows that OpenSea saw a peak monthly trading volume of $5 billion in January 2022, when the platform pulled in $123 million in fees.
OpenSea’s monthly trading volume was down nearly 99% from that peak last month, at around $46 million.
DappRadar’s head of content, Robert Hoogendoorn, A.K.A. Nederob, said in a post on X that 250,000 people were already on the waitlist for OpenSea’s 2.0 version, and that trading volume was up 62% in the previous 24 hours at $5.15 million.
“Why? Perhaps people are expecting an airdrop,” he said.
97% of Memecoins Are Dead: Binance Research
Memecoins have long been an important part of crypto culture, but industry watchers know that they suffer from an extremely high mortality rate, an observation confirmed in a new report by Binance Research.
In its report, Binance concludes that 97% of memecoins minted this year and last “have already died,” based on their near-zero trading volumes.
Yet the fact that memecoins appear to have a much more fleeting existence than other tokens hasn’t deterred creators from bringing them to life. The report found that more than 75% of all memecoins were created in the past year alone.
The Binance researchers suggested that the simplicity and accessibility of memecoins might be the reason they are created and proliferate at a faster rate than other types of tokens, pointing to the fact that WIF took just 104 days to go from $0 to a $1 billion market cap.
Despite their frequently short life spans, “capital is flowing into new memecoins faster than ever before,” they said.
Ether-to-Bitcoin Ratio Sinks to 3-Year Low
Ether hasn’t enjoyed quite the same degree of love that investors have shown bitcoin this year.
The ETH/BTC market cap ratio has dropped to 24.52% — its lowest level since April 2021. That ratio signals that market sentiment is geared far more significantly toward bitcoin than ether.
Inflows into spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds versus ether exchange-traded funds demonstrate that dynamic even more clearly. Bitcoin ETFs hold a combined $69.2 billion in assets under management, while ether ETFs have amassed only $6.64 billion.
It is also worth noting that outflows from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) have surpassed $20.2 billion since it was converted into an ETF, while the Grayscale Ethereum Trust has seen $3.14 billion in outflows.
But inflows into the 11 other spot bitcoin ETFs have eclipsed GBTC’s outflows, bringing total net inflows to $23.5 billion since the funds began trading. Ether ETFs haven’t done nearly as well, with total net flows currently at a negative $555 million.
BlackRock’s head of digital assets, Robert Mitchnick, said last month: “With ETH, I think the investment story and narrative is a bit less easy for a lot of investors to digest.”
Earn bitcoin on Gemini here.
Bits + Bips Live Today! 📆
Today, Bits + Bips will do a live-streamed show at 4:30 pm ET! Join hosts James Seyffart and Alex Kruger, with special guests Noelle Acheson and Ram Ahluwalia, to discuss all things election!
Daily Bits… ✍️✍️✍
📈 An ERC-20 token unintentionally created by blockchain investigator ZachXBT reached a $3.4 million market cap due to speculative trading after Zora automatically converted his open-edition NFTs into tradable tokens.
🔒 Privacy-focused Nym Technologies announced a $1 million buyback of NYM tokens to support its upcoming NymVPN launch, which will use NYM tokens to incentivize network participants in its decentralized privacy model.
Today in Crypto Adoption...
🤝 Kleros partnered with the Supreme Court of Mendoza in Argentina to test decentralized juries in the country’s judicial processes, aiming to streamline case resolution and enable citizens’ participation in legal decisions.
What Do You Meme?
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is up 8.2%, trading at $74,354
ETH is up 8.4%, trading at $2,642
BTC dominance: 56.89%
Crypto market cap: $2.59T
*All data as of today, 07:58 am ET. Source: CoinGecko
Recommended Reads
DL News: What Vitalik Buterin’s six futures for Ethereum mean for users
CoinDesk: MakerDAO's Christensen Hopes for 'Firm Decision' as MKR Holders Vote on Sky Brand
We Are Hiring!
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!