MicroStrategy Buys Bitcoin Worth $615M

️ On today's Top Picks:

Crypto News

• ⭐️ Mt Gox creditors start receiving repayments via PayPal.

• Barry Silbert, founder & CEO of Digital Currency Group; resigns from Grayscale board of directors.

• Chinese authorities allege Chinese nationals bypassed capital control laws with help from a $2.2B underground banking operation using foreign crypto trading platforms.

• $6M cryptocurrency mining operation owned by NYU student sued for allegedly refusing to pay contractors.

• South Korean public officials to disclose cryptocurrency holdings after new legislation passes.

Alpha

• Starknet $STRK Quest launches Rango Castle Bridge Quest.

• Astar $ASTR zkEVM mainnet launching in early 2024.

• Orbiter Finance launches Inscription Cross-Rollup Protocol with O-Point incentives.

• Pheasant Network launches X1 Testnet Tour campaign on Galxe.

Airdrops

• ⭐️ Loopring airdrops Taiko $TKO Alpha-3 Testnet Contributor NFT to users who completed A3 testnet tasks.

• ⭐️ Namada $NAM RPGF airdrop extended until January 12th.

• XAI Games $XAI airdrop delayed until next week.

• NFTPrompt $NFP Season 1 airdrop claim is live.

• Mayan Finance airdrop strategy by Crypto Snooper.

• Biggest Crypto Airdrops by CoinGecko.

Finance News

• US national debt reaches $33.9T, a new all-time high.

• ⭐️ Russia & Iran ditch the US Dollar finalizing deal to trade in local currencies.

• Russia's digital ruble integrated into nation's tax code after legislation is signed.

• Intel $INTC secures $3.25B grant to build $25B chip fab in Israel.

Security and Exploits

• Telcoin $TEL exploited for $1.25M due to vulnerable un-initialized proxy contracts.

• Thunder Terminal exploited for ~$250K due to leaked session tokens.

• Cybercriminals have stolen ~$1.85B in 2023, less than the $4B stolen in 2022.

Token Unlocks

• SingularityNET / 9.25M $AGIX / ~$3.26M / 27 DEC
• X2Y2 / 37.5M $X2Y2 / ~$441K / 29 DEC
• Optimism / 24.16M $OP / ~$84.07M / 29 DEC
• Sui / 4M $SUI / ~$3.27M / 30 DEC
• Acala / 27.43M $ACA / ~$3.35M / 31 DEC

Funding

• Eclipse Fi $ECLIP, a modular multi-chain launch protocol; raises $1.9M in funding.

• DeMR, a decentralized MR infrastructure network; raises an undisclosed amount in funding from KuCoin Labs.

• Sleepless AI $AI, a Web3+AI gaming platform; raises an undisclosed amount in funding led by Folius Ventures.

• Cryptocurrency funding valued at $10.7B in 2023, down from $33.3B in 2022.

The Degen Farmer