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Market Overview 📉
This week saw an increase in volatility leading into Trump’s inauguration and the first few days of his presidency. Bitcoin (BTC) climbed to set a new high at $109.5K before retracing lower into the midweek. As Thursday rolled around, the market saw higher volatility again, amidst a series of crypto-related announcements from the government. The total crypto market cap increased this week, with a rise of just over 2% to $3.732T this week from $3.658T the week before.
Bitcoin (BTC) gained 3.40% over the week, while Ethereum (ETH), as usual, fared worse, falling 0.88% from the week prior.
Daily liquidations on the long side spiked early in the week, with more than $800M liquidated on Sunday and another $555M on Monday leading into the inauguration. Short liquidations still remain largely muted, with an average of just over $100M liquidated per day. Although funding rates surged in the beginning of the week in anticipation of big news, the funding rates fully resetted by the end of week, closing lower with BTC and ETH funding rates both in the single digit range.
📌 Trump signs a major executive order covering the development of a “national digital asset stockpile”, ending Operation Chokepoint, promoting dollar-backed stablecoins, and more. - Link
📌 Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy purchases another 11,000 BTC for $1.1B at an average price of $101,191 across the past week. - Link
📌 MicroStrategy shareholders voted in favor of increasing the number of authorized Class A shares and preferred stock to support the acquisition of more Bitcoin as part of the company’s “21/21” plan. - Link
Why does it matter?
Market participants were caught getting ahead of themselves as BTC surged to a new high leading into Monday’s inauguration ceremony, with rumors of an announcement of a strategic Bitcoin reserve on Day 1. With barely any mention of crypto during his inauguration speech, markets quickly retraced the earlier move, with many ending lower than where they started the week. Nevertheless, Thursday’s executive order for pro-crypto regulations and a move to set up a digital asset stockpile have set the stage for a bullish move higher in the mid to longer timeframes. Traditional markets also fared exceedingly well this week, with the S&P 500 up 2.02% and the Nasdaq up 2.06% across the week.
Naturally, with the US government’s crypto policy largely centering around Bitcoin, Bitcoin dominance rose this week by more than 1.85%. This is in line with the expectation of many investors who believe that the majority of capital in this cycle will go into Bitcoin and may never flow to altcoins, thereby continuously pushing Bitcoin dominance higher.
No particular sector of altcoins did exceedingly well this week, with most altcoins suffering from the volatility. Some outperformers included Solana (SOL) and Solana DEX, Raydium (RAY), as well as several traditional memes such as SPX6900 (SPX) and Gigachad (GIGA). Other strong performers include DeFi-related tokens such as Chainlink (LINK), Ondo (ONDO), and Aave (AAVE).
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Narrative of the Week 📰
The surprise launch of Donald Trump’s official TRUMP memecoin sparks a frenzy among memecoin investors as TRUMP soars to a peak fully diluted valuation of $73B.
📌 Donald Trump announces the official TRUMP memecoin on Solana via both X and Truth Social on the Friday night before his inauguration. - Link
📌 Melania Trump launches a memecoin of her own, MELANIA, just days after the TRUMP coin launch, sparking panic among investors as both coins battle for liquidity. - Link
Why does it matter?
Newly inaugurated US president Donald Trump’s launch of the TRUMP memecoin came as a surprise to most investors, with many surprised at how close the launch was to the inauguration. Nevertheless, the coin quickly consumed all liquidity in the market, with the broader market suffering a drawdown to push TRUMP to an unprecedented high of $73B. As the MELANIA coin launched, liquidity exited TRUMP to acquire MELANIA, which later triggered a wave of speculation on the next “Trump Family coin”, with many launching tokens for Barron, Eric, and Ivanka Trump, as well as for other prominent celebrities.
Major Project Updates 🗓️
📌 Vitalik Buterin addresses changes to the Ethereum Foundation’s leadership structure, which seeks to improve technical expertise, improve communications, and actively support app builders in the ecosystem. - Link
📌 Lido Finance and P2P.org founder, Konstantin Lomashuk, launches Second Foundation, seemingly in response to the disagreements surrounding the right direction for the Ethereum community. - Link
📌 Hyperliquid announces the addition of Hyperliquid-launched memecoin, PURR, to the Hyperliquid Assistance Fund, which uses Hyperliquid profits to purchase tokens within the ecosystem. The initial purchase consists of 3M PURR, making up ~0.5% of the assistance fund. - Link
📌 Consumer crypto L2, Abstract, introduces their points program, which will go live when Abstract’s mainnet launches. Abstract is expected to launch mainnet later this month. - Link
📌 EigenLayer Rewards V2 goes live on mainnet, enabling custom operator-directed rewards, variable operator fees, and batch reward claiming on EigenLayer. - Link
Why does it matter?
Throughout this cycle, Ethereum has underperformed both Bitcoin and Solana, two assets which it is constantly compared to. In light of this underperformance, many long-time Ethereum maximalists have started to lose faith in the Ethereum leadership, with some questioning if the Ethereum Foundation is doing enough for the ecosystem. Many critics compare them against the Solana Foundation, which adopts a much more hands-on approach to marketing and promoting apps on Solana. Despite Vitalik’s public statement, it seems that several Ethereum OGs still have their disagreements and may take strong measures to push for their interests.
DeFi Brief 🏦
📌 Donald Trump’s DeFi project, World Liberty Finance, completes the sale of 20% of their token supply. Another 5% has been opened up for sale at $0.05 per token to meet the “overwhelming interest”. - Link
📌 World Liberty Finance acquires $4.7M in ETH, WBTC, AAVE, LINK, TRX and ENA on-chain in commemoration of Trump’s inauguration as the 47th US President. - Link
📌 Uniswap announces the deployment of Uniswap V4 in the coming week for developers, with a full rollout next week. V4 introduces greater flexibility through hooks and gas optimizations. - Link
📌 Origin Protocol announces Origin Sonic (OS), an S-pegged liquid staking token for Sonic. The OS token is eligible for points in Sonic’s ongoing point program. - Link
📌 CoWSwap puts forth a new governance proposal surrounding their revenue-sharing models, price improvement shares, and fees on the platform. - Link
Why does it matter?
With Donald Trump taking the spotlight this week with his inauguration to become the 47th president of the United States, Trump’s DeFi project is also in the limelight with renewed interest brought back to the WLFI token sale, which had been open for the past three months prior to this week. Additionally, the project’s large purchases of cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum DeFi-related tokens, have won the favor of many Ethereum DeFi users who are excited for a more vibrant DeFi scene and better regulations for the DeFi space.
Meme Coins 🚀
📌 The official website for the Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E) launches, with its landing page prominently featuring the Dogecoin logo. - Link
📌 A developer launches the ‘Justice for ZachXBT’ memecoin, with 50% of the supply sent to ZachXBT’s public wallet as a donation for his contribution to the crypto space. ZachXBT later sells $3.9M worth of the token, likely cashing out via Wintermute’s OTC services. - Link
📌 Andy Ayrey, the developer behind the Terminal of Truths, announces plans to set up a foundation for the project, stating that tokens currently held in the project’s wallet will be progressively sold off to further development of the project. - Link
Fundraises 💰
📌 Open-source attribution platform, Merit Systems, raises $10M in a seed round led by a16z Crypto and Blockchain Capital, with support from angel investors including Solana founder, Anatoly Yakovenko. - Link
📌 TON blockchain lending platform, EVAA Protocol, raises $2.5M in a private token sale, with participants including Polymorphic, TON Ventures, CMT Digital, and more. - Link
📌 Corn, an Ethereum L2 focused on Bitcoin DeFi, raises $8.3M in a community funding round on token sale platform Legion. Notable investors include Babylon, GSR, Tribe Capital, Amber Group, and more. - Link
📌 Soon, an Ethereum L2 built on the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM), raises $22M in an NFT sale involving 3,015 participants including Hack VC, Anagram, SNZ Holding, and more. - Link
📌 Cosmos wallet, Keplr, raises $5M in its first ever raise, led by 1confirmation, with support from Anagram, Coinbase Ventures, HashKey, Chorus One, and more. - Link
Airdrops Abound 🎁
📌 Solana DEX aggregator Jupiter opens claims for the annual JUP airdrop. Aptly named “Jupuary”, the airdrop distributes tokens to more than 2M eligible wallets for trading activity over the past year, with claims open for the next three months. - Link
📌 Ethereum NFT collection, Azuki, releases their ANIME token airdrop, opening claims to NFT holders, Hyperliquid stakers, Arbitrum users and Web3 anime partner communities. - Link
📌 Decentralized private data layer, Nillion Network, announces the NIL token airdrop, which seeks to reward community members and early adopters. Eligible users must register by 3rd February to receive their token allocation. - Link
📌 Cross-chain protocol, Orbiter Finance, opens claims for the OBT token airdrop, rewarding users for bridging activity on the platform. - Link
Tweet of the Week 📝
Source: 0xMerp
Trump memecoin roadmap 2025, leaked.
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