Truebit Exploited, Zcash Devs Quit, Trump: No SBF Pardon

️ On today's Top Picks:

Crypto News

• ⭐️ Zcash $ZEC developers Electric Coin Company resign citing dispute with parent company Bootstrap's board of directors; ECC developers to form new company though will continue working on Zcash.

• ⭐️ US President Trump says he has no plans to pardon former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried; SBF is currently in the process of trying to appeal his conviction.

• Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin writes letter in support of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm; Storm was convicted on a money-transmitting conspiracy charge & is awaiting sentencing.

• combines native Ethereum yield, restaking rewards from EigenCloud, and incentives from Linea & ether[.]fi; SharpLink currently holds 864,840 ETH (~$2.7B).

• Ripple $XRP secures approval for an EMI license and crypto asset registration from the UK FCA; allows Ripple to expand its licensed payments platform.

• Grayscale registers for a $BNB ETF in Delaware; VanEck also filed to launch a BNB ETF (VBNB) in May 2025.

• BNY $BK launches tokenized deposit service; initial clients include ICE, Citadel Securities, DRW Holdings, Ripple $XRP, Baillie Gifford, & Circle $CRCL.

• Morgan Stanley $MS to launch proprietary digital wallet later this year; recently filed for Bitcoin $BTC, Ethereum $ETH, & Solana $SOL ETFs.

• Arbitrum $ARB launches ArbOS Dia upgrade; features smoother gas fees when demand spikes, foundations for higher throughput, Ethereum Fusaka upgrade, & more.

• Optimism Foundation $OP launches token buybacks proposal; proposes directing 50% of incoming Superchain revenue to buy OP every month.

• Polygon $POL to potentially acquire Bitcoin $BTC ATM provider Coinme for $100M-$125M; Coinme is reportedly being advised on the sale by Architect Partners.

Alpha

• MetaMask $MASK to end Rewards Season 1 on January 22nd; currently offering 2x points for mUSD spend on MetaMask Card & 2x points for swaps on Linea.

• Tydro to take Season 1 snapshot "in the coming days"; Tydro points holders will be eligible for the upcoming Ink airdrop.

• Socket posts “▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░ 80%” on X; to launch mainnet soon; to also potentially launch TGE & airdrop soon.

• Jumper teases "Jump Further. Next Week" on X; Jumper's Founder & CEO also posted "Jumper is evolving."

• Ethos launches "The Decision"; choose between burning 50% of your XP for an NFT, rewarded at the end of S2 OR staking 50% of your XP in Validators, earning more XP in S2.

• Fluent launches Prints, "your unique social footprint formed by your identity and reputation across the internet"; to launch perks soon.

• ICYMI Coinbase $COIN adds MegaETH $MEGA to its listing roadmap; MegaETH to potentially launch public mainnet & TGE soon.

Airdrops

• ⭐️ Backpack teases "What's the ticker?" on X; to potentially launch TGE & airdrop soon.

• Cap $CAP launches 'Cap Labs Limited' X account for "token-related information"; to potentially launch TGE & airdrop soon.

• Owlto $OWL announces tokenomics; allocates 15% of token supply for airdrops, 3% at TGE; to announce claim details soon.

• ICYMI Seeker $SKR (Solana Mobile) to launch airdrop on January 21st; Seeker users & developers will be eligible.

• ICYMI Fogo $FOGO to launch airdrop on January 13th; Fogo Flames (points) holders & more will be eligible.

• ICYMI Mezo $MEZO to close airdrop registration soon; Mezo Mats (points) holders & Mezo Bitcoin borrowers are eligible.

• ICYMI Brevis $BREV launches airdrop claim; registration closed on January 3rd though unregistered users may still be eligible; Linea Ignition participants may also be eligible.

Finance News

• US Supreme Court to issue ruling on the legality of President Trump's tariffs on January 14th; rulings were originally scheduled to be released today (January 9th); Polymarket predicts a ~26% chance the Supreme Court rules in favor of Trump's tariffs.

• Greenland considers meeting with the US regarding its "acquisition" without involving Denmark; Polymarket predicts a ~21% chance the US will acquire part of Greenland in 2026.

• US Mortgage Rates drop to their lowest level in ~3 years; the average interest rate on a 30-year mortgage is now down to 5.99%; President Trump recently ordered the US government to buy $200B worth of mortgage bonds & banned institutional purchases of single-family homes.

• US Jobs: added 50K jobs in December, below expectations of 66K; unemployment rate fell to 4.4%, below expectations of 4.5%.

• US President Trump calls for 10% cap on credit card interest rates for one year starting on January 20th.

• TSMC $TSM reports Q4 2025 earnings; reports Q4 revenue of ~$33B (+20% YoY), beating expectations; reports FY 2025 revenue of ~$120B (+32% YoY).

Security and Exploits

• ⭐️ Truebit $TRU exploited for 8,535 Ethereum $ETH (~$26.3M) due to smart contract vulnerability; team is currently "engaged additional resources to strengthen tracing and recovery."

• Tether announces joint initiative with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to fight cybercrime; to collaborate on the Senegal Project, Africa Project, & Papua New Guinea Project.

• Arkham $ARKM to end support for Blast, Manta, & Linea on January 11th; cites it "periodically evaluates chain integrations for continued maintenance based on user demand and their importance to the crypto ecosystem, among other factors."

• ICYMI Chen Zhi, an alleged mastermind of a "pig butchering" crypto fraud ring, was arrested in Cambodia; the US DOJ charged Zhi & seized ~$12B in Bitcoin $BTC in October 2025; Zhi has since been extradited to China.

Token Unlocks

• Wormhole $W / ~$2M / JAN 09th
• Optimism $OP / ~$1M / JAN 10th
• Linea $LINEA / ~$9M / JAN 10th
• Aptos $APT / ~$21M / JAN 11th
Sourced from Tokenomist

Funding

• ⭐️ Rain raises $250M in Series C funding led by ICONIQ Capital.

• PhotonPay raises an undisclosed amount in Series B funding led by IDG Capital.

• ICYMI Ubyx raises an undisclosed amount in Strategic funding from Barclays $BCS.

The Degen Farmer