🐋 Whales Like the Dip

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

In today’s edition:

• 📊 Onchain trends signal ETH whale accumulation

• 🪙 Bitcoin reserve could offset $42T in U.S. debt, says VanEck

• ⚖️ Jump Crypto settles SEC case for $123M

• 🏦 BlackRock’s BUIDL could back fraxUSD

• 🏛️ Will key crypto bills pass the U.S. Congress?

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What’s Poppin’?

By Tikta

Whales Pull $61M ETH From Binance

Ethereum has lost more than 15% of its value over the last seven days, but onchain data show that whales have been buying the dip.

Blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain found that 10 wallets withdrew a cumulative 17,698 ETH, worth $61.6 million at the time, from Binance just as the price of ETH rebounded from a low of $3,100 to above $3,400 late on Friday.

Onchain analyst Ali Martinez noted that in the 96 hours to Saturday, Ethereum whales bought 340,000 ETH worth more than $1 billion at the time.

“Whales buying doesn’t mean prices go up immediately, even though we saw a rebound from $3,100 to $3,550,” Martinez said.

The 104 biggest Ethereum whale wallets now control 57% of all ETH in circulation, according to data from analytics research platform Santiment. Their combined holdings are currently worth more than $330 billion.

U.S. Bitcoin Reserve Could Offset $42T of National Debt, VanEck Says

Asset manager VanEck estimates that if the U.S. government follows the trajectory of large-scale Bitcoin acquisitions proposed by the Bitcoin Act, introduced in the Senate earlier this year, the implications for countering inflation and lowering government debt could be significant.

“The reserve could represent an estimated 35% of the national debt by 2049, offsetting ~$42 trillion of liabilities,” said VanEck’s head of digital asset research, Matthew Sigel, and investment analyst Nathan Frankovitz in a Dec. 20 report.

Describing that scenario as “optimistic,” Sigel and Frankovitz said it assumed that U.S. debt would compound at a rate of 5% from a base of $37 trillion during the period 2025 to 2049, and that Bitcoin would compound at a rate of 25% annually from a starting value of $200,000.

U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis introduced the Bitcoin Act of 2024 in July. If passed, the legislation will authorize the U.S. Treasury to acquire 1 million BTC over a five-year period, representing approximately 5% of the total bitcoin supply.

The purchasing program would be funded by diversifying existing funds within the Federal Reserve System and Treasury Department, including by using Federal Reserve remittances.

Jump Crypto Subsidiary Fined $123M for Propping up UST During Depeg

Tai Mo Shan, a subsidiary of Jump Trading's crypto unit Jump Crypto, has agreed to pay $123 million to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charges that it misled investors about the stability of the TerraUSD (UST) algorithmic stablecoin and violated securities regulations related to Terra’s native token, LUNA.

According to the SEC, the two firms entered into an agreement that incentivized Tai Mo Shan to purchase LUNA at a discount to its market price. In the days that followed, UST lost its peg to the U.S. dollar, and Tai Mo Shan attempted to restore the peg by purchasing more than $20 million of UST, a move that the SEC said deceived the market into believing that UST issuer Terraform’s algorithmic mechanism was working to stabilize UST, when in reality the price was being stabilized, at least in part, by Tai Mo Shan’s large UST purchases.

Tai Mo Shan has agreed to pay $73.4 million in disgorgement, $12.9 million in prejudgment interest, and a $36.7 million civil penalty.

Learn more: What Is Terra and Why Did It Fail?

Securitize Proposes BlackRock’s BUIDL as Onchain Collateral for Frax

Securitize Markets, the firm that tokenized BlackRock’s U.S. Dollar Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), has proposed that the fund be added as a reserve asset for Frax Finance's frxUSD stablecoin, a relaunch of Frax USD.

In a proposal posted to Frax’s governance forum, Securitize said the use of BUIDL as a reserve asset could significantly reduce counterparty risk, in addition to providing better liquidity and yield generating options.

BUIDL currently manages more than $549 million in assets, mainly short-term U.S. Treasuries, according to data from real-world asset tokenization analytics firm RWZ.xyz.

Initial feedback on the proposal has been generally positive. If approved, frxUSD would join other stablecoins, such as Ethena's USDtb, in adopting BUIDL as a backing asset.

How Quickly Congress Is Likely to Deliver for Crypto, With Filecoin’s Marta Belcher

Filecoin Foundation President Marta Belcher, speaks with Unchained at the Blockchain Association Summit in Washington, D.C., about critical legislative and regulatory changes shaping crypto’s future. She explores the chances of FIT21 — the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act — and stablecoin legislation passing, the debate over stablecoin backing, and how new Securities and Exchange Commission leadership could create a friendlier environment for crypto companies to thrive in the U.S.

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Daily Bits… ✍️✍️✍

• 🎯 North Korean-linked hackers could be probing HyperLiquid’s trading platform for weaknesses, potentially signaling preparation for a malicious attack, according to security expert Taylor Monahan.

• 🚨 Interpol and Europol have issued a red notice for Hex founder Richard Heart, who is wanted on tax evasion and assault charges, including an alleged violent attack on a minor.

• 🏈 President-elect Donald Trump appointed former congressional candidate Bo Hines to lead his so-called “Crypto Council,” aiming to foster innovation and growth in digital assets, alongside crypto advocate David Sacks.

• 💡 Trump also named crypto-friendly economist Stephan Miran to head the Council of Economic Advisers, furthering his administration's push to make the U.S. a leader in digital asset innovation.

• 🌪️ Tornado Cash co-creator Roman Storm is seeking a dismissal of charges after an appeals court ruled that U.S. sanctions on the platform were unlawful, undermining key accusations.

• ⚡ Uniswap announced Unichain's mainnet launch in early 2025, introducing features such as permissionless fault proofs to enhance layer 2 security and transaction efficiency.

• 📉 "Hawk Tuah" girl Hailey Welch pledged full cooperation with lawsuits against HAWK token creators after the memecoin's collapse, which allegedly enriched insiders at the expense of investors.

• 🎭 Two California men face charges for defrauding NFT investors of more than $22 million through deceptive projects and the harassment of a whistleblower, and could be sentenced to as many as 60 years in prison.

• ⚖️ “Fake Satoshi” Craig Wright received a suspended sentence for violating a British injunction against claiming to be Bitcoin’s creator or pursuing related legal action after he filed a $1.2 trillion lawsuit against Bitcoin developers, risking imprisonment if he reoffends within two years.

• 🎨 Solana startup Sanctum introduced creator coins, allowing fans to support creators by staking rewards while innovating within the liquid staking ecosystem.

The $$$ Corner…

• 📹 Tether has invested $775 million in video platform Rumble, boosting its stock 41% and strengthening plans to integrate advertising, cloud services, and crypto payments.

• 🌐 MNNC Group, formerly LedgerPrime and tied to FTX, raised over $100 million after rebranding.

What Do You Meme?

📈 Your Market Update 📉

• BTC is down 0.7%, trading at $96,166

• ETH is down 0.9%, trading at $3,347

• BTC dominance: 54.93%

• Crypto market cap: $3.47T

*All data as of today, 07:56 am ET. Source: CoinGecko

Recommended Reads

1. DL News: Hacks kill most DeFi projects. But there’s a way to boost odds of survival

2. Is Ethena a Systematic Risk to DeFi or its Savior? By X user @DiogenesCasares

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