Crypto Recovers Amid DeepSeek Disruption

️ On today's Top Picks:

Crypto News

• ⭐️ Crypto rebounds as DeepSeek panic eases; Bitcoin $BTC currently trading at ~$103K.

• MicroStrategy $MSTR buys 10,107 Bitcoin $BTC for ~$1.1B at ~$105,596 per BTC; MicroStrategy now holds 471,107 BTC worth ~$46B.

• Paradigm calls for accelerating Ethereum $ETH development; the venture capital firm advocates for multiple major upgrades per year prioritizing non-controversial improvements.

• Ethereum Foundation $ETH sells 100 ETH for ~$300K; the foundation has sold a total of 300 ETH for ~$1M in 2025.

• Digital Asset Investment Products saw inflows of $1.9B last week; inflows: Bitcoin $BTC $1.6B, Ethereum $ETH $205M, Ripple $XRP $18.5M, & Solana $SOL $6.9M.

• Ripple $XRP secures Money Transmitter Licenses in New York and Texas; MTLs allow customers to access a licensed version of its cross-border payments solution in the US.

• Jupiter $JUP acquires majority stake in Moonshot; Jupiter also acquires SonarWatch for an undisclosed amount.

• Coinbase $COIN Co-founder & CEO Brian Armstrong calls for token listing changes; Armstrong suggests moving from an allow list to a block list & utilizing customer reviews/automated scans of onchain data.

• KuCoin $KCS pleads guilty to US charges related to operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business; KuCoin agrees to pay ~$300M in fines and forfeitures.

• Tuttle Capital files for 10 leveraged crypto ETFs; filings includes $XRP, $SOL, $LTC, $ADA, $LINK, $DOT, $BNP, $BONK, $TRUMP, & $MELANIA.

• Roger Ver asks US President Trump for help; Ver currently faces tax fraud charges in the US; Elon Musk posted "Roger Ver gave up his US citizenship. No pardon for Ver..." on X.

Alpha

• Movement Labs Co-founder rushi posts "going to be a huge week" on X; Movement mainnet to potentially launch soon.

• Berachain launches Boyco; deposit liquidity to earn Berachain incentives.

• Story launches Commemorative Community NFT mint; Odyssey Badge holders are eligible to mint; claim ends on February 3rd.

• ⭐️ Abstract launches mainnet; earn XP & badges for onchain activity.

• ink launches Eye of the Seeker NFT mint on Guild; users who completed DeFi Training Grounds campaign are eligible to mint.

• Kinto posts "Announcement Drops in 72h" on X; Kinto TGE & airdrop to potentially launch soon.

• Morph launches DeFi Frenzy campaign; earn Morph Points for providing liquidity to select DeFi protocols.

• Reddio posts "Who’s ready for $RED? ... Stay tuned for updates!" on X; Reddio TGE & airdrop to potentially launch soon.

• B3 posts "coming soon: $B3" on X; B3 TGE & airdrop to potentially launch soon.

• OpenSea snapshotted Gemesis NFT holders on January 26th; eligible users now have access to OpenSea 2 private beta.

• Symbiotic posts "Tomorrow" on X; Symbiotic mainnet to potentially launch; Symbiotic TGE & airdrop to potentially launch soon after.

• Treehouse launches 8 DAYS OF 1888 campaign; open a Red Packet daily & receive one of several rewards; campaign ends February 4th.

• Hey (Lens) launches Blooming Connections NFT mint on Zora; NFT grants Discord role & 1000 flowers points on Guild.

Airdrops

• ⭐️ Venice launches $VVV airdrop claim; Venice users, various AI token holders, & more are eligible.

• Redbelly launches $RBNT airdrop allocation & eligibility checker; node operators, testnet users, & more are eligible; claim on January 28th.

• ICYMI Weekly Airdrop Recap by Earndrop.

• ICYMI Abstract Airdrop Strategy by Earndrop.

• ICYMI Animecoin launches $ANIME airdrop claim; Azuki community members, Hyperliquid $HYPE stakers, Arbitrum community members & more are eligible; claim ends on March 9th.

• ICYMI Jupiter launches $JUP Jupuary airdrop; traders, stakers, & voters are eligible.

Finance News

• US CFTC Acting Chair Caroline Pham starts public roundtable discussions; roundtables to focus on conflicts of interest and affiliated entities, digital assets, and prediction markets.  

• US Senate confirms pro-crypto Scott Bessent as new Treasury secretary; Bessent expected to be a part of the Presidential Working Group on Digital Asset Markets.

• ⭐️ US Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) considers use of a public blockchain; agency has met with multiple representatives.

• MicroStrategy $MSTR to offer 2.5M shares of Series A Perpetual Strike Preferred Stock; to use net proceeds to buy more bitcoin and for working capital.

• Bitcoin Mining Stocks drop; MARA Holdings $MARA fell ~9%, Riot Blockchain $RIOT fell ~15%, Core Scientific $CORZ fell ~29%, & others fell similarly.

• Nvidia $NVDA falls ~17% losing ~$600B in market cap; loss is the largest single-day loss in US history.

• Microsoft $MSFT in talks to buy to acquire TikTok; US President Trump said other companies were also interested.

Security and Exploits

• ⭐️ Apple releases security update patching zero-day vulnerability; flaw is being actively exploited in the wild.

• ZachXBT suspects someone was hacked for ~$29M on Sui in December; stolen funds were bridged to Ethereum and then deposited to Tornado Cash.

• DeepSeek suffers large-scale malicious attacks; the AI platform temporarily limited registration as a countermeasure.

• GitHub discloses multiple vulnerabilities affecting GitHub Desktop & other Git-related projects; flaw could permit an attacker to gain unauthorized access to a user's Git credentials.

• Revoke[.]cash adds support for Abstract mainnet.

Token Unlocks

• Ethena $ENA / ~$9M / JAN 29th
• Optimism $OP / ~$44M / JAN 31st
Sourced from Tokenomist

Funding

• Humanity Protocol raises $20M in funding led by Pantera & Jump Crypto.

• World Liberty Financial raises $10M in funding from Web3Port.

• BenFen raises $10M in funding from Bixin Ventures.

• Pell raises $3.5M in Strategic funding from several investors.

• Inception raises $3.5M in Seed funding from several investors.

• Accrue raises $1.58M in Seed funding led by Lattice.

• Fableborne raises an undisclosed amount in Strategic funding from several investors.

The Degen Farmer