💰 39 Lessons for Your Bags

Plus, 📈 They weren’t a flop after all, 📉 A brief but scary depeg, 🐧 Pump.fun takes profits, and more!

January 02, 2025

I’m Juan Aranovich, managing editor of Unchained.

In today’s edition:

  • 💰 Use it, don’t lose it

  • 📈 Ether ETFs close 2024 with hefty inflows

  • 📉 Whale trade causes USD0 wobble

  • 🐧 Pump.fun moves sacks of SOL

  • 🥼 DeSci takes off

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What’s Poppin’?

By Sage D. Young and Tikta

Folks in the crypto ecosystem have witnessed an extraordinary level of wealth creation since Satoshi Nakamoto first introduced Bitcoin in 2009.

Just this year, the overall market capitalization of digital assets has soared to $3.5 trillion, pretty much doubling from under $1.8 trillion at the start of the year. On the flip side, there’s no shortage of ways to lose money in crypto.

In 2024, crypto users suffered losses of around $1.5 billion, according to a report published by blockchain security firm Immunefi.

Instead of providing examples of how people have pocketed money, Imunefi’s report goes straight for the safety-first approach — or, rather the learn-from-the-mistakes-of-others strategy — highlighting the countless ways in which people have seen funds disappear, never to return. Striving to be comprehensive, we have enumerated 39. There are probably way more.

Losing money (Shutterstock)

Ethereum ETFs End 2024 With $2.7B in Net Inflows

U.S. spot ether exchange-traded funds closed out the year with $2.7 billion of net inflows, according to data from investment management boutique Farside Investors.

The Fidelity Ethereum Fund recorded an impressive $31.8 million in net inflows on the last day of the trading year. The Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust saw a modest $9.8 million worth of inflows on the day.

Some industry watchers believe that the recent inflows into Ethereum ETFs — particularly in comparison to Bitcoin ETFs — may indicate a shift in investor sentiment and could potentially set the stage for increased competition between the two cryptocurrencies this year.

gold colored star on green grass

USD0 Briefly Depegs After Single Whale’s Trade

The Usual protocol saw a major sell-off of its decentralized stablecoin, USD0, triggered by a large whale transaction in the secondary market on Jan. 1.

The sell-off caused USD0 to trade briefly at $0.99, but it was able to fully recapitalise and regain its U.S. dollar peg within a few hours.

“Overall, this was our first major stress test of the USD0 peg, with more redemptions than the entire [total value locked] of GHO in a few hours — yet it was business as Usual,” the protocol’s team said in a post on X.

USD0 is fully collateralized by short-term, liquid, risk-free assets — mainly U.S. Treasury Bills and repurchase agreements. It is part of a broader ecosystem that includes USD0++, a liquid staking token, and $USUAL, the protocol's governance token.

Pump.fun Moves Over $55M SOL to Kraken

Solana-based memecoin marketplace Pump.fun may be cashing out a significant amount of SOL.

The Pump.fun fee account moved $22.88 million of SOL to crypto exchange Kraken on Wednesday, according to data from blockchain analysis platform Arkham.

The fee account then moved another $32.7 million of SOL to Kraken through a new wallet address.

Pump.fun’s fee account currently holds around $23.3 million of SOL and $13.1 million of liquid staking token JitoSOL.

DeSci Sees 2,640% Mindshare Uptick in 2024

Narratives change quickly in the crypto space, but none grew as fast in 2024 as decentralized science, or DeSci, protocols.

DeSci has seen a 2,640% increase in mindshare since January 2024, according to data shared by Sandra Leow, a research partner at Web3 information platform Kaito.

The second-biggest increase was observed in trusted execution environments, which saw a 192% uptick over the year.

Artificial intelligence, chain abstraction, stablecoins, and Solana virtual machines are also seeing increased interest, but the narrative around layer 2 networks, liquid restaking tokens, and the BRC-20 token standard has less buzz than it used to.

From the groundbreaking success of the ETFs to Solana’s dominance and the Trump effect on Bitcoin, we look back at the stories and voices that defined 2024.

2024 was nothing short of transformative for the crypto world. From bitcoin’s relentless climb amidst macroeconomic shifts to Solana’s continued rise amidst meme coin mania, this year saw narratives unfold that no one could have predicted.

In this special episode that has become a tradition at Unchained, Laura revisits the biggest moments of the year, featuring insightful clips from the standout guests who joined Unchained and Bits + Bips in 2024.

Whether it was further institutional adoption, debates over decentralization, the victory over Gary Genser’s regulation by enforcement strategy, or the taking off of AI agents, this year marked a turning point for crypto. Tune in for a reflective journey through the year that was—and a glimpse of what lies ahead in 2025.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

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Daily Bits… ✍️✍️✍

  • ⚖️ Defunct crypto lender Celsius filed an appeal after a judge dismissed its $444 million claim against FTX, arguing that procedural issues invalidated its attempt to recover alleged preferential transfers in the ongoing bankruptcy case.

  • 📅 The U.S. Internal Revenue Service  postponed its crypto cost-basis reporting rules until 2026, giving brokers more time to adapt to new regulations that require investors to choose specific tax accounting methods for crypto sales.

  • 🔐 Losses from crypto hacks and scams sank to the lowest monthly level of 2024 in December, with $29 million stolen, a significant decline from earlier months, according to blockchain security firms.

Today in Crypto Adoption...

  • 🇨🇭 A group of Swiss Bitcoin fans launched a campaign to amend the country’s constitution, proposing that bitcoin be adopted by the central bank as a reserve asset alongside gold, potentially sparking a years-long political debate.

  • 🏦 Garanti BBVA Kripto, a Turkish custody platform that is part of Spanish banking giant BBVA, will soon enable crypto trading services, signaling a broader push by European banks to embrace cryptocurrency offerings under MiCA regulations.

The $$$ Corner…

  • 📊 Crypto startup Accountable raised $2.3 million to develop privacy-focused tools that verify borrowers' financial health using zero-knowledge proofs, aiming to rebuild trust in undercollateralized lending.

What Do You Meme?

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📈 Your Market Update 📉

  • BTC is up 3.2%, trading at $96,587

  • ETH is up 3.8%, trading at $3,470

  • BTC dominance: 53.77%

  • Crypto market cap: $3.65T

*All data as of today, 07:42 am ET. Source: CoinGecko

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