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What's being bought and sold*
TOP TRENDING ASSETS
*Trading activity in the past 24 hours on the Uphold platform, as of 8 a.m. 10th February 2025.
The combined total of buy and sell percentages can exceed 100% due to customers who engage in both buying and selling the same asset within the 24-hour time frame.
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What’s up
Flurry Of Newly Launched Memecoins Push Boundaries Of Ludicrousness
Crypto is mired in a malaise. The memecoin market, on the other hand, is full-on manic.
This past weekend saw the launch of: TST, a Binance-community-bred, BNB Chain-run token based on a tutorial video; CAR, an experimental "attention, please" token tossed into the maelstrom by the strife-torn Central African Republic, east of Cameroon; and JAILSTOOL, an ad hoc clapback from the "degen" community responding to a weekend of meme mockery on the part of David Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports.
It was on Friday that Portnoy, seemingly just to have a dig at the crypto realm, created a memecoin based on a contestant from a Spanish reality show. Subsequently, in a related post, Portnoy told followers on social media that he owned (and was going to dump) a separate new memecoin, this one connected with NFL MVP Josh Allen; this, in turn, led to a backlash that prompted a post in which Portnoy playfully questioned whether his moves might land him in legal trouble.
And that's when, according to CoinDesk, someone issued the Solana-run JAILSTOOL token. Portnoy then bought JAILSTOOL and promoted it. JAILSTOOL's market capitalization surged from about $1M to more than $200M at its peak, according to CoinDesk.
TST's market cap surged to as much as $300M. CAR's reached more than $500M.
Memecoins clearly appeal to short-term traders. Alas, we checked on CAR just now. It's down 82% in the past 24 hours. That was as of today at about 8:30 a.m. (EST).
“Memes are fun," said Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, the founder of Binance, and who stepped down from his chief executive role after pleading guilty last year to charges that he failed to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program.
"It’s a cultural thing," added Zhao, posting on X. "Don’t go against the community.”
What's down
Sliding Kaspa Steadies
Kaspa (KAS) stabilized on Sunday as it tried to shake free from a hideous seven-day stretch in which it shed a quarter of its value, sliding to below a dime. As of Monday, at 8 a.m. (EST), KAS was $0.089, trading sideways for now going on 24 hours. At this point, KAS is now only down 11% over the past week.
KAS hit its all-time high of $0.20 on Aug. 1, 2024. It's currently the 54th-largest coin. KAS was last spotted pumping north of 15 cents in mid-January amidst hype about a newly initiated scalability upgrade, dubbed Crescendo.
Kaspa is a Proof-of-Work (PoW) crypto known for its use of the GHOSTDAG protocol, touted as a technological enabler of rapid transaction confirmations because of its parallel processing approach, allowing multiple blocks (created simultaneously) to coexist (and to be validated, contributing to consensus) all at the same time.
Not only is Kaspa testing out a new version of itself that can increase block production rates, from one to 10 blocks per second (BPS), but it is also planning for smart contract integration in support of DeFi applications. Kaspa’s smart contracts could go live in the middle of this year.
Testing for the Crescendo hard fork began last month. It is expected to go live at some point in Q1. Kaspa bulls continuously point to possible coming DEX listings for KAS — and also possible spot ETFs tied to KAS — as representing potential catalysts.
What's next
Bitcoin Reserve Idea Gains Traction Across The U.S.
Sixteen U.S. states are pursuing plans to create strategic digital asset reserves. The two latest states to introduce such legislation, just this past week, are Kentucky and Maryland. The Kentucky bill proposes giving its State Investment Commission authorization to allocate up to 10% of excess state reserves into crypto. Bitcoin isn't specifically referenced but the text of the bill refers to non-stablecoins with market caps of more than $750M, a description that only matches BTC.
The proposed Maryland measure, meanwhile, specifically calls for a strategic BTC reserve.
The other states considering such initiatives are: Arizona, Alabama, Florida, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Kansas and Wyoming.
All of this activity comes in the wake of President Donald Trump’s campaign-trail vow to create a strategic BTC stockpile and amidst a stated initiative, via executive order, to explore the concept.
If Kentucky's or some other state's bill gets approved, it may trigger a “global race” to accumulate BTC, according to Isaac Joshua, CEO of Gems Launchpad, a crypto-startup platform.
"Once a few actually commit, the others will feel the pressure to follow," Joshua told Cointelegraph.
If enough states successfully pass similar bills, "it could lay the groundwork for a broader conversation about a federal Bitcoin reserve in the future," said James Wo, CEO of DFG, a VC firm.
So far, North Dakota is the only state to reject a bill proposing a BTC reserve, according to the Bitcoin Reserve Monitor.
Some of these proposals are gaining traction. For example, in Utah, a crypto reserve bill made it out of committee last month, positioning it, per Decrypt, on a path toward further approval. In Arizona, a similar bill was also passed out of committee last month. Now it heads to the state’s Senate.
"Taken together," Decrypt summarized, "the developments represent bipartisan interest in establishing BTC reserves at the state level."
