Bitfinex Hacker Released Early

️ On today's Top Picks:

Crypto News

• ⭐️ Bitfinex $LEO hacker Ilya Lichtenstein to be released from prison early; thanks US President Trump's First Step Act; Lichtenstein was sentenced to five years in prison in November 2024.

• ⭐️ Aave $AAVE founder Stani Kulechov says Aave Labs will share revenue generated outside the protocol with token holders; to soon launch a formal proposal outlining specific structures.

• Ethereum $ETH co-founder Vitalik Buterin posts "Welcome to 2026! Milady is back" on X; also changes his profile picture back to a Milady NFT; the collection’s floor price has since increased.

• Coinbase $COIN co-founder & CEO Brian Armstrong outlines 2026 top priorities: growing the "everything exchange" globally, scaling stablecoins & payments, and bringing the world onchain.

• ICYMI Trump Media & Technology Group $DJT to launch & airdrop new token to shareholders; to launch on Crypto[.]com's Cronos $CRO blockchain.

• ICYMI Tether acquires 8,888 Bitcoin $BTC (~$780M); now holds ~96K BTC (~$8.4B).

• ICYMI Hyperliquid $HYPE Labs unstakes 1.2M HYPE (~$31M); to be distributed to Hyperliquid Labs team members on January 6th; all distributions to take place on the 6th of the month going forward.

Alpha

• Blockscout distributes Merits bonus for every badge held; snapshot was taken on January 1st.

• ICYMI Fogo $FOGO completes first round of snapshots for Flames Season 1.5; snapshot includes Fogo Fishing, Valiant LPing, & USDC transfers; Season 1.5 is still ongoing.

• ICYMI Cascade to raise the pre-allocation cap for Cascade’s Liquidity Strategy (CLS) to $2M on January 6th; eligible users can deposit to earn Cascade Points.

• ICYMI OpenEden $EDEN launches yield-bearing stablecoin $USDO on Kaia; also launches $cUSDO on Solana $SOL.

• ICYMI Rainbow $RWBW launches prediction markets for all users on iOS & Android; feature powered by Polymarket $POLY; Rainbow points program is ongoing.

Airdrops

• ⭐️ Fogo $FOGO to launch airdrop on January 13th; Fogo Flames (points) holders & more will be eligible.

• ICYMI Base $BASE distributes winnings from its Holiday Rewards campaign; users can check the Base app to see if they won.

• ICYMI Lighter $LIT launches airdrop; Lighter Points holders are eligible; tokens automatically distributed to wallets.

• ICYMI Espresso $ESP launches airdrop registration, eligibility checker; to add additional airdrop eligibility criteria soon; to launch airdrop claim in early 2026.

• ICYMI Brevis $BREV launches airdrop registration; eligibility criteria has yet to be revealed; registration to close on January 3rd.

• ICYMI Mezo $MEZO launches airdrop registration; Mezo Mats (points) holders are eligible.

Finance News

• US CFTC Chair Selig appoints Amir Zaidi as Chief of Staff; Zaidi was at the CFTC from 2010 to 2019 and oversaw the launch of CFTC-regulated Bitcoin futures.

• ⭐️ US SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw resigns; Crenshaw was the agency's sole Democrat and a vocal crypto critic.

• US President Trump delays tariff increases on upholstered furniture, kitchen cabinets, & vanities for 12 months.

• US Department of Commerce issues permit to $TSMC to import US-made chip-making equipment into China for its Nanjing fab; Samsung $005930.KS & SK hynix $000660.KS were also given import licenses.

• ICYMI US President Trump to soon announce a nominee for the Federal Reserve Chair; prediction markets forecast an ~87% chance a nominee is announced by the end of January.

• ICYMI US Federal Reserve releases December FOMC minutes; shows divisions over further rate cuts after third consecutive 25 bps reduction to 3.5%-3.75% range.

Security and Exploits

• ⭐️ ZachXBT discovers ~$107K drained from hundreds of wallets; a root cause has yet to be identified.

• Scam Sniffer publishes 2025 Crypto Phishing Report; highlights losses of ~$83M (-83% YoY) from 106,616 victims (-68% YoY).

• PackShield: December 2025 saw ~26 major crypto exploits resulting in losses of ~$76M; November 2025 saw losses of ~$194M.

• ICYMI Lighter $LIT users were temporarily unable to withdraw funds due to a "Too many L2 Withdrawals” error, though the issue has since been resolved; ~$250M was withdrawn from Lighter 24 hours after its airdrop.

• ICYMI SlowMist publishes its 2025 Blockchain Security & AML Annual Report; also publishes its 2025 Q4 MistTrack Stolen Funds Analysis.

Token Unlocks

• Sui $SUI / ~$61M / JAN 01st
• EigenCloud $EIGEN / ~$13M / JAN 01st
• Ethena $ENA / ~$9M / JAN 02nd
• Ethena $ENA / ~$41M / JAN 05th
⭐️• Hyperliquid $HYPE / ~$306M / JAN 06th
Sourced from Tokenomist

Funding

• ICYMI Erebor Bank reportedly raises $350M in funding led by Lux Capital.

• ICYMI Architect raises $35M in Series A funding led by Miami International Holdings $MIAX and Tioga Capital.

• ICYMI Tron Inc $TRON raises $18M in Strategic funding from Justin Sun.

The Degen Farmer