Sony Launches Soneium Mainnet

️ On today's Top Picks:

Crypto News

• ⭐️ Bitcoin $BTC mining difficulty reaches new all-time high; eighth consecutive positive adjustment in difficulty which puts pressure on miners.

• MicroStrategy $MSTR acquires 2,530 Bitcoin $BTC for ~$243M at ~$95,972 per BTC; now holds 450K BTC worth ~$42B.

• Digital Asset Investment Products saw $48M of inflows last week; Bitcoin $BTC saw inflows of $213M, Ethereum $ETH saw outflows of $256M, and Ripple $XRP saw inflows of $41M.

• Ethereum $ETH launches new Ethereum Foundation X account; to share updates from the Ethereum Foundation; Ethereum X account to be used more actively to share updates from across the ecosystem.

• Pump[.]fun Team deposits 122,620 Solana $SOL worth ~$22M to Kraken; have deposited 1,785,268 SOL worth ~$362M to Kraken so far.

• Sonic Labs $S Co-Founder Andre Cronje claims Monad narrative changes every few months, the devnet was a fork of Avalanche, & it has no tech; Monad Co-Founder Keone Hon says Cronje's claims are misinformation.

• Tether $USDT & its subsidiaries to relocate to El Salvador; follows successful acquisition of Digital Asset Service Provider (DASP) license.

• US SEC ordered to explain why it denied Coinbase's $COIN request for crypto-specific rules; US Court held that "SEC’s order was conclusory and insufficiently reasoned, and thus arbitrary and capricious..."

• US Supreme Court rejects CZ & Binance's petition to review ruling that US securities laws apply to the cryptocurrency exchange even without a physical headquarters.

• Singapore GRA blocks Polymarket citing unlicensed gambling; joins Taiwan, France, US, & others as a restricted jurisdiction.

• Murdex crypto exchange temporarily pauses crypto withdrawals; cites compliance upgrades; expects to resume withdrawals by January 28th.

• Chainalysis acquires Alterya, an AI-powered fraud detection solution, for $150M.

• MoonPay acquires Helio, a blockchain payment processor, for $175M.

Alpha

• Airdrop Weekly Recap by Olimpio.

• Towns Airdrop Strategy by Earndrop.

• Sony launches Ethereum Layer 2 Soneium mainnet; to explore new frameworks and use cases that integrate digital and physical user experience.

• Unichain posts "soon" on X; also recently posted "...We're one step closer to Public Mainnet" on X.

• ZKsync launches Ignite Week 1 $ZK claims; 300M ZK to be distributed in Ignite Season 1 over 9 months.

• Plume introduces Plume Foundation; to potentially launch TGE & airdrop soon.

• ink launches DeFi Training Grounds Week 4 quest on Guild; users who complete Weeks 1 to 4 can claim Seeker Discord role.

• Obol snapshots holders of Obol Contributions, Techne Credentials, & Obol Badges; teases "next phase of the Obol Collective" on X.

Airdrops

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

• ⭐️ Azuki to launch $ANIME airdrop in January; 50.5% allocated to the community including Azuki, Arbitrum, Hyperliquid $HYPE stakers, Kaito yappers, & more.

• Derive transforms $DRV Airdrop to DRV Launch Program; features weekly epochs, trading rewards, & more; to distribute 20M stDRV to Ethena sENA holders.

• Swell launches $SWELL Wavedrop 2 checker; Black Pearls & Ecosystem Points holders are eligible; to launch claim on Swellchain by January 22nd.

• BSX to launch $BSX airdrop checker on January 15th 12:00 UTC; to launch airdrop claim on January 16 10:00 UTC.

• Rango increases airdrop allocation from 5% to 8%; 2% for past campaigns and 6% for current & upcoming campaigns; teases updates coming soon.

• Bluefin unlocks second portion of $BLUE airdrop; points holders were previously eligible.

• Antcore launches Genesis Drop checker; Aptos & Sui users are eligible; if eligible, join Discord to receive Market Maker role.

Finance News

• ⭐️ US President-elect Trump to issue executive orders related to crypto policies on his first day in office; to potentially address “debanking” and SAB 121.

• US to release December PPI & CPI annual rates on Tuesday & Wednesday respectively; ~96% probability the Federal Reserve leaves interest rates unchanged on January 29th.

• 23 Countries have applied to join BRICS in 2025; alliance to invite “like-minded countries” in upcoming summits.

• BlackRock $BLK launches iShares Bitcoin ETF $IBIT on Cboe Canada.

• Robinhood $HOOD to pay $45M to settle US SEC charges over record keeping, trade reporting, & other rule violations.

• Semler Scientific $SMLR acquires 237 Bitcoin $BTC for ~$23.3M at ~$98,267 per BTC; now holds 2,321 BTC worth ~$220M.

• Gryphon Digital Mining $GRYP acquires 850-acre site for $18.7M; to enable future expansion into AI and high-performance computing data center infrastructure.

• Capital Group becomes 5% shareholder in Metaplanet; also the second largest shareholder in MicroStrategy $MSTR.

• Apple $AAPL faces $1.8B lawsuit in the UK for allegedly overcharging for app purchases; Apple says the case is meritless.

Security and Exploits

• ⭐️ OpenSea User Emails leaked in 2022 fully publicized online; affected users should be wary of phishing emails.

• Revoke launches Moby exploit checker; users can check if their crypto address is affected.

• Google changes advertising policies; to allow advertisers to use digital fingerprinting of users starting February 16th.

• X Account Hijacks continue as Litecoin, Foresight Ventures, & more X accounts were compromised; users recommended to conduct a self-audit.

• US IRS launches Identity Protection Personal Identification Number (IP PIN) program; encourages US taxpayers to enroll for added security against identity theft and fraudulent returns.

Token Unlocks

• Starknet $STRK / ~$26M / JAN 15th
• Ethena $ENA / ~$10M / JAN 15th
• Sei $SEI / ~$20M / JAN 15th
• Arbitrum $ARB / ~$65M / JAN 16th
Sourced from Tokenomist

Funding

• MilkyWay raises $1M in Community funding on Echo.

• Fiamma raises undisclosed amount in Strategic funding from Babylon.

• Candaq Ventures, & Oasis Labs.

The Degen Farmer