SEC Appeals Ripple $XRP Court Decision

️ On today's Top Picks:

Crypto News

• ⭐️ US SEC files appeal in Ripple lawsuit challenging a July 2023 ruling; Ripple's CLO says lawsuit is "likely to be abandoned by the next administration."

• Telegram $TON to expand in the US; cites expected pro-crypto regulation under US President Trump's administration for the strategic move.

• ⭐️ Soneium blacklists memecoins citing intellectual property rights infringements; publishes blog post outlining approach to balancing creativity and IP protection.

• US DOJ says ~94K Bitcoin $BTC stolen from Bitfinex in 2016 should be returned to the exchange; latest filing says Bitfinex was the sole victim in the hack.

• BitMEX fined additional $100M over Bank Secrecy Act violations; pleaded guilty in July 2024 and previously agreed to pay a $110M penalty.

• Thailand CCIB to propose banning Polymarket citing it facilitates illegal online gambling; timeline for the proposed ban remains unclear.

Alpha

• Kinto launches Hyperliquid NFT badge; reach $50K in trading volume between January 15th and January 31st to be eligible.

• Avantis launches Season 2 of Avantis XP; XP accumulation started on December 12th; Avantis Foundation to launch at the end of Season 2.

• Kana Labs launches Phase 2 of Kana Perps testing; also launch Feature Testing of Kana Perpetual Futures quest on Galxe.

• Nansen posts "Psst...𝑁𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑛 𝑃𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑠 .. Get ready for rewards" on X; Nansen CEO Alex Svanevik previously announced Nansen Points Season 1 would launch in Q2.

• RedStone launches RedStoneExpedition Season 3; supply Lombard $LBTC on ZeroLend on Base to earn RedStone Gems & more; campaign ends January 26th.

• Bubblemaps unveils $BMT; with BMT users can submit cases, vote on cases, unlock advanced features, & more; V2 users to receive airdrop.

• Form launches Mainnet, Meditations Phase II points program, & introduces $FORM; 8% of FORM supply allocated for airdrop.

• ICYMI Airdrop Weekly Recap by Olimpio.

• ICYMI Towns Airdrop Strategy by Earndrop.

Airdrops

• Olimpio launches Derive $JUP mass airdrop checker; no cookies, no tracking, & no signatures.

• ⭐️ Jupiter launches $JUP Jupuary airdrop checker; traders, stakers, & voters are eligible; claim next week.

• Olimpio launches Derive $DRV mass airdrop checker; no cookies, no tracking, & no signatures.

• Derive launches $DRV airdrop claim; users can choose $DRV or $stDRV with a 20% bonus; to distribute 20M stDRV to Ethena sENA holders.

• Solv to launch $SOLV airdrop checker on January 16th at 9:00 UTC; claim on January 17th at 9:00 UTC.

• Plume launches airdrop registration from January 14th to January 18th; early adopters, testnet users, pre-deposit stakers, & more are eligible; claim in Q1.

• BSX launches $BSX airdrop checker; points holders, Lilquid NFT holders, & more are eligible; claim on January 16th at 10:00 UTC.

• Avalon launches $AVL airdrop registration; users can choose their preferred chain to receive AVL.

• GoPlus to launch Season 1 Airdrop checker on January 16th; Energy Block Miners, Energy Card Holders, & more to be eligible.

• Artela launches $ART Wave 1 airdrop checker; Artela testnet users, Capila NFT holders, & more are eligible; claim on January 17th.

• ICYMI Olimpio launches $FUEL mass airdrop checker; no cookies, no tracking, & no signatures; claim ends January 19th.

Finance News

• ⭐️ US President-elect Trump's SEC to revise crypto policy and review ongoing crypto enforcement cases; Trump to take office on January 20th.

• Bank Of England to launch Digital Pound Lab for testing CBDC innovations; initiative aims to address payment system challenges, test use cases, & more.

• South Korea FSC begins discussion to develop follow-up regulation to its crypto regulatory framework; aims to draft the legislation in H2 2025.

• Thailand SEC considers allowing local bitcoin ETFs to list on local exchanges; previously said it was monitoring development of overseas spot crypto ETFs.

• Remixpoint buys 33.34 Bitcoin $BTC for ~$3M; now holds 333.19 BTC worth ~$32M

• Intesa Sanpaolo buys 11 Bitcoin $BTC for ~$1M; Intesa Sanpaolo is Italy's largest bank and previously set up a trading desk for digital assets in 2023.

• US SEC sues Elon Musk alleging late disclosure of Twitter stake; lawsuit seeks to force Musk to pay a civil fine and forfeit profits.

Security and Exploits

• SlowMist releases Weekly Security Report highlighting ~$4M in total reported losses.

• Revoke adds support for Abstract Global Wallet and Abstract Sepolia Testnet in preparation for Abstract Mainnet.

• ⭐️ Microsoft releases Windows January 2025 update; patches 159 vulnerabilities, including 3 actively exploited zero-days.

• Google releases Chrome 132 update; patches 16 vulnerabilities; other Chromium-based web browsers also affected.

• US FBI deletes PlugX malware from ~4K computers within the US; malware controlled by Chinese cyber espionage group Mustang Panda.

Token Unlocks

• Arbitrum $ARB / ~$72M / JAN 16th
• Echelon Prime $PRIME / ~$12M / JAN 17th
• ApeCoin $APE / ~$18M / JAN 17th
• Ondo $ONDO / ~$2.4B / JAN 18th
Sourced from Tokenomist

Funding

• Sigma Capital to raise $100M for fund focusing on Web3 startups; currently has around $40M in pre-commitments; fund to focus on DeFi, tokenization, & blockchain infrastructure.

• Sygnum Bank raises $58M in Strategic funding from Fulgur Ventures.

• Dfns raises $16M in Series A funding led by Further.

• Reown raises $13M in Series B funding led by USV & 1kx.

• Brickken raises $2.5M in Seed funding from several investors.

• Beratone raises $2M in Seed funding led by Animoca Brands.

• Sunrise raises an undisclosed amount in funding from Animoca Brands Japan.

• Interstate raises an undisclosed amount in Strategic funding from Sergey Gorbunov.

The Degen Farmer