Biton Daily News (January 24th)

Hot News:

1. Trump: The U.S. Will Become the Global Capital for AI and Cryptocurrency
   According to market reports, President Trump mentioned cryptocurrency in his latest speech and stated that the U.S. is committed to becoming the world capital for artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency.

2. Trump Advocates Immediate Interest Rate Cuts by the Federal Reserve
   Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Trump said, "With oil prices falling, I will call for immediate interest rate cuts. Similarly, the whole world should cut rates." The Federal Reserve is set to hold its first policy meeting of Trump's term on January 28-29, with expectations that rates will remain unchanged. Trump has broadly criticized the Fed's rate hikes during his first two years in office and slammed Jerome Powell, whom he appointed as Fed Chair, for leading these actions. Trump remarked, "I expect the Fed to listen to my views on interest rates, and I will consider discussing them with Powell."

Key Data:

1. Initial U.S. Jobless Claims for the Week Ending January 18 Reach 223,000
   Initial jobless claims for the week ending January 18 reached 223,000, higher than the forecast of 220,000 and the previous figure of 217,000. The four-week average was 213,500, compared to the prior 212,750. Continuing claims for the week ending January 11 were 1.899 million, exceeding expectations of 1.862 million, with the prior number revised down from 1.859 million to 1.853 million.

2. 50% of TRUMP/MELANIA Token Holders Had Never Purchased Solana Tokens Before
   According to Chainalysis data cited by Blockworks co-founder Yano, 50% of TRUMP/MELANIA token holders had never purchased tokens within the Solana ecosystem before. Additionally, 47% created new wallets on the day of purchase, and 83.4% of holdings are valued at less than $1,000.

Project Updates:

1. Trump Crypto Project WLFI Buys 10.61M TRX and 3,079 ETH, Stakes 4,700 ETH via Lido
   Onchain Lens reported that the Trump family crypto project, World Liberty Financial (WLFI), purchased 10.61 million TRX for $2.65 million USDT and 3,079 ETH for $10 million USDC over the past 5 hours. Additionally, WLFI swapped 4,700 ETH ($15.68 million) into stETH and staked it via Lido. WLFI has now staked a total of 14,701.58 ETH worth $49 million.

2. Shared Sequencer Solution Radius Secures $7M in Seed Funding
   Radius, a shared sequencer solution, announced the completion of a $7M seed funding round led by Pantera Capital. Radius offers a trustless sequencing layer providing blockchain sequencing-as-a-service and interoperability solutions across rollups.

3. BTCFi Project Corn Raises $8.3M in Oversubscribed Seed Round
   Corn, an Ethereum Layer-2 network focused on Bitcoin DeFi, raised $8.3M through Legion's community round, attracting 4,287 applicants with requests totaling $69M—seven times oversubscribed within hours. Legion’s MiCA-compliant structure allowed Corn to meet regulatory conditions while reinforcing the community-first spirit of BTCFi.

Other News:

1. Stablecoins and Strategic Bitcoin Reserves are Priorities for U.S. Senate Digital Assets Subcommittee
   Senator Cynthia Lummis announced that the Senate Digital Assets Subcommittee's key focuses in the 119th Congress include:

   1. Promoting responsible innovation and consumer protection through bipartisan digital asset legislation, covering market structure, stablecoins, and strategic Bitcoin reserves.
   2. Strengthening oversight of federal financial regulators to ensure compliance, including preventing “Operation Chokepoint 2.0.”

2. Vitalik Buterin Warns of "Unlimited Political Bribery" Risks from Political Tokens
   Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin expressed concerns on X (formerly Twitter) about the risks of political tokens, especially the potential for "unlimited political bribery." He highlighted how the most powerful individuals in the world are encouraging everyone to create tokens of all kinds, some of which now scale without limits. Vitalik argued that these tokens have gone beyond entertainment and could become tools for unrestricted political bribery, even from foreign entities.

3. U.S. SEC Rescinds SAB-121 Rule Blocking Banks from Custodying Crypto
   The SEC officially announced the release of SAB-122, which rescinds SAB-121, a 2022 guideline requiring companies holding cryptocurrencies to report them as assets and disclose risks on their balance sheets.

4. Vine Co-founder Dom Denies Any Involvement with Meme Coins
   Dom Hofmann, co-founder of Vine, stated on X that he has not and will never participate in any meme coin projects. This comes after fellow Vine co-founder Rus Yusupov launched a meme coin named "VINE," which reached a market cap of $200M at its peak.