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- From HYPE to ‘Help!’ 🇰🇵
From HYPE to ‘Help!’ 🇰🇵
Plus, 🏛️ Trump’s crypto team takes shape, 📉 Bitcoin correction milder than past dips, 💸 returning MEV to users, and more!
It’s Tuesday! I’m Juan Aranovich, managing editor of Unchained.
In today’s edition:
⚠️ Hyperliquid hack fears fuel big outflows
🏛️ Trump stacks crypto advisory roles with loyalists
📉 Short-term holder cost basis signals mild drawdown
💸 Aave mulls Chainlink’s SVR for recapturing MEV
🦄 Uniswap adds token validation labels to block scams
🏦 Crypto.com launches U.S. custody service
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What’s Poppin’?
By Sage D. Young, Veronica Irwin and Tikta
Hyperliquid, a blockchain project designed for trading that shot to the top of crypto headlines following last month’s airdrop of its new HYPE token, now appears to be in retreat as speculation surges on social media that it could be in the crosshairs of North Korean hackers.
The HYPE token’s price has tumbled in the past two days, with some $210 million of deposits in stablecoin USDC having drained away from the platform, a record daily amount, according to a dashboard on the analytics platform Dune Analytics created by Hashed_Official. As of press time, remaining deposits stood at roughly $2.1 billion.
President-elect Donald Trump named appointees for several White House advisory roles on Sunday, each of whom he said will work with his future AI and Crypto Czar, David Sacks, to lead the new administration’s technology policy. The roles, some of which existed before Trump’s election and some of which will be new, are mostly filled by Trump loyalists rather than well-known names in technology policy circles.
Former college football player and Republican congressional candidate Bo Hines will serve as executive director of the Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets, otherwise known as the “Crypto Council”. Trump did not name the council’s members but described them as “luminaries from the crypto industry.”
Bitcoin Correction ‘Less Severe’ Than Others, Glassnode Says
Bitcoin had a volatile Monday, dropping to an intraday low of $92,403 before recovering to around $94,000 at the time of writing. The original cryptocurrency has lost 12% of its value over the last seven days.
The level of market pain might be less intense than that in other corrections over the past year, according to onchain analytics platform Glassnode.
Glassnode said the correction appears “less severe” both in terms of intensity and loss dominance.
Around 3 million BTC is currently held at a loss, compared to between 3.9 million and 6.1 million BTC in October last year.
The firm also noted that the BTC price drawdown relative to the short-term holder cost basis remains moderate.
“The bull market structure remains intact for now, but key support levels must hold,” Glassnode said.
Aave Considers Integrating Chainlink SVR to Recapture MEV
Decentralized lending protocol Aave has proposed a temperature check on its governance forum to consider activating a pilot program of smart value recapture (SVR) oracles on Aave V3, a system created by Chainlink to recapture maximal extractable value (MEV) from Aave liquidations and return it to the Aave ecosystem.
Chainlink’s SVR, introduced earlier the same day, expects to recapture around 40% of value lost via MEV liquidations.
Aave offers liquidation bonuses designed to incentivize third parties to perform liquidations and cover any market risk they incur in the process. However, an opportunity for MEV arbitrage has resulted in builders receiving a big chunk of profit in liquidation scenarios at the expense of protocol users.
If the pilot is activated, 65% of the value recaptured would be distributed to the Aave DAO and 35% to the Chainlink ecosystem, based on initial discussions.
Uniswap Rolls Out Token Warning System
Uniswap, the largest decentralized exchange by trading volume, has integrated Blockaid’s token validation system to warn users about potential scams.
Some of the warnings include impersonator token labels and labels warning of 100% sell fees, which render tokens effectively unsellable.
“While Uniswap Labs does not control what tokens are available on Uniswap Protocol, we’re committed to shipping features to help users safely navigate a diverse token landscape with confidence,” Uniswap Labs said in a statement. “Token warnings are our most recent step forward in that effort.”
Crypto.com Launches U.S. Custody Service, Sports Betting
Exchange operator Crypto.com is doubling down on its efforts to expand in the U.S. and Canada, launching two new offerings targeting North American users this week.
The two products will target vastly different customer segments. One is a U.S.-based custody service designed for high net worth individuals and institutional clients. The other is a Polymarket-style sports event trading platform geared toward retail investors.
Crypto.com said that all U.S. and Canadian customers' digital assets will be transferred to its Custody Trust Company “over the coming weeks.”
Its U.S.-only sports betting platform will be regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The launches come after the exchange’s CEO, Kris Marszalek, met president-elect Donald Trump last week and dropped a lawsuit against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over the regulator’s plan to sue it for operating as an unregistered broker-dealer and securities clearing agency.
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Daily Bits… ✍️✍️✍
🏯📊 Japanese bitcoin treasury firm Metaplanet has expanded its bitcoin holdings with a $61 million purchase funded by recent bond sales as part of its ongoing commitment to BTC as a treasury reserve.
📈 MicroStrategy has added 5,262 BTC to its portfolio, increasing its holdings to more than 444,000 BTC as the company persists in leveraging equity and debt for its aggressive bitcoin acquisition strategy.
🎮 Sonic’s Solana-based blockchain is distributing SONIC tokens to TikTok gamers, aiming to connect blockchain technology with social media and replicate the engagement achieved by Telegram’s mini apps.
The $$$ Corner…
💰 Binance and Kraken have contributed to a $10 million funding round for Usual, a stablecoin-focused startup whose compliant, real-world asset-backed stablecoin, USD0, is now a major player in the market.
🔗 Avalon Labs has secured $10 million to grow its Bitcoin DeFi ecosystem, promoting USDa as a tool for unlocking Bitcoin's potential beyond being a store of value through collateralized loans and other financial uses.
What Do You Meme?
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is down 2.1%, trading at $94,123
ETH is up 1.8%, trading at $3,400
BTC dominance: 53.96%
Crypto market cap: $3.46T
*All data as of today, 08:00 am ET. Source: CoinGecko
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