Sidewalk 1, Crypto 0: Market Kisses Concrete 🤕
OVERVIEW
Sidewalk 1, Crypto 0: Watch The Market Kiss Concrete In Broad Daylight 🤕
Before we dive in, here’s today’s crypto market heatmap:
Source: Santiment
And here’s a look at crypto’s total and altcoin market cap YTD:
Source: TradingView
NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
Crypto News 📰
📊 Ripple + Chainlink: A ‘Stable’ Affair
Ripple wants to prove RLUSD is actually stable by hooking it to Chainlink’s grown-up data feeds. Because a stablecoin claiming to be stable without real data is like a “low-fat” cookie that’s 99% sugar. Now RLUSD can walk into DeFi without tripping over its own shoelaces. Ripple’s X.
🤦 Economist Calls U.S. Bitcoin Reserve “Stupid”
Trump’s rumored BTC reserve plan just got a big fat “nope” from Steve Hanke. He thinks pouring national savings into Bitcoin is about as useful for the economy as buying vintage arcade tokens. If he’s right, brace for epic meltdown tweets from the laser-eyes brigade. NewsBTC.
🏦 CFTC Chair Benham Out, Calls for “Serious” Crypto Oversight
Rostin Behnam exits the CFTC on Jan. 20 after four years of tough enforcement (like that $4.3B Binance penalty) and repeated pleas for better digital asset regulation. He leaves behind a big gap in the agency’s leadership, hoping his successor pursues “renewed focus” on bridging token classification confusion. Insiders eye a16z policy lead Brian Quintenz as the frontrunner, who might finally clarify the CFTC’s stance on crypto commodities—and rewrite the rulebook for 2025. Cointelegraph.
TECHNICAL ANALYSIS
And That’s Why Confirmation Is Important 🧠
Yesterday’s Litepaper highlighted a range of altcoins gearing up for potential bullish continuation moves. Among those we reviewed (and the ones we didn’t), a couple of conditions within the Ichimoku Kinko Hyo system still needed to align before locking in confirmation of a return to bullish momentum.
For example, here’s Hedera’s chart from yesterday’s Litepaper:
January 6, 2025, HBARUSD Daily Chart – Click to enlarge.
Bulls were (and are) looking for a close that puts the Chikou Span above the candlestick bodies – that didn’t happen. Instead, the candlesticks are acting as a source of resistance for the Chikou Span – something common for a good chunk of the altcoin market.
HBARUSD Daily Chart – Click to enlarge.
The Cloud Is A Real Bitch 😡
And if you remember Dogecoin’s chart from yesterday, price was near the top of the Cloud, but a close above $0.425 was needed to confirm an Ideal Bullish Ichimoku Breakout.
January 6, 2025, DOGEUSD Daily Chart – Click to enlarge.
That didn’t happen.
DOGEUSD Daily Chart – Click to enlarge.
Instead, bulls were given a heavy dose of suck brought to you by the Cloud. Which, if you remember, is the source of everything bad in the world. Like crushed hopes and dreams of a bullish continuation.
As a reminder, here’s a screenshot from the January 2, 2025 Litepaper that shows some of the bad things inside the Cloud:
Everything Bad Exists Inside The Cloud – Click to enlarge.
PRESENTED BY STOCKTWITS
The First “Trends With Friends” Of 2025 🤑
Howard, Phil, JC, and Michael are joined by special guest Packy McCormick of “Not Boring” to discuss the overlap of technology and meme culture. From Fart Coin to Nvidia’s groundbreaking AI advancements, this episode sits at the intersection of innovation, humor, and strategy to explore the opportunities and chaos shaping 2025.
NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
Metaverse, NFT, & Gaming News 🎮️
🎮 Illuvium, Now With NPCs That Might Be Smarter Than You
Illuvium just teamed up with Virtuals Protocol to give those lifeless NPCs an actual brain, courtesy of the G.A.M.E Framework. So, instead of standing around spouting the same recycled lines, they’ll adapt and react like they have a pulse. They’re rolling this out in Overworld, Arena, and Zero, meaning your next quest-giver might actually roast you for your questionable armor choices. Crypto-Economy.
AI-Powered Smart Contracts: The Next Leap for Web3
Marrying AI with blockchain means self-executing contracts can now “think” on the fly—analyzing data, adapting to trends, and automating trades or transactions in real time. Predictive intelligence, dynamic yield decisions, and risk checks become possible, turning static on-chain logic into living, learning systems. Nothing at all creepy about that. aelf blog.
NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
DeFi, DEX, and Lending Protocol News 🏦
💳 Alchemy Pay Scores Canada MSB License, Accelerates NA Push
Alchemy Pay just grabbed a Money Services Business registration in Canada and four new Money Transmitter Licenses across the U.S., clearing the runway for its crypto on/off-ramps all over North America. Now Canadians can seamlessly convert fiat to crypto (and back) within full regulatory compliance, while Americans in eight states can do likewise. Alchemy Pay blog.
🌐 Metis’s DSEQ Reboot Taps ENKI to Turbocharge DeFi
Metis just kicked off its Decentralized Sequencer (DSEQ) Reboot, realigning LST (Liquid Staking Token) incentives to deepen DeFi liquidity and reward meaningful infrastructure operations. ENKI leads the charge with up to 15k METIS in rewards, bridging stake yields and user engagement. Metis blog.
🚀 Omega Lands on Mantle: Cross-Margin Lending Meets Leveraged Farming
Omega has arrived on Mantle Network, letting DeFi farmers borrow up to 6x while passive LPs earn yields from assets like wETH, mETH, and more. The deployment offers early-bird incentives (like $OMGA token airdrops plus $100k in USDT rewards) and synergy with Mantle allies to maximize strategy vault profits. With big ambitions for “capital-efficient yield opportunities,” Mantle’s DeFi game just leveled up in time for 2025. Mantle blog.
🔥 Sui DeFi Doubles to $2B TVL, Reels In Institutions
In just three months, Sui’s total value locked rocketed from $1B to $2B, thanks to DeFi big hitters like Cetus, Suilend, and stablecoins from Circle and First Digital. Institutions like Franklin Templeton and Grayscale also hopped on board, fueling the hype around Sui’s chain—now boasting $7.8B monthly DEX volumes. Sui blog.
💥 Drift Protocol Breaks $1B TVL, Fueled by Yield + Airdrop FOMO
Drift soared past $1 billion locked as the markets turned bullish post-Trump inauguration, with risk-hungry traders ready to pay high borrowing rates on Solana. The looming Season 2 airdrop also lured “mercenary capital,” pushing TVL up 15.3% in a week, while the team readies a mobile app to bring easy DeFi to the masses. Co-founder Cindy Leow envisions a user-friendly gateway for everyday people—not just degens—to harness generational wealth opportunities in crypto. SolanaFloor.
LINKS
Links That Don’t Suck 🔗
:🦾 The best robotics and AI tech of CES 2025
🏦 Bank of America downgrades Tesla as stock falls
🤖 AI startups drive VC funding resurgence, capturing record US investment in 2024
😱 MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin strategy yielded $14 billion in shareholder value in 2024
🪙 Arthur Hayes predicts Bitcoin rally into 2025 before market correction
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Author Disclosure: The author of this newsletter holds positions in ADA, LTC, IMX, WMT, COPI, MIN, AGIX, ALGO, DOGE, ZEC, AVAX, XLM, XTZ, and NEAR. 📋
