Coinbase Teases Onchain Stock 😱

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

In today’s edition:

• 🌟 Coinbase explores tokenized stock on L2

• 🎮 Grants for gaming buoyed by ARB

• 🚀 ENA jumps after roadmap reveal

• ⚖️ Crypto rules on U.S. lawmakers agenda

• 📉 Major unlocks upcoming

• 🏦 MARA taps bitcoin borrowers

• ❌ Phantom says no token coming

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What’s Poppin’?

By Sage D. Young, Veronica Irwin and Tikta

Base Creators Looking at Putting COIN on L2

A tokenized version of Coinbase’s stock, which trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker COIN, could soon be available on the crypto exchange’s layer 2 network, Base.

“It’s something we are looking into in the new year,” Jesse Pollak, head of Base and Coinbase Wallet, posted on X.

Pollak went on to clarify that “there are no concrete plans” as of now, and that the team was still in an exploratory phase of understanding how to bring COIN onchain in a way that would be compliant with U.S. regulations.

Non-U.S. citizens can already access tokenized real-world assets such as COIN on platforms such as Backed Finance.

Arbitrum’s $190M Gaming Catalyst Program Ready to Go

More than six months after the Arbitrum DAO approved the use of 225 million ARB tokens worth roughly $190 million to grow the network’s gaming ecosystem, its Gaming Catalyst Program is ready to start investing and providing grants to gaming projects.

The program’s contributors have not only created an initial entity structure to support investment mandates, but have also formed a corresponding structure enabling program staffing and compensation frameworks, according to the program’s first transparency report.

Ethena’s Token Jumps on Plans for TradFi, Telegram Expansion

Ethena, a fast-growing crypto project with a synthetic dollar token positioned as an alternative to stablecoins such as Tether’s USDT, saw its token jump on Friday after founder Guy Young detailed plans for a new offering geared toward traditional financial institutions.

There’s also a planned integration with messaging platform Telegram and an expected buildout of a dedicated Ethena network.

After Young shared a long-form blog post detailing the protocol’s 2025 roadmap, governance token ENA’s price jumped 16% to $1.23, giving the cryptocurrency a market cap of $3.6 billion, according to CoinGecko.

Crypto Might Get Reality Check from Friendly U.S. Congress

Following the opening of the 119th U.S. Congressional session last week, politicians have promised clarity on regulatory requirements for stablecoins, a framework for deciding whether crypto firms are mostly overseen by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission or the Securities and Exchange Commission, and even the establishment of a bitcoin national reserve.

Spiking cryptocurrency prices indicate that investors expect regulatory clarity faster than the government may be able to provide it. Policy advocates are thinking in terms of what can be passed in the next two years. While Congress may lean pro-crypto, getting a bill to the president’s desk will take time.

“We should contextualize ‘quickly,’” said Marta Belcher, president and chair of the Filecoin Foundation, which facilitates governance for the eponymous decentralized storage network. “Quickly is quickly for Congress, which is not quickly for what anyone in the industry would think of.”

$759M of Token Unlocks Coming Up

Around $759 million of token unlocks are set to hit the market over the next seven days, according to data from tokenomics platform Tokenomist.

The biggest unlocks to come will be from Aptos’s native token, APT, valued at $114 million, and Movement’s token, MOVE, valued at $54 million.

In January, the crypto market will see around $7.1 billion of token unlocks.

A token unlock is the process of releasing previously locked tokens into circulation, which typically results in a drop in token price. The process is usually governed by smart contracts that automatically release tokens based on predetermined conditions or timeframes.

They can take the form of “cliff unlocks” involving large, one-time releases of tokens, or “linear unlocks,” gradual, continuous distributions of tokens over time.

Bitcoin Miner MARA Lends 16% of BTC Reserves

Major Bitcoin mining firm MARA said in a recent production update that it had loaned 7,377 BTC from its reserves to third parties as of Dec. 31, 2024.

The amount MARA has lent amounts to roughly 16% of its total bitcoin reserves and was worth around $730 million at the time of writing. MARA’s total BTC holdings are valued at $4.2 billion.

MARA’s head of investor relations, Robert Samuels, shed more light on the firm’s BTC lending program, saying it had been active throughout 2024 and had generated a “modest single-digit yield.”

“The long-term objective is to generate sufficient yield to offset operating expenses, " Samuels said.

Crypto Wallet Phantom Has ‘No Plans’ to Launch Token

The team behind popular non-custodial crypto wallet Phantom poured cold water on users’ hopes for an airdrop tied to its upcoming social discovery feature.

After Phantom announced the feature, which allows users to customize profiles, follow friends, and seamlessly transfer crypto, on Dec. 19, some members of the community speculated that gaining followers could be a way of becoming eligible for token rewards.

“We've seen some speculation about an airdrop tied to this feature, so to clarify: we do not have any plans to launch a token,” the Phantom team said on X.

“But we're incredibly excited about social discovery on Phantom and are actively working on ways to make it something everyone loves.”

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Daily Bits… ✍️✍️✍

• 📄 Coinbase's chief legal officer has revealed unredacted Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation "pause letters," accusing the agency of regulatory overreach by urging banks to halt crypto-related services, sparking calls for Congressional hearings.

• 🐛 Virtuals Protocol addressed a critical vulnerability flagged by a security researcher, quickly patching the problem and announcing plans for a bug bounty program to enhance ecosystem security.

• ⚠️ Aave's proposal to peg Ethena's USDe to USDT raised concerns over systemic risks and conflicts of interest, as critics questioned the logic of equating assets with starkly different backing mechanisms.

• 📈 DeFi protocols such as MakerDAO and Aave enjoyed a revenue rush in 2024, with both platforms nearing or surpassing 2021 highs, signaling a robust recovery for the sector.

• 📊 Japanese Bitcoin treasury firm Metaplanet aims to expand its bitcoin holdings to 10,000 BTC this year, a significant increase from its current 1,761 BTC, using strategic capital market tools to strengthen its presence in the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Today in Crypto Adoption...

• 🌍 Coinbase has expanded its European presence by acquiring mobile brokerage BUX's Cyprus unit, securing a Cyprus Investment Firm license to align with MiCA regulations and offer contracts for differences across the European Economic Area.

The $$$ Corner…

• 🔒 Bitcoin wallet developer JAN3 raised $5 million in seed funding to enhance its AQUA wallet, allocating $1 million to build a bitcoin treasury as it focuses on combining bitcoin saving with USDT spending functionality.

What Do You Meme?

📈 Your Market Update 📉

• BTC is up 1.5%, trading at $99,162

• ETH is up 0.8%, trading at $3,642

• BTC dominance: 53.27%

• Crypto market cap: $3.69T

*All data as of today, 08:00 am ET. Source: CoinGecko

Recommended Reads

1. a16z crypto: How stablecoins will eat payments, and what happens next

2. It started with Claude generating a private Ethereum key by Daniel Luca, a tech partner at venture capital firm Eden Block

3. Exploring a stablecoin bank by Bridget Harris, an associate at VC firm Founders Fund

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