Bitcoin Marks New ATH at $106k on Strategic Reserve Hopes
Plus the Pudgy Penguin PENGU token has been confirmed for tomorrow on Binance.
TylerD's Market Summary
GM!
Today's top news:
Bitcoin hits new ATH at $106k; other majors mixed
HYPE and VIRTUAL dominate alts, up 80-110% on week
Trump's World Liberty Fi continues to buy DeFi coins
Pudgy's soar to 35 ETH before retrace; PENGU to launch in the next 24 hours
ETH NFTs soar 10-100% across the board in Pudgy's wake
💰 Bitcoin Hits $106,000 As Strategic Reserve Hopes Rise
This is a big week.
If the Santa Rally happens, it starts this week.
And Bitcoin may have just given us a glimpse that it's going to happen.
What Happened?
Yesterday, Bitcoin hit a new ATH at $106,000 briefly before pulling back to $104,000.
It also set the highest-ever weekly close.
And many are crediting the recent pump to Donald Trump and his pro-crypto comments, specifically around the Bitcoin reserve.
Reuters is crediting the recent pump to Trump's comments, pointing to comments from last week where he was asked about the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve and if he would build it and he said "Yeah, I think so."
Bloomberg is also crediting the pump to Trump and his overall crypto support.
And new back of the napkin math is showing that a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve could erase 44% of the national debt by 2050 if started in the next year (and if Bitcoin compounds at 25% annually).
The reality of the Strategic Reserve feels more real by the day, and it seems it's being spoken into existence.
What Are They Saying?
Donald Trump's comments from last week: "We're gonna do something great with crypto because we don't want China or anybody else - not just China but others are embracing it - and we want to be the head."
Tony Sycamore, an analyst at IG: "We're in blue sky territory here. The next figure the market will be looking for is $110,000. The pullback that a lot of people were waiting for just didn't happen, because now we've got this news."
Lucas Schweiger, Digital Asset Research Manager at banking group Sygnum: "Campaign promises to make the U.S. ‘the crypto capital of the planet’ might be viewed as political posturing. But the Crypto Advisory Council proposal, along with rumors of Trump meeting several heavyweights of the crypto industry, such as Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, sends a signal that the new administration will pay more serious attention to the crypto market and look to understand its potential opportunities for the US economy."
Why It Matters
It feels like we're beyond political posturing at this stage.
When Trump ended his Bitcoin Nashville speech with "Go have fun with your Bitcoins," it did feel like maybe he was just posturing.
But the actions taken since then, to meet with crypto leaders, to appoint crypto-friendly people to his Cabinet, and his repeated pro-crypto comments feel too big to ignore.
And the upside of a potential Strategic Reserve is simply not priced in right now.
The asymmetric bet is on Bitcoin, and crypto growth in America.
There is a good chance that we are literally just getting started...
🚚 What is happening in NFTs?
Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:
Ethereum led NFT trading volume with $57M on the day; Solana was next with $5.7M and then Bitcoin with $4.7M
ETH NFT leaders were very green; Punks even at 38.5 ETH, Pudgy -5% at 31, BAYC +6% at 19.4 ETH, Azuki +20% at 10.75; Milady +10% at 6, Doodles +8% to 4.5
Several other NFTs jumped 30-50% including Elementals, Beanz, Sappy Seals, Hegdies, Bond Bears, Mocaverse and Cool Cats
Pudgy Penguins saw 3 sales at 100 ETH or higher for Ice Pudgy's, 3 of the top 10 sales of all time
Breaking this morning - Binance to list PENGU for spot trading at 9 am ET tomorrow
Skyborne Nexian Gems (+160%), On1 Force (+100%), The Plague (+90%) and Rug Genesis NFTs (+80%) led notable top movers
BTC NFT leaders were mostly red; Bitcoin Puppets -6% at 0.15 BTC, NodeMonkes +1% at 0.14, OMB -3% at 0.146, Quantum Cats -1% at 0.207
New Fukuhedrons Ordinals debuted and ran to 0.015 BTC (now 0.01)
The Runes leaders were mostly red; DOG -2% at $940M mc, PUPS -5% at $180M, BDC -6% at $75M, GIZMO +11% at $26M
Solana NFTs were mixed led by DeGods (+5%), Claynosaurz (+29%) and Mad Lads (+3%)
💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker
Here's a rundown of major token, protocol and airdrop news from the day:
OpenSea registered in the Cayman Islands, sparking speculation that an OpenSea token may indeed be coming
Abstract announced its mainnet launch for January 2025
Mocaverse's MOCA token was listed on Upbit and briefly soared 3x to $4B before settling at $2B
🤖 AI x Crypto
New section dedicated to headlines in the AI sector of crypto:
Overall market cap jumps held steady at $10.6B over the weekend though most leaders were red
VIRTUAL jumped 17% to $2.86B leading top movers (and all top crypto alts); FARTCOIN +20% to $750M
MEMES AI, KEKE, MANA, SAINT, FATHA & ZODS were top movers jumping 40-90%
FARTCOIN dominated mindshare with 20% of the sector, with AIXBT next at 13%; GRIFFAIN and GOAT were notable mindshare losers
ONGO and KWANT lead smart engagement ratio, HIGH and SOLARIS lead holder growth %
🌎 Macro Crypto and Web3
A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:
Crypto majors are green this morning after closing a new ATH on the Bitcoin weekly; BTC +1% at $104,000, ETH +1% at $3,920, SOL -2% at $215, XRP -2% at $2.37
HYPE jumped another 20% on the day to $26, closing a +110% move on the week
Memecoin majors are red and closed a -10%-20% week; DOGE -2% at $0.395, SHIBA -3%, PEPE -1%, WIF -5%, BONK -3%, MOG even
Trump's recent strategic Bitcoin reserve comments are being credited for Bitcoin's surge over $105k and to new ATH
Donald Trump's World Liberty Fi continued to buy ETH DeFi tokens including ONDO
MicroStrategy made it into the Nasdaq 100 pushing the stock up to $411
Crypto developer activity is soaring in Asia (home to 32% of total dev activity) where devs largely favor Solana over ETH
PNUT's owner issued a cease-and-desist letter to Binance accusing them of trademark violations (PNUT -4%)
🚀 Memecoin Movers
$MIKU (+3,900% to $10M market cap, SOL)
$SHITCOIN (+1100% to $12M market cap, SOL)
$MEMESAI (+80% to $70M market cap, SOL)
$SANUT (+80% to $20M market cap, SOL)
$MANA (+60% to $23M market cap, SOL)
📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)
Shadow Wolves (200%, 0.06 ETH Floor)
Cool Pets (150%, 0.05 ETH Floor)
Skyborne (130%, 1.33 ETH)
SupDucks (114%, 0.06 ETH)
Rug Genesis (107%, 0.16 ETH)
🗓 Upcoming Mints and Events
Folks - my source for daily mints and events has shut down operations.
Given the general lack of interest in new mints on a daily basis, I'll be discontinuing this section of the newsletter, at least for now.
If I can find a good source for daily events, I will look at turning it back on.
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