Fuel Genesis Drop Rewards 200K Users

️ On today's Top Picks:

Crypto News

• ⭐️ Bitcoin $BTC drops to ~$100K as US Federal Reserve signals interest rate cuts would slow in 2025.

• Bitcoin $BTC reached a new all-time high yesterday, surpassing ~$108K.

• Arthur Hayes predicts "harrowing dump" around US President-elect Trump's inauguration; cites expectations are far from reality.

• US Court rules Coinbase can delist Wrapped Bitcoin $wBTC; BiT Global had requested temporary restraining order to prevent delisting.

• Ripple $XRP launches Ripple USD $RLUSD stablecoin; offers 24/7 instant global payments, seamless on/off ramps, & access to real-world assets.

• Binance $BNB launches Most Valuable Builder program Season 9; AI, infrastructure, & tooling projects particularly welcomed.

• Polygon $POL rejects proposal to use ~$1B of bridged stablecoins for yield generation following community feedback.

• Lido on Polygon $POL discontinued; cites strategic refocus on Ethereum & lack of scalability on Polygon POS.

• ENS Labs $ENS partners with Linea to build Namechain; cites Linea's Type 2 zkEVM, high-performance prover, & values alignment.

• Crypto[.]com $CRO CEO Kris Marszalek met with US President-elect Trump; discussed crypto industry appointments & has since withdrawn lawsuit against SEC.

• Ethena $ENA partners with US President-elect Trump's World Liberty; $sUSDe to be added to World Liberty if governance proposal is approved.

• UK FCA releases discussion paper aiming to tighten rules in the crypto-asset market; hopes to improve regulatory clarity.

• Bybit to end withdrawal & custody services in France starting January 8th, 2025; remaining funds to be transferred to Coinhouse.

• Binance sued by Australia SIC; alleges "Binance’s compliance systems were woefully inadequate."

• Craig Wright to skip UK contempt of court hearing citing “lack of means for travel”; to likely be found in contempt & face possible arrest & prison.

• Dylan Meissner, former VP of Finance at Delphi Digital, sentenced to four years in prison; pleaded guilty to embezzlement & ordered to pay $4.6M to Delphi Digital.

• Haliey Welch’s $HAWK team overHere breaks silence after 12 days; claims it received no fees & no profit, blames Doc Hollywood for token collapse.

Alpha

• Monad to launch testnet soon; posts "Get ready for testnet in one step: 1. Download Phantom wallet."

• Initia launches Freezing Mainnet campaign; Jennies Lvl 2+ can freeze themselves until January 31st, another campaign for others planned.

• ⭐️ Sonic launches mainnet & Sonic Points program; to airdrop ~200M Sonic $S.

• BOB (Build On Bitcoin) joins Babylon as a Bitcoin Secured Network; 4.5M additional Babylon Points to be distributed over 45 days.

• Kinto launches second seasonal campaign Onsen Meguri from December 18th to March 18th; mining rewards increased by 15%.

• ink, an Ethereum Layer-2 by Kraken, launches mainnet; built using the OP Stack joining the Superchain.

• HashKey Group launches HashKey Chain mainnet; built using the OP Stack joining the Superchain.

• Morph launches simplified points system; 10% of token supply allocated for community & ecosystem growth.

• Binance introduces Binance Alpha, a platform that shines a spotlight on early-stage crypto projects; two batches of projects already announced.

• Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino posts "excited for tomorrow" on X.

• PumpBTC teases potential snapshot; to also launch new NFT collection soon.

• SyncSwap teases "new protocol updates coming soon"; $SYNC TGE & airdrop potentially coming soon.

• Mammoths launches NFT mint Phase 1 on Modularium; Phase 2 begins tomorrow.

• Warpcast launches Warpcast Rewards; top 400 accounts based on engagement eligible for $USDC rewards each week.

Airdrops

• ⭐️ Fuel to launch $FUEL airdrop claim December 19th; airdrop checker already live.

• Pudgy Penguins launches $PENGU airdrop for 88 days; Pudgy ecosystem, Ethereum OGs, Solana OGs, & more eligible.

• Olimpio launches $PENGU mass airdrop checker for both EVM & SOL wallets; no cookies, no tracking, & no signatures.

• Aligned Layer launches $ALIGNED Genesis Drop; $EIGEN, $POL, $ZK, $STRK, $MINA, $TAIKO, & $SCR holders (at their lowest price) eligible.

• Usual launches $USUAL airdrop claim; Pill holders eligible, Galxe participants claim coming soon.

• Kelp DAO (Kernel DAO) unveils $KERNEL tokenomics; 20% of token supply allocated for airdrops.

• Elys Network launches $ELYS airdrop claim; NFT holders, Cosmos $ATOM stakers, & more eligible.

• ZKsync $ZK airdrop claim ends January 3rd, 2025; unclaimed tokens to be sent to the Token Assembly.

• ICYMI Nekodex Airdrop Strategy by Earndrop.

• ICYMI Cytonic Airdrop Strategy by Earndrop.

Finance News

• US Federal Reserve cuts interest rates by 25 bps; reduces forecast for further rate cuts in 2025.

• $1.5 Trillion wiped from US stock market today; Dow $DJI, S&P 500 $SPX, & Nasdaq Composite $COMP each dropped ~3%.

• US President Biden calls for ban on congressional stock trading; stated in interview with Faiz Shakir, a political adviser for Senator Bernie Sanders.

• US Senate Banking Committee cancels confirmation vote for SEC’s Caroline Crenshaw; committee reportedly did not have enough votes.

• MicroStrategy $MSTR to shift from leveraged Bitcoin proxy plan to focused fixed-income securities once the current fundraising plan is exhausted.

• ⭐️ MicroStrategy $MSTR rumored to enter a blackout period in January 2025; will not issue any new convertible debt to buy Bitcoin.

• Ohio Representative Derek Merrin introduces Ohio Bitcoin Reserve Act; proposes creating a state Bitcoin reserve & granting the treasurer authority to buy Bitcoin.

• Sarah Knafo, a French lawmaker in the EU Parliament, argues for creating a Bitcoin reserve & against a digital Euro.

• Deutsche Bank to develop Ethereum Layer-2; to use ZKsync to confront regulatory challenges.

• Cango $CANG buys 32 EH/s of Bitcoin miners from Bitmain for $256M; to also buy 18 EH/s of hashrate from Golden TechGen for $144M of stock issuance.

• Exodus $EXOD lists on NYSE & pumps ~36%; listing was previously delayed in May until the SEC could review Exodus’ registration statement.

• MetaPlanet adds Bitcoin Treasury Operations as new business line; stock slides over concerns of Bitcoin’s volatility.

• US raised the most investment through IPOs in 2024 surpassing China for the first time since 2021; boom fueled by ongoing AI rally.

Security and Exploits

• US Treasury Department shuts down North Korean money laundering network; UAE-based front company & two Chinese nationals sanctioned.

• LastPass Threat Actor drains ~$12M of crypto from 100+ victims; LastPass customer data was stolen in 2022.

• CoinLurker, a new infostealer malware, used in fake update campaigns; uses advanced evasion techniques.

• Nigeria EFCC shuts down crypto scam operation; arrests ~800, computers & phones seized.

• SlowMist publishes Weekly Security Report; highlights ~$500K in reported losses from several incidents.

• TP-Link investigated by US government over national security concerns & links to recent cyberattacks; could potentially be banned.

Token Unlocks

• Pixels $PIXEL / ~$10M / DEC 19
• Cardano $ADA / ~$18M / DEC 21
• Space ID $ID / ~$34M / DEC 22
• EigenLayer $EIGEN / ~$6M / DEC 24
Sourced from Tokenomist

Funding

• BVNK raises $50M in Series B funding led by Huan Ventures.

• ⭐️ Lens Protocol raises $31M in Strategic funding led by Faction.

• Prometheum raises $20M in funding from undisclosed investors.

• Plume Network raises $20M in Series A funding.

• Faction AI raises $6M in Pre-Seed funding led by Spartan Group & Symbolic Capital.

• Silencio raises $2.5M in Seed funding led by Blockchange.

• StablR raises undisclosed amount in funding from Tether.

• Masa raises undisclosed amount in Strategic funding led by Digital Currency Group.

• Oasis raises undisclosed amount in Strategic funding from Animoca Brands Japan.

• Treehouse receives grant from Compound Finance.

The Degen Farmer