📉Weekly Recap: Crypto Markets Dive as Macro Concerns Resurface

Happy weekend Defiers!

Macroeconomic concerns took center stage this week, with stronger-than-expected U.S. economic data dashing investors’ hopes for imminent interest rate cuts. Bitcoin dipped as low as $92,000 before rebounding.

Stablecoin protocol Usual Money caught flak after modifying its redemption mechanism.

In its 2025 Look Ahead report, Fidelity Digital Assets foresees National Bitcoin reserves, stablecoins evolving, and tokenization becoming the next ‘killer app.’

The Satoshi Action Fund says up to 20 Bitcoin reserve bills are set to be introduced at the state level this year.

Plus, Synthetix pivots to Base, Trump launches Ordinals collection, InfiniGods gears up for airdrop, Hyperliquid responds to centralization concerns, and Solana community floats a scaling proposal.

Also, don’t forget to check out our podcast with Sandy Peng, co-founder of Scroll.

Enjoy!

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PODCAST & INTERVIEWS

Scroll's Path Forward Amid Airdrop Controversy: Sandy Peng on the Scroll Open Initiative

In this week’s podcast, Cami Russo was joined by Sandy Peng, co-founder of Scroll.

In this conversation, Sandy tells us the journey of building one of the most anticipated Ethereum Layer 2s, their focus on ZK rollups for scalability, and the unique value proposition of high security, decentralization, and low costs. We explore challenges and lessons from Scroll's recent token airdrop, emphasizing the importance of clear communication, equitable distribution, and fostering a vibrant community. Sandy highlights the Scroll Open initiative and their long-term vision to create a thriving "city" for innovation and talent in the blockchain space.

Friday

• Cryptocurrency Market Extends Losses as Upbeat U.S Payrolls Data Dampens Investor Sentiment Experts are concerned that stronger-than-expected job growth and slower wage inflation could prompt the Fed to keep rates high.
• Usual Money Under Fire For Altering Asset Floor Price Users have been minting USD0++ for $1, but the team manually restructured the asset's floor price to $0.87.
• Synthetix to Pivot V3 Perps From Arbitrum to Base It has also purchased USDx stablecoin in bulk to allow users to redeem their tokens for USDe.
• Grayscale Considers Adding BNB, Dogecoin and Tron to its Investment Instruments The list features a diverse range of crypto assets, from AI agent tokens to DePIN and DEX tokens.
• Trump Launches Fifth Digital Trading Card Collection on Bitcoin Blockchain The Trump Bitcoin Digital Trading Cards are only available to holders of 100 of his Mugshot Edition NFTs.
• Hong Kong Launches Incubator to Supervise Banks’ Blockchain Experiments The initiative will mainly focus on tokenized deposits with the Hong Kong Central Bank.
• UK Judge Dismisses $750 Million Bitcoin Landfill Case, Blocking Recovery Effort James Howells' attempt to excavate a landfill for a hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoin is halted.
• Survey Finds Financial Advisors Warming to Crypto 56% of participants said the election of Donald Trump made them more likely to buy crypto for clients.
• Gensler and Behnam Look Back at Crypto Regulation and the Difference Shows The outgoing chairman of the SEC had a much more hostile view of crypto than his counterpart at the CFTC.

Thursday

• Cryptocurrency Market Extends Losses for Third Day Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other major cryptocurrencies continue to decline, with market liquidations reaching $404 million in 24 hours.
• BlackRock’s BUIDL Enabled as Collateral for Enhanced Yield Strategies The tokenized treasury product was used as collateral in a basis trade via QCP, yielding an 18% APY.
• Centaurus Energy Shifts Focus From Oil and Gas to Crypto and Commodities Investments Following the sale of its oil and gas operations, the company aims to invest in physical and digital assets, including Ethereum and Solana.
• Bhutan's Gelephu Mindfulness City Plans to Create Strategic Crypto Reserve A move to include Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Binance Coin in its proposed reserves highlights the city’s commitment to blockchain technology.
• Crypto Game InfiniGods Prepares for GOD Token Airdrop InfiniPass holders and vaults will get 17% of the airdrop.
• South Korea to Ease Rules Allowing Financial Holding Companies to Acquire Digital Assets New measures include allowing corporations to issue real-name crypto accounts and increasing fintech investment limits for financial institutions.
• Scammers Abuse Open-Source AI Developers Malicious actors are launching tokens associated with open-sourced AI projects and rug-pulling investors.
• Crypto’s Mainstreaming Will Take Many Forms in 2025: Fidelity Digital Assets In its 2025 Look Ahead report, Fidelity Digital Assets foresees National Bitcoin reserves, stablecoins evolving, and tokenization becoming the next ‘killer app.’
• Zero-employee AI Companies are Coming in 2025: Multicoin Capital The VC firm’s managing partner says DAOs may be the best way to govern and fund these companies.

Wednesday

• Liquidations Top $655 Million as Crypto Markets Drop for Second Day Bitcoin drops 4% to $93,000, and Ethereum slips 6% to $3,200 as macroeconomic concerns fuel investor jitters.
• Ripple President Says XRP ETF Next In Line After Bitcoin and Ethereum's Also says major listings for RLUSD are on the way in a recent interview with Bloomberg.
• Hyperliquid Fights Back Against Lack of Decentralization Complaints The perpetual futures DEX said it will open up as soon as security allows.
• Reddit NFTs Head is “Unsure” of Collection Direction After Her Exit The Reddit Collectibe Avatars NFT collection has dwindled in sales since its launch in 2022.
• StarkNet Rolls Out SN Stack For Custom Blockchain Deployment The SN Stack allows anyone to build their own appchains, which are custom blockchains.
• AI Agent NFTs Outperform Broader Market Onchain GAIAs and Parallel Avatars are two of the NFT market's top performers in 2025.
• Drift TVL Hits $1 Billion, Adds BONK as Collateral Asset $715,200 worth of BONK has been deposited on the platform since the Jan. 6 announcement.
• Thailand To Roll Out Pilot for Cryptocurrency Payments in Phuket The initiative aims to boost digital asset use and position Thailand as a crypto-friendly destination.
• Steno Research Predicts Bitcoin and Ethereum Will Hit $150,000 and $8,000 This Year The research firm also predicts Ethereum will outperform Bitcoin, and DeFi TVL will increase to $300 billion.
• AI Can Help a Long Tail of Micro Companies to Issue Tokens, Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley says artificial intelligence can lead even single-person businesses on the road to a token offering.
• Ripple Turns to Chainlink to Push RLUSD Stablecoin Into DeFi By partnering with the largest oracle platform, Ripple is hoping to entice DEXs and other DeFi protocols into embracing its new stablecoin.
• Satoshi Action Fund Says Multiple Bitcoin Reserve Bills Will Soon Be Introduced at the State Level The organization aims to integrate Bitcoin into as many state financial strategies as possible.
• ‘Murad Memes’ Bounce Back Memecoin supercycle believers get some respite as Murad Mahmudov’s list of tokens outperforms.

Tuesday

• Crypto Market Rocked by Biggest Selloff in a Month Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Solana plunged between 5% and 8%, with the total crypto market cap dropping 7.6% to $3.53 trillion.
• Solana Scaling Proposal Foresees ‘Billions’ of Users Changes would make it easier to keep track of users while increasing quantum computing security risks.
• Bitcoin Bull Market Could Be the Longest Ever, Says CryptoQuant CEO Amid price volatility and an influx of liquidity, analysts see the potential for extended growth.
• Arthur Hayes Predicts Ongoing Trump Pump To Last Until End of Q1 2025 In a recent blog post, Hayes claimed the crypto market would benefit from an incoming $617 billion cash injection from the U.S. government.
• South Korea’s Jeju Island Uses NFTs to Attract Young Tourists The Digital Tourist Resident Cards come with discounts, gamification and travel funding.
• CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam Announces Departure as Trump Era Regulators Prepare to Take Over Under Behnam, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission did a lot of enforcement but also pushed for crypto regulation, and said many tokens were commodities, not securities.
• Vitalik Calls for "Soft Pause" on AI Development to Mitigate Risks The Ethereum co-founder proposes a temporary limit on industrial-scale AI computing, emphasizing the need for oversight and ethical safeguards.
• Solana AI Agent Hackathon Tokens Soar to $500 Million Market Cap Demand for AI Agent tokens is driving the rally following the successes of category leaders.
• Tokenization in 2025: Navigating the New Frontier of Real-World Assets You know when BlackRock, JP Morgan, Franklin Templeton, and Janus Henderson all make investments in the same space, that there must be tremendous opportunity.
• Aave Community Pushes Back On Proposal To Peg Ethena’s USDe Price To Tether’s USDT The proposal seeks to protect Aave users from exposure to secondary market fluctuations by matching both prices.

Monday

• Global Crypto Funds Shatter Inflow Records with $44.2 Billion in 2024 Driven by Bitcoin and Ethereum, digital asset investment products recorded nearly four times the previous inflow peak.
• Bitcoin ETFs Post Highest Inflows Since November After a turbulent December, Bitcoin ETFs recorded $908 million in inflows.
• Daniele Sesta’s AI Project Goes Parabolic, Coins the Term “DeFAI” The AI agent infrastructure on Sonic is up 600% in the last week.
• Hyperfy Launch Revives Metaverse Narrative with AI Agent Integration The metaverse platform stealth-launched its token yesterday and is integrating ELIZA-based AI Agents into its simulations.
• Stablecoin Protocol Resolv’s TVL Soars Above $400 Million The Resolv stablecoin USR has jumped to a market cap of $387 million from $13.7 million on Dec. 1.
• Newly Released FDIC Letters Show Operation Choke Point 2.0 In Action Coinbase released a trove of letters showing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) ‘suggesting’ that banks stop any involvement with crypto and blockchain.
• Phantom Dismisses Airdrop Rumors On X Users began speculating over an upcoming airdrop after the wallet launched new social features.
• MicroStrategy Buys Another $100 Million of Bitcoin Michael Saylor disclosed the ninth consecutive weekly purchase of 1,070 BTC and that plans for a $2 billion stock offering are underway.

TRENDING

• Synthetix to Pivot V3 Perps From Arbitrum to Base
• Survey Finds Financial Advisors Warming to Crypto
• Centaurus Energy Shifts Focus From Oil and Gas to Crypto and Commodities Investments
• BlackRock’s BUIDL Enabled as Collateral for Enhanced Yield Strategies
• Bhutan's Gelephu Mindfulness City Plans to Create Strategic Crypto Reserve
• Cryptocurrency Market Extends Losses for Third Day