BitGo Goes Public, Ledger & CertiK Next?

️ On today's Top Picks:

Crypto News

• ⭐️ Ledger reportedly plans US IPO at over $4B valuation; reportedly working with Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, & Barclays; previously raised $109M at a $1.4B valuation in an extended Series C funding round in 2023.

• ⭐️ BitGo $BTGO goes public; raises ~$213M at a ~$2B valuation in US IPO; also, YZi Labs announces strategic investment in BitGo.

• ⭐️ CertiK plans IPO; previously raised $88M at a $2B valuation in an extended Series C funding round in 2022; co-led by Insight Partners, Tiger Global, & Advent International.

• Nasdaq files with US SEC to remove position limits on Bitcoin $BTC and Ethereum $ETH ETF options; allows for unrestricted institutional trading.

• UBS to reportedly offer crypto trading to select private banking clients; reportedly selecting partners, though no final decision has been made.

• Binance $BNB to reportedly reintroduce stock trading; previously removed the feature in 2021 due to regulatory pressure; notably, Binance has applied for an EU-wide MiCA license in Greece.

• Grayscale files S-1 registration with US SEC for $BNB ETF (GBNB); VanEck also filed to launch a BNB ETF (VBNB) in May 2025.

• Coinbase $COIN integrates Solana $SOL trading; users can now trade Solana tokens inside the Coinbase app; powered by Jupiter $JUP.

• Chainlink $LINK acquires Atlas, an order flow auction protocol built by FastLane Labs, for an undisclosed amount; launches Chainlink SVR on Ethereum, HyperEVM, Arbitrum, Base, & BNB Chain.

• 21shares Dogecoin $DOGE ETF (TDOG) begins trading on the Nasdaq; Grayscale (GDOG) & Bitwise (BWOW) Dogecoin ETFs began trading in November 2025.

• Farcaster co-founder Dan Romero clarifies Farcaster is not shutting down after recently being acquired by Neynar; also says Merkle plans to return the full $180M raised back to investors.

Alpha

• ⭐️ MegaETH $MEGA launches global stress test on mainnet; users can access 3 apps while the chain is under sustained load; to launch public mainnet soon.

• Tydro $INK takes snapshot of Season 1 points; launches Season 2 & will continue till TGE; points holders will be eligible for the upcoming Ink airdrop.

• Aztec $AZTEC to launch community TGE proposal on January 26th; TGE expected in February if proposal passes.

• Soneium launches Soneium Star Explorer & Soneium OG Star (limited-time) roles; join the Soneium Guild for details on how to earn them.

• Cascade closes pre-allocations for Cascade’s Liquidity Strategy (CLS); depositors are earning Cascade Points; to launch trading soon.

• 01 to launch private mainnet & points program on February 3rd; to retroactively reward qualifying testers of the pre-launch mainnet.

• OpenEden $EDEN launches PRISM pre-deposit campaign; PRISM is a tokenized multi-strategy yield portfolio managed by FalconX's Monarq; full launch expected in February.

• ⭐️ MetaMask $MASK Rewards Season 1 ends; to launch rewards claim in the coming days; rewards will include $LINEA tokens, Nansen discount, & more.

• Rainbow $RNBW to launch Uniswap Continuous Clearing Auction (CCA) on February 2nd; goal is not to raise capital, but for transparent price discovery & an FDV set by the market before TGE.

• ICYMI Rainbow $RNBW to take snapshot of Rainbow Points holders on January 26th; users can earn points by trading spot, perps, and/or predictions; to launch airdrop on February 5th.

• Rish, co-founder & CEO of Neynar, shares "Our Vision for Farcaster"; says the vision is to "Enable builders to go from idea to recurring revenue, supported by a builder-first network."

• ICYMI Infinex $INX to launch TGE on January 30th; to take snapshot of Patrons NFT holders within 24 hours of TGE.

Airdrops

• Sentient $SENT launches airdrop claim; Sentient Chat users, open-source AI researchers, & more were eligible to register in November.

• ⭐️ Mezo $MEZO to launch airdrop allocation checker on January 26th; Mezo Mats (points) holders & Mezo Bitcoin borrowers were eligible to register.

• Moonbirds $BIRB to launch airdrop on January 28th; recently launched several SBTs for several communities; Moonbirds NFT & SBT holders will be eligible to claim.

• ICYMI Seeker $SKR (Solana Mobile) launches airdrop claim; Seeker users & developers are eligible; closes in ~90 days.

• ICYMI ETHGas $GWEI launches airdrop claim; Beans (points) holders who also shared their Gas ID on X or quote-tweeted ETHGas’ Open Gas Initiative announcement are eligible.

• ICYMI HeyElsa $ELSA launches airdrop claim; HeyElsa V1 & V2 points holders were eligible to register; registration closed on January 19th.

Finance News

• US SEC & CFTC to hold joint event on January 27th to "discuss harmonization between our agencies and our efforts ... to make the US the crypto capital of the world."

• US GDP grew 4.4% in Q3 2025, above expectations of 4.3%; highest growth rate in 2 years.

• US President Trump says there will be news on Greenland within two weeks; Polymarket predicts a ~27% chance the US will acquire part of Greenland in 2026.

• US President Trump says "We'll do something else" if the Supreme Court rules against his tariffs; ruling expected in February after multiple delays; Polymarket predicts a ~32% chance the Supreme Court rules in favor of Trump's tariffs.

• SpaceX to reportedly hire Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, & Morgan Stanley to lead its IPO in 2026; expected to be valued as much as $1.5T.

• China approves Alibaba $BABA, Tencent $0700HK, & ByteDance to buy Nvidia $NVDA H200 chips again; China restricted purchases earlier this month.

• ⭐️ Intel $INTC dumps after reporting Q4 2025 earnings; reported $13.7B in Q4 revenue (-4% YoY), $52.9B in annual revenue (weakest annual result since 2010); also reported GAAP net loss of $300M in 2025 despite $20.4B in external financial injections.

• US President Trump sues JPMorgan Chase $JPM for $5B alleging he was debanked in 2021; a JPMC spokesperson says "...we believe the suit has no merit."

• Capital One $COF to acquire Brex for $5.15B in stock-and-cash deal; expected to close in mid-2026; to continue operating independently.

• Revolut abandons plans to buy US lender; to instead apply for a banking license with the US OCC; also recently applied for full banking license in Peru.

• Gold $XAU & Silver $XAG reach new all-time highs (again); Gold is up ~15% YTD & Silver is up ~44% YTD.

Security and Exploits

• ZachXBT posts investigation into threat actor John (Lick); John was caught flexing $23M in a wallet address directly tied to $90M+ in suspected thefts.

• Saga $SAGA identifies & begins remediation on vulnerability that led to recent ~$7M exploit; the SagaEVM chain is still currently paused.

• Makina recovers ~83% of stolen funds after being exploited for ~1,299 $ETH (~$4M); has since begun distributing funds to affected liquidity providers; to release full technical post mortem next week.

• Coinbase $COIN establishes the Coinbase Independent Advisory Board on Quantum Computing and Blockchain; to evaluate the implications of quantum computing and provide guidance.

• Waltio, a French crypto tax & portfolio management tool, targeted in extortion & data breach; potentially ~50K users affected.

Token Unlocks

• River $RIVER / ~$68M / JAN 22nd
• Monad $MON / ~$3M / JAN 24th
• Humanity $H / ~$17M / JAN 25th
• Plasma $XPL / ~$11M / JAN 25th
• Bitget $BGB / ~$510M / JAN 26th
Sourced from Tokenomist

Funding

• Superstate raises $82.5M in Series B funding led by Bain Capital Crypto & Distributed Global.

• ZBD raises $40M in Series C funding from Blockstream Capital Partners.

• River $RIVER raises $12M in Strategic funding from Tron, Maelstrom, & The Spartan Group.

• Warden raises $4M in Strategic funding from several partners.

The Degen Farmer