Crypto weekly is authored by maaria and david blumenfeld

PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD
- Crypto Market Cap ($3.19T): -4% / -6%
- BTC ($92,740): -4% / -1%
- ETH ($2,436): -13% / -27%
- SOL ($169): +1% / -11%
- UNI ($8.03): -11% / -39%
- OP ($1.12): -6% / -36%
- Tether Mkt Cap ($142B): 0% / +3%
- USDC Mkt Cap ($56B): -1% / +29%
- BTC / ETH Dominance: 58% / 9%

THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO

- President Donald Trump announced the creation of a strategic crypto reserve, which would include cryptocurrencies like BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, and ADA. Crypto assets rose on the announcement. Link. Link. 

- Investors pulled a record $1 billion from spot Bitcoin ETFs as the token price dropped to its lowest level since mid-November amid broader risk aversion in financial markets. Link. 

- The SEC announced it is dropping investigations against Coinbase, Consensys, Uniswap, Robinhood, Gemini and is seeking a pause in its investigation against Tron founder Justin Sun. Link. Link. Link. Link. Link. Link. 

- The FBI confirmed North Korea was responsible for the $1.4 billion theft from crypto exchange Bybit, the largest hack in crypto history. Hackers injected malicious JavaScript code into wallet provider Safe's infrastructure hosted on AWS, with the code designed to activate only when interacting with Bybit's contract address. Link. Link.

- The SEC declared that memecoins generally do not qualify as securities under the Howey Test since they don't generate yields or convey rights to future income. Link. Statement.

- The Ethereum Foundation appointed longtime researcher Hsiao-Wei Wang and Nethermind founder Tomasz Stanczak as co-Executive Directors, replacing Aya Miyaguchi who has moved to the role of president. Former researcher Danny Ryan, who had led Ethereum’s upgrade to proof-of-stake and had significant community support, will co-found Etherealize, a new institutional marketing arm for the Ethereum ecosystem. Link. Link.

- House Democrats are introducing the MEME Act, which would criminalize government officials' involvement in cryptocurrency promotion or creation and would retroactively punish Donald Trump's recent memecoin token launch. Link. 

- Solana-based memecoin launchpad Pump.fun has seen a 45% drop in token "graduations", tokens that have reached a market cap of $100,000, since January's peak. Link. 

- US lawmakers are pushing back their timeline for passing comprehensive crypto legislation past the 100-day window originally expected, instead focusing on existing draft legislation like the GENIUS stablecoin bill. Link. 

- Citadel Securities, the market-making giant responsible for handling 1/4 of US stock trading volume, plans to become a crypto liquidity provider for major exchanges including Coinbase and Binance. Link. 

- Bank of America is preparing to launch its own stablecoin in the US as soon as legislation passes. Link. 

- Stripe described stablecoins a major advancement in the “basic usability of money” in the internet economy in its annual letter, with plans to continue developing stablecoin projects via its recent acquisition of stablecoin startup Bridge for $1 billion. Link. Letter. 

- FTX's bankruptcy fees have reached nearly $950 million, making it corporate America's most expensive collapse since Lehman Brothers in 2008. Link. 

- The US House Ways and Means Committee voted 26-16 to advance a resolution that would overturn a controversial IRS rule requiring DeFi brokers, which includes decentralized exchanges and self-custodial wallet providers, to collect and report user data. Link. 

- Pseudonymous crypto fraud investigator ZachXBT, who has returned over $350 million to victims of hacks and scams, joined crypto venture capital firm Paradigm as an incident response advisor. Link. 

- DraftKings agreed to a $10 million settlement in a class action lawsuit that alleged its NFTs violated Federal Securities Law. The company shut down its NFT business in 2024. Link.