Ledger Co-Founder Kidnapped For Crypto Ransom

️ On today's Top Picks:

Crypto News

• ⭐️ Ledger Co-Founder David Balland & his wife rescued after being kidnapped for crypto ransom; 10 suspects have been arrested.

• Jump Trading sues Liam Heeger, founder of Unto Labs, for allegedly starting rival business and secretly raising funds; Heeger and Unto Labs deny the allegations.

• Andreessen Horowitz to close UK office to focus on the US citing the new administration; a16z to continue to invest in entrepreneurs around the world including the UK.

• ⭐️ Binance Labs rebrands to YZi Labs; Binance Co-Founder Changpeng Zhao takes active role in investment activities; Ella Zhang returns as Head of YZi Labs.

• Grayscale files for Solana $SOL ETF; CoinShares files for Ripple $XRP & Litecoin $LTC ETF.

• Circle introduces Circle Paymaster enabling users to pay gas fees with $USDC instead of $ETH on Arbitrum & Base; Paymaster charges a 10% fee on gas cost.

• US Senator Elizabeth Warren calls for investigation into President Trump's $TRUMP & Melania's $MELANIA memecoins.

• THORChain $RUNE allegedly insolvent as it suspends lending operations; validators initiate a 90-day restructuring plan to address the issues.

• Ivanka Trump, daughter of President Donald Trump, warns of fake cryptocurrencies using her name; Ivanka's legal team to review & pursue measures to stop the misuse.

• Agora acquires Boardroom for an undisclosed amount; there's no plan to deprecate Boardroom rather both platforms will be kept running.

Alpha

• ⭐️ Abstract to launch mainnet in 3 days; also recently announced Abstract Incentives, a points program for users, builders, & creators to earn XP for onchain activity.

• Kaito launches Kaito Connect - Yapper Launchpad; vote for the next Pre-TGE projects to have a Yapper Leaderboard.

• Symbiotic posts "MAINNET LOADING ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░ 99.45%..." on X; Symbiotic TGE & airdrop potentially launching soon.

• Newton launches Newton Portal; complete quests to earn Ethereal Credits.

• DeBank launches Solv $SOLV Airdrop Hunter Web3 Badge; users who received the SOLV airdrop & are verified non-Sybil can mint the badge.

Airdrops

• Weekly Airdrop Recap by Earndrop.

• Abstract Airdrop Strategy by Earndrop.

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

• Karak Foundation unveils $KAR; Karak TGE & airdrop launching soon.

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

Finance News

• ⭐️ President Donald Trump signs executive order for a digital asset working group, US digital asset stockpile, & bans central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

• US Senator Cynthia Lummis named Chair of Senate Banking Subcommittee on Digital Assets; Lummis is a well-known crypto supporter.

• US House oversight committee investigates alleged debanking in the crypto industry; Senate Banking Committee hearing set for February 5th.

• US SEC withdraws SAB 121 which required companies to mark any customers' crypto on their balance sheets; SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce posted "Bye, bye SAB 121! It's not been fun..." on X.

• Taiwan to propose a draft law on virtual asset service providers in June 2025; law would allow banks to issue stablecoins.

• MicroStrategy $MSTR to redeem $1.05B of 2027 Convertible Notes; conversion requests to settle in shares.

• Semler Scientific $SMLR to raise $85M with additional $15M option through convertible notes offering; proceeds to be used to buy more Bitcoin $BTC.

• Rumble $RUM announces Rumble Wallet is coming soon; wallet "creates a new way for creators to transact."

• PayPal $PYPL fined $2M over cybersecurity failures; security breach in 2022 led to the exposure of sensitive customer information.

Security and Exploits

• Phantom confirms all wallets and private keys remain safe and secure; statement comes amid reports of security vulnerability.

• Phemex exploited for ~$70M; withdrawals were briefly halted but have since been restored; North Korean hackers suspected to be behind the attack.

• NoOnes CEO Ray Youssef discloses $8M exploit; security breach occurred on January 1st and was only disclosed after ZachXBT wrote about it.

• Odos exploited for ~$50K due to vulnerability in its Limit Order Contracts; exploit has since been addressed and no action is needed from users.

• Revoke[.]cash adds support for Sonic Labs.

• ExpressVPN received 333 requests for user data in 2024; no user data was shared as the information does not exist due to existing logging practices.

Token Unlocks

• AltLayer $ALT / ~$19M / JAN 25nd
• Ethena $ENA / ~$11M / JAN 29th
Sourced from Tokenomist

Funding

• SignalPlus raises $11M in Series B funding led by AppWorks & OKX Ventures.

• Fogo raises $8M in Community Funding on Echo.

• Radius raises $7M in Seed funding led by Pantera Capital.

• Breez raises $5M in funding from several investors.

• Swarm Network raises $3M in Seed funding led by y2z Ventures & ZeroStage.

• Creator[.]bid raises $2.5M in Community funding on Binance Wallet.

• Printr raises $2.5M in Pre-Seed funding from several investors.

• MinionLab raises $2M in Pre-Seed funding led by Jsquare & Capital6 Eagle.

• Ranger raises $1.9M in funding led by RockawayX.

• Analog raises $1.56M in Community funding on Fjord Foundry.

• DeFituna raises $585K in Seed funding led by Orca.

• Camelot raises an undisclosed amount in Strategic funding from Tandem.

• Drift Zone raises an undisclosed amount in Strategic funding from 369 Capital.

• Hybrid raises an undisclosed amount in Seed funding from several investors.

• Simple Proof raises an undisclosed amount in funding from Ego Death Capital & Wolf.

The Degen Farmer