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21 Jan, 2025

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What's being bought and sold*

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*Trading activity in the past 24 hours on the Uphold platform, as of 8 a.m. 21st January 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.

Don’t invest in crypto unless you're prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong. Take 2 minutes to learn more.

What’s up

Layer-2 Mantle Takes Leadership Role

An Ethereum-centric layer-2 network, Mantle (MNT), shot up 12% in the past 24 hours to take the top spot, performance-wise, among the Top 50 coins, per CoinGecko. A few other tokens were mildly green. Most were in the red.

Meanwhile, taking up the U.S. presidential mantle, Donald Trump spent his first day back in office signing a flurry of executive orders, although none directly related to crypto. Trump did officially launch an advisory commission, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, aimed at cutting federal spending. Billionaire Elon Musk will be in charge of it. Musk drew international scrutiny for using what some claim looked like a fascist salute while on stage at the Capital One Arena, where Trump supporters had gathered yesterday afternoon.

Trump also formally announced Paul Atkins as his nominee to head the SEC. Atkins is expected to bring a lighter touch to the role.

What's down

Day 1 Of Trump 2.0: Market Slides

Throughout Monday, the crypto industry confronted disorienting new realities, controversies and slippery conditions. Late yesterday afternoon, with the eyes of the world on Trump's executive Sharpie marker, Bitcoin, per CoinGecko, held steady at $103,300, having shed 5% from its record high of $108,786 reached earlier in the day. As of today at 7:10 a.m. (EST), BTC was $103,500.

Tapping political connections has proven to be a trick too far for Dogecoin (DOGE), which reached its most recent high of 46 cents back in early December. As of this morning, DOGE was greening up, battling to return to 39 cents.

Markets remained incredulous and/or energized by the launch, a couple of days ago, of Official Trump (TRUMP), a memecoin connected with President Trump, followed hot on its heels by the release of another memecoin, Melania Meme (MELANIA), connected with the First Lady. These launches, on Solana, stirred backlash and debate among the most vocal members of the crypto community on X. For starters, the timing of the debuts, on the eve of the inauguration, struck many commentators as exploitative. Moreover, as Decrypt notes, the memecoins siphoned liquidity. Several large memecoins, including DOGE, PEPE, BONK and FLOKI, were all shading red as of Monday at 6:30 p.m. (EST).

As of then, TRUMP's market capitalization stood at $7.8 billion, making it the 28th-largest digital asset, according to CoinGecko. TRUMP reached a record per-token high of $73 on Sunday. As of Tuesday morning, it was $37. In a surreal twist, TRUMP first began to lose thrust shortly after the launch of MELANIA, which now has a market cap of $630 million, making it the 160th-largest coin, per CoinGecko.

MELANIA's record high also came early yesterday when it reached $13. As of today at 7:22 a.m. (EST), MELANIA was about $4.40.

Some crypto community members are viewing the TRUMP/MELANIA releases as a brash but effective exercise in mass migration across digital asset borders.

Others were outraged.

"We are sorry Gary Gensler," tweeted pseudonymous trader Ash Crypto. “You were right. Our space is a joke.”

“Any registration requirements just flew out the window,” added billionaire Mark Cuban, a Democrat who campaigned for Kamala Harris.

Another pundit on X, Daan Crypto, predicted the TRUMP and MELANIA coins, dubious though they might seem, have staying power: “I think in the weeks to come, the market might enjoy this more than you think."

Bernstein analysts acknowledged the unusual nature of a sitting U.S. President having his own token for sale, but at the same time they emphasized how this development signals a new era for crypto regulation (Decrypt).

What's next

Crypto Leaders Awaiting Their Orders

Trump turned his indoor inauguration rally into an executive action signing ceremony. The newly sworn-in president cracked down on immigration, withdrew from climate accords, helped TikTok stay on and pardoned people federally convicted in connection with the attack on the U.S. Capitol four years ago, among other things.

On Monday afternoon, the White House circulated a list of Trump’s priorities, including public safety, energy independence, government reform and bringing back “American values.” Crypto wasn't mentioned. 

Early yesterday, markets salivated over the possibility that Trump would sign an executive order establishing a strategic BTC reserve.

Last night, the White House press office boasted of 42 executive orders, memoranda and proclamation actions. None of them had anything to do with crypto.

Cointelegraph, citing Fox Business, said crypto leaders are expecting an executive order banning a central bank digital currency and another creating a crypto council. At this point, it’s unclear when those orders might be signed.

On Polymarket, per Cointelegraph, bettors believe there’s a 1/3 chance that the strategic reserve will be created within Trump’s first 100 days.


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