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What happened today?

We’ve seen a strong rally in the market today as anticipation before Trump takes office build, with Bitcoin regaining the $100k level and many altcoins up similarly. Perhaps the most interesting price action, however, is around XRP which now trades over $3 at time of writing. As we mentioned when XRP first began its run a few weeks ago, very few active crypto traders actually hold this coin, mostly because it traded at the same price for almost 3 years. This tends to be a good sign for the longevity of a pump as it means the majority of tokens are held by people who survived the years of nothing, and likely aren’t intending to sell any time soon.

While XRP doesn’t seem to be losing any momentum yet, late this afternoon news came out that the SEC has officially appealed in its lawsuit with Ripple to classify XRP as a security. In my opinion this is mostly a superficial event, as in a matter of days a new administration (that is much friendlier to our industry) will be in charge — based on the fact that the price is still going up, it seems the market is treating it that way too. It’s crazy to think that of all industries that the SEC has gone after, crypto was the one that made it look like a group of amateurs as we win case after case.

Biggest Headlines

The Beluga intern has been hard at work gathering all the most important crypto news stories so you have them in one place!

The Majors

• Bitcoin briefly touches the $100,000 mark, as cooling US inflation stokes wider market exuberance

• Vitalik Buterin says Sony’s controversial L2 shows why Ethereum is great for business

Alt Coins and Stocks

• XRP hits 7-year high above $3 as large holders accumulate $3.8B of tokens

Regulatory

• Oklahoma becomes latest state to consider Bitcoin Reserve Bill

• US SEC says earlier district court ruling got it wrong in latest appeal filing in ongoing case against Ripple

New Launches

• VanEck files new ‘Onchain Economy’ ETF to target crypto infrastructure, not coins

• Consensus publishes agenda for upcoming Hong Kong conference

Trading Talk

Well I hope some readers ended up bidding VIRTUAL after our Monday edition, as it currently trades up over 50% from the $2.50 price point we discussed. Unfortunately we still don’t hold any in the Beluga trading wallet, however this remains an ecosystem I have my eye on and the strength of the coin itself likely means it’s not going anywhere. The Virtual Protocol is now by far the most popular dApp on the Base network and given their past struggles to onboard active users to the chain, I’d be surprised if Coinbase doesn’t push this one as hard as they can.

Another coin to watch given the rising rumors of an impending ETF is Litecoin, which admittedly is not something I ever paid much attention to in the past. However, after the Ethereum ETF was approved last year we published a newsletter as well as an article hypothesizing LTC would be a likely candidate for the next ETF. Our reasoning was pretty simple: it’s achieved lindy status through its lifespan trading on the market and there is no risk of being dubbed a security due to it having been launched as a Bitcoin fork. The approval process for both BTC and ETH were pretty lengthy, however with more friendly regulators in office and the precedent now already set, I’m interested to see how quickly this could happen.

Tweet of the Day

At this point there is a non-zero chance Scottie Pippen actually talked to Satoshi.

The content on this site is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice. While Beluga strives to ensure the accuracy and timeliness of information, there may be discrepancies when comparing our data to that of financial institutions, service providers, or specific product websites. Always consult with a professional before making any financial decisions.

Will McKinnon is the Head of Content for Beluga and has spent every day for many years trading coins. For that reason there are too many to name, however his largest holdings by a significant margin are Ethereum and Bitcoin. NFA DYOR