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What happened today?

After whipsaw price action due to the election, Bitcoin is now consolidating at about $104,000. While today’s price moves may not have been super exciting, we did get some news that most of the crypto community has waited many years for: Ross Ulbricht, after being imprisoned in 2013, has officially been pardoned by President Trump. Ross was more than a decade into his double life sentence, convicted for having started the infamous Silk Road online marketplace where anything (mostly drugs) could be sold. This was a bit of a controversial pardon given how large the Silk Road drug network was, however as he has become such a larger-than-life figure within crypto, it should be seen as a further peace-offering from the new administration to our industry.

Crazy Bitcoin action at the beginning of the week has led to some weakness among altcoins, yet Solana still looks very strong. Liquidity is now rotating out of TRUMP and back into the other memecoins on the network, and today’s Jupiter airdrop adds more fuel to that fire. Provided BTC doesn’t pull something crazy, we’ll likely see this strength trend continue for the SOL ecosystem.

Trading Talk

There’s a decent amount of blood in the market today, however one of the obvious green spots as we mentioned above is Solana. Not only did Trump launch his memecoin on Solana, but the filings for a SOL ETF are stacking up and the market seems to be preparing for that eventuality. It may not be the next ETF, but the signs definitely point to approval at some point.

With Jupiter’s airdrop today and liquidity rebalancing after TRUMP, it’s probably a good time to catch entries on ecosystem assets that you’ve had your eye on. More importantly, I hope the success of apps like Meteora, Jupiter and Moonshot so far prompt the development of more “real” apps on Solana. For the moment the vast majority of trading volume is memecoins, which as we all know is a come-and-go sector of the market.

Tweet of the Day

Vitalik has engaged Wartime mode.

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

• Ethereum gets a Wall Street sales force as token lags Bitcoin

• Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon doesn’t see Bitcoin as a threat to US dollar

Alt Coins and Stocks

• Bitwise files Dogecoin ETF registration, firm confirms

• XRP, Solana prices rise after report of leaked CME Futures addition

Regulatory

• Crypto crime lord Ross Ulbricht gets a pardon — but his fortune is gone after the U.S. auctioned off his Bitcoins in 2014 for just $334 each

New Launches

• Jupiter to issue $612M JUP tokens in Wednesday airdrop

Free BONK Report from Fundstrat Research

Interested in learning how the institutions are looking at your favorite memecoins? Download a free report from Fundstrat Research on BONK and the memecoin landscape below!

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