SEC Confirms Proof-of-Work Is Not A Security And Is, Well, Work 🤦
OVERVIEW
SEC Confirms Proof-of-Work Is Not A Security And Is, Well, Work 🤦
Before we dive in, here’s today’s crypto market heatmap:
Source: Santiment
And here’s a look at crypto’s total market and altcoin market cap charts:
Source: TradingView
NEWS
Miners Celebrate as SEC Discovers Proof-of-Work Is, In Fact, Work 👍️
The SEC just released a statement on proof-of-work mining, and surprise—they didn’t screw it up! 🤯
Here’s the key sentence straight from the SEC statement:
“Rewards are payments to the miner in exchange for services it provides to the network rather than profits derived from the entrepreneurial or managerial efforts of others.”
Translation: Mining rewards are compensation for your own work—not profits from someone else’s hustle, meaning they’re not securities or investment contracts. 🥳
Mining ≠ Selling Securities, Duh.
Mining crypto ( $BTC.X ( ▼ 2.06% ), $LTC.X ( ▲ 0.27% ), etc.) through proof-of-work isn’t considered selling or offering securities. Miners aren’t expecting profits based on someone else’s efforts—they’re getting paid directly for their own work of solving crypto puzzles and validating transactions.
Mining Pools Aren’t Ponzi Schemes Either
Pool operators managing mining pools aren’t suddenly becoming investment managers. The miners are still using their own gear, burning electricity, and competing to solve puzzles. Pool operators merely coordinate efforts and distribute rewards—basically, they’re glorified accountants.
SEC Clears the Air
The SEC confirming PoW mining as non-securities activity removes uncertainty, making miners less nervous about getting slapped with unexpected lawsuits or regulatory fines. It’s good news for miners, pool operators, and anyone tired of former SEC big wig Gary Gensler’s interpretive dance routine around crypto regs. 👯
Now everyone is waiting for a comment on staking. 📆
NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
Crypto News 📰
🦾 Kraken Ups Its Game
Kraken just threw down $1.5 billion to buy NinjaTrader, merging a 24/7 crypto powerhouse with old-school finance that still thinks 4 p.m. is closing time. This marks the biggest TradFi-meets-crypto deal on record, blowing holes in the “they’ll never intersect” theory. Anyone still claiming these worlds won’t collide must be feeling real nervous right about now. Kraken.
💵 Tether Outbuys Nations
$USDT.X ( ▼ 0.06% ) stands as the seventh-largest holder of U.S. Treasurys, outpacing entire countries like Canada and Taiwan—so much for stablecoins staying “on the fringes.” Maybe time to tell the critics that stablecoins aren’t quietly slipping away; they’re buying up half the bond market instead. Cointelegraph.
🔻 Solana’s Party Hangover
Pump.fun’s memecoin blitz once pumped $SOL.X ( ▼ 3.97% )’s network revenue to dizzying heights, but it just cratered 97%—cue the “told you so” crowd. DEX volumes are limping, and new token launches on Pump.fun aren’t exactly flooding in. CryptoSlate.
🇪🇺 Saylor Says EUR Needs BTC
Michael Saylor, fresh off urging governments to form a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, now says Europe’s currency might need a crypto lifeline. He’s doubled down on the notion that fiat’s looking shaky while BTC stands tall. Anyone who thinks Europe’s immune to currency crises might want to read his tweets a bit more closely. U.Today.
⚠️ Cracked TradingView? Big Mistake
Malware-laced “free” TradingView Premium downloads are blitzing Reddit, draining wallets faster than you can say “Lumma Stealer.” Victims get sweet-talked into disabling security settings, only to find their tokens gone. Enjoy saving a few bucks on charting software—until your entire portfolio vanishes. Decrypt.
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ON-CHAIN ANALYSIS
Breakeven Blues: A Quarter of SOPR Suck at 1.0 💤
Time for another fancy schmancy on-chain analytics term: Spent Output Profit Ratio (SOPR). So, what is it and what does it measure. 🤔
In short, SOPR tracks whether coins are being sold for a profit or a loss (on average). A value above 1.0 means sellers are cashing out in the green, while anything below 1.0 indicates folks are selling at a loss.
Bitcoin SOPR
Click to enlarge.
$BTC.X ( ▼ 2.06% ) has thus far spent most of this quarter within whispering distance of 1.0. Some days it nudged above, signaling brief moments of profit-taking. Other times it dipped below, hinting that losses were piling up. But for most of the time, it basically stuck to breakeven like it was on autopilot. ⚖️
Ethereum SOPR
Click to enlarge.
$ETH.X ( ▼ 3.14% )’s Q1 is, so far, an unexciting ride. It spent more time beneath 1.0, meaning more realized losses than profits for ETH holders. Occasional spikes above 1.0 offered tiny windows of hope, but they were fleeting. 🪶
What Does That Mean?
When SOPR is around 1.0, it implies that on-chain participants are collectively settling for break-even—nobody’s going broke, nobody’s striking gold. Instead, it’s this lull in trading psychology where neither big sell-offs nor exuberant buying sprees dominate the scene. 😪
This calm might not make headlines, but it points to a market that’s in limbo—waiting for its next big catalyst, or maybe just catching its breath after the last round of excitement.
There’s eleven more days left for Q1 2025 – which is more than enough time for the crypto market to punish longs and shorts with some crazy out of the blue price action.
Keep your eyes on the charts. 👀
ON-CHAIN ANALYSIS
Burnt Bag Briefing 🔥
Want to know whether the bulls or bears are feeling the most pain today? Well, this is the place to look. 👀
24-Hour Liquidation Heat Map – Source: coinglass – Click to enlarge.
In the past 24 hours, 104,952 traders were liquidated, with total liquidations reaching nearly $335.15 million.
The largest single liquidation occurred on Binance, a BTCUSD pair valued at $11.71 million.
Longs lost $166.44 million, while shorts were hit for $168.71 million. 🤕
NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
AI, Stablecoin, & Privacy News 🕵️
🌐 USDC Economy Hits 2025
Circle’s “State of the $USDC.X ( ▲ 0.01% ) Economy” reveals that stablecoins aren’t just hype for the conference circuit—78% year-over-year circulation growth and $24 trillion in total settled value are turning heads. Nubank, Cumberland, and Bridge are more proof that businesses across Latin America, capital markets, and cross-border payments are piling in. Circle.
🤖 NodeShift Goes AI with Akash
NodeShift’s quest for scalable AI deployments uses $AKT.X ( ▼ 3.38% )’s Network’s GPU marketplace, trimming enterprise costs and complexity. They’re tapping powerful NVIDIA hardware without having to wait for the usual dreaded cloud procurement. Akash Network.
🟧 AI Agents Invade Web3
From Moxie AI to BankrBot, these machine-driven wizards trade tokens, chat about alpha, and basically make the “web3 is too complicated” argument look weak. Automated swaps through $ZRX.X ( ▼ 2.59% ) have never been simpler, so that stale excuse about “user friction” is on life support. Everyone whining about “no real use cases” might be running out of material. 0x.
🚀 Agents Meet Onchain Data
$FET.X ( ▼ 6.03% ) is teaming up with SQD.ai to give AI agents the real-time blockchain data they crave, so critics can finally stop saying “agents don’t know anything.” These bots can monitor liquidity, track NFTs, and go cross-chain without missing a beat. Good luck telling people this isn’t progress when they’re automating half of DeFi in their sleep. Fetch.ai.
NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
DeFi, DEX, & Lending Protocol News 🏦
⚙️ Interop Labs Joins Linux Foundation Decentralized Trust
Interop Labs, the original developer behind $AXL.X ( ▼ 2.29% ), jumped into the Linux Foundation Decentralized Trust, rubbing shoulders with heavyweights like Mastercard ($MA ( ▲ 0.05% )) and $XRP.X ( ▼ 3.53% ). Open-source watchers who doubted the synergy of global finance and blockchain might find themselves confused by top-tier institutions hashing out decentralized infrastructure. Axelar.
📈 dYdX Doubles Down
They’re focusing on reliability, speed, and a shiny mobile interface while haters still pine for the old days of glitchy centralized exchanges. Deposits, withdrawals, and new order types get spruced up while transparency becomes the new watchword. Looks like a lean, hungry $DYDX.X ( ▼ 4.07% ) X is back. dYdX.
🔒 AvaCloud Goes Encrypted
$AVAX.X ( ▼ 4.16% ) says the new eERC standard promises private, compliance-friendly token transfers, triggering eye-rolls from anyone claiming blockchain has no privacy. Enterprises can now hide transaction details while letting auditors peek under the hood when needed. Maybe that’s enough to put “public ledgers are a security risk” to rest once and for all. Avalanche.
🌱 Cloud’s Dirty Secret: It’s Not That Green
$STORJ.X ( ▼ 7.19% ) just threw cold water on the notion that your favorite legacy cloud provider is saving the planet. Data doubles every couple of years, and AI alone could guzzle energy equivalent to all of the Netherlands by 2027. Storj.
LINKS
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🔨 THORFi unwind afteraction report
✖️ First-ever CFTC-regulated XRP futures debuts in the US
🐧 Canary Capital files for first-ever Pengu ETF amid expanded crypto offerings
✏️ Bybit traces majority of stolen crypto, calls for decoding efforts
🤔 Trump urged by Ben Stiller, Paul McCartney and hundreds of stars to protect AI copyright rules
🤖 Nvidia CEO: Humanoid robot revolution is closer than you think
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