📈Weekly Recap: Markets Surge On Trump Optimism

Happy weekend Defiers!

Crypto bulls continued their victory lap after Donald Trump’s electoral victory last week.

Bitcoin posted all-time highs above $93,000, buoyed by enormous inflows to spot crypto ETFs. More than $2B flowed into spot Bitcoin ETFs, while spot Ether funds hosted their strongest week on record with a $575 million inflow — pushing the sector’s cumulative flows positive for the first time.

Andreessen Horowitz, the heavyweight crypto VC firm, is among those anticipating Trump’s second term in the Oval Office bodes well for web3. An a16z report predicted Trump will oversee a transition from regulatory hostility toward crypto to permissive legislation.

Memecoins flourished amid the bullish market conditions, with PEPE, WIF, and PNUT surging in response to major centralized exchange listings, and the Moonshot app raking in six-figure daily revenue for the first time. Solana DEX volume also smashed its all-time high by double with $37 billion so far amid the spike in meme token trading.

However, markets ended the week with a dip after the Federal Reserve said it isn’t in a hurry to roll out further interest rate cuts. BTC ended the week up 19.4% at $91,455, while ETH gained 2.6% to $3,127, SOL bounced 8.6% to $218.6, and DOGE soared 78.5% to $0.376.

Trump’s election on a pro-crypto platform has emboldened U.S. states seeking to advance their own pro-crypto agendas.

Republican state Attorney Generals took legal action against Gary Gensler and the SEC over the agency’s handling of the crypto industry. The complaint accuses the SEC of extending its jurisdiction without congressional authority to wage an aggressive campaign of regulation-by-enforcement against web3 firms.

The lawsuit comes as Trump’s team is reportedly eying crypto-friendly current and former SEC commissioners as candidates to head up the agency moving forward.

Pennsylvania House representatives also introduced legislation seeking to greenlight investing 10% of the state’s strategic asset reserves into Bitcoin. The move follows state institutions in Michigan and Wisconsin adding exposure to crypto in recent months, and Florida’s chief financial officer announcing plans to do the same.

Justin Drake, an Ethereum Foundation researcher, proposed overhauling Ethereum’s consensus layer by replacing the Beacon Chain with the “Beam Chain.” The upgrade would redesign Ethereum’s staking economics, block production system, and modernize its cryptography.

The home of Shayne Coplan, Polymarket’s CEO, was raided by the FBI. The agency seized electronic devices including Coplan’s mobile phone as part of a Department of Justine investigation into whether Polymarket violated U.S. regulations.

In NFT news, Doodles is rallying after McDonald’s, the global fast food giant, teased an upcoming collaboration with the NFT project. OpenSea, the top NFT marketplace by volume, is also enjoying a surge in activity amid airdrop speculation ahead of its v2 launch next month.

The FTX bankruptcy estate sued Binance for $1.76 billion. The estate claims Sam Bankman-Fried misappropriated $1.76 billion in assets from FTX customers to fund a share repurchase deal.

Plus, BlackRock’s BUIDL expands onto five new chains, Consensys announces upcoming LINEA airdrop, ZKsync greenlights $48.5M incentive program, World Liberty Financial integrates Chainlink, Pendle unveils leveraged yield tokenization platform, and Avara launches non-custodial Ethereum wallet.

Also, don’t forget to check out our podcast with Hart Lambur, the co-founder of Across Protocol and UMA, and our interviews with top crypto executives at SmartCon 2024.

Enjoy!

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Friday

Regulatory Scrutiny Surrounding DeFi Tapers The U.S. government appears to be preparing to loosen restrictions on the crypto industry as rumors of Gary Gensler’s retirement pick up steam.
Base Tokens Rebound as Chain Activity Hits All-time High Memecoins and AI tokens on Base are surging, with the weekly transaction count hitting a new high.
Crypto Markets Dip as Fed Signals Patience on Rate Cuts Crypto liquidations totaled $511.5 million in the last 24 hours.
Pennsylvania House Moves To Create Strategic Bitcoin Reserve House representatives want to earmark up to 10% of the state's $7 billion strategic reserves to buy BTC.
18 U.S. States Sue Gary Gensler’s SEC Over Crypto Crackdown The plaintiffs argue that the SEC campaign of regulation-by-enforcement has stifled innovation.
Solana DEX Volume Smashes Previous Record By Double Solana DEXes are pushing more than $6 billion in daily volume.
Hyperliquid Gears Up for Token Launch The HYPE token generation event is expected soon, but some users are struggling to confirm their allocations.
OpenSea Activity Picks Up on Token Speculation The top NFT marketplace’s volume and market share are rising amid airdrop speculation.

Thursday

Bitcoin Consolidates Around $90,000 Amid Record ETF Inflows Analysts attributed Bitcoin's rally to substantial inflows from spot ETFs.
FBI Raids Polymarket CEO’s Home Over Alleged U.S. Betting Violations The Department of Justice is reportedly investigating whether Polymarket violated U.S. regulations.
World Liberty Financial Integrates Chainlink, Teases Cross-Chain Functionality The WLFI token sale has generated $19.6 million after four weeks.
ZKsync Token Assembly Passes 325M ZK Liquidity Program ZKsync’s Ignite program aims to promote DeFi liquidity and minimize slippage for traders in the ZKsync ecosystem.
Blackrock Launches BUIDL on Five New Blockchains The largest tokenized Treasury fund is now offering shares on Aptos, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Optimism, and Polygon.

Wednesday

Memecoins Fly as Coinbase Lists PEPE and WIF PEPE and WIF are flying after Coinbase announced it will list the popular memecoins.
Bitcoin Tops $93,000 as ETFs Attract Nearly $2 Billion in Two Days Bitcoin’s dominance is at its highest level since March 2021 at 61.3%.
Lens Launches V3 Testnet For Developers Lens v3 will introduce a slew of turn-key social features for developers alongside smart contract-based data storage.
PayPal USD Integrates LayerZero To Unlock Cross-Chain Transfers PYUSD holders can now transfer the stablecoin between Ethereum and Solana.
Unichain Halted After Early Developer Access Gets Leaked Uniswap said early access information for its upcoming L2 was leaked, but onlookers say the team made a mistake.
Consenys' Linea Targets Token Launch by Q2 2025 Linea launched a non-profit association and announced plans to launch a token as part of its decentralization roadmap.

Tuesday

Moonshot Memecoin App Hits All-time High Daily Revenue The retail-focused memecoin trading app surpassed $100,000 in daily revenue for the first time.
Doodles NFTs Soar on McDonald’s Collaboration The fast food giant posted a teaser suggesting it has a project underway in partnership with Doodles.
Bitcoin Consolidates after Approaching $90,000 Asset manager Bernstein says, "Welcome to the crypto bull market — buy everything you can."
Pendle Announces Leveraged Yield Tokenization Platform The new protocol, Boros, will first facilitate funding rate tokenization.
Trump Considers Pro-Crypto Officials To Head SEC Trump’s team is reportedly looking to fill key roles at the CFTC, FDIC, and OCC as well.
Justin Drake Proposes Beam Chain Overhaul For Ethereum The proposed Beam Chain overhaul would upgrade Ethereum's staking and block production mechanism, and modernize its cryptography.

Monday

Crypto Market Cap Crosses $3 Trillion as Bitcoin Surges 9% to $88,000 The crypto rally continues, with Ethereum and Solana gaining 5%.
FTX Sues Binance Over $1.76B Share Repurchase Deal The complaint alleges that FTX customers’ assets were used to fund a share repurchase deal with Binance.
ENS Is Developing a ZK Layer 2 ENS Labs aims to launch the zkEVM Layer 2 by the end of next year.
Avara Launches Non-Custodial Ethereum Wallet Avara's wallet, Family, supports several features catering to advanced DeFi users.
A16z Predicts Bright Future for Crypto Under Trump The major crypto VC anticipates a shift from “regulation by enforcement” to more permissive legislation.