🎢Weekly Recap: Hawkish Fed Crashes Crypto Markets

Happy Holidays Defiers!

It was a rollercoaster week for crypto markets as Bitcoin soared to an all-time high of $108,300 on Tuesday before crashing under $93,000 by Friday morning after the Federal Reserve signaled it would be cautious on future rate cuts.

After two weeks of record-breaking inflows, Bitcoin and ETH ETFs suffered heavy outflows on Thursday as investor sentiment was dampened by the prospect of just two rate cuts in 2025.

Pudgy Penguins launched its highly anticipated PENGU token, triggering widespread volatility in the token and the ecosystem’s NFTs. PENGU’s launch

It was a mixed week on the regulatory front, as the SEC approved the first crypto index ETFs while slapping CyberKongz with a Wells Notice. Meanwhile, Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm is seeking the dismissal of criminal charges.

Plus, USC recruit signs Bitcoin deal, NFTs rally on token speculation, OpenSea airdrop rumors fly, hackers stole $2.2B in 2024, Trump’s WLFI dumps cbBTC for WBTC, Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin goes live, and Polygon nixes proposal to deploy bridge funds.

Also, don’t forget to check out our podcast with the vice president and general manager of Robinhood Crypto, Johann Kerbrat.

Enjoy!

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PODCAST & INTERVIEWS

Robinhood Crypto's Roadmap: Johann Kerbrat on Expansion, Staking, and Blockchain Integration

In this week’s podcast, Cami Russo was joined by Johann Kerbrat, the vice president and general manager of Robinhood Crypto.

In this episode, Johann shares the journey of Robinhood Crypto, from its early days of launching in 2018, to its recent introduction of staking and self-custody wallets, and a possible shift towards a full-fledged crypto exchange. He discusses how Robinhood is leveraging blockchain to enhance efficiency, lower costs, and expand access to financial instruments, and shares Robinhood Crypto’s long-term vision.

Binance CEO Richard Teng Predicts Exponential Crypto Growth in 2025 | Bullish Outlook & Key Drivers

Richard Teng is bullish on the crypto industry's future, predicting exponential growth in 2025 driven by clearer regulations, increasing institutional adoption, rising market capitalization reducing volatility, and continued innovation and investment from crypto VCs.

What’s Coming for Lido in 2025?

In 2025, Lido aims to achieve significant decentralization and innovation through the introduction of new staking modules, dual governance, and expanded staking options, culminating in a transformative year of growth and enhanced user empowerment.

Saturday

• Tornado Cash Dev Wants Charges Tossed after Appeals Court Nixes Sanctions Roman Storm is asking a U.S. court to dismiss money laundering charges after an appeals court found the government could not sanction the mixing service he co-created.
• USC Recruit Matai Tagoa'i Signs Historic Bitcoin NIL Deal The four-star recruit’s contract highlights a growing trend of athletes embracing cryptocurrency.
• Base Blows Up Averaging 4.7 Million New Monthly Users Coinbase’s Layer 2 has soared past Ethereum, redefining “what exponential growth can look like,” according to blockchain analytics firm Flipside.

Friday

• Crypto Market Struggles after Fed's Cautious Outlook and Rate Cut Remarks Bitcoin and major altcoins plunged for a third day after the Federal Reserve signaled no plans to hold digital assets and adopted a cautious stance on future rate cuts.
• Daniele Sesta's HeyAnon.AI Drove Devs to Uncover Early Presale Access Investors found a creative workaround to get into the presale for the Wonderland founder's new project earlier than the competition.
• Bitcoin Spot ETFs Face Record Outflows Amid Federal Reserve's Cautious Stance A sharp rise in ETF outflows reflects investor uncertainty over the Fed's interest rate decisions and the broader economic landscape.
• SEC Approves First BTC-ETH Index ETFs The Hashdex and Franklin Templeton funds both hope to add additional cryptocurrencies to their funds.
• Doodles, Cool Cats, and Sappy Seals NFTs Rally on Token Speculation Legacy NFT collections are beginning token rollouts after Pudgy Penguin’s successful PENGU drop.
• OpenSea Airdrop Rumors Fly After the NFT Marketplace’s Foundation Debuted on X A new OpenSea Foundation and social media buzz spark rumors of an upcoming token launch.
• Hackers Stole $2.2B in 2024, Largely Through Private Key Compromises North Korean hackers had a record haul of $1.34 billion. Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis recorded 303 attacks, with the most activity in the first half of the year.
• Solana Ecosystem’s Monthly Revenue Hits All-time High Platforms like Pumpfun and Raydium are major contributors to the latest milestone.

Thursday

• Bitfinex Analysts Say Bitcoin Will Rally to as High as $200,000 in 2025 The report forecasts BTC will be at least $145,000 by the middle of next year.
• Charles Hoskinson Proposes Swiss Foundation Relocation After Community Backlash The Cardano founder suggested Wyoming or Abu Dhabi in a post on X.
• Trump-Backed World Liberty Financial Gives Embattled wBTC a Vote of Confidence WLFI sold off its Coinbased-backed cbBTC in favor of wrapped Bitcoin.
• Cryptocurrency ETF Inflows Slow after Month of Record Highs Bitcoin and Ether are plunging after the Fed signalled that it would be cautious about further rate cuts, dampening investor appetite for risky assets.
• MetaMask Announces U.S Debit Card Pilot Program MetaMask Card is already live in the EU, UK, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia.
• Crypto Market Tumbles After Fed Signals Rate-Cut Caution Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other major cryptocurrencies fell after the Federal Reserve rate projections dampened investor sentiment.
• Doge IP Owner Buys Rights to Neiro, Setting Up Dog Fight Over New Meme The Own the Doge DAO bought the intellectual property rights to the successor to the late Doge meme dog Kabosu, and is voting on which token to anoint as 'legitimate.'
• Bitwise Launches Solana Staking ETP in Europe The move comes after the SEC denied Bitwise’s request to list a Solana ETF in the U.S.
• Coinbase Calls Out Justin Sun in Explaining Why It Booted wBTC A U.S. judge refused to stop Coinbase from delisting wrapped Bitcoin after the exchange said there was an ‘unacceptable risk’ that control of wBTC would ‘fall into the hands of Justin Sun.’

Wednesday

• Fantom's Rebranded Layer 1 Sonic Goes Live The high-throughput Layer 1 rebranded from Fantom is now live, and users can bridge and convert FTM into S.
• Patriot Memecoin Soars to $73 Million Market Cap Amid Trump Election Buzz The PolitiFi token is outperforming the rest of the memecoin sector.
• Former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes Predicts Crypto Dump Around Trump’s Inauguration Says U.S. President-elect Donald Trump only has a short window of opportunity to make favorable crypto policies.
• Polygon Community Rejects Proposal To Deploy Bridge Funds into Morpho The proposal suggested using $1.3 billion of stablecoins in Polygon’s bridge to boost yield generation.
• Deutsche Bank Turns to Layer 2 for Compliant Tokenization of Assets The Dama 2 project with the Monetary Authority of Singapore hopes to deal with problems like paying unknown validators who could be criminals or terrorists.
• CyberKongz Faces SEC Lawsuit after Years of ‘Living in Fear’ It is the second Web3 gaming firm hit with a Wells Notice warning of a pending enforcement action by the SEC in two months.
• Ohio Joins Growing Trend of States Considering Bitcoin Reserves Following similar proposals from Texas and Florida, Ohio introduces legislation to create a Bitcoin reserve as part of its strategy to strengthen state finances.
• Pudgy Penguins’ Token Launch Proves Controversial The highly anticipated PENGU token launch resulted in high volatility for both the token and Pudgy Penguins NFTs.
• Solana Activity Hits Another All-time High The daily transaction count on the chain spiked to 67 million on Monday, its highest ever, potentially driven by the PENGU launch.
• Tokenized RWA Market Surpasses $14 Billion The total real-world asset market capitalization is at a new all-time high, and RWA tokens are surging.
• Babylon TVL Surges By More Than $3.5B In One Week Nearly $6 billion worth of BTC is now staked via Babylon.

Tuesday

• Kraken’s Layer 2 Ink Has Accumulated 1M Transactions Since Launch The top 20 centralized cryptocurrency exchange has soft-launched its Ink Mainnet Layer 2 one week ago.
• Riot Platforms Acquires an Additional 667 BTC The acquisition comes just days after the company purchased 5,117 BTC.
• Near’s Aurora Launches AI Memecoin Focused TurboChain The platform is the dedicated virtual chain of TURBO, an AI memecoin.
• Trump’s World Liberty Financial Acquires Blue Chip DeFi Tokens The wallet purchased AAVE, ENA, LINK, and ONDO over the last week, sending each token on a speculation-fueled rally.
• Peanut the Squirrel Lawsuit is a Warning for Memecoin Creators By demanding that Binance delist PNUT due to trademark infringement, the viral squirrel’s owner highlights a potential pitfall for memecoin makers.
• Ethena Launches New Stablecoin Backed by BlackRock’s Treasury Fund USDtb aims to mitigate risks during market downturns and provide an alternative to Ethena’s flagship USDe synthetic dollar.
• Ripple’s RLUSD Stablecoin to Commence Trading Today The US dollar-pegged token will be available on Ethereum and the XRP Ledger.
• Synthetix Relaunches Native Exchange Following Kwenta Acquisition The Synthetix Exchange relaunch coincides with multi-collateral perps going live on Base.
• PENGU Claims Go Live After Pudgy Penguins NFTs Post New All-Time Highs Both Pudgy Penguins and Lil Pudgies NFTs have enjoyed triple-digit price gains in less than two weeks following news of the PENGU airdrop.
• Masa Launches AI Agent Arena on Bittensor The initiative is built in partnership with Yuma, a subsidiary of Barry Silbert's DCG dedicated to Bittensor Acceleration.
• Aave Community Considers Proposal to Exit Polygon The move comes in response to Polygon potentially deploying the stablecoins in its PoS bridge in yield strategies.

Monday

• Fartcoin Climbed to a Record Market Cap of $850M as Memecoins Ride the Popularity Wave The humor-driven cryptocurrency inched closer to the $1 billion milestone.
• MicroStrategy Buys Additional 15,350 Bitcoin For $1.5 Billion The latest purchase takes the company’s Bitcoin holdings to 439,000 BTC.
• Why Hyperliquid is the Exception to the Death of Airdrops I recently wrote about how airdrops stopped working but then Hyperliquid decided to prove me a liar.
• Crypto Funds Attract Record $20.3 Billion in Inflows Over 10 Weeks Bitcoin’s surge past $100,000 and growing investor confidence are fueling a record-breaking streak of inflows into crypto funds.
• MicroStrategy to Join Nasdaq 100 on December 23 Michael Saylor’s software company’s MSTR stock, buoyed by Bitcoin’s bull run, greatly outperformed the S&P 500 this year.
• Justin Sun-Linked BiT Global Sues Coinbase For $1B Over WBTC Delisting BiT Global accuses Coinbase of engaging in anti-competitive behavior by launching a Wrapped Bitcoin competitor before announcing it would delist WBTC.
• BTC Tags New High As Trump Stokes U.S. Bitcoin Reserve Hopes President-elect Donald Trump said he expects to create a national strategic Bitcoin reserve during his second term in office.

TRENDING

• Solana Ecosystem’s Monthly Revenue Hits All-time High
• Charles Hoskinson Proposes Swiss Foundation Relocation After Community Backlash
• Trump-Backed World Liberty Financial Gives Embattled wBTC a Vote of Confidence
• MetaMask Announces U.S Debit Card Pilot Program
• Crypto Market Tumbles After Fed Signals Rate-Cut Caution
• Doge IP Owner Buys Rights to Neiro, Setting Up Dog Fight Over New Meme