gm Bankless Nation, The market reversed this week, fueled by hopes about what Trump could do for crypto as Bitcoin hit its highest price of 2025 and XRP neared all-time highs.
After dropping as low as $89k on Monday, Bitcoin closed out the week above $105k, marking its highest price in 2025 and positioning it just 3% below its all-time high of $108k.
A mix of strong spot ETF inflows—amounting to $1.3B over two days—plus anticipation for pro-crypto policies under President-elect Donald Trump drove the gains, landing BTC up ~10% on the week overall.
While animal spirits have certainly returned to the market, until the inauguration has come and gone, it may be best to just enjoy the ride instead of entering new positions.
2️⃣ Trump's Promises Increase as Inauguration Draws Near
With the inauguration around the corner, Trump's talk has ramped up, with many announcements coming this week, even including hints at making digital assets a national priority.
Only time will tell if these promises get fulfilled, but early moves suggest imminent action. The Washington Post reported that AI and crypto czar David Sacks is collaborating with industry leaders on a legislative strategy, and Trump is expected to issue executive orders on crypto as early as day one of his administration.
Furthermore, with Gary Gensler’s SEC tenure now over, crypto-friendly commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda, who will hold the majority starting next week, are considering measures to jumpstart clarifying what makes tokens qualify as securities, as well as reviewing pending enforcement cases.
Meanwhile, Trump’s crypto-friendly pick for SEC chair, Paul Atkins, is poised to reverse the Biden era’s crypto crackdown if he is confirmed by Congress. As a result of all this buzz, Polymarket odds for a U.S. Bitcoin reserve within Trump’s first 100 days have increased to ~40%.
3️⃣ XRP Hits 7-Year High While Memecoins Surge
The XRP army has taken a lot of ground this week, with Ripple's token reaching its highest price since 2017, up 600% since November.
This action has been fueled by pictures of XRP’s CEO together with Trump and optimism around an ETF launch, plus memecoins on the XRP Ledger like ARMY and PHNIX surging to record highs.
4️⃣ Phantom Raises $150M at $3B Valuation
Popular multichain wallet Phantom announced on Thursday they had raised $150M in a Series C funding round at a $3B valuation, co-led by Sequoia and Paradigm.
Since launching in 2021, Phantom has grown to host 15M monthly active users and $25B in self-custody assets. In their new funding announcement, the Phantom team said that in November and December 2024, their wallet had surpassed MetaMask and Coinbase Wallet combined in active traders, trading revenue, and volume.
The new windfall here will help Phantom continue fueling its expansion, particularly around making strategic acquisitions to enhance infrastructure and security, such as they recently did with their purchases of Bitski and Blowfish.
Additionally, the company shared its plans to introduce new social features tied to its 3.8M usernames and simplify peer-to-peer payments.
5️⃣ Sony’s L2 Sonieum Goes to Mainnet on OP Stack
Sony (yes, Sony) officially launched Soneium, its OP Stack-powered Ethereum L2, this past Monday with aims to simplify blockchains for creators.
The L2’s launch sparked controversy, though. Developers blacklisted several memecoins over intellectual property concerns, frustrating some users who found their tokens inaccessible.
One affected token, Aibo, was named after Sony’s robotic dog series and valued at $700k before restrictions were imposed.
Despite pushback, Sony defended the move, emphasizing the need to safeguard IP rights while maintaining openness and innovation, raising questions about balancing this type of enforcement with permissionless blockchains going forward.
Overall, it's amazing that we now have one of the most influential companies in technology history operating their own L2 and returning fees to the Superchain.
FRIEND & SPONSOR: FRAX
The Fraxtal ecosystem is expanding at lightning speed—this month’s biggest highlight is IQAI.com, the newest Agent Tokenization platform from IQ and Frax. IQ is building autonomous, intelligent, tokenized agents launching on Fraxtal in Q1. Empower on-chain agents with built-in wallets, tokenized ownership, and decentralized governance—all within a fast-growing Fraxtal ecosystem.
Tune in to the latest Rollup, just days before Trump takes office as the first pro-crypto U.S. president.
Early selloffs this week reversed as excitement grew about the new administration. Meanwhile, Elon Musk faced new SEC charges, while Gary Gensler's tenure came to a close.
Also, we saw Sony’s L2 debut sparks censorship debates and Tether’s planned move to El Salvador cement the nation's status as a major crypto hub.
As always, we wrap things up with price action highlights, the week’s biggest movers, and a chat about the themes shaping the future of crypto! 👇
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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