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Chain Reaction Podcast: Your daily crypto fix in just 10 minutes |
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Short on time? Keep up with crypto's rapid pace in just 10 minutes a day. No need to sift through endless articles—"Chain Reaction" distills the most important updates and insights into quick, digestible episodes. |
Why listen? What's in it for you? |
Relevant updates: Get the latest market trends and impactful events. Fresh perspectives: Gain insights that help you connect the dots. Hear the "why" behind the "what" from our team of seasoned analysts. Efficient format: Stay informed and ready to act with bite-sized episodes that cut through the noise.
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On the radar |
Our latest episode takes a closer look at: |
TRUMP-linked memecoins: Analyzing the TRUMP token's sell-off and market volatility. Bitcoin's price swings: Insights into its movements and the impact of the US debt ceiling. Investor activity: XRP sell-offs, TON's volatility, and a major ENS whale profit. Market highlights: Litecoin's surge, Notcoin's dip, and World Liberty Financial's crypto rise. Broader discussions: A possible pardon for Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht and its implications.
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How to tune in |
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Start your day smarter—click, listen, and lead the conversation! |
Trump-linked World Liberty Financial continues buying spree with ETH, LINK |
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Key points: |
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News - Trump-backed DeFi project went on an acquisition spree on the back of his inauguration day on 20 January. World Liberty Financial bought ETH, LINK, AAVE, TRX, and ENA in the last 48 hours alone, with WLF claiming that these purchases were made to "commemorate the inauguration" after Donald Trump was re-elected as President of the United States. |
That's not all though because the event also had a corresponding effect on some of the market's latest memecoins, namely, OFFICIAL TRUMP and MELANIA. In fact, both these cryptos have emerged to be among the week's biggest winners. |
A diverse portfolio - WLF's ETH holdings climbed to over $189 million after the project added another $47 million following its most recent purchase. This transaction was accompanied by the acquisition of $47 million in Wrapped Bitcoin |
That's not all though, with the project also purchasing other altcoins like LINK, AAVE, TRX, and ENA to differing degrees. |
This series of transactions came on the back of WLF selling part of its 100 billion WLFI token supply. Additionally, TRON's Justin Sun also revealed that he increased his investment in WLFI by $45 million. |
Is Trump really good news for crypto? - Trump's re-election and his upcoming term is expected to be a watershed phase for the crypto market. Once a critic of the space, he is now one of its biggest and most vocal supporters. Thanks to this reversal, most cryptocurrencies led by Bitcoin [BTC] have appreciated significantly on the charts. |
According to Moneycorp's Eugene Epstein, |
"… this is the first time where the hype is actually at the government level. There has just been a lot of rhetoric so far, and still, it is simply the furthest that crypto has ever come in terms of being accepted." |
Not everyone is as optimistic though. The launch of memecoins like OFFICIAL TRUMP and MELANIA have come under particular criticism from some quarters. For instance, Representative Maxine Waters believes that these launches have brought out the "worst of crypto." She added, |
"Through his memecoin, Trump has created a way to circumvent national security and anti-corruption laws, allowing interested parties to anonymously transfer money to him and his inner circle." |
Ethereum Foundation announces major leadership changes |
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Key points: |
Organizational changes in the EF were first announced by Vitalik Buterin. At press time, the altcoin seemed to be trading within a descending wedge pattern on the charts.
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News - Ethereum is in the news today after the Foundation announced that it will be making changes to its leadership in an effort to bring in more technical expertise within its circle. The move is also the latest attempt to bring in a little more transparency to the community. |
Thanks to its latest moves, the EF will now be expected to better support app builders, while also helping grow Ethereum's DeFi ecosystem. In fact, the latter will be setting aside 50,000 ETH or $165 million. |
DeFi at the heart of it all - The aforementioned figures represent just under 19% of the Foundation's holdings. They will be secured in a 3-of-5 multi-sig wallet on Safe, with the latter already executing a test transaction on Aave. |
The timing of these updates is particularly important since it follows a wave of criticism that has been directed at the Foundation lately. In fact, some like Infinix founder Kain Warwick have claimed that the Foundation and Buterin have ignored DeFi for a long time. |
Additionally, there has been some opposition against the Ethereum Foundation's "treasury management" activities. |
For his part though, Buterin has always been bullish on DeFi. In the past, he has reiterated that he wants to see DeFi applications that are both useful and sustainable, while also adhering to the core principles of Ethereum's network. |
Can Ethereum profit from the bull run? - The wider crypto market is in the middle of a bull run right now, with the likes of Bitcoin climbing to as high as $109,000 less than 36 hours ago. Owing to the same, many expect ETH to follow suit and hit its own ATH too. Hence, the timing of these steps can be interpreted to be critical. |
Outside of the price front, the altcoin seemed to be trading well above the 3.2 MVRV Trading Band at press time. Its key level of $7000 marked a significant milestone for the world's second-largest cryptocurrency. |
2025 could see a minor delay in the altcoin season |
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Key points: |
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News - With Bitcoin hitting one ATH after another, there are many in the market who believe that an altcoin season could be next. Here, the reasoning is that Bitcoin's sustained ATHs would pave the way for more capital being rotated into other crypto-assets. |
However, that hasn't happened yet. In fact, recent market conditions haven't been the best for this subset of crypto-assets, despite BTC's latest high. Especially since the world's largest cryptocurrency has continued to trade within a range on the charts. |
Buying into the new craze - At the time of writing, the Altcoin Season Index was down to 53. The reading suggested that while it's not necessarily a Bitcoin season right now, it's not an altcoin season either. In fact, the index was well off its local high of 88, set in the early weeks of December. |
January and December 2024 were the last two times it crossed the 75-mark. |
There seemed to be a very specific reason why the index fell as dramatically as it did over the past week. The launch of OFFICIAL TRUMP and later, MELANIA, seemed to suck the liquidity out of the market. |
The former, for example, hit a market cap of over $19 billion within days. The altcoin's latest gains convinced many to sell at least part of their holdings to buy into this new craze. |
Will Bitcoin have a say? - That's not all though. Bitcoin's Dominance chart is often a good way to assess how far an altcoin season might be. According to the same, the cryptocurrency's market share was as high as 58.9% |
Despite the recent performances of XRP and later, TRUMP, the same has been moving within a range for a while now. This, after recovering from its December 2024 lows. |
A sustained uptick beyond the aforementioned range will be the first indicator of an upcoming altcoin season. |
El Salvador buys more Bitcoin despite its new deal with the IMF |
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Key points: |
El Salvador has been one of the world's biggest proponents of Bitcoin. Like Nayib Bukele, quite a few other national leaders have taken up the cryptocurrency's cause lately.
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News - Back in 2021, El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender. At the time, this move came in for a lot of criticism from multiple quarters, including multi-national organizations like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. |
Fast forward to 2025, and the country is still at it. Over the last 48 hours, the nation-state bought another 12 Bitcoin. Right now, its holdings have a cumulative value of $610 million. |
El Salvador's Bitcoin gamble - The timing here is particularly important, especially since the country's latest purchase came within weeks of El Salvador signing a $1.4 billion financing agreement. According to the same, the country is supposed to wind down some of its Bitcoin activities. |
There are other conditions too. Consider this — The agreement requires the acceptance of Bitcoin to not be voluntary in the private sector. Also, Bukele is supposed to wind down his government's participation in Bitcoin activities. |
Its acquisition is probably a sign that Bukele won't be sticking to every condition of the aforementioned agreement. In fact, according to National Bitcoin Office Director Stacy Herbert, the country's Bitcoin plans haven't changed so far. |
Will Trump be different? - Bukele was among the first national leaders around the world to talk about Bitcoin and cryptos so vocally. In the weeks and months leading up to Trump's 2nd inauguration, Trump did the same. In fact, he even floated the idea of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. |
Needless to say, this led many to expect Trump would mention Bitcoin or the asset class during his inauguration speech or during his first day. That didn't happen though, with the President leaving both out entirely in his administration's list of "America's First Priorities." |
To put it simply, there is a long way to go before Trump commits to Bitcoin and cryptos like Bukele has. |
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More stories from the crypto ecosystem |
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Interesting facts |
In the United States, those with incomes of over $100K make up over 25% of all crypto-holders, despite just a 15% population share. Also, the average American crypto-investor is 38 years old, almost 10 years younger than the average American stock investor. Bitcoin is the official currency of Liberland, a micronation proclaimed in 2015 by Czech politician Vít Jedlička. It advertises itself as a 'crypto-friendly sovereign state' that runs fully on chain. 2014 saw Dogecoin's community raise over $55K to sponsor NASCAR driver Josh Wise. These donations were later used to drive the #98 Moonrocket at the Talladega Superspeedway.
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Top 3 coins of the day |
Raydium (RAY) |
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Key points: |
At press time, RAY was trading at $7.5 on the charts after hiking by 60+% in just over a week. Alongside OFFICIAL TRUMP, RAY was among this market's biggest winners over the past week.
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What you should know: |
Raydium [RAY] has been one of the market's top cryptos lately, with the altcoin hiking by double digits in just over a week. While its gains have much to do with how the larger market is doing, it also has to do with the fact that Raydium emerged as Solana's biggest DEX a few days ago. In fact, it roughly generates around 80% of all fees on Solana right now. Ranked 64th alongside a spike in it TVL, RAY's price charts underlined the scale of its recent bullishness. While The widening mouth of the Bollinger Bands hinted at the volatility in the market, the RSI alluded to equilibrium, with the market being neither overbought or oversold. |
Fartcoin (FARTCOIN) |
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Key points: |
Ranked 82nd on the charts, FARTCOIN has been one of the market's biggest losers over the last 48 hours. At press time, market reversal seemed unlikely in the near term.
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What you should know: |
Until its most recent bout of corrections, FARTCOIN was one of 2025's stars, with the altcoin gaining significant upside on the charts. However, that has changed over the last few days, with the crypto down by over 33% in just over two days. According to some analysts, thanks to the success of TRUMP-linked memecoins, the liquidity was sucked out of other competing joke coins. Hence, the corrections. As far as the technical indicators are concerned, they seemed to be significantly bearish. While the moving average was positioned well above the price candles, the MACD line headed down at press time following a bearish crossover with the Signal line. |
Solana (SOL) |
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Key points: |
Ranked 5th on the charts, SOL has had a topsy-turvy last few months. 2025 alone saw the altcoin climb to a new ATH, before correcting again.
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What you should know: |
Solana, even before the TRUMP-induced mania, was one of the biggest benefactors of the Bitcoin-led bull market. Once this memecoin launched, however, for a while, there was no looking back for SOL. In fact, the cryptocurrency hiked by as much as 43% in a matter of days after the Solana-based memecoin launched and hit astronomical heights. At the time of writing, however, some sanity seemed to have prevailed on some level, with the same inducing some depreciation on SOL's charts. And yet, at press time, the altcoin's indicators were still distinctly bullish. For instance — While the Parabolic SAR's dotted markers were well above the price candles, the CMF hinted at positive capital flows into the market, despite a recent downtick. |
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