Bigger Than Satoshi’s Stash 🥈

Plus, 🔵 Warren’s SEC selection, 🧠 Sacks’ industry surprise, 🔄 Justin Sun cashes in, and more!

December 09, 2024

Happy Monday! I’m Juan Aranovich, managing editor of Unchained.

In today’s edition:

  • 🇺🇸 ETFs outweigh Satoshi’s BTC holdings

  • 🔵 Warren weighs in on SEC’s Democratic spots

  • 🌐 Trump modifies promised crypto advisory council

  • 🔐 $50M hack blamed on North Korean attackers

  • 🍣 Sushi’s new products

  • 📈 Even more money for Justin Sun

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What’s Poppin’?

By Sage D. Young and Tikta

U.S. Bitcoin ETFs Overtake Satoshi’s BTC Holdings

Spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) listed in the United States now collectively hold more BTC than any individual, company or government in the world, including the blockchain’s pseudonymous founder Satoshi Nakamoto, according to data shared by Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas.

American ETFs hold 1,104,534 million BTC, outgunning Satoshi’s 1,100,000 million BTC, Balchunas said.

Satoshi’s bitcoin stash is spread across some 20,000 wallet addresses and has remained untouched, except for a few early test transactions.

Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S., by contrast, have been on a steady BTC accumulation spree since their launch in January.

U.S.-listed ETFs bought 28,600 BTC last week alone, far exceeding the 3,150 BTC that was mined, according to data from Bitcoin investment firm HODL15Capital.

Democratic party leadership is giving Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren significant sway to choose who will fill open slots for Democratic commissioners at the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to three sources familiar with discussions inside the party.

The SEC can include up to three commissioners from the same party. Currently, two of the Democrats on the commission are Chair Gary Gensler and Commissioner Jaime Lizárraga, both of whom are stepping down in January.

President-elect Donald Trump has already nominated Republican Paul Atkins to replace Gensler. The remaining two commissioners must therefore be Democrats, independents, or members of a third party, rather than Republicans.

Donald Trump’s announcement that investor and podcaster David Sacks would serve as the White House’s A.I. and crypto czar shocked the industry, which had expected a role dedicated to crypto alone at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

According to the announcement, Sacks will lead a Presidential Council of Advisors for Science and Technology, implying that Trump has also modified plans for the dedicated crypto advisory council promised at the Bitcoin 2024 conference this summer to include other tech sectors.

Sources active in crypto policy circles who spoke to Unchained on condition of anonymity expressed surprise, many having thought that Trump was still undecided as to whether to name a crypto czar at all.

Radiant Capital Says North Koreans Were Behind $50M Hack

Decentralized finance protocol Radiant Capital says an Oct. 16 incident that resulted in $50 million worth of crypto being stolen from the platform was carried out by a North Korea-linked threat actor.

Radiant said it had “high confidence” in its conclusion as regards the origin of the attack, posting that a Democratic People’s Republic of Korea-aligned individual had impersonated a former contractor and sent a malicious zipped PDF to one of its developers.

The ZIP file reportedly carried sophisticated malware — believed to be North Korea’s AppleJesus crypto malware — that was used to establish a macOS back door.

Radiant DAO said its team was working with law enforcement and security agencies to recover the stolen funds.

Sushi Labs CEO Explains ‘Off-Brand’ Product Announcements

Sushi Labs CEO Jared Grey laid out the protocol’s “ambitious 2025 plans” in a post on X over the weekend.

Those plans include a Solana-based trading platform named Wara, a onchain order book perpetual DEX dubbed Susa, a perpetual contract product called Kubo, a maximal extractable value eliminator named Blade, and a scaling up of its SushiSwap aggregator.

Grey explained that while some of the product announcements might appear “off-brand” for Sushi, franchising the brand and product stack into new ecosystems would help expand its reach beyond its ethereum virtual machine roots.

Grey last week proposed diversifying the DAO’s treasury by reallocating 70% to stablecoins, 20% to blue-chip crypto tokens, and 10% other DeFi tokens.

Justin Sun Sends $120M ETH to HTX as Price Hits $4,000

Tron founder Justin Sun sent a massive $119.7 million worth of ether to crypto exchange HTX over the weekend, according to data from blockchain wallet tracker Spot On Chain.

Sun, who has become a controversial figure even beyond the crypto community — not least due to being prosecuted for alleged fraud by the SEC and his effective gifting of $15 million to president-elect Donald Trump through a major purchase of tokens from a Trump-backed crypto venture — reportedly made the transfers after the price of ether surpassed $4,000, its highest level in a year.

Spot On Chain noted that the ETH Sun transferred was part of the $1.1 billion of ETH he acquired between February and August.

Since Sun’s average cost basis is an estimated $3,027 per coin, his total profits stand at $366 million.

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Daily Bits… ✍️✍️✍

  • 🚫 Solana-based memecoin launchpad Pump.fun began restricting access for UK users on Friday after the Financial Conduct Authority flagged it as unauthorized.

  • 🔗 At a Hong Kong Belt and Road Forum last week, officials highlighted the city's consistent regulatory approach as a competitive edge for leading Web3 innovation, contrasting it with the unpredictability typically associated with Donald Trump, despite surging Bitcoin prices.

  • 🐧 Pudgy Penguins surpassed Bored Ape Yacht Club as the second-largest NFT collection by market cap, reaching $772.5 million following an 8.4% floor price jump and anticipation of its upcoming PENGU token launch on Solana.

  • 🎭 Cultcoin, launched by the creators of Milady NFTs, debuted with a fully diluted valuation exceeding $600 million, fueled by a $20.5 million pre-sale and a tokenomics model allocating funds for treasury and community distributions.

  • 📱 Telegram CEO Pavel Durov appeared before a French judge on Friday to address allegations of enabling criminal activity on the platform, defending operational challenges tied to Telegram's rapid growth and pledging improved cooperation with authorities.

  • 🇮🇷 Iran announced plans to regulate rather than restrict cryptocurrencies, with the finance minister emphasizing their potential to counter sanctions, boost youth employment, and align the economy with global trends.

Today in Crypto Adoption...

  • 🇨🇿 The Czech Republic passed a three-year tax exemption on crypto investments and guaranteed banking rights for crypto firms, aiming to retain high-value businesses and solidify the country’s position as a blockchain innovation hub.

What Do You Meme?

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📈 Your Market Update 📉

  • BTC is down 1.7%, trading at $98,225

  • ETH is down 3.5%, trading at $3,850

  • BTC dominance: 51.96%

  • Crypto market cap: $3.74T

*All data as of today, 07:50 am ET. Source: CoinGecko

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