🎅Markets Rally on Christmas Eve

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✍️ In today’s newsletter:

Crypto markets bounce back, with altcoins leading the charge
OpenSea airdrop rumors fly
Tornado Cash developer asks U.S. court to dismiss criminal case
USC football recruit inks Bitcoin NIL deal
Base user growth goes parabolic
Investors ‘hack’ into Sesta’s HeyAnonAI presale
Crypto ETFs suffer outflows after Fed turns hawkish
SEC approves first crypto index ETFs
Doodles, Cool Cats, and Sappy Seals rally on token speculation

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📈 Markets in the last 24 hrs:

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What would you build better? That's what Stellar asks in their new initiative. Share your vision of better futures for finance, creativity, access and more for a chance at a $30K USD prize pool. The top submissions will be used for inputs for the Stellar developer community to build products with real-world impact.

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📈Altcoins Rally as Bitcoin Flounders on Christmas Eve

The cryptocurrency market staged a bounce on Tuesday, with most altcoins rallying while Bitcoin traded flat on the day. Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at approximately $95,000, down 11% over the past week. Meanwhile, Ethereum (ETH) climbed 4% to $3,435 in the last 24 hours, SOL surged 7% to $195, and XRP rallied 5.5% to $2.29.

🌊OpenSea Airdrop Rumors Fly After the NFT Marketplace’s Foundation Debuted on X

NFT marketplace OpenSea has sparked speculation about a potential token airdrop following a cryptic exchange on the social media platform X with the newly announced OpenSea Foundation. The Foundation’s X account shared a cryptic tweet that simply read, "Ocean enters the chat."

🧑‍⚖️Tornado Cash Dev Wants Charges Tossed after Appeals Court Nixes Sanctions

The developer of mixing service Tornado Cash is arguing that the criminal case against him should be thrown out after an appeals court dropped U.S. sanctions targeting his creation.

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Stellar has launched Build Better, a new initiative intended to bridge the gap between Web3's ambitious visions and making an impact in the real world. The campaign invites community members to share their ideas for improving the worlds of finance, creativity, and access, with the best concepts being developed at an upcoming hackathon in Prague.

Over eight weeks, the initiative will collect community input through polls, questions, and video submissions, focusing on the central question: "What would you build better?" These ideas will shape hackathon tracks where developers will then work to bring them to life. Participants can win from a $30K USD prize pool.

🏈USC Recruit Matai Tagoa'i Signs Historic Bitcoin NIL Deal

Matai Tagoa'i, a standout college football player, made history this week by becoming one of the first high school athletes to secure NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) compensation in Bitcoin.

💥Base Blows Up Averaging 4.7 Million New Monthly Users

In a new report, Flipside said Base “redefined what exponential growth can look like.” New monthly acquired users grew 57x, moving from 244,000 acquired users in January to an average growth of 4.7 million per month through November. In October, Base accounted for 13.7 million of 19.4 million new users overall among the seven chains studied.

🦹Daniele Sesta's HeyAnon.AI Drove Devs to Uncover Early Presale Access

Daniele Sesta, the founder of Wonderland, is launching a new AI Agent venture on Sonic and demand for presale access grew so intense, that tech-savvy investors hacked their way into the USDC contribution pool before it had officially opened.

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📉Bitcoin Spot ETFs Face Record Outflows Amid Federal Reserve's Cautious Stance

Bitcoin (BTC) spot exchange traded-funds (ETFs) recorded $672 million in outflows on Dec. 19, the largest single-day sell-off since launching earlier this year, following the Federal Reserve's latest policy moves.

🏛️SEC Approves First BTC-ETH Index ETFs

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved two exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tracking indexes that include ETH and BTC, offering exposure to both cryptocurrencies in a single fund.

😺Doodles, Cool Cats, and Sappy Seals NFTs Rally on Token Speculation

Less than a week after the release of PENGU, legacy NFT collections Doodles and Cool Cats are teasing upcoming token drops for holders.

🌍 ELSEWHERE

Record $14B Bitcoin Options Expiry Looms as Market Looks Highly Levered-Up (CoinDesk)
Pantera Capital is up 1,000x on Bitcoin, but says the rest of crypto is primed to pop (TheStreet)
Justin Sun Wants to Be the Musk of Crypto (WSJ)