KIP Protocol Rugs Argentina $LIBRA Memecoin?

️ On today's Top Picks:

Crypto News

• ⭐️ Argentina President Javier Milei promotes $LIBRA memecoin on X; Milei has since deleted the post; KIP Protocol, the company behind LIBRA, faces scrutiny.

• Ethereum $ETH Pectra upgrade to launch on Holesky testnet on February 24th; Sepolia testnet on Match 5th; Mainnet in April; upgrade to improve scalability, security, & user experience.

• Ethereum $ETH Foundation deploys 45K ETH worth ~$120M into DeFi; 10K ETH into Spark, 10K ETH into Aave $AAVE Prime, 20.8K ETH into Aave Core, & 4.2K ETH into Compound $COMP; more to come.

• NYSE Arca proposes adding staking to Grayscale Ethereum $ETH ETFs; 21Shares also proposed adding staking to its Ethereum ETFs.

• US SEC Crypto Task Force meets with Jito Labs & Multicoin Capital to discuss staking in crypto ETFs; Grayscale & 21Shares have proposed adding staking to its Ethereum $ETH ETF.

• Pumpfun deposits ~140K Solana $SOL worth ~$26M into Kraken; deposited a total of ~2.28M SOL worth ~$460M into Kraken.

• CZ reveals dog's name 'Broccoli'; Four Meme, Binance’s memecoin launcher, crashed as Broccoli memecoins launched.

• BNB Chain $BNB to launch Meme Liquidity Support Program starting February 18th; to inject $4.4M in liquidity to reward top memecoins.

• US SEC acknowledges Grayscale's 19b-4 filing for its spot Ripple $XRP ETF; slightly increases odds of approval.

• US SEC acknowledges Grayscale's 19b-4 filing for its spot Dogecoin $DOGE ETF; slightly increases odds of approval.

• Coinbase $COIN in talks with India FIU for potential re-entry; Coinbase previously suspended operations in India in 2022 due to NPCI refusing to recognize Coinbase's UPI payment service.

• Bybit removed from France AMF blacklist after more than two years of cooperation with regulators; Bybit's goal is to obtain a MiCA license.

Alpha

• ⭐️ OpenSea introduces $SEA; launches OpenSea 2 Open Beta; to launch TGE & airdrop soon.

• Kaito introduces $KAITO & releases whitepaper; to release tokenomics soon.

• Pumpfun launches mobile app on iOS & Android; not available to UK residents.

• RedStone Oracles Co-Founder Marcin posts "$RED loading... ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░" on X; to launch TGE & airdrop soon.

• Socket launches SocketSociety; SocketSociety quiz ended with top 50% of participants receiving PowerPuff Discord role; teases more news next week.

• Aztec launches Aztec Foundation, "bringing us closer to the launch of a fully decentralized, privacy-preserving network"; to potentially launch token soon.

• Namada to launch Phase 3 "very soon"; $NAM transferability coming in Phase 5.

• Union launches Testnet 9; unlock achievements & earn rewards on Union Dashboard.

• Doodles unveils $DOOD; 68% of supply allocated to the community; to launch on Solana & Base soon.

• Crypto February Calendar (Bi-Weekly Update) by LayerGG.

• List Of Upcoming TGEs, Listings, & Releases by ICO Analytics.

Airdrops

• Movement launches Pre-Registration for $MOVE airdrop claims; Movement Mainnet Public Beta to launch soon.

• ⭐️ Story launches $IP airdrop claim; Odyssey participants & Kaito yappers are eligible.

• Rivalz to launch $RIZ airdrop claim on February 21st; ~7% of supply allocated for airdrop.

• MyShell launches $SHELL airdrop claim; MySoul NFT holders & ShellCoin holders are eligible.

• Infinex launches $PENGU airdrop; Infinex account holders are eligible; Infinex Patrons holders are eligible for a bonus.

• Form launches $FORM airdrop eligibility & allocation checker; Meditations Phase I users, Friendtech users, Virtuals users, & more are eligible; claim coming soon.

• ICYMI Credible Airdrop Strategy by Earndrop.

• ICYMI Naoris Airdrop Strategy by Earndrop.

Finance News

• State Street & Citi Bank $C to launch crypto custody services; State Street is the world’s largest custodian bank with $44T in assets.

• ⭐️ Mubadala, Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund, bought ~$436M of Bitcoin $BTC ETFs in Q4 2024; BlackRock $BLK secured a license to operate in Abu Dhabi in November 2024.

• Coinbase $COIN reports a revenue of $2.3B & a net income of $1.3B in Q4 2024; exceeds expected revenue of $1.87B.

• US State Of Wisconsin discloses ~$321M of Bitcoin $BTC ETF holdings; increased holdings by ~109% since its previous disclosure.

• Barclays discloses ~$131M of Bitcoin $BTC ETF holdings; previously disclosed a minimal position in Grayscale's Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF which it no longer holds.

• MetaPlanet $3350.T raises $25.9M to buy more Bitcoin $BTC; to be added to MSCI Japan World Index at the end of February.

• GameStop $GME considers investing in Bitcoin $BTC and other cryptocurrencies; still evaluating if investment aligns with its business needs.

• US CBP seizes Bitcoin mining machines by MicroBT & Canaan $CAN at ports of entry; US CBP previously seized Bitmain machines last year due to unapproved AI chips.

• Bitmain sold half of its stake in Core Scientific $CORZ in 2024; initially acquired shares as part of Core Scientific’s bankruptcy proceedings in 2022.

• RIOT Platforms $RIOT appoints Jaime Leverton, Michael Turner, & Doug Mouton to its board; Leverton formerly Hut 8 $HUT CEO.

• Jane Street acquired 6% stake in Iris Energy $IREN; Iris reported a Bitcoin $BTC mining revenue of $113M in Q4 2024.

• Tether acquires minority stake in Juventus $JUVE.MI Football Club for an undisclosed amount; to "build a new synergy between sports and digital assets".

• Apple $AAPL partners with Alibaba $BABA for iPhone AI services in China; Apple was also in talks with Baidu $9888.HK, Bytedance, & Tencent $0700.HK.

Security and Exploits

• Lazarus Group targets developers with previously undocumented JavaScript implant Marstech1; implant designed to collect system information and can be embedded within websites and NPM packages.

• OmniGPT allegedly breached; hacker leaks over 34M user-chatbot interactions, 30K email addresses, phone numbers, & user-uploaded files.

Token Unlocks

• Sei $SEI / ~$13M / FEB 15th
• Avalanche $AVAX / ~$44M / FEB 16th
• Arbitrum $ARB / ~$46M / FEB 16th
• ApeCoin $APE / ~$12M / FEB 17th
Sourced from Tokenomist

Funding

• HashKey Group raises $30M in funding from Gaorong Ventures.

• Plasma raises $24M in Series A funding led by Framework Ventures & Bitfinex.

• Mango Network raises $13.5M in funding from several investors.

• StakeStone raises $10M in funding from BingX Labs.

• GamerBoom raises $9M in funding from several investors.

• BitRobot raises $8M in funding led by Protocol VC.

• Teneo raises $3M in Seed funding led by RockawayX, Borderless, & Generative Ventures.

• Fileverse raises $2.5M in Series A funding led by Nobody.

• Soter Insure raises an undisclosed amount in Series A funding led by Galaxy.

• Yield Guild Games raises an undisclosed amount in Strategic funding from Gam3Girl Ventures.

• KUN raises an undisclosed amount in funding led by BAI Capital.

The Degen Farmer