gm Bankless Nation, Bitcoin continued its climb this week as regulation continues to shift in its favor. Fueled by strong ETF flows, momentum remains as BTC grinds toward six figures.
Bitcoin shattered records this week, surging past $90K to briefly hit $93K before settling at ~$89.5K as of Friday. Monster ETF inflows continue to lead the rally, buoyed by the optimism about Trump’s re-election.
While other majors like ETH and SOL are lagging, only up 4% and 6% respectively over the week, memes have surged across Solana and Base as people speculate on everything from cats and dogs to AI agents. In the midst, crypto’s total market capitalization surpassed its previous November 2021 peak of $3.07T, hitting $3.18T on Weds. With ~10% to go until Bitcoin reaches the elusive $100K mark, market excitement is palpable, yet sentiment remains divided on how quickly we will hit it.
2️⃣ ETH Beam Chain Announced at DevCon
Ethereum’s ecosystem was abuzz this week following the introduction of Justin Drake’s Beam Chain proposal, a potential overhaul of the network’s consensus layer. Beam Chain promises to leverage SNARK-based consensus to deliver four-second slot times, single-slot finality, and quantum resistance, marking a major leap forward in Ethereum’s technical capabilities.
Additionally, the proposal includes reducing staking requirements from 32 ETH to just 1 ETH, a move that could increase participation and decentralization. However, given the lackluster performance of ETH this week, especially compared to its surge the previous, it seems the market isn’t particularly excited about Beam Chain, with concerns about key upgrades on Ethereum’s roadmap until 2029 and the overall state of Ethereum’s prioritization.
3️⃣ Regulatory Regime Sees Notable Shift
A notable shift could be felt this week across the regulatory and legislative side for crypto. Robinhood relisted several assets previously delisted over concerns about potential SEC enforcement because they could be securities. The following day, 18 U.S. states, including Tennessee, Texas, and Mississippi filed a lawsuit against the SEC, accusing the agency of overreach under Chairman Gary Gensler.
On the same day, the Pennsylvania House introduced a bill to allocate 10% of its $7B treasury to Bitcoin, marking the first proposal of its kind and echoing the same push at the national level. Then, on Friday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan announced they would scale back crypto enforcement. Together, these shifts show promise for an evolving regulatory landscape that could be demonstrably pro-crypto.
4️⃣ Robinhood and Coinbase List Memes
Robinhood and Coinbase embraced memes this week, with Robinhood listing PEPE then Coinbase quickly following suit. PEPE, in response, surged, ending the week with a ~2x. In the same day, Coinbase also listed the fabled WIF (dogwifhat), albeit to less impressive results.
Following a quick pump over ~$4 after becoming available on Coinbase, WIF has retraced to ~$3.75 as of Friday. In the meantime, many different memes have surged on speculation of future listings, with people making charts ranking different tokens based on the likelihood of their listing.
5️⃣ Polymarket Raided by FBI
The election’s real victor, Polymarket, came under fire this week as the FBI raided CEO Shayne Coplan’s home on Wednesday. Authorities seized electronic devices, including Coplan’s phone, amid an investigation alleging that Polymarket violated a 2022 settlement with the CFTC by allowing U.S. users to access its platform. Many are calling this a politically motivated endeavor, especially considering the nature of the investigation.
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In this episode, we not only cover markets and its election aftermath, we also vibe check on Devcon week, Justin Drake’s Beam Chain Announcement and Polymarket’s CEO being raided by the FBI?
Not financial or tax advice. Bankless content is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This newsletter is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.
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